It seems that china´s vacination program is getting behind those from the US and Europe:
China has sucessfully contained the virus but if it doesnt not ramp up vacination, it risks getting left behind in the end after all.
For once they are respecting the wishes of their people, and you are blaming them? I guess when they enforce the vaccination protocol, you will cry “violation of human rights!”
Seriously though, it seems like a combination of lack of urgency and safety concerns for the vaccines. The latter part is shared by most people in the world. Many people in the US are also concerned about the safety of our vaccines. In early January, a survey at one of the biggest hospitals in Houston says that ~40% of its medical staff doesn’t want the COVID vaccines because of safety concerns. With the Chinese, I guess they have the luxury of saying “ok, I don’t actually need the vaccine as of now. I’ll wait and see how safe this thing is...” With us, we don’t have the luxury of waiting. We are in a much more desperate situation. At least to the people in the US, the vaccines are the only solution to this disaster. That’s why the government is pushing hard to get as many people vaccinated and as fast as possible.
I myself was hesitant about our two main vaccines until early January. I swung to the vaccination camp completely when I saw the clinical data that came out in December and was convinced that it’s safe. Of course I had to brush aside my own concerns of the potential long term side effects because of the urgent situation in the country. I am becoming so desperate to get out the current situation. I had to tell myself “I need to survive this so that I can have a chance to worry about the long term thing ten, twenty, thirty years down the line”. The Chinese, on the other hand, have the luxury of waiting.
Let’s wait and see how they resolve this issue. People make mistakes. The same goes with the governments. Their current comfort level may have made them a little complacent. How they fix their problems will be an important measure of their competence.
