Chinese vaccine Sinopharm is in news for myriad reasons – right from the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) has recently given it approval, to the news that Seychelles, which has relied on the Sinopharm is again witnessing an upward spiral in coronavirus cases.
Chinese vaccines court their share of controversy.
In more Sinopharm-related news, the UAE and Bahrain are giving a third booster dose to those who had received the vaccine six months back. This has begun to raise questions about its efficacy.
The controversy over the Chinese vaccines remains unending. It was further fuelled when George Gau – the head of China's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) himself raised questions on the efficacy of Chinese vaccines. In a press conference in April, he said: "We will solve the problem that current vaccines don't have very high protection rates". His comments only led to more speculation and criticism about Chinese vaccines.
This week, the UAE said it will offer a third dose to people who had already received two doses of Sinopharm more than six months back. The UAE’s National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority put out a tweet, saying: “An additional supportive dose of Sinopharm is now available to people who have received the vaccine previously and who have now completed more than six months since the second dose.”
Even as this raised a storm about the poor efficacy of the vaccine, the Chinese company immediately gave out a statement defending the vaccine.
Peng Xiao – the chief executive of G42, the company manufacturing the Sinopharm in the UAE, said the company is “testing if a third shot can help to protect against the new mutations that we see around us.”
In a similar example, neighbouring Bahrain has announced that a third dose of Sinopharm will be administered to those who had been given two doses earlier.
As of now, none of the countries using numerous other vaccines have announced inoculating fully vaccinated people with the third dose. This includes UAE and Bahrain who have given other vaccines to their citizens. Only Sinopharm has been chosen to be given as a third dose.
The rising number of Covid-19 cases in Seychelles too has taken away credibility from Sinopharm. Touted as the country to have given the maximum number of vaccines to its citizens, the island nation is busy reimposing curbs. It has cancelled sporting events, closed schools and banned intermingling of households. This is despite the fact that it had vaccinated more than 60 per cent of its adult population.
Seychelles was one of the countries that was off the mark in its vaccination campaign as early as January 2021 with Chinese vaccines. It had been provided those vaccines by the UAE.
The Seychelles Health Ministry says that nearly 37% of the people testing positive now had already been fully vaccinated. Though suspicion points towards the Sinopharm vaccine being ineffective, it is a bit early to predict about the rising coronavirus numbers in Seychelles.
However, explaining the possible reasons for the rising Covid-19 numbers, Seychelles Health Commissioner Dr Jude Gedeon says that the rise could be because of increased economic activity. The island nation had relaxed restrictions in March and reopened restaurants. Some people even say that the Easter celebrations could have contributed to the increase in infections.
Sinofarm is produced by the Beijing Bio-Institute of Biological Products, a subsidiary of the China National Biotec Group (CNBG). Sinopharm is currently being used by 42 countries across the world as China reaches out to the world with its vaccine diplomacy.
