WHO asks the United States and Europe to approve the Chinese vaccines Sinovac and Sinopharm against covid-19

Geneva – Any vaccine against covid-19 that the World Health Organization (WHO) authorizes for emergency use must be recognized by countries once they open their borders to inoculated travelers, the agency said on Thursday.

The move could force Western countries to accept two apparently less effective Chinese vaccines, which the United Nations health agency has authorized but most European and North American countries have not.

In addition to the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna Inc., AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, the WHO has given the green light to the application of the two Chinese injections, created by Sinovac and Sinopharm.

In its attempt to restore travel throughout Europe, the European Union said in May that it would only recognize a person as vaccinated if they have received a vaccine authorized by the European Medicines Agency, although it is up to the authorities in each country if they want the entry of travelers who have received other injections, including the Russian Sputnik V. The EU drug regulator is currently analyzing whether to authorize the Chinese Sinovac vaccine, but there is no set deadline for a decision.

“Any measure that only allows people protected by a subset of WHO-approved vaccines to benefit travel reopening … would effectively create a two-tier system, further expanding the global division of the vaccine and it exacerbates the inequities that have been seen beforehand in the distribution of vaccines against covid-19, ”the WHO stressed in a statement on Thursday.