Shenzhen, China – It’s 10am (02:00 GMT) Tuesday morning at the only designated COVID-19 vaccine clinic serving the 650,000 official residents of Bao’an district in Shenzhen – and almost no one in view.
Lines do not stretch outside the door.
One nurse at the check-in desk, a security guard, a volunteer supervising patients and a couple of other nurses are behind a far greater separation than the one who was there for his vaccination.
Only about 4 percent of the Chinese population had been vaccinated against coronavirus by the end of February but there seems to be little sense of urgency among most health officials or the general public about about it.
The reported goal is to vaccinate 40 percent of the population by the end of July – which would mean vaccinating 560 million more people – and achieve herd protection by the end of the year in time for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics .
No queue. There was only one patient at this vaccination clinic in Shenzhen [Michael Standaert/AL JAZEERA]
Achieving these targets will require a major push from government but there are few signs that this is happening. And the country’s success in controlling the virus has reduced the incentive for defense, resulting in a “defense gap” that leaves China’s population at risk and ‘requires constant tight controls and local locks when an outbreak occurs.
Studies like this have helped the spread of the virus in China since it first appeared in downtown Wuhan in late 2019 – but it has also left a large portion of the population open to getting a contract from COVID- 19.
“Most people in China are still susceptible to COVID-19, and elsewhere people already have antibodies and immunity, so China will be in a dangerous, dangerous situation because if the virus goes reintroduced, something like what happened in Wuhan could happen again, ”Jin Dongyan, a professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, told Al Jazeera.
“I’m not sure if they can achieve it [those vaccination rates] Because I don’t think they have a clear plan for vaccinating all Chinese people, ”he said.
Zhang Wenhong, president of Shanghai Huashan Hospital, recently reported an online conversation with leading global health experts organized by the Washington-based Brookings Institution that the speed of vaccination was a “major concern”.
Zhang said vaccine production in China was likely to reach around two billion by the end of the year which would be enough to reach herd immunity in about 70 percent of the 1.4 billion figure, but did not reveal details any idea of how the government intended to encourage more people.
‘Safe and stable’
A visit to several clinics in Shezhen revealed that the pace of vaccination plans was slow and there was insufficient supply. At the Bao’an clinic, nurses reported low vaccine stock in Shenzhen, and as a result they were prioritizing health care workers as well as workers in international shipping, flights, food services and public transport.
Visits to two other clinics in nearby Nanshan district of Shenzhen showed similar results – with very few patients waiting to receive the injection. Staff at one clinic said they only received a second photo of a two-part vaccine. And the other clinic while offering vaccines to foreign countries, would only release those who have plans to travel abroad.
People are waiting to receive a dose of coronavirus infection vaccine (COVID-19) at a vaccine site in Beijing in January [File: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/REUTERS]
In addition to the slow release of the vaccines, there is widespread distrust due to substandard or past jabs. Annual inoculation rates for influenza in China fluctuate by just about 2 percent.
However, initial doubts about the safety and efficacy of the four home-made vaccines appear to have spread slightly. In the first phase there were more than 52 million people, starting with frontline workers and in areas affected by the Lunar New Year holidays earlier this year.
“I’ve gone to my community hospital but I have to get on a waiting list, and they only had a second sight so I couldn’t take that anyway,” said Mr Lin, an insurer who did not want to. that his full name would be used, Al Jazeera said.
“Because it’s so safe and stable in China, I think we can put it off until a little later. In terms of safety, I don’t think there is a problem and I trust the authorities to put in place a safe vaccine. “
The country’s key development document released at the start of the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress in Beijing on March 5 banned virus cases that were brought at the top of its list of priorities, suggesting that these border controls would be likely to remain in the next few years.
Sinopharm SARS-Cov-2 vaccine at the packaging workshop at the company’s headquarters in Beijing [File: Noel Celis/AFP]
Lu Zhicong, an assistant professor at Hong Kong City University who studies Chinese social media communications, said widely published stories of the virus have come together along with the government’s history of infiltration. introduced COVID-19 on the urge to immediately reduce the vaccine.
“The [virus] location on the mainland is so good, and places like my hometown in Ningxia [in Western China] things hadn’t been for a long time, so no one would bother [getting vaccinated], ”He said. “In a lot of cities there’s very little chance of getting an infection, so they may not get the shot.” Probably for international students going abroad, but others don’t think it’s necessary. “
Vaccine diplomacy
As many other countries around the world race to vaccinate their numbers in an effort to reach a level of herd immunity that would allow for much more normal travel, business and daily life, the Chinese government has focus on the export of vaccines to other countries.
Chinese manufacturers have conducted extensive experiments in countries including Brazil and Indonesia and have shipped products to countries around the world including parts of Asia, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe.
“From my conversation with friends in China who serve in the government or in major universities, they told me that the strategy is that China would like what they call vaccine diplomacy, especially in the United States. the first half of the year, “said Chen Xi, an associate professor of health policy and economics at Yale School of Public Health with Al Jazeera.
“So the strategy is to give the rest of the world before they come back to vaccinate more and more people in China,” Chen said.
Workers load boxes containing Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine into a storage building in Indonesia’s northwestern province of Aceh in January [File: Hotli Simanjuntak/EPA]
Nurse prepares second dose of Sinovac vaccine for care home residents in Chile earlier this month [Ivan Alvarado/REUTERS]
On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Chinese companies involved in vaccine production had applied for certification from the World Health Organization and the process had begun.
China has a total of 100,758 cases and 4,833 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, almost all of them in Wuhan that spread the virus a year ago when the World Health Organization claimed that it was a pandemic.
The National Health Commission confirmed 11 new cases on Wednesday, all among those returning to China from abroad.
“The defense gap is a burden that is shared by many people, myself included,” Chen said. “I think China may have enough time to go up, if we talk [higher vaccination rates by] end of this year, but if you think about getting that in the summer, I wonder if this can be true. “