Xinhua Xinhua

　　Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters Yang Shuxin and Xiong Jiayi

　　Fight for hand speed and network speed, but you can't make an appointment.

At present, the difficulty of making an appointment for the nine-valent HPV vaccine in China troubles many women of school age.

Some people have no choice but to find "scalpers" to get vaccinated, and they have to pay hundreds of yuan for each shot.

Why is it difficult to get a seedling by making an appointment by yourself, but "scalpers" can make huge profits by holding the seedling source?

"Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter launched an investigation.

Looking for "scalpers" to get vaccinated with hundreds of yuan per shot as an intermediary fee

　　Call the community hospital and pay attention to the vaccine release information on major public accounts. This kind of "vaccine rush" has lasted for nearly half a year. Guangzhou citizen Wu Xiao has not yet received the nine-valent HPV vaccine.

At present, the domestic nine-valent HPV vaccine is suitable for the inoculation age of 16 to 26 years old. Wu Xiao, who is approaching the age of 26, is anxious and looks for the vaccine "scalper" through Weibo.

In a bunch of small intermediary advertisements, Wu Xiao added the WeChat of one of the "scalpers".

　　After paying an intermediary fee of 300 yuan per injection and waiting for a month, Wu Xiao received the first injection in a community hospital in Dongguan.

The appointment time for the second injection was longer, and the vaccination site was also changed to Shunde.

　　According to Wu Xiao, there are nearly 400 customers in the customer group formed by "scalpers".

"When taking a ride to Shunde, the girls who shared the ride also went to get vaccinated."

　　In 2016, the HPV vaccine was approved for marketing in my country.

At present, there are mainly three types of vaccines in China: bivalent, quadrivalent and nine-valent.

Studies have shown that injection of HPV attenuated vaccine can play a role in preventing cervical cancer. The higher the valence, the more HPV types it can prevent.

At present, the demand for the nine-valent vaccine with the most preventive types is increasing, and the situation of "difficulty in making an appointment" and "difficulty in getting one vaccine" troubles many women.

　　At present, most domestic urban vaccinators can make appointments through community hospitals and official platforms, and some have also explored the "lottery" appointment method.

According to data released by the Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission on March 8, a total of 527,121 people participated in the third 2022 nine-valent HPV vaccine lottery held in Shenzhen in March, and 21,170 people won the lottery, with a winning rate of only 4%.

　　In order to get the nine-valent vaccine earlier, many women seek "scalpers" at high prices and pay more.

In the Tianhe No. 1 Community Hospital in Guangzhou, the reporter randomly interviewed four women who went to get vaccinated, and they all made appointments through "scalpers".

"The whole family went to fight to help me make an appointment, but if I didn't find a 'scalper', I couldn't get a place at all. If I couldn't make it, I would be overage." A vaccinator told reporters.

Technical robbery, internal channels... There are many ways for "scalpers" to ask seedlings

　　The reporter searched for "HPV vaccine appointment" on the online platform and found a large number of appointment advertisements.

The business of vaccine "scalpers" covers major cities across the country, and some "scalpers" claim to "call at any time within a week after making an appointment."

　　"One seedling is hard to find" by making an appointment by yourself, how can a "scalper" succeed in making an appointment with a seedling?

　　The reporter's investigation found that some "scalper" teams improved the success rate of about seedlings by means of technical robbing.

Wu Xiao told reporters that in the process of making an appointment for seedlings, the "scalpers" sent information about the hospital where the seedlings were released recently. After confirming the injection location, they logged into Wu Xiao's account on their own terminal device and ran the plug-in programming software to rob them.

　　In January of this year, Jiangxi police informed that a graduate student in Nanchang, Liu, acted as a "scalper" who made reservations and grabbed nine-valent vaccines on behalf of him by writing a computer program code that could run automatically on the hospital's official website.

Liu offered a price of 800 to 1,000 yuan, and posted information about vaccine "snatching" on major social platforms.

Liu has been taken criminal compulsory measures for the crime of sabotaging the computer information system.

　　In addition to technical robbing, some "scalpers" claim to have hospital "cooperation channels" to make appointments.

The reporter, as a consumer, placed an order at the "scalper" and successfully made an appointment for vaccination. On the eve of the vaccination, he received a call from a self-proclaimed "hospital staff member", informing the reporter of the address of the vaccination hospital.

The reporter found through the search that in the official appointment channel displayed on the public account of the community hospital, the stock status of the nine-valent HPV vaccine was displayed as "vaccine shortage" and it was impossible to make an appointment.

　　Faye Wong, who completed the vaccination at a maternal and child health care hospital, told reporters that she had made an appointment for nearly a year without getting an injection, but she made an appointment for the first injection the next day after paying the "scalper".

At the vaccination site, the "scalper" who had previously connected with her online turned into a "hospital staff". After assisting Faye Wong to register, she returned to the hospital's reception desk to continue her work.

　　In addition to technically robbing and selling internal vaccines, some "scalpers" smuggled vaccines from Hong Kong and cooperated with nurses in medical institutions to attract customers.

According to Chen Jiamin, who was inoculated with Hong Kong vaccines, the "scalpers" provided the contact information of the nurses in the vaccination hospitals after determining the vaccination time. Chen Jiamin arrived at the designated hospital on the day of vaccination, and the nurses took the injections to help him get vaccinated quickly.

"My three injections were taken in three different hospitals, and the whole process was secretive." Chen Jiamin said.

　　It is understood that HPV vaccines have stricter transport temperature requirements, which puts a question mark on the effectiveness of smuggled port vaccines.

Yao Tingting, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, said that it is difficult to determine the authenticity of the vaccine by smuggling the nine-price Hong Kong vaccine, and some may not play a preventive role, and even cause allergies to the vaccinated, which poses a greater risk.

Is HPV "vaccine freedom" far away?

　　Zhou Hui, director of the Guangzhou Lawyers Association's Medical and Health Professional Committee, said that in recent years, efforts to crack down on Internet crimes have been increasing, and many courts have found that "scalpers" used unconventional means to construct network requests, disrupting the fair transaction order and damaging Consumer interests, common crimes include providing intrusion, illegal control of computer information system programs, tool crimes, etc.

　　If a "scalper" snaps up vaccines by ordering hospital staff and turns them on to make a profit, reaching the prescribed amount, they are suspected of bribery, and the targeted person is suspected of accepting bribes or non-state staff.

　　Experts believe that vaccines are biological drugs. If they are not managed properly, they will have a bad impact on personal safety. Corresponding laws and regulations should be introduced to increase the punishment for "scalpers".

In addition, only by increasing the supply and solving the problems of "lack of seedlings" and "difficulty in making reservations" can the gray industrial chain of "scalpers" be fundamentally cut off.

　　Yao Tingting said that the public needs to change their perception of HPV vaccines. Although the higher the "price", the more types of protection, but vaccination with bivalent and quadrivalent vaccines can prevent 70% of cervical cancers. Timely protection is the first step. It is recommended that women of appropriate age should give priority to whatever vaccine they have. One year after the completion of HPV vaccination, they can continue to receive other HPV vaccines.

　　It is understood that many parts of the country are gradually promoting the universal vaccination strategy of HPV vaccine for women of appropriate age. At present, Erdos in Inner Mongolia, Lianyungang in Jiangsu, Jinan in Shandong, Xiamen in Fujian and other places have launched free or subsidized vaccination programs for bivalent HPV vaccine.

(Wu Xiao, Faye Wong and Chen Jiamin are all pseudonyms in the text)