Hundreds of thousands of people in China have been injected with a coronavirus vaccine approved for emergency use, despite safety concerns.
Top executives and leading researchers were first given the vaccine months ago, before human trials began, as Governments across the world battled to stabilise the pandemic.
Chinese health bodies have refused to give exact figures, but it’s believed at least 400,000 people have now been given the vaccine, with this figure poised to soar.
The unusual decision to administer the vaccine before final regulatory approval for general use has raised safety fears and questions of ethics.
Critics claim the move would be understandable if the vaccine was being widely used in a hotspot like the US which has recorded more than seven million cases – but China is widely considered to have almost eliminated the virus.
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Well-known writer and columnist Kan Chai says he had no reaction after being injected with the first dose of the vaccine but began to feel woozy after the second.
He said: ‘When I was driving on the road, I suddenly felt a bit dizzy, as if I was driving drunk. So I specially found a place to stop the car, rest a bit and then I felt better.’
While exact numbers remain concealed, some companies have offered figures that could indicate how many people have been given the vaccine so far.
Chinese companies have four vaccines in phase three of human trials – two from Sinopharm and one each from SinoVac and CanSino.
State-owned Sinopharm subsidiary CNBG has injected 350,000 people outside its clinical trials, which have about 40,000 people enrolled, a top CNBG executive said recently.
Another company, SinoVac, has given it to 90% of its employees and family members, or about 3,000 people, mostly under the emergency-use provision, CEO Yin Weidong said. It has also provided tens of thousands of rounds of its CoronaVac for the Beijing city government.
Another candidate being jointly developed by the military and CanSino, a biopharmaceutical company, has been approved for emergency use in military personnel.
Big Chinese firms including telecom giant Huawei and broadcaster Phoenix TV have announced they are working with Sinopharm to get the vaccine for their employees.
Under the emergency use rule, high-risk personnel such as medical and customs workers and those who have to work overseas are given priority access.
Several people who say they work in ‘front-line’ organizations have claimed on social media their workplaces have offered vaccinations for about 1,000 yuan (£117).
National health commission official Zheng Zhongwei claims the Chinese government referenced the World Health Organisation’s emergency-use principles to create its own through a strict process.
China gained the ‘understanding and support’ of the WHO before starting the emergency program, he added.
There have been no serious side-effects in the clinical trials and all those injected are being closely monitored for any adverse responses.
Mainland China reported 15 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, all of which were imported infections involving travellers from abroad, The National Health Commission said.
The country also recorded 30 new asymptomatic cases, but health officials do not classify these people as confirmed Covid-19 patients.
Setting out his case for injecting huge numbers of people, Mr Zheng said: ‘In China’s case, the pressure in preventing imported infections and domestic resurgence is still huge.’
However, Diego Silva, a lecturer in Bioethics at the University of Sydney, has argued that administrating vaccines to large parts of the population outside of clinical trials does not have ‘scientific merit’.
He said: ‘If it’s in the US where the virus is still raging that’s a bit different, but in a country like China it doesn’t seem to make sense to me.
‘Because there’s not enough of the virus in China locally to deduce anything, you’re introducing a whole host of others factors.’
It comes after pictures emerged of clubbers partying in Wuhan as life returns to normal across much of China.
Meanwhile, the UK is struggling with a suspected second Covid-19 wave, with Cardiff, Swansea, Leeds going into local lockdown and 38 new areas added to the national ‘watch list’.
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