During a medical conference in Chengdu on Saturday, the head of the China Centers for Disease Control admitted the three state-manufactured vaccines did not provide as much protection as previously indicated.
Gao Fu, the director of the Chinese CDC, said the vaccines “don’t have very high protection rates.”
In previous statements, Sinovac has said its vaccine showed about 50% efficacy, Sinopharm’s vaccine was about 79.34% effective and CanSino’s efficacy was clocked at 65%. Gao did not state what the actual efficacy numbers were.
While China has not approved any vaccines created in other countries, Gao said it may be time for the country to change its vaccination strategy by mixing doses.
“It’s now under formal consideration whether we should use different vaccines from different technical lines for the immunization process,” he said, potentially referring to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines which have shown much higher effectiveness.
“Everyone should consider the benefits mRNA vaccines can bring for humanity,” Gao said. “We must follow it carefully and not ignore it just because we already have several types of vaccines already.”
In a followup press conference on Sunday, Wang Huaqing, another CDC official, said China was developing its own mRNA vaccines, similar to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
No definitive data is available regarding mixing vaccines, but many experts predict the strategy would work. Some Chinese officials have also questioned whether their own vaccine doses should be spaced out more than the standard two weeks.
With News Wire Services
