https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/...end-severe
.
Quote:Who is behind the skewed reporting of the efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine in the STRAITS TIMES, Singapore?
SKEWED BLOOMSBERG NEWSPAPER REPORT on Sinovac
Foong Swee Fong
7 hrs
This newspaper report by Bloomberg published in the ST is misleading and unethical because it selectively quotes a research but leaves out pertinent information.
The newspaper says researchers from Hong Kong has found that 2 doses of vaccine from Sinovac or Pfizer does not produce enough neutralizing antibodies to protect against Omicron.
However, for people who have had 2 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, a booster using the same vaccine “raised protection to adequate levels”.
For people who have had 2 doses of Sinovac’s vaccine, a booster using the same vaccine “did not produce sufficient levels of neutralizing antibodies to protect against Omicron”. However, a booster using Pfizer’s vaccine produced “significantly improved protective levels of neutralizing antibodies against Omicron”.
The newspaper comments that the results are a “blow to those who have received Sinovac’s vaccine”.
But what the newspaper did not mention is that the researchers found that Sinovac’s vaccine produces much higher levels of T-cell responses which help in destroying infected cells and are thus important in limiting severity and fatal outcomes. The researchers go on to say that this finding is consistent with high levels of protection against hospitalization and death in Sinovac’s vaccine observed in Chile and Turkey despite lower antibody neutralization.
And this last part in the research is crucial, but the newspaper conveniently it left out. Studies of re-infection in animals have found that high levels of T-cell responses can compensate for inadequate neutralizing antibody response and are able to protect against different variants of concern. This, the researchers say, is the advantage of inactivated virus vaccine (Sinovac and Sinopharm) as they contain antigens that elicit strong T-cell response and may confer immunity.
Given the headline of the newspaper, “3 doses of Sinovac fail to protect against variant : Researchers”, most people would go away thinking that Sinovac’s vaccine is useless, which is not what the researchers are saying.
Newspapers are ultimately owned by entities with vested interest. The events they report, the slant in the analysis they carry as well as the one-sidedness of their reports, reveal the agendas of their masters.