SAU PAULO – China ‘s attempt to boost its image by delivering Covid – 19 vaccines to the developing world has suffered a halt after one of its main inoculation candidates became 50% effective in end – of – life trials. time in Brazil, significantly lower than earlier results showed. .
While the efficiency level of CoronaVac Sinovac still meets the 50% threshold that the World Health Organization estimates is good enough for widespread use, scientists said a lack of transparency about the risks of data damaging the vaccine credit that Brazilians and others around the world are already willing to take.
The Brazilian Buttan Institute, a São Paulo-based public institute that is the first to complete end-of-term trials of the CoronaVac vaccine, said last week that it had been proven to be 78% effective and offer complete protection against real cases of the disease.
But after mounting pressure from Brazilian scientists, some of whom accused the organizers of the trial of misleading the public, Butantan said Tuesday that these standards only included volunteers who suffered moderate to severe cases of Covid-19. When data from all volunteers was considered – including those who received “very slow” contracts of Covid-19 and did not require medical assistance – the overall efficiency level fell to 50.4%, said Butantan.
Sinovac did not respond to requests for comment.