Letters | China’s Omicron surge: what’s stopping Beijing from reaching for mRNA vaccines?

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As China once again imposes widespread lockdowns (“China’s zero-Covid policy leaves poorer regions with little choice but ‘rigid and crude’ lockdowns”, March 18), one obvious lacuna demands an explanation. Where are the vaccines?

A programme of mandatory vaccination with three or four doses of a modern mRNA vaccine would obviously improve the situation. First, transmission would be substantially suppressed, making any “dynamic zero” strategy far more tractable in the face of Omicron. Second, the overwhelming of hospitals would suddenly become inconceivable, and, third, a “living with Covid” strategy would therefore become much more feasible.

The stakes could not be higher. Continued lockdowns will make meeting the economic growth target impossible and do long-term economic damage. Although war in Ukraine has temporarily delayed the United States’ pivot to Asia, the Americans are still coming. And if the Bharatiya Janata Party decides to focus on making money instead of targeting Muslims, India will be a serious rival.

Although there have been some setbacks in developing a domestic mRNA vaccine, China’s efforts so far have been fairly limited, hence the comparative paucity of published studies and randomised trials in badly affected areas. If the vast resources of the Chinese state were properly mobilised, it would be quite simple to produce a Chinese mRNA vaccine with slightly better performance – tailoring to Delta or Omicron would easily provide enough justification for state media to trumpet a success over the West.