China's Zero Covid & no mRNA mystery
China had their large communists party conclave not too long ago with Xi Jinping essentially becoming president in perpetuity and further consolidating power. No surprise on the political front but many expected them to use this as an opportunity to pivot from the blatantly unreachable zero covid policy. Instead, they would publicly double down on that policy but did make a few interesting changes from a western perspective. Vaccine mandates for example have largely been given up by the government. The vaccines that they do offer are local only; they have no interest in allowing Moderna or Pfizer vaccines into the mainland.
Politics may be able to explain the resistance to allowing a western product approval, but they are perfectly capable of creating their own versions. Despite that, mRNA technology appears to be the one piece of intellectual property they are not interested in reproducing for their own benefit. This raises lots of questions, it’s practically narrative on narrative violence with the west screaming that these products are effective until they are blue in the face, but the Chinese have deemed them not even worth stealing. Meanwhile the threat from covid is still severe enough that GPS data from your cell phone alone is enough to justify a government abduction and subsequent detainment. A great piece documenting this was recently published by Thomas Hale, the Shanghai correspondent for the Financial Times who was swept up for a ten-day detention. The full article is behind a paywall, but a free synopsis can be found here.
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/take-rare-glimpse-inside-chinas-zero-covid-madhouse
The United States government excels at hiding information from the public especially if it does not align with their goals. Even a former president can't handle classified information without concerns of legal liability. Releasing any of this information in the states requires an inordinate amount of time, lawyers and FOIA requests. Even if you do manage to pry that data from their clutches it is redacted to the point of uselessness often in the name of national security. Pfizer's recent documents and even Dr. Fauci's emails are good examples. Fortunately, we do have one entity on the planet that sees everything like the eye of Sauron. Chinese espionage operations are unequaled and generational in scope, it really makes me wonder what information about these products they must have to warrant such hesitance even in the face of mounting internal pressure.
They did start down the mRNA road over a year ago and Chinese companies Walvax Biotechnology & Suzhou Ai Biotechnology would publish their first study on 120 volunteers in January. The data from that trial in particular looks pretty good with no real concerns or adverse events reported. To their credit there are quite a few studies comparing the DNA based chinese vaccine (CoronoVac/Sinovac) and the pfizer mRNA product in the one market where they can both be found, Hong Kong. One study showed that both products have the potential to increase herpes zoster related hospitalizations, but the overall risk was still very low. Another study with over 2 million participants would track adverse events from both shots. The most frequent adverse event reported across both treatment groups was thromboembolism. This large study showed few differences in adverse events between the products but a slight increase in Bell's Palsy for the CoronaVac. Finally, a third study with about a quarter of a million diabetic patients was conducted and found no increased adverse events in this population.
Yes, all this data needs to be taken with a grain of salt; the Chinese certainly have a vested interest in pushing their product on the rest of the world (as do we). The conflict-of-interest statements in all these papers are mind bogglingly long as well. The takeaway though is that if you are the Communist party there is not a ton of public evidence even in their own scientific literature to support the actions they have taken. Even the joke that is the associated press managed to ask a Chinese health official what the delay was. Their response given under the conditions of remaining anonymous is that they have held back because they want to master the technology in China and not depend on foreign suppliers.
Jacob Hyatt Pharm D.
Father of three, Husband, Pharmacist, Realtor, Landlord, Independent Health, and Medicine Reporter
https://substack.com/discover/pharmacoconuts
Bitcoin GtjoZgxE7WpTkWRE6JiEiXfUpqbWKxH4g
Litecoin ML1N31UVz6sRfo2m2oLaorXgPexUtv3Q3t
Further Reading and References
https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2666-5247%2821%2900280-9
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/13/china/china-western-mrna-vaccine-mic-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3171044/chinas-omicron-surge-whats-stopping-beijing-reaching-mrna-vaccines
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3194787/vaccines-shouldnt-be-deciding-factor-chinas-zero-covid-policy?module=perpetual_scroll_0&pgtype=article&campaign=3194787
https://www.voanews.com/a/china-s-bet-on-homegrown-mrna-vaccines-holds-back-nation-/6587593.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/02/24/1082529219/looks-like-non-mrna-vaccines-can-be-as-good-as-pfizer-and-moderna-in-certain-sce
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35590336/
