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A key question for all Covid-19 vaccines is whether they can prevent or deter actual transmission of the virus. Yin said on Tuesday that Sinovac does not yet know if its shot – a traditional inactivated vaccine – can stop or reduce the virus from being contracted in the first place, but the fact it is preventing serious illness and death is more important.
The mRNA shot developed by BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. has been shown to be over 90 per cent effective in preventing transmission in Israel.
While non-mRNA vaccines are unlikely to be that effective in preventing transmission, the growing body of evidence that Sinovac’s shot works is a boon to China’s mission of supplying the developing world in a bid to increase its influence and standing.
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Bloomberg News
Sinovac’s vaccine is reported to be highly effective in wiping out Covid-19 among healthcare workers in Indonesia, an encouraging sign for the dozens of developing countries that are reliant on the Chinese vaccine. Sinovac performed far worse than western vaccines in clinical trials reported previously in other countries.
In this report, Indonesia monitored 25,374 health workers in capital city Jakarta for 28 days after they received their second dose and found that the Sinovac vaccine protected 100% of them from death and 96% from hospitalization as soon as seven days after, said Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin.
He also said that 94% of the workers had been protected against infection — an extraordinary result that goes beyond what was measured in numerous clinical trials — though it’s unclear if the workers were uniformly screened to detect asymptomatic carriers.
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But the real-world examples also show that the Sinovac shot’s ability to quell outbreaks requires the vast majority of people to be vaccinated, a scenario that developing countries with poor health infrastructure and limited access to shots cannot reach quickly.
In the Indonesian health worker study, and another in a Brazilian town of 45,000 people called Serrana, nearly 100 per cent of people studied were fully vaccinated, with serious illness and deaths dropping after they were inoculated.
In contrast, Chile saw a resurgent outbreak after vaccinating over a third of the population of 19 million – one of the fastest rates in the world, but not fast enough to stop the spread of the aggressive variant sweeping Latin America.
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A key question for all Covid-19 vaccines is whether they can prevent or deter actual transmission of the virus. Yin said on Tuesday that Sinovac does not yet know if its shot – a traditional inactivated vaccine – can stop or reduce the virus from being contracted in the first place, but the fact it is preventing serious illness and death is more important.
The mRNA shot developed by BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. has been shown to be over 90 per cent effective in preventing transmission in Israel.
While non-mRNA vaccines are unlikely to be that effective in preventing transmission, the growing body of evidence that Sinovac’s shot works is a boon to China’s mission of supplying the developing world in a bid to increase its influence and standing.
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Indonesia was one of the earliest countries to place its bets on a Chinese vaccine. In January, President Joko Widodo became the first major world leader to receive the Sinovac shot in a bid to quell scepticism at home and abroad. Since then, Southeast Asia’s largest economy has administered more than 22 million doses, mostly Sinovac, as it seeks to reach herd immunity for its 270-million strong population by year-end.
“The minimum efficacy rate should be above 50 per cent, so beyond that, the best vaccine is the one you can get as soon as possible, as every shot given can prevent deaths,” Health Minister Sadikin said.
“It isn’t only about getting the highest efficacy rate, but inoculating people quickly.”
While neighbouring Malaysia and Thailand are seeing a resurgence in cases, Indonesia’s rate of new infections and deaths has stabilised since a January peak. But with its massive population still mostly unprotected, the upcoming Eid holiday could cause cases to rebound by as much as 60% as people gather with family and travel home despite government restrictions, Sadikin warned.
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