China is still lagging behind other countries in administering the new crown vaccine. On March 21, China’s health commission called on people to get vaccinated, and said it would launch a mass vaccination for people over the age of 60. Meanwhile, a medical worker in Xi’an who had already been vaccinated was diagnosed, raising doubts again about China’s domestic vaccine. In addition, the authenticity of the number of people infected with the virus in Wuhan, where the outbreak first occurred, has been questioned again.
Chinese officials offer three explanations for infection even after vaccination
CCTV News reported on March 21 that a quarantine worker at a hospital in Xi’an was diagnosed with New Guinea pneumonia on March 18 despite receiving the New Guinea vaccine.
Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, gave three possible explanations for this, saying first, it is possible that the vaccine produced antibodies in the body, but the viral infection was in the respiratory tract. Second, the quarantine worker may have been a non-responder to the vaccination, but there are still no statistics on this. Third, “it may be that two doses of inactivated vaccine were given and the antibody titer was not enough, so a third dose may need to be made up.”
Four new crown vaccines have been approved for marketing in China, including three from Kexing, Sinopharm and Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, which are inactivated new crown vaccines and require two doses, and CanSino, which is an adenovirus vector vaccine that requires only a single dose. Officials did not announce the brand of the vaccine that the Xi’an quarantine division received, but the news has raised questions about the effectiveness of the vaccine.
This reporter noticed that the commentary on microblogs for this news was strictly controlled, with many neat and tidy messages of “no one can do 100%”. However, some netizens questioned why the vaccine was not announced. Three shots, four shots, five shots, in the end, how many shots is enough?
Chinese official: New crown vaccine will be given to elderly people over 60 years old on a large scale
Countries around the world are starting vaccination programs for the new crown vaccine. According to the Oxford University data site Our World in Data, as of March 21, the five countries with the most rapid vaccination progress were Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Chile, the United Kingdom and the United States, with about 111, 72, 44, 43 and 36 people in every 100 receiving at least one dose of the vaccine, respectively. In China, the figure is only 5.2.
According to China’s National Health Commission, as of March 20, China has accumulated 74,956,000 doses of the new crown vaccine.
In response to China’s low vaccination rate, China’s State Council Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism called on the public to actively vaccinate at a press conference in Beijing on March 21, stressing that the four vaccines currently available in China are “safe and effective” as they have been reviewed and approved by the government.
Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said vaccination is responsible for the population. The National Health Commission also said it will carry out large-scale vaccination of the elderly population over 60 years old.
Only Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor led SAR government officials to administer the second dose of China’s domestic Kexin vaccine in front of cameras on March 22.
Fifteen-fold difference in figures for those infected with the virus in Wuhan
In order to provide a relevant basis for the development of vaccination strategies, the renowned medical journal The Lancet recently published an article revealing “the level and dynamics of seropositive (i.e., previously infected with Newcastle pneumonia) antibodies in populations in early outbreak areas of the Newcastle Epidemic,” in which data from Wuhan, China, once again raised concerns.
The paper in The Lancet found that the Wuhan population had a positive rate of 6.92%. Based on Wuhan’s population of 11 million, there are nearly 760,000 people infected with NCCP, but the official Chinese figure is 50,000, a 15-fold difference.
Recent Comments