Good news! Multiple COVID-19 vaccine candidates are proving to be safe and effective in final testing. Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca have released results from their phase 3 trials, ranging from 90-95% efficacy. China has five vaccine candidates currently undergoing Phase 3 trials in countries including the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, and Pakistan. The mid-stage results have been safe and effective, with researchers expecting to release the final efficacy results soon. China's research and efforts have been groundbreaking. But when you look at some of the media reports on the subject, they largely boil down to two main points: China is cutting corners to win the vaccine race and China is leveraging its vaccines as a bargaining chip.

The Wall Street Journal on November 25 published the headline: "China Drugmakers Face Pressure to Prove Their COVID-19 Vaccines Work. The companies haven't released results of late-stage trials while data from Western drugmakers show three candidates to be highly promising." The juxtaposition here is pretty clear. Western drugmakers have "highly promising" results, but Chinese companies haven't released results, for presumably fishy reasons.

The article itself points out a few reasons why results have not yet been released, including the part that says: "Chinese vaccine developers have had to go abroad to conduct clinical trials because COVID-19 has been mostly under control within China for months. Their Western rivals are running clinical trials abroad too, although they've recruited tens of thousands of volunteers in the U.S. and UK, where COVID-19 has hit hard. Chinese researchers have been shut out from such places amid rising tensions between Beijing and the West."

The headline frames the story in a misleading way. Chinese drug companies will release the results when they are ready, but they are following due process, and that takes time. Chinese researchers want the data as much as anyone else. But as the article quotes a Sinovac spokesperson saying: "the timeline for releasing information depends on the… 'scientific process,' not 'human willingness.'"

The November 17 New York Times article "Vaccine Unproven? No Problem in China, Where People Scramble for Shots" says China has made its "unproven candidates widely available." It argues "those users could be taking big risks. People who have taken ineffective vaccines might believe they are safe and engage in risky behavior... In a few cases in the past, unproven vaccines have caused health risks." However, this argument is not a very scientific one, is it? The article lists no statistics or credible sources that could prove those safety concerns, just "a few cases in the past."

The other major narrative is that China is using its vaccines as leverage to extract favors and cut deals with other countries. For example, the Guardian avoided all subtlety in its November 29 headline "China hopes 'vaccine diplomacy' will restore its image and boost its influence: Trading allies such as Brazil are at the head of the queue for Beijing's huge drug distribution program."

The article says China has promised Brazil six million doses of Sinovac's vaccine by January, and that "the shipments to Brazil are part of a campaign of vaccine diplomacy that Beijing has mounted around the world. The fallout from the spread of COVID-19 has fueled mistrust of China internationally, and damaged the global appetite for the exports which helped drive its growth."

Inconveniently, the argument used to support its point is not correct. The article claims the global appetite for China's exports have been damaged, but Chinese exports actually grew at the fastest pace in 19 months in October, rising 11.4%. China doesn't particularly need to lure other countries with a vaccine in order to keep selling goods. 

The idea of Beijing mounting a "vaccine diplomacy" campaign around the world is also perplexing. Yes, China is working with countries to develop a vaccine that can save lives. And yes, China has a commodity that other countries need, but that's just called doing business. Would it be better if China kept all its vaccines for itself? Imagine the press coverage!

It's natural for people to have questions about new vaccines. But these questions aren't unique to China. If this virus has shown the world anything, it's how connected the world really is, which means cooperation—not demonization—is the path forward.

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