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Gravitas: Indonesia suffers as Chinese Vaccines fail

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
The source of the video is an Indian one with a clear bias against China, and the comments on the two videos I've checked out so far are rife with Indian nationalists. Not saying China is innocent by any means, but dramatic and agenda-laden reporting helps no one.

It's no secret at this point that the Chinese vaccines are less effective in preventing infection than their Western counterparts, but the WHO has authorized the Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use:

Sinopharm: Chinese Covid vaccine gets WHO emergency approval

It's worth noting that complete prevention of infection isn't the only upside to vaccination. Prevention of severe disease and hospitalization is also important, so even if the Chinese vaccines are less effective in preventing infection altogether than Western ones, preventing severe disease would be a major benefit given that they're being used in many poorer countries where good emergency care and more effective vaccines (such as Pfizer's) may not be readily accessible.

Without statistics on fatality rates, hospitalization, and severe disease among people fully inoculated with the Chinese vaccines, I don't think it's reasonable to completely dismiss them as entirely useless. Is a shot providing a higher chance of complete prevention of infection better? Absolutely. Does that mean one providing a smaller chance of complete prevention is necessarily going to be useless at preventing severe disease or death? Not according to health experts:

All COVID vaccines stop severe illness and death. Take what's offered.
 
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Jayhawker Soule

-- untitled --
Premium Member
The NYT article is heartbreaking.

And this NYT article makes the salient point ...

The variant’s ferocious transmissibility was on full display in Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most-populous country.

In May, infections there were at their lowest point since the country was gripped by the pandemic last year. By late June, Indonesia was suffering record caseloads as the Delta variant took hold after a religious holiday scattered travelers across the archipelago. On Tuesday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent warned that the country was “on the edge of catastrophe.”​
 
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Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
For further reading on the situation in Indonesia:

Covid-19 Killed 26 Indonesian Doctors in June—at Least 10 Had Taken China’s Sinovac Vaccine

SINGAPORE—At least 10 of the 26 doctors in Indonesia who died from Covid-19 this month had received both doses of the vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech Ltd., a medical association said, raising questions about the Chinese-made shot that is being used in many parts of the developing world.

The Indonesian Medical Association’s Covid-19 mitigation group is still working to verify the vaccination status of the 16 others, said Dr. Adib Khumaidi, who leads the group. According to the group’s latest figures, over a five-month period, at least 20 doctors who were fully inoculated with Sinovac’s vaccine died from Covid-19, accounting for more than a fifth of total fatalities among doctors during that time span.

The toll could rise further in the coming weeks as the country battles a surge in infections and hospitals across the archipelago fill up.

This part is also noteworthy:

Around 90% of Indonesian doctors—roughly 160,000 in all—have been vaccinated with Sinovac’s shot, according to the medical association, so the vaccinated doctors who died are only a tiny percentage of the total.

My own country only offers Chinese vaccines and the AstraZeneca one. Given a choice between the two, I'd pick the latter. But since I most likely won't be able to choose, I'll go for whichever is available when I'm eligible for vaccination. For many people, the choice isn't between a Chinese shot and a better one; it's between a Chinese shot or nothing, and a lack of any shot is an extremely undesirable alternative right now.
 
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