Beijing- Around 357 officials will be punished by the Chinese government after an illegal sale of vaccines scandal disrupted the country.
Hundreds of government officials have been linked to the scandal, according to the state’s press around 357 officials will lose their jobs for their implications on the case. Another 192 criminal cases have been filled while 202 people remain under investigation.
The Vaccine scandal
The vaccines have been labeled as “exposed prominent problems and inadequate quality supervision and management”. According to the Chinese media, the medicine has been linked to 45 drug sales groups.
According to Chinese press, the scandal has created anger on the population since the wrongly-managed vaccines have been in circulation since 2011 and has been shipped to public health institutions.
Government statements assure investigations have been made for individuals and companies who have been shipping expired vaccines and badly-managed ones.
A series of arrests have been made since last month in the province of Shandong while a new system is being developed to track the production, shipping, and storage of these medicines.
According to the China office of World Health Organization if the vaccines are not stored properly they could become less effective.
The Chinese health authorities have urged people to continue the vaccine process, even though credibility has been questioned.
According to the WHO, the expired or wrongly kept vaccines rather than harming the patient, could end up in a poor protection of the disease is supposed to act against.
The Chinese government is also developing an increase in fines for the people that sell illegal vaccines.
The media in the country has welcomed the decision of the government to punish officials linked to the cases, although the credibility of the public health and in the state, in general, has been questioned and it’s currently at stake.
Source: BBC