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Hong Kong imported the vaccines. The city was international enough that using a foreign (non-Chinese) vaccine wasn't a political statement that the Chinese vacc
by hnfong 4y ago
Hong Kong imported the vaccines. The city was international enough that using a foreign (non-Chinese) vaccine wasn't a political statement that the Chinese vaccine wasn't as effective. The political calculus is different for China generally.
- refurb 4y agoThe plan was to manufacturer the vaccine in Asia for the Chinese market. I agree that the politically, China didn't want to use Western vaccines. BioNTech and Fosun Pharma are setting up a 50-50 joint venture to make and sell the COVID mRNA shot in China, with manufacturing capacity to produce up to 1 billion doses a year, Fosun said in a filing (PDF) to the Hong Kong Exchange on Sunday. https://www.fiercepharma.com/manufacturing/biontech-fosun-pharma-eye-1b-doses-covid-19-vaccine-capacity-new-china-jv https://www.fiercepharma.com/manufacturing/biontech-fosun-ph...
- onethought 4y agoSetting up… so you’re saying they don’t have access to it now… Which means they didn’t have access to it in January… Which was my point the entire time.
- refurb 4y agoThey always had access to it. Either through imports or manufacturing in Hong Kong. They choose not to use it.
- onethought 4y agoThis just isn't true. There has never been enough global supply for China AND the rest of the world. If there was, why (as you stated) would they be setting up net-new manufacturing of it? That, coupled with the fact that the Chinese population have resisted getting vaccinated meant that it was never a viable strategy to purchase billions of doses and open up. The only option they had was COVID-0 style strategies.
- refurb 4y agoI dont know why youre so hung up on “not enough supply for China”. There is no binary option. They could have imported multiple vaccines (like Vietnam and many other countries did) and used what they imported. They didnt. Instead they used their home grown vaccine which had terrible efficacy.
- onethought 4y agoVaccinating 20% of your population is not helpful. You need to hit 50-80% else you shouldn’t do it. Supply being one problem and uptake being the other. Meant China never had a proper “opening up” option presented.