VACCINE NATIONALISM: China Delays Approval of BioNTech Covid-19 Shot to Preserve Confidence in Chinese Vaccines.

China Delays Approval of BioNTech Covid-19 Shot to Preserve Confidence in Chinese Vaccines

Beijing is betting it can protect its people with Chinese shots, while also experimenting with its own mRNA vaccine
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China’s government is slow-rolling approval of its first foreign Covid-19 vaccine out of concern it could undermine confidence in Chinese vaccines, delivering further evidence of the tenacity of vaccine nationalism in the face of a resurgent pandemic.
Chinese health authorities worry that public doubts about Chinese vaccines stemming from approval of Germany’s BioNTech SE’s vaccine could disrupt the country’s plans to use the homegrown shots to reach an ambitious vaccination goal before the end of the year, according to people familiar with the deliberations.
China was expected to approve the BioNTech vaccine, which is based on state-of-the-art mRNA technology, by July. While Chinese vaccines, made with traditional methods, have proven effective at preventing hospitalizations, Chinese public-health experts had pushed for the introduction of Western vaccines that have proven more effective in clinical studies.