Covid-19: China tries to convince its seniors to be vaccinated
A vaccination stand at a Beijing train station.
© Stephane Lagarde/RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Covid vaccines are safe, since leaders are vaccinated.
This is what the National Health Commission in China reveals this Saturday, two years after the launch of the vaccination campaign.
Statements that aim to reassure some of the seniors, worried about the bite.
Advertising
Read more
With our correspondent in Beijing,
Stéphane Lagarde
There are loudspeakers inviting people to present the "Jiankangbao", Beijing's health code and health pass when the trains arrive, but also - and this is new - signs have appeared in recent days in the west railway station of the chinese capital.
Signs with the words in red characters on a white background: “A surprise awaits you!
Obviously, this attracts the barge.
100 yuan, nearly 15 euros reward, against a dose of vaccine, suggests the carriers of "surprise", pointing to a stand for injections a little further.
Encourage older people to get vaccinated
In recent weeks, the vaccination campaign has resumed discreetly.
She is louder this Saturday with the reveal of Zheng Yixin.
“
State and party leaders have all been vaccinated against Covid-19 with locally produced vaccines
,” the deputy head of the National Health Commission said.
Accuracy is important knowing that Chinese inactivated vaccines have sometimes seen
their effectiveness called into question
, despite the
denials of manufacturers
.
The lack of transparency added to the confusion and fueled "gossip" on social media.
“
Covid vaccines do not cause leukemia or diabetes, or affect genetic development, or cause metastasis
(…),
and this is irresponsible and false information on the internet
,” said disease expert Wang Fusheng. infections in a hospital affiliated with the army,
quoted by the Reuters agency
.
61% of those over 60 received the first two doses
In people over 60, a complete primary vaccination regimen with Chinese vaccines reduces the risk of progressing to a serious disease by 89%, while a booster dose reduces the risk by 95%, adds an official. preventive medicine association, also quoted by Reuters.
Another clarification, in the party state in China, the “leaders” are often the age of the target audience.
An incentive for the most hesitant who can say to themselves that “if the vaccine works for the president, or the Prime Minister, why not for me!
".
In any case, this is what the health commission hopes to hear from seniors.
Because if 89.7% of the 1.41 billion Chinese are vaccinated today (56% for the booster), only 61% of those over 60 have received the first two doses.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
China
Health and medicine
Coronavirus