China takes pains to stress safety of shots

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 the health authorities face an uphill challenge in trying to inoculate the one billion people - or 70 per cent of the population - which would be needed to reach herd immunity.

Adding to this complication is a need to find a 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 one million people had already been injected with at least one dose.

Officials have declined to commit to a timeline on when it plans to reach herd immunity, but as at this week, some 23 million people in the country have been vaccinated.

Most are front-line healthcare workers, transport workers and those working in cold-chain logistics - a group that China has insisted faces a significant risk because the virus could be spread through food packaging.

Driver He Maodong, who works for a ride-hailing platform, said he had 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 - and 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 Madam Zhang, a market analyst, who does not want the injection. Like most opting out, 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 that 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 their health. He has turned down inoculation "since it isn't compulsory".

To allay fears, the health authorities have set up hotlines to answer questions, while misinformation online is quickly taken down or publicly refuted. For instance, when the local health authorities in several areas started collecting payment for the jabs, 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 two billion doses of vaccines by the end of this year, 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, quarantine and aggressive testing has 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 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 the population. And that appears to be a timeline Beijing is comfortable with, for now.