A letter sent to workers from China’s state travel agencies states that two experimental coronavirus vaccines are safe and effective; phase 3 clinical trials have not been completed, as reported through Quartz.
Phase 3 trials involve the administration of candidate vaccines to tens of thousands of participants, to identify their protection and efficacy, before allowing their widespread use.
Experts warned Quartz that claims about the protection and efficacy of a vaccine will not be made until thorough testing is completed.
“Even if the vaccine itself is benign, if other people think they are protected when they are not, they would possibly be exposed to dangers that would avoid in a different way and increase their chances of getting sick,” Alex John London, director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Ethics and Policy Center, Quartz said.
Three out of six pharmaceutical companies that have recently conducted phase 3 trials of coronavirus vaccines are located in China. The letter to state agencies was written through a subsidiary of one of those corporations, called SinoPharm, according to Quartz.
According to Reuters, the company initiated vanquished trials in Abu Dhabi with up to 15,000 volunteers before this month.
The Chinese government says a vaccine will be in a position of widespread use before the end of the year, reports the Wall Street Journal, an incredibly tight deadline that would realistically not be met. In the case of SinoPharm, phase 3 trials will last between 3 and six months, Reuters reports.
If clinically proven and effective, but also another major obstacle, the next hurdle will be to mass produce and distribute the vaccine, which is a major challenge in itself.
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