China: in the face of doubts, Sinovac reaffirms the effectiveness of its anti-Covid-19 vaccine
An employee of the Chinese Sinovac laboratory producing the CoronaVac vaccine against Covid-19, September 24, 2020 in Beijing.
AP - Ng Han Guan
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
According to a Brazilian institute, the Chinese vaccine CoronaVac shows an efficacy of 50.38% against Covid-19, following tests carried out in Brazil.
This Wednesday, January 13, the Chinese laboratory Sinovac reaffirmed the effectiveness of its vaccine.
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With our correspondent in Beijing,
Stéphane Lagarde
Difficult to interpret the results of a vaccine when they vary so much in the space of a few days, according to studies carried out by partner laboratories.
That of Sinovac would be 91.2% effective, said provisional data from Turkey, 65.3% on the Indonesian side and 50.4% according to the latest figure published by the Butantan institute in Brazil.
Faced with the doubts raised by these fluctuations, the president of the Chinese laboratory has just reaffirmed the "
very high efficiency
" of his product.
According to Yin Weidong, this result of just over 50% - which barely exceeds the threshold set by regulatory bodies - includes cases with mild symptoms.
But the vaccine would remain 100% effective against severe infections.
A data that some experts also put into perspective, recalling that the flu vaccine only produces 60% results.
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To listen: Covid-19: "The Chinese government is afraid of losing face"
Vaccine diplomacy
This latest assessment will in any case not facilitate the vaccine diplomacy put in place by Beijing.
China has run out of elderly cohorts to test.
And the Chinese vaccination campaign only concerns the age group of 18 to 59 years.
China intends to expand the target population for its Covid-19 vaccination to include people over the age of 60, the national health commission said on Wednesday.
A decision taken because of the increase in data from clinical research on vaccines, the growing supply of vaccines and the need to better control the epidemic.
China will expand the target population for # COVID19 vaccination to include people aged over 60 years old due to increasing data from vaccine clinical research, growing vaccine supply and the need to better control the outbreak, said National Health Commission on Wed.
pic.twitter.com/54FEYXAQYL
- People's Daily, China (@PDChina) January 13, 2021
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See also: Covid-19: Beijing's vaccine diplomacy in Southeast Asia
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