Iran Press/Asia: The Associated Press reported earlier this month that a state-owned Chinese company injected employees with experimental shots in March, even before the government-approved testing in people - a move that raised ethical concerns among some experts.
"I´m going to reveal something undercover: I am injected with one of the vaccines," Gao Fu said in a webinar Sunday hosted by Alibaba Health, an arm of the Chinese e-commerce giant, and Cell Press, an American publisher of scientific journals. "I hope it will work."
Gao did not say when or how he took the vaccine candidate, leaving it unclear whether he was injected as part of a government-approved human trial. He did not respond to requests for comment.
The claim underscores the enormous stakes as China competes with US and British companies to be the first with a vaccine to help end the pandemic - a feat that would be both a scientific and political triumph.
China has positioned itself to be a strong contender. Eight of the nearly two dozen potential vaccines in various stages of human testing worldwide are from China, the most of any country.
Gao declined to say which of the vaccines he was injected with, saying he didn´t want to be seen as "doing some kind of propaganda" for a particular company.
"Everybody has suspicions about the new coronavirus vaccine," Gao said. "As a scientist, you´ve got to be brave. ... If even we didn´t do it, how can we persuade the whole world - all the people, the public - to be vaccinated?"
Tensions have flared to the point where it´s now disrupting research, leading to frustration among scientists who work with Chinese collaborators. The Trump administration has moved to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization and has cut funding to research initiatives studying coronaviruses in China.
Gao said repeatedly in his lecture that he wanted more cooperation between the U.S. and China, pleading for unity even as relations between Beijing and Washington plummet to new lows.
"We don´t want to have China and the U.S. separated scientifically," Gao said. "We´ve got to work together."
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