World turns to China for vaccines after India, U.S. stumble
HONG KONG — The world is fast becoming ever more reliant on China for vaccines, with India’s raging virus outbreak stifling its ability to deliver on supply deals, even as the U.S. tries to position itself as a champion of wider access.
Over the past few weeks, leaders of some of the globe’s most populous nations have sought more shots from China despite concerns about their effectiveness. Demand is expected to rise even further if the World Health Organization, as expected, authorizes vaccines from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and Sinopharm Group Co. Ltd., allowing developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America to access them through Covax, the global vaccination effort.
“China has become not just the largest exporter,” said Yanzhong Huang, a China specialist and senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. “In many countries it has become the only option.”
China’s reliability as a vaccine supplier is increasing its geopolitical clout at a time when the U.S. and the EU have been slow confronting the global pandemic as COVID-19 hot spots rage out of control in India, Brazil and elsewhere. Compounding the difficulties, India’s crisis has dried up vaccine supplies and prompted many countries to turn toward China. Amid this backdrop, the U.S., for months preoccupied with its domestic vaccination push, has come under intense criticism for hoarding shots at the expense of a global response.
President Joe Biden made it clear this week that the U.S. intends to start playing a more active role. On Wednesday, the U.S. threw its weight behind a movement to waive patents on COVID19 vaccines to allow other countries to manufacture them. He’s vowing that the U.S. will become an “arsenal for fighting COVID19” globally as outbreaks elsewhere in the world risk spawning dangerous variants that could prolong the crisis. The administration’s efforts so far include plans to give away 60 million doses of AstraZeneca Plc’s shot and to ramp up production of doses made by Moderna Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson.
In the meantime, countries from Uruguay to Senegal to Indonesia have few places to turn apart from Beijing — and China is making the most of it.
The country has already shipped out about 240 million doses, more than all other nations combined, and has committed to providing another 500 million, according to Airfinity Ltd., a science information and analytics company. India, the world’s third-biggest supplier after China and the European Union, had exported 67 million doses to nearly 100 countries until the devastating COVID-19 outbreak prompted it to halt most deliveries in recent weeks.
The WHO is weighing data on Chinese vaccines before a decision on clearance, which is expected in days or weeks.