China Gives Unproven Covid-19 Vaccines to Thousands, With Risks Unknown
First, workers at state-owned companies got dosed. Then government officials and vaccine company staff. Up next: teachers, supermarket employees and people traveling to risky areas abroad.
The world still lacks a proven coronavirus vaccine, but that has not stopped Chinese officials from trying to inoculate tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people anyway. Three vaccine candidates are being injected into workers whom the government considers essential, along with many others, including employees of the pharmaceutical firms themselves.
Officials are laying out plans to give shots to even more people, amounting to a big wager that the vaccines will eventually prove to be safe and effective.
China’s rush has bewildered global experts. Many of the injections appear to be taking place outside the typical drug approval process. The vaccine candidates are in Phase 3 trials, or the...
