COVID vaccine: WHO approves China s Sinopharm for emergency use
By: DW
Geneva: World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced on Friday that the body had authorised the emergency use of a COVID-19 vaccine made by China s Sinopharm.
It is the first non-Western vaccine to gain WHO emergency use approval. This afternoon, WHO gave emergency use listing to sign off on Beijing s COVID-19 vaccine, making it the sixth vaccine to receive WHO validation for safety, efficacy and quality, Ghebreysus said.
The WHO had already given such approval to vaccines developed by BioNTech-Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.
The WHO listing means the Sinopharm vaccine could eventually be included into the COVAX initiative in the coming weeks or months.
13 A health official prepares a Covid-19 shot at Bang Khunthian Fresh Market last month. Despite being lauded for successfully controlling the epidemic last year, the government s vaccination plan faces growing criticism for its overreliance on the AstraZeneca jab. Apichart Jinakul.
The government s planned procurement and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines has become a saga that keeps circulating in news headlines. For much of last year, Thailand was lauded worldwide for its ability to contain the Covid-19 virus. But as the coronavirus pandemic increasingly moves from the virus stage to vaccine procurement and mass inoculation, Thailand faces a double whammy with a virus surge and vaccine scarcity. Unless the government changes course quickly, it risks gambling national health and local lives for what looks like a shambolic vaccine strategy.
Chinese covid vaccine approved for emergency use by World Health Organisation
Little data is publicly available about the Sinopharm jab
Updated
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The World Health Organisation has given authorisation for emergency use of a Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by China’s Sinopharm, potentially paving the way for millions of doses to reach needy countries through a UN-backed programme.
WHO approves China s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use
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GENEVA - The World Health Organization gave emergency use authorization Friday to a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by China s Sinopharm, potentially paving the way for millions of the doses to reach needy countries through a U.N.-backed program rolling out coronavirus vaccines.
The decision by a WHO technical advisory group, a first for a Chinese vaccine, opens the possibility that Sinopharm s offering could be included in the U.N.-backed COVAX program in coming weeks or months and distributed through U.N. children s agency UNICEF and WHO’s Americas regional office.
“This expands the list of vaccines that COVAX can buy and gives countries confidence to expedite their own regulatory approval and to import and administer a vaccine,” Tedros said at a Geneva news conference.
Previously, a separate group advising WHO on vaccines said it was “very confident” the Sinopharm vaccine protects people ages 18-59. The group said it had a “low level of confidence” in the vaccine s efficacy for people 60 and over. Its members said they had “very low confidence” in the available data about serious side effects in that age group.
Sinopharm hasn’t published its late-stage test results in scientific journals, so the WHO requested a breakdown of its data, which come mostly from the United Arab Emirates. A summary posted online by WHO suggests the vaccine is about 78% effective, with the caveat that all but a few hundred of the study volunteers were younger than 60.