Chile’s Reliance on Chinese-Made Vaccines Provides a Cautionary Example for Public Health Officials in Africa and Other Developing Regions

A number of events have converged to further constrict the flow of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa and other regions throughout the Global South. India, once a major vaccine exporter, halted all overseas shipments in an effort to contain a massive surge of infections at home. In turn, that has put further pressure on the global Covax alliance, which has been struggling of late to find enough supply for the world’s poorest countries. And then, last week’s decision by Johnson & Johnson to temporarily take its vaccine off the market to concerns over blood clotting has made the situation even worse.

This means that some African countries may have no other choice, at least for now, then to turn to Russia and China for vaccines given that production output in both countries is steadily rising.

With that in mind, public health officials in Africa may want to study what’s happening in Chile right now, according to findings published by the Wall Street Journal. With 7.6 million people, nearly half the country’s adult population, now inoculated mostly with jabs made by Sinovac, Chile provides a unique case study for how to best manage a large-scale nationwide deployment of Chinese-made vaccines.

2 Take-Aways From Chile’s Chinese-Vaccine Roll-Out

  • ONE DOSE IS NOT ENOUGH: China’s less effective vaccines that use inactive agents mean that people have very little protection after just the first dose. Chileans mistakenly thought they were protected and stop following many pandemic protocols that led to people who were partially vaccinated becoming infected. The takeaway here is that African public health officials need to communicate effectively that people with only one dose of a Chinese-made vaccine must continue to social distance, wear a mask and behave as if they are not immune from the virus.
  • MAINTAIN GOVERNMENT-MANDATED RESTRICTIONS: Infections among people aged 20-40 surged in April to 35,000 cases a week despite widespread vaccinations because the government was apparently too eager to relax safety protocols and to re-open the economy. The takeaway here is that even after large portions of a country’s population has been vaccinated, government-imposed restrictions should remain in place and relaxed in stages depending on the rates of infection.

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The post Chile’s Reliance on Chinese-Made Vaccines Provides a Cautionary Example for Public Health Officials in Africa and Other Developing Regions appeared first on The China Africa Project.



source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/04/19/chiles-reliance-on-chinese-made-vaccines-provides-a-cautionary-example-for-public-health-officials-in-africa-and-other-developing-regions/

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