Chile defended Chinese Sinovac vaccine after controversy over effectiveness

After the controversy that erupted this weekend on its effectiveness, the Chilean government assured on Monday that the vaccine manufactured by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac prevents 100% of the most serious cases of coronavirus and fights the Brazilian and British variants.

“I want to convey absolute peace of mind regarding this issue and tell the population that this vaccine is used in several other countries, not only in Chile, and since it is an inactive virus and it contains all the protein composition. virus, it creates a large amount of antibodies “, said the Chilean Minister of Health, Enrique Paris.

Chile, with 19 million inhabitants, is one of the countries with the highest percentage of vaccinated population in the world and since February, it has already inoculated at least one dose to more than 7.3 million people, the vast majority of them with the Sinovac vaccine.

In a controversial statement, the director of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control, Gao fu, admitted last Saturday at a conference in the southwestern city of Chengdu that Chinese drugs “They don’t have very high protection rates” and that the Asian giant is studying the increase in doses and the interval between them.

Beijing has distributed hundreds of millions of doses in other countries and has tried to cast doubt on the effectiveness of Western vaccines.

“Now it is officially considered whether we should use different vaccines from different technical lines for the vaccination process.Gao said. Beijing has yet to approve any foreign vaccines for use in China.

After the media outcry, the Chinese official said in an interview with Global Times that the controversy “was a complete misunderstanding” and that “The rates of protection for all vaccines in the world are sometimes high and sometimes low.”

“The vaccine (Sinovac) is 100% effective in preventing the patient from entering the intensive treatment unit and dying. It is 80% effective for moderate cases and up to 60%, according to another study, for mild cases not requiring medical treatment “, said the Chilean minister.

Chile, which has committed more than 35 million doses from different laboratories, has so far authorized the administration of 4 vaccines: Pfizer / BioNTech, Sinovac, the British AstraZeneca and recently that of the Chinese laboratory CanSino.

Next, the country will publish a study on the effectiveness and efficacy of the vaccine carried out by Chilean universities in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, which will be one of the first in the world to demonstrate how the Chinese vaccine works in the population. real. , beyond clinical trials.

As of April 2, some 34 million people had received the required two doses of Chinese vaccines, while 65 million people had already received one, Gao said.

“We continue to trust the Sinovac vaccine”, insisted the Chilean official during a press conference in which he also reported that in the last 24 hours, 6,372 new cases and 137 deaths have been detected, bringing the total balance since March of last year to nearly 1.1 million people infected and 24,483 deaths.

Despite the rapid pace of vaccination, The country is experiencing the worst times of the pandemic, with hospitals on the brink of collapse, more than 83% of the population in strict home confinement and borders closed until May.

With information from EFE

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