Thread by @WilliamYang120

Indonesia, one of the countries that have vaccinated many of its frontline medical workers with #COVDI19 vaccines from #China, has recorded 401 deaths of medical doctors since the pandemic began. At least 20 of them were fully vaccinated with Sinovac. nytimes.com/2021/06/25/wor…

In Kudus, where Dr. Suhendro practiced, 358 medical workers who were fully vaccinated with Sinovac tested positive during a two-week span, according to the risk mitigation team of the Indonesian Doctors Association.

Indonesia has vaccinated less than 5 percent of its population, despite having started inoculations in January. Of those who have been vaccinated, most received doses of Sinovac, which may be less effective against certain variants.

A study earlier this year of Sinovac’s efficacy among Indonesian medical workers indicated that the Chinese vaccine was largely successful in preventing hospitalization or death from infections. The Delta variant has not been studied as much.

The spread of the Delta variant in Kudus was as sudden as it was speedy. In mid-May, fewer than 30 people were hospitalized with Covid-19 in Kudus.

Two weeks later, after people crisscrossed the country for a religious holiday, local hospitals in Kudus were overwhelmed with about 400 new Covid-19 patients a day.

While 90 percent of the vaccinated doctors who tested positive in Kudus were either asymptomatic or had very mild illness, according to Dr. Ahmad, an already stretched health care system has been pulled taut.

With the threat of contagion so high, many local doctors who were exposed to the variant are in isolation, preventing them from working. There is not enough oxygen, nor enough trucks to transport the canisters to Kudus. Gravediggers are again hard at work.

Two nurses and a nutritionist in Kudus, all of whom were fully vaccinated, also died this month of Covid-19, said Dr. Adib Khumaidi, the chief of the Indonesian Medical Association’s risk mitigation team.

Dr. Adib said that the association is now discussing the possibility of administering to medical workers a third shot of another vaccine, such as Oxford-AstraZeneca.

Some countries are supporting a mix-and-match scheme to boost immunity. Sinovac, which is produced by a Chinese pharmaceutical company and promoted by the Chinese government, has been criticized for a lack of transparency about its clinical trials.