The flu, mumps, rubella vaccines are live attenuated vaccines en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attenuate… the Chinese went for this type of vaccine against Sars Cov 2. Western companies instead went for inactivated vaccines, 1/ genetic vaccines like Moderna or Pfizer, 2/ viral vector vaccines
like Johnson and Johnson or AstraZeneca or 3/ protein based vaccines like Novavax.
But in the case of Covid, the most obvious candidate to work with for the vaccine is the live attenuated Chinese vaccine of Sinopharm that is approved in UAE and China already.
Western companies have a perverse incentive (and yes I am a big fan of capitalism but sometimes it doesn't work) because they want IP around the vaccine technology and the attenuated live vaccine technology has been around for too long to be patented.
Seeking IP, European and American companies have to find the exact antigen that create the right antibodies. Sinopharm and Sinovac instead, give you the whole antigenic surface and let your immune system have more choices. Hence more likely to work.
At this point it is more likely that the Chinese vaccines will be better than the Western vaccines. If you think differently would love to hear your views as to why.
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