China just approved its first COVID-19 vaccine as it races to inoculate the world’s biggest population

China just approved its first COVID-19 vaccine as it races to inoculate the world’s biggest population

China has approved its first vaccine for domestic use.

Conditional approval has been granted to a vaccine developed by state-controlled Sinopharm, which claims 79% efficacy, but has not published key details.

China wants to vaccinate 50 million people by mid-February, the New York Times reported.

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China has granted conditional approval to its first vaccine for general domestic use against COVID-19, though its rollout may be marred by questions over its efficacy and lack of data.

The shot has been developed by state-controlled pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm, which claimed 79% efficacy for the vaccine on Wednesday. That is lower than Western vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, which boast efficacy rates of 95% and 94% respectively.

According to Reuters, the 79% figure seems to be inconsistent. The same vaccine has been approved by Bahrain and the UAE, which claimed an 86% efficacy rate. Per the Financial Times, there has been no public explanation for the discrepancy, and neither Sinopharm, nor Bahrain or the UAE's regulators, have released details of their analysis.

Dong-Yan Jin, professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, told Reuters: "We still have not seen key details, such as the number of