Vaccination against Covid-19: rather suspicious caregivers in China too
Doctors in dry suits on January 25 in the Red Cross hospital in Wuhan.
Hector RETAMAL / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
If in France, caregivers are reluctant to be vaccinated, this hesitation is also found in China, yet the leading manufacturer of the Covid-19 vaccine.
A recent survey shows that less than 74% of public officials in Beijing have been vaccinated voluntarily.
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With our correspondent in Beijing,
Stéphane Lagarde
Medical workers are not chasing the vaccine in Beijing, despite being among the priority groups.
According to a study published earlier this month in
the very official Chinese Journal of Vaccines and Immunization
, the higher the level of knowledge and education of health workers, the less willing they are to receive their dose.
However, the personnel of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are by definition a "
key population because of their high risk of infection,
" says the article.
But some of them probably believe that there is no urgent need to be vaccinated in “zero Covid” China where, again on March 9, no local case of contamination has been reported to the scale of this country-continent.
"
Race against virus mutations
"
Mistrust is particularly marked in the capital, but not only.
"
I don't want to be a lab rat
," said a doctor at a hospital in Dongbei, northeast China last December, in comments reported by the
South China Morning Post
.
Since then, the message has passed, confide some health professionals, who say the figures should be studied with caution.
The survey of 3,000 health workers dates back to last spring and a third of them did not answer the questions.
The group in charge of the survey recommends educational work and explanations for caregivers and other groups at risk.
"
The vaccination campaign is a race against the mutations of the coronavirus
", indicated Zhong Nanshan, epidemiologist and adviser to the government, knowing that the pace will have to accelerate to meet the objective set by the health authorities who intend to vaccinate 40% of the Chinese population by next summer.
► To read also: In China, anti-Covid vaccination soon possible from 3 years old?
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Coronavirus
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