Comments from a senior Chinese health official have cast doubt on the effectiveness of Chinese vaccines. The director of the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), Gao Fu, immediately countered the impression that he had first admitted that Chinese vaccines offered low protection. „It was a complete misunderstanding,“ Gao told the Global Times newspaper (Monday edition).
Rather, he presented a “scientific vision” that an adaptation of the vaccination sequence or the allocation of different vaccines one after the other could also be options for increasing protection. „How their effectiveness can be improved must be considered by all scientists in the world,“ Gao told the newspaper, which is published by the Communist party organ „People’s Newspaper“ and serves as an English-speaking mouthpiece.
Confusion about statements
His remarks at a conference in Chengdu on Saturday had triggered many reactions because there is less data on Chinese vaccines than on Western vaccines.
Under the point „Ways to solve the low protection of existing vaccines“, Gao said, according to the newspaper „The Paper“: „It is also necessary to examine ways in which the low protection of existing vaccines can be addressed.“
Criticism of a lack of transparency
Critics complain about a lack of transparency in Chinese vaccines, which are also not yet approved in many European countries. In particular, more data from the third phase of clinical trials is required.
Since China has the corona virus largely under control and has hardly recorded any local infections itself, only different studies from other countries where the vaccines are used have been published so far.
