上海复星医药（集团）股份有限公司（简称“复星医药”，股票代码：600196.SH，02196.HK）成立于1994 年，是中国领先、创新驱动的国际化医药健康产业集团，业务领域策略性 …
— from the FosunPharma.com website
Heck, it only makes sense, and I’m not sure why we didn’t think of this… months ago.
To fight a Chinese virus, you need a Chinese vaccine.
Earlier this month — according to Beijing-based Global Times — Wu Yifang, chairman and CEO of Shanghai-based Fosun Pharma, said he’s happy to see the mRNA vaccine developed by Fosun and BioNTech reach the island nation of Taiwan, and said he hopes it will help the island’s fight against the epidemic. The Taiwan government, it seems, is not entirely happy with a vaccine made by a Chinese company, getting injected into the arms of the Chinese who live in Taiwan, so the Taiwan government is trying to put a stop to the nonsense.
As we know very well, the Chinese do not always get along with the Chinese.
Over here in the good old US of A, we have been referring to BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine as the “Pfizer vaccine”. Pfizer being headquartered in New York City.
But in Beijing, everyone apparently knows that the BioNTech mRNA vaccine was developed in collaboration with Fosun Pharma, based in Shanghai.
Now that the vaccine has been officially blessed by the FDA (over here in America) BioNTech… or maybe Pfizer? Or maybe Fosun?… anyway, somebody invented a new name for the chemical mixture.
“Comirnaty.”
We will no longer need to worry whether the vaccine is coming from China or from anywhere else, because it will no longer be called “the Pfizer vaccine” or the “Fosun vaccine.” It will simply be the “Comirnaty” vaccine.
The new name is pronounced so as to evoke the word “Community”, except perhaps the way a two-year-old might say it. But if you look closely, you can find the letters “RNA” hidden inside.
According to Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, “Comirnaty” is now being produced — or soon will be — in France, Ireland, Germany, South Africa, and Brazil.
And China.
But not India. After reviewing vaccine data last February, India’s COVID-19 Subject Expert Committee (SEC) recommended against granting an Emergency Use Authorization for Comirnaty, citing serious adverse events including anaphylaxis and palsy as well as the companies’ lack of safety and immunogenicity studies in the Indian population.
So if you want a COVID vaccination in India, you’re probably going to get the Oxford-AstraZeneca version.
But my question I’m asking myself (and you as well, dear reader) is, “If the virus came from China, shouldn’t we be using a Chinese vaccine?”
Now I know some of you are going to respond with another question: “Can we trust the Chinese?”
Which is simply a clever way to avoid answering the first question.
I trust the Chinese completely. My phone was made in China, and so was my computer. (The two things I would pack first, in case of a forest fire.) Also, my smoke alarm is made in China. (No need to pack that item, of course, in case of a forest fire.)
My TV is made in China, and I’m pretty sure my underwear is made in China.
How can a person trust their underwear to be made in China, and still be worried about a (relatively) harmless vaccine that nearly got approved in India?
That’s my answer to your second question which some of you posed as a way to avoid answering my first question, which was, “If the virus came from China, shouldn’t we be using a Chinese vaccine?”
From a press release sent by the Children’s Health Defense Fund:
Washington, DC – Last week, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) filed suit in Tennessee federal court against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its acting director Janet Woodcock for their deceptive, rushed licensure of Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine. CHD argues that the licensure was a classic ‘bait and switch,’ allowing Pfizer, the Administration, the military and employers to exhort people to take ‘licensed’ vaccines when in fact the vaccines available continue to be the Pfizer-BioNTech Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) vaccines.
Only a few days after receiving a “rushed” licensure from the FDA, Pfizer is already tangled up in a lawsuit filed by people who are trying to protect children.
I would never want to be involved in a lawsuit filed by people who are trying to protect children.
Another reason to use the Chinese vaccine, seems to me.