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Coronavirus in China: Sinovac chief urges everyone to get the jab
- In a state TV interview Yin Weidong says CoronaVac will trigger an immune response two weeks after the first dose
- Vaccine makers can be agile in developing products to protect against new variant strains, he says
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The CEO of Chinese Covid-19 vaccine developer Sinovac has urged the public to get vaccinated against the coronavirus regardless of their risk of infection.
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“Getting vaccinated is always better than exposing yourself to the virus,” Yin Weidong, chairman, president and CEO of Sinovac Biotech, said in an interview with Chinese state broadcaster CGTN.
He added that those at low risk of infection might prefer a safer vaccine, while people in areas where the disease was more prevalent should go for vaccines offering stronger protection.
Yin said Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccine would start to trigger an immune response to the coronavirus two weeks after the first dose.
The protection rate would reach its highest one month after the second dose was administered and remain at around 80 to 90 per cent for more than two months, he said.
The company and its Brazilian partner have released confusing numbers for the effectiveness of the vaccine in clinical trials. In January, the Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo said the vaccine had about a 50 per cent general efficacy rate – well below the 78 per cent reported earlier.
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