China Goes Door-to-Door To Vaccinate Senior Citizens

Chinese authorities are going door to door and paying people older than 60 to get vaccinated against COVID-19. But even as cases surge, 64-year-old Li Liansheng said his friends are alarmed by stories of fevers, blood clots and other side effects, Joe McDonald reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: More than 90% of people in China have been vaccinated but only about two-thirds of those over 80.

"When people hear about such incidents, they may not be willing to take the vaccines,” said Li, who had been vaccinated before he caught COVID-19. A few days after his 10-day bout with the virus, Li is nursing a sore throat and cough.

He said it was like a “normal cold” with a mild fever. Older people are put off by potential side effects of Chinese-made vaccines, for which the government hasn’t announced results of testing on people in their 60s and older. Li said a 55-year-old friend suffered fevers and blood clots after being vaccinated.

He said they can’t be sure the shot was to blame, but his friend is reluctant to get another. “It’s also said the virus keeps mutating,” Li said. He added: “How do we know if the vaccines we take are useful?”

More than 90% of people in China have been vaccinated but only about two-thirds of those over 80, according to the National Health Commission (NHC.) According to its 2020 census, China has 191 million people aged 65 and older — a group that, on its own, would be the eighth most populous country, ahead of Bangladesh.

“Coverage rates for people aged over 80 still need to be improved,” the Shanghai news outlet The Paper said. “The elderly are at high risk.”

The National Health Commission announced a campaign Nov. 29 to raise the vaccination rate among older Chinese, which health experts say is crucial to avoiding a health care crisis. It’s also the biggest hurdle before the ruling Communist Party can lift the last of the world’s most stringent antivirus restrictions.

China kept case numbers low for two years with a “zero-COVID” strategy that isolated cities and confined millions of people to their homes. Now, as it backs off that approach, it is facing the widespread outbreaks that other countries have already gone through.

The health commission has recorded only six COVID-19 fatalities this month, bringing the country’s official toll to 5,241. That is despite multiple reports by families of relatives dying, AP researcher Yu Bing and video producers Olivia Zhang and Wayne Zhang also contributed to this story.

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