Massive Vaccine Scandal Rocks China

By Cathy Wu

A massive vaccine scandal in China has made international headlines following a shocking cover-up over a year in the making that was announced by Xinhua earlier today.

According to reports, police in Shandong province arrested a mother and daughter involved in shady vaccine deals in 2015. The two were allegedly involved in selling 25 types of expired and unrefrigerated vaccines worth more than RMB570 million (USD88 million) across 24 provincial-level regions since 2011. The illegal ring was estimated to have thousands of people. Yet police didn't make the information public until one year later, according to the BBC.

The scandal was uncovered when Shandong authorities issued a call demanding that suppliers come forward to help them trace potential victims. That authorities kept the news quiet for so long fueled public anger, with Chinese netizens questioning the motives for the delay.

Public outrage hit a peak when news of the death of a Guangdong boy from a vaccine injection circulated online. While the death was later cleared by Guangdong authorities of any connection to the illegal vaccine bust, it nevertheless further tanked public trust in vaccine safety.

As the scandal caused a wave of anger across China, Premier Li Keqiang ordered authorities to crack down on the illegal dealing and tighten grips on vaccine safety.

Until Wednesday, police in Shandong province have arrested 37 people involved with the recent vaccine scandal, according to Xinhua. Thirteen vaccine wholesalers implicated in the illegal dealing are also under investigation nationwide. And the number is still increasing every day as arrests continue to be made across the country, while licensed and unlicensed enterprises, agents and even disease prevention centers are suspected of wrongdoing.

The improperly handled vaccines are claimed to be non-toxic, according to Xinhua. They cited a notice released by the World Health Organization (WHO) country office in China on Tuesday, but the vaccines' potency is definitely lessened.

In an interview with Sohu, former commissioner of the FDA, Margaret Hamburg, confirmed that the health of children injected with those vaccines would not be endangered, but admitted that these vaccines could not prevent them from diseases. She noted that the children would need to get re-vaccinated to ward off illnesses.

[Image via iFeng]

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