Ho Chi Minh City imposes curfew to deal with Covid-19
The controversy over Chinese vaccines in Vietnam is getting fiercer and shows that people are worried about this vaccine.
Leaders of Thong Nhat Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City on August 1 sent a dispatch to Van Thinh Phat Group.
The official dispatch announced that it will use the vaccine of China’s Sinopharm that Van Thinh Phat sponsored for the city to inject its employees.
“Chinese vaccine, Western vaccine”
The action of Thong Nhat Hospital is considered a “fire extinguishing” phase after the appearance of a dispatch in which Van Thinh Phat suggested that the city inject AstraZeneca (European) vaccines for employees of this corporation.
The official dispatch of Van Thinh Phat Group immediately sparked controversy. Many people ask: Why does Van Thinh Phat sponsor the “Chinese vaccine” for the city while wanting its employees to receive the “Western vaccine“?
Responding to Ho Chi Minh City Women newspaper on August 1, Le Dinh Thanh – Director of Thong Nhat Hospital – said that it was normal for this hospital to issue an official letter requesting Sinopharm vaccination for Van Thinh Phat employees.
“Van Thinh Phat Group has supported the movement to buy vaccines, and supported the construction of three field hospitals. Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of their workers while carrying out the task of building three field hospitals, we will use whatever vaccine to protect them,” Thanh added.
In fact, Van Thinh Phat is just one of a series of controversies related to vaccination in Vietnam, especially around the question of who gets what vaccine.
Many people think that any vaccine is fine, having a Chinese vaccine is better than nothing.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son, an investor and active in the field of consulting, commented: “Simply give people the option to refuse the injection, if you don’t like it, don’t inject, and they have to cure themselves when they get sick.” This is also considered a fairly popular opinion among those who support the government to speed up the vaccination.
Opponents, meanwhile, cite the lack of transparency of Chinese vaccines as well as what they call the “hypocrisy” and “double standards” of those who “instigate others to get Chinese vaccines.”
Some people online calling for a Chinese vaccine were later found to have been injected with AstraZeneca vaccine. A user named Luong Hoai Nam commented: “I used to check to see if there was any place to inject Sinopharm vaccine service, if it is, I will register my old man for injection soon.” According to Mr. Nam, the reason he chose this is because Sinopharm’s vaccine uses inactivated virus technology, although the immunological performance is worse than vaccines using vector or mRNA technology, but may cause fewer complications. However, at the end of this comment, Mr. Nam said that “his old man” was called by the ward to get Moderna’s vaccine.
Many people opposing Chinese vaccines say if Vietnamese leaders think that Chinese vaccines are safe, they need to inject them first so that people can follow them.
Lawyer Dang Dinh Manh wrote on his personal page: “The most convincing way to propagate people to agree to injection Sinopharm is: regime officials set an example!”
Facebook user Bach Huynh Duy Linh also had a similar opinion: “Vietnamese leaders need to set an example for the people in getting Chinese vaccines.”
In addition, many people like Facebook Luong The Huy cite that other country leaders like Angela Merkel, the German chancellor have injected the first dose of AstraZeneca (a British-Swedish product), the second is Moderna, a pure American product to serve as an example.
Angela Merkel vaccinated: First dose of AstraZeneca, second is Moderna
Specifically, Mrs. Merkel injected AstraZeneca when concerns about blood clotting were high in Europe. And Moderna is in the context of Germany wants to test the injection of two vaccines to boost antibodies, which many people fear is not good.
“Before giving the first dose of vaccine, she repeatedly repeated that she would wait for her turn, like any citizen, not to “squeeze” (“I would like to wait until it’s my turn). Her “turn” is the turn of the German people, not the leader of Germany, because there is no regulation that the officials must get the injection first, they will be severely punished.” Facebook Luong The Huy wrote.
“Equality in Access”
Unlike many Western countries, where many people do not receive any vaccine, Vietnamese people, through what is shown on social networks, generally believe that vaccination is necessary to fight the Covid-19 epidemic. -19.
Controversy mainly focused on a few issues: Chinese vaccines lack of transparency; whether or not a good vaccine (which many people believe is a European and American vaccine) is given priority to those with rights and money, while ordinary people have to accept “whatever they get.”
On his personal Facebook, user Linh Hoang Vu wrote: “Now there are many vaccines in Saigon and many different types. Moderna vaccine is being given priority to people over 65 years old. For city people in general, there are now including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Sinopharm (ie Vero Cell). Most people would prefer Pfizer/Moderna to AstraZeneca and prefer AstraZeneca to Sinopharm. So now the difficult question is what will Saigon’s vaccine distribution policy be like? For whom, what kind, when?”
According to him, the city should have a consistent, public and transparent policy, or else it will cause controversy and accusations about the fairness of access to vaccines.
Mr. Linh Hoang Vu offered some suggestions on ensuring transparency, giving people the right to choose one of the vaccines available in certain time periods, or allowing the first injection of Sinopharm, the second injection would be Pfizer or Moderna…
However, Mr. Linh Hoang Vu also admitted that the above measures are difficult to implement, partly because there is still a lack of scientific basis, partly because people have lost faith. He assessed that at present, “ambiguous information is a lot but official information is very little, it seems that officials also avoid, do not want to provide complete information or stand to guarantee this vaccine, Maybe because they afraid of being labelled ‘pro-Chinese’ (?) or for some other reason that I don’t know.”
Speed up vaccination
From an individual perspective, there are legitimate grounds for considering whether or not to vaccinate. Everyone has the right to worry about themselves and their families about the risk of complications from the vaccine or the vaccine’s undesirable effect.
Meanwhile, from the perspective of social management, the authorities will give priority to the “coverage” of the vaccine as widely as possible. Studies show that the risk of complications from the vaccine is very low compared to its effectiveness. In addition, vaccines with low effectiveness, if given to many people, will also have a positive effect in fighting epidemics at a local or national level.
Therefore, despite the increasingly fierce controversy and no sign of ending, the government still promotes vaccination as a key measure against the Covid-19 pandemic.
In Ho Chi Minh City, vaccination is being deployed to residential areas by mobile vaccination groups.
According to the plan to organize the 5th round of Covid-19 vaccination, adjusted by the Ho Chi Minh City Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, the city will organize vaccination for people aged 18 years or older living in the area, with priority given to people over 65 years old, cases with chronic underlying diseases, frontline health workers and other frontline forces; For people outside the above priority groups, the locality arranges vaccinations in order of priority in terms of age, such as groups over 50 years old, groups over 35 years old, groups over 18 years old.
Many people in Ho Chi Minh City said they had been vaccinated with Sinopharm’s vaccine. Meanwhile, Hanoi is also promoting vaccination of American and European vaccines for people.
According to the latest update from the Covid-19 Immunization Portal, on August 1, 211,353 more injections were performed. In total, the number of injections nationwide is 6,415,219. The actual number of people who received injections was less than the number of injections, as that included people who received two shots.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
Source: https://www.bbc.com/vietnamese/vietnam-58045089
