Indonesian medical staff are receiving the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac. [Image source=EPA Yonhap News]
[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] Claims of side effects following COVID-19 vaccination are spreading in China.
According to a Yonhap News report, recently, posts claiming the onset of leukemia after vaccination have been repeatedly appearing on Chinese social networking services (SNS).
This started when a netizen asserted on Weibo that "over 1,000 cases of leukemia after COVID-19 vaccination have been reported across 31 provinces and cities nationwide, but these have not been disclosed."
According to this netizen, the ages of those who developed leukemia ranged widely from 3 to 70 years old, and they were not engaged in occupations exposed to radiation. They had no genetic history and were in good health but experienced severe side effects after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine last year.
The netizen claimed that these individuals showed symptoms such as high fever, cough, headache, diarrhea, and difficulty breathing after vaccination. Subsequent hospital tests diagnosed them with acute lymphoblastic or myeloid leukemia. It was also added that leukemia mainly appeared after the second dose.
The post was soon deleted, but posts related to vaccine side effects continued to appear on SNS. One netizen claimed that after completing the second dose last year, they frequently had nosebleeds and were diagnosed with vascular cancer accompanied by pneumonia in March, undergoing surgery.
Additionally, a healthy 48-year-old father experienced whole-body muscle pain for seven days after vaccination that year and was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia 11 days after the third dose.
As the controversy spread, authorities set posts about vaccine side effects as banned keywords to prevent searches and began blocking related content.
In this regard, medical experts pointed out that while COVID-19 vaccines do not cause leukemia, the authorities have not disclosed statistics on abnormal vaccine reactions, responses, and compensation from last year, which is increasing public anxiety.
Meanwhile, China is administering COVID-19 vaccines such as Sinovac and Sinopharm developed by domestic medical companies. According to the National Health Commission of China, as of the 13th of last month, 1,252,592,000 people have completed COVID-19 vaccination, achieving an 88.9% vaccination rate.
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