WHO panel set to decide on emergency use of Chinese vaccine

<p>GENEVA &mdash; A key World Health Organization panel was set to decide Friday whether to authorize emergency of a Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine, a WHO spokesperson said, potentially paving the way for millions of doses to reach needy countries through a U.N.-backed program. </p>
<p>The review by a technical advisory group could open the possibility of the Sinopharm vaccine being included in the U.N.-backed COVAX program in the coming weeks or months, and distributed through WHO’s regional office for the Americas and the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF.</p>
<p>WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said a decision was expected later Friday. </p>
<p>Apart from efficacy information, Sinopharm has released very little public data about its two vaccines – one developed by its Beijing Institute of Biological Products and the other by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products. </p>
<p>The Beijing shot is one that WHO is considering for an emergency use listing. </p>
<p>A separate group advising the U.N. agency on vaccines said it was “very confident” the Sinopharm vaccine protects people ages 18-59. The group said it had a “low level of confidence” of vaccine’s efficacy in people 60 and over. It expressed “very low confidence” in the available data about potentially serious side effects in that age group. </p>