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Don’t Write Off China’s Vaccines — the World Needs Them

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Beijing’s shots appear less effective than most Western alternatives but are absolutely necessary to contain Covid-19.
It’s been an awkward time for the head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Gao Fu was cited over the weekend as telling a health conference that the agency was considering options to improve the efficacy of China’s shots against Covid-19, which was currently “not high.” His remarks, perhaps the first significant hint of official concern over the protection rate offered by homegrown vaccines, were censored. Gao hurriedly gave an interview dismissing the episode as a misunderstanding. But the harm was done — because he was right. China’s vaccines do appear to shield less effectively than those developed elsewhere. This is bad news for everyone, in a week when Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine became the latest paused over blood-clot concerns. We all need the most populous country in the world to inoculate its citizens, and to succeed in supporting vaccination drives in countries like Indonesia, the worst-infected nation in Southeast Asia. Low efficacy fuels hesitancy and, crucially, makes it harder to achieve herd immunity — the point at which normal life can resume. But that doesn’t make Beijing’s shots useless. By hoarding vaccines, the Western world has left many in emerging economies uncovered. While more than 848 million doses have been administered, countries with the highest incomes are getting vaccinated 25 times faster than those with the lowest. The United States, with 4% of the world’s population, has 24% of vaccinations, according to Bloomberg’s Covid-19 tracker. For the have-nots, a stopgap shot that may at least keep people out of under-resourced hospitals is well worth it. First, the problems. Sinovac Biotech Ltd.’s shot posted efficacy levels of just above 50% in a final-stage trial in Brazil, narrowly clearing the minimum required by most regulators. Other Chinese immunizations have delivered rates between 66% and 79%, still below leading Western alternatives.

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