China’s ‘vaccine diplomacy’ shaken by mistrust in developing countries

Entry 2020.12.30 10:52 | Revision 2020.12.30 10:53

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China’s promoted vaccine diplomacy, led by President Xi Jinping, faced a huge obstacle of mistrust of people in developing countries. Even countries where Chinese vaccination is unavoidable, such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Brazil and Kenya, are struggling to persuade people who shook their heads and said, ‘The second-stream vaccine will not work.’

On the 28th, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Zhaorizen, said on Twitter: “With rich countries reserved for three-quarters of the 12 billion vaccines scheduled for next year, the Chinese vaccine may be the only option for the government that has not secured supplies. “We should oppose self-interest, hoarding or monopoly of goods at the expense of others. We should reject vaccine nationalism. ”

To date, China has signed vaccine agreements with nearly 100 countries around the world. The content of the agreement is ▲ priority supply of vaccines ▲ support for the purchase price of the vaccine ▲ clinical trials of the vaccine and cooperation in manufacturing. Most of them are developing countries. It also decided to supply the vaccine to the COVAX Facility, a joint international vaccine procurement and development project created by the World Health Organization (WHO).

However, Bloomberg cited surveys and local interviews conducted in Brazil, Indonesia and Pakistan, saying that China has failed to convince millions of people that they are forced to rely on their vaccines. To date, only China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have approved the emergency use of Chinese vaccines.

Contrary to the fact that the vaccine developed by Pfizer and Modena of the United States has been shown to be more than 90% effective in the phase 3 clinical trial, the Chinese vaccine has not yet completed clinical trials and interim data is not disclosed. with sufficient transparency. The Chinese government has urgently administered the vaccine to more than 1 million people since July, but only said there were no serious side effects.

On the 23rd (local time), the Brazilian Butantan Research Institute, which is assisting the clinical trial of the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac in Brazil, said that the efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine is over 50%. This means it has met minimum standards for emergency approval by US regulators, but the institute did not disclose details. A clinical trial in Turkey showed that the efficacy of the vaccine reached 91%, but among the test subjects, only 29 cases of corona infection.

Hwang Yan-Chong, a researcher at the American Think Tank Foreign Relations Association, said: “In a country where only Chinese vaccines are available, the choice is to accept or not. But if you can choose multiple vaccines, people will have enough data and the vaccine number one western in the world. ” “Because China has not provided any systematic data so far,” he said.

In a survey conducted earlier this month in Brazil, half of the people responded that they would not receive the synovac vaccine. Brazilian President Zaire Bolsonaro, known as a useless vaccine, incited public mistrust in October by saying, “I will not buy a Chinese vaccine. There are other vaccines you can trust.” However, on the 21st, Sao Paulo announced that it will bring 5.5 million doses of the Synovac vaccine in a few days.

A recent public opinion poll in Africa, TIFA Research, found that Africans prefer vaccines made in the US and UK to vaccines made in China or Russia.

Some developing countries, which have already signed a vaccine supply contract with China, are trying to quell public anxiety by giving the vaccine first by the leader. Indonesia ordered 125.5 million doses of Sinovac vaccine and President Joko Widodo announced in the middle of the month that “I will be the first to receive the vaccine.” UAE Prime Minister Muhammad bin Rashid Almaktoum was vaccinated against Sinopam on the 3rd of last month.

Experts analyzed that if Chinese vaccines do not alleviate the feeling of inferiority to others, President Xi Jinping’s claim that China has responded better to the coronavirus than Western countries could weaken. Nicholas Thomas, associate professor of health care at Citi University Hong Kong, said: “Transparency is necessary for the general public to accept a corona vaccine.” “If there are no transparent data, it is too easy to show the perception that there is a first and second class in the vaccine.”

“China has an important opportunity to do vaccine diplomacy and supply life-saving products to the world,” said Jorge Guajardo McLaty, associate director, Mexico’s ambassador to China for six years. “But in my experience, whenever they get involved in diplomacy, it screwed up everything. It upsets the countries that get aid.”