China is rapidly expanding the use of COVID-19 vaccine | News

Taipei, Taiwan (AP) —In China, the number of people vaccinated with coronavirus vaccines is increasing rapidly, cities generally provide vaccines, and biotechnology companies provide free vaccines to students traveling abroad. Is provided.

Jiaxing, south of Shanghai, said in a Thursday announcement that Shinovac is offering a vaccine under development. High-risk groups, including those who are “responsible for the basic operation of the city,” are prioritized, but residents in urgent need can also apply.

The vaccine is in the final stages of clinical trials, but has not yet been approved. The city government said it was offered under urgent approval.

Another Chinese vaccine company, the China National Biotech Group, provides free vaccines to students studying abroad with a strategy of health professionals raising safety and ethical concerns.

CNBG said on its website that more than 168,000 people have signed up for vaccination through an online survey and more than 91,000 are being considered. The page was deleted by Tuesday.

Chinese pharmaceutical companies have five vaccines in the final stages of the trial, but none have been approved for public use. They are part of the global competition for the development of vaccines and, if successful, will provide the emerging Chinese industry with fame and global marketing potential.

China’s top health authorities have promised a vaccine for the general public by the end of this year.

The CNBG vaccine has already been given to healthcare professionals and employees of Chinese companies who are sent abroad under the emergency permit of people in the high-risk category. An executive at a company said in September that it had vaccinated 350,000 people outside of clinical trials. About 40,000 people are enrolled in the exam.

A CNBG employee reportedly told a state newspaper that “currently, Chinese students going abroad seem to have a strong desire to get vaccinated,” based on the results of the September survey. I will.

Chinese students planning to start their semester abroad say they want a vaccine because they are worried about getting sick.

“It’s very dangerous over there. The town we’re studying in is a red danger zone,” said a student who attended a Polish school and gave only a surname. She applied for the CNBG vaccine in September, but has not yet responded. “We all really want this vaccine.”

A student planning to go to the UK said he signed up from an online link after his classmates said he had received the vaccine.

Sally, a student who gives only her English name, said she began hearing in September that the vaccine was available to people like her. She said other students might need to travel to the capital, Beijing, or Wuhan, which occurred in December, to get the vaccine.

If the vaccine works, it may help protect students going to Europe and the United States, where the pandemic is still ongoing, medical experts said. But they said the developers needed to clarify that it wasn’t proven and track what would happen to those who received it.

“This gives people a false sense of security,” said Slider Venkatapuram, a bioethics expert at King’s College London’s Global Health Institute, when the vaccine does not work.

The ruling Communist Party declared it under the control of the coronavirus in March, but warned that there was a high risk of new outbreaks. Travelers and visitors to public buildings are still being checked for signs of infection. Arrivals from abroad need two weeks of quarantine. The country reported 4,634 deaths and 85,622 confirmed cases.

The government said Friday that 10 million people were tested at East Port in Qingdao this week after 12 cases were found last weekend. This has ended for almost two months and no local viral infections have been reported in China.

It was unclear whether Chinese students were being given the CNBG vaccine under the same emergency permit as the residents of Jiaxing.

The National Department of Health Products, the agency that oversees the approval of medicines and vaccines, did not answer the questions sent by fax. CNBG did not respond to the request for comment.

The final stages of clinical trials conducted in larger groups are used to find rare side effects and study the effectiveness of treatment. Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials are aimed at determining whether a vaccine or treatment is safe.

“Manufacturers are obliged to obtain follow-up information” from people vaccinated during emergency use, K. Arnold Chan, a drug regulation expert at National Taiwan University, said in an email.

Failure to do so, he writes, “is irresponsible and does not comply with international standards.”

According to Ministry of Education statistics, more than 600,000 Chinese students studied abroad before the pandemic. They make up the majority of foreign student groups in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and several other countries.

Western universities “do not protect students,” Bencataplum said. “The company basically provides civil protection outside of China. This is essentially what every country does ideally.”

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