DILI (TOP) – The government of the People's Republic of China has agreed to donate the coronavirus vaccine developed by China's Sinovac about 100,000 doses to Timor-Leste, but the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Timor-Leste's President José Ramos-Horta has asked the government to consult with World Health Organization (WHO) before receiving the vaccine.
Horta, who had injected the AstraZeneca vaccine a few weeks ago, also persuaded all citizens not to worry about the vaccine made by the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca because this vaccine is very safe.
Turkish researchers said the Sinovac vaccine was 91.25% effective, while Indonesia, which rolled out its mass vaccination programme on Wednesday, said it was 65.3% effective. Both were interim results from late-stage trials.
The latest figures for China's coronavirus vaccine show just how difficult it is to compare vaccines.
On the face of it, the 50% effectiveness figure isn't as good as Oxford's 70% or Pfizer and Moderna's 95%. But trials are run very differently in different countries - the numbers of volunteers enrolled varies wildly, as do the criteria used to test how much protection the vaccines offer.
On the evening of March 24, AstraZeneca announced its Covid-19 vaccine is 76 percent effective at preventing symptomatic disease, based on its Phase III trial of over 32,000 participants mostly in the United States. The results concluded a whirlwind of news stories about the AstraZeneca vaccine in March.
At this point, the vaccine has been approved for use in the United Kingdom and several European Union countries since December. It has not yet been approved in the U.S. because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked the company to provide results from a large-scale trial.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is widely in use around the world but has not yet been authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The U.S. will begin sharing its entire stock of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines with the world once it clears federal safety reviews, the White House said Monday, with as many as 60 million doses expected to be available for export in the coming months.
“The side effect can vary from minor to serious. The little one that compare with the number of people were taken vaccine is very slow of percentage,” Horta stated this through a press conference at his office in Farol, Dili, Wednesday, April 28, 2021.
He added; in the UK more than 30 million people are vaccinated across Europe as well as ten million and the numbers of sufferers are very different.
“So, I would say it’s absolutely safe. And there is no alternative anyway”.
“I am confident with AstraZeneca is come from a British-Swedish company, Oxford University and now produce in Australia because the production itself is very important. It’s followed Australian very high standard of production”.
He said, the United States, President Joe Biden has already announced that he is going to donate 60 million of AstraZeneca vaccine to other countries because now they have too many in the United States.
“So, I hope that the US will send some to Timor-Leste. I have no problem; I follow WHO has advised the rest of the world about which vaccine that is better for us. The suspension of AstraZeneca in Europe was many weeks ago, and they continue again”.
Horta did not reject Sinovac but he asked the government to consult with WHO before receiving this vaccine from China.
He explained, Timor-Leste has work immediately from day one under the COVAX system that was sponsored led by WHO.
“So, it’s better that we stay within this system. We let WHO and the UN system they do the procurement system, the selection of the vaccine for us. So, we don’t start using every kind of vaccine directly. If China donate, we accept, we use. Next would be Turkey, I don’t know. So, many countries. No, there is a system that set up and we better use that system, the COVAX”.
“What we can do is talk to WHO and let WHO on the scientific basis with the criteria talk to the Chinese government about this vaccine”.
