Saturday

2nd Dec 2023

China responds to 'low-efficacy' vaccine fears

  • The president of Serbia and prime minister of Hungary have both received the Chinese vaccine - and their countries rely on large shipments (Photo: Ministry of foreign affairs of Peru)

Concern over the low efficiency of Chinese-made vaccines has been mounting since - in a rare acknowledgement - one of Beijing's top health officials said existing vaccines offer low protection against Covid-19 - raising questions for those nations now relying heavily on the Chinese jabs.

"We will solve the issue that current vaccines do not have very high protection rates," said George Fu Gao, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control, at a forum on Saturday (10 April), adding that adjusting the dosage or sequential immunisation and mixing vaccines might boost efficacy.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Gao later said his comments had been misinterpreted, telling the Associated Press that he was speaking about the effectiveness rates for "vaccines in the world, not particularly for China".

In an interview with the Global Times, he said that "the protection rates of all vaccines in the world are sometimes high, and sometimes low. How to improve their efficacy is a question that needs to be considered by scientists around the world".

The vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and even Russia's Sputnik V shot have all shown protection rates of more than 90 percent, while Chinese vaccines have reported efficacy rates of between 50 to 79 percent.

However, most of what is known about the efficiency of Chinese vaccines comes from manufacturers and the countries where trials have been carried out.

79 percent or 50 percent?

In December, Sinopharm announced that the vaccine had an efficacy of 79.34 percent - although data from the peer-reviewed data on the final stage clinical trial research has not been published yet, triggering critics to point out the lack of transparency.

Meanwhile, Brazilian clinical trials showed early in January that Sinovac was only 50.4 percent effective against symptomatic Covid-19 - a far lower rate than those previously reported in Turkey (91.2 percent) or Indonesia (65 percent).

The minimum threshold for vaccine efficacy set out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is at least 50 percent.

There are currently about a dozen Chinese vaccine candidates, but only five have received emergency approval in China and other countries.

No other vaccines have been approved in China, which has administrated 167 million doses as of Sunday (11 April), according to Our World in Data.

While China aims to vaccinate 40 percent of its population (560 million people) by the end of June, the country has been willing to supply countries worldwide with large quantities of its vaccines.

'Vaccine diplomacy'

Beijing has secured deals primarily with low and middle-income countries that have experienced difficulties obtaining Western jabs.

However, low-efficiency concerns and delayed deliveries might now undermine Beijing's so-called "vaccine diplomacy".

The vaccine developed by Sinopharm, a state-owned company, in Beijing has received the most emergency-use approvals globally so far, including Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Egypt, Hungary, Serbia, and the UAE.

Serbia has one of the highest inoculations rates in Europe, mainly due to the country's large purchases of the Sinopharm vaccine.

President Aleksandar Vucic took the Chinese-developed shot last week, in a bid to encourage others to get the jab, amid vaccine scepticism and hesitancy in the Balkan state.

Neighbouring Hungary is the only EU member state that has approved the use of a Chinese vaccine, with its prime minister Viktor Orbán being among those who have received it.

Further afield, several countries have approved Sinovac's jab (also known as CoronaVac) for emergency use, including Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, Mexico, and Turkey.

In Chile, for example, national inoculation programmes did not pick up pace until Sinovac shipped in four million doses in late January. The country now has the third-highest vaccination rate per capita in the world.

Meanwhile, Turkey is facing delays in shipments from Sinovac pharmaceutical company, with patients being turned away recently because of a lack of doses.

EU tells China to let in WHO team to study Covid origins

The EU has demanded China cooperate with the international community to understand better the pandemic, after Chinese officials blocked the arrival of a group of World Health Organization (WHO) researchers investigating the origins of Covid-19 in Wuhan.

Analysis

Hungary breaks with EU on Russia, China vaccines

While all governments are seeking to secure vaccines as fast as they can so they can open up their economies, so far only Hungary's Viktor Orban has chosen to break with the EU's vaccine strategy.

EU to buy 1.8bn BioNTech jabs, in switch to mRNA vaccines

The EU has now entered into negotiations to buy 1.8 billion extra doses of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine. "We need to focus on technologies that have proven their worth," said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

'Shocking' disparities bolster vaccine patent-waiver call

The unbalanced distribution of vaccines globally has triggered calls to waive intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines. But an analysis of lobbying by watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory revealed how Big Pharma has influenced the EU Commission's position.

Opinion

'Pay or okay?' — Facebook & Instagram vs the EU

Since last week, Mark Zuckerberg's Meta corporation is forcing its European users to either accept their intrusive privacy practices — or pay €156 per year to access Facebook and Instagram without tracking advertising.

Opinion

My experience trying to negotiate with Uber

After working with people in unusual employment situations for a decade, I thought I had seen it all as a union organiser. Then I began dealing with Uber.

Latest News

  1. Israel's EU ambassador: 'No clean way to do this operation'
  2. Brussels denies having no 'concern' on Spain's amnesty law
  3. Dubai's COP28 — a view from the ground
  4. Germany moves to criminalise NGO search-and-rescue missions
  5. Israel recalls ambassador to Spain in new diplomatic spat
  6. Migrant return bill 'obstructed' as EU states mull new position
  7. Paris and Berlin key to including rape in gender-violence directive
  8. What are the big money debates at COP28 UN climate summit?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  3. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  4. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?
  5. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  6. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  3. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  4. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us