64.98 million people received the new crown vaccine. How far are we from herd immunity?
◎Reporter Zhang Jiaxing
As of March 14, my country has had 64.98 million vaccinations against the new coronavirus.
"Our ultimate goal is that the health of all people can be effectively protected." On March 15, the State Council's Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism held a press conference. Li Bin, deputy director of the National Health Commission, made an effort to promote the new crown virus vaccination. The detailed introduction.
So, in the face of the new coronavirus that most people are susceptible to, how many people need to be vaccinated to make it disappear from the crowd?
Previously, there were rumors that China's vaccine production might encounter problems such as "vaccine bottle jamming". Is there any guarantee for the output of China's vaccine production line?
What is herd immunity? How far is it from it?
In the fight against infectious diseases, humans have eliminated smallpox and "detained" measles, relying on herd immunity brought about by vaccination.
According to Wang Huaqing, chief expert of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention's immunization program, the establishment of herd immunity has a lot to do with the protective efficacy of the vaccine and the coverage rate of the population.
To eliminate smallpox, the population's immunity must reach about 85%, which means that 85% of people have immunity to smallpox; the more infectious measles requires 95% of the population to have immunity to block the disease.
For the new coronavirus vaccine, if you want to return your studies, work and life to a normal state, you must also form an immune barrier through new coronavirus vaccination.
Compared with the experience of smallpox and measles, the 64.98 million people who have been vaccinated in our country are a good start, but there is still a lot of room for immunity.
To this end, relevant departments are organizing the implementation of vaccination in accordance with the principle that key populations with high risk of infection and disease transmission, high-risk populations with high risk of severe illness after infection, and other populations are being promoted in order to continuously increase the coverage of the new coronavirus vaccine population.
How effective is the new crown vaccine?
When introducing the effects of vaccine use, Li Bin said that the new coronavirus vaccines currently used in my country have been clinically researched in accordance with the specifications, have been approved by the State Drug Administration, and have passed strict identification.
In the process of vaccine storage and transportation, it is necessary to monitor and record the temperature regularly to ensure that the whole process of vaccine storage and transportation is in the specified temperature environment and meet the relevant transportation requirements.
During the vaccination process, the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine are fully guaranteed through standardized operations.
"With the full implementation of the new crown virus vaccination work, the number of vaccinated people continues to increase, and I believe that the effect of vaccine use will be prominent." Li Bin said that he hopes that more people will actively participate in the vaccination work, get vaccinated as soon as possible, and witness the protective effect of the vaccine.
Is the vaccine production guaranteed?
"From the current completed inoculation tasks, the production capacity of domestic enterprises has better met the current supply needs. At the same time, we have received a good response to foreign aid and exports, and supported international demand." Party group member of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Chief Engineer Tian Yulong said.
According to reports, domestic vaccine manufacturers are still expanding, and as production capacity continues to be released, output will gradually increase.
This embodies the advantages of China's institutional advantages, industrial mobilization capabilities, and enterprises' high-efficiency organization capabilities.
During the Spring Festival, vaccine companies worked overtime and raced against time to organize production at full capacity.
"According to the current production plan, we have established a dynamic guarantee balance mechanism for production supply and demand. Through accurate measurement of inoculation demand and step-by-step implementation, production and supply guarantees can be accurately connected." Tian Yulong said.
Is the supply of vaccine materials stable?
A vaccine, from production to vaccination, requires raw materials, auxiliary materials, and packaging materials, as well as cold chain equipment for the circulation and transportation of the vaccine, and equipment required for vaccination.
Earlier, there were rumors that China’s vaccine production might encounter problems such as “vaccine bottle jamming”. Can China’s vaccine production line and output be guaranteed?
According to Tian Yulong, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has accumulated good experience in the protection of medical supplies last year, making full use of the integrity, mobilization, organization, and emergency dispatch capabilities of my country's industrial system to establish an upstream and downstream industrial chain of materials.
In terms of the vaccine production chain, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has carried out key scheduling on the production, procurement, and supply of materials.
At present, China's production system is complete and complete, and the supply of raw materials for vaccine production is orderly, stable, and sufficient, which can meet the current and future needs of large-scale vaccine production.
In terms of supply chain, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and relevant departments have established a good and efficient docking mechanism to ensure that all links of production, inspection, transportation and use can be orderly, efficient, smooth and safe.
Does the batch issuance capacity meet the demand?
my country's Vaccine Management Law clearly stipulates that vaccines marketed in my country must be subject to batch release management in accordance with the law, that is, each batch of marketed vaccines needs to be reviewed and inspected by a nationally recognized batch issuance inspection agency.
So, what is the current batch issuance capacity of inspection agencies and can they meet the demand for a large number of vaccines on the market?
According to Yuan Lin, Director of the Drug Supervision Department of the State Food and Drug Administration, the State Food and Drug Administration has already deployed phased and step-by-step measures to further increase and accelerate the capacity building of biological product batches and inspection institutions.
At present, including national-level drug inspection institutions, provincial-level drug inspection institutions such as Beijing, Hubei, and Guangdong are fully equipped with the ability to inspect and batch issue new coronavirus vaccines.
At the same time, the drug regulatory department is actively promoting the capacity building of other relevant provincial-level drug inspection agencies. It is expected that more than a dozen provincial-level inspection agencies will soon have vaccine inspection and batch issuance capabilities.
"In order to actively cooperate with the continuous expansion of my country's new crown virus vaccine production capacity, we require that, under the premise of ensuring quality, inspection agencies should tap the potential and improve efficiency, and implement the'three synchronization' with enterprises, that is, inspection by inspection agencies and statutory self-inspection by enterprises. Simultaneous start, simultaneous progress, and simultaneous completion have greatly shortened the market cycle of the new coronavirus vaccine." Yuan Lin said.