隨著病例的蔓延，中國開始為 3 歲以下的兒童接種疫苗

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

China to start vaccinating children to age 3 as cases spread

Huizhong Wu, The Associated Press

Mon., October 25, 2021, 7:35 a.m.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Children as young as 3 will start receiving COVID-19 vaccines in China, where 76% of the population has been fully vaccinated and authorities are maintaining a zero-tolerance policy toward outbreaks.

China becomes one of the very few countries in the world to start vaccinating children that young against the virus. Cuba, for one, has begun a vaccine drive for children as young as 2. The U.S. and many European countries allow COVID-19 shots down to age 12, though the U.S. is moving quickly toward opening vaccinations to 5- to 11-year-olds.

Local city and provincial level governments in at least five Chinese provinces issued notices in recent days announcing that children ages 3 to 11 will be required to get their vaccinations.

The expansion of the vaccination campaign comes as parts of China take new clampdown measures to try to stamp out small outbreaks. Gansu, a northwestern province heavily dependent on tourism, closed all tourist sites Monday after finding new COVID-19 cases. Residents in parts of Inner Mongolia have been ordered to stay indoors because of an outbreak there.

The National Health Commission reported that 35 new cases of local transmission had been detected over the past 24 hours, four of them in Gansu. An additional 19 cases were found in the Inner Mongolia region, with others scattered around the country.

China has employed lockdowns, quarantines and compulsory testing for the virus throughout the pandemic and has largely stamped out cases of local infection while fully vaccinating 1.07 billion people out of a population of 1.4 billion.

In particular, the government is concerned about the spread of the more contagious delta variant by travelers and about having a largely vaccinated public ahead of the Beijing Olympics in February. Overseas spectators already have been banned from the Winter Games, and participants will have to stay in a bubble separating them from people outside.

China's most widely used vaccines, from Sinopharm and Sinovac, have shown efficacy in preventing severe disease and transmission of the virus, based on public data. But the protection they offer against the delta variant has not been answered definitively, although officials say they remain protective.

Hubei, Fujian and Hainan provinces all issued provincial level notices alerting new vaccination requirements, while individual cities in Zhejiang province and Hunan province have also issued similar announcements.

China in June had approved two vaccines — Sinopharm's from the Beijing Institute of Biological Products and Sinovac — for children ages 3 to 17, but it has only been vaccinating those 12 and older. In August, regulators approved another, Sinopharm's from the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products.

After the vaccines received domestic approval for children in China, foreign governments began giving the shots to children in their own countries. Cambodia uses both Sinovac and Sinopharm’s shots in children 6 to 11. Regulators in Chile approved Sinovac for children as young as 6. In Argentina, regulators approved the Sinopharm vaccine for children as young as age 3.

Many developing countries left out of the race to get shots from Western pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Moderna bought Chinese vaccines. China has shipped more than 1.2 billion doses as of September, according to its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Even with widespread domestic and global use, not every parent is reassured about the vaccine, citing less publicly available data on the shots.

Wang Lu, who lives in the southern city of Fuzhou in Fujian province, said she isn’t particularly rushing to get her 3-year-old son vaccinated. “I’m just not very clear on the vaccine’s safety profile, so I don’t really want to get him vaccinated, at the very least, I don’t want to be the first,” Wang said.

Sinovac started an efficacy trial with 14,000 child participants across multiple countries in September. Its approval in China was based on smaller phase 1 and phase 2 trials. Sinopharm’s Beijing shot was also approved based on smaller phase 1 and phase 2 trials. These were published later in peer-reviewed journals.

Other parents said they weren’t concerned, given that many other people had already gotten the shot.

Wu Cong, a mom of a 7-year old, said her daughter’s school in Shanghai hadn’t yet notified them of any vaccinations.

“I think this isn’t too different from the flu vaccine, there’s already been so many people vaccinated, so I don’t have too many worries,” said Wu.

Translation

台灣台北（美聯社）- 中國 76% 的人口已完全接種 COVID-19 疫苗，當局對疫情暴發保持零容忍政策，年僅 3 歲的兒童將開始接種 COVID-19 疫苗。

中國成為世界上為數不多的開始為年幼的兒童接種病毒疫苗的國家之一。例如，古巴已經開始為 2 歲的兒童接種疫苗。美國和許多歐洲國家允許接種 COVID-19 疫苗低至 12 歲，而美國正在迅速向 5 至 11 歲的兒童開放疫苗接種。

中國至少五個省的地方市和省級政府最近幾天發布通知，宣布將要求 3 至 11 歲的兒童接種疫苗。

疫苗接種運動的擴大正值中國部分地區採取新的鎮壓措施以試圖消滅小規模疫情。甘肅是一個嚴重依賴旅遊業的西北省份，在發現新的 COVID-19 病例後，週一關閉了所有旅遊景點。由於爆發疫情，內蒙古部分地區的居民已被命令留在室內。

國家衛生健康委員會報告說，過去 24 小時內發現了 35 例新的本地傳播病例，其中 4 例在甘肅。內蒙古地區新增19例，其他分佈在全國各地。

在整個病毒大流行期間，中國對病毒進行了封鎖、隔離和強制檢測，在很大程度上消除了本地感染病例，同時為 14 億人口中的 10.7 億人全面接種了疫苗。

政府是特別擔心旅行者傳播更具傳染性的delta變種，以及擔憂在 2 月北京奧運會之前要對大量公眾做接種疫苗的工作。海外觀眾已經被禁止參加冬奧會，參賽者將不得不與外界隔離。

中國最廣泛使用的疫苗，是來自國藥控股和科興控股。根據公開數據，它顯示出在預防嚴重疾病和病毒傳播方面的功效。但是他們針對 delta 變體提供的保護尚未得到明確答案，儘管官員們表示他們仍然具有保護作用。

湖北、福建、海南三省均發布省級通知，提醒新的疫苗接種要求，浙江省和湖南省内個別城市也發布了類似公告。

中國在 6 月批准了兩種疫苗 - 的北京生物製品研究所的國藥疫苗和科興 - 用於 3 至 17 歲的兒童，但它只為 12 歲及以上的兒童接種疫苗。 8 月，監管機構批准了另一家來自武漢生物製品研究所的國藥疫苗。

在中國兒童疫苗獲得國內批准後，外國政府開始為其本國兒童接種疫苗。柬埔寨在 6 至 11 歲的兒童中同時使用科興和國藥的疫苗。智利的監管機構批准科興為 6 歲的兒童接種。在阿根廷，監管機構批准國藥疫苗為 3 歲的兒童接種。

在從輝瑞和莫德納等西方製藥公司購買疫苗的競爭中, 許多發展中國家被排除出來。根據中國外交部的數據，截至 9 月，中國已運送了超過 12 億劑疫苗。

即使在國內和全球廣泛使用，也不是每個父母都對疫苗感到放心，因為有關的疫苗數據較少被公開。

住在福建省南部城市福州的Wang Lu說，她並不急於讓 3 歲的兒子接種疫苗。她說 “我只是不太清楚疫苗的安全性，所以我真的不想讓他接種疫苗，至少我不想成為第一個” 。

科興 於 9 月開始了一項針對多個國家的 14,000 名兒童參與者的功效試驗。它在中國的批准是基於較小的 1 期和 2 期試驗。國藥的北京注射液也基於較小的 1 期和 2 期試驗獲得批准。這些消息後來發表在同行評審的期刊上。

其他家長表示他們並不擔心，因為許多其他人已經接種了疫苗。

一個 7 歲孩子的媽媽Wu Cong說，她女兒在上海的學校還沒有通知他們接種任何疫苗。

Wu Cong又說: “我覺得這和流感疫苗沒有太大區別，已經有很多人接種了，所以我沒有太多擔心” 。

 So, children as young as 3 will start receiving COVID-19 vaccines in China where 76% of the population has been fully vaccinated and the authorities are maintaining a zero-tolerance policy toward the outbreak of a pandemic.