Chinese Health Experts Promote Third Doses of Vaccines, Saying Protection Wanes After Six Months

By Eva Dou, Erin Cunningham and Paul Schemm, The Washington Post

24 May 21

mid lingering questions over the efficacy of Chinese-developed coronavirus vaccines, health experts in China are calling for all high-risk groups to take a third dose of the vaccines, saying the shots’ protection recedes after six months.

The head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention made waves last month when he conceded the efficacy rate of China’s coronavirus vaccines was “not high,” in remarks that were quickly censored. He said the government was considering mixing different brands of vaccines or adding shots to increase the efficacy rate.

Since then, Beijing appears to have come to a consensus to begin rolling out third shots, as reflected in the reports in major state-media outlets. Third coronavirus shots will further strain China’s vaccine manufacturers, which are already oversubscribed.

Here are some significant developments:

• Amid a brutal second wave, India recorded 4,454 deaths on Monday, making it the third country, after the United States and Brazil, to surpass more than 300,000 coronavirus deaths.


• Three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough to require hospitalization a month before the coronavirus outbreak in China, reports the Wall Street Journal, citing an undisclosed U.S. intelligence report. China has called the report a lie.


• For the first time in 11 months, the daily average of new coronavirus infections in the United States has fallen below 30,000 amid signs that most communities are emerging from the worst of the pandemic.


• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is being widely lambasted for comparing the continuing coronavirus restrictions in the U.S. Capitol to what Jewish people suffered during the Holocaust, when millions were killed by Nazis.


• Fatal opioid overdoses increased in Washington, Maryland and Virginia over the past year because of the disruptions and isolation of the pandemic, say experts.