[Sinovac and Sinopharm were among the earliest to begin clinical trials, but they did not release full data. Millions of people have taken the shots, which governments rushed to procure amid supply constraints before the United States pledged to share doses. With wealthier nations snapping up Pfizer and Moderna, some developing countries had little choice but to look to China.]
The shift in a region where China
vies with the United States for influence underscores the limits of Beijing’s
vaccine diplomacy. Countries such as Indonesia and Thailand once bet
heavily on China’s Sinovac, despite
warnings from medical experts, but their health systems have come
under intense strain as the delta variant tears through towns and cities.
Indonesia has recorded more than 100,000 deaths overall.
“The current reality does present a
stark contrast to the fanfare with which Beijing rolled out their vaccines and
then insisted on their high efficacy, even when data was less available,” said
Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National
University of Singapore who studies U.S.-China competition in Asia. The change,
he added, shows “how risky it is to try to make the current pandemic, and the
very real dangers to human life, into a sort of propaganda tool.”
[Indonesia
faces ‘catastrophic’ covid storm as delta variant rips through hospitals]
Sinovac and Sinopharm were among
the earliest to begin clinical trials, but they did
not release full data. Millions of people have taken the shots, which
governments rushed to procure amid supply constraints before the United
States pledged to share doses. With wealthier nations snapping up
Pfizer and Moderna, some developing countries had little choice but to look to
China.
Doubts over Sinovac’s efficacy grew in
June, when fully vaccinated Indonesian doctors began dying
of covid-19. The Indonesian Medical Association has recorded at least 20 deaths of doctors who were
doubly dosed with Sinovac. Earlier that month, the World Health
Organization approved
the vaccine for emergency use.
Representatives for Sinovac and
Sinopharm did not respond to requests for comment. Sinovac told China’s state-run Global Times newspaper in
June that its vaccines cannot give 100 percent protection but can reduce
severity and deaths. Sinovac CEO Yin Weidong, speaking last week at a forum
hosted by China’s foreign minister, said the
company will submit its clinical research and emergency use applications for
the delta variant to Chinese regulators in coming days, and said the company
has “sufficient production capacity” to develop and produce the vaccine in
response to the new strains.
[China’s
vaccine diplomacy stumbles as trial data remains absent]
Among the casualties in Indonesia
was Novilia Sjafri Bachtiar, the lead scientist in the country’s Sinovac
trials, according to local media. The nation of 270 million began
administering the U.S.-made Moderna vaccine in late July to
health-care workers, after
Washington donated 8 million doses.
Scenes of these donations — in
boxes emblazoned with American flags — contrasted with those in January, when
Indonesian President Joko Widodo received his Sinovac shot on live television.
Health officials held up the vaccine box, adorned with Sinovac’s
name, to boost trust in the doses. Chinese state media hailed Widodo’s move
while touting
the vaccine as “safe and effective.”
Thailand has also moved to mix
shots, changing its policy in mid-July to immunizing people with a first shot
of Sinovac and a second shot of AstraZeneca. Health-care workers who are
already fully vaccinated with Sinovac will receive a third booster shot, either
of AstraZeneca or an mRNA vaccine such as Pfizer or Moderna.
Before the policy change, Thai
media reported the existence of a memo, supposedly leaked from an official
meeting about vaccine use, that warned against giving a different booster shot
to those already fully vaccinated with Sinovac because doing so would be an
admission that the Chinese-made shot “can’t give protection.” The leak prompted
an outcry, and the
hashtag #GivePfizerToMedicalWorkers began trending on social media.
[‘There
is no virus here’: An epic vaccine race against all odds in Indonesia]
Even Beijing’s closest allies are
making the switch. Cambodia said last week that it would start offering
AstraZeneca booster shots to those who had received two doses of the
Chinese-made vaccines, which have already been rolled out to about half of the population.
Responding to a question in May on
whether Cambodia is too dependent on China, Prime Minister Hun Sen dismissed
the suggestion as “unjust.”
“If I don’t rely on China, who will
I rely on? If I don’t ask China, who am I to ask?” he
said. “Without assistance from China, maybe we will not have vaccines for
our people.”
China has held up its vaccine
donations as a public good, especially for developing nations, while
criticizing vaccine nationalism. President Xi Jinping said last week that the
country would provide 2 billion doses to the world this
year.
Yet even before the delta variant
surge, people showed a preference for Western-made vaccines, particularly the
mRNA shots developed by the United States. A survey early this year in the
Philippines showed more than 63 percent of adults preferred
the United States as a source of coronavirus vaccines. In May,
residents flocked
to the one site offering Pfizer doses, with lines forming from 2 a.m.
“We saw this huge divide even in
the medical community among those willing and outright not willing to receive
Sinovac,” said Vincen Gregory Yu, a physician and public health researcher. He
said he encountered vaccine hesitancy among his peers and family, who signed up
for Moderna through the private sector.
“In most cases, it’s not really,
‘We don’t want this vaccine because it’s not effective,’ ” he said. Instead, he said, it’s
more that “ ‘we don’t
want to accept this because something better will arrive.’ ”
[China
sets back search for covid origins with rejection of WHO investigation proposal]
Philippine President Rodrigo
Duterte, who declared early in his term that he would
say “goodbye” to Washington, a long-standing ally, maintains warm relations
with China. He accepted another million doses of Sinovac days
ago as his country endures a new lockdown amid a surge in infections.
But he admitted that his
decision to preserve a defense pact between the United States and the
Philippines was influenced by a recent donation of Moderna vaccines from
Washington.
“It’s give and take. Let’s thank
them, and I gave them a concession,” Duterte
said.
Chong said the vaccine experience
has made some Southeast Asian countries realize “that reliance on the People’s
Republic of China is not enough, whether on vaccines or other matters.”
Regine Cabato in Manila and Pei Lin
Wu in Taipei contributed to this report.
Read more
China
sets back search for covid origins with rejection of WHO investigation proposal
‘There
is no virus here’: An epic vaccine race against all odds in Indonesia
China’s
vaccine diplomacy stumbles as trial data remains absent
