Commentary

China takes pains to stress safety of shots

Authorities need to balance between keeping vaccines within the country and fulfilling export agreements. PHOTO: XINHUA

BEIJING - As China races to meet its target of vaccinating 50 million people against Covid-19 before the Chinese New Year holiday, the authorities are stressing the shots' safety, releasing trial data and going the extra mile to allay concerns.

While a December study by the World Economic Forum and Ipsos showed 80 per cent of respondents were keen on inoculation, vaccine makers and health authorities face an uphill challenge in trying to inoculate the 1 billion people, or 70 per cent of the population, that would be needed for herd immunity.

Adding to this complication is a need to balance between keeping vaccines within the country and fulfilling export agreements.

Early on, China vaccinated hundreds of thousands, mostly healthcare workers and those in state-owned or state-linked organisations with vaccines that were still in experimental stages.

By the time Sinopharm, one of the country's leading vaccine producers, released data on Dec 30 showing its inoculation was 79 per cent effective, close to 1 million people had already been injected with at least one dose.

The other leading producer, Sinovac, has shown comparatively modest success at just over 50 per cent.

Officials have declined to commit to a timeline on when it plans to reach herd immunity, but as of this week, some 22 million people across the country have been vaccinated.

Most of these are frontline healthcare workers, transportation workers and those working in cold-chain logistics - a group China has insisted face significant risk because the virus could be spread on food packaging.

Driver He Maodong, who works for a ride hailing platform, said he got his first dose about two weeks ago. "The company arranged it for us, the vaccine would help keep us safe and we wouldn't have to pay, so I was happy to do it," he said.

But some still have reservations about the vaccine - that it exposes the body to a small dose of inactivated virus, to trigger an immune response but not cause the disease.

The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, in contrast, are mRNA vaccines in which part of the coronavirus' genetic code is injected, prompting the body to produce virus proteins, triggering an immune response.

Before patients take any jabs, they are walked through potential side effects and shown the packaging, serial number and expiry date of the vaccine.

All this has done little to reassure those like a market analyst who wanted to be known only as Madam Zhang, who does not want the injection. Like most opting out of the programme, she declined to be identified in full, fearing that her reluctance could be misconstrued as dissent.

"This isn't like the Hepatitis A vaccine, or even the flu vaccine where it's been in development for years. The speed of the development worries me, especially when you look at what has previously happened with Changsheng," she said.

Changsheng Bio-technology, one of the country's top rabies vaccine makers, was in 2018 fined after it was revealed the firm had falsified production and inspection data, and had sold ineffective vaccines to inoculate children against diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus.

Others like translator Li Yaowen, are concerned that even the small amount of virus could be detrimental to his health and has turned down inoculation "since it isn't compulsory".

To allay fears, health authorities have set up hotlines to answer questions about vaccinations, while misinformation online is either quickly taken down or publicly refuted. For instance, when local health authorities in several areas started collecting payment for the injections, the National Health Commission issued a statement clarifying that the shots are free, and warning of "severe consequences" for those flouting the rules.

According to official projections, China will produce about 2 billion doses of vaccines by the end of 2021, just about enough to cover 70 per cent of its 1.4 billion population if it keeps all production for the domestic market.

Some 800 million doses of Chinese vaccines have been ordered internationally, with President Xi Jinping promising last May that these will be a "global public good".

While a number of countries, including Singapore, are looking to vaccinations as a means of reopening borders and economies, China appears to be in no rush.

A combination of strict border controls, quarantines and aggressive testing have achieved relative success in containing the virus while allowing factories and businesses to reopen, making China the only major economy to post growth last year.

"It's not just about public health… when you have other countries achieving herd immunity and reopening their borders, but China is still closed off to the world, then you have a (political) problem," said Dr Dr Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

A senior executive at Sinopharm told state media this month that it would probably take "a year or two" to vaccinate 500 million people, or 35.7 per cent of its population. And that appears to be a timeline Beijing is comfortable with, for now.

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