China looks overseas for vaccine data in search for way out of Covid-19

China’s zero tolerance policy allows little chance to test the power of mass vaccination so it is looking abroad to learn how vaccination affects a population

More than 400 papers on real-world vaccine effectiveness studies are available but only 24 covered Chinese vaccines and none were in a peer-reviewed journal

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A health worker delivers CanSino Covid-19 vaccine during a mass vaccination for teachers and school staff in Mexico City in May. China’s Covid-19 Vaccines Overseas Evaluation Programme will be held in countries where Chinese vaccines are used. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:00am, 29 Sep 2021Updated: 11:54am, 29 Sep 2021

China has administered 2.2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines and fully vaccinated 72 per cent of the population, but there is still no sign of relaxing what are arguably the world’s toughest containment rules, including long quarantine periods and strict border controls.

The zero tolerance policy has largely contained the community spread of Covid-19 but it has also prevented assessment at home of how vaccination would affect the epidemic or how long vaccine immunity could protect the population.

To plug that knowledge gap, China plans sponsoring vaccine effectiveness studies in countries where Chinese vaccines are used. The data from the studies will allow authorities to update the immunisation strategy or adjust strict Covid-19 control measures.

An Zhijie, deputy director of the National Immunisation Programme with the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told a forum in Beijing on the weekend that the Covid-19 Vaccines Overseas Evaluation Programme was part of the China CDC’s effort to help countries conduct real-world vaccine effectiveness studies.

“There is a need for some of our domestically produced vaccines to have effectiveness studies conducted abroad to support our domestic policymaking and widespread international use. The China CDC plans to conduct some vaccine effectiveness studies to fill in the knowledge gap and provide evidence for policymaking,” An said.

The studies will be run by a local institution or a principal investigator attached to a health authority or academic institution in the host country. China may offer grants for such investigations and give technical support if requested or provide both funding and technical support as a cooperative agreement.

China adopted an “elimination strategy” to cope with Covid-19, relying on tough non-pharmaceutical measures to keep the virus outside its national borders while trying to find the sources of local outbreaks and eliminating community spread.

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