Chinese health official says he’s had a mix of 3 Covid-19 shots
- Gao Fu, who heads China’s CDC, tells state media he was among the first to get a locally made vaccine in May last year
- He earlier called for research into mixing doses to boost efficacy but it is not clear if he is taking part in a study
China’s top disease control official says he has had a third Covid-19 shot, as global debate continues on the need for extra doses to boost immunity and protect against new variants.
The report did not say why Gao had been given the third jab, and whether it was part of a study.
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China considers mixing Covid-19 vaccine types to boost effectiveness
Sinovac Biotech chairman Yin Weidong last month said early stage human trials had found that antibodies created by its vaccine had “jumped 10 to 20 times” when a third dose was given three or six months after the full regimen had been completed. In March, Sinopharm executives said the company had developed a new booster shot for its jab but further studies were needed.
Elsewhere, countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Turkey and Indonesia have been offering third booster shots for people who have received Sinopharm and Sinovac jabs, while Britain has announced plans for a third shot to be offered for vulnerable groups ahead of winter.
According to Gao, Chinese scientists have been in a game of “cat and mouse” trying to test how well the existing vaccines work against new variants during outbreaks in the country.
“So far, our vaccines have worked, especially in the face of the Delta strain,” Gao told the magazine.
It was not clear how long they could offer protection for since “this is the first time vaccines against the coronavirus have been developed”, but he said the virus could be around for a long time to come.
Gao himself has been involved in developing a protein-based vaccine with Anhui Zhifei Longcom that has been approved for emergency use in China and is in late-stage human trials in Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ecuador. The vaccine was shown to largely retain its neutralising effects against several variants, including the Delta strain, but with some reduced potency, according to a paper posted on preprint server bioRxiv.org on Friday that has not been peer-reviewed.