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Rightways: New York Times
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The WHO's emergency approval of China's COVID-19 vaccine will boost global vaccine supply amid shortfall as China's overall yearly production capacity is approaching five billion doses, observers said.
The WHO gave Emergency Use Listing (EUL) to Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine on Friday afternoon, making it the sixth vaccine and the first made by a non-Western country to receive WHO validation for its safety, efficacy and quality. This will send a statement to Western media's doubts and questions over the vaccine's authenticity, observers noted.
The other five COVID-19 vaccines previously approved by the WHO were made by Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.
The approval allows Sinopharm to become a qualified supplier to the COVAX platform that aims to provide two billion doses to developing countries and regions by the end of 2021. As of Friday, 54 million doses had been delivered to 121 participants of the program.
India was supposed to deliver one billion shots through COVAX, but the plan has been halted due to the ongoing severe outbreak in the country.
With a huge supply-demand gap, the world is in urgent need for Chinese vaccines. In most low-income regions, Chinese vaccines are the only choice they have. This comes as the US and Europe are busy grabbing and overbuying shots for themselves, experts said.
The emergency approval for Chinese vaccines will largely expand COVAX supply as China's production is likely to reach five billion doses by the end of this year, Tao Lina, a Shanghai-based vaccine expert, told the Global Times on Saturday.
Chinese manufacturers are already providing vaccines to about 80 countries. The Global Times learned from Sinovac, another Chinese manufacturer whose COVID-19 vaccine is undergoing WHO review for EUL and the result is scheduled to come out next week, that they had produced 300 million doses as of April 28 with about 60 percent being delivered overseas.
On Thursday, Sinopharm announced the completion of phase-three construction of its production factory for the Beijing institute vaccine. It is the world's largest COVID-19 vaccine production factory and will ramp up the group's production capacity to three billion per year.
Sinovac has said that their production capacity will reach two billion doses per year after their production factory is completed in June.
Some experts have expressed concerns over challenges in delivery and application. Especially due to the underdeveloped infrastructure in most developing regions, but Chinese manufacturers are making efforts to tackle these challenges.
The Sinopharm product is an inactivated vaccine called SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (Vero Cell) that can be delivered through common cold chain with temperatures between 2 C and 8 C. While Moderna vaccine has to be stored in a temperature of at least -20 C, while the Pfizer vaccine at -70 C.
Sinopharm vaccine's easy storage requirements make it highly suitable for low-resource settings, WHO said in a statement on Friday.
It is also the first vaccine that will carry a vaccine vial monitor. The vial monitor is a small sticker on the vaccine vial that change color when the vaccine is exposed to heat, letting health workers know whether the vaccine can be safely used, according to the statement.
The sticker clearly shows the degree of over exposure to high temperatures and ensure the safety of the vaccine's application in different environments, Tao said.
China can assist regions with unsatisfactory infrastructure conditions with cold-chain vehicles as well as training for health workers on vaccination, experts noted.
Some foreign news medias had long been questioning the efficacy and safety of the Sinopharm vaccine due to fewer data on its clinical trials. The data had not been released until the latest document uploaded by the WHO on the assessment of Sinopharm's vaccine.
The WHO document confirms experts have an "overall confidence" in its ability to prevent COVID-19, while having "low confidence" on the risk of side effects for older patients.
WHO said in the Friday statement that they are not recommending an upper age limit for the vaccine because preliminary data and supportive immunogenicity data suggest the vaccine is likely to have a protective effect in older people. "There is no theoretical reason to believe that the vaccine has a different safety profile in older and younger populations."
In the safety ranking, the top four are all Chinese vaccines
- reported by The New York Times on Feb 5, 2021.
1. Sinopharm (China)
2. Sinovac (China)
3. Kexing (China)
4. Can Sino (China)
5. AstraZeneca (UK)
6. Pfizer (United States and Germany)
7. Modena (United States)
8. Johnson & Johnson (United States)
9. Novavax (United States)
10. Satellite 5 (Russia)
Sinopharm has two vaccines, ranking first and second respectively.
China
has exported more than 500 million doses of vaccines to more than 50
countries around the world, and it is estimated that hundreds of
millions of people have been vaccinated. And China's vaccine accident
rate is lower and safer.
As reported by Western media, many wealthy people in Britain fly to the UAE to vaccinate Chinese national medicine.
China has provided 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines
to the world, and it can fulfill the 2-billion-dose pledge, an official
with the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Friday on the
sidelines of the China International Fair for Trade ...
The Global Times reporter Hu Yuwei (GT) recently talked
exclusively to the German-based vaccine developer BioNTech's CEO, Ugur
Sahin (Sahin) who expressed his strong confidence in the marketing
prospects of the vaccine in China. The approval has entered the final
...
In an interview with CGTN on April 3, China's top respiratory scientist Zhong Nanshan said lockdown measures adopted by some countries in Europe or the United States are not effective as they are not exactly implementing real lockdown. He said that the lockdown should go deeper and be stricter, stressing the importance of social distancing to stop the spread of the coronavirus. "Nobody can block, can stop the spreading or stop the infection of this kind of disease. But we can try to do our best to inhibit the spreading. So, that's what we are successful," he added.
US must take more stringent containment measures: top respiratory expert
Zhong Nanshan, 80, China's revered infectious disease expert, warned on Thursday that if the COVID-19 outbreak continues to worsen in the US, it could become a global issue, since the number of US confirmed cases account for almost a quarter of global cases.
"I am now gravely concerned with the epidemic in the US, and if it gets worse, it will become a global problem," Zhong said on Thursday night during a COVID-19 international experience sharing and exchange video conference.
Zhong said that he noticed a significant increase in the number of COVID19 patients in the US over the past few days, suggesting that the country has begun mass screening of its citizens.
Screening in the US is progressing very advanced, Zhong noted. It takes about 15-20 minutes for a patient to get test results, while it currently takes an hour and a half in China, he said.
"US has made much progress in testing and determining the infected patients, but tracing all their close contacts, separating them, isolating them and cutting the transmission chain is much important," Zhong said.
Zhong urged the US federal government to adopt stronger measures to stem the spread of the pandemic in the US.
The US has reported more than 241,000 cases as of late Thursday, almost a quarter of confirmed cases in the world, and more than 5,800 deaths.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped
300,000 by 3:40 p.m. local time Saturday (1940 GMT), according to the
Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins
University.
Whether the US and China can now pivot toward collaboration
where interests overlap will shape the degree of global cooperation
with regard to both more effectively combating the coronavirus and no
less, in the huge challenge of restarting the global economy.
Chinese coronavirus test kits are desperately clamored
for by many foreign clients, but some unfriendly Western media outlets
have chosen to smear and discredit made-in-China products.
Masks can help prevent people from being infected. The
suggestion is scientific and Asian countries have a lot of experience in
this regard. However, excessive cultural confidence has hindered the US
and European countries from giving due attention to the experience of
their Asian counterparts.
Ignorance is bliss
However, the kind ailing that United States' top brass has come at a devastasting cost to the Uncle Sam
https://youtu.be/sdre7SOd2hg
A news report appeared in the New York Times a week ago. It was probably glossed over, even in the Big Apple, as most New Yorkers struggle with overnight unemployment and keeping a roof over their heads.
It was conspicuously absent from CNN’s newsfeeds, too, despite its world-wide audience, as it remains preoccupied with ridiculing President Trump, while Fox News was per-script in blaming the virus on China.
Most of us outside the US were expectedly unaware of this significant event.
But on March 29, the NY Times reported about a commercial aircraft carrying 80 tonnes of gloves, masks, gowns and other medical supplies from Shanghai, touching down in New York last Sunday, marking the first of 22 scheduled flights that White House officials say will supply much-needed goods to the US by early April.
The NY Times is a credible 169-year-old American newspaper with a worldwide influence and readership. It has won 127 Pulitzer Prizes – more than any other newspaper.
The report quoted Lizzie Litzow, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who said the plane delivered 130,000 N95 masks, 1.8 million face masks and gowns, 10 million gloves and thousands of thermometers for distribution in NY, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Apparently, there should be subsequent flights to Chicago and Ohio, where supplies will be despatched to other states using private-sector distribution networks.
Now, here’s the gem. The NY Times added, attributing a White House spokesman, that the shipment from China which arrived in NY was the product of a public-private partnership – led by President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner – with major health care distributors including McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health, Owens & Minor, Medline and Henry Schein.
Representatives from those companies had previously met with Trump at the White House.
So, while Trump was busy throwing punches at China, with his incessant China Virus remarks, he was, instead, quietly seeking help from the republic behind the scenes.
Trump isn’t the only one culpable, either. His Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is equally pompous with his obsession in lambasting China for everything, including Covid-19, from which spawned the now-infamous “China Virus” line.
His remarks have become much more contagious than the virus itself with each passing day.
The virus struck Wuhan, China, in December last year, then spread to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, during which Trump was still dismissive of it.
He portrayed it as a mere flu bug, with his predictable barrage of false claims and fake news, and even until last month, he kept repeating that Covid- 19 was not as bad as the seasonal flu.
And of course, as the rest of Asia was busy stocking up on face masks, sterilisers and food supplies, he still insisted that “the United States is in a far better shape than other countries.”
None of us in Asia, especially, believed him. In fact, we feel sorry that many ordinary Americans didn’t wake up to the threat. Echoing their president’s sentiments, they assumed the US would be immune to it. Mr T shot from the hip again, and in his usual condescending manner.
After all, Asians deserve it, what with their filthy eating habits and dirty animal markets, right?
The British likely thought the same, and continued to attend huge gatherings like football matches, and went on pub crawls and walks in the park, too.
Asians watched in exasperation at the continuing nonchalance of these people.
Incredibly, as the bodies pile up at the morgue, there are US leaders who continue to engage in the meaningless blame game.
If they think they can gain sympathy with this inane approach, they should know that the virus isn’t going away, and eventually, victims will wise up. And as leaders, they will still have to tackle this health disaster.
As of now, US health workers have resorted to rationing protective gear or using homemade supplies, with the Department of Health and Human Services saying it estimates the US will require 3.5 billion masks if the pandemic lasts a year.
The NY Times, quoting Litzow, said “the overwhelming demand has set off a race among foreign countries, American officials at all levels of government and private individuals to acquire protective gear, ventilators and other much-needed goods from China, where newly built factories are churning out supplies even as China’s own epidemic wanes.”
It added that the US was working with manufacturers from Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, India, Honduras and Mexico.
Until a few months ago, the US was halting trade with China, imposing barriers and tariffs, and kicking out US-based Chinese scientists, but now, the NY Times reports that “American governors, mayors and lawmakers have been trying to arrange their own shipments of products from China, with some saying the federal government has been moving too slowly, which risks losing out to other foreign buyers.
“American officials have leaned on sister cities and province relationships, liaison offices they had set up in China to attract investment and connections with state-run Chinese companies to try to secure scarce equipment.”
It also said that the private sector, comprising a motley crew of wealthy individuals, charitable organizations and corporate executives with connections to China, have also stepped forward to help deliver goods to the United States.
Tragically, as Italy and Spain, among other nations, battle helplessly against the Covid-19 virus, the European Union’s miserable failure casts a long shadow. No EU member has sent aid to their Italian brethren.
The politicians can question China’s motives in its aid offer, in what is now dubbed the “face mask diplomacy”, but real help goes a long way in tough times. Talk is cheap, President Trump.
Representing the private sector, Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire and co-founder of Alibaba, donated a million masks and 500,000 test kits to the US.
Other benefitting countries of the masks will include Spain, Belgium and France, with the same resource already sent to Czech Republic, Greece and Serbia.
For Malaysia, China has donated 100,008 units of novel coronavirus nucleic acid diagnostic (PCR-Fluorescence Probing) test kits, 100,000 pieces of N95 face masks, 500,000 pieces of surgical masks, 50,000 units of personal protective equipment (PPE) and 200 ventilators.
The Committee of 100, a leadership organisation of Americans of Chinese descent, has raised US$1mil (RM4.3mil) to purchase medical supplies and protective gear from around the world to help their country.
Against this backdrop of generosity and care, Pompeo still had time to hold a global teleconference on March 29, as he continued his offensive on China for its alleged campaign of misinformation on the virus.
Sinopharm vaccine File photo:VCG
