China pushes vaccines amid debates over its efficacy

Amid debates and confusion about the effectiveness of a leading Chinese COVID-19 vaccine, China has been pushing its vaccines to other countries. Public reports so far about the efficacy of its leading SinoVac vaccine have been inconsistent, which the Chinese firm attributes to variations in methodology. A World Health Organization (WHO) team in China is reviewing manufacturing practices for Sinovac’s vaccine, and those produced by Chinese state-owned Sinopharm. If the WHO lists the vaccines for emergency use, that will accelerate their global distribution.

Experts say China has been too slow to publish trial data. China has administered more than 10 million doses of its state owned firm Sinopharm at home which also has not published its phase 3 trial data. The country started emergency use of its vaccine in July last year. With most countries likely to need more than one type of vaccine to meet demand, China has quickly started exports of its vaccines. The exports come even as China battles its own flare-up in infections, which has put more than 28 million people in lockdown. Continuing its recent three-digit surge, the Chinese mainlandreported 130 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 115 were locally transmitted. Among these, 90 were reported in Hebei, 23 in Heilongjiang, and two in Beijing. 79 new asymptomatic cases were also reported. Around 10 provinces are affected.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong announced that it is likely to delay the distribution of mainland Chinese producer Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine because of a lack of trial data, raising transparency concerns over a vaccine Beijing wants to sell throughout the developing world. Sinovac whose efficacy rates for trials in Brazil were lowered to 50.4 per cent, has been criticized for not releasing enough underlying data to explain varying results. However, experts say, it can prevent deaths from the virus.