As the Chinese regime races to inoculate tens of millions through coercive policies and a propaganda blitz, some local officials are quietly dodging the shots themselves.
Amid Beijing’s aggressive vaccine push, dozens of officials from parts of Liaoning, a province in northeastern China, have cited various health reasons not to take the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine, internal documents dated late March and obtained by The Epoch Times reveal.
In a town called Xintai, located in the center of the province, only three out of 66 officials have gotten vaccinated, with another two on the registration list—showing a dismal willingness rate of less than 10 percent.
Fifty government officers and those with the local judicial office and law enforcement gave reasons such as underlying illness, allergy, pregnancy, recent surgery, or a cold, according to a March 29 chart that summarizes the region’s vaccination efforts.
Allergy stood out as the top reason, cited 22 times. Twenty people also cited high blood pressure while five mentioned
diabetes—even though both are chronic diseases that would mark them as highly vulnerable to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
In Tai’an County, which has jurisdiction over the town, only four people in the 56-member Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau consented to being inoculated, with three people excusing themselves over “poor health.” In the county’s political and legal affairs committee, a well-funded CCP organ that has direct oversight over the court system, one person mentioned toothache. In Tai’an’s fiscal service center, some said they’re taking Chinese medicine or have unspecified illnesses.
The vaccination acceptance is no more sanguine in the Tai’an Occupation Education Center, the county’s major technical college, where around a third claimed to have an allergic constitution and many said they were recovering from the seasonal flu.
The low participation rate from the officials, who have been tasked with “leading by example” in China’s latest vaccination drive, appears to signal a greater lack of enthusiasm within the country.
The regime has been promoting its homegrown vaccines at home and abroad, shipping free doses to 69 countries and celebrating a record of 100 million administered across China by the end of March. Gao Fu, head of the country’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, recently told state media they were aiming to vaccinate 70 to 80 percent of the Chinese population to achieve herd immunity.
LEIA MAIS: