Why China is finally including the elderly in its Covid-19 vaccine programme
- Unlike other countries, China’s vaccination programme has first targeted people in high-risk jobs but is now moving to over-60s
- Health officials say they are proceeding with caution before starting a large-scale roll-out to older people
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China pushes mass vaccinations to build herd immunity against Covid-19
But health officials are proceeding with caution, citing a shortfall in data, as some of China’s vaccine makers appear to have included fewer elderly people in large-scale final phase trials compared to their Western counterparts.
“Research and development units are speeding up their work, once there is sufficient safety and efficacy clinical trial data, we will carry out large-scale vaccinations of people over 60 years of age,” National Health Commission (NHC) spokesman Mi Feng said on March 21.
China’s delay in vaccinating its elderly sets it apart from much of the rest of the world, including countries like Brazil, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates which are using vaccines from Chinese developers Sinopharm or Sinovac BioTech. In these countries, regulators have looked at the same data - including early phase studies - and weighed it up against the risks of a deadly disease that preys on older adults, and decided to vaccinate.
Experts say there is no sign so far that either of these choices is wrong. China has no ongoing local spread of Covid-19, while early evidence out of Brazil and Turkey has shown reductions in severe cases of the disease following Sinovac vaccinations, according to scientists involved with clinical trials there.