Coronavirus: Chinese media champion Sinovac’s vaccine but not everybody is convinced

News reports focus on company’s line of ‘100 per cent’ effectiveness in preventing severe cases

But medical professionals say they will take a closer look at the results before making a decision

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Brazilian researchers say the CoronaVac vaccine has a general efficacy rate of about 50 per cent. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 8:00pm, 14 Jan 2021Updated: 2:10pm, 15 Jan 2021

When Brazilian researchers announced lower-than-expected phase 3 results for a Chinese coronavirus vaccine clinical trial, the response was swift.

Various regulators around the world said they would take a close look at the data for Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac product, which the company’s Brazilian partner, the Butantan Institute, said on Tuesday had a roughly 50 per cent general efficacy rate – well below the 78 per cent reported earlier.

But there was little mention in Chinese media on Thursday of the questions raised by the results.

“Sinovac releases vaccine data in Brazil: 100 per cent effective in preventing severe cases, could reduce hospitalisation by 80 per cent,” nationalist tabloid Global Times reported early on Wednesday.

That message was echoed by Sinovac chairman Yin Weidong when he spoke to the media later in the day.

“The protection rate of the vaccine against severe illness and hospitalisation reached 100 per cent,” Yin said, without mentioning that the Butantan Institute’s study had noted that the figure was statistically inconclusive.