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Sinovac’s vaccine works for now: Health Ministry
Researchers say that more data is needed to determine how long the Chinese-made vaccine can protect people against the coronavirus amid a global rise in infections driven by mutated variants of the disease.
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he CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine, which has been the most widely administered immunizing agent in Indonesia’s inoculation drive, is over 95 percent effective in preventing hospitalization and death from the coronavirus among front line medical workers, one state-led study has found.
But questions remain over the longevity of the protection afforded, especially as the pandemic persists well into its second year amid fresh waves of infections by mutated variants and growing competition in vaccine production.
The results come from a study of the vaccine carried out between January and March by a team at the Health Ministry’s research and development arm.
The leader of the study, Pandji Wibawa Dhewantara, called it a "quick review" of the government's data on COVID-19 vaccination, confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths among more than 128,000 vaccinated and unvaccinated medical workers in Indonesia's capital Jakarta, one of the epicenters of the local outbreak.
The study found that the vaccine was 94 percent effective in preventing symptoms in workers who had contracted COVID-19, some 96 percent effective in preventing hospitalizations and 98 percent in preventing deaths, starting from 28 days and up to 64 days after a person gets his or her second jab.
In contrast, the vaccine’s effectiveness after a single dose came up to only 13 percent for preventing the onset of symptoms and 53 percent for preventing hospitalizations.
"The effectiveness of vaccination with only the first dose is far lower than that of two doses. When fully vaccinated, the risk of [symptomatic cases], hospitalization and death is much lower," Pandji told a press briefing last week.
The figures are derived from comparing the number of confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths from a pool of more than 28,000 unvaccinated medical workers with those from around 8,400 workers who had received a first jab and some 91,700 workers who had received a second jab.
All of these workers, Pandji claims, had not been infected by COVID-19 at least a month before they got inoculated, even though this aspect was vetted using only data from confirmed cases and not from directly testing the subjects.
But he also conceded that the study had its limitations; from inaccuracies in recording the onset of symptoms and analyses based on limited observations, to the possibility of undertesting by focusing only on cases with symptoms.
Wien Kusharyoto, a biotechnology researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) who is involved in the development of a local COVID-19 vaccine, said the results of the study reflected the aim of inoculation, which is to prevent symptoms, hospitalizations and deaths.
He said they also reflected CoronaVac's clinical trial results in Brazil, where it is also being produced.
“Unfortunately, there isn’t any data yet for how vaccination affects the probability of viral infection, which could be reflected in the detection of confirmed cases using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction,” Wien said in reference to the gold standard of COVID-19 testing.
Even so, he insists the subjects of the study would still need to be closely monitored through routine testing.
"The data is necessary to let the public understand that inoculation doesn't automatically prevent infection or transmission," he explained last week.
Indonesia has doubled down on the COVID-19 vaccine as its main guarantee to stem the tide of transmission, alleviate the burden of its healthcare system and provide enough confidence for the economy to bounce back.
As such, the ministry’s latest study, however flawed, has provided reassurance that these goals can still be met, even as other health experts warned about downplaying the danger of more recent transmission.
Manufactured by Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech and exported to Indonesia both in ready-to-use and bulk form, CoronaVac was supposed to be the means with which state-owned pharmaceutical giant Bio Farma could turn Indonesia into a regional vaccine production hub.
But another rise in global transmissions, driven by more dangerous strains of the virus, has sparked concerns about the effectiveness of current vaccines, even as Southeast Asia is fast becoming a center for vaccine production.
Singapore, for instance, is closing schools this week as new COVID-19 strains like the one first detected in India were affecting more children, AFP reported.
Pandji said researchers were still looking into whether the CoronaVac vaccination has any impact on transmission or how long the vaccine would protect us against the virus, and to what extent the antibody titers could manifest in a vaccinated subject over time.
The results of this and other questions in the study are expected by the end of the year.
Ministry spokesperson Siti Nadia Tarmizi said that no fixed cut-off point had been determined for how long antibodies could offer protection against the virus. However, she recommended against having inoculated individuals check their antibody levels – a service commonly offered by private laboratories as of late.
What is important, she said, was that the vaccine helped suppress symptoms, hospitalizations and deaths, and that people continued to follow stringent health protocols.
Just 8.9 million people have been fully vaccinated so far – just a fraction of the country's 270.2 million-strong population, according to the 2020 national census.
“It's very important that we encourage everyone to get the vaccine according to their schedules. Yes, the vaccine gives us protection against the virus, [but] we mustn’t forget that we still have much to do; getting all of the elderly people vaccinated,” Nadia said recently.
Indonesia is in the second phase of its vaccine rollout, which targets some 21.5 million elderly people and 17.3 million public workers. The state previously inoculated its top priority group – some 1.4 million medical workers.
Nevertheless, the vaccination of the elderly, who are most at risk of catching the virus, continues to lag far behind the program for public workers.
The nation is mainly administering the CoronaVac jab for most of its people, with smaller rations of another vaccine from the British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca.
A separate private vaccination program for workers from private and state companies is set to use vaccines procured from state-owned Chinese firm Sinopharm.
