China has administered an experimental vaccine for a novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), which has not yet been verified, to hundreds of thousands of people separately from clinical trials, raising concerns from health experts.
According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 26th (local time), starting with executives and employees of state-owned companies in China, government officials, and executives and employees of pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines have been vaccinated with Chinese experimental vaccines, which are currently undergoing phase 3 clinical trials.
The three vaccines developed in China are undergoing phase 3 clinical trials abroad, respectively, but apart from this, they are widely administered to local residents.
Currently, the number of Chinese people vaccinated against the Corona 19 vaccine has not been accurately disclosed, but it is expected to reach hundreds of thousands.
China's state-run pharmaceutical company Sinopharm said hundreds of thousands of people had received its vaccine, and Sinovac (Sinovac, 科興中維) said it had administered its vaccine to more than 10,000 people in Beijing alone.
It is said that most of the 3,000 Sinobak employees and their families were vaccinated.
Hong Kong Phoenix TV recently reported that reporters in China also received the Sinoparm vaccine.
Initially, when the Chinese government approved the emergency use of the vaccine in July, it announced that it would focus on vaccinations for medical staff, infectious disease control personnel, border checkers, and essential city workers.
In the near future, China is planning to further expand the target of emergency use to schools and kindergarten teachers, supermarket employees, nursing home employees, and visitors to dangerous areas abroad.
In addition, a plan to approve the use of the vaccine to the general public as early as November is coming from high-ranking Chinese officials.
NYT said China was betting a huge gamble on its vaccination success, and said China's actions have perplexed global health experts.
This is because a vaccine that has not been validated can cause dangerous side effects and, as a result, can instill the erroneous belief that'I am safe' to the vaccinators even though they may not be effective.
The case is that former commerce manager Chen De-ming, who attended a forum held in Beijing on the 22nd, said he had been vaccinated against Sinoparm and said that he could not wear a mask.
“I applied for vaccination because I sometimes go abroad,” said Chun, and recommended the NYT reporter to get the vaccination.
Jerome Kim, Secretary General of the International Vaccine Institute, said, "It can lead to a lot of negative consequences," and he was concerned that people who received unverified vaccines "may spread the infection without knowing it."
In addition, some point out that it would have been difficult for government officials, employees of state-owned companies, and pharmaceutical companies to reject the pressure from the top to inoculate the vaccine under clinical trials.
(Yonhap News/Photo = Yonhap News)