International [Chinese COVID Vaccines News] After Sowing Propaganda Against mRNA Tech, China Realize They Needs It

[ShinkanPo]

@ShinkanPo @JDragon Beijing is contemplating the red pill to have any chance of reopening their borders again, after spending months talking shit on the vastly-superior mRNA vaccines that they deriled as "human experiment".<Lmaoo>

This is particularly amusing since some of the fake news made in China (and Russia) against mRNA vaccines are still being regurgitated by anti-vaxxers in the WR.

1.4 billion doses later, China is realizing it may need mRNA COVID vaccines
China may finally approve the BioNTech vaccine, after months of promoting homegrown options.
BY GRADY MCGREGOR | July 16, 2021​

China is the only major economy in the world not to approve or distribute COVID-19 vaccines that use the mRNA technology proven to be one of the most effective tools in preventing the spread of COVID-19. But China’s mRNA stance may be changing.

On Thursday, Chinese media outlet Caixin reported that Chinese regulators had completed a review of the COVID-19 jab developed by German mRNA vaccine maker BioNTech and distributed locally via China’s Fosun Pharma. Fosun is still awaiting final approval from regulators, but, once approved, Fosun could deploy the 100 million doses it acquired from BioNTech last December to the Chinese market by the end of 2021.

The approval would also unlock Fosun’s capacity to produce 1 billion more BioNTech shots domestically per year, part of the deal Fosun and BioNTech struck in May to make a new joint venture company in China.

The anticipated approval is a long time coming.

Fosun has been applying to get the BioNTech vaccine approved in the Chinese market since at least last November, when BioNTech and its other global distributor Pfizer first announced clinical data showing that the mRNA vaccine was effective against COVID-19. The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine has since gained approval from the World Health Organization and has proved to be highly effective, including against the Delta variant, in halting outbreaks and preventing deaths related to COVID-19 in real-world settings.

China’s delayed approval of the BioNTech jab is likely due, in part, to the government publicly casting doubt on the usefulness of mRNA vaccines earlier this year and the promotion of its homegrown alternatives.

But the recent rise of the COVID-19 Delta variant may be pushing Beijing to change tack. Amid Delta-driven COVID-19 outbreaks, foreign governments appear to be losing some confidence in the performance of Chinese vaccines compared with mRNA vaccines from companies like BioNTech and Moderna. And Beijing may be coming around to the idea that an mRNA vaccine could bolster its own pandemic response and ease its long-awaited border reopening.

China and mRNA

China’s resistance to mRNA technology became apparent earlier this year, when state media outlets attempted to sow doubt about mRNA jabs from companies like Pfizer as a means to promote China’s domestically produced shots.

On Jan. 15, the Global Times, a nationalistic tabloid, blasted Western media outlets for their critical coverage of Chinese jabs and hinted that relying on new mRNA vaccines was dangerous.

“This large-scale promotion of Pfizer’s vaccine is a continuous process of large-scale testing on human beings,” the Global Times wrote.

Days later, the People’s Daily, the state-owned mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, followed up with a story that promoted an unproven link between deaths in Norwegian nursing homes and Pfizer’s shot.

Nicholas Thomas, a professor of health security at the City University of Hong Kong, says skepticism of Pfizer jabs has spread to the Chinese public, and “consistently negative views” toward mRNA vaccines have proliferated on China’s tightly controlled social media platforms.

“The domestic China narrative on vaccines has been exclusively tilted towards the inactivated virus types” as a means to promote the homegrown shots, says Thomas.

Instead of mRNA, China’s leading vaccine makers, namely the state-owned Sinopharm and private firm Sinovac, rely on inactivated vaccine technology. These vaccines introduce a killed—or inactivated—form of COVID-19 into the body’s immune system, and China made the bet that using the century-old approach would create fewer regulatory and production problems than newer methods.

But China’s official line regarding mRNA vaccines has softened since January.

“Everyone should consider the benefits mRNA vaccines can bring for humanity,” Gao Fu, director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a speech in April.

But Gao’s comments have not marked a complete reversal in China’s stance toward mRNA vaccines, notes Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“We haven’t seen any strong efforts to promote mRNA vaccines in China,” Huang says. “There is a political concern that if China approves the mRNA vaccines, it might send a signal that leads people to question the effectiveness of the existing [Chinese] vaccines.”

China may be trying to find a sort of middle ground on the issue.

Caixin reports that authorities plan to use the BioNTech jabs not as alternatives to its domestically produced shots, but instead as optional booster shots after people get a two-dose regimen of Chinese vaccines. Thomas says this measure may be the best way for China to avoid undermining confidence in its existing vaccine campaign while also improving immunity in its population.

“[BioNTech booster shots] would combine with, and thereby validate, the existing vaccine regime in China,” says Thomas.

China may also eventually add mRNA shots from domestic producers.

Walvax Biotechnology, a private vaccine maker based in China’s southwestern Yunnan province, has the leading mRNA vaccine candidate in China and is awaiting clearance to begin final Phase III trials.

“I believe China really needs to have its own mRNA vaccine,” says Dr. Tong Xin, director of research development at Walvax. “This vaccine technology has been proved effective…I really hope it gets launched on Chinese land.”

Waning confidence
For its existing vaccines, China is largely relying on Sinopharm and Sinovac jabs, which were recently approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization.

But even with the WHO’s backing, governments globally appear to be losing confidence in the jabs as questions crop up about the efficacy of Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, especially against the more transmissible Delta variant.

In Thailand, authorities announced on Monday that people who got injected with one dose of Sinovac would get AstraZeneca’s jab as their second dose and fully vaccinated health workers would be offered a booster shot of Pfizer or AstraZeneca. The move came after Thailand reported 618 COVID-19 infections and one death among 677,000 medical workers who were fully vaccinated with Sinovac’s two-dose regimen.

Indonesia’s health minister also recently hinted that the country will reduce its reliance on Sinovac shots amid reports that hundreds of health care workers had contracted COVID and 10 had died of the disease after receiving Sinovac jabs.

The United Arab Emirates recommends that people receiving the Sinopharm jabs get a booster shot of Pfizer six months after they complete their Sinopharm regimen.

Ashley St. John, an immunologist at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, says that all available evidence points to Sinovac and Sinopharm jabs preventing infections and saving lives, even with the rise of new variants.

Sinovac and Sinopharm have not released data on how their COVID vaccines perform against new variants. Scientific studies conducted before the emergence of the Delta variant showed that the Sinovac and Sinopharm jabs were 50% and 79% effective, respectively, in preventing COVID-19 infections. The BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, meanwhile, was 95% effective against COVID-19 in clinical trials and is likely to be at least 64% effective against the Delta variant.

St. John says there is no reason for countries to stop using Sinovac or Sinopharm jabs, unless they have a better option.

“There will be people who survived COVID because they have [Sinovac and Sinopharm] vaccines,” she says. “But some countries have other options that they see as better…The mRNA vaccines are performing better, so it makes sense to endorse that.”

Closed borders
China may also need to accept the mRNA shots to reopen its borders.

Relying largely on Sinovac and Sinopharm, China has distributed over 1.4 billion vaccine doses to its citizens, enough to fully cover over half its population. But even with China’s blistering vaccination pace, the country may not reopen its borders until mid-2022, in part owing to concerns that the Sinovac and Sinopharm jabs may be effective in preventing deaths, but limited in their ability to prevent transmission of the virus, the Wall Street Journal reports.

China’s borders are still locked to most outsiders, and Beijing continues to adhere to a strict COVID zero strategy to stamp out even small outbreaks. After a COVID-19 outbreak infected dozens of people in the southern city of Guangzhou in June, for example, authorities locked down large parts of the city, sent thousands of people into quarantine, and tested millions for COVID-19.

“If China still sticks to this containment-based approach [to COVID-19], that means its priorities are preventing infections. There are signs that Sinovac and Sinopharm’s inactivated vaccines are not that effective in terms of achieving that objective,” says Huang.

If China does not embrace mRNA vaccines, it may get left behind countries that do.

“What is now clear is that [mRNA] technology works and is superior to the current Chinese [inactivated] approach,” says Thomas. “The Chinese government needs to unpick its own position on mRNA vaccines if it is to provide better community protection as it opens up.”

https://fortune.com/2021/07/16/china-mrna-vaccine-pfizer-biontech-fosun-doses/amp/

Hey I got my first dose of Sinovac the other day.

Nice knowing you.

And yeah funny how the WR anti vaxers are in essence coopting Chinese propaganda.

Saboteurs if you will.

Good luck to you and God speed to your country.

 

[Arkain2K]

Hey I got my first dose of Sinovac the other day.

Nice knowing you.

And yeah funny how the WR anti vaxers are in essence coopting Chinese propaganda.

Saboteurs if you will.

Good luck to you and God speed to your country.

Good luck, bro. Some protection is still better than no protection at all, especially now that Southeast Asia is the new COVID capital of the world.

Some African countries started refusing Sinovac in their COVAX shipment, that means there's more for Asian countries willing to take them.

 

[Arkain2K]

WHO begins shipping Chinese vaccines despite some misgivings
By Francesco Guarascio and Alexander Winning, Stanley Widianto | August 26, 2021​

The World Health Organization's pandemic programme plans to ship 100 million doses of the Sinovac and Sinopharm COVID-19 shots by the end of next month, mostly to Africa and Asia, in its first delivery of Chinese vaccines, a WHO document shows.

The Chinese shipments will help the sputtering global COVAX vaccine sharing programme which is far behind its pledge to deliver 2 billion doses this year following supply problems and export curbs imposed by major producer India.

It could also boost Beijing's vaccine diplomacy efforts despite concerns over the efficacy of the Chinese shots, which have been turned down or paired with boosters from Western manufacturers by some of the recipient countries.

Of the 100 million Chinese vaccines, half will be provided by Sinopharm and half by Sinovac, with deliveries planned for "July to September 2021", a WHO document dated July 29 says.

About 10 million Sinopharm shots had been shipped by mid-August, a spokesperson for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), which co-leads COVAX along with the WHO, told Reuters.

Sinopharm, Sinovac and China's trade ministry did not respond to requests for comment about when the Chinese vaccines would be delivered.

The Chinese vaccines have been allocated to 60 countries, mostly in Africa, which is expected to receive a third of the 100 million doses.

However, not all countries want the Chinese vaccines.

South Africa is listed by COVAX as one of Africa's largest recipients of Chinese shots with an allocation of 2.5 million Sinovac doses, but a senior health official told Reuters the country was currently unable to accept the vaccines.

"There is not enough information on effectiveness against the Delta variant and there is no data on Sinovac in populations with HIV," said Nicholas Crisp, a deputy director-general in the health department who is overseeing the vaccine rollout.

"We have not accepted the COVAX Sinovac because it is premature in our evaluation and planning process," he told Reuters.

Sinovac did not immediately respond to a request for comment about South Africa's stance.

Nigeria, the main recipient of Chinese shots in Africa under COVAX with an allocation of nearly 8 million Sinopharm doses, has approved that vaccine but has called it a "potential" option for the country's inoculation campaign.

BOOSTERS TO CHINESE SHOTS

A GAVI spokesperson declined to comment on South Africa and Nigeria and noted that other countries had not been included in this round, with one of the reasons being that some had decided not to receive the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines.

COVAX's allocation of Chinese vaccines comes after the WHO gave emergency approval to the Sinopharm shot in May and Sinovac in June. GAVI has secured a combined supply of up to 550 million vaccines from the two companies until next year.

Including the Chinese vaccines, the facility expects to deliver about 500 million doses by the end of September, its latest forecast shows. It has so far shipped 215 million vaccines, mostly AstraZeneca's. read more

Asian countries are expected to receive more than 25 million Chinese vaccines, of which nearly 11 million Sinovac doses would go to Indonesia, making it the largest recipient of Chinese shots through COVAX. Other vaccines will go to countries in Latin America and the Middle East.

Indonesia has decided to give boosters, largely with the Moderna vaccine, to healthcare workers - who have mostly been immunised with Sinovac shots.

That mirrored similar moves in other countries that have deployed Sinovac shots, such as Brazil and Chile.

Healthcare workers are a small portion of those vaccinated in Indonesia, but the booster policy has been interpreted by many as a sign of decreasing confidence in Sinovac.

Asked why Indonesia was buying the vaccine, of which the country is a major recipient also through bilateral deals, an official at the Indonesian health ministry told Reuters: "Sinovac could assure us of the amount they could deliver."

https://www.reuters.com/business/he...-vaccines-despite-some-misgivings-2021-08-26/

 

[ElKarlo]

Hey I got my first dose of Sinovac the other day.

Nice knowing you.

And yeah funny how the WR anti vaxers are in essence coopting Chinese propaganda.

Saboteurs if you will.

Good luck to you and God speed to your country.

Dang, well good luck with dying of teh AIDs.

 

[ElKarlo]

WHO begins shipping Chinese vaccines despite some misgivings
By Francesco Guarascio and Alexander Winning, Stanley Widianto | August 26, 2021

https://www.reuters.com/business/he...-vaccines-despite-some-misgivings-2021-08-26/

There isn't a vaccine shortage anymore. Just give poor countries AZT, why dirty their reputation more with this nonsense?

 

[Arkain2K]

There isn't a vaccine shortage anymore. Just give poor countries AZT, why dirty their reputation more with this nonsense?

AZ is the backbone of COVAX thanks to their lowest cost. Most of the 200,000,000+ doses they've sent out so far are AZ, not the Chinese stuff.

There are still billions of people in the Third World who are still waiting for their first dose though, and for them anything is better than nothing, a year and a half into the pandemic.

 

[ElKarlo]

AZ is the backbone of COVAX thanks to their lowest cost. Most of the 200,000,000+ doses they've sent out so far are AZ.

There are still billions of people in the Third World who are still waiting for their first dose though, and for them anything is better than nothing, a year and a half into the pandemic.

So is AZT making vaccines for them then?

 

[Arkain2K]

A rare direct comparison from Bahrain:

 

[ocean size]

So is AZT making vaccines for them then?

AZT is an HIV drug

 

[ShinkanPo]

Good luck, bro. Some protection is still better than no protection at all, especially now that Southeast Asia is the new COVID capital of the world.

Some African countries started refusing Sinovac in their COVAX shipment, that means there's more for Asian countries willing to take them.

I was hesitant and stuborn at first I said I will just wait for a better vaccine but ny friends where all begging me and crying.

They fear I could die next since we already lost a couple of buddies and mostly in their late 20s to mid 30s.

They really begged me to get the shot they say I am a walking comorbidity.

 

[Arkain2K]

Brazil suspends use of 12 million Sinovac vaccine shots from unauthorized plant
By Nayara Figueiredo | September 4, 2021

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's federal health regulator Anvisa on Saturday suspended the use of over 12 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd that were produced in an unauthorized plant, it said in a statement.

Anvisa said it was alerted on Friday by Sao Paulo's Butantan institute, a biomedical center that has partnered with Sinovac to locally fill and finish the vaccines, that 25 batches, or 12.1 million doses, sent to Brazil had been made in the plant.

"The manufacturing unit ... was not inspected and was not approved by Anvisa in the authorization of emergency use of the mentioned vaccine," the regulator said. The ban was "a precautionary measure to avoid exposing the population to possible imminent risk," it added.

Butantan also told Anvisa that another 17 batches, totaling 9 million doses, had been produced in the same plant, and were on their way to Brazil, the regulator said.

During the 90-day ban, Anvisa will seek to inspect the plant, and find out more about the security of the manufacturing process, it said.

During Brazil's vaccine rollout earlier this year, the vast majority of administered vaccines were from Sinovac. More shots from other manufacturers have since come online.

Brazil on Saturday reported 21,804 new coronavirus cases, and 692 COVID-19 deaths.

https://news.yahoo.com/brazil-health-regulator-suspends-12-214312060.html

 

[Arkain2K]

Abu Dhabi Makes Boosters Mandatory for Sinopharm Vaccine
By Adveith Nair | August 29, 2021​

Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich capital of the United Arab Emirates, has made booster doses mandatory for people who were inoculated with the Sinopharm vaccine.

“Vaccinated individuals who received their second dose of Sinopharm vaccine more than six months ago must receive a booster dose to enhance their immunity,” Abu Dhabi’s media office said in a tweet. Other vaccines don’t currently require booster doses.

Abu Dhabi’s media office didn’t say if the requirements would apply to the six other emirates, including Dubai, that make up the UAE. Abu Dhabi currently restricts access to some public spaces to people who have been fully vaccinated, and those who fail to get booster shots by Sept. 20 will no longer be able to enter these places.

The UAE has approved vaccines from Moderna Inc., Pfizer Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc., but the country’s inoculation program -- one of the fastest globally -- has hinged on Sinopharm, which is also being produced locally.

Sinopharm won the World Health Organization’s backing for its vaccine earlier this year, and its efficacy for preventing symptomatic infections and hospitalizations was estimated to be 79% in all age groups combined.

The UAE has already administered third doses to a “small number” of people who didn’t develop antibodies after their first two Sinopharm shots, The National newspaper reported in March. Peng Xiao, the chief executive officer of G42, the company that’s making the Sinopharm shot locally in the UAE, told Bloomberg at the time the firm was “testing if a third shot can help to protect against new mutations.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...booster-doses-mandatory-for-sinopharm-vaccine

 

[Arkain2K]

Hong Kong lawmaker Regina Ip gets BioNTech jab after no antibodies detected from Sinovac vaccines
By KELLY HO | 17 SEPTEMBER 2021

​

Hong Kong lawmaker Regina Ip has received a dose of the German-developed BioNTech vaccine after finding that no Covid antibodies were detected from her two jabs with the Chinese-made Sinovac some six months ago.

Ip, a member of both the Legislative and Executive Councils, tested negative for coronavirus antibodies earlier this week. She said on Thursday she acted as a “guinea pig” by receiving the extra shot of BioNTech after she was fully vaccinated in March with two doses of Sinovac.

Ip took her latest jab at the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital Eastern Medical Centre, which reached out to a handful of executive councillors to take part in a clinical test on the effect of getting three doses.

The lawmaker described herself as having been among “the first batch” to be inoculated in Hong Kong. A blood test on Monday showed no Covid-19 antibodies could be detected in her, close to seven months since the first dose.

“It means after a period of time, there were no more antibodies in my body. Even though I was vaccinated earlier, I may still get infected with Covid-19, or even spread it to others,” Ip wrote on Facebook, adding she was slightly exhausted after the shot, but her condition was “still good.”

At least six other executive council members have received or will receive a booster shot through the hospital, sources told HK01. HKFP has reached out to the hospital for confirmation and comment.

The Hong Kong government’s free vaccination programme offered a choice between BioNTech and Sinovac. Numerous international tests have found the Chinese-made vaccines to be less effective than many of those developed in other countries.

On June 5, Ip tweeted: I had an antibody test last week, 2 months after I was fully vaccinated. I am delighted the result shows I am well protected against Covid. Sinovac’s vaccine works!”

Last month, local respiratory disease expert Dr Leung Chi-chiu said there was no rush for people to get a third Covid-19 shot and they should wait for an official recommendation from the authorities. The doctor also advised against combining different brands of vaccines, saying there had been no published data on the efficacy of the approach.

An expert panel advising the government said on Wednesday that there was “no urgent need” to arrange booster shots. But it said the government may consider to begin vaccinating people with a third dose two or three months before a date is set for the city to reopen its borders.

As of Thursday, 3,902,300 people in Hong Kong had received two doses of Covid-19 vaccine. Among them, 1,429,200 took the Sinovac ones, while 2,473,100 were inoculated with the BioNTech shot.

https://hongkongfp.com/2021/09/17/c...no-antibodies-detected-from-sinovac-vaccines/

 

[Arkain2K]

Covid Shot From China’s Clover Found 79% Effective Against Delta in Late-stage Trials
Bloomberg News | September 22, 2021​

A vaccine developed by Sichuan Clover Biopharmaceuticals Inc. was found to prevent 79% of Covid-19 cases caused by the delta strain in late-stage trials, making it the first Chinese shot to offer clear efficacy data against the variant causing resurgent virus waves around the world.

The Clover candidate deploys protein on the coronavirus to stimulate immunity against Covid, an approach also used by the shot developed by Novavax Inc. It is 100% effective against severe Covid caused by any variants detected in the trial, including delta, gamma and mu, which first emerged from India, Brazil and Colombia respectively.

The vaccine prevented 67% of Covid of any severity caused by any strain, the company based in the western Chinese city of Chengdu said in a press release on Wednesday.

The efficacy data was based on a total of 207 cases of symptomatic Covid two weeks after clinical trial participants received the second dose of either the Clover shot or a placebo. Genetic sequencing was conducted on 146 of the cases, with the delta, mu and gamma variants accounting for nearly three-quarters of them. The trial enrolled more than 30,000 adults and elderly across the Philippines, Brazil, Columbia, South Africa and Belgium, according to the company’s statement.

The shot, given in two doses at a three-week interval, is the first Chinese inoculation to demonstrate definitive evidence as to its potency against predominant variants around the world.

Inactivated vaccines made by Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and state-owned Sinopharm are among the most used in China and other parts of the world, and have efficacy rates ranging from around 50% to 80% in preventing symptomatic Covid. That’s below the 90% rates seen in Phase III trials of the mRNA shots developed by Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc.

Sinovac and Sinopharm have also provided little conclusive data on the effectiveness of their shots against delta, which is more infectious than the virus’ original strain and appears to have dimmed the protection of existing vaccines.

Chinese vaccine maker Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products Co. said in August that its Covid vaccine -- which is similar to the Clover candidate but requires three doses -- was found to be almost 78% effective against delta and 92.93% effective against the alpha variant, though it didn’t specify whether the figures were for serious illness or all symptomatic infections.

Clover’s shot was developed with $328 million in funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which has also backed the development of the AstraZeneca Plc and Moderna Covid vaccines. Clover signed an agreement with vaccine alliance Gavi to supply up to 414 million doses to Covax, a program backed by the World Health Organization to ensure access to shots for the world’s poorest nations.

The company will apply for approval of the vaccine with regulators in China, the European Union and the World Health Organization in the fourth quarter of this year, and expects to roll out the shot by the end of 2021, Clover said in the statement.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ina-s-clover-found-79-effective-against-delta

 

[Arkain2K]

They regularly perform the harshest of lockdowns

If you follow China news, it’s seriously like every other week some city goes on lockdown.

Yeah, they're pretty adamant on not making the news in subsequent waves the way India did. That means "Zero COVID" lockdowns are the go-to tool, and those creepy-ass "quaratine containers" that we saw a year and a half ago are still in use today to hold infected people.

Look no futher than the 33,000 Chinese who were locked in Shanghai Disneyland this week when an infected person got in. Unlike Wuhan, no one tried to break quarantine this time though, so no footage of infected people being chased down by Mickey Mouse and caught with animal leash.

Over 33,000 Guests Locked Inside Shanghai Disneyland After Covid Scare Over the Weekend
TRISTAN BALAGTAS | November 03, 2021

Shanghai Disneyland immediately went into lockdown with over 33,000 guests inside its park after a COVID-19 scare on Halloween.

According to NPR, a guest from the Jiangxi province who visited the park on Saturday tested positive for the virus.

Following China's strict COVID-19 protocols on Sunday evening, the park shut its gates, forbidding any guests from leaving or entering, and a mass COVID testing site was erected in the middle of the park.

Healthcare workers dressed in head-to-toe protective gear rushed in to conduct nasal swab tests on all of the park goers.

Those stuck inside the park took to social media to share the bizarre experience. Videos showed Disneyland's iconic fireworks show carrying on above workers and guests as they awaited test results.

Another video showed masked guests, shoulder to shoulder, waiting to be given permission to leave.

A Disney employee told the Wall Street Journal that the fireworks show was intentional in order to divert guests' attention from the health scare. Additionally, charging cords were handed out so guests could charge their phones.

PEOPLE was unable to reach a representative for Disneyland Shanghai. However, a person inside Shanghai Disneyland at the time of the lockdown told the Associated Press that despite the scare, testing seemed to go fairly smoothly. "No one complained, and everyone behaved really well," a woman with the family name of Chen said.

On Monday, the city announced that all of Sunday's 33,868 park goers tested negative, though they all must self-isolate for 24 hours before undergoing another COVID test.

It's reported that an estimated total of 100,000 people who visited the park over the course of the weekend will have to undergo testing.

The park, which has been shut down since Sunday, announced that it reopened the gates to both Shanghai Disneyland and Disneytown on Wednesday, following protocol. According to the statement, all employees returning to work completed two Nucleic Acid Tests with negative test results.

The company said those who were inside the park during the lockdown can request a ticket refund.

https://people.com/travel/shanghai-disneyland-covid-scare-guests-locked-inside-testing/?amp=true

 

[Curmudgeon]

Are they flattening the curve?

 

[Arkain2K]

Are they flattening the curve?

There is no curve. If someone is infected, they're swept away by hazmat suits to quarrantine, and everyone who might be in contact are tested:

Chinese health authorities insist country will stick to zero tolerance approach to Covid-19
https://amp.scmp.com/news/china/sci...th-authorities-insist-country-will-stick-zero

Furthermore, over 75% of their population are innoculated, though their vaccines may be not as good as the ones from the West:

China has given 75.96% of population complete COVID-19 vaccine doses
https://www.reuters.com/world/china...9-vaccine-doses-by-nov-5-official-2021-11-06/

Pretty much the same playbook they used to cleanse Wuhan, but now on a national scale. And unlike India, they can afford to do this (both politically and financially) on the regular.

 

[Curmudgeon]

There is no curve.

If someone is infected, they're swept away by hazmat suits to quarrantine.

So they're "stopping the spread"?

 

[Arkain2K]

So they're "stopping the spread"?

It's been "Zero COVID" since Wuhan.

India attempted this Total Lockdown business for Wave 1 and it bought them some time before shit hits the fan, but China still kept going, and those quarantine centers made out of shipping containers we saw in those early COVID threads are still in use today.

One Chinese town has started a fiery online debate about China's zero-COVID policy
November 5, 2021​

A community worker delivers daily necessities to a household during quarantine conditions in the southwestern Chinese city of Ruili. Residents have taken to social media to complain about what they describe as harsh lockdown measures brought on by China's zero COVID policy.​

BEIJING – Residents left starving inside makeshift quarantine centers fashioned out of shipping containers. Businesses forbidden from selling goods – even online. A baby reportedly tested for COVID 74 times.

These are some of the stories emerging from Ruili, a southwestern Chinese town famed for the quality of its jade. Situated on the border with Myanmar, Ruili has been battered by three successive lockdowns in the last year, pulling the town of about 270,000 people into the center of a fiery debate online about who must shoulder the costs of China's zero-COVID policies.

Online, thousands of Ruili residents have begun posting descriptions of the conditions they face and desperate messages for help. The response? An even greater volume of online vitriol from fellow Chinese citizens who believe the rigid quarantine policies are worth the human cost.

"I feel like our entire city has been abandoned by the rest of the country," said a jade trader surnamed Wang. He wanted to use only his family name because he fears state and online retribution: "I do not feel like I am living in China right now."


Earlier this year, his wife went to work one morning, only to be forced to find somewhere else to stay for a 45-day quarantine after the city district was sealed off because of a handful of cases discovered nearby. She was rounded up and told to shelter in place, with no date of release and no regular supply of food. Wang says he was finally able to get her out by asking a well-connected friend to bring her to a hospital on medical grounds, after which she did another two week hotel quarantine before being allowed to return home.

Yet despite the anger in Ruili, most people in China support the country's strict pandemic prevention policies, despite their huge economic cost and the risk of being suddenly quarantined or tested during frequent contact-tracing investigations. Local governments are under enormous pressure to ensure no infections crop up; officials who fail are often publicly shamed and fired.

People unlucky enough to test positive or — more commonly — cross paths with a close contact can find themselves ensnared in successive and expensive quarantines. Others have found themselves stuck in limbo, unable to leave cities under lockdown, including Ruili, and also banned from returning to their hometowns.

"These people [who criticize me] are brainless," said Wang. "Once such a calamity falls on their heads, they will not be saying such boneheaded things anymore."

The complaints in Ruili come as China is in the midst of containing more than 1,000 active infections across 17 regions — a relatively high number for Beijing, which has liberally deployed mass testing and quarantines to keep the national tally of cases hovering around zero for the last year. Authorities have already locked down several major cities (occasionally stranding tourists on vacation), quarantined thousands of close contacts and sometimes cancelled flights and trains to Beijing from areas where just a single active case has been identified.

China's zero-tolerance approach to the novel coronavirus is in stark contrast with much of the rest of the world, which has accepted that the illness will circulate in perpetuity and can only be countered with high immunization rates.

China, too, has pursued an aggressive vaccination campaign. It has three domestic vaccines approved for use in people as young as 3 years old, and health authorities say more than 70% of people living in China are now fully vaccinated.

But the country has simultaneously ramped up COVID-related restrictions as Beijing prepares for two important political meetings for top Communist Party officials this November and next October. Beijing has also indicated it is unlikely to re-open its international borders until after the Winter Olympic Games, which will start this February in Beijing.

"I believe, for now, that the zero-transmission strategy is not too costly but is in fact a relatively less costly method," Dr. Zhong Nanshan, an infectious disease expert who has become the public face of China's pandemic control efforts, said in an interview with the state broadcaster this week.

The zero-transmission strategy has been implemented especially harshly in Ruili, parts of which are only yards away from northern Myanmar. Authorities have blamed successive COVID flare-ups on traders and refugees who frequently cross the border into China.

After the online outcry of Ruili residents gained momentum, the city said it would waive quarantine and testing costs for residents. It also set up ten additional quarantine hotels for people trying to leave. But residents say conditions inside the hotel centers are dire and put residents at risk of cross-infection. Those unable to pay for hotel quarantines are housed in shipping containers where conditions are worse.

"There is no hot water, the food is barely edible and other than spraying some disinfectant, the hotel rooms are not cleaned between quarantines," Lu, a Ruili jade trader. In March, she and her husband were suddenly put in quarantine for what reason, leaving her two children, ages 4 and 14, at home by themselves. She also requested her first name be withheld because she is worried about state retribution.

Some of the city's supermarkets have reopened since closing in March but residents say they fear being caught away from home by a sudden quarantine notice, which would put them in limbo. So they prefer to shop at night, when patrols are looser and they can buy supplies undetected.

"We support the government and its policies but that does not mean we should also have to go hungry," said Li Jie, a Ruili resident who just finished a 14-day hotel quarantine when NPR reached her by phone on Friday.

She hopes to move permanently back to her hometown in northeastern Liaoning province but lists the bureaucratic obstacles she must overcome to do so: first seek approval to complete a 7-day hotel quarantine to leave Ruili, then a 14-day hotel quarantine in Liaoning, expenses she cannot afford because authorities have banned people from going to work for the better part of this year.

Last month, Ruili's predicament prompted the city's former deputy mayor Dai Rongli to post an unusually candid essay on his personal social media page, asking Beijing to grant relief.

The pandemic has "mercilessly robbed this city time and again, squeezing dry the city's last sign of life," Dai Rongli wrote. His essay went viral, prompting Dai to clarify he was not criticizing the country's policies but merely asking for compassion and more resources to support the city's pandemic prevention policies.

"I know the government's job is not easy," he told a Chinese outlet. "But I want people to understand how truly difficult life is in Ruili right now."

Days later, the city's current mayor Shang Labian dismissed Dai's essay in a curt interview with Chinese outlet The Paper: "Ruili does not need outside assistance for the time being," he said.

www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/11/05/1052811962/one-chinese-town-has-started-a-fiery-online-debate-about-chinas-zero-covid-polic

 

[Arkain2K]

2 doses of Sinopharm vaccine offers very weak protection against Omicron
Zhuang Pinghui | 18 Dec 2021

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus evades immunity offered by an inactivated Covid-19 vaccine developed by Sinopharm, a lab study has found.

Researchers from the University of Washington and Swiss antibody therapeutics company Humabs BioMed investigated how the Omicron variant might escape immunity from past infections or vaccination by comparing the performance of plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients and people vaccinated with six major Covid-19 vaccines.

They tested how the plasma worked against a pseudovirus genetically modified to resemble the ancestral and Omicron variants of the virus that causes Covid-19. The results of the study, which were not peer-reviewed, were published on BioRxiv.org.

Results showed the antibody levels of people vaccinated with Sinopharm’s vaccine dropped significantly against Omicron compared with the ancestral, or older, strain and, of the total 13 participants, only three people could be found to produce detectable antibodies that could block the Omicron strain of the virus from entering cells, a process known as “neutralising”.

David Veesler, associate professor at the department of biochemistry at the University of Washington and one of the correspondence authors of the study, said the in vitro studies evaluated plasma neutralising antibodies “which is a correlate of protection against Sars-CoV-2”, the virus that causes Covid-19.

“However, other factors such as T cells [an immune system cell] can play important roles to protect us against pathogens, especially in the absence of neutralising antibodies,” Veesler said.

“It is accurate to say that we could not detect plasma neutralising activity against Omicron in most Sinopharm vaccines. Evaluating vaccine-efficacy in the human population will require epidemiology studies.”

A drop in effectiveness against Omicron was observed in all six vaccines tested, but participants vaccinated with Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines displayed higher levels of neutralising antibodies against the ancestral strain and, after a 33-44-fold drop they still had detectable neutralising antibodies against the Omicron variant.

The study follows a similar one conducted by the University of Hong Kong, which showed that two doses of Sinovac, the Covid-19 vaccine most used in the world, could not prevent infection from the Omicron variant. It also offered a rare glimpse into the effectiveness of vaccines widely used in low-income countries but less studied than mRNA vaccines.

https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplu...eak-protection-against-new-strain-finds-study