The vaccine-laden plane had just landed at Santiago airport in late January and Chilean President Sebastián Piñera was jubilant. “Today is a day of joy, excitement and hope,” said the president.
The source of that hope: China, a country on which Chile and dozens of other countries depend to help them cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
China’s diplomatic campaign for vaccines is a surprising success: it has pledged to distribute approximately 500 million doses to more than 45 countries, according to a country-by-country survey by The Associated Press. Four of the laboratories producing the vaccine in China have already produced at least 2.6 billion doses this year, guaranteeing that much of the world’s population will not be vaccinated with the published Western vaccines, but with the more modest Chinese vaccine, produced according to methods. traditional.
Not much is known about the Chinese vaccine and there are doubts about its efficacy and reliability, not to mention what China might ask in return for them. But vaccinations have already begun in more than 25 countries and have been delivered to 11 others, according to the AP’s figures, based on independent reports from those countries and official and company announcements.
This success is helping to erase the bad image and mistrust generated by China’s initial handling of the pandemic, the country where the outbreak originated.
‘We are witnessing vaccination diplomacy. China is at the forefront of vaccine manufacturing, which it makes available to others, ”said Krishna Udayakumar, founder and director of the Global Center for Health Innovation at Duke University.
China says it “helps with vaccines” to 53 countries and she exports that to 27, but did not want to provide the list of countries receiving it to the AP. Beijing denies practicing vaccine diplomacy, and a State Department spokesman said Beijing views vaccines as “a global public good.” Chinese experts reject any link between vaccine exports and efforts to improve the country’s image.
China is targeting low- or middle-income countries where rich countries hoard most of the expensive vaccines produced by laboratories such as Pfizer and Moderna. Despite some delay, China has benefited from slow distribution of vaccines by laboratories in the United States and Europe.
Like other countries, Chile received fewer doses of the Pfizer vaccine than promised. The Chinese company Sinovac responded quickly, delivering 4 million doses.
Chile and the other low and middle income countries have few options. The global distribution of vaccines was dominated by wealthy countries, which, according to Duke University, accounted for 5.4 billion of the 7.8 billion doses purchased worldwide.
Chinese vaccines, which can be kept in normal refrigerators, are attractive to countries that struggle to keep them at extremely low temperatures, as required by Pfizer and other vaccines.
Sinovac and Sinopharm are produced using traditional technology, which involves killing a live virus and then purifying it, generating an immune system response. Some countries consider it safer than those produced with newer, little-tested technology circulating in the West and points to a viral spike, despite a lack of information on the reliability of Chinese vaccines.
China is even offering vaccines to countries like Serbia and Hungary, securing a major geopolitical victory in Central Europe and the Balkans, where the West, China and Russia are trying to gain political and economic influence. Hungary is the first country in the European Union to use the Chinese vaccine.
Vaccine diplomacy will work as long as vaccines work, and there are still doubts in that area.
“Little information is available on the Chinese vaccine compared to the other vaccines,” said Ahmed Hamdan Zayed, a nurse from Egypt who overcame his initial resistance and was vaccinated with Sinopharm.
Sinopharm says its vaccine is 79% effective, based on internal clinical studies. He did not respond to requests for interviews.
In Brazil, authorities have revised Sinovac’s effectiveness by reducing it from 78% to 50% after recording mild infections.
A panel of experts in Hong Kong published information provided to health regulators by Sinovac, according to which the effectiveness was 50%.
Health authorities say any vaccine that is at least 50% effective is helpful.
The severity of the pandemic is causing countries to ignore their doubts about the Chinese vaccine.
“Vaccines, especially those produced in the West, are the preserve of wealthy countries,” said an Egyptian official who asked not to be named to discuss the matter. “We had to get a vaccination. Any vaccine ”.