Chinese state media have raised questions on Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine and whether it might be fatal to the very old. A government spokesperson suggests the coronavirus could have emerged from a U.S. military lab.
As the ruling Communist Party faces growing questioning about China’s vaccines and renewed criticism of its untimely Covid response, it’s hitting back by encouraging fringe theories that some experts say could cause harm.
Doubts are being propagated about the Western vaccines and therefore the origin of the coronavirus in a clear bid to deflect the attacks by the state media and officials. Because of the continued rollout of vaccines globally and the recent arrival of a WHO team in Wuhan, China, to research the origins of the virus, both the problems are in the spotlight.
The efforts also target a more receptive domestic audience, while fringe theories may raise eyebrows overseas.
The social media hashtag “American’s Ft. Detrick,” started by the Communist Youth League, was viewed a minimum of 1.4 billion times last week after a far off Ministry spokesperson involved a WHO investigation of the biological weapons lab in Maryland.
“Its purpose is to shift the blame from mishandling by (the) Chinese government within the pandemic’s youth to conspiracy by the U.S.,” said Fang Shimin, a now-U.S.-based writer known for exposing faked degrees and other fraud in Chinese science. “The tactic is sort of successful due to widespread anti-American sentiment in China.”
Yuan Zeng, an expert on Chinese media at the University of Leeds in Great Britain, said the government’s stories spread so widely that even well-educated Chinese friends have asked her whether they might be true.
Agitating doubts and spreading conspiracy theories might increase public health risks as governments attempt to dispel unease about vaccines, she said: “That is super, super dangerous.”
The state media called for an investigation into the deaths of 23 elderly people in Norway after they received the Pfizer vaccine in the latest volley.
An anchor at CGTN, the English-language station of state broadcaster CCTV, and the Global Times newspaper accused Western media of ignoring the news.
However, a WHO panel has concluded that the vaccine did not play a “contributory role” in the Norway deaths and health experts also say deaths unrelated to the vaccine are possible during mass vaccination campaigns.
The state media coverage followed a report by researchers in Brazil who found the effectiveness of a Chinese vaccine less than previously announced.
It was initially said by the researchers that Sinovac’s vaccine is 78% effective, but the scientists revised that to 50.4% after including mildly symptomatic cases.
The researchers at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, after the Brazil news, a government-supported think factory , reported seeing a rise in Chinese media disinformation about vaccines..
“It’s very embarrassing” for the govt , Fang said in an email. As a result, China is trying to boost doubts about the Pfizer vaccine to save lots of face and promote its vaccines, he said.
Senior Chinese government officials have not been timid in voicing concerns about the mRNA vaccines developed by Western drug companies. A fresh technology was used by more than traditional approach of the Chinese vaccines currently in use.
The director of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control, Gao Fu, said in December, he can’t rule out negative side effects from the mRNA vaccines. Noting this is often the primary time they’re being given to healthy people, he said, “There are safety concerns.”
The arrival of the WHO mission has brought back persistent criticism that China allowed the virus to spread globally by reacting too slowly within the beginning, even reprimanding doctors who tried to warn the public. After being released from 14-day quarantine the visiting researchers will begin field work this week.
The WHO’s investigation is seen as a political risk by the Communist Party because it focuses attention on China’s response, said Jacob Wallis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
The party wants to “distract domestic and international audiences by pre-emptively distorting the narrative on where responsibility lies for the emergence of Covid-19,” Wallis said.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying got the ball rolling last week by calling for the WHO investigation of the U.S. military lab. The site had been mentioned previously by CGTN and other state-controlled outlets.
“If America respects the reality , then please open up Ft. Detrick and make public more information about the 200 or more bio-labs outside of the U.S., and please allow the WHO expert group to go to the U.S. to investigate the origins,” Hua said.
Her comments, publicized by state media, became one among the foremost popular topics on Sina Weibo.
However, China isn’t the only government to point fingers at. Former US President Donald Trump, trying to redirect blame for his government’s handling of the pandemic, said last year he had seen evidence the virus came from a Wuhan laboratory. While that theory has not been definitively ruled out, many experts think it’s unlikely.
