The New York Times reports that the city of Jiaxing in eastern China has begun vaccinating some people against the new coronavirus, but the vaccine has not yet passed final testing in clinical trials, and scientists fear the move could pose significant health risks.
Jiaxing’s announcement last Thursday indicates that China is expanding its vaccine program, even though the vaccines have not yet completed rigorous testing, the newspaper reports. Some scientists are perplexed by the government’s move, as the outbreak in China has been largely under control in recent months.
The vaccine is being developed by privately held Kexing Holdings Biotech, and according to the local Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, these vaccines are only used in “emergency situations. Those who receive the vaccine will be at risk of infection depending on their occupation, including medical personnel, harbor inspectors, and public service workers.
The general public will then be able to schedule vaccinations at community injection centers, with the cost of two shots for people between the ages of 18 and 59 costing about $60, 14 to 28 days apart.
Since July of this year, Chinese vaccine makers have been inoculating thousands of employees of state-owned enterprises, government employees, and pharmaceutical company executives, the report noted. The Chinese government has said in recent weeks that it will extend the program to teachers, tourists, and supermarket workers.
Chen Guangsheng, who is in charge of epidemic prevention in Jiaxing’s Zhejiang province, said that Zhejiang “has already systematically” rolled out an emergency vaccine program, and that it has also begun a “focused voluntary vaccination program.
The Wall Street Journal reports that while the U.S. and Europe are still waiting for the results of large-scale clinical trials of a new vaccine before deploying it, other countries are moving more quickly and have begun putting experimental vaccine candidates from China and Russia into emergency use in an effort to stem the rising tide of infections worldwide.
Over the past month, the UAE has been delivering a Chinese vaccine to thousands of health workers, teachers, airport workers and government officials, the largest emergency use program outside of China. Indonesia plans to launch a similar emergency vaccination program involving three Chinese neocon vaccines as early as next month, a senior Indonesian health official said.
After Russia approved Sputnik V, a Russian-made neocrown vaccine, for frontline personnel in August, it approved a second vaccine for emergency use on Wednesday, and Russian President Vladimir Putin said production of both vaccines would be ramped up. China has already vaccinated hundreds of thousands of people at home, expanding the experimental vaccine beyond clinical trials to include students, diplomats and others traveling abroad.
Some Western health experts have warned that the side effects and effectiveness of the vaccine have yet to be determined, and that Russia and China are moving too quickly. Both countries are trying to use vaccine diplomacy and other initiatives to increase their global influence against the United States and its allies. China, in particular, has cited its success in fighting the epidemic as proof of the superiority of its authoritarian system over Western democracies.
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