By Amin Kef Sesay
In a statement by the Health Attaché of the Chinese Embassy in Sierra Leone, Zhou Shuisen, on what was termed as the Baseless Reports about Chinese COVID-19 Vaccine it was highlighted that the attention of the Embassy had been drawn to reports published by the Newstime Africa and the Standard Times Newspaper on the 24th and 25th June, 2021 respectively titled: Hard Working Midwife Dies in Sierra Leone after Taking Chinese-Manufactured COVID-19 Vaccine and How Nurse Eleanor Died After COVID-19 Vaccine.
According to the Health Attaché ,those two reports wantonly drew a hasty conclusion before getting scientifically proven evidence, linking the unfortunate passing away of a midwife in Sierra Leone with the administration of Chinese manufactured COVID-19 vaccine stating how they made provocative statements at the efficacy of the Chinese vaccine saying such is totally misleading and unacceptable.
The diplomat furthered that it is widely recognized that there is no vaccine in the world that is 100% effective and safe maintaining how some people may have varying level of adverse reactions after vaccine administration adding that any person, following the standard process of vaccination, is notified before the administration of the vaccine.
It was stated that up to now, over 1 billion doses of Chinese vaccines have been administered in and out of China with no single reported death case directly associated with the Chinese vaccine.
Zhou stated that the incidence of severe reactions is 0.07 out of 100,000 doses, which means the Chinese vaccine is very safe adding that the WHO has also listed the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.
The Chinese Health Attaché pointed out that the press release issued by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation of the Republic of Sierra Leone on June 24, 2021 stated clearly that the deceased had chronic disease and no relationship has been established between the death and the vaccination so far.
“Irresponsible speculation and accusation against the Chinese vaccine is both unethical and vicious,” Zhou affirmed.
The diplomat revealed that the above mentioned reports claimed that there were calls for the Government of Sierra Leone to stop administering the vaccine to its nationals and that there were criticism against the Government’s irresponsible behaviour of not securing vaccines from reputable sources in the West to protect its people from such anomalies maintaining how the real intention is to tarnish the image of the Chinese vaccine and undermine the relevant cooperation between China and Africa.
Zhou said faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, Africa is in dire need of vaccines revealing how China is the first major country to respond swiftly to the request of African countries and has donated several rounds of vaccine to Africa stating how China will continue to do its best to help Africa in the fight against the pandemic.
The diplomat informed that in the communication with the Embassy, Philip Neville, Managing Editor of the Standard Times newspaper, has regretted that its report had lost its credibility following the press release issued by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation concluding that he believes that rumours stop at the wise.
