Fight against Corona: China relies on traditional medicine - and spurns vaccines from Biontech

Created: 05/10/2022Updated: 05/10/2022 05:09

By: Sven Hauberg

Traditional pharmacy in Macau: herbal pills should also help against corona symptoms.

© Lucas Vallecillos/Imago

In the fight against the corona virus, China relies on traditional medicine - but not on the vaccine from Biontech.

There are also political reasons for this.

Munich/Beijing – Finally freedom again: For about a week now, some of the approximately 25 million residents of Shanghai have been able to leave their apartments again, in which they had been locked up for weeks.

The strict lockdown measures were initially relaxed in five of the 16 districts.

However, many millions of people are still stuck in their homes or in quarantine centers in the economic metropolis and elsewhere in China – while concerns about a lockdown are growing in Beijing.

"Zero Covid" is what the Chinese government calls its tough policy, from which it is unlikely to deviate any time soon.

The state media report almost daily on the alleged superiority of this strategy, which is intended to prevent deaths and a collapse of the health system.

What works on the one hand: According to official information, only a little more than 5,000 people have fallen victim to the pandemic since the first outbreak in Wuhan more than two years ago, and there are currently no pictures of overburdened hospitals from China.

However, an exit strategy seems to be missing.

Senior health official Liang Wannian recently stressed that the pandemic cannot simply be allowed to run its course because it would cause too many victims.

Instead, immunity must be achieved through vaccination, Liang told the state newspaper

It seems all the stranger that China has not yet approved what is probably the world's most effective vaccine against the corona virus, Biontech's mRNA vaccine Comirnaty.

China: Why isn't Biontech's vaccine approved yet?

Biontech founder Ugur Sahin had already announced a cooperation with the Chinese group Fosun Pharma in March 2020 and later concluded an agreement with the government for the delivery of 100 million doses.

But instead of the Biontech vaccine, the Chinese authorities are currently only injecting two inactivated vaccines from the domestic manufacturers Sinovac and Sinopharm.

However, the vaccines only work insufficiently in older people.

In an infection with the omicron subtype BA.2, two doses of the Sinovac vaccine only protect people aged 80 and over with an effectiveness of 60 percent, according to a comparative study by the University of Hong Kong that has not yet been peer-reviewed.

The Biontech vaccine Comirnaty is about 85 percent effective in the same age group.

"China has made a bet on its own vaccines and hoped to produce good vaccines itself and administer them quickly," says Vincent Brussee from the China think tank Merics in an interview with Merkur.de.

A bet that hasn't worked out so far.

"It's politically difficult for the government to say, 'We can't rely on our own science.'

That would make Chinese science look weak,” Brussee believes.

“Especially after using your own vaccines for so long.

The government can hardly get out of it.” Some observers believe that China is not approving the Biontech vaccine because the Sinovac vaccine has not yet been approved for Europe.

Recently, however, there seems to have been some movement in the deadlocked negotiations between Biontech and the Chinese government.

As

reports, there will be talks between company representatives from Mainz and government employees in Beijing in the coming weeks.

A corresponding request from Merkur.de left Biontech unanswered.

Corona in China: Focus on developing own vaccines

However, China would much rather rely on its own vaccines, which are more effective than the vaccines used to date, than on Biontech's Comirnaty.

State media proudly announced earlier this week that the "world's first omicron-specific inactivated vaccine" had been administered in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.

A volunteer had the vaccine from Sinopharm injected as part of a study, it said.

"I want to strengthen my immunity and at the same time contribute to society," said the volunteer.

The new vaccine is of "utmost importance," quoted the

as unnamed "top epidemiologists."

Several mRNA vaccines are also in development;

four of them are currently being clinically tested.

A vaccine called Arcovax is considered the most promising candidate.

Developed by Walvax Biotechnology and Suzhou Abogen Biosciences in collaboration with the Academy of Military Sciences, Arcovax is in the third phase of clinical testing.

But the vaccine is said to have more side effects than the competing products from Biontech and Moderna - and are only slightly effective against Omikron, of all things.

China: With traditional herbal pills against Corona

There is still a long way to go before immunity through vaccination, as demanded by Beijing.

Until then, the government will not only rely on high-tech medicine - but also on traditional herbal pills.

Lianhua Qingwen is the name of a drug from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) that the authorities in Shanghai distributed millions of times to residents of the sealed-off city in April - at a time when many of those trapped may have preferred fresh food deliveries.

At least eight million packs have been dispensed in Shanghai alone, the

reported .

They were donated by the manufacturer, Yiling Pharmaceutical.

The company points out that the drug is approved by the national health authority to treat corona symptoms such as fever, cough and malaise.

The drug was developed in 2003 to treat the Sars lung epidemic, which was also caused by corona viruses.

The recipe goes back to the Han Dynasty (202 BC to 220 AD) and contains rhubarb and apricot kernels, among other things.

However, medical professionals in China warn against taking Lianhua Qingwen if you have no symptoms - as the pills could lead to serious side effects.

The drug has not yet been recommended by the World Health Organization.

The drug Lianhua Qingwen is intended to help against corona symptoms - and is also sold outside of China, for example in Kuwait.

© Xinhua/Imago

"When Shanghai experienced the first corona wave in 2020, 93 percent of the patients also received treatment with TCM," says China expert Brussee.

However, TCM is used “only in combination with clinical treatment and western medicine”.

How effective the TCM tablets are is unclear.

Several studies have come to different conclusions.

The quality of the studies was also often questioned.

According to health authorities in Singapore, there is "no evidence" that Lianhua Qingwen helps against Covid symptoms or even has a preventive effect.

Authorities in Sweden reported that nothing but menthol was found in imported tablets.

"As with any TCM product, the effectiveness depends on the patient's condition," explains Yan Liu, who researches the history of Chinese medicine at the University of Buffalo, to Merkur.de.

“In the early stages of Covid-19, it often helps to alleviate the symptoms.

But when the condition goes to a later stage, it doesn't help much."

China: President Xi Jinping is a TCM fan

Chinese state media have been reporting enthusiastically about the alleged successes of TCM for weeks.

The party newspaper

, for example, wrote of "a valuable experience in the fight against the epidemic across the country" and only two days later of the "unique advantages of Chinese medicine in the fight against Corona".

China's head of state Xi Jinping had already come out as a TCM fan in 2019 and described the traditional means as the "treasure" of Chinese medicine.

Xi's "zealous promotion of TCM is part of a political move aimed at boosting national pride," Yan Liu believes.

"It's a strategy often employed by a government in moments of crisis.

It is part of his efforts to build Chinese people's cultural confidence.”

On the other hand, those who express themselves critically, for example on the social network Weibo, quickly feel a nationalistic headwind.

For example, when a major healthcare platform published an article calling Lianhua Qingwen ineffective, the company had to listen to Weibo saying it was in cahoots with foreign investors.

"There is no doubt that the practice of TCM is political, especially these days when Shanghai and other cities in China are under strict lockdown," says Yan Liu.

However, there have always been supporters and opponents of TCM.

"There are as many unbelievers as believers, and the two groups often engage in heated debates, especially on online platforms," ​​he says.

"Many people enjoy the benefits of TCM, some do not, some never try it."

China: Keep it up with zero-Covid

In any case, the Chinese government’s enthusiasm for TCM has paid off for one: Since the end of 2019, the share price of the manufacturer of Lianhua Qingwen has risen by more than 260 percent – ​​and the assets of the family of company founder Wu Yiling have grown by around four and a half billion US dollars since the beginning of the year alone. Dollar.

Meanwhile, health official Liang Wannian stressed that China will continue with the zero-Covid policy until conditions are ready for a swing.

According to Liang, this requires, among other things, a high vaccination rate among older people.

But the older generation in China in particular is lazy about vaccinations.

"Chinese people who are now over 80 have experienced the Cultural Revolution and other campaigns and are of course a little more skeptical when the government decrees something," says Vincent Brussee.

In addition, due to the extremely low number of cases in China, many people did not see any reason to have the injection for a long time.

"Why should one get vaccinated if there isn't a single case in the neighborhood?" But Brussee also believes that the vaccination rate will soon increase, "when people now see