General
Chinese health official says effectiveness of local coronavirus vaccines is low
In a rare admission of the weakness of Chinese coronavirus vaccines, the country’s top disease control official says their effectiveness is low and the government is considering mixing them to give them a boost.
Key points:
- The Chinese Center for Disease Control says locally developed vaccines “don’t have very high protection rates”
- Brazilian researchers found Sinovac’s effectiveness in preventing symptomatic infections was as low as 50.4 per cent
- Experts say mixing vaccines, or sequential immunisation, might boost effectiveness rates
Chinese vaccines “don’t have very high protection rates”, said the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Gao Fu, at a conference in the south-western city of Chengdu.
