The CCP has not reported a single case of serious side effects or death after it announced the administering of 100 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine in China on March 28.
No Deaths Reported in China
The first reported death after vaccination in Hong Kong occurred on Feb. 28. On March 28, within just one short month, 13 people in Hong Kong, aged 55 to 80, died after receiving the vaccination. Eleven of them were given the Sinovac shots, while the other two had received BioNTech.In addition, an elderly woman in her eighties died at home the day after taking the Sinovac vaccine on March 20, but the Hong Kong Department of Health did not report it nor publicize the incident. The Department of Health responded in the early hours of March 31 that “there was no direct causal relationship between her death and vaccination, thus not fulfilling the reporting criteria of AEFIs (Adverse Events Following Immunization).”
In an interview with The Epoch Times, Yuen Hoi Man, deputy spokesman for the medical policy of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, criticized the government for depriving the public of the right to know by not releasing the information, which also affects public confidence in vaccines. He said that even if there is no direct relationship, the government should be truthful when an indirect relationship cannot be ruled out.
Dr. Cheung Wai Lit, a Chinese medicine doctor, in an interview with The Epoch Times, also said that he suspected that there were other cases of death after receiving the Chinese vaccine, but there is no way for outsiders to confirm it.
In response to the death of 13 people in Hong Kong after receiving the vaccine, authorities responded on March 30, saying that current data show that most of the cases died of cardiovascular disease and none of the individual cases were directly related to the vaccination.
However, Law Cheuk You, staff and vice-chairman of Hong Kong Hospital Authority, said in an interview with The Epoch Times, that “generally speaking, the possibility of some indirect side effects is not to be completely ruled out,” Law said, “in fact, many drugs have [side effects].”
Law said that there are cases of death after COVID-19 vaccination in other countries. But even in cases that may not have a direct relationship, the authorities will still give data. With the data, it gives others the option to choose the appropriate measures.
On March 30, Germany announced that as of March 29, more than 2.7 million people had received the AstraZeneca vaccine and that 31 people developed blood clots, with 9 deaths. The German government, therefore, decided to suspend the vaccine for people under the age of 60.
On March 29, Canada also announced that it is suspending the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people under the age of 55 following the reports of rare blood clots, although there are no relevant cases in the country for the time being.
The Hong Kong government, however, although it recently suspended the use of BioNTech shots due to packaging defects, has yet to call off the use of the Sinovac vaccine, after 11 deaths out of a total of about 450,000 people vaccinated in a month. This has caused public concern.
Law said that there’s insufficient statistical data on the use of the Sinovac vaccine for people over 60 years old and that its Phase III clinical data has not been published in peer-reviewed medical journals. Even so, the Hong Kong government still asks the elderly to receive the vaccine. He called on the public to only receive vaccines that have sufficient clinical data.
Yuen Hoi Man also suggested suspending the use of the Sinovac vaccine for people over 60 and those with chronic illnesses.
Outbreak Intensifies in Countries Using Sinovac Vaccines
The United Kingdom was the first country to start COVID-19 vaccinations, approving the use of the BioNTech vaccine in December before introducing the AstraZeneca vaccine in January this year. Their outbreak gradually eased after Jan. 9. The UK recorded 4,715 cases on March 27, down significantly from 6,187 cases the day before. In the United States and Israel, where the BioNTech vaccine was also chosen as the main vaccine, the epidemic also slowed down significantly after vaccination.However, the number of confirmed cases in Chile, Turkey, and Pakistan, which chose to receive the Chinese Sinovac vaccine, has increased.
Chile administered nearly 9 million doses of the Sinovac vaccines in February, with an average of 47 doses per 100 people, making it the country with the highest vaccination rate in South America. However, the number of positive test results recorded in Chile rose instead of fell, and a new high of 7,626 cases was recorded in a single day on March 26, leading to a tight supply of hospital beds and a recent lockdown of the capital city of Santiago.
Turkey started to administer Sinovac vaccines in mid-January and at least eight million people have been injected with the vaccine, accounting for more than 10 percent of the population. But their case numbers also rebounded in late February, with 37,303 new cases recorded on March 30, the highest single-day figure since the outbreak on March 11 last year. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on April 2 that there would be a curfew during the weekends throughout the month of Ramadan.
In addition, Pakistan, which has been using the Chinese vaccine since early February, is now experiencing a third wave of the pandemic, with the national positivity ratio rising to 11 percent, the highest level since the outbreak. More than 20 cities have been “closed” due to the severity of the outbreak.
Pakistani President Arif Alvi wrote on March 29 that he tested positive after receiving the first dose of a vaccine produced by the Chinese National Pharmaceutical Group Corp on March 15. Prior to that, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan also tested positive for the virus on March 18, two days after receiving his first dose of the vaccine manufactured by the same Chinese company.
Lin Xiaoxu, a former virology researcher at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, said that the CCP claimed in February that 20 million people in mainland China had received the vaccine, but it has not released any real analysis of the effectiveness rate.
Adverse Reaction Rate Similar to Placebo
At present, the Sinovac vaccine has only released clinical study data for Phase I and Phase II, and the relevant data show that the rate of adverse reactions is only about 20 percent, a lower figure than other vaccines. Dr. Dong Yuhong, a European virologist and chief scientific officer in a Swiss Biotech company, said that, from an academic point of view, there are two questionable points about the Sinovac data (pdf).First, in various other COVID-19 vaccines, the ratio of side effects in the vaccination group is usually significantly higher than that in the placebo group. But the ratio of side effects post-vaccination of Sinovac was similar to that of the placebo injection. Some side effects were even lower in the vaccination group than in the placebo group.
Second, generally speaking, the more the injected doses, the more side effects there are. This phenomenon can be seen in clinical studies of other vaccines and is called “dose correlation.” However, from the results of the Sinovac vaccine study, there seems to be no such pattern. Side effects in some low-dose groups are higher than those of higher-dose groups.
Dr. Dong said that scientists have been expecting the Phase III clinical data of Sinovac, but unfortunately, they have yet to see its publication, and the number of subjects enrolled in its Phase I-II clinical study is relatively small, so it is difficult to evaluate the adverse events of the Sinovac vaccine.
Although the CCP released data on the side effects of the Sinovac vaccine in clinical trials that is similar to those of the placebo group, on Jan. 6, state-run CCP media Xinhua reported that pregnant and nursing women are not allowed to receive the domestically made vaccine. It even recommends women postpone their pregnancy for three months after receiving the vaccine.
A resident in mainland China also received a notice from his local community, saying that pregnancy should be postponed to six months after receiving the vaccine, implying that the Chinese vaccine may have serious side effects on fertility.
Dr. Cheung Wai Lit said that in the process of rolling up vaccination on a large scale in China, the CCP kept issuing new guidelines and principles.
Politicized Mandatory Vaccination
Since the Chinese vaccine data lacks transparency, people are concerned about the safety of the vaccines. There were news reports of low acceptance of the vaccines in Shanghai and other first-tier cities. As of March 27, the vaccination rate in China was only 7 percent.Recently, The Epoch Times obtained a document showing that, in order to speed up the vaccination rate, the CCP politicized the vaccine and forced people to vaccinate.
This internal document comes from a large private enterprise, Chongqing Sokon Industry Group. It was titled, “Notice on Strengthening Epidemic Prevention and Control.” The notice stated: “All units must stand at the height of political considerations, follow the principle of ‘everyone must take it’ ... with strict implementation, and hold responsibility.” “The Group will pursue any unit and individual that fails to advance the new COVID vaccination work for accountability.”
Outside of large enterprises, the scope of compulsory vaccination with Chinese-made vaccines has begun to expand. Mr. Liu, a vegetable merchant at Honggang Market in Sanya City, Hainan, told The Epoch Times that proof of vaccination is now required to enter the market. “The entire Sanya is now subject to vaccinations, it is mandatory.”
Mr. Wu, a mainland Chinese human rights lawyer, in an interview with The Epoch Times reporter cited previous vaccine problems in China and said: “The (Chinese vaccine) safety, quality, and effectiveness are very low. In the past, there were children who become disabled and mentally retarded after vaccination. [To develop the vaccines] in such a short time, they knew the quality was not good, but still forced over a billion Chinese people to accept it. It is too scary. It is really treating people’s lives as a joke.”
