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With a mixture of optimism, fear and cynicism, Egyptians reacted to the announcement by the Ministry of Health of receiving the first shipment of the Coronavirus vaccine developed by the Chinese company Sinopharm.
Image posted, fake images
“Your country is witnessing a historic day by receiving the first batch of the vaccine,” the Minister of Health said at a press conference at Cairo airport, after the arrival of the first shipments of the vaccine, adding that it would be “free for all”.
And the minister added: “The Egyptian Medical Authority has conducted clinical trials on the vaccine and that, personally, I was among the volunteers.”
As a result, the hashtag “Chinese vaccine” issued the hashtag lists circulating in Egypt, as the opinions of tweeters diverged.
Those who welcomed the Egyptian Health Ministry’s announcement praised its efforts to secure the vaccine, wishing a return to hope for a life without a Crown.
While many doubted the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccine and expressed their fear about the way the vaccination process progresses and the tests to ensure its safety.
The fears of some Egyptians about the Chinese vaccine are due to several reasons: one of them is related to the prevailing idea about Chinese products in general.
Therefore, tweeters view the government’s decision to vaccinate Egyptians with a Chinese vaccine as a risky attempt.
The comments were dominated by jokes and cartoons of Egyptians, wary of the Chinese vaccine.
And some of them made a comparison between the Chinese vaccine and the American Pfizer vaccine.
On the other hand, other tweets called for the abandonment of preconceptions and misconceptions about Chinese products.
Major media programs in Egypt have also dedicated part of their coverage to promoting the vaccine and reassuring citizens.
So some channels used a professor and medical specialists to talk about the effectiveness of the vaccine to face Corona.
How did the Chinese vaccine get to Egypt?
The first shipment of the Chinese vaccine arrived at Cairo airport from the United Arab Emirates, which decided to approve it after a series of tests.
The UAE is among the 10 countries where Sinopharma is testing its vaccines.
And the Emirati media reported that Egypt participated in clinical trials of the Chinese vaccine in the UAE, prioritizing it to obtain a dose quota.
The UAE presented a shipment of the Chinese “Sinopharm” vaccine as a gift to Egypt, local media reported.
And earlier this week, the UAE Ministry of Health announced that preliminary results from the third phase of trials of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine showed its effectiveness at 86 percent.
The ministry said the data showed that there were no concerns related to the safety of the vaccine for all recipients.
The United Arab Emirates officially registered the vaccine, after agreeing to emergency use by some groups last September.
EAU said it had studied the clinical results after authorizing the emergency use of the vaccine’s safety and efficacy, adding that the results showed results similar to those of the third phase.
However, despite these data, many questions remain about Chinese vaccines and the results of associated clinical trials.
“The lack of transparency in the Chinese system has led to thousands of people being vaccinated so far, without publishing data from clinical trials,” Natasha Kassam, an expert on Chinese affairs at the Lowe Institute in Australia, told AFP.
How is the vaccine different from others?
China produces many vaccines for the coronavirus, the most famous of which is the “Corona Vaccine”, which was developed by the Chinese “Sinovac Biotech”, in addition to two vaccines developed by institutes associated with “Sinopharma”.
Sinopharm (short for China National Medicines Group) includes several large companies, laboratories and institutes. It is the sixth largest vaccine producer in the world.
The Chinese Sinopharm vaccine has been distributed to nearly a million people in China under a controversial emergency program.
Health experts say Chinese vaccines may give hope to poor and developing countries that cannot afford the storage costs of Western vaccines.
Unlike the Pfizer / Untech vaccine, the Chinese “Synopharm” vaccine does not require large capacities to transport and store it.
Although the Chinese vaccine is 86% effective, it did not reach the level of the vaccine of the two companies Pfizer (US) and Biontech (Germany), which reached 95% effectiveness.
The vaccine is based on inactivated virus technology (contains dead virus particles that are created in the laboratory before dying, which are not infectious), while the Pfizer vaccine is based on modern RNA technology (allows the body to secrete antigens and antigens) .
Before the official approval of any vaccine, we witnessed a heated race between pharmaceutical companies, with some major countries eager to benefit diplomatically and politically from the vaccine.
Currently, vaccination plans are accelerating around the world to reduce the negative effects of the Corona virus, which has killed at least 1.58 million people since its appearance in December 2019.
Priority for vaccination will be given to healthcare workers, the chronically ill and the elderly.
Despite the promising positive results regarding vaccines, their effectiveness in completely eliminating the virus and preventing its spread is not yet guaranteed, and it is difficult to verify in the short term.
They adhered to preventive measures for a time.
