WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus announced approval for China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, Geneva, May 7, 2021
The World Health Organisation’s approval Friday for China’s Covid-19 vaccine known as Sinopharm dramatically transforms the ecosystem of the pandemic. In immediate terms, this has potential to boost global vaccine supply, as China’s overall yearly production capacity is approaching five billion doses.
The western pharmaceutical industry’s monopoly has been breached, as Sinopharm’s is the first COVID-19 vaccine developed by a developing country to be validated by the WHO and only the sixth approved for emergency use globally — in fact, the only non-western vaccine so far.
Literally, China has gate crashed the aggressively-guarded orchard of powerful western pharmaceutical companies. In practical terms, the WHO approval allows China to enter the portals of the COVAX as a qualified supplier. The COVAX platform aims to provide two billion doses to developing countries and regions by the end of 2021. But as of Friday, only 54 million doses had been delivered to 121 participants of the program.
That is because, as New York Times wrote in the weekend, “Despite early vows, the developed world has done little to promote global vaccination, in what analysts call both a moral and epidemiological failure.” The anomaly creates a bizarre situation whereby in the western world, “vaccine orders are soaring into the billions of doses, Covid-19 cases are easing, economies are poised to roar to life, and people are busy lining up summer vacations,” while in the poor countries, the virus is raging on and vaccinations are happening far too slowly.
This wasn’t how COVAX was supposed to pan put when 192 countries joined hands and all agreed that vaccination is a universal human right. Plainly put, vaccine nationalism is as much a moral issue as of predatory capitalism.
Moderna expects to make US$ 19 billion profit
The western pharmaceutical industry is prospering off sales to the world’s rich. Pfizer made $3.5 billion out of the vaccine in the first quarter of 2021. Moderna expects to make over $19 billion this year. The French President Emmanuel Macron lost patience, saying, “Today the Anglo-Saxons (read the US and the UK) are blocking many of these ingredients and these vaccines. Today 100% of the vaccines produced in the U.S. go to the American market.”
Will Corporate Greed Prolong the Pandemic?
Jospeh Stiglitz — the Nobel laureate in economics at Columbia University, former chief economist of World Bank and chair of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisers — co-authored an essay last week with a startling title Will Corporate Greed Prolong the Pandemic? He wrote:
“The scarcity of COVID-19 vaccines across the developing world is largely the result of efforts by vaccine manufacturers to maintain their monopoly control and profits. Pfizer and Moderna, the makers of the extremely effective mRNA vaccines, have refused or failed to respond to numerous requests by qualified pharmaceutical manufacturers seeking to produce their vaccines.
“Their goal is simple: to maintain as much market power as they can for as long as possible in order to maximise profits… The argument that developing countries lack the skills to manufacture COVID vaccines based on new technologies is bogus. When US and European vaccine makers have agreed to partnerships with foreign producers, like the Serum Institute of India (the world’s largest vaccine producer) and Aspen Pharmacare in South Africa, these organisations have had no notable manufacturing problems. There are many more firms and organisations around the world with the same potential to help boost the vaccine supply; they just need access to the technology and know-how.”
The western nations are inoculating their own citizens as priority and also keeping stockpiles and vaccine-making capacity as reserves to provide for booster doses that may be required against some new variants of the virus in future.
In effect, China’s Sinopharm is entering the COVAX platform just as it seemed to be floundering. The WHO said in a statement that the approval given to Sinopharm (which took over 5 months, actually) is a “milestone achievement” that will create an opening to significantly increase the global supply of vaccines.
The WHO is reportedly granting approval to a second Chinese vaccine, Sinovac, in the coming days. Last October, when China joined the COVAX global vaccine distribution campaign, it had made a modest commitment to provide 10 million vaccines. Now, the WHO approval to Sinopharm will speed up China’s supplies to COVAX, which aims to send vaccines for free to 92 lower-income countries and to help another 99 countries and territories procure them.
Indeed, the WHO approval is a defining moment for the Chinese vaccine. Many countries were hitherto hesitating to use the Chinese the vaccine as it did not have recognition from the WHO. Sri Lanka began using Sinopharm last weekend itself!
China has curbed the epidemic without the help of vaccines, while it has secured a place right at the forefront of vaccine research and development and has the capabilities today to expand vaccine production capacity explosively. To be sure, China is at the horizon as the ‘world’s pharmacy’.
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enormous date from Israel is available ma...
just admit..loosen your ego and promote pfizer for faster economic recovery and freedom ma....
ego no use
2021-05-14 12:14
efficacy is very important...even 1% advantage makes a lot of difference as can be seen in seychelles... it is very clear which vaccine is better....
we need the govn to realize this lorr...
2021-05-14 12:16
i never promote astrazeneca ma...throw that in garbage...we need Pfizer lor...data is extremely clear infront of us..SEE ISRAEL statistics with full removal of restrictions (no mask, no dsitancing)...cases 2 digit level already..
2021-05-14 12:19
dont say something i never say lor..i repeatedly said..take whatever you have...but game is not over till you get pfizer equivalent ma...
Posted by stockraider > May 14, 2021 12:18 PM | Report Abuse
For 1% advantage u wait 2 to 3 years like a so0hai...is it not silly leh ?
Posted by probability > May 14, 2021 12:16 PM | Report Abuse
2021-05-14 12:20
Yes U need but cannot get enough mah!
U understand or not ah ?
Posted by probability > May 14, 2021 12:19 PM | Report Abuse
i never promote astrazeneca ma...throw that in garbage...we need Pfizer lor...data is extremely clear infront of us..SEE ISRAEL statistics with full removal of restrictions (no mask, no dsitancing)...cases 2 digit level already..
2021-05-14 12:20
ha ha...bit are you admitting we need to procure pfizer for the whole nation?
simple le...no need divert argument
2021-05-14 12:22
good..my whole advocation is about govn needing to procure pfizer now for the whole nation, knowing that full economic & social recovery is not possible with astrazeneca & chinese vaccines..
nothing more - if you are not against above then no need to promote anything here lor....
there is no argument then
2021-05-14 12:35
Good Let me summarise the whole thing understanding here loh...!!
Quickly procure all vaccine required but giving preference to pfizer as the 1st choice loh! .
Posted by probability > May 14, 2021 12:33 PM | Report Abuse
good..my whole advocation is about govn needing to procure pfizer now fir the whole nation, knowing that full economic & social recovery is not possible with astrazeneca & chinese vaccines..
nothing more - if you are not against above then no need to promote anything here lor..
2021-05-14 12:37
comirnaty vaccine (made by pfizer-biontech) has also caused not a few fatalities from dose 2 side effects
2021-05-14 14:12
when someone is very strongly pro-biased toward a certain vaccine, he will still staunchly refuse to see, let alone accept, a possible link, even when a previously seemingly fit healthy man succumbs to some sudden heart problem, e. g. myocarditis, occurring just days or weeks after dose 2 injection of that vaccine
2021-05-14 14:21
they're kind of a bit like your average hardcore football club fan
their club just can't be anything BUT flawless & infallible
2021-05-14 14:25
death rate is almost nil
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/israel/
2021-05-14 14:26
death rate is not more than 1 per day for the last 1 week for 10 million population
Seychelles 100k population more than 6 deaths in less than a week
(thats like 100 times more death rate vs Israel)
this really shows how powerful and effective Pfizer is
2021-05-14 14:31
further the vaccination rate in seychelles is higher than israel and less denser population
2021-05-14 14:32
You need to develop the ability to see an argument from all possible angles
2021-05-14 14:35
i can see where the biasness is coming from despite such blatantly visible data...
2021-05-14 14:36
just like our govn cannot see Hamas as militant
https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2021/05/690032/rtm-ordered-probe-mandarin-news-report-labelling-hamas-militants
2021-05-14 14:37
yeah...fight for ego la...its not that someone robbed their food or shelter...no one disturbed them...
2021-05-14 14:46
fight for your own religion...your own ethnicity...your own language...only shows ego leh...
nothing more...and there is no logic or end to it...if you bring ego
2021-05-14 14:47
What is wrong with being militant when you're fighting against someone who hv robbed your people & nation of their own homeland
You still expect them to fight like sissies?
Was that how China people fought against their Mongol or Japanese conquerors & occupiers?
2021-05-14 14:51
Posted by probability > May 14, 2021 2:46 PM | Report Abuse
yeah...fight for ego la...its not that someone robbed their food or shelter...no one disturbed them...
********
Dude, are you still living on the right planet?
Every day Israeli govt is bulldozing Palestinian homes on their own land to make way for new Jewish Israeli settlements
2021-05-14 14:55
In acient times arab lamd belongs to Isreal
Isreal have a seat in UN
Fight Isreal mean fight USA
2021-05-14 14:55
the jews does not go an interfere others belief...they just want to live peacefully alone....why go and disturb them....they are taking such a small space in middle east...whats wrong with your ego...feeling of inferior....is that it? the cause of dissastisfaction?
2021-05-14 14:55
Its the Hamas who started the shooting le....imagine there is no iron dome...how many jews would die...its always they who start it..using stones and instigate fight....
2021-05-14 14:57
Isreali army storm Al alsa mosque while muslim palestimes middle of praying for Ramahdam injuring almost 300 so seroiusly that need to admit to hospital
But Isreal is USA, they can do anything to muslims
Posting from Tel Aviv Isreal
2021-05-14 15:06
On 6 May 2021, protests by Palestinians began in Jerusalem over a planned decision by the Supreme Court of Israel regarding the eviction of Palestinian residents in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood of East Jerusalem.[18] The area in question, effectively annexed by Israel, remains under international law a part of the Palestinian territories that Israel currently holds under belligerent occupation.[19][20] The protests quickly escalated into violent confrontations between Jewish and Palestinian protesters.
..........
First blood was shed on israelis when palestinians threw stones..
stones can cause death
2021-05-14 15:10
If u read history Jews are the 1st occupier of Jeruselam & Palestine & not Arabs loh!
But Arab went n chase out the Jews & christian, when they won the war close to about 1000 yrs ago mah!
So how, the land belong to whom leh ?
Posted by FortuneBlooming > May 14, 2021 2:51 PM | Report Abuse
What is wrong with being militant when you're fighting against someone who hv robbed your people & nation of their own homeland
You still expect them to fight like sissies?
Was that how China people fought against their Mongol or Japanese conquerors & occupiers?
2021-05-14 16:27
IF USA WANT FRIENDS, THEY MUST HELP THE 3RD WORLD MAH...!!
TALK KOOK WITHOUT HELPING IS USELESS MAH!
LUCKILY THE WORLD HAVE ALTERNATIVE CHINA THAT ARE WILLING TO HELP OUT LOH!
BUT USA CONDEMNS CHINA GOOD GESTURES LOH!
U.S. says condemns political use of vaccines after China-Taiwan tussle
By Michael Martina
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States stands with Honduras and condemns the "cynical use" of COVID-19 vaccines for political purposes, the State Department said, after Taiwan blasted China for seeking to use vaccines to make diplomatic inroads with one of Taipei's allies.
Honduras, among a small number of Latin American countries to maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan, has said it was considering opening an office in China in a bid to acquire much needed COVID-19 shots, prompting Taipei to criticize Beijing for pushing a vaccine-for-recognition deal.
Several Latin American nations are receiving Chinese vaccines, but countries such as Honduras and Guatemala that have built ties with democratic Taiwan - which Beijing considers a breakaway province - are not.
"We condemn the cynical use of potentially life-saving medical assistance to advance the narrow political agendas of certain donors," a State Department spokesman told Reuters without mentioning China when asked about the situation involving Honduras.
"Taiwan's relationships with countries in the region, including Honduras, reinforce the hemisphere's democratic values and support sustainable development," the spokesman said, adding that the United States "stands with Honduras as it confronts these challenging times."
China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying responded at a daily news conference in Beijing on Friday, accusing the United States of double standards and of hoarding vaccines while not assisting other countries.
Taiwan has complained that China is applying similar pressure to Paraguay, one of just 15 countries that formally recognize the self-governed island over Beijing.
China, Russia, and the United States have sought to deepen ties around the world and further their countries' geopolitical clout through so-called "vaccine diplomacy".
The Chinese government, which has been exporting millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines mainly to developing countries, has repeatedly denied that it uses them to gain diplomatic advantage.
Beijing has been gradually whittling away at Taiwan's diplomatic allies, which has alarmed Washington, nervous about an increased Chinese presence in Latin America and the Pacific where those allies are concentrated.
The United States earlier this month backed calls from emerging countries led by India and South Africa to temporarily lift patent protection for COVID-19 vaccines in the race to distribute more doses globally.
(Reporting by Michael Martina; Additional reporting by David Kirton in Beijing;
2021-05-14 17:02
The world should not allow the capitalists, especially US and UK, to control the vaccine meant for saving lives. So, it is a blessing that finally Sinopharm is now been recognised by WHO. Hopefully, Sinovax will be next and pray China can start supplying to the poorer countries as soon as possible.
2021-05-14 19:13
Only China and Russia willing to share vaccine formula and secret procesess involved to synthesize the vaccine without contamination
2021-05-14 19:26
Go google china’s formula milk scandal.. better becareful of similar case with vaccine!
2021-05-15 23:20
Vaccine will never work with mutation virus… you will have to take another vaccine after another every time new mutations appear!
2021-05-15 23:22
If you don’t have the technology to verify the vaccine how do you know it is not a placibo?! We are at the mercy of drug companies!!
2021-05-15 23:30
probability
just admit..loosen your ego and promote pfizer for faster economic recovery and freedom ma....
ego no use
2021-05-14 12:11