Effectiveness of Chinese vaccines 'not high', admits country's health official
Apr 11, 2021
Beijing [China], April 11 : Marking a rare admission from China over the effectiveness of its Covid-19 vaccine, the country's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said that the efficacy of Chinese coronavirus vaccines is "not high" and they may require improvements, The Washington Post reported.
This odd acknowledgement from China CDC director George Gao comes as Beijing has distributed millions of doses to other countries even though Chinese pharmaceutical firms have not released detailed clinical trial data about their efficacy.
Addressing a conference in the southwestern city of Chengdu, Gao on Saturday said that China is "formally considering" options to change its vaccines to "solve the problem that the efficacy of the existing vaccines is not high."
Soon after Gao's remarks went out in public, words started spreading quickly spread through Chinese social media before being mostly censored.
In a bid to increase the effectiveness of the vaccine, the CDC director said that one possibility was to adjust the dosage or increase the number of doses. Gao further said another option was to mix vaccines that are made with different technologies, The Washington Post reported.
As per the American daily, so far more than 60 countries have approved at least one of China's vaccines for use.
Three Chinese drug firms are engaged in producing vaccines for COVID-19 and all of them have faced criticism for not making a full disclosure about their phase 3 trial results, according to multiple reports.
Vaccine experts around the globe have vehemently advised against Sinopharm, with the Shanghai-based doctor Tao Lina calling it the "most unsafe vaccine in the world".
