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Peking University Health Science Center-Michigan Medicine Joint Institute Trusted Conversations on COVID-19 Vaccines

发布日期：2021年02月28日阅读次数：撰稿：

Peking University Health Science Center-Michigan Medicine Joint Institute held online Trusted Conversations on COVID-19 Vaccines on Jan.22, 2021.

The roundtable discussion kicked off a new series of Trusted Conversations, JI-organized events aimed at highlighting and maintaining the U-M Medical School’s largest overseas institutional partnership in a time when COVID-related travel restrictions have strained international academic collaboration.

“We’ve had this really successful Joint Institute. We know right now there’s a lot of press now about the US-China relationships that doesn’t reflect friendships and relationships like ours (between Michigan Medicine and PKUHSC),” said JI Co-Director Joseph Kolars, Senior Associate Dean of Education and Global Initiatives. “We wanted to create a venue that is just for us to share best practices because I think we have a lot to learn from each other.”

The roundtable discussion drew about 60 participants across both Ann Arbor and Beijing to listen to experts from each institution provide an overview of both nations’ respective vaccination strategies.

Progress in China

From Peking University, Health Economist Professor Hai Fang outlined China’s national vaccination strategy. While similar overall – China too is prioritizing essential workers in healthcare and other sectors, followed by the elderly and those with comorbidities that make them high-risk – the approach is not identical.

Unlike the United States’ RNA-based vaccinations, China is relying on traditional vaccine technology using inactive virus. Four vaccines have been authorized in China for emergency use, with more in the pipeline. The country’s short-term aim is to vaccinate 50 million primarily high-risk citizens ahead the mid-February Chinese New Year Holiday, when many are expected to travel.

Longer term, Chinese leaders plan to have enough vaccine to inoculate the entire eligible population – 1.3 billion people – by the end of 2021. (Some of Chinese vaccines are for approved patients as young as 3, and inoculating children is part of China’s strategy.) China’s vaccines also require two doses. The country has established about 925,000 vaccination sites in hospitals and clinics but also facilities like stadiums and museums, Fang said.

But the country has a long way to go. According to the international tracking database at Our World in Data, China to date has administered about 1.6 vaccine doses for every 100 of its citizens, compared to about 9 per 100 in the United States.

“This is the first time in China’s history that so many people will be vaccinated in a very short period,” Fang said. “The Chinese government has announced that all these vaccinations will be free.”

Progress at Michigan Medicine

For the benefit of the Beijing audience, Michigan Medicine Professor of Internal Medicine Sandro Cinti, who leads Michigan Medicine COVID vaccination task force, provided an national and statewide overview COVID-19 trends to date, as well as Michigan Medicine’s ongoing vaccination campaign.

As of Jan. 21, Michigan Medicine had administered about 30,000 vaccine doses. The system has the potential capacity to vaccinate as many as 4,000 people a day, Cinti reported, but there are two challenges in reaching that figure. The first is vaccine availability, which hasn’t been entirely consistent. The second is a personnel issue.

“We’re having difficulty finding vaccinators – people who can give the vaccine,” he said. “Many of our physicians have rolled up their sleeves to help. And people are coming out of retirement to give the vaccine.”

The vaccination campaign is scaling up at a time when Michigan’s overall COVID case numbers are trending downward, good news that is tempered by the recent identification of a new, more virulent strain of COVID-19 in the state.

“Right now in Michigan, things are looking better. Our hospitals aren’t as full,” Cinti said. “But recently we’ve seen our first cases of this variant strain of COVID, a new virus that spread 50% more rapidly than the previous one. That’s big concern that we’ll be dealing with.”