MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexico on Tuesday announced a major bet on Chinese vaccines without disclosing any information about their effectiveness.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the Mexican government had signed agreements for 12 million doses of the as yet unapproved Sinopharm vaccine and its contracts for the Coronavac dose made by China’s Sinovac, to a total of 20 million doses increased.
Delivery of Sinovac has already begun, with the full 20 million doses expected by July. The Sinopharm vaccines must be delivered between March and June.
The total of 32 million doses, plus at least 4 million doses of the CanSino shot, would dwarf the estimated 5 million vaccine doses Mexico has obtained so far from other sources.
However, Ebrard’s office has repeatedly refused to answer questions about the effectiveness of the Chinese shots.
Sinopharm claimed that the vaccine was 79% effective based on interim data from clinical trials, but like other Chinese companies, it did not disclose its clinical trial data at a late stage.
Experts in Hong Kong rated the effectiveness of the Sinovac vaccine at around 51%. The shot has already been approved for use in Mexico.
The CanSino vaccine has been approved in Mexico and is said to have an efficacy rate of approximately 65.7%,
A total of six vaccines have been approved for use in Mexico, receiving relatively small amounts of each. Mexico administered only about 4.7 million doses of all vaccines, a small amount given the country’s population of 126 million.
The government’s policy suggests the strange situation in which some Mexicans, especially in urban areas, will receive the Pfizer vaccine, which is about 95% effective, while most will get one of the Chinese vaccines with a much lower effectiveness. Mexico has contracts for a total of about 34 million doses of Pfizer shot, but delivery has been slow, with so far less than a tenth of the amount.
Amid a lack of public data on China’s vaccines, there is still dependence on its effectiveness and safety in countries, depending on it.
Vaccinations with Chinese vaccines have already begun in more than 25 countries. None of China’s three vaccine candidates in use worldwide released their clinical trial data at a late stage.
Mexico has suffered nearly 190,100 confirmed deaths. However, Mexico is testing so little that the government’s excessive death toll indicates that the actual toll was well above 220,000 at the beginning of January, when the government stopped disclosing the data. Test-confirmed cases amount to more than 2.1 million.