China vaccinates against coronavirus at a rate equal to that of all of Italy every three days

In just five days last month, China put 100 million doses of their coronavirus vaccines, a rate equivalent to vaccinating all of Italy every three days.

After a slow start, China is now doing what virtually no other country in the world can do: harness the power and reach of its one-party system, and a mature vaccine industry, to immunize its people. a dizzying pace.

The countryside is far from perfect, including the unequal distribution drugs, but Chinese public health officials say they hope to inoculate the 80% of its 1,400 million inhabitants by the end of the year.

China had distributed more than 680 million doses, almost half of them only in May. The total figure is equivalent to nearly a third of the 1.9 billion vaccines administered worldwide, according to the research site Our World in Data.

The call for vaccination is coming from all over of the society. Companies offer vaccines to their employees, schools encourage their students and staff, and local government employees monitor residents.

This pressure highlights the strength of the system to such an extent that it even makes it possible to consider vaccination. over a billion people this year, such as risks to civil liberties, a global concern that is particularly noticeable in China, where protections are less.

“The Communist Party has people coming in each village, every neighborhood, ”said Ray Yip, former director of the Gates Foundation in China and public health expert. “It’s the draconian part of the system, but it also gives it a lot of mobilizing power.

Sinovac and Sinopharm

China now manages on average about 19 million vaccines per day, according to data from Our World in Data at seven days. This would mean a dose for each of the inhabitants of Italy every three days.

The United States, with a quarter of the Chinese population, reached nearly 3.4 million daily injections in April, at the height of its campaign.

It is not yet clear how many Chinese citizens are fully immunized, which may mean they have between one and three doses of vaccines in use _ developed by Sinovac and Sinopharm laboratories _ because the government does not publish these. data.

Zhong Nanshan, a renowned government doctor who heads an expert group attached to the National Health Commission, said on Sunday that 40% of the population had received at least one dose and the goal was for that percentage to be completely immune by the end. .of months.

Vaccinations in Beijing everywhere

In the capital, Beijing, el 87% of the population has at least one dose. Getting vaccinated is as easy as entering one of the hundreds of authorized points.

The drug is also distributed on buses parked in areas with heavy foot traffic, such as the city center or shopping malls.

But abundance in Beijing it does not repeat in the rest across the country, local media reports and complaints on social media show the difficulty of getting a date elsewhere.

“I started to queue that day at 9:00 a.m., until 6:00 p.m., and it was only then that I received the injection. It was exhausting, ”said Zhou Hongxia, a resident of Lanzhou, in the northwestern region of Gansu, recently.

“When I left there were still people waiting.”

Zhou’s husband was unlucky and is still waiting for his turn. When they call local hotlines, they are simply told they wait.

Central government officials said Monday they were working to ensure a more equitable distribution of drugs.

Why it took a long time to vaccinate

Before the campaign intensified in recent weeks, many they were in no rush to get vaccinated since China maintained the virus, which was first detected in the country, under control over the past year thanks to its strict border controls and mandatory quarantines.

China even focused on vaccination its citizens abroad, donate vaccines to Thailand, some of which were used to immunize its citizens before most Thais received their doses.

Around the world, he has vaccinated more than 500,000 foreign citizens as part of what the program calls “Spring shoot”.

Every now and then they sign up small shoots, and currently fighting one in the southern city of Guangzhou.

Although there are distribution issues, it is unlikely Chinese manufacturers have scale issues, analysts and those who have worked in the industry say.

Aggressive vaccine production

Sinovac and Sinopharm, which manufacture most of the vaccines distributed in China, have significantly increased production, build new factories and reuse existing ones for COVID-19.

Sinovac’s vaccine and one of Sinopharm’s two brands have received emergency use authorization from the World Health Organization, but the companies, Sinopharm in particular, have faced criticism for their use. lack of transparency by sharing your data.

“What place in the world can be compared to china in construction? How long did it take us to build our temporary hospitals? Asked Li Mengyuan, who heads pharmaceutical research at Western Securities, a finance company.

China built field hospitals at the start of the pandemic in just A few days.

Sinovac said it has doubled its production capacity to 2 billion doses per year, while Sinopharm said it can produce up to 3 billion doses per year.

But Sinopharm has not released recent figures on the number of doses actually administered, and a company spokesperson He did not answer to a request for comments. Sinovac produced 540 million doses this year at the end of May, the company said on Friday.

Government support it was crucial for vaccine developers every step of the way, as has been the case in other countries, but, as with everything, the scope and scale in China is different.

Yang Xiaoming, chairman of Sinopharm’s China National Biotech Group, recently told state media how the company initially needed to borrow space laboratory in a government research center while working on a vaccine.

“We sent our samples, there was no need to discuss the money, we just did,” he said.

Chinese vaccine companies does not depend largely imported products in the manufacturing process.

That’s it a huge advantage at a time when many countries are fighting over the same materials and that means China can probably avoid what happened with the Serum Institute of India, whose production was hampered due to reliance on US imports for certain ingredients.

But as the availability of vaccines increases, so does the pressure increases to take it.

In Beijing, a university researcher said that the Communist Party cell of the Faculty call him once a month to ask if you have been vaccinated before and offers to help you make an appointment.

So far, you have refused to receive an injection because I would prefer the Pfizer vaccine, saying that you trust your data. He spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing he would face repercussions for his work at a government university for publicly questioning Chinese vaccines.

China has not yet approved the use of Pfizer And the researcher does not know how long he will be able to resist, although the government, for now, has warned against the absolute requirement of vaccines.

“They don’t have to say it’s mandatory,” said Yip, the public health expert. “They are not going to announce that it is necessary to have the vaccine, but they can pressure it.”

The author is a reporter for the Associated Press

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