Roundup: Turkish physicians praise WHO's approval of Chinese vaccine

ISTANBUL, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Turkish physicians praised the latest decision of the World Health Organization (WHO) to approve the emergency use of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac.

Several physicians in Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city, indicated that a significant threshold was reached in the fight against the pandemic as the possibility of vaccinating all people in countries that could not have access to vaccines so far has augmented.

The WHO recently validated Sinovac's CoronaVac vaccine, assuring the world that it meets international standards for safety, efficacy, and manufacturing.

"It is a very positive development. We were waiting for such approval," Bulent Ertugrul, an expert on infectious diseases and clinical microbiology in Reyap Hospital, told Xinhua.

Ertugrul noted that the decision strengthened the world's hand against the coronavirus, and the injustice in vaccination in the world has now become surmountable.

For Celalettin Kocaturk, a chest disease specialist at Liv Hospital, the inactivated vaccines like CoronaVac are easy to be transported to other countries, which have difficulties in storing and delivering them to their citizens.

"If we are late in vaccination, the virus may develop resistance to the vaccines," Kocaturk warned, adding that therefore all the people in the world should be vaccinated as soon as possible, and China has a chance to accomplish this target.

He also argued that the WHO's validation could provide Turkish citizens with a "very good advantage" in obtaining vaccination passports.

"Because some countries still keep us on the red list as most of the Turkish citizens have been inoculated with CoronaVac, which did not get the WHO's approval until recently," Kocaturk added.

"I hope there will be positive developments in this regard as well."

According to the data released on the health ministry's website on Friday, Turkey has administered 30 million COVID-19 vaccines across the country. Over 17.1 million people have received their first doses, and 12.9 million others have taken two shots.

Turkey started its mass vaccination program in mid-January with the CoronaVac vaccine and only recently included the Pfizer-BioNTech jabs.

Ertugrul also believed that, from now on, Turkish people will travel around more comfortably in the world.

"The WHO's giving such approval will mean that the European Medicine Agency (EMA) will also recognize it," he continued.

The EMA has started a rolling review of CoronaVac at the beginning of May for its usage in the European Union zone.

Nurettin Yiyit, chief physician of the Feriha Oz Emergency Hospital and Sancaktepe Ilhan Varank Training and Research Hospital, also praised the WHO for having a "sound decision."

"The phase studies have already proven the efficacy of this vaccine. Now several countries, which have been using CoronaVac in their vaccination campaigns, have started to publish the numerical results of their experiences in the field," he said.

"We are getting high efficacy and protection ratios from them as well," Yiyit said. "The EMA must adopt a similar stance so that all the COVID-19 vaccines would take their place in the same lane in the fight against the pandemic."

Meanwhile, Sinovac earlier had said production licenses were given to five countries, including Turkey, that would enable them to manufacture the jabs.

"It has now become clear how strategic a vaccine is," Ertugrul noted. "We would be delighted if Sinovac would come and invest in Turkey, and include Turks in their production processes."

Kocaturk also echoed Ertugrul's opinion and said: "This is very important because we need it. The faster the vaccination process will be, the sooner the pandemic will end.