China has developed more than one Coronavirus vaccine and many people in the country have already received the shots. But the Chinese healthcare officials never revealed details about the effectiveness of the vaccines. On Wednesday, December 9, the United Arab Emirates said one of the vaccines developed by a Chinese company is 86 percent effective.
The UAE announced the efficacy percentage in a statement, which has provided some details about the vaccine developed by Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm. It's the first public release of information about the shot.
The Vaccine Distribution
The UAE conducted a trial of the Chinese vaccine in September involving 31,000 volunteers from 125 nations. The participants, aged between 18 and 60 years, received two doses of the vaccine over 28 days. The UAE's Health and Prevention Ministry announced the results while saying that they have "reviewed Sinopharm CNBG's interim analysis of the Phase III trials".
According to the statement, the analysis showed "no serious safety concerns." But the statement from UAE officials did not include details about whether any participant suffered side-effects. It is also not clear whether the results included those taking part in the trials in the UAE or if they also include the results from China and other places. As per the statement, it described the vaccine as receiving "official registration" without explaining what that meant.
The Abu Dhabi health authority, SEHA, said it included an option for people to schedule an appointment to get the COVID-19 vaccine. It received an uncountable number of calls after the announcement regarding the efficacy of the Chinese vaccine was made.
The Chinese Coronavirus vaccine, developed by Sinopharm, has been approved for emergency use in a few countries, while the company is still conducting late-stage trials in 10 nations. The vaccine relied on technology, using a killed virus to deliver the shot—a similar concept used to create polio immunizations. In UAE, some of the top officials, including Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, have publicly received the Chinese vaccine.
The other vaccine developers like Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech use newer and less-proven technology to target the virus' spike protein using RNA. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine doses ahead of the mass inoculation program on Wednesday. "I believe in this vaccine. I want the people of Israel to get vaccinated and so I will be first," Netanyahu said.
