China’s Sinopharm becomes first non-Western vaccine to win WHO approval
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/china-s-sinopharm-becomes-first-non-western-...London: The World Health Organisation has made its long-awaited decision on China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, approving the jab for emergency use in all adults, meaning it can be rolled out globally.
The WHO said that based on the available data, the vaccine was 79 per cent effective against symptomatic and hospitalised disease for all ages. Clinical trials run by the state-owned company Sinopharm also showed that it had an efficacy rate of 79 per cent.
WHO is recommending the vaccine, which has already been used on millions of people around the world, for use in adults aged 18, on a two-dose regimen with a spacing of three to four weeks between each jab.
The listing is a major coup for China as it is the first non-Western vaccine to win WHO backing and sits alongside vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca/Oxford and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson’s) as well as Moderna on WHO’s Emergency Use Listing.
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Sinopharm’s vaccine can be transported at temperatures between 2 to 8 degrees which the WHO said made it “highly suitable” for “low-resource settings.”
It will be the first vaccine that will carry vaccine vial monitors - small stickers that will change colour if exposed to heat.
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