Thai senior official warns against baseless criticism of Sinovac vaccine

BANGKOK - False information on the Sinovac vaccine could harm the relationship between Thailand and China, a Thai newspaper quoted a local senior official as saying on Monday.

Misinformation used by the opposition about the quality of the Sinovac vaccine has been a distortion of facts to serve political purposes, Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai was cited in the Chinese-language newspaper Shijie Ribao as saying.

"The criticism over the Sinovac vaccine not only twists facts, but also hurts the friendly relationship between Thailand and China," the minister said.

"The Sinovac vaccine has been granted emergency use by the World Health Organization and 39 other countries around the world," Don said. "China has the capabilities to produce the vaccine quickly and has helped many countries including Thailand overcome the early phase of the pandemic by providing the vaccine."

With hundreds of millions of people being vaccinated worldwide, the Sinovac vaccine has proved effective in preventing COVID-19 infections with few or no side effects, he added.

Don further noted that the Thai government also considers high safety as one of the main selection criteria, since many COVID-19 vaccines are "at the experimental phase and only for emergency use".