Indonesian health officials are satisfied with COVID-19 vaccines fom Sinovac, even after a public health official from China, Gao Fu, this week said efficacy for Chinese made vaccines is "not high."
According to Siti Nadia Tarmizi, a spokesperson for Indonesia's COVID-19 vaccine program, the World Health Organization determined that the Chinese vaccines met requirements by being more than 50% effective.
She noted that clinical trials for the vaccine from Chinese drugmaker Sinovac in Indonesia revealed that it was 65% successful.
"It means ... the ability to form antibodies in our bodies is still very good," Tarmizi said.
Indonesia's support for Sinovac comes after the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention admitted that the efficacy of China's coronavirus vaccines is subpar - and that changes are required to enhance safety.
China has exported hundreds of millions of doses of domestically manufactured vaccines and is dependent on them for its own mass immunization campaign.
The Chinese government is currently using five vaccines in its mass immunization campaign, including three inactivated-virus vaccines from Sinovac and Sinopharm, a one-shot vaccine from CanSino, and the last from Gao's team in collaboration with Anhui Zhifei Longcom.
According to the companies, the vaccines' efficacy ranges from slightly more than 50% to 79%.
In contrast, the efficacy rates of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are 97% and 94 percent, respectively.
The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, has also defended the Sinovac vaccine, saying that it is "as good as any other vaccine invented by Americans or Europeans."
As Gao's comments gained attention on social media and made international headlines, Chinese censors quickly scrubbed online discussions, and state media quickly aired an interview with Gao in which he clarified his comments.
Global Times, a state-run nationalist tabloid, quoted Gao as saying reports about his admission were "a complete misunderstanding."
Health experts are concerned that a series of contradictory effectiveness results have undermined public confidence, and they believe a lack of evidence is hampering their understanding of how the vaccine works.
As of April 2, approximately 34 million Chinese citizens had received the full two doses of Chinese vaccines, while approximately 65 million had received one, Gao said.
