TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – China on Wednesday announced a plan to offer 10 million coronavirus vaccine doses to developing countries through the global COVAX initiative as part of its ambitious diplomatic and business efforts to distribute Chinese vaccines around the world.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China was responding to a request from the World Health Organization because developing countries wanted to make up for the shortfall forecast for March. He did not provide details on what vaccine China provided to COVAX, or whether it was a donation.
China has already shipped a large number of doses of its own vaccines, mainly to developing countries. It has pursued transactions or donations with more than 30 countries exceeding the 10 million doses it offers to COVAX. Only in Turkey did the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech Ltd. entered into an agreement to sell 50 million doses.
Its global efforts are seen by many as an attempt to boost China’s reputation, as it seeks to restore its image after the first coronavirus cases were detected in late 2019 in central Wuhan city. Earlier in the pandemic, China donated face masks and protective equipment to countries around the world as part of diplomatic pressure. It called the virus a mutual challenge for humanity and even suggested that it might have been brought from outside the country.
It agreed to join COVAX, which is coordinated by the World Health Organization and GAVI, the vaccination alliance, last October, especially when the US under then-President Donald Trump refused to join.
COVAX seeks to ensure that low- and middle-income countries have enough vaccinations, as affluent countries have captured a large portion of the billions of future doses from mostly Western vaccine manufacturers.
“We hope that countries in the international community will be able to take action, support COVAX through practical actions, support the work of the World Health Organization, help developing countries get vaccines on time and contribute to … the pandemic. conquer. early, ‘Wang said in a daily briefing.
WHO is approving Chinese vaccines for emergency use, he added.
So far, COVAX has only secured a fraction of the 2 billion doses she hoped for in 2021. Pfizer committed last month to deliver up to 40 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine through COVAX. The facility also has 150 million doses of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
Two state-owned Chinese companies, Sinopharm and Sinovac, are behind much of the effort to take Chinese vaccines abroad. Both companies’ vaccines are inactivated, depending on a traditional technology to grow and kill a live virus. The virus is then purified before being administered as an injection.
The inactivated vaccines appear to be less effective than modern mRNA vaccines. However, it is easier to transport than the Pfizer mRNA vaccine, which requires ultra-cold storage, which is a challenge for many low-income countries.
Only one of the vaccines, manufactured by Sinopharm, has been approved for general use in China. However, both have received emergencies or broader approvals in other countries and are actively used in mass vaccinations from the United Arab Emirates to Indonesia.
The vaccines have been criticized for a lack of transparency in data from the final phase of clinical trials. Sinopharm said the vaccine is 79.3% effective. Sinovac’s shot in particular has raised concerns after initially announcing a 78% efficacy rate against protection against symptomatic diseases, but after mild cases have been counted, the effectiveness is just over 50%, based on the trial in Brazil .
Originally published