Hungary’s media, health experts seek more COVID-19 data

By JUSTIN SPIKE
Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — As coronavirus infections and deaths soar in Hungary, the country’s journalists and public health professionals are demanding more detailed data on the outbreak from the government. Some experts say that greater transparency could boost lagging vaccination rates. Nearly a third of Hungary’s adults still have not received a single shot. Information is often hard to find in the country of over 9 million people, where infection rates have broken records, and daily deaths per capita are among the highest in the world. One immunologist says the vaccine hesitancy can be partly attributed to official communications about the pandemic being “extremely poor, inconsistent and totally incapable of maintaining trust.”