Did the Romanian government buy 120 million COVID-19 vaccine doses because it planned to vaccinate each citizen eight times? No, that's not true: There is no evidence of intentions to impose mandatory vaccinations on the population at any point.
The claim originated in a video (archived here) on TikTok by user @stop_cenzura on November 28, 2023, featuring a picture of former Romanian Prime Minister Florin Cîțu and the caption (translated from Romanian to English by Lead Stories staff) "Romania's terrorists are still free!" The recording captures the voice of far-right senator Diana Șoșoacă stating:
120 million vaccine doses for 15 million people living in Romania - this means they want to give you 8 shots! ... 120 million doses for a flu with a recovery rate of 99,77%!
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Dec 4 14:04:03 2023 UTC)
Romania didn't order 120 million vaccine doses, but approximately 80 million, according to Health Minister Alexandru Rafila. From this total, the country has received 35 million doses thus far, with 20 million doses administered, he confirmed. The National Health Institute, in its report at the end of November 2023, indicated that almost 17 million vaccine doses had been given. The minister clarified that the variance stems from vials containing multiple doses that were eventually discarded due to expiration.
Apart from these, approximately 10 million unused doses have either expired or are nearing expiration, leading to their disposal. The state had made an initial payment of just over 500 million euros ($546 million) for all the vaccines; Romania's vaccine procurement is currently under investigation by anti-corruption prosecutors. The focus of the investigation is on state wastefulness, not the intention to vaccinate. The government also never indicated an intention to vaccinate Romanians eight times, as vaccination was never mandatory, but voluntary.
COVID is not as benign as the flu. Lead Stories has debunked several versions of this claim. Lead Stories has also highlighted that a 1 percent fatality rate is not considered low for any infectious disease.
