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A comment on An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown. Parent comment

Re:An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown by geokon on Saturday April 09, 2022 @07:01AM (#30966958)
What do you feel the "choice" with vaccines was? So even if they overlooked the politics/"optics", I don't think they could go to the Western pharmaceutical companies and just ask for 3 billion doses. With boosters it's looking like there isn't enough vaccine capacity for the world as it is. I don't think there was ever a real alternative other than a "zero covid strategy"

What seems strange is that they haven't been able to quickly make an mRNA vaccine of their own. Supposedly South Africa has managed to pull it off, and I'd guess China has a much more advanced research/production capacity. Though it's also very possible it's happening and I just haven't heard of it :)

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Re:An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown by nicoburns on Saturday April 09, 2022 @07:17AM (#30967055)
> I don't think they could go to the Western pharmaceutical companies and just ask for 3 billion doses.

I wonder if they could license the technology then produce it themselves. I believe this is what India has been doing?

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Re:An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown by marcosdumay on Saturday April 09, 2022 @12:03PM (#30969186)
Nobody would blink an eye if they just used the technology without licensing either. It's not like other countries could stop them.
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Re:An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown by ericmay on Saturday April 09, 2022 @08:33AM (#30967495)
This user in the comment above mentions that China blocked it:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30967224

Which makes sense for the CCP. If everyone gets the western vaccine then it makes the CCP look bad.

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Re:An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown by threatripper on Saturday April 09, 2022 @07:09AM (#30967008)
> I don't think they could go to the Western pharmaceutical companies and just ask for 3 billion doses.

Ramping up production was a problem in the beginning but now it should not be a problem to produce enough shots to supply China. Even a single shot mRNA would improve immunity by a lot when combined with other vaccines. If China had ordered it in 2020 they would have received multiple doses per person by now.

I have no idea why mRNA failed in China.

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Re:An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown by Reason077 on Saturday April 09, 2022 @07:20AM (#30967066)
> "I have no idea why mRNA failed in China."

Classic case of "not invented here" syndrome?

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Re:An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown by threatripper on Saturday April 09, 2022 @07:38AM (#30967141)
That surely played a part. But by now there would have been enough time to admit defeat and just order some from Europe.
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Re:An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown by dismalpedigree on Saturday April 09, 2022 @07:51AM (#30967212)
You do realize you are talking about CCP admitting defeat? Should be obvious why it hasn’t happened.
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Re:An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown by maxerickson on Saturday April 09, 2022 @07:54AM (#30967224)
Pfizer/BioNTech licensed their vaccine to a Chinese pharmaceutical manufacturer, the government didn't approve it:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-12/billionai...

That's not quite what you describe, but they could have poured resources into manufacturing the licensed vaccine instead of outright blocking its use.

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