A health worker administers a dose of the Chinese vaccine CoronaVac against COVID-19 to a man at a vaccination center in Santiago on March 16, 2021. – The vaccination campaign is about to overcome the barrier of 5 million people inoculated in Chile. (Photo by CLAUDIO REYES / AFP) (Photo by CLAUDIO REYES / AFP via Getty Images)
Photographer: CLAUDIO REYES / AFP
Photographer: CLAUDIO REYES / AFP
The vaccine from Sinovac Biotech Ltd. it is 67% effective in preventing symptomatic Covid-19 infections and prevents 80% of fatalities from the disease, according to a Chilean government study released Friday.
The report said the Sinovac vaccine was 85% effective against hospitalizations and 89% to prevent people from entering intensive care units. This is the first evidence of this type to demonstrate the degree of protection of the Chinese trait against Covid-19 after it has been widely used in a population.
A health worker administers a dose of the Chinese vaccine CoronaVac against COVID-19 to a man at a vaccination center in Santiago on March 16, 2021.
Photographer: CLAUDIO REYES / AFP
The study by the Chilean Ministry of Health followed 10.5 million citizens enrolled in the country’s public health insurance system and included people who had received one dose, two doses and no dose. Efficacy figures were obtained 14 days after the second dose.
While 80% effectiveness against death is significant, “it’s natural to be disappointed,” Rafael Araos, an adviser to the undersecretary of public health, told reporters. “However, real-life outcomes are always expected to be inferior to the outcome of a clinical study.”
The shot developed by the Beijing-based vaccine manufacturer and developed so far in more than 30 countries has faced growing questions about its effectiveness, after data emerged from Brazil showing that it had barely exceeded the minimum threshold. 50% to prevent coronavirus and one of its most troubling mutations. Nations such as Brazil and Indonesia depend on Sinovac doses to inoculate their populations after the most effective mRNA vaccines were started primarily by richer nations.
Read more: Covid is more deadly in Brazil than India and no one knows why
The effectiveness of Sinovac firing decreases if asymptomatic cases are considered and this information is likely to be included in the final version of the study, Araos said. “Including asymptomatic cases introduces more noise, but the effectiveness of preventing asymptomatic cases of Covid should be around 54% or 55%,” he said.
Meanwhile, after a single dose, the vaccine prevents about 16 percent of symptomatic infections, 35 percent of hospitalizations and 40 percent of deaths, Araos said. “The eventual need for a third shot is an issue that can always be discussed, although it is still quite speculative.”
Intensive surveillance
Despite leading one of the fastest vaccine launches in the world, cases in Chile have continued to rise after virus-related restrictions eased late last year. Almost 40% of the population has received at least one dose, while approximately 27% are completely vaccinated, according to the Bloomberg vaccine tracker.
There is evidence that vaccines are starting to work. The number of Chileans aged more than 70 who are currently in intensive care units because Covid is less than half what the number of younger people in the ICU would suggest, according to calculations by Bloomberg News based on a linear regression through January this year.
Anecdotal data suggest that the Brazilian variant, which currently spreads in Latin America, affects young people younger than previous strains, which may partly explain the discrepancy. However, the number of patients with ICU from the first vaccinated groups has decreased, even as patients increased.
While the company and governments around the world that ordered the firing of Sinovac have defended its merit in preventing mild and severe cases of Covid at much higher rates, overall effectiveness is still significantly maintained. from 95% observed in mRNA shots developed by Pfizer i Moderna Inc. and about 80% protection shown in similar inactivated shots from other Chinese and Indian developers.
Sinovac’s shot was found to have a much higher efficiency rate of 83.5% in Turkey, where it conducted a trial with more than 10,000 people, adding to the confusion over the actual power of the vaccine. Sinovac said the low efficacy found in the trial in Brazil was due, in part, to the shorter 14-day period between the two doses of the vaccine and to increased exposure to the virus among trial participants, all workers high-risk physicians.
– With the assistance of Sebastian Boyd and Eduardo Thomson
(Updates with official government appointments from the fourth paragraph)