China COVID-19 Vaccine ＂Why＂？ —— Xinhua News Agency reporter interviewed Ceng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health and Wellness Commission.

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, June 6th Question: China COVID-19 Vaccine "Why"? —— Xinhua News Agency reporter interviewed Ceng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health and Wellness Commission.

Xinhua News Agency reporters Chen Fang and Chen Xiyuan

The COVID-19 epidemic, which has never happened in a century, has been delayed for more than one year. The epidemic has fluctuated repeatedly, and the virus has frequently mutated. The situation is still complicated and grim.

Coping with epidemic prevention and control is a major event related to human development and an urgent issue of global governance.

The number and speed of vaccine research and development in COVID-19 are among the highest in the world. Two inactivated vaccines have entered the WHO emergency use list, supplying more than 350 million doses to the world … eliminating the "immune gap" and making every effort to promote the life of the people in the world to return to "normalization". Behind the "China speed" of vaccines in COVID-19, the mission of a responsible big country is demonstrated.

What is the overall progress of vaccine research and development in COVID-19? What kind of international cooperation has been carried out? What are the results of vaccine research in the real world? Will there be a new vaccine in the next step? ….. On the 6th, Ceng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health and Wellness Commission and head of the vaccine research and development special class of the scientific research team of the State Council Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism, accepted an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency to respond to the public’s concerns.

Unprecedented research-21 COVID-19 vaccines entered the clinical trial stage.

Q: The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has posed an unprecedented challenge to tackling the vaccine problem. What is the level of China? What’s the current progress?

A: We insist on early deployment and multi-routes. In February 2020, we set up a special class to deploy vaccine research and development. The speed and quantity of vaccine research and development in COVID-19 have always been in the first phalanx in the world.

Twenty-one COVID-19 vaccines have entered the clinical trial stage in China. At present, four vaccines have been approved for conditional marketing in China, three vaccines have been approved for emergency use in China, eight vaccines have been approved for phase III clinical trials abroad, and one mRNA vaccine has been approved by ethics abroad, thus achieving comprehensive coverage of the technical routes of inactivated vaccine, recombinant protein vaccine, adenovirus vector vaccine and nucleic acid vaccine in overseas clinical trials.

While the number of vaccine research and development ranks among the top in the world, the speed of research and development has also set a record. The COVID-19 vaccine research and development project took only 2 months from the start to the first clinical research in the world; It took only four months to carry out the emergency use of vaccines for the first time in China’s history; It took only five months to carry out the overseas phase III clinical trial of vaccine for the first time in Chinese history. It only takes 11 months to get the conditional listing.

Taking vaccines as a global public product-more than 350 million doses have been supplied to the world, and more than 90 countries and regions have been approved for marketing or emergency use.

Q: At the opening ceremony of the 73rd World Health Assembly, China solemnly promised to make vaccines a global public product. With the global epidemic raging, how can China meet both domestic and international demands when its own vaccine demand is huge? What kind of strength do we contribute to the global fight against epidemic?

A: The COVID-19 epidemic is the most serious global epidemic of infectious diseases in the past century. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader led the largest global humanitarian action in the history of New China, and put the concept of human health community into practice with practical actions.

China’s COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for marketing or emergency use in more than 90 countries and regions around the world, and two vaccines have been approved for inclusion in the WHO emergency use list.

Although the total number of vaccinations in China has exceeded 700 million doses, which is far ahead in the world, the proportion of vaccinations per 100 people is not ahead. In this case, according to the epidemic situation at home and abroad, we make overall consideration of domestic and international needs and rationally allocate vaccine supply. China’s COVID-19 vaccine has supplied more than 350 million doses abroad, including donations to more than 80 countries and exports to more than 40 countries. In October 2020, China announced its participation in COVID-19 Vaccine Implementation Plan (COVAX) and promised to supply 10 million doses of vaccine. On May 7, 2021, after the inactivated vaccine of Sinopharm Zhongsheng Beijing was included in the WHO emergency use list, on June 1, the first batch of COVAX vaccine supplied by the institute went offline.

China is actively engaged in international cooperation in the research, development, production and use of vaccines in COVID-19. In terms of research and development, some vaccine research and development units have cooperated with relevant institutions in more than 20 countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Uzbekistan, the Philippines and Pakistan, to carry out phase III clinical trials. In terms of production, the stock solution produced by some enterprises has been shipped to Brazil, Indonesia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Malaysia and other countries, and overseas sub-packaging has been started.

China’s valuable anti-epidemic experience is to uphold the people first and life first, and always put people’s life and health first. In the face of the raging epidemic, no one can be immune. In order to make China contribution to the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries, and to fulfill the solemn promise of "providing more vaccines to the outside world as much as possible", China said so and did the same.

Real-world research shows that China vaccine has good protection.

Q: Vaccine is a sharp weapon to overcome the epidemic, and everyone is very concerned about the actual protective effect of vaccine. How safe and effective is the vaccine approved in China in the real world?

A: Because the epidemic situation abroad is still grim, it is not easy to accurately count the real-world protection rate, but there are two cases to introduce. The Ministry of Health of Chile once announced that as of May 16th, the country had been inoculated with about 13.25 million doses of inactivated Kexing vaccine. The results showed that after the second dose was inoculated for 14 days, the effective rate of preventing symptomatic infection was 65.3%, the effective rate of preventing hospitalization was 87%, the effective rate of preventing entry into intensive care unit was 90.3%, and the effective rate of preventing death caused by infection was 86%.

On June 1st, Kexing released the preliminary results of COVID-19 vaccine trial "S Plan" in Celana, Brazil. More than 90% of the 40,000 people in this city have been vaccinated. The results showed that although the epidemic situation in the surrounding areas was still serious, the number of deaths caused by Covid-19 infection in Serrana decreased by 95%, the number of symptomatic cases decreased by 80%, and the number of inpatients decreased by 86%. In addition, vaccination also plays an immune barrier protection role for unvaccinated children and adolescents.

Large-scale vaccination in China fully shows that the vaccine in China has good safety. According to statistics, the reported incidence of adverse reactions after more than 700 million doses of vaccination in China is 118.6/100,000 doses. Among them, general reactions accounted for 83%, and abnormal reactions accounted for 17%. The incidence of general reactions and abnormal reactions were lower than the average reported level of various vaccines routinely vaccinated in China in 2019.

Phase III clinical trials also show that the vaccine has good safety and effectiveness. On May 26th, the international medical journal Journal of American Medical Association published the results of phase III clinical trial of two inactivated vaccines developed by Sinopharm Zhongsheng, which was the first officially published phase III clinical trial of inactivated vaccine in COVID-19 in the world. The data showed that the protective efficacy of the two inactivated vaccines was 72.8% and 78.1% respectively.

Building the Great Wall of Immunization-It is estimated that at least 70% of the target population will be vaccinated before the end of the year.

Q: According to the WHO report, the COVID-19 epidemic has caused more than 3 million deaths worldwide, affecting more than 200 countries and regions. China is promoting the largest COVID-19 vaccination. What is the current progress? How far is it from building an immune barrier?

A: On March 24th, China officially launched the "daily newspaper" system for vaccination in COVID-19. Since May, vaccination has entered an "accelerated run". At present, the vaccination in COVID-19 has exceeded 700 million doses, and China vaccine has been recognized and accepted by more countries in the world. The recent local cases suggest that the situation of prevention and control is still grim, and we need your help to build the "Great Wall of Immunization" and reduce "vaccine hesitation".

In order to facilitate the people and promote the vaccination of the whole population, temporary inoculation points, mobile inoculation points and key places go hand in hand; The people in key industries, key units and key areas are expanding again and again in order to meet everyone’s needs as soon as possible.

In this "big test" of vaccination, medical staff have made outstanding contributions. The inoculation amount is more than 20 million doses a day, and it is more than 100 million doses in five days. Every link must be checked, and every code can’t be wrong. This is the hard work of the majority of medical staff. They are respectable and lovely! It is estimated that at least 70% of the target population will be vaccinated by the end of this year.

Q: What new research do we have on the impact of virus mutation on vaccines that people are concerned about? How is the emergency use of atomized inhalation COVID-19 vaccine progressing? Will the age of emergency use of vaccines be expanded again?

A: First, we actively promote the follow-up related research of COVID-19 vaccine, including real-world research and immune persistence research, so as to provide reference for further large-scale use of the vaccine.

Second, the current research shows that the existing vaccine can control the existing virus variation. However, we must take precautions. Under the situation that the virus is still spreading rapidly around the world, we must closely monitor the variation of the virus and do a good job in the research and development of vaccines for severe mutant strains in Covid-19 in advance.

Third, actively promote more vaccines to carry out phase III clinical trials, promote more vaccines to market, and form greater production capacity, with the ultimate goal of increasing vaccine supply.

Fourthly, nasal spray vaccine is also one of our earliest technical routes. At present, the relevant units are carrying out clinical trials of nasal spray and aerosol inhalation COVID-19 vaccine and collecting statistical analysis. After the data are basically complete, we will organize experts to demonstrate its safety and effectiveness in due course.

Fifthly, the population of vaccine users in COVID-19 in China has covered over 18 years old, and the age of vaccinators is over 100 years old. At present, experts have demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine used by people aged 3 to 17, and will use it in this population as needed after approval by relevant state departments.

Sixthly, we also advocate that WHO can make timely adjustments to the rules of COVID-19’s entry into the emergency use list according to the actual situation of global epidemic prevention and control. For example, for animal experiments and phase I/II clinical trials, the effect is very good, and the production is in full compliance with GMP standards. Therefore, we should consider exempting phase III clinical trials and taking neutralizing antibodies as a substitute index, which can greatly increase the supply of vaccines.

The virus is our common enemy, and the whole world is a community of human destiny. One place is not safe, and nobody is safe. "Hello everyone is really good!" We must join hands in this protracted war against the epidemic.