Coronavirus: Chile’s reaction to doubts about the effectiveness of Chinese vaccines

SANTIAGO.- Hours after Chinese health officials say they have doubts about the effectiveness of their vaccines and announce a plan for mix your doses with some foreigners looking for better protection, Chile, a country that uses the drug Sinovac (produced in the Asian country) for its vaccination campaign, has defended its implementation and they ensured that there was no need to pay attention to the headlines in the press.

Chilean Science Minister Andrés Couve said that it was important to focus on the data and the effectiveness of the vaccine in reducing the need for medical treatment, hospitalization or death, alluding to reports of Gao Fu, director of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, who at a conference said the country is formally evaluating the mix of Covid-19 vaccines from those currently available “They don’t have very high protection rates.”

Although after that, in an interview with state media, the Communist Party official said his words were “completely misunderstood”. His words have generated repercussions around the world and in particular in the 22 countries where these vaccines are applied, such as Argentina and Chile.

In this context, the Chilean Ministry of Health has declared that it will soon publish a concrete study on the effectiveness of the vaccines implemented in its population and He urged Chileans to continue participating in the vaccination program.

“With regard to the doubts that the press articles have raised ‘about the Chinese Sinovac vaccine’, we reiterate the importance of framing the discussion within the available evidence,” Couve also said. “We have scientific studies with the highest standards to assess its safety and effectiveness,” he added.

For his part, Heriberto García, director of the Institute of Public Health of Chile, indicated that people shouldn’t pay attention to the headlines. “The studies of the University (of Chile) and those that will take the Minsal (Ministry of Health) say the same thing: the number of hospitalized and sick has decreased. It’s a good way, ”he said in a note published by the newspaper La Tercera.

While in Argentina the drug Sinopharm is used, in Chile the one that is applied, among others, is that of Sinovac, which was found to be just over 50% effective in reducing infection in Brazilian clinical trials and 54% effective in reducing infection according to analysis from a Chilean university.

The data available to date shows that Chinese vaccines are lagging behind others, especially Pfizer and Moderna in terms of efficiency, but they require less stringent temperature controls during storage.

Chile paid $ 3.5 million to host a clinical trial of the vaccine and has also ordered 60 million doses for its population of 19 million over three years. The country relies heavily on Sinovac, with fewer doses of Pfizer, to implement one of the fastest vaccination campaigns in the world.

The government, led by the president Sébastien Piñera, also signed supply agreements with pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, but deliveries have yet to materialize due to supply bottlenecks.

So far, the country has vaccinated 7,369,321 people with a single dose of a population of 19 million (38%) and 4,662,274 people with two doses (24%). It is also racking up 1,076,499 infections, nearly 50,000 reported last week, reflecting the resurgence of the second wave of coronavirus. During that time, more than 24,346 people have died from the virus.

Despite being the Latin American country with the largest vaccinated population, Chile is experiencing the worst time of infections due to the disease which is on the verge of collapse your hospital system.

Reuters and AP agencies

THE NATION