Sinopharm Chairman Claims He Received COVID-19 Vaccine One Year Ago, Has Antibodies

A health worker shows a vial of China's Sinopharm vaccine against COVID-19 at a health centre in La Paz, Bolivia, on March 1, 2021. (Aizar Raldes/AFP via Getty Images)

Yu Qingming, party chief and chairman of Sinopharm, told Chinese state media on March 4 that he and others at the firm’s management received CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccines a year ago and still have a high level of antibodies. His claim ignited a heated discussion over the origins of the virus strains and the timeline of China’s vaccine development.

Sinopharm is also known as China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation, a Beijing-based Chinese state-owned enterprise.

Yu, who is also a deputy to China’s National People’s Congress, told the People’s Daily during the Two Sessions—the CCP’s most important annual political conference from March 4 to 11—that in March 2020, Sinopharm management received COVID-19 vaccines and still have high levels of antibodies after one year of continuous monitoring.

COVID-19 is the disease the CCP virus causes.

He also touted his pharmaceutical group as the world’s largest manufacturer of COVID-19 vaccines so far, which has provided nearly 100 million doses of vaccines at home and abroad. He added that there had been no reported cases of severe adverse reactions.

However, Yu’s claim has sparked doubts over the origins of COVID-19 virus strains and the timeline of vaccine research and development because the Chinese regime officially acknowledged the CCP virus in January 2020 and declared a lockdown in Wuhan, the epicenter, on Jan. 23, 2020.

A resident of Wuhan surnamed Chen, who lives near the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, recently told the Chinese-language Epoch Times that the CCP is unlikely to work out a vaccine within two months in terms of vaccine development cycle, and that the CCP was again lying to the public.

Yu was “purposefully hyping the safety and efficacy of Chinese-made vaccines because the public fears they have lower efficacy, more contraindications, and unreported cases of adverse reactions,” Chen said. “This rhetoric is purely out of political needs rather than scientific considerations.”

On March 5, 2020, China’s state media Xinhua News Agency ran an article titled “Background: Why Is Novel Coronavirus Vaccine Research & Development So ‘Slow’” which said “vaccine research & development is a time-consuming, high-risk, and high-investment job that necessitates preliminary design, animal experiments, and three phases of clinical trials. Generally, it may take three or five or more than ten years to make vaccines available in the market, depending on virus type and technology roadmaps.”

Meanwhile, Wuhan resident Xu Yang told Radio Free Asia on March 10 of Yu’s claim that “it is scientifically impossible to figure out COVID-19 vaccines within such a short time.”