More than three years after China ended its strict “zero-COVID” policy in December 2022, questions surrounding the country’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign continue to linger among some medical professionals, researchers, and families who say suspected vaccine-related illnesses were never independently investigated.
The Chinese regime has consistently maintained that the country’s domestically produced COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. But several people who spoke to The Epoch Times—including a physician, a medical researcher, a retired government official, and parents who questioned illnesses that developed after vaccination—said they believe authorities discouraged inquiries into possible adverse reactions while limiting public discussion of the issue.
The individuals spoke on condition of anonymity or by surname only because they feared retaliation.
Doctor Says Hospitals Were Discouraged From Investigating
An internal medicine physician at a hospital in Hebei Province told The Epoch Times that China’s domestically produced vaccines were rolled out rapidly during the pandemic and that hospitals were discouraged from examining whether serious illnesses reported after vaccination could be linked to the shots.
The physician said some patients experienced severe health problems after receiving COVID-19 vaccines, including serious lung complications and leukemia diagnoses, prompting family members to question whether the illnesses could be vaccine-related.
According to the physician, hospitals were instructed not to characterize such cases as vaccine-related or conduct analyses examining a possible connection.
“Health authorities directed hospitals not to conduct analyses or make public comments linking patients’ conditions to the vaccines,” the physician said. “We were also not permitted to perform examinations specifically intended to determine whether illnesses were associated with vaccination.”
The Epoch Times could not independently verify those claims.
The Chinese regime has consistently rejected allegations that COVID-19 vaccines cause diseases such as leukemia or diabetes. At a July 2022 press briefing, the State Council’s joint COVID prevention and control mechanism said monitoring and research showed the vaccines do not cause either disease. Officials also said China had administered more than 3.4 billion vaccine doses to approximately 1.299 billion people by July 22, 2022.
Discussion Remains Restricted
A Chinese medical researcher, surnamed Liu, told The Epoch Times that researchers have privately discussed whether more attention should be given to studying possible long-term health effects following vaccination.
He said he had spoken with a vaccine specialist in Shanghai about the issue, but authorities have discouraged further discussion.
“Officials won’t allow these issues to be connected,” Liu said. “People aren’t permitted to ask questions about how the vaccines were developed or whether there could be any relationship between vaccination and long-term complications.”
Liu said the absence of open discussion has made it difficult for researchers to examine concerns raised by physicians and families.
Since the pandemic, The Epoch Times has interviewed parents and reviewed discussions in Chinese-language online groups formed by families who believe their children experienced illnesses after receiving COVID-19 vaccines.
Some of the online communities included thousands of participants.
Several parents told The Epoch Times that their children or relatives developed illnesses, including diabetes, after vaccination, and that they wanted authorities to investigate whether the cases could be related to the vaccines.
A petition drafted by Qian and other participants alleged that numerous people developed leukemia following China’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign, while others were diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and other serious illnesses.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify those claims, and Chinese authorities have not acknowledged a causal relationship between COVID-19 vaccination and those illnesses.
Former Official Says He Declined Vaccination
A recently retired senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official, surnamed Wang, told The Epoch Times that he and his wife chose not to receive China’s domestically produced COVID-19 vaccines because they questioned their safety.
“We simply didn’t dare get vaccinated,” Wang said.
He said he believed the vaccines had not undergone sufficiently rigorous testing and worried they could produce long-term side effects.
“The consent forms also required us to acknowledge the risks ourselves, which made us even more cautious,” he said.
Official documents indicate that Chinese authorities made special efforts to encourage vaccination among retired officials. In 2022, the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ bureau overseeing retired personnel issued a public appeal urging retirees to be vaccinated as quickly as possible. The notice stated that advanced age, disability, being bedridden, or having multiple underlying illnesses should not automatically be considered reasons to forgo vaccination.
A Chinese public-interest advocate, surnamed Deng, told The Epoch Times the central issue is not whether every illness reported after vaccination was caused by the vaccines, but whether suspected cases were allowed to undergo independent investigation.
“If the vaccines were truly safe and effective, why not openly register suspected cases and investigate them?” Deng said. “People want transparent answers.”
To date, no independent investigation has publicly examined allegations of vaccine-related injuries in China.
Beijing continues to maintain that its COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective while tightly controlling public discussion of alleged long-term side effects. For some doctors, researchers, and families who say they sought answers about illnesses that emerged after vaccination, the lack of an independent review remains an issue that continues to fuel public skepticism.
