Singaporeans, Chinese nationals queue up for Sinovac vaccine, despite regulators’ concerns over efficacy
- Sinovac has yet to be approved but Singaporeans rushed to private clinics for it, regardless of efficacy questions and ‘significant risk’ of vaccine breakthrough
- The interest also came after the Chinese embassy held a meeting with local businesspeople and as Chinese nationals expressed more trust in Sinovac
Sun Yan Hui, a 50-year-old Harbin native, was one of them. She had taken a day off work just to queue for the vaccine as she expected it would be in high demand.
“I am from China and I love my country. Of course I will take the Sinovac vaccine,” she said in Mandarin.
Another mainlander in the queue who did not want to be named said she trusted Chinese jabs more as they have been used by more than a billion people in China. “My entire family and village have taken them and they did not experience any side effects,” said the 32-year-old from the southern Hunan province.
Last Wednesday, Singapore authorities released a list of 24 private health care institutions that could administer the 200,000 Sinovac doses that had arrived in the country in February.
While Sinovac has yet to be granted regulatory approval for use in the city state, the government is now allowing people to choose alternative vaccines to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna ones that have been approved.
Residents who opt for the Chinese shots have to pay a small administrative fee – ranging from S$10-25 (US$7.42-18.57) – and will be excluded from the country’s compensation scheme if they suffer serious side effects or death.
Even so, the Sinovac vaccine appears to be a big hit among residents in the majority-Chinese country. The phone lines of all the approved clinics were constantly engaged when This Week In Asia called on multiple occasions.