China admits vaccines have low efficacy

The director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Gao Fu, on Saturday said the current vaccines don’t have very high protection rates against the coronavirus. Health authorities are now considering mixing different vaccines, he noted during a conference on China’s vaccine and immunization strategies. After international media picked up his comments, Gao told the Associated Press he was speaking about the effectiveness of “vaccines in the world, not particularly for China.”

How is China operating its vaccination campaign? The country has developed five domestic vaccines that offer between 50 and 79 percent protection. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are used mainly in developed countries and have more stringent temperature storage requirements, showed about 95 percent efficacy. Gao said some 34 million people in China received the two doses of Chinese vaccines by April 2. China has also sent millions of doses of its vaccines to other countries, including Turkey, Indonesia, and Mexico.

Dig deeper: Read Charissa Koh’s report in The Sift on the origins of coronavirus.