Beijing: Observers today demanded that the Chinese government tighten the fence on the smuggling of fake vaccines against Covid-19, because it could damage the image and reputation of the country while supplying its immunizers internationally, Prensa Latina publishes.
Analysts consulted by the local press considered it imperative that more state institutions get involved in the fight against this practice and use technologies such as big data to reinforce the supervision of each dose from its manufacture to its application.
The alert follows reports of the arrest this month of another 70 individuals implicated in 21 cases of fake vaccine trafficking in China.
As it turned out, a citizen surnamed Kong since last August produced and sold 58,000 doses of substances abroad that earned him 18 million yuan (2.78 million dollars) in profits.
The bulbs were filled with a saline solution and assured customers that they got them thanks to contacts with ‘internal channels’ of the pharmaceutical companies.
Aside from abroad, the products were also marketed at high prices in localities in China and even a village doctor was added to apply to shoppers at home or in cars.
Since the end of 2020, China and its embassies have monitored the illegal introduction of the preparations, and diplomatic headquarters in South Africa, Italy, Uganda and the Ivory Coast alerted the diaspora to refrain from buying them, after discovering the offers on social networks.
The Asian nation currently has 16 vaccine candidates against Covid-19, of which seven are in the third phase of clinical trials and applied the four most advanced to more than 40 million citizens.
China donated its products to 53 developing countries, has agreements to export them to 22 others, and the World Health Organization evaluates those of Sinovac, Sinopharm, and CanSino to determine if they meet global quality and safety standards before including them in the list of approved products.
It also plans to supply 10 million doses to the Covax alliance.