Chinese President Xi Jinping learned about advances in scientific research on coronavirus vaccines and antibodies during a visit to the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing, China, on March 2, 2020.
Ju Peng | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
As rich countries accelerated the supply of the Covid-19 vaccine, some parts of the world may have to rely on Chinese-developed shots to try to outbreak. Question: Will they work?
There is no external reason to believe that, but China has a history of vaccine scams, and its drug makers have reported on their final human tests and the more than 1 million emergency-use inoculations that have been carried out. The country already.
Wealthy nations have set aside 9 9 billion for next year’s 12 billion mostly Western-developed shots, while global efforts to ensure equal use of the Covid-19 vaccine have fallen short of its promised capacity of 2 billion doses. .
For countries that have not yet secured the vaccine, China may be the only solution.
China has six candidates in the final stages of the trial and is one of the few countries that can make the vaccine on a large scale. Government officials have announced a capacity of 1 billion doses next year, with President Xi Jinping saying China’s vaccine is a boon to the world.
The potential use of its vaccine by millions of people in other countries offers both an opportunity for China to repair its damage to its reputation by fleeing its borders and to show the world that it can become a major scientific player.
Although past scandals have damaged its own citizens ’confidence in its vaccines, it raises doubts about whether it can really be a savior from production and supply chain problems.
“There is a question mark over how China can guarantee a reliable vaccine,” said Joey Zhang, president of ethics science at the University of Kent in Britain. He cited China’s “troubled history with transparency and vaccine distribution on scientific data”.
Bahrain last week became the second country to approve the Chinese Covid-19 vaccine attached to the United Arab Emirates. Morocco plans to use the Chinese vaccine in a mass vaccination campaign starting this month. The Chinese vaccine is also awaiting approval in Turkey, Indonesia and Brazil, while testing is underway in more than a dozen countries, including Russia, Egypt and Mexico.
In some countries, Chinese vaccines are viewed with suspicion. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, without citing any evidence, has repeatedly questioned the effectiveness of the Chinese company Sinowak’s vaccine candidate, saying that Brazilians will not be used as guinea pigs.
Many experts praise China’s vaccine capabilities.
“Studies seem to be well done,” said Jamie Tricas, head of immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Sydney’s medical school, citing clinical trial results published in scientific journals. “I won’t worry too much about that.”
China has been building its vaccination programs for more than a decade. Jin Dong-yan, a medical professor at the University of Hong Kong, said he has produced large-scale successful vaccines for his own population, including measles and hepatitis vaccines.
“There is no major outbreak in China for any of these diseases,” he said. “That means vaccines are safe and effective.”
China has worked with the Gates Foundation and others over the past decade to improve product quality. Five non-covid-19 Chinese vaccines have been disqualified by the World Health Organization, allowing UN agencies to purchase them for other countries.
Companies whose products won prequalification include both leading developers of Synovac and the state-owned SynoPharm, Covid-19 vaccine.
However, Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, a synopharm subsidiary behind one of the Covid-19 candidates, was embroiled in a 2018 vaccine scam.
Government inspectors found that a company based in the city where the coronavirus was found last year had administered thousands of ineffective doses of the combination vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough due to equipment defects.
That same year it was reported that Changsheng Biotechnology Co. The data about the rabies vaccine was incorrect.
In 2016, Chinese media revealed that 2 million doses of various vaccines for children have been improperly stored and sold across the country for years.
Vaccination rates have dropped since those scams.
“All my local Chinese friends, they’re white collars, they’re well off, and none of them will buy Chinese-made medicine. That’s the way it is,” said Ray Yip, Gates’ former country director. . Foundation in China. He said he is one of the few people who does not mind buying Chinese-made pharmaceuticals.
China amended its legislation in 2017 and 2019 to tighten the management of vaccine stockpiles and increase inspections and penalties for defective vaccines.
The country’s leading Covid-19 vaccine developers have published some scientific findings in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. But international experts questioned how China recruited volunteers and what kind of tracking it was for possible side effects. Chinese companies and government officials have not released details.
Now, after data on the effectiveness of Western-made vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna have been published, experts are waiting to see Chinese results. Regulators in the UAE, where the synoform vaccine was tested, said it appears to be 86% effective based on interim clinical trial data. On Thursday, the Turkish government announced that Sinovac was 91.25% effective from interim data.
Synopharm did not respond to a request for comment on vaccine efficacy data. Another Chinese vaccine company, SinoWak and Cancino, did not respond to interview requests.
For some people in countries where the epidemic does not show signs of easing, a single vaccine does not mean a nation.
Rio de Janeiro restaurant chef Daniel Elves Santos said, “I have the first intention of taking it, whatever comes, if it happens right.” “And I hope God helps.”
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