A study from Bahrain suggesting the Sinopharm vaccine may be less effective than three other Covid-19 vaccines was shared to a Sri Lankan audience on social media yesterday (26) by renowned immunologist Sri Jayewardenepura University Head of Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine Prof. Neelika Malavige.
Prof. Malavige had shared the study on her official Twitter handle and subsequently stated: “Sinopharm appears to be less effective than Pfizer in older individuals, based on data from the study from Bahrain.”
When contacted by The Morning for elaboration, Prof. Malavige said that it was important to note that the study was conducted in Bahrain, not in Sri Lanka, while noting that inoculation with any of the vaccines is still an effective method of preventing deaths.
“When so many people are dying, it is very wrong for people to misquote or misinterpret information to discourage people from taking vaccines. All vaccines are effective in preventing deaths. That’s why you should take your vaccine today if you haven’t done so already,” she said.
The four vaccines considered in the study were the Sinopharm, Pfizer-BioNTech, Covishield/Oxford-AstraZeneca, and Sputnik V vaccines. The study, which awaits peer review, is titled “Morbidity and mortality from Covid-19 post-vaccination breakthrough infections in association with vaccines and the emergence of variants in Bahrain”. It compared unvaccinated persons with the vaccinated, and found that the percentage of deaths reported were comparatively higher among those that had received the Sinopharm vaccine, versus those that had received the other four vaccines.
The study had shown considerably higher rates of survival in those over the age of 50 among those that had taken the Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Sputnik V vaccines, compared to those that had taken the Sinopharm vaccine, as no deaths had been recorded among those inoculated with the former three vaccine types. Sinopharm had fared better among those below the age of 50, although here too, the other three vaccines proved more effective, according to the study.
The report on the study stated: “Despite the overall effectiveness of all four vaccines in decreasing risk of Covid-19-related hospitalisations, intensive care unit admissions, and deaths when compared to unvaccinated individuals, our initial analysis showed that there was a higher risk of Covid-19 infection and clinical escalation among recipients of the Sinopharm vaccine compared to other vaccine recipients.”
“After censoring early vaccine recipients of Sinopharm vaccine, compared to Pfizer/BioNTech recipients, individuals vaccinated with Sinopharm had a higher risk of post-vaccination infections, hospitalisations, ICU admissions, and deaths, especially in those over 50 years old.”
The authors of the study had however concluded that all four vaccines were effective in reducing infections, hospitalisations, ICU admissions, and deaths in vaccinated individuals, compared to the unvaccinated, prior to and during the period when the Delta variant became dominant in Bahrain.
They had noted: “Our overall findings support the value of vaccination in preventing Covid-19-related events even with the advent of the Delta variant. These data support the urgent need to expand vaccination access around the world, and may serve to guide the choice of vaccines in the context of the Delta variant.”