The country’s large elderly population is also fearful. “We are all a bit afraid.” The Chinese government is stepping up efforts to ensure the country’s elderly people are vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 “No one was rushed to get the vaccine before, but now even though we want to get the vaccine, doctors are hesitant because there is no guidance from the top,” said Ding Siyang, a dialysis patient in Kunming, a southwestern Chinese city, said.
Patients with underlying diseases are now afraid that they will not have enough time to get vaccinated before the virus hits their city or building. All of them told stories of how the government had been slow and unwilling to vaccinate them over concerns about the side effects. “But now, we are left out in the open, without vaccines and without state protection.”Īl Jazeera has spoken with five immunocompromised people who are not vaccinated. “The doctors say they are afraid of the side effects the vaccines might have on me,” Hu told Al Jazeera. She recently crossed the five-year mark since the last cancerous cells were detected in her body, a clinical sign that the disease has probably been suppressed, but she says she is “extremely nervous” at the sudden shift in COVID-19 policies and is cancelling all non-essential trips outside her home so that she does not “run any risk of infection”. People with underlying diseases or whose immune system has been suppressed are known to be more vulnerable to COVID-19, and Hu has been treated for ovarian cancer. The sudden change has left many confused and even - for people like Hu - fearful. In the span of a week, the government dropped PCR testing requirements for entry to most public places, dismantled the national COVID-19 tracking app - a defining symbol of China’s anti-pandemic measures - and generally loosened up the other measures that had so constrained everybody’s daily lives.
Still, it took the government no more than a few nights to begin dismantling the anti-pandemic regime it had so zealously built. Many are delighted at being able to resume normal life after three years of strict COVID-19 measures, but some, even those who are healthy, are worried about going back
The zero-COVID strategy also means that since 2020, the Chinese government has been pushing a narrative of an unquestionably lethal virus and depicting the rest of the world’s decision to live with it as a dangerous move.
#Chinese covid vaccine side effect full#
The relaxation of the policy has delighted many, especially those whose economic livelihoods have been harmed, but many are agitated about what might happen next, with health experts predicting a surge of coronavirus cases in a country where the vast majority of the people have not been exposed to the virus and many elderly people have not received full courses of the vaccine. The shift in a policy that has held back growth in the world’s second-largest economy and disrupted the lives of millions of people came shortly after a wave of anti-lockdown protests swept across the country. “Wear your mask and don’t go to crowded places - we only have ourselves to rely on now,” Hu wrote in her family group chat on the messaging platform WeChat.Īfter nearly three years of a zero-COVID strategy that has sought to stamp out the virus wherever it has emerged with lockdowns, mass testing and centralised quarantine, China has suddenly begun to relax some of its most severe restrictions. Keep reading list of 4 items list 1 of 4 China government health adviser warns of surging COVID cases list 2 of 4 Why China’s COVID figures don’t add up list 3 of 4 China loosens COVID quarantine, testing rules nationwide list 4 of 4 China’s trade plunges to lowest level since 2020 amid COVID curbs end of list
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