Chengdu, Beritasatu.com– China’s top disease control officials admit the effectiveness of the Covid-19 Sinovac vaccine is low. As reported AP, Sunday (11/4/2021) the government is considering blending to give a boost effect.
“The Chinese vaccine does not have a very high level of protection,” said the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, Gao Fu, at a conference on Saturday in the southwestern city of Chengdu.
Beijing has distributed hundreds of millions of doses of Sinovac vaccine in other countries.
“It is now under formal consideration whether we should use different vaccines from different technical pathways for the immunization process,” said Gao.
The level of effectiveness of the viral vaccine corona from Sinovac, a Chinese developer, in preventing symptomatic infection was found to be as low as 50.4% by researchers in Brazil. In comparison, the vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech was proven to be 97% effective.
Beijing has not approved a foreign vaccine for use in China, where the virus is corona appeared at the end of 2019.
Gao did not provide details of a possible change in strategy but did mention mRNA, an earlier experimental technique used by some Western vaccine developers, while Chinese drugmakers are using traditional technology.
“Everyone must consider the benefits of the mRNA vaccine for mankind. We have to follow it carefully and not ignore it just because we already have several types of vaccines, “said Gao.
Gao previously raised questions about the safety of the mRNA vaccine. He was quoted by the official news agency Xinhua who reported in December he could not rule out negative side effects because it was being used for the first time in healthy people.
Chinese state media and popular health and science blogs have also questioned the safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which uses mRNA.
As of April 2, according to Gao, about 34 million people had received the two doses required by the Chinese vaccine and about 65 million received one.
Experts say mixing vaccines, or sequential immunizations, can increase the level of effectiveness. Trials around the world are looking at mixing vaccines or giving booster shots after a longer period of time.
Researchers in the UK are studying a possible combination of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Astrazeneca vaccines.
Source: BeritaSatu.com
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