China Rebuts France's Criticism of 'Water Vaccine' as "An Insult to Science"

Criticism of Zero-COVID Failure: "US and France Have More Cases"
"Data Concealment? Other Countries Also Do Not Disclose"

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Kim Hyunjung] The Chinese Embassy in France posted a rebuttal against French media reports that expressed critical views on China's quarantine guidelines and vaccines. In particular, it sharply criticized the claim that Chinese vaccines are ineffective, calling it "an insult to Chinese science and pathology."

According to local media including China Observer Network on the 3rd, the Chinese Embassy in France stated on its official website that "some French media are misleading public perception of China with malicious exaggerations" in response to reports criticizing China's quarantine achievements.

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

According to the embassy, many French media previously pointed out that China's quarantine is currently out of control, Chinese vaccines are ineffective, zero-COVID has failed, and the government is distorting infection data. Regarding reports that only 40% of Chinese people over 80 have received three vaccine doses and that a tsunami of infections occurred due to weak immunity, the embassy emphasized, "On the contrary, Chinese vaccines have been very effective and have prevented millions of deaths," adding, "China already has more than 10 vaccines, with over 3.4 billion doses administered, and vaccination rates for the entire population and the elderly exceed 85% and 65%, respectively."

Furthermore, the embassy cited a research report published by the University of Hong Kong, stating that after booster shots, inactivated vaccines were as effective as messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines in preventing severe cases caused by the Omicron variant, with both having a prevention rate of 97%. It also pointed out that Pfizer's CEO received four doses of his company's vaccine but was reinfected with COVID-19. The embassy criticized, "Such doubts (from French media) are an insult to science and pathology."

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

The embassy strongly denied the assessment that zero-COVID ultimately failed. It stated, "Over the past three years, China's zero-COVID policy resulted in fewer than 400,000 new confirmed cases and 5,235 deaths," emphasizing, "At the same time, the United States exceeded 100 million confirmed cases and 1.06 million deaths. France conservatively recorded 38 million confirmed cases and 160,000 deaths." The confirmed cases and deaths mentioned here appear to be official figures from China, excluding asymptomatic cases. The embassy continued, "When China abandoned zero-COVID last month and adopted Western liberalization policies, there were reports of a sharp increase in cases with millions confirmed daily," and questioned, "Is this a failure of zero-COVID or a failure of Western quarantine policies?"

The embassy also expressed dissatisfaction with recent moves by the United States, Japan, and European countries to strengthen COVID-19 quarantine measures for travelers from China, accusing them of distorting or withholding China's quarantine data. It argued, "There are harsh comments about data concealment, but China did not conduct nucleic acid testing during the adjustment of quarantine policies, so accurate infection data could not be obtained," adding, "This is a normal phenomenon observed worldwide, including in France."

It further pointed out, "The U.S. government announced in October last year that it would no longer release official COVID-19 case data, and France also reports only incomplete status updates," questioning, "Why is this not called concealment?" Regarding the strengthening of quarantine measures by various governments, the embassy described them as "unnecessary and discriminatory," stating, "Compared to infection numbers in the European Union (EU), the likelihood of cases imported from China is very low."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.