China’s Wuhan pneumonia (novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19) vaccine has not been clinically tested in the over-60 age group, but the elderly in recipient countries are often given priority. Cambodia received 600,000 doses of the vaccine from China last month, but Prime Minister Han Sen, 68, refused to be China’s “white mouse” and took the lead in administering the Oxford AZ vaccine on the 4th, giving it a thumbs up!
According to the Associated Press, the first batch of 324,000 doses of AZ vaccine distributed by Cambodia through the Wuhan Pneumonia Vaccine Global Access Mechanism (COVAX) arrived at Phnom Penh International Airport on the evening of the 2nd, and these vaccines were produced in India.
The UK recently published a report on a large-scale trial covering 7.5 million people, which confirmed that the AZ vaccine was more effective than the Pfizer & BNT vaccine in reducing the risk of hospital admissions for patients over 70 years of age. The World health Organization (WHO) also expressed support for the use of AZ vaccine last month, emphasizing that it is available for all ages.
Cambodia received a donation of 600,000 doses of the vaccine from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm on the 7th of last month, and started the vaccination program immediately three days later.
However, Sinopharm’s clinical trials only covered vaccine recipients between the ages of 18 and 59, and no clinical trials were conducted in the 60+ age group. Therefore, Han Sen did not receive the Chinese vaccine together with his son and subordinates, but had Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Dipan receive the first dose of the vaccine on his behalf.
In fact, Prime Minister Han Sen, who has always been pro-China, said outright last December that he would only use internationally recognized vaccines, adding that “Cambodia is not a garbage can and not a vaccine laboratory,” indirectly reflecting his distrust of Chinese vaccines.
Some of the vaccines developed by China have entered human clinical trials without even releasing the data from the phase 1 animal trials, and China has engaged in a wave of high-profile “vaccine diplomacy” without any of them having completed clinical trial analysis.
However, in countries receiving vaccines from China, elderly people are generally given priority and are ranked first or second in the vaccination queue, fearing that they will be reduced to white rats in Chinese experiments.
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