The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have now allowed Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as booster dose after finding Chinese vaccine Sinopharm ineffective against the virus.
Even after inoculating a large percentage of their population with Sinopharm, cases are rising in both the countries.
China National Pharmaceutical Group manufactures Sinopharm.
Bahrain is witnessing 3000 new Covid-19 cases per day recently. The UAE is witnessing 2000 new cases per day, twice of what it was in December last year.
Reuters reported “There have been concerns about the efficacy of the Sinopharm vaccine, granted emergency approval by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in May, due to limited published clinical data being available.”
George Fu Gao, head of the Chinese Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, had expressed concern over the efficacy of the Chinese vaccines in a conference in April this year. Later, Gao retracted the statement.
The Chinese authorities quickly rushed to censor Gao’s statement.
China has been supplying its vaccines to the Gulf and African countries.
