Mainland China reports that new cases and deaths from Covid-19 are remarkably low for the world’s most populous nation. I had assumed that, like so much news from totalitarian nations, these figures were unreliable, and cases and deaths were much more numerous.
But wait. Suppose the figures are more-or-less accurate. Why could China be doing so well? Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are entirely new, using innovative rna techniques. Johnson and Johnson vaccine is also new, using a familiar cold virus to carry the needed information into our cells.
But from the first I was wondering, why not produce a vaccine the old-fashioned way, by inactivating the virus and injecting it without any untried techniques? The Salk polio vaccine was made this way, and it works quite well. But reportedly, the Chinese Covid-19 vaccine is made this way.
Is it possible that the favorable China figures are correct? Is it possible that the China vaccine, made the traditional way, actually works better than our innovative but less effective vaccines? Why is not this question asked by our media, which carry pandemic stories incessantly? Why do not authority figures like Dr. Fauci even mention this topic?
Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia are switching to our vaccines, so it appears that my original suspicion was correct, and the favorable China figures have been altered. But at least treat us like adults. Tell us the facts, and let us make up our own minds. Or is that just too much for our intellectual elite to bear?