China, Jan 8: A Chinese vaccine expert has caused controversy by saying that the Covid vaccine that has been rolled out in the country is “the most unsafe in the world” and has as many 73 side-effects.
Dr. Tao Lina from Shanghai announced the shortcomings of the jab developed by Beijing’s state-run drug maker Sinopharm to his 48 lakh social media followers on Tuesday, Daily Mail reported. But the controversial post has since disappeared from Weibo, the Twitter-like platform popular in China.
In a U-turn, the medical worker on Thursday denied having criticized the vaccine after his remarks were reported outside the mainland China. He denounced foreign media outlets for ‘twisting‘ and ‘exploiting‘ his words.
A screenshot of the doctor’s post shows that he had mentioned that none of the vaccines in the world ‘had more side effects‘ than the two-dose COVID-19 regimen from Sinopharm and described its potential adverse impact as “unprecedented”.
Some of the listed side effects were pain around the injection area, headache, and high blood pressure, the loss of vision and taste, and urinary incontinence.
China had approved Sinopharm’s Covid vaccine for general public use on December 31, but no detailed efficacy data of the vaccine was publicly released but its developer. The company, however, said its vaccine was 79.34 percent effective in preventing people from developing the disease based on interim data.
The South China Morning Post newspaper reported that China would vaccinate as many as 50 million people from high-priority groups before the Lunar New Year holiday in February.
But Dr. Tao, after his remarks were reported by the media, claimed that he had written the social media post in an ‘extremely sarcastic‘ manner. He claimed he had even received the first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine and would get his second dose on Saturday.
He insisted that the Chinese treatment was “very safe” and apologized to his fellow countrymen for his ‘imprudent‘ choice of words. Unsafe COVID vaccine in the world.
