ASIA / PACIFIC
January 4, 2021
Chinese drugmaker says vaccine is
79.3% effective in final tests
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese drugmaker says its corona-
virus vaccine was found to be 79.3% effective at pre-
venting infection in preliminary data from the final round
of testing, moving Beijing closer to possibly being able to
fulfill its pledge to supply other developing countries.
The announcement by a unit of state-owned Sinopharm
gave the first official data from a Chinese vaccine’s
late-stage trial. Its reported effectiveness rate is behind
Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine at 95% and Moderna Inc.’s at 94%.
Scientists have cautioned coronavirus vaccines may only
be about as effective as flu vaccines, which generally are
50% effective.
Sinopharm is one of at least five Chinese developers
that are in a global race to create vaccines for the disease
that has killed more than 1.84 million people. More than 1
million healthcare workers and others in China have
received vaccines developed by Sinopharm and another
supplier, Sinovac, under emergency approval while
testing was underway.
The two-sentence statement by the Sinopharm unit
that developed the vaccine, Beijing Biological Products
Institute Ltd., gave no additional details. Final proof of its
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weren’t used, said Dr. Harunor
Rashid, an associate professor at the
University of Sydney.
There’s a similar assessment by a
broad consensus of religious leaders
in the Orthodox Jewish community
as well.
“According to the Jewish law, the
prohibition on eating pork or using
pork is only forbidden when it’s a
natural way of eating it,” said Rabbi
David Stav, chairman of Tzohar, a
rabbinical organization in Israel.
If “it’s injected into the body, not
(eaten) through the mouth,” then
there is “no prohibition and no
problem, especially when we are
concerned about sicknesses,” he said.
Yet there have been dissenting
opinions on the issue — some with
serious health consequences for Indo-
nesia, which has the world’s largest
Muslim population, some 225 million.
In 2018, the Indonesian Ulema
Council, the Muslim clerical body
that issues certifications that a
product is halal, or permissible under
Islamic law, decreed that the measles
and rubella vaccines were haram, or
unlawful, because of the gelatin.
Religious and community leaders
began to urge parents to not allow
their children to be vaccinated.
“Measles
cases
subsequently
spiked, giving Indonesia the third-
highest rate of measles in the world,”
said Rachel Howard, director of the
healthcare market research group
Research Partnership.
A decree was later issued by the
Muslim clerical body saying it was
permissible to receive the vaccine,
but cultural taboos still led to
continued low vaccination rates,
Howard said.
“Our studies have found that some
Muslims in Indonesia feel uncom-
fortable with accepting vaccinations
containing these ingredients,” even
when the Muslim authority issues
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VACCINE EFFICACY. Packages of COVID-19 inactivated vaccine
products are seen at a production plant of Beijing Biological Products In-
stitute Co., Ltd, a unit of state-owned Sinopharm in Beijing. The Chinese
drugmaker says its coronavirus vaccine was found to be 79.3% effective
at preventing infection in preliminary data from the final round of testing.
(Zhang Yuwei/Xinhua via AP)
effectiveness will depend on publication of more data.
“That’s useful, and at least it is showing that it is
probably effective,” said Jin Dong-yan, a medical profes-
sor at the University of Hong Kong.
Continued on page 7
McDonald’s Corp. said the sandwich was part of a series
of “members only” promotions to be released on Mondays
in China.
“There is no need to release unnecessary products,” said
a comment left on the company’s microblog account. It
received more than 2,000 “likes.”
McDonald’s said it planned to sell no more than 400,000
of the “Lunchmeat Burgers.” It wasn’t clear how many
were sold or how many people who flooded social media
with scathing comments had eaten one.
“When you hate someone but have to invite him to
dinner, you can ask him to eat McDonald’s Oreo
lunchmeat burger,” said a separate comment on Sina
Weibo.
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Concern among Muslims over halal status of COVID-19 vaccine
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McDonald’s sells “Spam burger” with cookie crumbs in China
BEIJING (AP) — McDonald’s sold a sandwich made of
Spam topped with crushed Oreo cookies in China in an
attention-grabbing move that raised eyebrows.
Global brands from restaurants to automakers
sometimes roll out offbeat products to appeal to Chinese
tastes in the populous and intensely competitive market.
This is undoubtedly one of them.
“I thought it was delicious,” said a comment signed
Feifei Mao Enthusiast on the Sina Weibo microblog
service. “Is that because I love McDonald’s too deeply? Or
is something wrong with my taste?”
The sandwich is made of two slices of Spam, a product of
Hormel Foods LLC, and Mondelez International’s Oreo
cookies, topped with mayonnaise.
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
guidelines saying they are permitted,
she said.
Governments have taken steps to
address the issue. In Malaysia, where
the halal status of vaccines has been
identified as the biggest issue among
Muslim parents, stricter laws have
been enacted so that parents must
vaccinate their children or face fines
and jail time. In Pakistan, where
there has been waning vaccine
confidence for religious and political
reasons, parents have been jailed for
refusing to vaccinate their children
against polio.
But with rising vaccine hesitancy
and
misinformation
spreading
around the globe, including in reli-
gious communities, Rashid said com-
munity engagement is “absolutely
necessary.”
“It could be disastrous,” if there is
not strong community engagement
from governments and healthcare
workers, he said.
In Indonesia, the government has
already said it will include the
Muslim clerical body in the
COVID-19 vaccine procurement and
certification process.
“Public communication regarding
the halal status, price, quality, and
distribution must be well-prepared,”
Indonesian President Joko Widodo
said in October.
While they were in China in the
fall, the Indonesian clerics inspected
China’s Sinovac Biotech facilities,
and clinical trials involving some
1,620 volunteers are also underway
in Indonesia for the company’s
vaccine. The government has an-
nounced several COVID-19 vaccine
procurement deals with the company
totalling millions of doses.
Sinovac Biotech, as well as Chinese
companies Sinopharm and CanSino
Biologics — which all have COVID-19
vaccines in late-stage clinical trials
and deals selling millions of doses
around the world — did not respond
to Associated Press requests for
ingredient information.
In China, none of the COVID-19
vaccines has been granted final
market approval, but more than 1
million healthcare workers and
others who have been deemed at high
risk of infection have received
vaccines under emergency use
permission. The companies have yet
to disclose how effective the vaccines
are or possible side effects.
Pakistan is in late-stage clinical
trials of the CanSino Biologics
vaccine. Bangladesh previously had
an agreement with Sinovac Biotech to
conduct clinical trials in the country,
but the trials have been delayed due
to a funding dispute. Both countries
have some of the largest Muslim
populations in the world.
While healthcare workers on the
ground in Indonesia are still largely
engaged in efforts to contain the virus
as numbers continue to surge, Waqar
said government efforts to reassure
Indonesians will be key to a
successful immunization campaign
as COVID-19 vaccines are approved
for use.
But, he said, companies producing
the vaccines must also be part of such
community outreach.
“The more they are transparent,
the more they are open and honest
about their product, the more likely it
is that there are communities that
have confidence in the product and
will be able to have informed
discussions about what it is they
want to do,” he said.
“Because, ultimately, it is the
choice of individuals.”
Associated Press writers Edna Tarigan in
Jakarta, Indonesia, and Ilan Ben Zion in
Jerusalem contributed to this report.
The Associated Press Health and Science
Department receives support from the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s
Department of Science Education. The
AP is solely responsible for all content.
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