TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – China’s success in controlling the coronavirus outbreak has prompted a population that seems almost reluctant to get vaccinated. So speed up your inoculation campaign by offering incentives (free eggs, store coupons and discounts on groceries and merchandise) to those who get shot.
After a slow start, China is giving millions of shots a day. On March 26 alone it administered 6.1 million shots. A government doctor, Zhong Nanshan, has announced the goal of vaccinating 560 million of the country’s 1.4 billion people.
The challenge lies in part in the sheer magnitude of the effort and the need to convince a population that currently feels safe from infections.
When patients first appeared in Wuhan hospitals in late 2019 with fevers, coughs and breathing difficulties, the government closed the city and others in Hubei Province for more than two months from January 2020. Wuhan it was later known as the epicenter of the outbreak.
Since then, China has controlled the virus through strict border controls and rapid blockades whenever new outbreaks appear. People can dine at restaurants and the risk of infection is low, so many don’t seem in a hurry to get the vaccine.
“I think everyone has a sense of security and comfort, and there’s no rush to get vaccinated unless you’re asked to do so,” said Helen Chen, a health care specialist at a market research firm in Shanghai.
But China also wants to open up as the world wants to return to pre-pandemic normalcy and Beijing is preparing to welcome tens of thousands of visitors to host the February 2022 Winter Olympics. and that it succeeds with quick locks and a robust contact location system through with smartphones, the government also balances these measures with a possible return to normalcy.
For now, in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing, the government has relied primarily on sustained messaging and gifts to convince people to get vaccinated.
Shopping malls have offered points in stores or coupons. A Beijing temple offered free admission to anyone who demonstrated the vaccination test. Shanghai uses buses in its campaign to establish mobile vaccination points.
And then there are the free eggs.
“Good news. As of today, residents 60 years of age or older who have received the first shot can opt for five” jin “(2.5 kilograms or 5 1/2 kilos) eggs. First come, first served service, ”said a poster of a city-run health center in Beijing.
Wang Feng was too young for the clinic’s eggs, but the 25-year-old chef said he got the vaccine anyway because he couldn’t go to work without it.
“I thought if it worked, I could too,” he added.
Some people have expressed doubts about how good existing vaccines are, Chinese or not, given how quickly they were developed.
“I don’t think an effective vaccine can be made that quickly,” said Amy Lu, who works at a university in Shanghai.
The five vaccines currently used in China have an efficacy range of 50.7% to 79.3%, according to the companies. That’s not to say they have no value – most experts say anything above 50% is helpful in controlling the pandemic, as well as preventing hospitalizations and deaths.
“Even if everyone gets two doses, you may not be able to get the herd’s immunity.” said Wang Chenguang, a former professor at Peking Union Medical College and an immunology expert. Herd immunity occurs when there is enough population with immunity, either from vaccinations or past infections, to stop the uncontrolled spread of an infectious disease.
China may need to vaccinate at least 1 billion people to achieve this, Wang Huaqing, head of immunology at China’s Centers for Disease Control, said in an interview with state media this week. By early April, approximately 34 million people had received two shots and about 65 million had received a dose.
Gao Fu, the head of the CDC, said last weekend that China is studying various strategies such as mixing different vaccines to try to increase the effectiveness. External experts say China could eventually roll out other more effective vaccines, such as shots against Pfizer or Moderna.
“The best thing to do is to allow the use of other better vaccines and make them available to the Chinese people, but this is probably very difficult from a political point of view,” said Jin Dong-yan, a vaccine expert. of Hong University Kong School of Medicine.
Chinese pharmacist Fosun Pharmaceutical Group has partnered with German BioNTech to sell the Pfizer vaccine in China. However, it has only been approved in Hong Kong and Macao, special territories of China with their own regulatory agencies. A clinical trial is underway for the continent’s approval.
Vaccination is supposed to be voluntary, but excessive efforts by some governments and local businesses caused health officials to issue a warning this week against forced vaccinations.
A hospital in Danzhou, Hainan Province in the south of the island, apologized after sending a notice to staff saying, “Those who are not vaccinated could be fired.”
In Zhejiang Province, an April 2 announcement said that all government departments, Communist Party cadres and people working in universities should have the initiative to receive gunfire.
The national government also demanded vaccination for all residents in Ruili, a city bordering Myanmar, due to a recent outbreak.
Vaccination can also mean being able to avoid some of the heavier obstacles that some local institutions have set in the name of pandemic control.
Beijing student Bright Li said he was vaccinated, so he would no longer need approval to leave campus. Although he barely applied, Li was concerned after the university released posters to publicly denounce a student who left campus without permission last winter after that student had gone to an area with a COVID case. -19 confirmed.
Vaccine collection has been in short supply and scattered delays.
In Haikou, the capital of Hainan, health authorities issued a temporary stay by providing a second chance to those not involved in two major future events, “due to the relative tension” in the supply of vaccines. Shortages were also reported in two southern cities, Foshan in Guangdong Province and Xiamen Port in Fujian Province.
China’s vaccine manufacturers have expanded production capacity en masse and health officials say they are confident demand will be met by the end of the year.
—-
Associated Press video producer Olivia Zhang in Beijing, researcher Chen Si in Shanghai and scientific writer Aniruddha Ghosal in New Delhi contributed to this report.