The Manx TaxPayers’ Alliance is investigating whether money taken from Manx taxpayers is being squandered on shoddy Chinese vaccines, with possible payments to a business owned by the Chinese regime.
At the end of June, as part of dubious budget hijinks by the Isle of Man Government, the Government gave £800,000 of taxpayers’ money to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The Government claims that the “funding comes from an underspend in the 2020/21 international development budget, which was unable to be allocated.”1
According to the BBC four weeks earlier, “The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved China’s Sinovac Covid vaccine for emergency use…The approval opens the door for the jab to be used in the Covax programme, which aims to ensure fair access to vaccines.”
More recently, concerning news came to light that the WHO’s COVAX vaccine-distribution program decided to buy “millions of doses” of two of China’s COVID-19 vaccines, from Sinopharm and Sinovac.2.
This news raises significant concerns about the value-for-money obtained for Manx taxpayers:
- It is problematic for Manx taxpayers’ money to be paid – even indirectly – to a business owned by the Chinese regime.
- It is immoral for Manx taxpayers’ money to be used to purchase substandard vaccines for administration to the people of Madagascar and South Africa.
Consequently, the Manx TaxPayers’ Alliance has written to the Chief Minister of the Isle of Man seeking a guarantee that money taken from the taxpayers of Mann is not being squandered on substandard Chinese vaccines. The Manx TaxPayers’ Alliance has also submitted a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records of the donation to the WHO, to understand what contractual protections exist to protect the interests of Manx taxpayers.
Even Chinese officials admit that Chinese vaccines have “not high” efficacy
According to the South China Morning Post, the Hong Kong newspaper of record:
China is exploring the option of mixing different Covid-19 vaccines as a solution to the relatively low efficacy of its existing jabs, the head of the country’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has said.
Gao Fu told a conference in Chengdu on Saturday that the country was examining two routes “to solve the problem that the efficacy of its existing vaccines is not high”.
One option is to adjust the dosage, the interval between doses or increase the number of doses. The second route is to mix vaccines that use different technologies.
IOM Government advertising confirms Chinese vaccines are not up to Manx standards
Isle of Man Government advertising to tourists interested in visiting the Isle of Man has confirmed that only Moderna, Pfizer or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines are considered to have sufficiently high efficacy for visitors to the Isle of Man. This excludes vaccines made by Sinopharm and Sinovac.
Sinopharm and Sinovac
Sinopharm is a state-owned enterprise, owned by the Chinese regime. Its corporate group is affiliated with the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products. Taking money from Manx taxpayers, and giving it – even indirectly – to the Chinese regime would be deeply immoral given the behaviour of the Chinese regime in causing the outbreak to spread internationally in late 2019 and early 2020.
Sinovac has a long history of dubious behaviour. The Washington Post has reported:
A review of public records and trial testimonies by The Washington Post reflects that Sinovac’s rise to the front ranks of China’s vaccine industry took place with the help of priority projects from Beijing and kickbacks to officials who assisted in regulatory reviews and sales deals. A number of details from the court cases have not been reported previously, in part because of China’s censored media.
In 2016 court testimony, Sinovac’s founder and chief executive, Yin Weidong, admitted to giving more than $83,000 in bribes from 2002 to 2011 to a regulatory official overseeing vaccine reviews, Yin Hongzhang, and his wife. Yin Hongzhang confessed to expediting Sinovac’s vaccine certifications in return.
Letter to Chief Minister
Freedom of Information Request
- Isle of Man Government Press release, Isle of Man plays its part to help less developed countries tackle pandemic
- Bloomberg News, Global Vaccine Effort Leans on China to Overcome Setbacks
