China, the birthplace of COVID-19, quickly developed a series of vaccines that, she said, are capable of fighting the coronavirus. In the rubble of the pandemic, as the United States and European nations struggled to vaccinate their own populations, China saw an opportunity and triumphantly began to send its home-made vaccines worldwide. The target market was low- and middle-income countries, far below the current vaccination hierarchy. Beijing says that it does not impose political conditions on the delivery of the vaccine, although the doses appear to come with a problem – if not now, later. Paraguay, for example, said it recently received an offer of Chinese vaccines, as long as it broke ties with Taiwan. But in addition to the ethics of vaccine diplomacy, China’s vaccines face a much broader question: do they really work?
It seems terribly late to ask that, but China will not say it, at least no, as its main vaccine producers refuse to release data about their final-stage clinical tests that would allow others to assess its efficacy and safety. There are indications that Chinese-made vaccines – from state-owned Sinopharm and private Sinovac, among others – are not what they were said to be. Over the weekend, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan tested positive for COVID-19, despite receiving the first of a Chinese two-dose vaccination.
There are, of course, reasonable alternative explanations for why this happens, in addition to the vaccine bullshit, such as the statement by the Pakistani health ministry that Khan became ill during the time window before the vaccine increased immunity to protect -over there. But it is not a great look. The United Arab Emirates is currently testing the administration of a third dose of the Sinopharm vaccine after it has not induced a sufficient antibody response in some cases. Test results in other developing nations were mixed, which did not exactly increase confidence in vaccines produced in China.
“Vaccine manufacturers generally release details of their Phase 3 clinical trials in specialist journals before vaccines obtain regulatory approval. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna published theirs in the New England Journal of Medicine in December, ”notes the Washington Post. “Sinopharm and Sinovac reported some important results, but did not publish the underlying data in a newspaper, which would require verification by third-party experts.” Even so, the Chinese government says more than 60 countries have approved at least one of China’s coronavirus vaccines.
Beijing has been cautious about releasing data, although it is unclear why it would be, beyond the obvious. “Fearing embarrassment, Chinese vaccine manufacturers are choosing the data, rather than publishing the results in full,” a Foreign Affairs article postulated in February. It seems like a bad time to save appearances. Given China’s stellar regulatory history about, well, almost everything, accepting Beijing’s vaccine guarantees is an act of faith.