COVID-19 Vaccines Questions Answered by China Health Officer
COVID-19 Vaccines Questions Answered by China Health Officer
COVID-19 Vaccines Questions Answered by China Health Officer. On December 19, the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council of China held a press conference on the vaccinations against the new coronavirus for key populations. Who are the key vaccination groups? Where to fight? What is the pricing? How safe is it? How long is the validity period? Will virus mutation affect vaccine effectiveness? Is there a timetable for universal vaccination? What should I do if I have not received the vaccine? ……In response to hot issues of public concern, the heads of multiple departments gave detailed answers.
First Question Who can be vaccinated?
Zeng Yixin, head of the vaccine research and development team of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism Research Team of the State Council and deputy director of the National Health Commission, said that it is necessary to do a good job in the popularization of vaccines and to strengthen citizen vaccination under the premise of the COVID-19 vaccine as a public product and informed consent. Vaccine obligations and sense of responsibility, strive to ensure that the high-risk population “should receive everything”, and everyone who meets the conditions can be vaccinated on time.
Cui Gang, head of the CDC of the National Health Commission, introduced that vaccination was carried out for some key populations, including imported cold chain, port quarantine, ship pilotage, aviation air service, fresh food market, public transportation, medical disease control and other infection risks. And those who go to work or study in high-risk countries or regions.
Zeng Yixin, Head of the Vaccine Research and Development Team of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council and Deputy Director of the National Health Commission Zeng Yixin, Head of the Vaccine Research and Development Team of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council and Deputy Director of the National Health Commission
Second question-where is the vaccine?
Cui Gang said that various localities are currently actively implementing various measures to provide convenient services for people to vaccinate. Under normal circumstances, the inoculation unit is a health service center, township health center or general hospital located in the jurisdiction, which is generally covered by the jurisdiction. We have asked all localities to promptly announce the vaccination sites and units that can be vaccinated within their jurisdictions, including locations and service hours. If the vaccination involves some centralized units, we will also consider setting up some temporary vaccination sites and come to provide services.
Three question-how is the vaccine pricing?
Zheng Zhongwei, head of the Vaccine R&D Special Team of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism Research Team of the State Council and Director of the National Health and Health Commission’s Medical and Health Technology Development Research Center, said that the price of vaccines is primarily based on enterprises, but we still have several principles. First of all, the principle of public product attributes is followed. Since it is a public product attribute, our final pricing basis is cost. Moreover, the price of this vaccine will also vary with the expansion of the scale of production and use. As the vaccine is approved for listing with conditions, it will form a corresponding price mechanism.
Zheng Zhongwei, Head of the Vaccine R&D Team of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism Research Team of the State Council, Director of the Medical and Health Technology Development Research Center of the National Health Commission, Zheng Zhongwei, Team Leader of the Vaccine R&D Team of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism Research Team of the State Council, and the National Health Commission Zheng Zhongwei, Director of the Medical and Health Technology Development Research Center
4th question-Are there any adverse reactions after vaccination?
Jiao Yahui, the inspector of the Medical Administration and Hospital Administration of the National Health Commission, said that the common adverse reactions observed from the previous COVID-19 virus vaccination are the adverse reactions observed in the vaccines in China. They are not exactly the same as those in foreign countries. There was such a serious adverse reaction. The common adverse reactions mainly include the following aspects: headache and fever, as well as local redness at the injection site, or lumps, and some people have cough, loss of appetite, vomiting, and diarrhea.
5th question-how long is the vaccine valid for?
Zeng Yixin introduced that in the phase I and II clinical trials launched in March, many volunteers have conducted clinical trials and have been followed up to test their antibodies, and they still exist. In addition, many medical institutions follow up recovered patients discharged from the hospital to see if the antibodies persist after discharge. I learned that the first patient discharged from the Shenzhen Infectious Diseases Hospital was on January 23. A total of more than 400 patients were followed up. They found that many patients still had antibodies for the longest 10 months.
He said that these evidences suggest that the vaccine protection period is more than half a year as required by the WHO regulations, and there are basically not too many doubts. Of course, as to whether the protection period can be like many viral vaccines, which can be immunized for life, or at least five years and ten years of protection, this conclusion cannot be drawn.
Is the COVID-19 vaccine given once a year like the flu vaccine? Zeng Yixin said that the protection period of the flu vaccine is one year, because the virus has mutated and different subtypes are circulating. The COVID-19 vaccine should not exist for half a year or once a year. It is more optimistic that the possibility is unlikely.
Sixth question-how safe is the vaccine?
Zheng Zhongwei said that since July, up to now, emergency vaccinations have been carried out for high-risk exposed groups on the premise of voluntary, informed, and consent. At present, more than 1 million doses of emergency vaccination of the COVID-19 vaccine have been completed. After our strict adverse reaction monitoring and follow-up observation, no serious adverse reactions occurred. More than 60,000 of them went to high-risk areas abroad, and there were no reports of serious infections.
Seventh question-Does virus mutation affect the vaccine effect?
According to Wang Huaqing, chief expert and chief physician of the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization program, generally speaking, this kind of mutation will not affect the severity of the disease, nor will it affect the infectiousness of the disease, nor will it affect the vaccine’s impact on the virus. Immune effect.
He introduced that as a new coronavirus, as an RNA virus, it may mutate slightly faster than DNA viruses. Current research results show that the mutation of this virus is actually in a normal range, and it has not seen its impact on the vaccine effect. Of course, whether this virus will mutate greatly in the later stage, whether it is from the World Health Organization, related institutions in various countries, and vaccine companies, it will continue to pay attention and continue to conduct research, and obtain results from these studies. Some of the data, analysis of the mutation situation, also for the follow-up including vaccine use strategy research, provide relevant evidence for vaccine use. In general, the mutation of this virus has not seen any impact on the vaccine effect.
Eight question-Can the vaccine production meet the needs of the group?
At the end of this year, or even the first half of next year, can the production of vaccines involved meet the key population? Mao Junfeng, head of the Consumer Goods Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, introduced that he has comprehensively sorted out the industry chain and supply chain of the COVID-19 virus vaccine, and instructed companies to conduct research and analysis on the supply risks of these production materials. At the same time, promote some key materials to speed up production technology research, and organize upstream and downstream enterprises to strengthen supply and demand. We also require manufacturers to increase market procurement and commercial reserves for some key production materials from now on to ensure the stability of the new coronavirus vaccine production supply chain.
In the next step, we will continue to strengthen production scheduling, and promote enterprises to further expand production capacity through a series of methods such as the transformation of production workshops and the improvement of production technology, so as to fully organize and ensure the production of new coronavirus vaccines.
Ninth question-is there a timetable for universal vaccination?
Zeng Yixin said that the COVID-19 vaccine should be provided to the general public as a public product. We will definitely increase, promote, and popularize the vaccine according to the vaccine’s marketing approval status and the vaccine’s production and supply capacity.
Follow-up with the conditional listing of the vaccine or the formal approval of the listing, especially with the gradual increase in production and supply guarantee capacity and output. For the elderly involving hundreds of millions of people and the relative infection with underlying diseases, we call it high risk. The population, as well as the follow-up general population, vaccination work will be fully and orderly spread. Our goal is to strive to establish the protection of herd immunity through active immunization.
Tenth question-what should I do if I have not been vaccinated?
Cui Gang said that other people who have not been vaccinated need not worry. We still have many effective prevention and control methods, such as taking personal protection, wearing masks in public places, maintaining social distance, and washing hands frequently. These measures are in the early stage. The process of prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic, including the long-term practice of disease prevention and control, has been proven to be very effective. You must take personal protection.
