Tainted Vaccines in China

[membership level=”0,4″][The content continues for paid members only.] Login or Subscribe [/membership][membership level=”1,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12″][membership] China’s FDA (CFDA) is pressuring the Shandong provincial government to investigate the sale of approximately $48 million of vaccines that were illegally sold and improperly stored, Reuters is reporting. The vaccines for meningitis, rabies and other illnesses – allegedly purchased by a mother, who is a doctor, and her daughter – were made by licensed producers, officials are reporting, but purchased illegally from traders and sold to hundreds of re-sellers around the country. Of primary concern is that the vaccines were not kept and transported in the required cold chain conditions, but instead stored under ambient conditions, thus compromising their quality and effectiveness. The mother and daughter were detained last April. The case was not widely publicized until a mid-march announcement by CFDA (in Chinese). Subsequent to that announcement, police have arrested more than 130 suspects thought to be involved with the vaccine scandal, and authorities have brought 69 criminal cases. As of mid-March, about 20,000 doses of the vaccines have been seized.
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