China has entered the "post-epidemic era" with COVID-19 effectively under control and many countries hit hard by COVID-19 are still fighting the epidemic. According to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less than 6% of the 1.3 billion people in Africa are fully vaccinated. At the International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation held on August 5, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China will work to provide 2 billion doses of vaccine to the world this year and donate 100 million US dollars to the WHO-led “COVID-19 Vaccine Implementation Plan".
African countries and China will actively cooperate in the fight against the epidemic
In addition to providing a large number of masks and medicines as aid to many countries with severe epidemics in the past, as of November 22, China has provided 1.1 billion doses of vaccines to 113 countries worldwide, mostly to the Asia-Pacific and South American regions. Egypt has received expertise and technical assistance from China for the production of vaccines, and has jointly produced 1 million doses with China. WHO's representative in Egypt, Naeema Al-Gasseer, has issued a statement saying that WHO appreciates the successful collaboration between Egypt and China in producing the first batch of the COVID-19 vaccine.
In July, South Africa, the country with the largest number of infections on the African continent, approved the use of China's CoronaVac. Although 46 countries in Africa have received vaccines from China, the number of vaccines obtained from China in this region is still lower than that of the above two regions, with a total of nearly 107 million doses purchased and donated. In sub-Saharan Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Senegal are leading the way in procuring and managing Chinese vaccines. In late July, Tanzania in East Africa launched a public COVID-19 vaccination campaign, with its Health Minister, Nassor Ahmed Mazrui, leading the way in vaccination (the Chinese vaccine, Sinovac). He mentioned that “we decided to provide these vaccines to our frontline staff”, showing great confidence in this vaccine.
Developing countries will narrow the gap in vaccine supply with developed countries
The best chance to avoid mutating viruses over vaccines and the most reliable way to achieve global economic recovery is to vaccinate simultaneously around the world, and to prioritize vulnerable groups. Since rich countries have a greater advantage in reaching purchase agreements, leaving low-income countries with limited access to vaccines, China is helping to fill the global vaccine supply gap, especially the one that exists between rich and poor countries. The WHO's approval may trigger the further distribution of Chinese vaccines to low-income countries, and Africa is expected to receive more doses of vaccines. It shows China's scientific efforts to address the challenges of the global epidemic and will contribute to reducing the economic burden of healthcare in African countries and to the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The rebound of the epidemic and the traceability of the virus have caused great concern
While fighting against the COVID-19, people are also full of attention to the origin of this raging virus. The research by scholars in various countries may provide new insights for the public - The result of a study, published June 15, 2021, in Clinical Infectious Diseases, suggested that coronavirus was spreading at low levels in the United States as early as December 2019, weeks before the first officially reported case in the United States. Another study in the preprint of the top academic journal The Lancet stated that coronaviruses were detected in specimens such as oropharyngeal swabs from patients in the Lombardy (Italy) region in the summer of 2019. These research results show new progress in tracing the origin of the COVID-19, that is, before its breakout and it became widely known, it had been secretly spread at a low level in some countries around the world.
Jeremy Konyndyk, Executive Director of the USAID COVID-19 Task Force and Senior Advisor to the USAID Administrator, has called for an "expert-led, science-based and independent analysis of origins," stating, "The purpose of the investigation is not to blame, but to be science-based, to find the origin of the virus and help us all prevent future global catastrophes." It is hoped that researchers could soon identify the source of the virus and the pandemic can be ended.
Contact:
Micheal Harrington
Reference:
1.Data from Bridge Consulting & Global Health Strategies (Brazil)
2.《OXFORD ACADEMIC》：Antibodies to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in All of Us Research Program Participants, 2 January to 18 March 2020
3.《Preprints with THE LANCET》:https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3883274
Source: Story.KISSPR.com
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