China’s vaccine scandal erodes trust

The explanation that the vaccines would merely be ineffective has not reassured the public, who are worried about vaccine-related accidents, disabilities and even deaths.

THE recent exposé of improperly handled vaccines in China has made the public angry and worried.

A mother-and-daughter duo from Shandong province was allegedly heading an illegal distribution of vaccines for diseases such as chicken pox and rabies, which ended up in 24 provinces and cities in China – two-thirds of this country of 1.3 billion people.

They have been arrested for the case, involving two million doses of vaccines that were believed to be worth more than 570mil yuan (RM350.6mil).

The former pharmacist and her medical school graduate daughter were in the business for several years, dealing with 25 types of vaccines. They were found to be storing and transporting the vaccines without proper refrigeration, which might cause the vaccines to lose their effectiveness.

Although the Government has clarified that the vaccines in question belonged to the second category (voluntary immunisation) instead of the compulsory category, and the vaccines were produced by licensed manufacturers, the scandal induced fear.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a statement to explain that improperly stored or expired vaccines seldom if ever have a toxic effect, “therefore there is likely to be minimal safety risk in this particular situation.”

“Rather, the risk to children from administering expired or improperly stored vaccine is lack of protection from the disease for which the vaccine was intended,” it added.

State news agency Xinhua, in a commentary, said there is no need to panic.

But the Chinese public was not entirely convinced; some even commented that the WHO was “washing the floor” for the Chinese Government.

For days, this crackdown dominated Chinese social media, with upset parents lamenting about healthcare safety in China. The explanation that the vaccines would merely be ineffective was not reassuring enough.

A parent wrote on her official WeChat account: “The probability of an accident, (catching) a virus or a disaster is only one in ten thousand, one in a hundred thousand or one in a million, but if it happens to our children, its probability is 100%.”

Insurance policies covering vaccine-related death, disability and medical treatment came into the limelight in the wake of the exposé. A product description by one of the insurance companies read: “Inclusive of accidents caused by expired, deteriorated or sub-standard vaccines.”

“This insurance product is very timely. The vaccine incident makes every mother worried. Hopefully it will be solved soon,” a customer commented.

“Buying this for peace of mind,” another said. “The world is too dark now. This product is really necessary.”

This vaccine scandal once again led to a serious loss of confidence in locally-sourced products, just as eight years later, parents in China still do not trust local milk after tainted milk powder caused deaths and kidney disease among children in 2008.

Many Chinese parents had resorted to buying foreign milk powder from Hong Kong, causing a shortage in the former British colony. In 2013, the special administrative region’s authority imposed a two-can restriction on the amount of infant formula a person could take across the border.

Will this vaccine incident prompt Chinese parents to take their children overseas for vaccination, or cause a surge in demand for imported vaccines?

Chinese superstar Zhang Ziyi, who just gave birth to her baby in the United States in December, urged parents to check the vaccines’ name, dosage and expiry date right before each injection.

“(My baby) Little Xingxing will have to get her next vaccine in Beijing. I will ask even more!” she wrote on Chinese-Twitter Weibo.

While the fiasco has revealed severe flaws in China’s immunisation programme, for the parents, it has only added to their list of concerns, including air pollution and food safety in China.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has ordered relevant authorities to trace the vaccines. But the trust in vaccine safety has been dented, and it will take a long time to recover.