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Good news! Several COVID-19 candidate vaccines are proving safe and effective in final testing. Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca have published the results of their phase 3 trials, with an efficacy of 90 to 95%. China has five vaccine candidates that are currently in phase 3 trials in countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Brazil and Pakistan. The results from the intermediate stage have been safe and effective, and the researchers hope to publish the final efficacy results soon. China’s research and efforts have been groundbreaking. But when you look at some of the media reports on the subject, it largely boils down to two main points: China is taking shortcuts to winning the vaccine race, and China is leveraging its vaccines as a bargaining chip.
the Wall street journal on November 25, it posted the headline: “China’s drug makers face pressure to prove their COVID-19 vaccines work. Companies have not released late-stage trial results, while drug makers’ data Westerners show that three candidates are very promising. ” The juxtaposition here is pretty clear. Western pharmaceutical companies have “very promising” results, but Chinese companies have not released results, presumably for suspicious reasons.
The article itself points out a few reasons why the results have yet to be published, including the part that reads: “Chinese vaccine developers have had to go abroad for clinical trials because COVID-19 has been mostly under control in China for months. Western rivals are also conducting clinical trials abroad, though they have recruited tens of thousands of volunteers in the US and the UK, where COVID-19 has hit hard. Chinese researchers they have been excluded from those places amid rising tensions between Beijing and the West. “
The headline frames the story in a misleading way. Chinese pharmaceutical companies will release the results when they are ready, but they are following due process and that takes time. Chinese researchers want the data as much as anyone else. But as the article quotes a Sinovac spokesperson as saying, “the timeline for information disclosure depends on … ‘scientific process’, not ‘human will’.”
November 17 New York Times The article “Unproven Vaccine? No Problem in China, Where People Fight for Vaccines” says China has made its “untested candidates widely available.” He argues that “those users could be taking great risks. People who have taken ineffective vaccines may believe they are safe and engage in risky behaviors … In some cases in the past, untested vaccines have caused health risks.” . However, this argument is not very scientific, is it? The article does not list statistics or credible sources that can prove such security problems, only “some cases in the past”.
The other important narrative is that China is using its vaccines as a lever to win favors and strike deals with other countries. For example, him guardian He avoided all subtlety in his Nov. 29 headline “China Hopes ‘Vaccine Diplomacy’ To Restore Its Image And Increase Its Influence: Business Allies Like Brazil Lead The Tail Of Beijing’s Huge Drug Distribution Program” .
The article says that China has promised Brazil six million doses of the Sinovac vaccine by January, and that “the shipments to Brazil are part of a campaign of vaccine diplomacy that Beijing has mounted around the world. The consequences of the spread of COVID-19 has fueled mistrust of China internationally and hurt the global appetite for exports that helped fuel its growth. “
Inconveniently, the argument used to support your point is not correct. The article claims that the global appetite for China’s exports has been affected, but Chinese exports actually grew at the fastest pace in 19 months in October, increasing by 11.4%. China does not need to lure other countries with a vaccine to continue selling products.
The idea of Beijing organizing a worldwide “vaccine diplomacy” campaign is also puzzling. Yes, China is working with countries to develop a vaccine that can save lives. And yes, China has a commodity that other countries need, but that’s simply called doing business. Would it be better if China kept all its vaccines? Imagine the press coverage!
It is natural for people to have questions about new vaccines. But these questions are not unique to China. If this virus has shown the world anything, it is how connected the world really is, which means that cooperation, not demonization, is the way to go.
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