To Prevent Epidemic, Countries are Eager for R&D Approval. Experts : Beware of Bad Vaccines Backfire

According to the British 'Guardian' report on August 30, at present, many countries and companies in the world are seeking to launch the new coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible, but medical experts from Oxford University in the United Kingdom pointed out that rushing to get people vaccinated with bad vaccines may backfire.

According to the Report, the British government stated on August 28 that it intends to adopt a series of new measures, including amendments to relevant regulations, to allow regulatory agencies to temporarily authorize the emergency use of the new coronavirus vaccine with proven safety and effectiveness to end the epidemic as soon as possible. U.S. President Trump also stated earlier this month that the United States' new coronavirus vaccine may be ready before the presidential election day on November 3.

Richard Peto, a professor at Oxford University and a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO), said that the best case is that countries around the world can simultaneously implement the same vaccine to confirm that the vaccine is effective. Even if it is less effective and only protects a small number of people, it can set a standard for future vaccines. Otherwise, some low-quality vaccines may be approved without reference standards.

Peto said, 'We do need an effective vaccine, and we need to get it as soon as possible,' but 'we do need quite strong evidence to prove its effectiveness.' he said. 'I think it has appeared now. A trend, which is a trend of nationalism to some extent, and a trend of capitalism to a certain extent, all want to register vaccines first, which actually makes it more difficult to evaluate other vaccines."

According to the Report, the World Health Organization has established a 'Vaccine Solidarity Test' expert group, which brings together a number of top scientists from all over the world. They have cooperated with many countries to conduct comparative studies on some candidate new coronavirus vaccines. The expert group recently published an article in the medical journal 'The Lancet' that a bad vaccine is worse than no vaccine. People who have been vaccinated will think that they are no longer in danger and will no longer comply with anti-epidemic measures such as maintaining social distancing. That will worsen the epidemic.

The expert group urged national regulatory agencies to strictly abide by WHO's guidelines and not to approve vaccines with less than 30% protection. According to the Report, the WHO guidelines stipulate that the vaccine's protective effect on the target population should be at least 50%. Taking into account the factors of error and accuracy, the protection efficiency should not be less than 30% in practice.