BEIJING: The Supreme People’s Procuratorate of China has vowed to crack down on COVID-19 vaccine-related criminal activities after arresting 70 criminal suspects involved in more than 20 cases nationwide, including the smuggling of fake vaccines abroad. The procuratorate’s action came in response to a series of reports that some criminal suspects produced and sold fake vaccines, and conducted mass inoculation without authorization at the early stage of the marketing of COVID-19 vaccines in China, according to Xinhua News Agency on Monday.
As of Wednesday, 70 criminal suspects had been arrested in 21 vaccine-related cases, said the procuratorate in a public announcement, requiring all relevant departments across the country to curb the crimes in a joint national campaign. According to a case revealed in the announcement, a suspect, surnamed Kong, along with his associates sold about 58,000 counterfeit COVID-19 vaccines, making a profit of 18 million yuan ($2.78 million).
Kong’s team had started producing “vaccines” since August by injecting saline or mineral water into pre-filled syringes and tried to sell them to the market by claiming that they had acquired these “vaccines” via the “internal channels” of vaccine manufacturers. A source close to a major Chinese vaccine producer previously told the Global Times that the public security departments had checked with the vaccine manufacturers several times to confirm that the vaccines illegally sold in markets were fake ones produced by suspects, and had not come from the manufacturers.
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
