China should look beyond political considerations to import Covid-19 jabs to end the pandemic globally, according to the chief executive of the world’s newest vaccine maker.
Adal Poonawala, CEO of the Serum Institute of India, told CNBC’s Jumanna Versethche at the World Economic Forum in December 2018, “They’ve got their hearts set on medicine and vaccines from the West. They need to open up and put aside the political issues and things that are holding them back.” Davos.
China is seeing a surge in cases and deaths from the novel coronavirus after it abruptly ended its zero-virus policy, which imposed strict lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines on arrival.
Chinese Full Covid vaccination coverage World Health Organization figures are near 87%, indicating that 54% of the population is also getting booster jabs.
of Home Covid Vaccine Sinovac and Sinopharm are approved for use in China. These jabs are less effective against the Omicron variant than other mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and BioNTech. Several the study I found.
Poonawala said China’s handling of the 2020 pandemic — including building hospitals and infrastructure, as well as preventative measures — showed Beijing’s ability to respond quickly.
He emphasized China’s decision not to import vaccines from the United States, India and elsewhere, which are “highly effective.”
“I think they should now seriously consider doing it at least as a booster and have vaccines with real-world data and proven efficacy,” he told CNBC. If not, the alternative is that many people in China will continue to be infected and we just hope — they do their best to manage that crisis and get out of it as quickly as possible. .”
He added that this is also a global problem given the number of people who want to travel to China for business or leisure, and the number of Chinese nationals planning to travel abroad.
“We all need to be safe, so we need to end the pandemic and contagion in all countries,” Poonawala said.
“They are [China] They are still deciding which way they want to go and hope it all ends soon. ”
The Serum Research Institute, based in Pune, India, manufactures over 1.5 billion doses of vaccines annually against a variety of diseases. Poonawala said the company is interested in providing the vaccine to China, but talks with Beijing officials have so far been unsuccessful.
CNBC has reached out to representatives of the Chinese government for comment.
