Chilean authorities defend the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccine against the Sinovac coronavirus | International | News

The country’s health minister said it 100% avoids serious cases.

EFE

April 12, 2021 – 6:30 p.m.

–

This Monday, the Minister of Health of Chile, Enrique Paris, said that the vaccine made by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac prevents 100% of the most serious cases of coronavirus and fights the Brazilian and British variants, after the controversy that arose this weekend for its effectiveness.

“I want to convey absolute tranquility regarding this issue and tell the population that this vaccine is being used in multiple other countries, not only in Chile, and because it is an inactive virus and has the entire protein composition of the virus, it creates a large quantity of antibodies “, assured Paris.

Chile, with 19 million inhabitants, is one of the countries with the highest percentage of vaccinated population in the world and since February it has already inoculated more than 7.3 million people with at least one dose, the vast majority of them with the vaccine. of Sinovac.

In a controversial statement, the director of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control, Gao Fu, told a conference on Saturday in the southwestern city of Chengdu that Chinese drugs “do not have very high protection rates” and that the Asian giant is studying increase the doses and the interval between them.

After the media uproar, the Chinese official said in an interview with the Global Times that the controversy “was a complete misunderstanding” and that “the protection rates of all vaccines in the world are sometimes high and sometimes low.”

“The (Sinovac) vaccine is 100% effective in preventing the patient from entering the intensive treatment unit and dying. It is 80% effective for moderate cases and up to 60% effective, according to another study, for mild cases that do not they need medical treatment, “said the Chilean minister.

Chile, which has committed more than 35 million doses from different laboratories, has authorized the administration of 4 vaccines to date: Pfizer / BioNTech, Sinovac, the British one from AstraZeneca and recently the one from the Chinese laboratory CanSino.

Next you come the country will publish a study on the efficacy and effectiveness of the vaccine carried out by Chilean universities together with the Ministry of Health, which will be one of the first in the world to demonstrate how the Chinese vaccine works in the real population, beyond of clinical trials.

“We continue to trust the Sinovac vaccine,” the Chilean official insisted in a press conference in which he also reported that in the last 24 hours 6,372 new cases and 137 deaths were detected, bringing the total balance since March of last year It amounts to almost 1.1 million infected and 24,483 deaths.

Despite the fast pace of vaccination, the country is experiencing the worst moments of the pandemic, with hospitals on the brink of collapse, more than 83% of the population in strict home confinement and borders closed until May. (I)

–