China cajoles, woos citizens to speed up inoculations

In Beijing, the vaccinated qualify for buy-one-get-one-free ice cream cones. In northern Gansu Province, a county government published a 20-stanza poem extolling the virtues of the vaccination. In the southern town of Wancheng, officials warned parents that if they refused to get vaccinated, their children’s schooling and future employment and housing were all at risk.

China is deploying a medley of tactics, some tantalizing and some threatening, to achieve mass vaccination on a staggering scale: a goal of 560 million people, or 40% of its population, by the end of June.

But China faces a number of challenges. Some are wary of China’s history of vaccine-related scandals, a fear that the lack of transparency around Chinese coronavirus vaccines has done little to assuage. Then there is the sheer size of the population to be inoculated.

To get it done, the government has turned to a familiar tool kit: a sprawling, quickly mobilized bureaucracy and its sometimes heavy-handed approach.

Already, uptake has skyrocketed.

Over the past week, China has administered an average of about 4.8 million doses a day, up from about 1 million a day for much of last month. Experts have said they hope to reach 10 million a day to meet the June goal.

“They say it’s voluntary, but if you don’t get the vaccine, they’ll just keep calling you,” said Annie Chen, a university student in Beijing who received two such entreaties from a school counselor in about a week.

Worried about possible side effects, Chen had not planned to sign up. But after the counselor warned that she could soon face restrictions on access to public places, she relented — in part because she felt bad for him.

“The counselor seemed to think his job was pretty hard, too. He sounded exhausted,” she said.

Even with the recent surge in vaccinations, China still lags far behind dozens of other countries. Though China has approved five homegrown vaccines, it has administered 10 shots for every 100 residents. Britain has administered 56 for every 100; the United States, 50.

Prominent doctors have warned that China’s sluggish pace threatens to undermine the country’s successful containment measures.

GILLES SABRIE/NEW YORK TIMES A Mcdonald’s ice cream truck outside a vaccination center in Beijing on Tuesday offers a twofor-one promotion for those getting a COVID-19 vaccine.