Day: January 1, 2021

Chinese supply of a COVID-19 vaccine to Indonesia and the Philippines is likely to strengthen Beijing’s image in those countries, despite current resentment of its expansion in the South China Sea, if the vaccines work, analysts say.Both countries have moved to order vaccines made by Sinovac Biotech, a Beijing-based pharmaceutical company, according to Asian media reports and the company’s website. China’s official Xinhua News Agency in October had called it “crucial” to distribute vaccines “around the world, not just the wealthy nations.”People in both countries resent Chinese expansion in the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea where sovereignty claims overlap. China, with Asia’s strongest military, has built up islands that the Philippines claims and passed ships through waters that Jakarta says fall within an Indonesian exclusive economic zone. The sea is prized for fisheries and undersea energy reserves.China, keen to be seen as a good neighbor abroad and to minimize U.S. geopolitical influence, could gain favor in Southeast Asia’s two biggest countries if the vaccines work, reach remote parts of each archipelago in due time and don’t cost too much, analysts say. Indonesia and the Philippines have a combined population of 375 million.“If it turns out to be good, effective, safe, affordable, then I guess that might change to a certain extent the perceptions here,” said Aaron Rabena, research fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation in Metro Manila. China, he said, wants to “make up for their distorted image.”Anti-China sentimentFilipinos, including some in the armed forces, have distrusted China since a 2012 standoff over Scarborough Shoal in the contested sea. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has sought to mend ties since he took office in 2016. He indicated last year that he would prioritize the Chinese vaccines along with possible shipments from Russia.The Philippines was aiming as of mid-December to end negotiations with Sinovac to get 25 million doses by March.For Indonesia, Sinovac has committed to supply a “bulk vaccine” so state-run vaccine maker PT Bio Farma can produce at least 40 million doses before March, the Chinese company says on its website. On December 6, Sinovac shipped 1.2 million doses to Jakarta for storage at a nearby PT Bio Farma warehouse, the Jakarta Post website reports.Indonesia has placed “firm” orders for about 160 million vaccine doses, 140 million of which are manufactured by Sinovac Biotech, the Post added.Anti-China sentiment flared up before the shipment and some Indonesians worry the vaccines will be unhealthy, said Paramita Supamijoto, an international relations lecturer at Bina Nusantara University in Jakarta.“At the beginning, there was a big debate on why we need to get [vaccines] from China, and there was big distrust among the people, and this kind of anti-China sentiment is still very strong,” she said.Indonesia’s Food and Drug Monitoring Agency plans to visit Sinovac facilities in Beijing to ensure “good manufacturing practice,” the Post says. Its report quotes PT Bio Farma officials defending an anticipated $13.57 price per dose.The Chinese state-supervised Global Times news website said in November that leaders around Southeast Asia had lauded Chinese vaccines as “accessible and affordable.”It might be the “most suitable” one for Indonesia’s condition, Supamijoto said. People there are spread across 13,000 islands.Effectiveness ratesDuterte, though, may be holding out for U.S.-made Pfizer Inc. vaccines in case Sinovac’s remedy only prevents COVID-19 half the time, said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school. Research in Brazil showed last month that Sinovac’s product was at least 50% effective. Pfizer said in November its vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective.“I think Duterte is hedging that with a 50-50 rate, why would anyone choose the Sinovac if the Pfizer vaccine is also coming?” Araral said.Duterte threatened late last month to go ahead with a long-threatened cancellation of the U.S. Visiting Forces Agreement — which gives U.S. troops access to the Philippines with few restrictions — if the United States can’t deliver at least 20 million vaccine doses, the PhilStar.com news website said Dec. 27.His government said about a year ago it would cancel the 21-year-old pact, although that process has been suspended twice and analysts say Duterte wants to renegotiate the broader defense relationship with more focus on quelling armed rebel groups. The Philippines has looked to the United States as a key defense ally since the 1950s.Although coronavirus caseloads in the Philippines have fallen since a peak in August, discovery of a virus variant from Britain prompted quarantine orders in Metro Manila and nine other parts of the country through Jan. 30. The Philippines has recorded about 474,000 Cases and more than 9,244 deaths.Indonesia’s COVID-19 cases are still growing steadily. The country with Southeast Asia’s largest population reports around 743,000 cases and more than 22,000 deaths. Indonesia is also looking for vaccine sources outside China.
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The World Health Organization on Thursday approved the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, a move aimed at helping the developing world gain access to the vaccine sooner.The WHO set up its emergency use process to help countries without their own regulatory resources to approve vaccines, clearing the way for their use.”This is a very positive step towards ensuring global access to COVID-19 vaccines,” said Mariangela Simao, the WHO’s access to medicines program leader.However, the super-cold temperature the vaccine must be kept at — minus 70 degrees Celsius — makes shipping and storing it a challenge for developing countries.COVAX, a global effort backed by the WHO to buy and distribute vaccines to poorer countries, has commitments for 2 billion doses of vaccine so far and is in talks with Pfizer-BioNTech to buy some of its vaccine, which is 95% effective after two doses.FILE – A box for a COVID-19 vaccine is displayed at an exhibit by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm at the China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing, China, Sept. 5, 2020.Another COVID-19 vaccine, this one developed by a Chinese drugmaker, on Thursday became the first to be granted official approval by China’s government.China’s National Medical Products Administration announced the conditional approval of a vaccine developed by Beijing Biological Products Institute, a subsidiary of state-owned Sinopharm. The regulatory agency granted the approval a day after Sinopharm said the vaccine had an efficacy rate of 79.3% against the coronavirus in a final large-scale clinical trial.However, outside experts have questioned Sinopharm’s claims because it has not provided necessary data for it to be independently verified.The newly approved vaccine is one of five developed by Chinese companies that have been administered under its emergency use program while still undergoing phase 3 trials. More than 4.5 million doses have been administered since July to essential workers and people considered high risk, including 3 million since mid-December.The Sinopharm vaccine joins other potential coronavirus vaccines to receive approval from governments around the world.People wait to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at the London Bridge vaccination center, amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London, Dec. 30, 2020.Britain’s medical regulatory agency announced Wednesday that it has granted emergency authorization of a coronavirus vaccine developed jointly by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University.Late-stage clinical trials of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine revealed it to be 70% effective against COVID-19. The vaccine had a 62% efficacy rate for participants given a full two doses, but tests of a smaller sub-group revealed it to be 90% effective when given a half-dose followed by a full dose weeks later.The new vaccines are coming as a more contagious strain of COVID-19 first detected several days ago in Britain has been identified at various points on the globe.Brazil’s Sao Paulo state Governor Joao Doria and state Health Secretary Jean Gorinchteyn hold boxes of the China’s Sinovac vaccines against the coronavirus disease near a refrigerated container at Sao Paulo International Airport, Dec. 30, 2020.A Brazilian lab said Thursday it has found two cases of the British variant, prompting researchers at its Tropical Medicine Institute to urge a redoubling of quarantine measures. Brazil has reported more than 55,000 new cases and nearly 1,200 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to Johns Hopkins University. Brazil, with nearly 195,000 deaths, is second only to the U.S., and with more than 7.6 million cases ranks third in the world.Officials in California on Wednesday announced the variant has surfaced in the southern city of San Diego. The Western state of Colorado was the first in the United States to report the new strain earlier this week.A different variant of the coronavirus has been detected in South Africa.
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