Will mounting evidence about the limited efficacy of Chinese-made vaccines spell the end for Beijing's vaccine diplomacy?
Malaysia's Ministry of Health said yesterday that the country will stop administering the COVID-19 vaccine produced by China's Sinovac Biotech once its current supplies run out, amid mounting evidence that the vaccines have limited efficacy against the Delta variant that is currently ravaging Southeast Asia.
Health Minister Adham Baba told a press conference that the Malaysian government has secured about 45 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, enough to cover 70 percent of its population, compared to 16 million doses of Sinovac’s shot.
“About half of the 16 million have already been distributed, so the rest will be used to cover second doses,” Adham said, according to Reuters. “For those who have yet to be vaccinated, they will receive the Pfizer vaccine.”
The announcement came as Malaysia marked its third straight day of record COVID-19 infections, as it battles a spiraling outbreak of the virus. This brought Malaysia's total number of infections to 880,782, the worst in Southeast Asia in per capita terms, and its death toll to 6,613.
The Malaysian decision reflects increasing concerns about the efficacy of Chinese-made vaccines against the more transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19, first identified in India.
Last week, health authorities in Indonesia announced that they are considering offering a booster shot to medical workers immunized with Sinovac's vaccine, following in the footsteps of nations like Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Indonesia has vaccinated hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers with the Sinovac shot and thousands of them are now testing positive for COVID-19; some have even died.
Yesterday, Thailand, battling its own devastating wave of Delta cases, became the first nation to offer a booster shot of AstraZeneca vaccine to people who have already been given the Sinovac shot, after seeing a similar spike in infections among health workers who had received the vaccine.
The moves follow the mounting evidence about the relatively low efficacy of the Chinese-made vaccines. A study published last week by researchers at the University of Hong Kong found that people inoculated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had antibody levels 10 times higher than those who opted for Sinovac.
At the same time, the lead author of the study told the South China Morning Post that a degree of protection was better than none at all, and suggested that governments pursue “alternative strategies,” including booster shots, to strengthen the immunity of Sinovac recipients.
"Malaysia will stop using China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, the health minister said Thursday without specifying why, days after Thailand and Indonesia announced that many of their citizens would get a non-Sinovac booster jab if they had received the Chinese shot.
Thailand and Indonesia announced their policies on a booster shot amid growing concerns about the effectiveness of the Chinese-made vaccine, and after some people in those countries died of the coronavirus despite being inoculated with two shots of Sinovac.
After authorities in Kelantan said the state would stop using Sinovac, Malaysian Health Minister Adham Baba confirmed the move and said it would soon apply nationwide because the country had ordered more vaccines from another company.
“So, it started in Kelantan and soon other states will follow. As a replacement [for Sinovac] for the rest of the population that will be vaccinated, we will give Pfizer’s [vaccine],” Adham said at a press briefing.
“[W]e have secured 45.7 million [doses] of Pfizer compared to 16 million doses of Sinovac. Half of the Sinovac vaccines were already given and we will use the other half for the second dose.”
Health Director-General Noor Hisham told reporters at the same briefing that the main vaccine for the country's COVID-19 inoculation program would now be the American-made Pfizer shot."
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