Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies hearing to debate President Biden’s fiscal 12 months 2023 budget request for the National Institute of Health on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 17, 2022.
Anna Rose Layden | Pool | Reuters
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the highest infectious disease expert within the U.S., criticized China’s Covid lockdowns as “draconian” and said the Beijing government should give attention to vaccinating the elderly.
“The vaccination of the elderly has not been well performed and the vaccine they’ve has been not a very effective vaccine,” Fauci told The Washington Post in an interview on Thursday, as he prepares to step down as director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases later this month.
Fauci said lockdowns are only justifiable as a brief measure to serve a bigger public health goal that may make society safer when it reopens. But China’s strict Covid controls don’t appear to have any endgame, he said.
“If there was any advice, it’s pretty easy and it isn’t just coming from me — it’s coming from any number of individuals involved on this outbreak: Do whatever you possibly can to get your people vaccinated and boosted with a highly effective vaccine,” said Fauci, who has a long time of experience in responding to infectious diseases, from the HIV pandemic to the emergence of Ebola.
Rare protests broke out across China over the weekend against Covid lockdowns and strict quarantine procedures. While many of the world is counting on vaccines to forestall severe disease in order that society can return to normal despite ongoing circulation of the virus, China has enforced a zero Covid policy that goals to crush outbreaks.
China uses a domestically developed vaccine called CoronaVac manufactured by Sinovac. The shots contain killed virus that induce an immune response. Beijing has not approved Pfizer’s and Moderna’s messenger RNA vaccines.
“The efficacy of the China-made vaccines aren’t at the extent of the vaccines which were utilized in america, particularly the mRNA vaccines of Moderna and Pfizer,” Fauci said.
An individual walks past a poster encouraging elderly people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), near a residential compound in Beijing, China March 30, 2022. Picture taken March 30, 2022.
Tingshu Wang | Reuters
Data on Sinovac-CoronaVac’s effectiveness against the omicron variant is proscribed, in response to the World Health Organization. Omicron has evolved into increasingly immune-evasive subvariants which have eroded the effectiveness of all of the Covid vaccines.
Hong Kong scientists, in a study published in Lancet Infectious Diseases, found that two doses of CoronaVac were about 58% effective at stopping severe disease or death in people ages 80 and older during an omicron BA.2 wave from December 2021 through March 2022. Two doses of Pfizer’s vaccine were 87% effective at stopping severe disease or death on this age group, in response to the study.
People ages 80 and older who received three doses of CoronaVac had 97% protection against severe disease and death. This was comparable to the 97% protection provided by three doses of Pfizer, in response to the study.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in a September report, said vaccination rates for older adults are lower in China than other nations since the elderly are skeptical of the country’s domestically developed vaccine.
The clinical trials for China’s vaccine didn’t enroll enough adults age 60 and over so there’s insufficient data on its safety and effectiveness on this age group, in response to the report.
The vaccination campaign in China began with people in essential positions, followed by adults ages 18 to 59, and only later opened as much as older adults.
Chinese officials on Tuesday said about 66% of adults over age 80 have received their primary vaccination series. Previously released figures showed about 40% of that group had received a booster as of Nov. 11.
Correction: This story was corrected to accurately describe that almost 66% of those over 80 years old accomplished their primary vaccine course.