China’s dogged efforts to raise safety questions about coronavirus vaccines not created in China continued in the state-run Global Times on Friday, with an article that suggested Pfizer’s vaccine could be risky for pregnant women.
China’s harsh population control policies made it the world champion of forced abortions for four decades running, and it is currently working overtime to reduce the birth rates for racial minorities with forced sterilization and abortion. The Chinese Communist Party’s recent effort to look on the bright side of ethnic cleansing by noting the lack of children gives women more free time to pursue their dreams was not well received.
The Global Times nevertheless claimed to be deeply concerned about pregnant women signing up for trials of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine:
Some Chinese health experts believe it’s too risky and pregnant women should not get any vaccination for trials, while some said the health risks of pregnant women getting vaccinated are much lower than after contracting the virus.
In China, pregnant women are not recommended to receive COVID-19 vaccines, and other vaccines are also generally not recommended for them due to limited research data, Wang Huaqing, the chief immunologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a press conference in December 2020.
Pfizer’s clinical trials for pregnant women gained much attention from Chinese netizens. Many of them questioned whether it’s ethical to run tests on pregnant women especially when the death incidents in some Western countries involving elderly people have raised wide concern on the safety of the Pfizer vaccine.
The propaganda outlet cited unknown “netizens,” or social media users whose opinions the Communist Party approves of, as calling the tests “violating human rights and unethical.”
As the Global Times went on to admit, even some Chinese doctors saw the value in vaccinating pregnant women, noting their risk of side effects is minor compared to the risks of contracting the Wuhan coronavirus. The Chinese Communist paper then admitted China is already planning trials for its Sinovac vaccine on children and pregnant women in Brazil.
Pfizer announced on Friday that the first American participants in the trial for pregnant women have received their shots. The trial is expected to continue until January 2023. The other coronavirus vaccine approved for emergency use in the United States, by the firm Moderna, is gathering data on pregnant women who use the product.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) have urged research into the safety of coronavirus vaccines for pregnant women, noting the high level of risk they face from the Chinese coronavirus.
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