On November 9, 2020, as the new coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on the human population, news broke in the United States that Pfizer Inc. (PFE) had successfully developed a vaccine that was more than 90% effective. Also involved in the development of the Pfizer Inc. vaccine is the German biotech company BioNTech SE (BNTX), which has successfully developed a vaccine that is medically proven to be effective. Their success in developing a vaccine was hailed by the medical community as a “major milestone” event. When the news broke, the U.S. stock market soared, and so did the world’s stock markets.
The United States is the first country to successfully develop a vaccine, proving once again the vitality of the United States, which is worthy of being the world’s top power, the first in innovation and the first in medical technology. Since the outbreak of the Great Plague, in addition to Pfizer, there are three other companies in the United States, a total of four large biotechnology companies are working around the clock to develop and test vaccines.
Just as the U.S. and China are competing in various fields, the field of vaccine development, too, is highly competitive. China, where the pandemic was first unleashed, also has four major biotech companies, including Kexin, engaged in vaccine development. In the middle of the year, it also came to light that Chinese hackers had hacked into U.S. biotech companies in an attempt to steal the results of U.S. vaccine research, for which the U.S. Department of Justice indicted two Chinese citizens, Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi, who work directly for the Guangdong Provincial Department of State Security.
China, corporate R&D plus hacking to steal secrets, but in the end, still couldn’t outrun the US. At the same time as Pfizer reported success in the United States, Chinese vaccines suffered a twist in the South American powerhouse of Brazil. Early on, the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city by population, decided to order Chinese vaccines; but then the Brazilian federal government objected, saying it would not fund the vaccines; but last month, in October 2020, the Brazilian federal government agreed to fund the purchase of Chinese vaccines.
However, on the same day that the Pfizer vaccine was successfully developed in the US, the Brazilian government suddenly stopped the trials of a Chinese vaccine, Clariff, because of a “serious adverse event”. It later turned out to be the suicide of a vaccine volunteer. A false alarm. After the incident was cleared up, Brazil’s National Health Regulator resumed trials of the Chinese vaccine. But it is an indisputable fact that Chinese vaccine research and development lags behind that of the United States.
In Brazil, a large South American country with a population of 200 million, the number of infections with the new coronavirus is approaching six million and the death toll is more than 160,000. Whether or not the spread and recurrence of the pandemic can be contained has become a political test for Brazilian President Jair Bolsoro, and the pressure is on.
The twists and turns of Chinese vaccines in Brazil are a vivid portrayal of the competition between the two major powers, the US and China, with the US still leading the world in terms of technological strength and innovation. While this is to be expected, it highlights once again the strengths and weaknesses of the two systems: democratic America inspires creativity, while authoritarian China stifles it. If both powers have achieved varying degrees of economic and technological success, then the success of the United States has been primarily one of creativity, while the success of China has been primarily one of copying ability.
The successful development of a vaccine by Pfizer, which is expected to deliver the first 20 million doses by the end of the year, has given hope not only to the United States but to the entire world, a result that all of humanity has been waiting for. The new coronavirus epidemic, which has swept through almost every country in the world, has been going on for almost a year. Winter is approaching, the second or third wave of the epidemic is in the air again. The mask has become a bizarre costume for humanity in the twenty-first century. All peoples are fed up! People are all eager to end this epidemic as soon as possible and return to their normal lives and work.
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