On March 16, 2021, a health worker gives a dose of the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine against COVID-19 to a man at a vaccination center in Santiago. (Photo by CLAUDIO REYES / AFP) (Photo by CLAUDIO REYES / AFP via Getty Images)
Photographer: CLAUDIO REYES / AFP
Photographer: CLAUDIO REYES / AFP
The vaccine from Sinovac Biotech Ltd. is 67% effective in preventing symptomatic Covid-19 infections and preventing 80% of deaths due to the disease, according to a Chilean government study published Friday.
According to the report, the Sinovac vaccine was 85% effective against hospitalizations and 89% for preventing people from going to intensive care units. This is the first evidence showing how well the Chinese shot can protect against Covid-19 after it has been widely used in a population.
On March 16, 2021, a health worker gives a dose of the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine against COVID-19 to a man in a vaccination center in Santiago.
Photographer: CLAUDIO REYES / AFP
The Chilean Ministry of Health followed 10.5 million citizens enrolled in the country’s public health insurance system, and included people who received one dose, two doses and no dose at all. The efficacy figures were obtained 14 days after the second dose.
While 80% effectiveness against death is significant, there is “natural disappointment”, Rafael Araos, adviser to the deputy secretary of public health, told reporters. “Nevertheless, the actual results are always expected to be lower than the result of a clinical study.”
The shot developed by the Beijing vaccine manufacturer, which has so far been rolled out in more than 30 countries, has raised increasing questions about its effectiveness, after data emerged from Brazil showing that it barely meets the 50 % exceeded the coronavirus one of the most worrying mutations. Nations like Brazil and Indonesia depend on Sinovac’s doses to vaccinate their populations after the more effective mRNA vaccines were mostly cleared by richer countries.
Read more: Covid is more deadly in Brazil than India and no one knows why
The effectiveness of the Sinovac shot decreases when asymptomatic cases are considered, and the information is likely to be included in the final version of the study, Araos said. “The inclusion of asymptomatic cases leads to more noise, but the effectiveness of the prevention of asymptomatic cases of Covid should be about 54% or 55%,” he said.
Meanwhile, after just one dose, the vaccine prevents about 16% of symptomatic infections, 35% of hospitalizations and 40% of deaths, Araos said. “The ultimate need for a third survey is a topic that can always be discussed, but it is still speculative.”
Intensive care
Despite leading one of the world’s fastest explosions for vaccines, cases in Chile continued to rise after virus – related restrictions were lifted late last year. Nearly 40% of the population received at least one dose while about 27% were fully vaccinated, according to the Bloomberg vaccine detection.
There is evidence that vaccines are starting to work. The number of Chilean elderly more than 70 currently in intensive care units due to Covid are less than half the number of younger people in ICUs, according to calculations made by Bloomberg News, based on a linear regression up to and including January this year.
Anecdotal data suggest that the Brazilian variant, currently spreading throughout Latin America, hits younger people harder than earlier tribes, which may partly explain the difference. The number of ICU patients in the first groups to be vaccinated has nevertheless decreased, even though the total number of patients has increased.
While the company and governments worldwide that ordered the Sinovac shot defended its merits in preventing mild and severe cases of Covid at much higher prices, the overall efficiency is still significant of as much as 95% observed in mRNA shots that developed by Pfizer and Moderna Inc. and the protection of about 80% shown in similar inactive surveys of other Chinese and Indian developers.
The Sinovac shot was found to have a much higher efficacy rate of 83.5% in Turkey, where it conducted a trial involving more than 10,000 people, which contributed to the confusion about the actual potency of the vaccine. . Sinovac said the low efficacy found in the Brazilian trial was due in part to the shorter 14-day interval between the two doses of the vaccine and greater exposure to the virus among the participants in the trial, all of which were high-risk. medical workers were.
– With help from Sebastian Boyd and Eduardo Thomson
(Updates with government officials begin in fourth paragraph)