The World Health Organization approves the Chinese «Sinopharm» vaccine / Article

The vaccine, manufactured by the Chinese company Sinopharm, has been approved for use by the World Health Organization (WHO) and is still awaiting approval in the European Union. Meanwhile, Europe has agreed to supply an additional 1.8 billion Pfizer / BioNtech vaccines. The United Kingdom, for its part, has decided to replace AstraZeneca vaccines with vaccines for other people under 40 years of age.

The vaccine, produced by the Chinese state-owned company Sinopharm, has already vaccinated millions of people and has been the basis for successful vaccination programs not only in China but also in many Latin American and African countries, as well as in some countries in Europe such as Hungary and Serbia. However, it has only now been officially approved by the World Health Organization.

“This is the sixth vaccine to be approved by the World Health Organization for safety, efficacy and quality, and it expands the list of vaccines available for the Covax vaccination program to purchase and distribute to countries with confidence,” said Tedros Adanom Gebreesus, chief health officer.

The WHO could soon approve another Chinese-made vaccine, Sinovac, and is considering approving a Russian vaccine, Sputnik, which is already in use in a number of countries.

Vaccination programs in many countries also depend on the British AstraZeneca, whose home British officials have now decided not to vaccinate people under the age of 40 who are not at high risk. At the same time, it is emphasized that these recommendations are specific only to the situation in the United Kingdom itself, which may change.

“These recommendations will be valid if a number of factors remain: if good control of Covid-19 is maintained in the UK, there will be enough alternatives to AstraZeneca vaccines and the vaccination rate will be fast,” explained Ween Shenlim, head of the UK’s Covid-19 vaccination committee.

Covid-19 is currently infected by a few thousand people a day in the UK. In January, this number exceeded sixty thousand. In turn, the number of deaths for several days this month has been less than ten.

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