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When Evelyn Wu heard that she could get a COVID-19 vaccine, she jumped at the opportunity, although it has not been scientifically proven.
“Actually, I was excited,” she told Sky News. “It’s like a normal vaccine.”
The 20-year-old is an economics student at the University of Birmingham and wants to return there in January.
So as soon as he heard a coronavirus the vaccine was available, went to the hospital in Yongkang, this China, last Monday to register. Two days later, he had his appointment.
Ms. Wu is shown receiving her vaccine
“He needed to sign a contract. He has the details on COVID-19. And he told me it’s very safe, even if it’s only stage 3. “
Ms. Wu signed the form acknowledging that she might experience some mild symptoms and promptly received the first of two doses of the vaccine. In total, you will pay 456 RMB, around £ 52.
The vaccine is manufactured by Sinovac, a Beijing-based biotechnology company. The company is still conducting late-phase trials in Brazil, Turkey Y Indonesia, and has said it could publish preliminary data from the phase 3 trial in November.
That means it hasn’t met the typical safety and efficacy standard for vaccine development, but China has still cleared it for emergency use, saying it has the support of the WHO.
“Yes, I am a little concerned about [it being] experimental stage 3, “Ms Wu told Sky News.
“And I think I was the test subject, the one who was treated like a mouse.”
Ms. Wu said that she felt no side effects other than a little drowsiness. The hospital will not monitor her directly, but she has been told to visit her immediately if she develops any symptoms.
And for Ms. Wu, government approval is more important than scientific.
“I trust China and I think it is totally safe to get vaccinated. I trust the government.”
Others have been less trusting, according to Ms. Wu. She says the government asked doctors and teachers last month if they would like to get vaccinated as well.
“But some doctors and some teachers refused to vaccinate. They think it is dangerous because they think they are being tested,” he told Sky News.
“They don’t want to volunteer to get the experimental vaccine.”
As of July, thousands of employees of Chinese state-owned companies have already received the vaccine before traveling abroad.
But this new campaign is extending that offer to the general public, in a handful of cities and towns, with some restrictions. Volunteers must be between the ages of 18 and 59 and local residents.
People are seen checking the temperature before entering a hospital in Jiaxing, eastern China
Health authorities in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province have posted notices advertising the vaccine. Priority is given to medical workers, people working at border and quarantine centers, public sector workers traveling to medium to high risk COVID-19 areas, and then those who wish to receive the vaccine. Ms. Wu had to show her university identity documents as proof of her intention to travel.
It is not yet a full implementation. A health clinic in Jiaxing, a city in the same province that has announced the vaccine, told Sky News that it was waiting for the doses to arrive, but that people could sign up in the meantime.
But taking an experimental vaccine carries risks. Phase 3 trials of competing vaccines from the UK and the US, conducted by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, were temporarily halted after participants became seriously ill. Chinese companies have not publicly recorded such incidents.
And Ms. Wu is not put off by those testing interruptions. “I don’t think we have the same problem,” he said. “Because they are totally different experiments, I think. China uses different ways of treating the pandemic.”
You will receive your second dose of the vaccine in November; the hospital recommended an interval of 14 to 28 days between doses. Upon his return to the UK, he says he will still wear a mask, observe social distancing, and wash his hands thoroughly.
A health clinic in Jiaxing, a city in the same province that has announced the vaccine, told Sky News that it was waiting for the doses to arrive.
But the vaccine has given her mother peace of mind, who insisted she escaped the UK in March.
“She is happy that I have the vaccine,” he told Sky News. “Because she thinks I’m brave. I set an example for others.
“Because there is an old saying, the first to eat crabs is the bravest, right?”
