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China is working hard to develop vaccines to bring to market. Hundreds of thousands have already been vaccinated. The scope and lack of transparency of vaccination programs scares experts.
By Ruth Kirchner
First it was the turn of the employees of some state companies, then soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army, employees of pharmaceutical companies and medical personnel. Teachers, bus drivers, train staff and people who travel to risk areas are also on the lists. All have been or should have been vaccinated against SARS-COV2, although an officially approved vaccine is not yet on the market.
Hundreds of thousands of people have already been vaccinated, Liu Jingzhen, director of the state pharmaceutical company Sinopharm, says on television. None of them reported any side effects. In practice, this has been shown to be completely safe.
There is hardly any information on vaccination programs.
Vaccination programs have been running since the Chinese government approved the use of experimental vaccines with an emergency ordinance for particularly urgent cases in the summer. However, accurate information is scarce, pharmaceutical companies and authorities are evasive, and participants should not comment publicly.
One of the few who did it anyway is columnist Kan Chai. He said at an online event that he is confident in China’s vaccination technology, so he’s ready to serve as a guinea pig. The biggest danger is that the vaccine won’t work. But it will not harm your health. He is fine, everything is fine, just as I expected.
Can’t prove efficacy of vaccines
Whether vaccines work is an open question. The state health commission recently admitted that. Mass vaccinations will not be able to answer this question: because in China the number of corona infections is so low that the effectiveness of vaccines cannot be proven at all. Therefore, promising vaccine candidates from Chinese laboratories are being tested abroad.
International experts are concerned
So why home vaccines? International experts are puzzled and concerned. Joy Zhang, a medical scientist and sociologist at the University of Kent in the UK, says that if a scientific experiment or endeavor has no scientific benefit, it immediately raises big ethical questions. It is also unclear, for example, if participants know exactly what they are getting into. “Is vaccination really voluntary or is pressure exerted, for example, in the army?”
Authorities are taking concerns off the table
What if there are side effects? Will programs be temporarily suspended, like at AstraZeneca in England? The Chinese authorities are dismissing concerns. Zheng Zhongwei from the State Health Commission said: “We make it very clear that vaccines are safe according to the Emergency Ordinance.” Its effectiveness has yet to be proven. Therefore, the participants also protected themselves against the virus in other ways. But so far there has not been a single case with serious side effects or infections.
Public debate is not allowed in China
In China, a public debate on the scientific and ethical issues of mass vaccination is not allowed, there is no independent ethics committee. Vaccination scandals have also repeatedly shaken public confidence, most recently two years ago, when faulty tetanus and pertussis vaccines were circulating.
This is precisely why transparency is so much more important now, says Joy Zhang. “Especially at times like these, when we are dealing with a public health emergency, it is crucial that authorities clearly indicate what they are doing to avoid similar scenarios.” Zhang’s Appeal to China: “Don’t Ruin Promising Scientific Work With Secrecy.” However, transparency has never been the strong point of the Chinese authorities, not even in crown times.
