The Story Of Sinopharm & Our Dependence On China For Vaccines

WHO gives emergency approval to the China-made vaccine. So, how does it work, and will it help us with the vaccine shortage?

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Last Friday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) gave approval to China-made Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use. This means that the vaccine can now be used in immunisation drives worldwide. Sinopharm is the first non-Western vaccine to get the approval of WHO.

The vaccine is produced by Beijing Bio-Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd. The Sinopharm vaccine works just like Covaxin. These are inactivated coronavirus vaccines, which take the disease-carrying virus and kill it using heat, chemicals or radiation.

Efficacy

After phase three trials of Sinopharm, the Chinese officials, on December 30, 2020, announced that the vaccine’s efficacy rate was 79%. Later in January 2021, the United Arab Emirates said that the vaccine was 86% effective. However, WHO has noted that since few adults over the age of 60 years were enrolled in the trials, the efficacy in the age group is not clear.

A PTI report mentioned that “…WHO is not recommending an upper age limit for the vaccine because preliminary data and supportive immunogenicity data suggest that the vaccine is likely to have a protective effect in older persons… There is no theoretical reason to believe that the vaccine has a different safety profile in older and younger populations.”

Vaccines In Need

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance which coruns COVAX has welcomed WHO’s move to give emergency use approval to Sinopharm. As quoted by breakingnews.ie, Gavi said “This means the world has yet another safe and effective tool in the fight against this pandemic.” WHO assistant-director general for access to health products said, “The addition of this vaccine has the potential to rapidly accelerate Covid-19 vaccine access.” So, the more vaccines we have, the quicker we will be able to defeat this pandemic.

Dependence On China

As U.S and the EU have been slow confronting the global pandemic and India is struggling with a new variant, China is emerging as a big vaccine supplier. According to Airfinity Ltd., China has already shipped out around 240 million doses, which is more than all other nations combined, and has committed to offering another 500 million, writes, Bloomberg.

Yanzhong Huang, a China specialist and senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations told Bloomberg, “China has become not just the largest exporter,” adding that “In many countries it has become the only option.”

So, right now, we need more vaccines from China, and we also want the country to produce more due to the current vaccine shortage. Apart from Sinopharm, Sinovac is also another promising vaccine from China, and it is expected to get approval from WHO soon. As the pandemic continues to rage in developing countries such as India, all we can do now is to be patient and take vaccines when it’s our turn and hope that everyone gets equal access to them.

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