Chinese
respiratory specialist Zhong Nanshan speaks in an interview in
Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, July 29, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei) GUANGZHOU,
Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- China's renowned respiratory-disease expert Zhong
Nanshan said Sunday that the mass inoculation of homegrown COVID-19
vaccines underway in China shows the vaccines are safe and effective. The
two vaccines currently in use in China, the China National Biotec Group
(CNBG) COVID-19 vaccine and the CoronaVac vaccine developed by China's
Sinovac Biotech Ltd., are both inactivated vaccines that are relatively
safe, Zhong said at the launch ceremony of an event held in south
China's Guangdong Province to promote the use of technology in COVID-19
prevention and control. According
to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC),
more than 24 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in
China by Sunday. "The
rate of the vaccines' mild adverse reactions, which include fever, soar
arms and other symptoms, is six per 100,000 people," Zhong said. The rate of severe adverse vaccine reactions is one in a million, only one third of that of flu vaccines, he said.
A resident receives the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at a sports
center in Daxing District, Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 23, 2021. (Xinhua/Peng Ziyang) On
the same day, Xu Wenbo, head of the National Institute for Viral
Disease Control and Prevention under the China CDC, also said the
incidence of severe abnormal reactions caused by the COVID-19 vaccines
currently used in China is no higher than that of the influenza
vaccines. In terms of the Chinese vaccines' efficacy, Zhong said the vaccines can protect people against COVID-19 for at least six months. "We
found that antibody levels in the first batch of inoculated people in
China remained at 90 percent of their original levels after nearly eight
months," he said, adding that the Chinese vaccines' effective period
has yet to be confirmed with precision. The
difference in the vaccines' efficacy rates shown by clinical trials in
various countries is due to varying standards used in those countries,
he said. "The
phase-1 and phase-2 clinical trials of the two Chinese vaccines were
conducted domestically, while the phase-3 trials were carried out in
various countries because there were too few COVID-19 cases in China
then," he said. "The countries apply different standards. In some
countries, most of the vaccinated people are medical workers who have
very high exposure risks."
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