You might miss it amidst all the media propaganda today on the theme of “China admits its COVID vaccines are ineffective,” but the actual news from a scientific conference in Chengdu is that the nation has developed two mRNA vaccines and has them in early trials, expecting authorization by the end of this year. In other words, China has characteristically recognized a breakthrough technology and determined to develop and produce the technology for its own security. CDC Director Gao Fu said at the April 10 conference: “Everyone should consider the benefits mRNA vaccines can bring for humanity. We must follow it carefully and not ignore it just because we already have several types of vaccines already.”
The Washington Post led a lot of other media in quoting Gao at the Chengdu conference, that China is “formally considering options to change its vaccines to solve the problem that the efficacy of the existing vaccines is not high.” The Post portrays this as a highly unusual admission. It actually appears to be a simple determination to improve. There is clearly a gap between the efficacy of the new mRNA vaccines and those produced in the traditional way with killed or inactivated virus. Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine efficacy against any degree of COVID infection is about 66%, compared with above 90% for the Pfizer and Moderna two-shot vaccines. J&J is considering recommendation of a “booster shot,” and so are Sinovac and Sinopharm. Russia’s breakthrough with Sputnik V excepted, most vaccines against most diseases – until the advent of messenger RNA technique — have a 50-70% efficacy.
