Category: Vaccine
Is China’s One-Billion Vaccine Goal Realistic?
During his press conference at the Two Sessions on Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi recommitted China to deliver one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa. While he didn’t specify a timeline, he did link it to Africa’s effort to vaccinate 60% of its population by ...
Did Vaccine Diplomacy Sway Africa’s Ukraine Vote?
Amid the global discussion about why 35 Global South countries avoided censuring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations, Michael Bociurkiw, a senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, felt the need to tweet. He pointed out that some of the ...
Egypt is Now the Main Hub for Chinese Vaccine Diplomacy in Africa and the Middle East
While Europeans and Americans are now ramping up their efforts to develop COVID-19 manufacturing facilities in Africa, a Chinese joint venture in Egypt is already well underway where it's becoming a vital hub in Beijing's vaccine diplomacy in both Africa and the Middle East. ...
After Two Years of Laying Low, Xi Emerges With a Flurry of Presidential Diplomacy on the Olympic Sidelines
Chinese President Xi Jinping emerged from nearly two years of relative diplomatic isolation on Friday for a flurry of one-on-one meetings with some of the 30 heads of state in town for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. ...
Fact-Checking a Claim That Nigeria Threw Away More Than a Million Doses of Chinese Vaccines
The investigative team at the Chinese news site The Paper.cn published a fact-checking report that debunked accounts circulating on Chinese-language Twitter that Nigeria had destroyed more than a million doses of Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines. Last December, Nigerian authorities did, in fact, ...
Morocco Bet Heavily on Chinese Vaccines But With Infections Now Surging, Will Those Jabs Hold Up Against Omicron?
COVID infections are once again rising fast in Morocco. The Health Ministry on Wednesday reported 9,355 cases and 13 deaths, the highest level in five months. This is a huge disappointment for health authorities that were cautiously optimistic ...
Chinese Vaccine Update: Distributions in Africa Remain Highly Skewed in Favor of North Africa
As of this week, China has distributed 117.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines throughout with just under 40% of those shipments provided as donations, according to the latest data from Bridge Consulting's vaccine tracker report. But the distribution ...
Singapore Study Provokes New Concerns Over Chinese-made Vaccines’ Ability to Combat Omicron Variant
The Singaporean Health Minister, Ong Ye Kung, revealed new findings this week on the efficacy of different COVID-19 vaccines that are once again sparking concerns over the use of Chinese-made vaccines that are predominant in developing countries. In a study of ...
Chinese Vaccines Still Slowly Trickling to Africa, No Uptick in Deliveries Since Xi Speech
Only been five weeks have elapsed since Chinese President Xi Jinping announced China would distribute one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa, so it's still a bit early to check for evidence that this new initiative is up and running. ...
In a Potentially Troubling Development for Africa, Sinovac Did Not Perform Well in Early Test Against Omicron Variant
Researchers at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) found that people inoculated with two doses of Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine did not produce sufficient detectable levels of antibodies needed to fend off the new highly-infectious Omicron variant.