Vaccine Protection Concerns

China’s director of the Centers for Disease Control, Gao Fu (left) on Saturday was allegedly quoted to have said that Chinese vaccines don’t have very high protection rates. 

Of course, the Western media went to town on his supposed admission. But I’m not quite sure if this is all true or not because I also read a news report which had clarified that he was actually referring to vaccines in general. 

Either way, China came under the full glare of the media because China news, particularly ones that don't paint a favorable picture of the country command a disproportionate amount of attention. So, not surprisingly, this raised concerns about shots that are key to inoculation rollouts from Brazil to Indonesia. 

Notwithstanding the above, Bloomberg came out with a news report on April 14, 2021 that should allay any potential unease about Chinese vaccines. 

The media company had interviewed two experts, i.e. Australia’s Fiona Russell from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne and Paul Griffin, a professor from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, zeroing in on the Sinovac Biotech Ltd. shot, and which has been the focus of a crisis in confidence after they posted efficacy levels of just above 50% in a final stage trial in Brazil – the minimum level required by leading global drug regulators. 

Other Chinese immunizations have delivered rates from 66% to 79%, still far behind the shots developed by Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc. and even Russia’s Sputnik vaccine that have logged protection rates of more than 90%. 

FYI, more than 30 countries have rolled out the Sinovac shot, most of them in the developing world. The vaccine is key to China’s own mammoth push to inoculate 560 million people – 40% of its population – by the end of June. 

The good news is the vaccines work extremely well in combating severe Covid infections – and this was spotlighted by both Russell and Griffin. 

According to Russell (left), the Sinovac study was to look at how the vaccine works against the entire range of clinical symptoms, from mild infections to severe ones, including death. The efficacy data of about 50% is for very mild disease, requiring no treatment. For infections requiring some medical intervention, it’s about 84% and for moderate-to-severe Covid cases, it’s 100%. 

I should think that the above clears the air because that is what you would expect from Covid vaccines – a higher efficacy against more severe infections and lower against milder ones. 

As Griffin (right) emphasized, the vaccine’s efficacy is still above the minimum threshold set by the World Health Organization. 

Besides, he said, different strains circulating in a country are a big variable that can alter the efficacy readout. Therefore, virus strains are vitally important in determining vaccine efficacy. 

In any case, globally, public health experts have said that any vaccine that is 50% effective would be useful, and many governments have been eager to use Chinese vaccines as wealthy countries around the world have snapped up shots from Pfizer and Moderna. 

Vaccine inequality is already self-evident. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus said Friday that while one in four people in rich countries had received a vaccine, only one in 500 people in poorer countries had gotten a dose.