Everything You Need to Know About the Sinovac Vaccine

The Sinovac vaccine, CoronaVac, is an inactivated vaccine developed by a private Chinese company. It requires two doses given 2-4 weeks apart, similar to mRNA vaccines and most adenovector vaccines. Currently, the Sinovac vaccine is approved in China and for emergency use in other countries.

In clinical trials worldwide, the Sinovac vaccine has been shown to be 50% to 79% effective in preventing symptomatic Covid infection. While CoronaVac may not be as effective as the mRNA vaccines in use, it is still helping to bring the pandemic under control. Healthy individuals who receive both doses appear to be protected from severe disease and death. Regardless of which vaccine you receive, any vaccine is better than no vaccine, so be sure to get yours today.

How the Sinovac Vaccine Works

There are many types of vaccines, but they all work to create an immune response to help your body fight future infections. CoronaVac is an inactivated vaccine that relies on producing the virus and then inactivating it so that it cannot cause infection but does cause immunity. This technology has been around for a long time and is the same technology that has developed the Hepatitis A, Flu, polio, and rabies vaccines.

Clement Lewin, Ph.D., MBA, Principal at CSL Vaccine Consulting, notes, “[The Sinovac Vaccine] has demonstrated that inactivated vaccines are a viable approach to developing a COVID vaccine and bodes well for other vaccines being developed on the platform.” Below is a diagram of how this type of vaccine is made.

Inactivated vs. mRNA

The main advantage of distributing an inactivated vaccine compared to an mRNA vaccine is that they do not require the same storage level to preserve. Inactivated vaccines can be stored in a regular fridge, making them more accessible for places that do not have access to state-of-the-art freezers.

For reference, the Moderna vaccine is stored at minus 20 degrees Celsius (-4 F), and the Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius (-94 F) or below. This leads to supply chain issues worldwide where adequate freezers are unavailable.