On the last day of 2020, the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism held a press conference to announce that the COVID-19 inactivated vaccine of the Beijing Institute of Biological Products of Sinopharm Group was approved by the State Food and Drug Administration for conditional listing.
At the meeting, Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health Commission and head of the vaccine research and development team of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council, revealed that the COVID-19 virus vaccine must be provided free of charge to all people.
A message was also revealed at the meeting. In the past two months, the cumulative vaccination of key populations across the country has exceeded 3 million doses. This means that more than 4.5 million people have been vaccinated against COVID-19, including the 1.5 million doses of emergency vaccination before the end of November. On December 31, at the 197th COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control press conference held in Beijing, Gao Xiaojun, first-level inspector and press spokesperson of the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, said that after the Spring Festival in 2021, other groups of people will be organized to carry out COVID-19 -19 Vaccination work. This means that more people will begin to have a vaccine “armor” against the COVID-19 virus.
The reporter learned that according to the “Regulations on Vaccine Circulation and Vaccination Management” promulgated by the State Council, vaccines are divided into two categories. The first category of vaccines refers to the free provision of vaccines to citizens by the government. In the previous immunization program vaccines that were borne by the government, there are many vaccines that are familiar to the public, such as hepatitis B vaccine, BCG, polio vaccine, and leprosy vaccine. Tao Lina, the former chief physician of the Department of Immunization Planning of the Shanghai Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a vaccine expert, responded that the higher the burden of infectious diseases, the more they can be included in the list of free vaccines.
Feedback from vaccinators: 3 months have passed without any physical discomfort
On the morning of December 31, Mr. Liu, a citizen of Beijing, also received a registration notice from his unit asking whether he was willing to be vaccinated. Originally whispered in his heart, he prepared to get the vaccine after learning that the COVID-19 inactivated vaccine was officially approved for marketing.
In fact, among Mr. Liu’s friends, someone had been vaccinated against COVID-19 in early November. He learned from a friend that since vaccination, except for “small bumps” at the vaccination site, no other adverse reactions occurred in the past two months, and the induration at the vaccination site disappeared within a few days.
Another Beijing citizen, Mr. Zhang, was vaccinated against COVID-19 in early August this year. According to the regulations, he received a total of two injections, with an interval of 28 days: “I didn’t feel any physical discomfort during or after the vaccination.”
“After the vaccination is completed, there will be medical staff to track and understand the physical condition.” According to Mr. Zhang, before and after the completion of the 2 vaccinations, there will be medical staff calling on the physical condition from time to time.
On December 31, at the 197th COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control press conference held in Beijing, Gao Xiaojun, a first-level inspector and press spokesperson of the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, said that after the Spring Festival in 2021, other groups of people will be organized to carry out COVID-19 -19 Vaccination work. By mid-January 2021, the first vaccination of all key populations will be completed; in February 2021, on the basis of the nine types of key population vaccination, the remaining population will be vaccinated in an orderly manner according to unified arrangements.
Experts: Whether it’s free or not, the main consideration is “burden of disease”.
At the press conference of the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism held today, the focus of public opinion is that the COVID-19 vaccine will usher in an era when the vaccine will be free for all. Zeng Yixin revealed at the meeting that a major premise for vaccines to enter the market is to provide them free of charge to all people.
In fact, the COVID-19 vaccine is not my country’s first free vaccine for the public. According to the “Regulations on Vaccine Circulation and Vaccination Management” promulgated by the State Council, vaccines are divided into two categories. The first category of vaccines refers to vaccines that the government provides to citizens free of charge. Citizens should receive vaccines in accordance with government regulations, including those determined by the National Immunization Program. Vaccines, vaccines added by the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government during the implementation of the national immunization plan, as well as vaccines used for emergency vaccination or mass vaccinations organized by the people’s governments at or above the county level or their health authorities, and such vaccines are provided by the government afford the expense.
Among the immunization program vaccines that are borne by the government, there are many vaccines that are familiar to the public, such as hepatitis B vaccine, BCG, polio vaccine, and leprosy vaccine.
Tao Lina, the former chief physician of the Department of Immunization Planning of the Shanghai Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a vaccine expert, told reporters that for some highly contagious diseases, if a high vaccination rate cannot be achieved, the effect of herd immunity cannot be achieved. At present, the coverage rate of free vaccination in my country has reached more than 95%. At the press conference, Zeng Yixin also mentioned that it is generally believed that only a 60% or even 70% vaccination rate can establish universal protection. my country plans to establish an immune barrier for the entire population through COVID-19 vaccination, and ultimately control the epidemic.
What are the criteria for including a vaccine on the free list? Taulina proposed that it is mainly based on the consideration of comprehensive factors. The most important consideration is the “burden of disease.” Taulina pointed out that the so-called “burden of disease” refers to the health damage and social impact caused by a disease. Including infectiousness, severity of disease, cure rate, etc. The higher the disease burden, the more infectious diseases can be included in the list of free vaccines. In Taulina’s view, the COVID-19 vaccine fits such characteristics.
The protective efficacy of the domestically-made vaccine on the market is 79.34%, which is enough to exert the effect of antibodies
According to the information released by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products of Sinopharm Group, the results of the Phase III clinical trial phase of the COVID-19 virus inactivated vaccine showed that the vaccine has a protective effect of 79.34% against diseases caused by COVID-19 virus infection. This protective effect exceeds the World Health Organization’s requirement of “vaccine effective rate not less than 50%”, and also meets the standard of “protective effect should reach 70% or more” proposed by the State Food and Drug Administration.
The Beijing Institute of Chinese Medicine and Biopharmaceuticals’ vaccine department is the fourth in the world to release the effectiveness data of Phase III clinical trials. Taolina believes that as a kind of inactivated vaccine, the protective effect can reach more than 70%, which is already a good result, and it is already sufficient to exert the effect of antibodies.
Tao Lina suggested that if it is vaccinated among the elderly, methods such as increasing the measurement may be considered, but this also needs to be carried out in accordance with laws and regulations. As for other vaccines that have not yet been officially launched, Tao Lina said: “For example, recombinant protein vaccines, nucleic acid vaccines, etc., there may be room for improvement in protective efficacy.
Chen Shifei, deputy director of the National Medical Products Administration, said at the meeting that after the vaccine is launched, the National Medical Products Administration will also urge the Sinopharm Beijing Company to continue to carry out phase III clinical trials as planned. The vaccine instructions will be updated and supplemented in time based on the progress of the research and the data results obtained, as well as abnormal reactions in the post-marketing vaccination.
“It can be asserted that there is no problem with the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine currently on the market.” Taolina said that the reason why the vaccine will be further launched in phase III clinical trials after the market is not because there are still problems in effectiveness and effectiveness. , But to clarify other situations. Taolina proposed that the inactivated COVID-19 vaccines that have been on the market, the uncertain factors so far include differences in effectiveness after vaccination in different populations, the duration of antibody formation in the human body, and people with special health conditions. Whether to carry out vaccination and other situations, and the phase III clinical trial phase, these will become the focus.
The incidence of serious adverse reactions compared with vaccination is 2 parts per million
Expert: No vaccine can completely achieve 100% zero side effects
Zeng Yixin publicly responded to vaccine safety issues at today’s press conference. He said that the overall incidence of adverse reactions is very close to that of conventional inactivated vaccines, mainly local pain, induration, etc., less than 0.1% of mild fever cases, and more serious adverse reactions such as allergic reactions. Approximately two parts per million, these conditions have been dealt with in time and have been well treated.
“This is not a reaction to the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine. Adverse reactions may occur after other vaccinations.” Taolina explained that the overall adverse reaction of the vaccine is reflected in the fever and local pain in some people after vaccination. And other common symptoms, but the incidence is very low. Therefore, the above symptoms of the COVID-19 vaccine are also within the controllable and acceptable range.
Regarding the concern that some people may have sequelae after vaccination, Taolina believes that such doubts are a little redundant. “Inactivated vaccine technology is very mature.” Taolina explained that, for example, the common inactivated hepatitis A vaccine and hand-foot-mouth disease vaccine are all types of inactivated vaccines that can be used by groups of people, including pregnant women. Therefore, the inactivated vaccine itself is relatively safe, and with the support of perennial inactivated vaccine technology, the technology of the COVID-19 inactivated vaccine is also quite mature, and the public does not have to worry too much about serious sequelae after vaccination.
Taolina said that because the existing “side effects” have a very low probability of occurrence, coupled with their own reactions to drugs such as allergies, it is difficult to achieve 100% of zero side effects.
Do I need to keep getting different vaccines after more COVID-19 vaccinations?
Expert: No need to repeat vaccination after vaccination
According to reports, at present, many COVID-19 virus vaccines in China have entered phase III clinical trials, and there are also many vaccines that are stepping up the phase I and II clinical trials. According to Xu Nanping, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, revealed at the meeting that up to now, 14 vaccines from 5 technical routes in my country have entered clinical trials, of which 3 technical routes and 5 vaccines have entered phase III clinical trials.
This means that in addition to the inactivated vaccines already on the market, more COVID-19 vaccines will come out in the future. So, in a market with abundant vaccines, do we need to continuously vaccinate different vaccines?
In this regard, Taulina believes: “Generally speaking, people only need to be vaccinated with one of them to have a good preventive effect.” He said that even if the protection of the vaccine is high or low, if the vaccine has been inactivated, Vaccines, then other types of vaccines that will be available in the future do not require repeated vaccination.
So, to what extent does vaccination need to build a stronger protective barrier? Taulina said that based on the number of people vaccinated with 1 billion people, it means that nearly 2 million people must be vaccinated every day, which poses a huge challenge to vaccine production.
“If 70% or more of the population can really be vaccinated, then the effect of herd immunity can indeed be achieved.” Taolina pointed out that this will be a long-term goal and process, and by then, the COVID-19 virus will It will be prevented as a normal disease.