Sinovac arrives in SG, selected clinics allowed to administer vaccine at a fee

[Kb27]

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/covid-19-pfizer-vaccine-found-94-effective-real-world-14276192

pfizer 94% efficacy in real world.

it's gonna be difficult to convince anyone to use sinovac with 50% efficacy. 50% is half-chance, like gambling with big-small. 

normal flu vaccine is 50-50, I also don't bother to take.

[Kb27]

47 minutes ago, Jamesc said:

We like choice.

we are "choosy" when there's a choice. 

[inlinesix]

3 minutes ago, Kb27 said:

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/covid-19-pfizer-vaccine-found-94-effective-real-world-14276192

pfizer 94% efficacy in real world.

it's gonna be difficult to convince anyone to use sinovac with 50% efficacy. 50% is half-chance, like gambling with big-small. 

normal flu vaccine is 50-50, I also don't bother to take.

I don't bother to take pre-COVID.

I took my jab in January to eliminate any complication.

[Jamesc]

Where are all the china good, china good screamers?

Come here and defend china products lah.

[Kb27]

gahmen can donate sinovac to africans, they will be very thankful.

[inlinesix]

5 minutes ago, Kb27 said:

gahmen can donate sinovac to africans, they will be very thankful.

China is doing that

[Ho2786]

I am hoping that they bought sinovac just to give china face and have no intention of using it.

later on donate to Indonesia for some good will.

 

 

 

[Philipkee]

2 hours ago, inlinesix said:

 

Please read what I wrote.

Authorisation is A GIVEN. I did not say it HAS BEEN GIVEN.

The reason is that I think if there is a chance that authorisation will not be given, it would not be imported here.  Because if it's not authorised, the vaccines will have to be discarded.  Not sure if we can export a vaccine which did not meet out regulatory requirements.

@Ho2786

doubt so.  The drug can be donated but if it failed our regulatory requirements, doubt we can donate it.

Unless you mean we approve it and then donate it out without administering them in Singapore.  It would look very weird and will still look very bad on us should anything happen to other countries because of these exported vaccines.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Philipkee

[Lethalstrike]

2 hours ago, Turboflat4 said:

I have already got my Pfizer (both doses). 

I am persuading my aged parents to quickly get their vaccinations. 

We are all open to Moderna. 

But I'll tell you one thing. If it's for my wife and son (who would belong to the "general public") group, I will NOT be encouraging them to go with Sinovac if that's the only option remaining. 

I want to put this out there, because I know the gahmen has got their long feelers out everywhere, even (especially?) here in this forum. 

I hope Singaporeans get priority for the two main (mRNA) vaccines that have excellent efficacy data, one of which has already been administered to many Singaporeans. 

Come, I help you. 

CCB PAP, we don't want unproven CCP Sinovac crap! 😂

[Kangadrool]

9 hours ago, Kb27 said:

yeah, pls delay. i have an early march vaccine appt, and i certainly hope NOT to get this. 

Get this, and you can walk the Great Wall with ease. LOL

[Kklim]

https://fortune.com/2021/01/13/sinovac-vaccine-efficacy-rate-drop/

Why did the efficacy of China’s top vaccine drop from 78% to 50%?

BY GRADY MCGREGOR  January 13, 2021 7:49 PM GMT+8

Nearly one week ago, Brazilian officials sounded triumphant in announcing that the vaccine from Chinese drugmaker Sinovac was 78% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections.

“Today is the day of hope, the day of life,” João Doria, governor of Brazil's São Paulo state, said at a press conference on Jan. 7.

But at a press conference on Tuesday, officials delivered a more sobering follow-up: Sinovac's vaccine was, in fact, only 50.4% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections. The officials said that the lowered figure accounted for "very light" cases of COVID-19 among participants in the country's Phase III trial of the vaccine that had been omitted in the earlier analysis.

Sinovac's 50.4% efficacy rate in preventing COVID-19 infections is significantly lower than the 95% and 94% efficacy rates for Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines, respectively. The lower figure reportedly came after Brazilian scientists pressured Sinovac's Brazilian partner, the Butantan Institute, to release a fuller picture of its trial results.

Ricardo Palácios, medical director of the Butantan Institute, argued that the lower efficacy rate was evidence that Sinovac's Brazil trials focused on higher risk groups than the Pfizer and Moderna trials and that the institute used more stringent standards. “We added all possible difficulties [to our trials],” he said. 

Neither Sinovac nor the Butantan Institute, however, has released full details of its trial data to the public, and Sinovac did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment on the vaccine’s new efficacy figure.

Experts tell Fortune that Sinovac’s lowered efficacy rate may not be as big a blow as it might appear, and that the vaccine may still prove a useful tool in helping bring an end to the global pandemic. At the same time, Tuesday’s announcement marks the latest in a series of inconsistent conclusions about the potency of Sinovac's vaccine, which has now produced four different efficacy results across three continents. The discordant figures, combined with the dearth of publicly available data, may make it more difficult for the company to build public confidence in its doses.

Why did the rate drop?
A vaccine efficacy's rate is calculated by comparing the number of COVID-19 infections among trial volunteers who received the vaccine versus the cases among volunteers in the placebo group. In the Brazil trial, 85 participants injected with Sinovac's vaccine developed COVID-19 infections compared to 167 who developed infections in the placebo group, creating an efficacy rate of just above 50%.

At Tuesday’s press conference, Palácios said Sinovac’s relatively low efficacy rate of 50% was due to its more rigorous standard for what counts as an infection among trial volunteers. The Butantan Institute said it included six types of cases in its results: asymptomatic, very mild, mild, two levels of moderate, and severe. (The Brazilian authorities stressed that the public should focus on the vaccine's 100% efficacy in protecting against severe cases of COVID-19.) Western vaccine makers generally included only mild, moderate, and severe categories, and companies like Pfizer are doing additional studies to see if the vaccine will prevent asymptomatic cases.

“People want to compare other studies, but that’s like comparing a person that runs a 1-kilometer race on a flat stretch and another doing it on a steep and obstacle-filled stretch,” Palácios said.

There is some evidence to back up Palácios’ claim that Brazil's trial standards are more likely to catch mild cases of COVID-19 than trials conducted elsewhere, which would result in a lower efficacy rate.

In the U.S.’s Food and Drug Administration’s evaluation of Pfizer’s vaccine trials, the agency found that there were up to 1,594 suspected but unconfirmed cases of COVID-19. Because the infections were unconfirmed, they didn't factor into the Pfizer vaccine's efficacy rate.

“It’s true that other vaccine trials have not been able to confirm as many mild infections [as Sinovac],” says Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong. “The [vaccine efficacy] against mild disease could be lower than 90%-95% for Moderna and Pfizer.”

Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, noted that Brazil’s trial was also largely made up of frontline health care workers. “They are more exposed to the virus and may explain the relatively low efficacy rate,” Huang said. Sinovac's CEO Yin Weidong made that same argument when he addressed the lower efficacy rate at a press conference on Wednesday.

Transparency
Cowling cautioned that Sinovac’s efficacy figure is still based on limited public data, and that a fuller data release is needed to fully assess the efficacy of Sinovac’s vaccine.

“I think we really need to see more comprehensive documentation before making any assessment of the vaccine performance” says Cowling. “What we have seen so far is pretty limited information.”

It's not just the new efficacy figure in Brazil and the lack of public data that's stirring confusion about how well Sinovac's vaccine works.

Turkey has claimed that Sinovac’s vaccine is 91.25% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections, and Indonesia has said it's 65% effective. (Both figures are based on interim trial data from the respective countries.)

The questions that remain about Sinovac's vaccine hasn't stopped the company from rolling it out. It has distributed jabs of the vaccine outside of clinical trials in China for months, and Indonesia used Sinovac's vaccine on Wednesday to launch a massive campaign to vaccinate 181 million people. Alongside health ministers and Indonesia’s top Muslim cleric, Indonesia President Joko Widodo received the first dose of Sinovac’s vaccine on Wednesday in a televised ceremony from his presidential palace.

But there's no guarantee that others will be as willing to take up the jab.

"[Transparency] is a concern," says Huang. "Transparency about the data, even for the interim results, could still be very important to convince people that the results were indeed trustworthy."

Even with the lingering unknowns, the vaccine may prove useful in inoculating millions of people who lack access to any alternative.

Sinovac has deals to supply lower-income countries like Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, and its jabs, which require regular refrigeration, could serve as a lifeline for nations without the ultracold storage infrastructure needed to distribute the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

"Initially, I was surprised by how low that efficacy rate was, but after I gave some further thought on this the 50% actually wasn’t that bad," says Huang. "It can still reduce the risk of COVID infection and be considered a game changer in the fighting of the current pandemic."

END

Note: Pfizer's efficacy rate of 95% is an overall fugure. For Asians, the rate is 74%. Dunno what Moderna's corresponding rate is.

[Kangadrool]

2 hours ago, Jamesc said:

No need to fast track, no need to fast track.

Slowly test properly first.

If not sure then test again and again and again.

It's a life and death matter so better not rush.

No one rushing anyone.

Yup, slowly test, test every vial until all depleted.

[Jman888]

10 minutes ago, Kklim said:

https://fortune.com/2021/01/13/sinovac-vaccine-efficacy-rate-drop/

Why did the efficacy of China’s top vaccine drop from 78% to 50%?

BY GRADY MCGREGOR  January 13, 2021 7:49 PM GMT+8

Nearly one week ago, Brazilian officials sounded triumphant in announcing that the vaccine from Chinese drugmaker Sinovac was 78% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections.

“Today is the day of hope, the day of life,” João Doria, governor of Brazil's São Paulo state, said at a press conference on Jan. 7.

But at a press conference on Tuesday, officials delivered a more sobering follow-up: Sinovac's vaccine was, in fact, only 50.4% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections. The officials said that the lowered figure accounted for "very light" cases of COVID-19 among participants in the country's Phase III trial of the vaccine that had been omitted in the earlier analysis.

Sinovac's 50.4% efficacy rate in preventing COVID-19 infections is significantly lower than the 95% and 94% efficacy rates for Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines, respectively. The lower figure reportedly came after Brazilian scientists pressured Sinovac's Brazilian partner, the Butantan Institute, to release a fuller picture of its trial results.

Ricardo Palácios, medical director of the Butantan Institute, argued that the lower efficacy rate was evidence that Sinovac's Brazil trials focused on higher risk groups than the Pfizer and Moderna trials and that the institute used more stringent standards. “We added all possible difficulties [to our trials],” he said. 

Neither Sinovac nor the Butantan Institute, however, has released full details of its trial data to the public, and Sinovac did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment on the vaccine’s new efficacy figure.

Experts tell Fortune that Sinovac’s lowered efficacy rate may not be as big a blow as it might appear, and that the vaccine may still prove a useful tool in helping bring an end to the global pandemic. At the same time, Tuesday’s announcement marks the latest in a series of inconsistent conclusions about the potency of Sinovac's vaccine, which has now produced four different efficacy results across three continents. The discordant figures, combined with the dearth of publicly available data, may make it more difficult for the company to build public confidence in its doses.

Why did the rate drop?
A vaccine efficacy's rate is calculated by comparing the number of COVID-19 infections among trial volunteers who received the vaccine versus the cases among volunteers in the placebo group. In the Brazil trial, 85 participants injected with Sinovac's vaccine developed COVID-19 infections compared to 167 who developed infections in the placebo group, creating an efficacy rate of just above 50%.

At Tuesday’s press conference, Palácios said Sinovac’s relatively low efficacy rate of 50% was due to its more rigorous standard for what counts as an infection among trial volunteers. The Butantan Institute said it included six types of cases in its results: asymptomatic, very mild, mild, two levels of moderate, and severe. (The Brazilian authorities stressed that the public should focus on the vaccine's 100% efficacy in protecting against severe cases of COVID-19.) Western vaccine makers generally included only mild, moderate, and severe categories, and companies like Pfizer are doing additional studies to see if the vaccine will prevent asymptomatic cases.

“People want to compare other studies, but that’s like comparing a person that runs a 1-kilometer race on a flat stretch and another doing it on a steep and obstacle-filled stretch,” Palácios said.

There is some evidence to back up Palácios’ claim that Brazil's trial standards are more likely to catch mild cases of COVID-19 than trials conducted elsewhere, which would result in a lower efficacy rate.

In the U.S.’s Food and Drug Administration’s evaluation of Pfizer’s vaccine trials, the agency found that there were up to 1,594 suspected but unconfirmed cases of COVID-19. Because the infections were unconfirmed, they didn't factor into the Pfizer vaccine's efficacy rate.

“It’s true that other vaccine trials have not been able to confirm as many mild infections [as Sinovac],” says Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong. “The [vaccine efficacy] against mild disease could be lower than 90%-95% for Moderna and Pfizer.”

Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, noted that Brazil’s trial was also largely made up of frontline health care workers. “They are more exposed to the virus and may explain the relatively low efficacy rate,” Huang said. Sinovac's CEO Yin Weidong made that same argument when he addressed the lower efficacy rate at a press conference on Wednesday.

Transparency
Cowling cautioned that Sinovac’s efficacy figure is still based on limited public data, and that a fuller data release is needed to fully assess the efficacy of Sinovac’s vaccine.

“I think we really need to see more comprehensive documentation before making any assessment of the vaccine performance” says Cowling. “What we have seen so far is pretty limited information.”

It's not just the new efficacy figure in Brazil and the lack of public data that's stirring confusion about how well Sinovac's vaccine works.

Turkey has claimed that Sinovac’s vaccine is 91.25% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections, and Indonesia has said it's 65% effective. (Both figures are based on interim trial data from the respective countries.)

The questions that remain about Sinovac's vaccine hasn't stopped the company from rolling it out. It has distributed jabs of the vaccine outside of clinical trials in China for months, and Indonesia used Sinovac's vaccine on Wednesday to launch a massive campaign to vaccinate 181 million people. Alongside health ministers and Indonesia’s top Muslim cleric, Indonesia President Joko Widodo received the first dose of Sinovac’s vaccine on Wednesday in a televised ceremony from his presidential palace.

But there's no guarantee that others will be as willing to take up the jab.

"[Transparency] is a concern," says Huang. "Transparency about the data, even for the interim results, could still be very important to convince people that the results were indeed trustworthy."

Even with the lingering unknowns, the vaccine may prove useful in inoculating millions of people who lack access to any alternative.

Sinovac has deals to supply lower-income countries like Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, and its jabs, which require regular refrigeration, could serve as a lifeline for nations without the ultracold storage infrastructure needed to distribute the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

"Initially, I was surprised by how low that efficacy rate was, but after I gave some further thought on this the 50% actually wasn’t that bad," says Huang. "It can still reduce the risk of COVID infection and be considered a game changer in the fighting of the current pandemic."

END

Note: Pfizer's efficacy rate of 95% is an overall fugure. For Asians, the rate is 74%. Dunno what Moderna's corresponding rate is.

mean china vaccine is meant for humanity and Pfizer/Moderna are for capitalism?

[Spring]

So strange that not approved yet and still landed here. Am I missing something?

Like that, will the authorities be "pressured" into a fast track approval?

[Ender]

6 minutes ago, Spring said:

So strange that not approved yet and still landed here. Am I missing something?

Like that, will the authorities be "pressured" into a fast track approval?

Coupled with april is the general public phase. Fast track likely.

[Beregond]

20 minutes ago, Spring said:

So strange that not approved yet and still landed here. Am I missing something?

Like that, will the authorities be "pressured" into a fast track approval?

its either like they mention they want more backup just in case touch wood some issue with  Pfizer and Moderna , they still have some option to fall back to .

or maybe i guess it could be political reason, we want do business with china, so give face buy some of their vaccine ( i guess 1 😂) and it can cater to hardcore china vaccine supporter group like my dad👨‍🏭

[Jamesc]

I trust my life to products made in US and Europe.

F-15, F-16 and Leopard II are made is US and Europe and safe guard our lives and freedoms.

Moderna I waiting you.

[Blueray]

sinovac is for singapore zoo and the household pets lah ... 

Edited February 25, 2021 by Blueray