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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.


Onize Oduah

Onize is WORLD’s Africa reporter and deputy global desk chief. She is a World Journalism Institute graduate and earned a journalism degree from Minnesota State University–Moorhead. Onize resides in Abuja, Nigeria.

@onize_ohiks


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TCR5862

Yes, I never trust anything coming out of a communist country from the government. The communist dictators are not accountable to the people. Their deception starts with their name, “The Peoples Republic of China”. There is no “republic” to it. The “people” have zero choice in the matter.  All lies, deception and half-truths, that is the Communist way.  The Chinese people in Hong Kong have been resisting the tyranny of the communist and now if they want freedom, they have only one choice, to leave, like millions of Chinese people before them.     

Steve Shive

His quote to the AP is confusing, probably intentionally. A little more context does help, some. We always need to be very skeptical and wary of anything publicly spoken by any Chinese official. Of course the officials in the USA seem to be only marginally more honest, if at all.

"He also praised the benefits of mRNA vaccines, the technology behind the two vaccines seen as the most effective, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, months after questioning whether the then-unproven method was safe.

In a message to The Associated Press, Gao said late Sunday night he was speaking about the effectiveness rates for 'vaccines in the world, not particularly for China.' He did not respond to further questions about which vaccines he was referring to."