Do Hungarian authorities hide the most crucial COVID data?

Hungarian biostatistician Tamás Ferenci, a fellow lecturer of the Óbuda University, wrote that treating people as partners, transparency, and honest communication would be fundamental for a successful defence. He published an article yesterday in which he drew attention to the deficiencies and contradictions of COVID data sharing in Hungary.

Hungarian biostatistician tells the solution

According to telex.hu, Ferenci gave a detailed list of what data the government and authorities should publish. He cited foreign examples not only from the West but also from the East supporting the importance of transparency.

The list of the needed data is very long. To sum it up, Ferenci argues that the

authorities should share more details, arranged according to more aspects.

Moreover, he says that Hungary would need more frequent data sharing in the following topics.

– the age, gender, and geographical distribution of the infected, people treated in hospitals, in intensive care units and receiving respiration support

– the number, type, geographical distribution of the tests and the time between the testing and the result

– details about the capacities of the hospitals

National vaccination campaign gets under way

– Ferenci says that we should know more about the patients treated in the hospitals. We should know all their diseases, the therapy they receive, their general condition. Moreover, we should know how many recovered, were transferred to other departments, or died

– data about the vaccines administered. For example, we should know the regional distribution of the jabs

– Ferenci argues that Hungarians should know how many inoculated people became infected, were treated in the hospitals, or died. Furthermore, authorities should also share the type of vaccine they received

– Moreover, the authorities never reported the side effects of the COVID vaccines

– authorities do not share the variants of the virus currently present in Hungary. For example, we only know that the delta plus variant arrived from a statement of the chief medical officer

– Meanwhile, Ferenci believes that it is needless to share so many details about the diseased because they make them indentifiable

Hungary has enough vaccine, says minister

It would not require money or plus energy

He added that the list above would not require more money or energy. 60-70 percent of them would only need will and creating a proper data surveillance system. He said that the Hungarian authorities are cynical when they say they cannot share the age distribution of the infected because of data protection reasons. However,

they share so many details about the diseased that they can sometimes be identified.

The Hungarian biostatistician said that the authorities could only win the trust of the people with higher transparency. He says that regular and professional data sharing drives authorities to work better. Without that, there is no outside control, and mistakes remain hidden instead of corrected.

He says that data sharing is better not only in the USA or in the UK but also Romania and North Macedonia. In the USA, the citizens even know which hospital struggles with a labour shortage.

Source: telex.hu, github.com