Beijing: The head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention says he has been injected with an experimental coronavirus vaccine in an attempt to persuade the public to follow suit when one is approved.
I’m going to reveal something undercover: I am injected with one of the vaccines, Gao Fu said in a webinar Sunday hosted by Alibaba Health, an arm of the Chinese e-commerce giant, and Cell Press, an American publisher of scientific journals.
I hope it will work. The Associated Press reported earlier this month that a state-owned Chinese company injected employees with experimental shots in March, even before the government-approved testing in people a move that raised ethical concerns among some experts.
Gao did not say when or how he took the vaccine candidate, leaving it unclear whether he was injected as part of a government-approved human trial.
He did not respond to requests for comment.
The claim underscores the enormous stakes as China competes with US and British companies to be the first with a vaccine to help end the pandemic a feat that would be both a scientific and political triumph. (AP)
