China And Russia Want To Be Vaccine Leaders. How's That Going?

China and Russia are vying for a role in ending the global coronavirus pandemic.

Both countries have produced vaccines that they intend to sell to countries that can't afford the ones being used in the United States.

Even if these vaccines don't work as well as the ones authorized in the U.S., there's no question the Chinese and Russian vaccines will be welcomed by lower resourced countries, in part because the vaccines will be available and affordable.

"China has an enormous vaccine production capacity," says Deborah Seligson, an assistant professor at Villanova University. That enormous capacity is at least in part because China is an enormous country.

And since public health measures have largely kept the virus in check in China, that capacity can be used to send vaccines around the world.

"There are going to be huge advantages to these Chinese vaccines once they're fully tested and if they turn out to be effective," she says.

The two leading vaccines from China are made by two companies: Sinovac and Sinopharm. The former is a private company, the latter a government entity. Vaccines from both companies have been granted conditional approval in China.