A REPORT in a national daily on Wednesday said a move by a Chinese pharmaceutical company – Sinvac, to conduct the third and final phase of clinical trial of a Covid-19 vaccine in Bangladesh lacks clarity and is causing widespread confusion. Health Ministry has not taken any decision yet. Time has not come for the Foreign Ministry to comment. Still its comments are creating confusion unnecessarily. We have been saying that the government deserves a prize for choosing highly inefficient persons who are incompetent for high positions in the government.
The suspicion is that these persons are chosen not for running the ministries. That is the responsibility of others. China plans to conduct test among 4,200 health workers in seven hospitals those are treating coronavirus patients to see how much antibodies it can develop in their bodies to resist infection. Sinvac and ICDDR,B will jointly run the clinical tests. We need to mention that Chinese envoy in Bangladesh has volunteered to be first to take the trial test.
Meanwhile, The Economic Times of India went out of its way to write a sharp rebuttal to the Chinese move by saying China is going to use the people of Bangladesh as ‘guinea pigs’ and trying to exploit the vulnerable population for profits.
We agree that the government has to be cautious about every aspect of testing the vaccine. The idea that Bangladesh is a vast field of opportunity for testing by Chinese firms should not force our government to be persuaded to make hasty decisions. We would also like to caution the decision makers to examine carefully data of the results of its vaccine testing in China.
The fact is internationally reliable companies are ready to offer vaccines including Pfizer. The USA and Germany have already decided to buy vaccines from Pfizer and others. Few other renowned companies are competing with Pfizer.
In that position of progress in developing vaccines there is scope for thinking why should our people be subjected to experimental tests for the benefit of China. China knows how to exploit others for its own benefit. We have not found China or India helping us over refugees from Myanmar. Both the countries acted in their own self-interest.
