Did China really contribute 60% of the vaccine supply to COVAX – the worldwide initiative for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines?
Take a look at this shocking claim by CGTN Europe, and find out what the FACTS really are!
CGTN Europe : China Contributed 60% Of COVAX Vaccine Supply!
Patrick Rhys Atack from CGTN Europe took umbrage at UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s claim that “the effort to vaccinate the world would only be completed very largely thanks to the efforts of [G7] countries“.
He wrote an article in response called, Who is vaccinating the world?, claiming that China contributed 60% of the COVAX vaccine supply so far.
In his article, he shared this pie chart, showing UNICEF data for the “total doses delivered to [COVAX] by donor country”.
As you can see, he clearly showed that China delivered just over 60% of the COVAX vaccine supply so far. Or did he? Let’s take a closer look…
Truth : China Did NOT Contribute 60% Of COVAX Vaccine Supply
The short and simple truth is – China did NOT contribute 60% of COVAX vaccine supply, and is unlikely to do so even in the future.
Here are the facts…
Fact #1 : Chinese Vaccines Not In UNICEF Data On COVAX
The pie chart was created by CGTN Europe based on UNICEF data, but the truth is – the UNICEF vaccine dashboard actually showed a different story altogether…
The UNICEF data showed that no Chinese vaccines are (currently) part of the vaccine purchases that COVAX made.
315 million doses of vaccines were also donated to COVAX, but UNICEF does not show the breakdown. But even if all 315 million of those vaccine doses are from China, it would only account for 9.5% of the total COVAX vaccine supply of 3.325 million secured doses.
Fact #2 : COVAX Facility Currently Has No Chinese Vaccine
In the latest COVAX Supply Forecast, released on 28 June 2021, there were eight vaccines in the COVAX portfolio, and none of them are from Chinese manufacturers.
It would be quite impossible for China to contribute 60% of COVAX vaccine supply if there are no Chinese vaccines in the COVAX vaccine portfolio…
Fact #3 : China Only Committed 10 Million Doses To COVAX
On 3 February 2021, China announced that they would contribute 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the COVAX Facility.
Those 10 million vaccine doses finally rolled off the Sinopharm production line on 31 May 2021, as China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin announced on 1 June 2021.
The 10 million doses would only account for 0.3% of the 3,315 million doses secured by the COVAX Facility – a far cry from the 60% claimed by CGTN Europe.
Fact #4 : China Has Not Contributed Financially To COVAX
The COVAX Facility does not just rely on donated COVID-19 vaccines. It relies primarily on financial aid, which allows it to directly purchase vaccines from their manufacturers to distribute.
Currently, COVAX is funded in large part by Western countries and Japan. You can verify this through the latest COVAX donor list.
Even the tiny country of Bhutan contributed to the COVAX Facility, as have many foundations. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in particular, contributed US$206 million to COVAX.
However, China has not contributed a single dollar to the COVAX Facility. So it would be impossible that the 60% vaccine supply claim was partly due to monetary contribution.
| COVAX Donors | Contribution (US Dollars) |
| United States | 3,500 million |
| Germany | 1,097 million |
| Japan | 1,000 million |
| United Kingdom | 733 million |
| European Commission | 489 million |
| Italy | 470 million |
| Canada | 384 million |
| Sweden | 296 million |
| France | 244 million |
| Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation |
206 million |
Why Would CGTN Lie About COVAX Contribution By China?
CGTN is part of Chinese state media, and is directly controlled by the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
With China’s aggressive foreign stance in recent years, it is not uncommon to see such fake stories being created by Chinese state media.
Some believe it is part of a concerted attempt to burnish China’s image overseas – a form of vaccine diplomacy.
Others believe the many fake stories are being created to drown out the negative coverage of China’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative, and their aggressive moves in the South China Sea.
Whatever the reasons may be, it is our duty as global citizens to stop the proliferation of such fake stories.
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
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