The Chinese urgency in the Covid-19 disappears in the jabs campaign

BEIJING, China – Shirley Shi received three offers to get vaccinated against Covid-19, through her hometown, her residential area of ​​Beijing and her office area, but the human resources manager is in no rush.

“I’d like to be on the lookout for any adverse effects first,” said Shi, who, like many Chinese, seems happy to take a wait-and-see approach.

Through aggressive lockdowns and massive testing of millions, China has been successful in controlling the virus that first appeared on its soil in late 2019.

But vaccinating the world’s most populous country is a different story.

China is still working to increase production of its four domestically produced vaccines and has yet to approve any foreign-made vaccines in a global race for bragging rights.

For Shi, the problem is not accessibility, but a lack of urgency.

“With China’s control of the epidemic domestically and my lack of plans to go abroad in the short term, there is no need for now,” he said.

Chinese experts have pointed out that the vaccination rate could soon accelerate.

Zhong Nanshan, a respected pulmonologist and a key national figure in the fight against Covid-19, recently said that China plans to immunize 40 percent of its 1.4 billion people by June.

That would require massively increasing the number of hits given in China, where currently only about 3.5 percent of the population is inoculated.

That’s far behind the 32.99 hits per 100 people in the UK and 25.42 in the US, according to Our World in Data, a collaboration between the University of Oxford and a charity.

“The sense of urgency that exists in the West, where vaccination is nothing less than an expected game changer, is not present in China,” said Mathieu Duchâtel, director of the Asia Program at the Institut Montaigne, a Paris-based think tank. .

Health risks

The slower pace could pose risks to China by delaying herd immunity.

There is no globally accepted standard for the percentage of a population that must be punctured, or develop the necessary antibodies through infection, for herd immunity against Covid-19 to be activated.

A November article in the Lancet medical journal put that percentage at 60-72 for a 100 percent effective vaccine, while Gao Fu, the head of China’s disease control agency, put it at 70-80 percent for China. in comments this week.

China would need to administer 10 million doses every day for seven months to reach those thresholds, Chinese infectious disease specialist Zhang Wenhong said at a recent forum. Only about 52.5 million doses had been administered as of the end of February, according to Zhong.

The current pace is of “great concern,” Zhang added.

In addition to speeding up production, China has also pledged to ship vaccines abroad as it works to mitigate foreign criticism about the initial spread of the virus from its shores.

Chinese companies are poised to export nearly 400 million doses, state media reported, and the government said it is providing free vaccines to 53 countries.

China is caught between “both the vaccination requirement to achieve herd immunity … and the demand associated with its vaccine diplomacy,” said Yanzhong Huang, a global health fellow at the US Council on Foreign Relations.

Huang said delays in herd immunity could mean China is delayed in reopening its borders, now largely closed to all but Chinese citizens, while other economies forge ahead.

This “could make China look bad,” he said.

Skepticism

In China, public acceptance of the vaccine may also be held back by confidence issues in a country with a history of drug safety scandals.

Market research firm Ipsos found in January that 85 percent of adults in China said they were willing to be beaten, but it was unclear how soon they would do so.

At a Beijing clinic, a doctor said injections had been offered to all staff, but many objected until more data on the vaccine’s effectiveness became available.

Chinese producers have yet to release detailed data, unlike their foreign rivals.

China’s vaccinations began last year with key groups such as medical personnel and state workers heading abroad. This has spread to other citizens, although mainly in the larger cities.

With its resources and proven ability to mobilize for a massive effort, China may well catch up on vaccination rates once supplies increase.

Zhang Yutong, a dental clinic employee, was among a steady stream of people entering a Beijing clinic after her employer organized the beatings.

He told AFP that nearly two-thirds of his colleagues had also accepted the offer.

“The epidemic has become a regular part of life. It is better to have antibodies, ”he said.

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