Singapore top health officials are the newest to cast doubt on the efficacy of vaccines manufactured by the Chinese company Sinovac, whilst the island city-state started administering the shots on Friday, consistent with the ny Times. Citing cases of Indonesia, Kenneth Mak, Singapore’s director of medical services, said that he was worried about reports of individuals vaccinated with Sinovac getting sick with coronavirus disease (Covid-19), reported NYT.
“It does give the impression that the efficacy of various vaccines will vary quite significantly,” Times quoted Mak as saying.
Last month, the planet Health Organization (WHO) issued an interim recommendation to be used of the Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine for inoculation against coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Phase 3 trials of Sinovac-CoronaVac round the world have reported the effectiveness of vaccine between 50 and 84 per cent.
However, Indonesian officials earlier in the week revealed that quite 350 doctors and medical workers are infected and dozens hospitalised despite being vaccinated with Sinovac, raising concerns about the vaccine against more infectious variants.
While most of the workers were asymptomatic, dozens were hospitalised with high fevers and falling oxygen-saturation levels, consistent with a senior health official in central Java. Indonesian healthcare workers were among the primary to be inoculated against the virus when the vaccination started within the country in January.
The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) said that nearly all of them received the Covid vaccine developed by Sinovac. District of Kudus in Central Java is battling a Covid outbreak believed to be driven by a more transmissible Delta variant, first detected in India.
"The data shows they need the Delta variant (in Kudus) so it's no surprise that the breakthrough infection is above before, because, as we all know , the bulk of healthcare workers in Indonesia got Sinovac, and that we still don’t know yet how effective it's within the world against the Delta variant,” said Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist at Australia's Griffith University.
Singapore has included vaccines manufactured only by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in its national vaccination program but allowed 24 private health clinics to administer Sinovac following authorisation by the WHO. Despite the supply of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, with 90% effectiveness in preventing infection, many in Singapore would prefer to get Sinovac because they're either from China or decide to travel there, consistent with Times.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had initially bashed the “origin” of Sinovac-CoronaVac and refused to shop for it. While doctors say residents should get any shot available, Brazilians are spurning Sinovac’s CoronaVac, which they believe are substandard, in favour of hard-to-find Pfizer shots, reported Bloomberg.
