Coronavirus: Brazil study finds Sinovac far less effective at reducing deaths in elderly

Name: Inside a plant in China producing the WHO-approved Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine
Uploaded: 2021-08-27T12:00:21.000Z
Duration: 2 min 35 s
Description: Inside a plant in China producing the WHO-approved Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine

AstraZeneca was found to be better at preventing infections, with a 70 per cent lower risk compared to 54 per cent for Sinovac

Research tracked nearly 61 million people who have received one of the two vaccines, but it has not been peer-reviewed

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The study tracked people who received the AstraZeneca or Sinovac vaccines in Brazil to see how effective they were at preventing infection, hospitalisation, intensive care and death. Photo: AP

Zhuang Pinghui

Published: 8:00pm, 27 Aug 2021Updated: 10:02pm, 27 Aug 2021

A large-scale study in Brazil has found the AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines – both widely used in low- and middle-income countries – to be effective in reducing hospitalisations, severe illness and deaths from Covid-19.

But the researchers said the AstraZeneca jab worked much better to prevent infections, and performed well against the Gamma variant that was first detected in Brazil.

The Sinovac shot was meanwhile found to provide far less protection against the risk of death in people aged over 80. It was 35.4 per cent effective in that age group, compared to 80 per cent for younger cohorts.

The study – involving nearly 61 million people who were inoculated in a vaccination drive between January and June – was posted to preprint server medRxiv.org on Wednesday and has not been peer-reviewed.

It comes as Brazil’s health ministry announced booster shots will be available for people with weakened immune systems and those aged over 70, but they do not include the Sinovac jab.

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Inside a plant in China producing the WHO-approved Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine

For the study, researchers from the Goncalo Moniz Institute and Federal University of Bahia in Brazil and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine tracked people who had received at least one dose of the two vaccines in the period. They looked at how effective they were at preventing infection, hospitalisation, intensive care and death.