China's Sinopharm COVID Vaccine Gets Third Shot in UAE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will offer a third shot to recipients of the Chinese state-back Sinopharm vaccine six months after the initial two-shot vaccination, officials said Tuesday.
Recipients in the UAE have voiced concerns about the Sinopharm vaccine's efficacy, with some already receiving a third shot. China's top disease control official said in April that current vaccines offer limited protection against COVID-19.
"As part of the state's proactive strategy to provide maximum protection for society, the door has been opened for the public to receive an additional supportive dose of Sinopharm vaccine for people who have received the vaccine previously and who have completed more than six months on the second dose," said Dr. Farida al-Hosani, an Emirati health spokeswoman, during a statement broadcast on state television.
Hundreds of millions of doses of the Chinese vaccine has been shipped abroad, and China is relying on Sinopharm for its own large-scale immunization campaign. The state-owned company has not released peer-reviewed data on the final stage of clinical trial research and has received criticism for its lack of transparency.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
The UAE initially said the vaccine was 86% effective in the first public release of information on the shot's efficacy. But in the time since, it has offered no study data to support its figures.
In March, an official from a state-linked company distributing Sinopharm in the UAE acknowledged "a very small number" had already received booster shots of Sinopharm in the UAE. That interview with a state-owned radio network sparked confusion among those who already received Sinopharm and were later told they couldn't then change to another vaccine.
The capital of Abu Dhabi extensively rolled out Sinopharm, while the neighboring emirate of Dubai began offering Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca. In recent weeks, Abu Dhabi also began to offer the Pfizer shot, as well.
The World Health Organization recently gave the shot emergency approval, potentially paving the way for millions of the doses to reach needy countries through a U.N.-backed program rolling out coronavirus vaccines.
The UAE boasts it's among the world's fastest vaccination campaigns per capita. The country had heavily relied on the Sinopharm shot to vaccinate its vast foreign labor force.
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