Vaccines; Party’s party planning; Ant and Alibaba; Manufacturing outrage campaigns

Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, caused a stir domestically and internationally over the weekend with comments that sure sounded like he was confirming that the PRC COVID-19 vaccines have relatively low efficacy. He and state media have since tried to walk back his remarks.

Even if their efficacy is lower than other vaccines, taking one of the PRC vaccines is much better than taking no vaccine, and right now most of the world has very little choice. The PRC media response to the reporting on Gao's comments has of course been to call it a "misunderstanding" and blame evil Western media for smearing the PRC vaccines. In fact, the PRC has been actively smearing and discrediting Western vaccines, in a deeply non-constructive way. One question I think we will hear more about as non-PRC vaccines become available throughout the world is whether you can take one of those vaccines after you have already take one of the PRC vaccines, and if so after wha…