According to figures released by the Brazilian Institute on Tuesday (12) based on the third phase of clinical trials, the efficiency of China’s Kexing New Crown vaccine has been set at a new low of 50.4%. The credibility of the Kexing data and the effectiveness of the vaccine have been questioned in the face of figures that seem to change from high to low. On the other hand, two top officials of Sinopharm, which has been listed but has not disclosed the details of the data, resigned on Tuesday, which some commentators believe is a precursor of the burst of domestic vaccines. Hong Kong SAR, which has ordered the vaccine, said an advisory expert committee will meet this week to review the issues and ensure the vaccine is safe and effective before allowing Hong Kong people to receive it.
The Butantan Institute announced Tuesday afternoon Brazilian time that the phase III clinical trial of China’s KeXing New Crown vaccine in Brazil was 50.38 percent effective.
Mr. Wang, a frontline epidemic prevention officer from Hubei, also told our reporter clearly that he personally does not vaccinate with the domestic New Crown vaccine because the quality is not reassuring.
Mr. Wang said: It should be a key group of people who have to pay for it. You also know that many people on our side of the world are more convinced of this official information. I do not play, do not believe. Hey, to be honest, I can’t believe it. China’s vaccine is really, that …… you like our dog vaccination, are rarely used domestic. I think it is better to do personal prevention.
Our reporter’s investigation shows that similar concerns are prominent among China’s frontline anti-epidemic medical personnel. Sources from the CDC in Hebei province made it clear that half of their colleagues, the frontline medical staff who need to take the lead in vaccination, refuse to be vaccinated because they fear the vaccine is unsafe.
Hong Kong has also procured the Kexing New Crown pneumonia vaccine. In response to the incident, the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr. Nie Dequan, who is in charge of the vaccination program, pointed out that the advisory expert committee will meet this week to review the problem and give clear recommendations, and that the authorities will ensure that the vaccine is safe and effective before allowing Hong Kong people to receive it.
The efficiency rate of the Kexin vaccine has been changed several times in the past. A week ago, Brazil’s Butantan Institute released a 78% protection rate for the Coxin vaccine, but the authenticity of this data has been challenged by professionals, and they have been asked to release detailed data. On Monday (11), the Brazilian side announced a downward revision of the effectiveness to between 50% and 60%. By now the latest specific data released is just barely 50% of the vaccine effectiveness threshold set by WHO.
The bad data of the clinical trial of the Kexing vaccine in Brazil had already been signaled before. At the end of December last year, Chinese officials refused to release clinical data from Brazil, and then released data from trials in Turkey and elsewhere, saying that they were 91.25% effective or higher, but since then Indonesia has released data that are only 65.3% effective.
Mainland science writer Fang Zhouzi questioned the data on social media and pointed out that such a wide gap in trials in different countries for the same vaccine is alarming in itself.
The bad news from Kexing comes just as two executives from Sinopharm, which was granted approval to market the new crown vaccine in China, resigned Tuesday. Sinopharm had earlier announced that one of the New Crown vaccines it produced was 79 percent effective, though details of the analytical data have not been released since then.
Ma Ju, a commentator who has been following China’s vaccine safety issues, pointed out that the resignations of Sinopharm executives could mean that its previously overblown domestic New Crown vaccine is in bad shape. He pointed out that Chinese vaccine data, and even all official data, lack transparency, and that doubts about their authenticity are the norm. But this time about the New Crown vaccine, it is also full of holes from basic common sense, such as the age limit imposed by Kexing and the large number of unverified so-called risks cited to avoid responsibility, which is why it is even more untrustworthy.
Ma Ju said: there are some insiders speak it, it is all related to this State Pharmaceutical Group vaccination this matter. In China, it’s all politically oriented, so it’s impossible to have real data. For example, two days ago, there was a former Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Shanghai, who said two days ago that the vaccine in China has all the possible consequences written down. But a common sense question is, how can you come up with so many possibilities of side effects after just a short period of clinical trials?
Ma Ju, who has lived in the Middle East for many years, also pointed out that China is conducting phase III clinical trials of the new crown vaccine in the Middle East and other places, and has received marketing licenses from countries including the UAE, Bahrain, and Turkey, but he believes that these vaccines will only be available to people in backward countries. Wealthy countries like the UAE will not use the Chinese vaccine for their own nationals even if they are allowed to market it.
KXB Chairman Yin Weidong said at a press conference in the afternoon that their Phase 3 clinical trials of the inactivated New Coronavirus vaccine in Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia and Chile showed good safety and efficacy of the vaccine. He also said that as of last Sunday, 7 million doses of inactivated vaccine have been provided to all provinces in mainland China for emergency use, especially Beijing and Guangdong provinces have expanded the use and seen good safety results, and the effectiveness is being studied and tracked.
The Global Times, the mainland’s official media, again defended the Chinese-made vaccine, saying that it is normal to have different test data in different countries, and that the Kexing vaccine was tested on health care workers in Brazil, which they used to claim that the vaccine had better protection.
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