(Fighting against New Coronary Pneumonia) Five Questions for China's New Coronary Virus Vaccine: Why Are Safety and Effectiveness "Undoubted"?
China News Agency, Beijing, July 23rd Question: Five questions about China's new crown virus vaccine: why is the safety and effectiveness "unquestionable"?
China News Agency reporter Li Chun
On the 23rd, the press conference of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council of China released heavy news: China's current party and state leaders have completed the new crown virus vaccination, and they have been vaccinated with China's domestic vaccine.
This shows from one side that the safety and effectiveness of China's domestically produced new coronavirus vaccine are guaranteed.
Vaccination is the most effective and economical means of preventing infectious diseases.
At present, increasing the vaccination rate of the new coronavirus and strengthening the vaccination rate is still an important measure for China to prevent and control the new crown pneumonia epidemic.
Five hot issues around vaccination were answered at the press conference on the same day to explain that "the safety and effectiveness of vaccines are beyond doubt".
How effective is China's new coronavirus vaccine protection?
"Our country's vaccine meets the standards set by the World Health Organization for the new crown vaccine, which is to prevent disease, severe disease, and death." Wang Fusheng, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Fifth Medical Center of the PLA General Hospital and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said.
Recently, the outbreaks in Hong Kong and Shanghai were mainly caused by the Omicron strain.
Citing data, Wang Fusheng said that for 18- to 59-year-old infected people who have completed the full course of vaccination and booster vaccination, the risk of developing from mild to common is 63% and 65% lower than those who have not been vaccinated, respectively. The following risk of developing severe disease were 91% and 94% lower, respectively.
He also said that for those infected over the age of 60 who have completed the full course of vaccination and booster vaccination, the risk of developing from mild to common is 73% and 82% lower than those who have not been vaccinated. The risk of severe disease was 89% and 95% lower, respectively.
Can existing vaccines deal with the Omicron variant?
Feng Zijian, executive vice president and secretary general of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, pointed out that the results of many studies show that the effect of existing vaccines at home and abroad in preventing severe illness and death still maintains a high level.
China's new coronavirus vaccine still has a good protective effect against severe disease and death caused by the Omicron variant. Boosting immunity can further reduce the risk of hospitalization, severe disease and death.
According to him, for the mutant vaccine, the vaccine research and development special class of the Science and Technology Group of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council has organized experts to study and judge and start to deploy the research and development work.
At present, a number of technical routes have carried out the research and development of monovalent and multivalent Omicron variant vaccines.
"In general, the research and development of the Omicron variant vaccine in China is progressing steadily. As long as there is a need, in accordance with relevant regulations, the approval process for emergency use can be quickly started to provide vaccination." Feng Zijian said.
What is the impact of Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subclades on existing vaccines?
"Studies have shown that the neutralizing ability of vaccinated sera against BA.4 and BA.5 has decreased, but the cellular immunity generated by vaccination is relatively better tolerant to virus mutation."
Talking about the impact of Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sub-branches on the new coronavirus vaccine, Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health Commission, head of the vaccine research and development team of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council, and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, Real-world results also show that vaccination still has a good protective effect on pneumonia, severe illness and death caused by subclades BA.4 and BA.5 of Omicron.
"Judging from the current situation, everyone should not be too nervous and worried about BA.4 and BA.5, including the new BA.2.75," Zeng Yixin pointed out, "The key is to do a good job in normalizing epidemic prevention and control, including strengthening the elderly. Vaccination."
Why do breakthrough infections still occur after vaccination?
When answering this question raised by a reporter from China News Agency at the press conference, Wang Fusheng introduced 3 reasons.
First, since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia, advances in science and technology have made it possible to carry out large-scale nucleic acid testing, significantly increasing the detection rate of breakthrough infections, which is unprecedented in the history of human infectious diseases.
Second, the new coronavirus is prone to genetic mutation. The Omicron variant has increased affinity with upper respiratory cell receptors, has strong infectivity, and has a shorter incubation period, which also has a certain impact on the antiviral effect of neutralizing antibodies.
These factors favor the occurrence of breakthrough infections.
Third, breakthrough infection is related to the infection of the new coronavirus through the human respiratory route. The protective antibodies and immune cells produced by vaccination are difficult to gather on the surface of the respiratory mucosa such as the mouth, nose, throat, and bronchi, so they will still be infected by the virus.
What are the results of adverse reaction monitoring after vaccination?
According to Feng Zijian, as of May 30, 2022, more than 3.38 billion doses of the new coronavirus vaccine have been reported nationwide, and 238,215 adverse events after vaccination have been reported, with an overall reported incidence rate of 70.45/1 million.
Among the reported adverse events, general reactions accounted for 81.29%, with an incidence rate of 57.27/1 million; abnormal reactions accounted for 5.47%, with an incidence rate of 3.85/1 million; among which, serious abnormal reactions accounted for 0.91%, with an incidence rate of 0.64/1 million .
Feng Zijian pointed out that, in general, the reporting rates of general reactions, abnormal reactions, and severe abnormal reactions to the new coronavirus vaccine in China are lower than the reporting levels of other routine vaccinations nationwide in 2020.
So far, countries that use China's new coronavirus vaccine on a large scale in the world have not found vaccine safety problems.
"These data fully demonstrate that my country's new crown vaccine is very safe." (End)