The first batch of U.S. Pfizer vaccines introduced by China’s Fosun Group has arrived in China. But vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine must be paid for at one’s own expense, and the related news was widely circulated in WeChat groups this Wednesday, with some residents saying that they should get the Pfizer vaccine even at their own expense, because life is most important. However, the news has been blocked.
The long-awaited U.S. Pfizer vaccine arrived in China. According to online self media news, this Tuesday (13), China’s 3rd largest biopharmaceutical company Fosun Group announced: the 1st batch of Pfizer vaccine, has arrived in China and strictly clinical application, the data obtained shows that the effectiveness, safety, durability, and Pfizer, the World Health Organization, the European Union Drug Agency, Nature, Science, The Lancet, the data published by these overseas institutions are fully consistent. The Pfizer vaccine has a 95% protection rate.
Compare this to China’s domestic vaccine, which currently has a vaccination rate of nearly 10 percent, and which Chinese officials earlier admitted was “not very high” in terms of vaccination rates and protection.
Residents would rather pay more than get a domestic vaccine
In an interview with Radio Free Asia, Mr. Chen, a resident of Wuhan, said that most people are willing to receive the Pfizer vaccine for a simple reason: “People want to save their lives, and to save their lives, they definitely choose the safest and best vaccine, and spending money is secondary to saving their lives. If the vaccine is not safe and life cannot be preserved, what is the money for? So the safety of the vaccine is most important.”
Zhang Hai, a family member of a victim of Wuhan New Crown pneumonia, said he would also choose the Pfizer vaccine: “Because foreign vaccines have higher efficiency and protection than our domestic vaccines. The Pfizer vaccine has to be paid for out-of-pocket, but if it is available, I believe many people are willing to play it, even if the price is higher. Because life is your own and health is the most important thing.”
However, news about the first batch of Pfizer vaccine arriving in China and people needing to make an appointment to get it at their own expense spread quickly on WeChat on Wednesday, but was blocked later. Wang Qian, a Chinese medical professional, told reporters, “The articles are now deleted from WeChat, being harmonized. When I woke up this morning, I saw that someone had forwarded the message, but it was immediately deleted, and the vaccine thing itself is quite sensitive. Now in China, you don’t see objective and fair reports about vaccines. The people can only see that people die from vaccination abroad, and there are deaths from vaccination at home, and they (the people) can’t see that.”
On Dec. 17 last year, China’s Fosun Group announced it had purchased no less than 100 million doses of Pfizer Vaccine (made by Germany’s Biontech Biopharmaceuticals) in the United States. The group’s president, Ayman Hui, said the Pfizer vaccine, with its real protection data, was still reassuring from a safety perspective. But nothing more followed.
Wang Qian said that Fosun Group ordered foreign vaccines with a very low profile: “Fosun Group ordered then secretly, when it ordered 100 million doses. The official media reported it, but did not say that he ordered Pfizer, saying that he ordered a vaccine from a German medical institution, which is actually Pfizer vaccine.
China’s National Health Commission recently released that as of April 10, a total of 164,471,000 doses of the new coronavirus vaccine had been reported nationwide, but the vaccination rate was less than 10 percent, far short of the requirements and goals for constructing an immune barrier. Liu Ning, a resident of Jiangxi, told the station that she would not be vaccinated with the new crown vaccine no matter where it was produced: “I don’t get any vaccine, the AIDS vaccine has not been developed for decades, and this (new crown vaccine) came out so fast that I have doubts about its safety, so I don’t get it no matter which country it is from.”
As of April 13, the Pfizer vaccine was reportedly in use in 72 countries, including 26 countries in the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, Canada, Japan and South Korea. Fosun Group is the sole agent for Pfizer vaccines in China.
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