Most vulnerable worldwide need vaccines first: China Daily editorial

Indonesia received 1.2 million vaccine doses from China over the weekend. Many other countries are on the waiting list for China's novel coronavirus vaccines.

China has vowed to produce 600 million doses of its vaccines against the virus this year, the largest amount of vaccines to be provided by a single country. This will lay a solid foundation for the country to fulfill its pledge that vaccines should be international public goods.

More importantly, compared with vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna, which can only be stored and transported at very low temperatures — at least minus 70 C for the Pfizer vaccine, and minus 20 C for the Moderna vaccine — the inactivated vaccine developed by China can be stored at temperatures between 2 C and 8 C, and its use so far proves it is not only safe but also effective.

Notably, in the special session of the United Nations General Assembly, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi reiterated that China will actively provide vaccines for developing countries.

China's stance on the distribution of vaccines is consistent with that of the UN, namely that the neediest people — including medical workers, the elderly, and women and children in developing countries — should have access to the vaccines first, rather than the rich.

As a matter of fact, since day one, China has always borne in mind when developing its vaccines that they should be not only for its own people, but for people across the world, and it has always kept its door open to international cooperation in the research and development of vaccines, as it is well aware that before the virus withdraws from its last foothold in the world no country can be safe

The three new domestic cases in Chengdu, Sichuan province, of unknown source have been a reminder of this.

But with the virus having infected more than 67 million people around the world and killed 1.55 million as of Tuesday, some countries have pinned all their hopes on the introduction of vaccines, and actually given up efforts to try to cut the transmission chains of the virus.

As such, it is crucial that the vaccines not only come quickly, but they are fairly distributed among all countries

So it was good to see that in the UN General Assembly special session last week, countries finally opted to stand together. But the key rests with the few big countries, including the United States and those in Europe, which have the ability, if not obligation, to produce vaccines for the whole world.

That's why in the meeting Wang called on other big countries to allocate the limited vaccines to the neediest people first.

It is to be hoped that after losing its battle against the virus at home, the US administration will not commit another error by holding its vaccines hostage for political gains.