WHO now says Chinese coronavirus vaccines Sinovac and Sinopharm require three doses

The Chinese vaccines developed by the Sinovac and Sinopharm laboratories, based on inactivated viruses, need to be administered in three doses, when until now two were inoculated, experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) who analyzed the global vaccination program.

“All the evidence indicates that a third dose of these same vaccines or their counterparts is needed,” said at a press conference the Mexican expert Alejandro Cravioto, president of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts of the WHO (SAGE), referring to the Chinese sera.

The recommendation of the WHO may affect vaccination programs not only China, where most of the 2,200 million doses administered are from these two laboratories, but also countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa or Eastern Europe where these Chinese vaccines have been imported and used.

While Europe and the United States have not approved the use of the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, the WHO has included them on its emergency use list and has asked the international community to do so to avoid discrimination at the entrance of travelers. from certain countries.

Cravioto indicated that these third doses should first be administered to people over 60 years old, an age group that has shown greater problems of response to the coronavirus after being vaccinated with Sinovac or Sinopharm.

The SAGE expert, a group of experts that met last week to discuss global vaccination strategies, also opened the door for the third anticovid dose for people inoculated with Sinovac or Sinopharm to be from one of the others approved by the WHO. (Pfizer, Moderna, Janssen, AstraZeneca).