The mass vaccination drive requires almost everything in hospitals across China: millions of doses. Refrigerator to store them. Health care workers are trained to administer them.
Everything, that is, except the evidence that any of their vaccines work.
Unlike their Western rivals, Chinese companies have not released data from late-stage clinical trials that show whether their vaccines are effective, and regulators in China have not officially approved them.
This did not stop local governments across the country, which have launched an ambitious vaccination campaign. Before the lunar New Year holiday, by mid-February – when Colombia’s approximate population – aims to inoculate 50 million people, while millions travel.
China, where the virus first appeared a year ago, and is scientifically unconventional – has a long way to go to prevent an outbreak. While Beijing has not officially announced the vaccine target, the government has indicated that the rollout will be administered in the same way as an outbreak, through a top-down approach, which could mobilize thousands of workers to produce, carry and manage shots. Local officials were told the drive was a “political mission.”
The campaign will focus on what China calls “key priority groups”, including cutters, hotel staff and border patrol personnel. Food storage and transport workers, as well as passengers. Irene Zhang, a 24-year-old student, went to Britain next month for a graduate school in Hangzhou on December 22 and was vaccinated.
“My situation is very urgent and all the students around me have taken it abroad. I think it is relatively reliable,” said Ms. Zhang.
Even before the current campaign, more than a million people lined up to be vaccinated, surprising scientists who have warned that there are potential health risks to taking inadvisable vaccines. Now their efforts, which are pervasive in space, are being rotated in a uniform fashion.
In southern Guangdong province, 180,000 people – mostly working workers Storage and transportation, quarantine facilities and border inspections – were inoculated until 22 December. In eastern Zhejiang province, 281,800 people were vaccinated. In Wuhan, where the epidemic first broke out, the government said it had designated 48 vaccination clinics for its emergency program, which began on Thursday.
China, which is testing five vaccines in a phase 3 trial, has not provided any information from this last phase to show the effectiveness of these vaccines. In contrast, the United States and Britain began inoculation by reviewing and approving such trial data.
Instead, Chinese officials have issued comprehensive statements with little detail, assuring people that the vaccines are safe and effective. Three of the vaccines have only been approved for emergency use. Last month, Chairman Liu Jingzhen Synoform, a state-owned vaccine manufacturer that has two vaccines in a late-stage trial, said so far none of the nearly 10 million people had had an adverse reaction and that “only a few had mild symptoms.”
Data and approvals are expected in a week. When promising signs come, they come with a warning.
The UAE and Bahrain said this month that the vaccine developed by Synoform was effective, although they gave little details on how they came to the conclusion. Turkey said the vaccine, manufactured by Beijing-based private vaccine manufacturer Sinovac, has an effectiveness rate of 21.75 percent, based on preliminary results from a small clinical trial. Brazilian officials say the synovic vaccine has an efficacy rate of more than 100 percent but have stopped releasing detailed data.
The scale and speed of the vaccination drive is the development of a centralized public health structure in an authoritative system. During the crisis, China showed how it could mobilize thousands of workers to reach millions; It has tested 11 million people In 10 days in Wuhan.
Chinese vaccine manufacturers have worked to increase their production for both the country’s own needs and global exports. The Chinese government has promised to produce 610 million doses by the end of the year and expects to make more than one billion doses next year.
“When they say million, they will probably,” said Jennifer Huang Boye, a senior policy researcher and epidemiologist at Rand Corporation. “The question is how much it will cost and what the impact will be.”
All efforts have been prepared for months. Since June, hospitals in Guangdong Province have begun construction on vaccination clinics, equipped them with refrigerators and installed refrigerator storage systems.
Cinopharm conducted the exercise this month. In the trial run, workers loaded loads of vaccines and ice packs, while a company official detected the temperature of the vaccine in real time during shipment.
China has some advantages in its rollout. Unlike the Pfizer vaccine, it is based on traditional methods developed by SynoPharm and Synovac that use inactive or weakened forms of the virus, thus making it easier to store and distribute.
But there are plenty of pitfalls, such as the U.S. Experience shows. In In the United States, only two million people have received the Covid-19 vaccine, short of the 20 million target set by the government for this month. Hospitals prepare static shots and staff to find staff in clinics.
As China prepares, local officials are surveying the number of people in “key priority groups”. According to a government document from Xinsang County, Zhejiang Province, they had to make sure there were no errors.
Just two months ago, it seemed that demand could surpass supply. The eastern city of Yiwu offered 500 doses, which were used in hours.
Said student Mrs. Zhang She was initially reluctant to get vaccinated because everyone around her told her to “wait and see”. However, he tried to sign up in Yiwu but failed to secure a place.
Then, on December 21, Ms. Zhang heard that Hangzhou would begin her own vaccination drive. That night she took a high-speed train and local officials signed a rental agreement with her friend in the city as proof of residence was required. The next day, he paid $ 35 and got a shot from Sinowack.
At the hospital, four or five people were waiting to be vaccinated, according to Ms Zhang. The process took about an hour, including registering, getting a shot, and waiting 30 minutes to see if there were any adverse reactions.
“Everything was very quiet and tidy,” he said. Before she left, the doctor warned her: Don’t take a bath. Don’t be late. Don’t eat foods that can irritate your stomach.
The government has emphasized that the vaccination drive is voluntary, and people will have to pay for inoculations. Yanzong Huang, a senior global health ally at the Council on Foreign Relations and a health care expert in China, noted that the two-dose system could cost about $ 70, keeping it out of the reach of the rural poor.
Problems can also arise for persuading the Chinese people to get vaccinated. Scientists warn that the lack of transparency could eliminate the risk of new vaccines, especially in industries with a history of quality scams.
Tao Lina, a vaccine specialist and former immunologist at the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said he knew about many healthcare workers who refused the shot. “In the minds of doctors, they feel that any drug that has not passed Phase 3 tests is unreliable,” Mr Tao said.
Mr Tao, who received the synopharm vaccine on Monday, said he was confident the vaccines were safe and effective, echoing officials’ comments that there was no news of serious, adverse reactions. But he added that companies can perform better in their messaging.
“If you say it’s safe, you have to show all kinds of evidence to show it’s safe,” he said.
Himan Zhang, a 27-year-old sales employee at an internet company, said he wanted to get vaccinated because he travels to work and was afraid of running shots if the virus recurred. But he worried about Chinese-made because “a lot of people don’t get it,” he said.
“I will wait another two months for some official data to come out,” said Mr. Zhang, who is in Chongqing’s southwestern municipality. “And then, if there’s no news about a side effect, I’ll get a shot.”
Liu Yi, Amber Wang and Elsie Chen contributed to the research.
