The Efficacy of Chinese Vaccines

With the high number of cases of COVID-19, scientists and doctors have been trying to create a suitable vaccine. There have been a number of vaccines found, such as the Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine, and the CoronaVac according to the Washington Post.

The CoronaVac originated in China and was created by the Chinese bio pharmaceutical company Sinovac. CoronaVac is an inactivated vaccine, utilizing virus particles that have been grown in culture then killed. In comparison, the Pfizer and Mordena vaccines are mRNA vaccines and need to be frozen, according to the lancet. Due to it not needing to be frozen, this vaccine is much more available to help those of the developing world. 

The CoronaVac is a more traditional vaccine compared to the new types of vaccines like mRNAs. Inactivated vaccines don’t provide as much immunity compared to live vaccines. This often leads to several doses being needed before developing immunity.  

Many researchers claim this vaccine could reduce the amount of deaths coming from this respiratory infection. 

“When you’ve got communities that are absolutely desperate, and have no other choice, then this is a really great thing to have,” said Hilda Bastian, a researcher at Bond University in the Gold Coast, Australia to Nature.com.

Researchers in Brazil ran many vaccine trials of the vaccine, originally finding CoronaVac to be 78% effective. In January 2021 they found Coronavac to be 50.4% according to the New York Times.

The previous effective rate going down can pose some major setbacks. More than 380 million doses have been ordered and this can prohibit how quickly and easily the vaccine can be distributed globally.The countries who ordered the vaccine tended to be on the poorer side, and desperate to halt the pandemic and protect their population, according to the New York Times. 

This can also be a major setback for Chinese officials, as under an emergency policy, Beijing gave the vaccine to thousands of people already and plans to vaccinate 50 million people by the middle of next month.

The vaccine has yet to be approved by all regulatory companies in each country that has already purchased the vaccine. The Chinese regulator has already approved of the vaccine for wide use throughout the country, as well as phase 1 and phase 2 of testing taking place in China, with phase 3 moving out into different countries according to the Pharm Letter.

“If you’ve got a vaccine with really high efficacy, you don’t need a whole lot of numbers to get a clear picture. But when it’s complicated, then you really need bigger numbers to get a better handle on what’s going on,” continued Bastian.

The vaccine’s mixed results makes many weary about the vaccine’s efficiency according to Nature.com. Further studies are needed to continue to test CoronaVac’s efficiency to be able to distribute this vaccine to the public.

Article by Ryleigh Waters of Watkins Mill High School

Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons