Opinion | China’s vaccine diplomacy in Malaysia: problems and prospects amid the pandemic
- Malaysia is enduring a devastating fourth wave of Covid-19, but China-made vaccines have been relegated to a secondary role over efficacy concerns
- Nevertheless, their inoculations are more readily available, affordable, and easier to administer, making them crucial in developing countries
The Delta variant is crippling efforts to flatten the curve, and the number of daily infected cases has risen past 23,000 per day. There are now more than 1.3 million cumulative infections, and the casualty toll has passed the grim 13,000 milestone.
An ineffective lockdown has been blamed for the worsening situation, reflecting the government’s failure to strike the right balance between saving lives and saving livelihoods, while the inconsistent enforcement of movement control orders undermined public confidence in the government.
However, concerns over these vaccines’ relative effectiveness have led to China’s Sinovac being relegated to a secondary role in Malaysia’s national immunisation programme.
All the same, China’s vaccine diplomacy remains crucial when it comes to containing the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia and other developing countries, because China continues to produce vaccines that are more readily available, affordable, and easier to administer.