China CDC Director Gao Fu made the strange claim recently that scientists and pharma companies in the West were not capable of developing a COVID-19 vaccine using inactivated SARS-2 because the West could not meet the biosafety standards needed. I thought he had misspoke and the

idea would peter out. That doesn't look like the case, however. As China now seeks to promote the use of its domestic vaccines, it appears the denigration of the mRNA technique will be propagated widely for a while. Here's a front-page article on the http://China.com.cn , by a

law faculty member of the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine: 中国新冠疫苗缘何选用灭活技术路线？
http://www.china.com.cn/opinion2020/2020-12/31/content_77067729.shtml. She basically plagiarizes

Gao Fu in this article. The irony is that Fosun has signed a contract to manufacture the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine in China. With all the demand for vaccines, the world needs all the vaccines that have been proven to be safe and effective.

I worry that these Chinese arguments will lead to some of the people who are beholden to information on Wechat to shun the Pfizer-BioNtech or Moderna vaccines. In other words, some people may shun vaccination and die as a result. I hope Director General Gao Fu correct himself.