TEHRAN (Iran News) – Head of Iran-China Chamber of Commerce Majid-Reza Hariri refuted allegations against the Chinese-produced Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines and called them “politically motivated.”
Speaking to ILNA and reacting to some rumors about the quality of the COVID-19 vaccines imported from China, Hariri said that major part of the imported vaccines has been from China and it has been more than 20m doses and all of them have been shipped from Beijing and the reliable sources at the Foreign Ministry have confirmed it.
On the allegations regarding the difference between the quality of Beijing or Wuhan-made Sinopharm vaccines, he said talking about the vaccine needs full knowledge and experts and the question is who has been the source of such fake news. He added that a company can produce its vaccine in different cities of a country like AstraZenca vaccine which is produced in different parts of the country and Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are the same.
He went on to say that he has no exact information whether Sinopharm Company has production lines in other cities or not but when a vaccine producing company has been able to produce some 3b doses of vaccines in less than one year, it has been done for sure in more than one production line.
Hariri noted that in China, this vaccine is used and the Chinese have had Sinopharm vaccine or Sinomach vaccine which is another type of Sinopharm vaccines. He reiterated that Sinopharm vaccine has the WHO approval and most of the Persian Gulf states use the same vaccine and they have used it even long time before it enters Iran.
He added that naturally the quality of a production in different production line does not differ like other medicines and goods under one name or brand which are produced in different production lines.
He then blasted those media outlets which spread such baseless rumors while the foreign ministry as the responsible body for import of this vaccine has denied those allegations.
Hariri added that Sinopharm has announced the price of $27 for its vaccine but it may sell it with cheaper prices like what it did for Sri Lanka and Myanmar. He said Iran has so far received over 20m doses of COVID-19 vaccines from China, expressing hope the number of doses to hit 40m by next month as the talks are underway.
He once again said that Sinopharm is one of the four approved vaccines by the WHO in the market and we should not let some people to dishearten and frighten the people from vaccination.
Hariri criticized the official media for fanning the flame of such baseless claims and spreading this fake allegation which is politically motivated.
He said that now that the whole system in the country has been mobilize for the public vaccination, we should not let such allegations slow sown the process of vaccination in the society by creating panic over the quality of the vaccines.
