While many countries give priority to older adults in coronavirus vaccination, China’s current priority vaccination program does not include the 60+ age group. At the same Time, the policy orientation of China’s mass vaccine aid has further fueled confusion and disbelief among the elderly community.
Wang Bin, an official with China’s National health Commission, said on Feb. 13 that China’s priority population for vaccination at this stage is the high-risk and potentially high-transmission population aged 18-59, and that as data from clinical studies on the vaccine continues to improve, prevention and control efforts are needed, and vaccine supply increases, China will expand the target population for vaccination to include more people, including those aged 60 and older.
The latest official statements from China indicate that vaccination still does not currently include people aged 60 and older, and that the situation may change gradually, but there is no specific timetable.
Elderly groups complain why vaccinations are not given
Chinese senior groups are questioning the inability to get the new coronavirus vaccine. Dr. Wang, a retired doctor from Hebei, told Voice of America, “It is common sense that for the old and sick should be given first and prevented, but I don’t know why it is not even packaged for over 60? The elderly pneumonia vaccine and flu vaccine are all free, how come when it comes to the new coronavirus vaccine but none of them are given, this is really a problem. The government’s explanation I think is particularly far-fetched, namely that the so-called experimental population was not conducted among people over 60 years old.”
Dr. Wang said that the authorities also put down the word that people over 60 years old are not playing now because the vaccine may be limited, and in addition, older people are past retirement age and have a relatively narrow range of activities and less social activities, plus more people over 60 years old suffer from chronic diseases, so the vaccine is mainly focused on people under 60 years old.
Ms. Sun, a resident of Tianjin, said, “At the beginning, I also thought, “Why don’t we arm these elderly, frail and sickly people first? How can we give the young people the shot first?”
She said some elderly people who need to travel are very anxious, saying that if there is a vaccine to fight, will not hesitate to fight, but now do not know when to get a turn.
Dr. Wang also said that despite this, the elderly around her have not had a significant emotional reaction because, after all, the outbreak in China has not been as large and widespread as in the United States, and is relatively well controlled and well guarded, so there is not as much panic.
Bloomberg said that Chinese people are generally hesitant to get vaccinated against the new coronavirus, fearing its safety and effectiveness, and that the outbreak is largely under control, so the mood is not as urgent.
Where is the Chinese vaccine going?
China differs from many countries in how it handles vaccination of older people against the new coronavirus because, in addition to the official rhetoric that the trial population was not conducted in people over 60, China’s “vaccine diplomacy” has consumed much of the country’s vaccine production.
While wealthy Western countries have been criticized for stockpiling vaccines, China has pledged to provide vaccine aid to more than 50 developing countries and has delivered or is delivering on vaccine exports to more than 20 countries, Bloomberg News said. Countries receiving Chinese vaccines are in Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Chinese President Xi Jinping has also pledged that China is ready to provide vaccines to Central and Eastern Europe, and on Feb. 6, a special Ethiopian Airlines flight carrying Chinese vaccines landed in the capital Addis Ababa, marking the start of China’s vaccine diplomacy to Africa.
The Washington Post said that if China did not export vaccines overseas, it would produce enough vaccines to meet the injection needs of 70 percent of its population by the end of 2021.
Some analysts say that at an administration capacity of 10 million vaccines per day, at two shots per person, China would be able to vaccinate the necessary people in one week, and it would likely take seven months to vaccinate 70 percent of the population.
Is it possible that the large amount of vaccine aid is crowding out China’s own needs? Mr. Lin, a retired teacher in Shanxi, said, “China is thinking about international influence, and China’s export of vaccines to these countries carries the implication of aid. Politically, I think China must be thinking in terms of international influence and the role of mitigating international accusations against China. Of course, there is also the pulling in of international countries that already have good relations with China, to bring them closer to China.”
Double standard: foreign seniors get priority for Chinese vaccines
Reuters said groups of Chinese people over the age of 60 were told by authorities to wait until the safety of the vaccine was confirmed, while in many countries, especially those receiving Chinese vaccines, the elderly are generally first in the vaccination queue or second in line to be administered first.
Peru’s first vaccine recipients received the vaccine developed by China National Pharmaceutical Corporation (CNPC), and Peru will provide free vaccination for the entire population in phases, with the first phase for all front-line personnel fighting the Epidemic; the second phase for the elderly and vulnerable groups over 60 years old; and the third phase mainly for people between 18 and 59 years old, in the opposite order of vaccination from China, Xinhua said Feb. 9.
After the Dominican government receives the vaccine from China Kexing, 70 percent of the country’s age-eligible population will be vaccinated in three phases: the first phase will include health care workers, people over 60 years of age, and military, police and teaching personnel; the second phase will include people between the ages of 50 and 59; and the third phase will include people between the ages of 18 and 49.
The Chinese vaccine is not available to the elderly in their own country, while those in recipient countries are given priority, a situation that has raised questions back in China. A Tianjin resident surnamed Wang said, “What does this mean? Is it to implement Tan Desai’s speech and reflect the spirit of international unity against the epidemic?”
The resident said that the authorities of the recipient countries cannot be ruled out from arranging the order of vaccination according to their own national conditions, however, these countries should also abide by Chinese vaccination administration norms, and that people over 60 and under 18 are not suitable to receive the Chinese-made New Coronavirus vaccine.
Mr. Lin, a retired teacher from Shanxi, said that at the international level, China is not considering the issue of dual administration standards because “in the future, after the epidemic, if the international community really pursues the blame, China will say that we have assisted this country and that country, at least for the time being, to provide vaccines to the international community as a bargaining chip. China does not admit that the epidemic went out of China, but after all, it still went out of Wuhan, and China has a weakness of heart.”
Who should have priority for vaccination against the new coronavirus?
BMC (BioMed Central), an independent publisher in the international biomedical field, recently published a paper by several Chinese scholars titled “Who should get priority vaccination against the new coronavirus in China? in China?
The paper says that countries are faced with the problem of deciding which group of the population should have priority in receiving the new coronavirus vaccine. Egalitarianism and making the best use of what is available should be the criteria for determining priority vaccination populations, while also taking into account the increasing availability of vaccines, detailed information on disease and transmission risks, and delays in vaccine shipments.
The paper concludes that China’s approximately 50 million essential personnel, including those in the health care industry, law enforcement, nursing homes, social welfare agencies, energy, Food, transportation, and overseas employees and students, should be given priority for vaccination in order to maintain the initial essential services of the vaccination program.
The paper argues that the next priority for vaccination should be the elderly, individuals with poor health status, and pregnant women in China, a group of about 560 million people, and that such a ranking would reduce the impact on health care facilities of hospitalization for these individuals after they become infected with the new coronavirus.
The last group to be vaccinated against NIV is the healthy population with no significant medical problems, including children. China has a population of 784 million people in this group.
Clearly, the current priorities for administration of the neo-coronavirus vaccine in China are very different from the order suggested in this paper to “decision makers in China’s vaccination program”.
The reality for Chinese seniors is that a clear timeline for access to the new coronavirus vaccine has not yet been set. Moreover, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently told the United Nations that China has tentatively decided to provide 10 million doses of the new coronavirus vaccine to the WHO in order to combat “vaccine nationalism” and dismantle the “vaccine divide.
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