In September 2020, Austria's Minister of Health Rudolf Anschober (Greens) explicitly ruled out in a TV interview he gave to ORF that the Russian corona vaccine Sputnik V could be used. In view of the disaster that the governments of the European Union created in cooperation with the EU Commission, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) is now calling for Sputnik V and Chinese competing products to be approved.

The politician appeals to the European Medicines Agency that there should be “no geographical taboos” when it comes to approval. In a written statement that he had sent to the Austria Press Agency, he demands that the EMA “should of course also examine the approval of Chinese or Russian vaccines”.

With this, apart from Viktor Orban, the first head of government of an EU state is publicly committed to Sputnik V and the vaccines developed in China. Hungary has already given the Russian product a national emergency approval and intends to do the same with substances developed in China.

The short statement coincides with Neos' requirement

In Austria he demanded Neos opposition politician Loackerthat Sputnik V should be tested and, if necessary, approved. Until a few weeks ago, the Russian vaccine was downright ridiculed by Western media and politicians. In the meantime, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) is said to be in talks with the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. The aim is to enable production under license in Germany or in another European country. Relevant trade magazines are currently writing that Sputnik V is said to be more effective than the cheap AstraZeneca product, which the EU, Austria, Germany and many other countries rely on.

Austria's Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz states in his statement that "every additional vaccine that is effective and approved is important". He considers the successes of the Russian and Chinese scientists to be as important as those of Biontech / Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna. In this context, the politician appeals to global cooperation, since, in his opinion, this is the only way to defeat the pandemic.