Mainland Chinese, preferring to receive Western messenger RNA vaccines rather than domestic vaccines, are flocking to Macau, where they have booked the only hospital offering the vaccines for tourists.
Beijing has not approved foreign Covid-19 vaccines for use by its citizens, instead relying on vaccinations from Chinese groups Sinovac and Sinopharm. Analysts have said these offer lower levels of immunity than Western alternatives that use mRNA technology.
But an abrupt reversal by Beijing this month on its previous zero-Covid policy to contain the disease has sparked an explosion of cases and a surge in the number of mainland residents seeking mRNA shots in Macau. The former Portuguese colony and SAR is the only place outside of mainland China where the country’s citizens can travel without being quarantined upon return.
Vaccination spots were quickly booked up as the outbreak in China spiraled out of control. In October, Ivy, a 27-year-old resident of Dongguan, across the border in mainland China, received her first dose of mRNA at Macau University of Science and Technology Hospital, the only place where paying tourists are vaccinated.
Last week, she returned to the hospital for another dose but found vaccination spots were fully booked until the end of December.
A customer service worker at the Macau hospital said his phone had been ringing “constantly” since the outbreak gathered pace in China in early December. However, he also noted that there was an increase in clients canceling appointments after contracting the virus.
China’s patchy immunization coverage had laid the groundwork for the chaos that swept its medical system as hospitals were overwhelmed by sick patients after the end of the zero-Covid policy, analysts said.
About 85 million people — a third of China’s 267 million citizens aged 60 and over — have not received the third dose of vaccine needed for high protection against the Omicron variant coronavirus. For those over 80, this rate is around 60 percent or 21 million people.
Beijing has pledged to spend more resources to fill the gaps in vaccine coverage. But Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow in global health at the think tank Council on Foreign Relations, said those efforts may come “too late”.
“Booster campaigns last between three and four months. By that time, this virus wave will have peaked,” he said.
The rise of “vaccine tourism” has been driven by “wealthy” mainlanders who have access to scientific studies comparing vaccine effectiveness, said Nicholas Thomas, an associate professor at the City University of Hong Kong who specializes in Chinese foreign policy and health security in Hong Kong Asia specialized.
A Lancet study from Singapore published this month found that people who received three doses of the Sinovac or Sinopharm shots, which are based on older technology that uses the inactivated virus to elicit an immune response, almost doubled developed severe Covid as frequently as people who received three mRNA injections. Those with the Chinese vaccinations were also 50 percent more likely to be hospitalized.
Recommended
Macau’s buoyant vaccine tourism business has quickly spawned middlemen charging fees for arranging travel and other logistics. Viola, a Macau-based insurance agent, told the Financial Times that she charged $60 to arrange vaccination sessions for her mainland clients.
A 27-year-old business consultant, who identified himself only as Wan, and his wife each paid $170 for a dose of the mRNA vaccine after deciding against injecting indigenous alternatives.
The advisor said the couple have concerns about the effectiveness of Chinese vaccines and a “lack of transparency about the study data”.