EFFECTIVENESS OF CHINESE VACCINES CALLED INTO QUESTION
Channel: A Singaporean
Date: 2021-06-24

EFFECTIVENESS OF CHINESE VACCINES CALLED INTO QUESTION

Seychelles, Chile, Bahrain and Mongolia, all had at least half of their population vaccinated with Chinese vaccines, even more than the US. However, they suffered from massive Covid-19 outbreaks, being among the top 10 worst hit. All four mostly used vaccines from Sinopharm and Sinovac Biotech.

In contrast, the US, with 45% currently inoculated with mainly Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, has seen cases drop by 94% over a period of 6 months.

This means that although countries that mainly employ Chinese vaccines may still enjoy low mortality rates, they will still have to face intermittent lockdowns, frequent testing and limits on daily life for months or even years to come.

This is very relevant to Singapore as we are utilising Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Vaccines under our national vaccination programme, while Sinovac vaccines have been approved for emergency access use but are not covered under the national vaccination programmme. This shows that the caution we exercised in using Sinovac vaccines after the WHO approved it was reasonable, and that we should continue to do so until China provides the necessary efficacy data to allay our concerns.