Chinese Authorities Cracks Whip On Overpriced, Fake COVID-19 Vaccines

Countries such as China said to be the origin of the coronavirus, are doing their part to make sure that opportunists do not take advantage of the delicate pandemic situation. COVID-19 vaccines are coming out one after the other but it cannot be discounted that some groups would take advantage of the situation.

Fake COVID-19 vaccines are hardly surprising, the same thing when it comes to seeing groups commanding high prices for coronavirus cures. China is not taking this sitting down and are ramping up their pursuit to hopefully stop the abuse.

According to the Xinhua news agency (via Reuters), Chinese authorities have ramped up their pursuit on COVID-19 vaccine abusers, making dozens of arrests over the production and distribution of fake coronavirus vaccines, price-gouging and illegal occultations.

As of Wednesday last week, Chinese authorities have allegedly arrested 70 suspects in 21 vaccine-related cases. The majority of those apprehended reportedly came out when the initial phases of the COVID-19 vaccine came out.

One group of suspects reportedly made as much as 18 million yuan, packaging saline solution or mineral water in 58,000 doses of bogus vaccines. The leader, known only as Kong, was arrested last Christmas Day.

Aside from that, authorities are also tracking down fake vaccines being sold at a higher price. This covers emergency inoculation schemes at hospitals or smuggled abroad. Hence, China's Supreme People's Procuratorate is now encouraging regional agencies to cooperate to help address and curb down the illegal activities.

As for their efforts of trying to curb down numbers, China has been successfully doing so by adapting strict lockdowns, resting and contact-tracing efforts. This is aside from the 40.52 million doses of vaccine that China has released to different key groups.