中国二类疫苗大面积短缺
Chinese parents are being refused vaccines for their children as shortages force doctors to ration supplies, amid government attempts to cut out private middlemen following a vaccine safety scandal this year.
中国的父母带孩子打疫苗正在遭到拒绝，因为疫苗短缺迫使医生限量供应。今年曝出疫苗安全丑闻后，中国政府试图取缔私人中间商。
Parents have resorted to travelling from clinic to clinic in search of vaccines, with some turned away until September when a new distribution system is expected to come online.
父母们不得不一家接一家接种机构地寻找疫苗，有些人只能等到9月，届时新的配发制度有望出台。
“I was angry but couldn’t do anything other than wait,” said Tang Zhiming, who was turned away from several clinics in the southern city of Guangzhou when he tried to get shots for his three-year-old.
唐志明（音译）表示：“我感到愤怒，但除了等待之外别无他法。”他在广州尝试为3岁的孩子接种疫苗时遭到数家接种机构拒绝。
The supply shortage is “temporary” and caused by “work integration issues”, the China Food and Drug Administration said this month, adding that “national production can meet market demand”.
中国国家食品药品监督管理总局本月表示，供应短缺是“暂时性的”，是“工作衔接”造成的，并表示“我国疫苗生产能力可满足市场需求”。
Distribution is now among the main challenges for the vaccine programme, after the abrupt removal of middlemen. This month Beijing kicked off tenders that normally take place in the winter but were delayed by the uncertainties of the new system.
在突然取缔中间商之后，疫苗现在面临的主要挑战之一是配发问题。中国政府本月启动了疫苗招标工作。招标通常在冬季进行，但由于新制度的不确定性而延迟。
In March Chinese media revealed that police in eastern Shandong province had last year cracked a ring of private wholesalers who had sold $88m in expired or spoiled vaccines to local centres for disease control throughout China.
今年3月，中国媒体披露，山东警方去年破获了一系列私人疫苗批发商非法经营案。这些批发商向各地疾控中心销售了8800万美元的过期或变质疫苗。
In response, Beijing mandated producers to sell directly to local CDCs. But delays and uncertainties in implementing its new system have caused supply to local clinics to dry up. The shortages have mostly hit “Class II” vaccines which — unlike state-mandated Class I vaccines — are optional and paid out of pocket and were a main source of revenue for the CDCs.
中国政府因此要求生产厂家直接向地方疾控中心销售疫苗。但执行新制度的延迟和不确定性导致地方疾控中心供应枯竭。短缺的主要是“二类”疫苗。与政府强制要求接种的“一类”疫苗不同，“二类”疫苗是自愿选择接种、并且是自费的，是疾控中心的主要收入来源。
The policy scrapping “flexible” vaccine sales and distribution channels in favour of new CDC procurement platforms was “a little bit too hasty”, said Shanghai-based vaccine expert Tao Lina. “This type of transition should not happen overnight, it should be a long process.”
上海疫苗专家陶丽娜（音译）表示，为了新的疾控中心采购平台，而出台取缔“灵活的”疫苗销售和配送渠道的政策“有些过于仓促”，“这种转变不应一夜之间发生，它应该是一个长期的过程”。
The crackdown on the Shandong-based ring was kept quiet for almost a year, for fear it would erode confidence in Chinese vaccines among the Chinese public and foreign export markets.
由于担心破坏中国公众和外国出口市场对中国疫苗的信心，山东疫苗案破获近一年后才公诸于众。
Pharmaceutical industry officials told the Financial Times this month they had been aware of the scandal before Chinese media reported it. Nonetheless, health authorities only attempted to trace potential victims after the reports.
制药行业官员本月告诉英国《金融时报》，他们在中国媒体报道之前就已知晓这桩丑闻。然而，卫生主管部门在媒体报道之后才开始努力找到潜在的受害者。
High levels of vaccination in Chinese children will probably protect against serious disease outbreaks while the government sorts out the new distribution system, said Dr Lawrence Rodewald, the World Health Organisation’s vaccine specialist in Beijing.
世界卫生组织(WHO)驻北京疫苗专家劳伦斯•罗德瓦尔德博士(Dr Lawrence Rodewald)表示，在中国政府梳理新的配发制度期间，中国孩子的高接种率或能预防严重的疾病爆发。
Vaccine producers and public health officials complain of red tape and marketing networks that are not set up to cope with 2,900 county-level CDCs. “Gaps” have appeared in the supply chain — in which vaccines must be kept in a narrow temperature range — when producers have to ship directly to small CDC facilities. The new policy requires vaccine tenders to be conducted via provincial procurement platforms, which have been set up by only a few provinces.
疫苗生产商和公共卫生官员抱怨存在各种繁琐的手续，以及没有建立起应对2900家县级疾控中心的营销网络。当生产商不得不直接向小型疾控中心配送疫苗时，供应链出现“缺口”——疫苗保存有严格的温度范围。新政策要求二类疫苗必须通过省级采购平台招标，而现在只有少数省份建立起招标采购平台。
“Provincial CDCs told us that they don’t have the procurement platforms in place, they haven’t updated their systems and, most importantly, they haven’t fully digested or understood the new policy,” said Ms Ding, an executive at a vaccine producer in south-west China, who asked to be identified only by her surname. “They couldn’t start the tender process and as a result we couldn’t sell vaccines to them.”
中国西南一家疫苗生产商的丁姓高管表示：“省疾控中心告诉我们，他们还没有建立起采购平台，还没有升级系统，而且最重要的是，他们没有完全消化或理解新政。”这位只肯透露姓氏的高管表示：“他们无法启动招标流程，结果是我们无法向他们销售疫苗”。
Contributing to the shortage is the removal of Class II vaccines as a source of revenue for the local CDCs, which makes them less willing to hold stocks. The drop in orders caused some producers to scale down output, according to people in the pharmaceutical industry.
二类疫苗短缺的部分原因还在于它们不再是地方疾控中心的收入来源，这让后者不太愿意保持库存。制药业人士表示，订单下降导致一些生产商削减了产量。
