China to declare virus victory with unveiling of vaccines

[Klaralven]

Three Chinese-made vaccines purported to be safe and effective against Covid-19 have made their debut at a local trade fair, the first to be held for domestic and overseas traders in Beijing since the epidemic first erupted in the country in late December.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will preside over an honor and award ceremony expected to formally unveil the vaccines at the Great Hall of the People on Tuesday (September 8) morning.

The leader is expected to proclaim China’s victory against the virus at the event and commend scientists and researchers who have worked on vaccines, including the nation’s top pulmonologist Zhong Nanshan and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Major General Chen Wei, who has led the military’s research.

The nation has gone 50 days without any local infections, although there has been a rise in imported cases.

China National Biotech Group, a subsidiary of the state-owned conglomerate China National Pharmaceutical Group Co, Ltd. (SinoPharm) and the Nasdaq-listed Sinovac Biotech Ltd are showcasing at the fair their respective vaccines, both of which are nearing the end of their final, third-stage clinical trials.

Both are reportedly still pending regulatory approval for mass production.

Xinhua and China News Service quoted the two drugmakers as saying that the three vaccines would be ready to hit the market by year’s end and annual production could be ratcheted up to 600 million doses, enough to inoculate roughly half of China’s population.
https://asiatimes.com/2020/09/china-to-declare-virus-victory-with-unveiling-of-vaccines/

[Afromania]

1. We got China rushing things out, Russia rushing things out and dump trying to push things out.

Which country is going to be responsible for unleashing the plague that ends civilization as we know it? We still have 4 months left for it to get worse......

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Somehow this still feels rushed to me.

The article sort of says most of the right things, but it still seems a bit hinky.

[Salviati]

3. Yeah....

I'm going to wait until there's verification of a vaccine from a non-authoritarian state who's public health apparatus hasn't been compromised before I get an immunization. Thanks.

[Nevilledog]

4. I like my vaccines to not come from a local trade fair.

[triron]

5. I tend to believe this is real and will be effective. I have a respect for the Chinese.

Chinese medicine (TCM) has been around for 5000 yrs.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. I don't this this has anything to do with traditional Chinese medicine.

[caraher]

8. It's actually a very complicated story, as I understand it

What's now called "traditional Chinese medicine" is largely a product of the Chinese Communist Party dating to the 1950s. To be sure, there are ancient Chinese medical traditions dating back thousands of years, but there was a deliberate standardization and promotion that occurred just decades ago for a variety of reasons, many of which had more to do with building the nation than medicine, and whose practices were handed down less from traditional healer to the next generation than by the textbooks that the Communist Party produced.

I've skimmed some scholarly work on this; probably the most read popular article on this history, "Chairman Mao Invented Traditional Chinese Medicine," appeared in Slate a few years back.

There's also some research suggesting that animal products used in TCM could have led to the outbreak in the first place - which doesn't speak to whether TCM can effectively treat COVID-19, of course, but which is still of concern:

The possibility that bat‐derived materials sold for TCM practices may be involved in this outbreak, has severe implications. We point out there is a serious risk of producing bat‐derived materials sold for TCM practices as it involves handling of and trading with wild bats. Even when the selling of live wild animals at food markets would be completely prohibited in China, the trading and handling of bats for traditional medicinal practices would remain a serious risk for future zoonotic coronavirus epidemics.

[Yavin4]

7. Well, at least we will have a pretty large sample size to see if it works or not.

Maybe the biggest Phase 3 trial in human history.

[herding cats]

9. This was my thoughts as well. NT

[Yavin4]

10. Let's hope the vaccine doesn't turn them into zombies.

I hate "The Walking Dead".

[herding cats]

11. If it does I strongly suggest buying toilet paper before the crush hits.

I learned that lesson the hard way, and it's not a mistake I plan on ever making again.

[Klaralven]

12. By now I thought everyone had a dedicated closet full of TP, paper towels, etc.

Remember to rotate your stock. I don't think toilet paper has a best by date.

[OnDoutside]

13. Essence of Bat...a sure winner. Odd that 3 authoritarian regimes are rushing to market with vaccine.

[Klaralven]

14. I don't think that they have so much difficulty with the Phase III efficacy testing

They can administer the vaccine to volunteers and, after antibodies have developed, expose the volunteers to coronavirus.

That way the can quickly get data on what percentage of subjects get the virus without waiting for large numbers of subjects to be randomly exposed in the communities.

They can also get data on how efficient the vaccine is for each of the slightly different strains circulating in the world, as well as data on how protection may vary depending on the viral dose the subject gets.

[OnDoutside]

15. They can get plenty of volunteers I'm sure, but getting public confidence is an entirely different

matter, or getting past US and EU regulatory authorities.

[Klaralven]

16. I don't think that they will have any excess production to sell in the near term

But note that they are doing conventional Phase III trials. They just take a lot longer and are more fuzzy in their results. Most likely they don't care about the US and EU regulatory authorities, but they will pass WHO muster and be able to distribute them to other countries on the "Belt and Road".