Read on Twitter
There is a lot we don’t know about the delay in Sinovac’s Brazil trials, but there are a few things to unravel. https://fortune.com/2020/11/10/china-covid-vaccine-early-approval-sinovac-delay-safety/
First, Sinovac is involved in China’s emergency use program, which has for months been doling out Sinovac and other vaccines to hundreds of thousands of people in China.
As we await investigation into the incident from Brazilian authorities, tens of thousands of people in China, if not more, may be worrying that they were given a potentially unsafe Sinovac vaccine.
Astrazeneca and J&J also experienced delays in their phase III trials after ‘unexplained illnesses.’ The difference is that they weren’t distributing the vaccines en masse to people outside of the trials.
China’s government has released few details about its emergency use program or how it monitors those inoculated. But the UAE has already adopted a similar program and countries like Indonesia were reportedly considering their own emergency measures.
At the same time, it’s important to remember that Sinovac’s trials have become deeply politicized in Brazil. Sao Paolo governor Joao Doria has often promoted the vaccine while President Jair Bolsonaro has come out against it. https://fortune.com/2020/10/25/china-covid-19-vaccine-brazil/
Sinovac says its Brazilian partner the Butantan institute told them the event is a death unrelated to Sinovac’s vaccine. The Butantan director said on TV that he doesn’t understand why the country’s national health regulator Anvisa is delaying the trials. https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-brazil-health-clinical-trials-sao-paulo-cfe15d9de3909eb58d08e39363aa0786
