São Paulo medical workers are now being asked to help bring hope to the rest of the world.
Brazil tries the new coronavirus vaccine from, China
Brazil will begin advanced clinical testing of a Chinese-made vaccine against coronavirus, issuing the first doses to around 900 volunteers, officials said.
The coronavirus vaccine, developed by a private Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac, is the third in the world to enter Phase 3 trials, or large-scale testing on humans—the last step before regulatory approval. Sinovac is partnering with a Brazilian public health research center, the Butantan Institute, on the trials.
If the vaccine proves safe and effective, the institute will have the right to produce 120 million doses under the deal, according to officials.“In Brazil, we could have the first vaccine to be put to widespread use, which is very, very promising,” said the head of the Butantan Institute, Dimas Covas.
Brazil is the second-hardest-hit country with the coronavirus pandemic, after the United States. Its death toll surpassed 80,000 on Monday, and has registered 2.1 million positive cases.
Scientists have struggled to create a vaccine in record time, and the Trump White House even named the operation Operation Warp Speed, and invested $ 1.9 billion in the Pfizer project. But after severe blockages slowed the spread of the virus in Europe, western researchers looked further to detect heavily infected populations in which to test the vaccine.
In Brazil, the virus is rampant. President Jair Bolsonaro has dismissed the threat, even though he contracted it himself. The country reported more than 50,000 new cases of Covid-19 on multiple days last week.
Officials have looked for opportunities in disgrace and have allowed British, Chinese and American companies to conduct trials in the hope that Brazil can obtain faster local production of the eventual vaccine. The faster the population is immunized, the sooner the economy can restart.
Sinovac’s trial began last week with now a handful of recipients in the São Paulo health system. However, an unexpected side effect has emerged, not from the vaccine but from the geopolitical race for it. A small swath of angry Brazilians have protested on social media against the “China vaccine.” They echo the previous rhetoric, say critics, of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and the Trump administration about the “Chinese virus.”
So far, only one participant in the Sinovac trial has spoken publicly, Stephanie Texieira Porto. A young doctor, she has also been separated from her family for the past five months, and her eyes blur when she mentions her 90-year-old grandmother whom she has not seen.
She says she received only kind words about her decision to participate in Sinovac’s trial on social media, but trial organizers warned her it could be different. “They told me not to expose myself too much, to try not to tell everyone what this study will be like. It’s very strange, everything. I don’t understand why (some people) hate China.”
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