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SHANGHAI / SINGAPORE (September 16): China is vaccinating tens of thousands of its citizens with experimental coronavirus vaccines and attracting international interest in their development, despite experts’ concerns about the safety of drugs that do not have completed the standard tests.
China launched a vaccine emergency use program in July, offering three experimental injections developed by a unit of the state pharmaceutical giant China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and Sinovac Biotech, which is listed in the US. A fourth COVID-19 vaccine being developed by CanSino Biologics was approved for use by the Chinese military in June.
Aiming to protect essential workers and reduce the likelihood of a resurgence, vaccines are also drawing attention in governments’ global struggle to secure supplies, which could help rethink China’s perceived role in the pandemic. .
Beijing has not released official data on adoption in specific national groups, which include medical, transportation and food market workers.
But China National Biotec Group (CNBG), the Sinopharm unit that develops two of the emergency-use vaccines, and Sinovac have confirmed that at least tens of thousands of people have been inoculated. Additionally, CNBG said it had administered hundreds of thousands of doses; one of its vaccines requires a person to receive two or three injections to be inoculated.
Beijing has taken a public, top-down approach to endorsing experimental vaccines and building community support. Among those who lined up to fire early on were the CEOs of Sinovac and Sinopharm and the army’s chief of investigation.
The lead biosafety expert from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed this week that she too had been injected in April when she announced the possibility that at least some of the vaccines will be ready for public use from of November.
“Until now, among the people who were vaccinated, no one has been sick with the disease,” Guizhen Wu said on state television. “So far, (the vaccination schedule) works very well. There were no side effects. “
Wu’s comments broadly agreed with CNBG’s comments last week that none of the tens of thousands of people who traveled to high-risk countries and regions after being vaccinated had been infected, and there were “no cases of obvious adverse reaction. “
SAFETY CONCERNS
China’s approach runs counter to that of many Western countries, where experts have warned against authorizing the emergency use of vaccines that have not completed testing, citing a lack of understanding about long-term efficacy and potential side effects. .
Anna Durbin, a vaccine researcher at Johns Hopkins University, described China’s emergency use program as “very problematic” and said it was impossible to judge efficacy without a standard clinical trial control group.
“You’re vaccinating people and you don’t know if that will protect them,” Durbin told Reuters, adding that recipients of the experimental vaccines could avoid other protective measures.
Vaccine safety came into sharp focus last week when AstraZeneca Plc halted late-stage clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine, one of the most advanced in development.
The company resumed British trials over the weekend after receiving the green light from safety watchdogs and, together with other major Western vaccine manufacturers, pledged to uphold scientific study standards and reject any political pressure. for make faster the process.
Russia is one of the few countries that authorizes the use of an experimental vaccine, making its own “Sputnik V” vaccine mandatory for certain groups, including teachers. India is considering emergency authorization for a vaccine, especially for the elderly and people in high-risk workplaces.
FOREIGN BUYERS
The United Arab Emirates authorized the emergency use of a Sinopharm vaccine this week, the first international emergency authorization for one of China’s vaccines, just six weeks after human trials began in the Arab Gulf state. UAE officials reported mild and expected side effects, but no serious side effects, during those trials.
CanSino has been contacted by several countries, a source familiar with the discussions told Reuters, adding that the army’s approval helped attract foreign interest. The person declined to name the countries participating in the talks.
CanSino, which has planned trials in Pakistan and Russia for the vaccine developed with China’s military research unit, did not respond to a request for comment.
Zhang Yuntao, vice president of CNBG, told Reuters that his company has received interest from foreign countries to buy about 500 million doses of its experimental vaccine.
“China clearly wants to reorient that narrative in a way that is seen as a solution rather than a cause of the pandemic,” Yanzhong Huang, Senior Fellow for Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations, a US-based think tank.
“That narrative, ironically, may become more compelling when Trump’s America First approach denies many countries the opportunity to access American-made vaccines.”
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte promised on Monday to give priority to China and Russia in the global purchase of vaccines from his country, and said his government had already had talks with both. He said that China was different from other countries that were looking for a “reservation fee” or an advance payment.
“The only good thing about China is that you don’t have to beg, you don’t have to beg,” Duterte said. “There is something wrong with western countries; everything is profit, profit, profit “.
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