June 06, 2021
That seems to be the case. A few weeks ago it ran a major piece on vaccinating the world. The article never once mentioned China’s vaccines (or Russia or India’s). It had another piece today on the topic, which again did not mention China’s vaccines.
Ignoring China’s vaccines in the context of vaccinating the world is truly bizarre. It has been by far the leading supplier of vaccines to South America, North Africa, and the countries of South Asia, excepting India. It also has administered more than 750 million shots domestically. (The NYT piece bizarrely told readers that 85 percent of the shots given have gone to the world’s wealthiest countries. This is clearly false, unless the NYT considers China one of the world’s wealthiest countries.)
China is also producing around 500 million doses a month. At this pace, it should be hitting its target vaccination rate in a bit over two months, which means it would be in a position to distribute 500 million doses a month to the rest of the world. By contrast, our pharmaceutical companies claim they can’t even figure out how to get the syringes and vials needed to distribute the volume of vaccines necessary to protect the developing world. (Thomas Cueni, the director general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, makes that assertion here [the comment can be found at 21:10 in the exchange.])
Given that China can apparently produce and distribute 500 million doses a month, while the western industry claims to lack the competence to substantially increase production, it looks like vaccinating the world will be primarily a Chinese project. It’s too bad New York Times reporters are not allowed to talk about it.
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