Covid-19: Is the promotion of Chinese vaccines in Southeast Asia facing a reversal-BBC News

Medical workers who have been fully vaccinated with Kexing vaccine will also receive a different vaccine to enhance the effect.

Indonesia also announced a similar move last week, saying that it will inject Moderna boosters into medical staff who have been vaccinated with Koxing vaccine.

Previously, there were reports that hundreds of vaccinated medical staff had contracted the new crown pneumonia, and some of them (2 in Thailand and 30 in Indonesia) died.

The implementation of vaccination plans in these two countries has been slow and they have been fighting against new epidemics. Thailand is currently reporting new highs of infections and deaths, while in Indonesia, the epicenter of the Asian COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals are overcrowded and lack oxygen.

The two countries stated that they are seeking changes to enhance protection capabilities. Thai officials aided local research, claiming that mixed vaccines can improve immunity.

Indonesian Tourism Minister Sandiaga Uno recently told the BBC that the Koxing vaccine was “quite effective.”

But Dale Fisher, the head of the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, said that when the Thai and Indonesian governments chose to replace the vaccine, they actually “expressed their concerns about the failure of the vaccine”.

But he also warned that there is not enough information about the infection and death of medical staff, and he urged the relevant departments to conduct a “thorough investigation.”

Kexing Company has not yet commented on this.

Since then, Malaysia announced that it will switch to Pfizer’s vaccine after finishing the existing Coxing vaccine.

Other Asian countries such as the Philippines and Cambodia continue to use Chinese vaccines.

In clinical trials around the world, the inactivated virus vaccine of Kexinghe Sinopharm has been proven to be 50% to 79% effective in preventing symptomatic infections.

But they are still very effective in preventing hospitalizations or deaths caused by the new coronavirus-studies have found that the effectiveness of Koxing vaccine is 100% in Brazil and 96% to 98% among medical workers in Indonesia.

Professor Benjamin Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong, said that in the fully vaccinated population, there are still many breakthrough infections, which may be caused by several factors.

One is that China’s vaccine, like many other vaccines, may fail after a period of vaccination. A study released this week in Thailand found that in people who were fully vaccinated with Koshin vaccine, the antibodies in their bodies dropped by half every 40 days.

Another reason is that compared with real infections, the data of clinical trials is smaller, especially in Indonesia, where the number of infected people increases sharply every day, reaching tens of thousands.

This may also be attributed to the more contagious Delat variant virus. This variant has been found in 60% of the most recent cases in Indonesia, compared to 26% in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.

There are currently no public data on the effectiveness of Chinese vaccines against any new coronavirus variants. But Professor Gao Benen said that preliminary studies have shown that the inactivated virus vaccines of Sinopharm and Kexing are 20% less resistant to the Delat variant than the original virus.

He said that no vaccine is completely effective in preventing new coronary pneumonia infection. Although the Chinese vaccine is “not 100% effective, it still saves many lives.” Experts emphasize that breakthrough infection does not mean that vaccination is meaningless, because immunization helps prevent people from experiencing severe symptoms.

In China, more than 630 million people have been injected with at least one shot of the domestic vaccine, and there are no reports of breakthrough infections. It is not yet known how many of them were fully vaccinated.

However, the new crown virus is believed to be under control in China. The daily infection rate reported by China is low, and the country has taken swift action to curb the local epidemic.

Asia is the most vaccinated region in China, and it is a key place in China’s vaccine diplomacy strategy.

More than 30 Asian countries have purchased Chinese vaccines or accepted donations. Indonesia is one of the largest buyers of Kexing Vaccines in the world, and the country has ordered 125 million doses of vaccines.

Ian Chong, a China expert at the National University of Singapore, said that China’s eagerness to sell or donate vaccines is “to change the narrative of the first infection in Wuhan and show that China is a scientific power”.

Since rich countries have monopolized early orders for many other vaccines, many Asian countries welcome Chinese vaccines, especially poorer countries.

“The standard idea is that it is better to have protection than no protection, even if the efficacy data at the time were not good,” said Dr. Zhuang.

For example, Thailand initially counted on a local company owned by the king to produce large quantities of vaccines, but after the outbreak of the new crown this year, the slow delivery time forced the government to find other sources.

Since Kexing was one of the first Chinese companies to produce vaccines, apart from AstraZeneca produced locally in Thailand, the country currently mainly relies on Kexing vaccines.

Dr. Zhuang said that Thailand and Indonesia’s switch to other vaccines “may break China’s successful image, burst the bubble of China’s vaccine effectiveness, and actually question China’s technological strength.”

The Chinese government has not yet commented on this, but has always insisted that its vaccine is effective.

Due to the slow vaccination work and the worsening of the new crown epidemic, the governments of Thailand and Indonesia are facing increasing criticism.

In Thailand, a Ministry of Health document was leaked, further exacerbating public anger. An official was quoted in the document as saying that he opposed the injection of Pfizer’s enhancers into medical staff because it would “acknowledge that Kexing cannot provide protection.”

“There is a lot of anger among the Thai public. They say,’Why don’t you care about medical staff’,’This shouldn’t be the reason.’ Many people are deeply worried about the government’s communication methods and dependence on Kexing.” Chulalong Said Dr. Arm Tungnirun, Director of China Studies Center at Chulalongkorn University.

“There are more and more people rejecting Coxing, they think Coxing has no effect. There is a lot of distrust of the Thai government, and the vaccine issue has become very politicized.”

Hundreds of protesters marched in Bangkok on Sunday, demanding that the prime minister resign on his approach to the crisis and the introduction of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines such as Pfizer or Modena.

Some people worry that the recent reports of breakthrough infections will make people fully doubt the vaccine. In Indonesia, religious social media influencers and conspiracy theorists are already spreading anti-China sentiment anti-vaccination messages.

Experts urge stricter control of the epidemic and strengthen the fight against false information on the Internet.

Professor Gao Benen said: “We are using (Chinese vaccine), which is good, but we can’t expect too much.”

“We must recognize that there will be breakthrough infections and be prepared to respond because this may undermine people’s confidence in vaccines.”