In a few months we shall mourning the anniversary of COVID-19 pandemic when it was first experienced by China. We still do not have a vaccine which has cleared all stages of testing. However there is still hope, since allegedly three vaccines in totality will be introduced by the Chinese Government which are all in the third phase of testing at the moment. The efficiency of the vaccine will be tested by introducing it to thousands of people to observe how many get infected and how many recover. The World Health Organization (WHO) also supports this vaccine and says that the vaccine's safety is satisfactory and it has no serious adverse reactions. Even the National Health Commission says that the safety of usage is fully authenticated but they are not so sure about the efficacy.
With this being said there are other doctors who feel that even though the vaccine is being approved, it will have repercussions and may lead to severe complications for the recipient in the long term. Renowned doctor Robert F. Kennedy Junior says that the vaccine will cause irreversible genetic damage which would be a crime to mankind.
A Chinese pharmaceutical company said on Thursday that the coronavirus vaccine which it is developing should be ready by early 2021 for distribution worldwide, including the United States. Stringent regulations in the U.S., European Union, Japan and Australia have historically blocked the sale of Chinese vaccines. Still Mr. Yin Weidong (The CEO of SinoVac) said that could change.
In the meantime, many Chinese citizens haven’t waited for full approval before getting injected. The state press has reported that hundreds of thousands have already been vaccinated by the China National Biotec Group Co. (C.N.B.G.) , under an emergency-use approval granted by the government. The volunteers include many government officials and pharmaceutical executives who received the two-stage vaccination.
In China, such participants might contribute to useful data about side effects, but they won’t reveal much about the vaccine’s efficacy, given that the country has, reportedly, largely eliminated COVID-19 cases since the spring. As a result, the C.N.B.G. had to go far from home in order to carry out a Phase III trial. The company enrolled more than fifty thousand test subjects in the United Arab Emirates, Peru, and other countries in South America and the Middle East that are currently suffering outbreaks.
Earlier this month, Nawal al-Kaabi, the head of the U.A.E.’s COVID-19 Clinical Management Committee said that, of thirty-one thousand volunteers who took the Chinese vaccine, none experienced serious side effects as of now. On September 14th, the U.A.E. announced emergency approval of the vaccine for at-risk professions making C.N.B.G. the first coronavirus-vaccine manufacturer to receive approval for use in a foreign country.
China has signed up to a World Health Organization-led bid to ensure future Covid-19 vaccines are distributed to developing countries, the biggest economy yet to join the attempt to control the pandemic.
Beijing has not given details on how much money it would commit to the deal, which has a fundraising goal of $2 billion and aims to provide 92 low and middle-income countries with a potential vaccine.
This vaccine could bring relief to many and could be the best thing that has happened all year!
Written by Vanshika Rustagi
Designs by Anoushka Damani
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