China arrests over 80 people in crackdown on ‘fake vaccine’ ring

China arrests over 80 people in crackdown on ‘fake vaccine’ ring

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Police departments in Jiangsu, Beijing and Shandong have arrested more than 80 people involved in producing more than 3,000 false doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Xinhua said that China’s Ministry of Public Security is investigating crimes related to the manufacture and sale of fake vaccines “and the illegal practice of drugs and fraud under the guise of vaccines”.

The police found that, since September 2020, those involved “have made huge profits by putting saline in injectors to process and manufacture fake coronavirus vaccines and sell them at a higher price,” the agency said.

China is responding to criticism of its vaccines with a dangerous disinformation campaign

China has vaccinated its population with vaccines from two companies, Sinovac and Sinopharm, and both have also been implemented in other countries, including Turkey.

Both companies initially said their vaccines were more than 78% effective, but the Sinovac candidate’s final-stage tests in Brazil reported an efficacy rate of 50.38%.

Sinovac kept its vaccine, even though some countries put it on review and paused the implementations, but the scientists asked the company to disclose more data.

Sinopharm, a state-owned company whose vaccine was the first to be approved in China, said its product was 79.34% effective in testing.

CNN’s Beijing office contributed reporting.

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