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A security guard wearing a face mask, surgical gown and rubber gloves stands guard. Anyone entering this part of the warehouse must either complete two weeks of quarantine or wear a head-to-toe hazardous material protective suit.
In the coming months, China will send hundreds of millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines to countries that have conducted last-stage trials for its main candidates. Chinese leaders have also promised a growing list of developing countries priority access to its effective vaccines.
Vaccines can also be used by Beijing as “a foreign policy instrument to promote soft power and project international influence,” said Yanzhong Huang, senior researcher for global health at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations.
Beijing Vaccine Diplomacy, Huang said, could give it another chance.
“Vaccine diplomacy”
China currently has five coronavirus candidates from four companies that have reached Phase 3 clinical trials, the last and most important step in testing before regulatory approval is sought.
After largely eliminating the coronavirus within its borders, Chinese drugmakers have had to look overseas for places to test the effectiveness of their vaccines. Together, they have deployed Phase 3 trials in at least 16 countries.
In return, many host countries were promised quick access to effective vaccines and, in some cases, the technological know-how to manufacture them locally.
“China not only has the political will (for its vaccine diplomacy), but also the strong capacity to achieve it,” Huang said.
Because China has largely contained the virus, there is no need to urgently vaccinate each of its 1.4 billion people. “It gives him that leverage … to make deals with countries that need vaccines,” he said.
“Silk Road of Health”
“So far, we haven’t heard the United States say or suggest that they would allocate a percentage of their vaccine to support poor countries. So that puts China in an even better position to use the vaccine to serve. its foreign policy objective, ”Huang told me.
In October, China joined a global initiative supported by the World Health Organization to ensure the rapid and equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines to rich and poor countries alike.
The project, known as COVAX, is designed to discourage governments from stockpiling coronavirus vaccines and instead focus on vaccinating high-risk groups in each country. But it was avoided by the United States, in part because President Donald Trump did not want to work with the WHO, leaving China with a void of global leadership in public health.
From the start, Chinese leaders have repeatedly stressed that Chinese vaccines are to be shared, especially with developing countries.
During a video summit with African leaders in June, Xi vowed that “once the development and deployment of a Covid-19 vaccine is completed in China, African countries will be among the first to benefit.” .
In August, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Beijing would also give priority access to Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Afghanistan and Malaysia are other countries to which priority access has been promised by the Chinese authorities.
Then there is the question of efficiency. Last month, Pfizer and Moderna announced that initial results showed their vaccines to be over 90% effective, while another candidate jointly produced by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca had an average effectiveness of 70%. So far, none of the Chinese vaccine candidates have announced preliminary efficacy results, although company executives have repeatedly stressed their safety, insisting that there are no serious side effects. has been observed in vaccinated volunteers.
Cold room
Compared to Pfizer and Moderna, Chinese vaccines have a crucial advantage – most of them do not require freezing temperatures for storage, which facilitates transportation and distribution, especially in developing countries that do not. do not have cold storage capacities.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use pieces of genetic material called messenger RNA (mRNA) to trick the body to make synthetic pieces of the coronavirus and stimulate an immune response – a new technology that has not been used in existing vaccines.
Nevertheless, the required temperatures must be maintained throughout transport, from leaving the production facility to storage at the airport and finally to global distribution.
Cainiao, the logistics arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, will help distribute Chinese vaccines as soon as they get the green light. It says its end-to-end air-conditioned infrastructure is in place and ready.
Cainiao is also in partnership with Ethiopian Airlines, which will send the Chinese vaccines to the Middle East and then to Africa. Since the pandemic, the airline has transported more than 3,000 tonnes of medical supplies from Shenzhen to Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South America.
But Cainiao is also looking to add more routes for greater global reach, according to its CEO Wan Lin.
“Of course, we’re not quite sure just the exact demand on this just yet, but we’re definitely building our capacity to prepare for it,” Wan said.
CNN’s Emma Reynolds contributed to this story.
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