China has announced Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine is nearly 80-percent effective against the coronavirus. The chairman of the Chinese pharmaceutical giant has spoken exclusively to CGTN's Liu Yang about the overall safety of the vaccine. He says the efficacy rate -- along with a figure given by the UAE government, of 86 percent-- were both true and effective.

LIU YANG Beijing "There are certainly many more questions need to be solved about the COVID-19 vaccine, for instance, "how long do you estimate the vaccine will protect the person after they receive the jab?"

YANG XIAOMING Chairman Sinopharm, China National Biotec Group (CNBG) "So if you look at the scientific data, I was the first person to get the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine. I was vaccinated on March 23 this year, and now it's been more than eight months. The data from 6 months shows the effectiveness of the vaccine is still very stable, and the data from 8 months has not come out yet."

LIU YANG Beijing "It's reported CNBG is expanding production for its COVID-19 vaccine. Is there a rough estimate for future demand?"

YANG XIAOMING Chairman Sinopharm, China National Biotec Group (CNBG) "Our two production lines in Beijing and Wuhan now have a combined production capacity of more than 300 million doses annually. After the expansion, we can produce 1 billion doses per year in the future. The vaccine we developed has now reached hundreds of thousands of people on an emergency basis. We've provided vaccines for emergency use in countries like the UAE, Egypt, Bahrain and Morocco.

In terms of vaccine supply, it's not enough for the world, nor China. For herd immunity, the vaccine needs to reach a certain proportion of the population to block the virus's spread effectively. 

There are a lot of diseases and infectious diseases. Like the eradication of smallpox, it is now on the verge of eradication. The new vaccine is comparable to measles, which is effectively controlled by a vaccine. Theoretically, about two-thirds of the population will reach herd immunity after vaccination. So, is it necessary to immunize all 1.4 billion people? Maybe we need to think of some other strategy. Vaccinations vary according to the risk level of the population. High-risk groups are the first barrier." 

LIU YANG Beijing "What new breakthroughs have been made in scientific research as part of the process of developing a COVID-19 vaccine?"

YANG XIAOMING Chairman Sinopharm, China National Biotec Group (CNBG) "In China, each year, fewer than 700 million doses of different types of vaccines are used. Now we are in the pandemic. It is still not enough to increase production to even 1 billion doses of an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine. This time, there have been many technological breakthroughs in vaccine development. For example, the virus culture, virus inactivation, cell culture, and purification have significantly innovated all these techniques. We have also applied those scientific breakthroughs to other vaccines, like the inactivated smallpox vaccine, and the hand foot and mouth disease vaccine."