WH: China 'needs' Western-made 'higher-quality' vaccines

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
2 Dec 2022 13:52

White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha says that without Western-made vaccines, China cannot contain the current Covid-19 outbreak.

White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha (AP)

Western-produced mRNA vaccines are unsubstitutable if China wants to control the current COVID-19 outbreak it is witnessing, alleged White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha.

Jha claimed, in an interview with the Financial Times, to "worry about the Chinese ability to manage the virus and keep the population immunity high with the vaccines they have. They really do need, I think, higher-quality vaccines."

The US official allegedly argued that mRNA injections made by Moderna, BioNTech, and Pfizer were more successful than coronavirus vaccinations developed in China.

However, other conference participants acknowledged that Chinese vaccinations offer enough protection against the virus's severe symptoms and fatalities, but noted that they nevertheless have a tendency to perform poorer and lose their effectiveness more quickly than Western mRNA doses.

Three inactivated COVID-19 vaccines created by Sinovac and Sinopharm, as well as the single-dose viral vector vaccine Ad5-nCoV created by CanSino Biologics, have received approval from the Chinese government thus far.

China reported its first death from COVID-19 in 6 months last Sunday, with a rising outbreak despite the strict measures implemented across provinces. Meanwhile, the US still grapples with COVID-related deaths on a daily basis.

China has implemented lockdowns, mass testing, and quarantines to fight the spread of the virus at home.

CanSino's inhaled Covid vaccine gets emergency use approval in China

China's CanSino Biologics Inc. revealed in September that the Covid-19 vaccine it developed has been approved for emergency use as a booster by the country's drug regulator, potentially benefiting its business.

"The approval will have a positive impact on the company's performance if the vaccine is subsequently purchased and used by relevant government agencies," CanSino said.

The company said that the National Medical Products Administration has given the green light to the inhaled version of CanSino's Covid-19 vaccine; however, it alerted that it will face intense competition from other vaccines in the country that have received government approval, too, or are in clinical trials.