A group of rights defenders representing victims of Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines protested in Beijing last month to appeal for fair medical investigation and adequate compensation.
The rights group went to the top health agency, the National Health Commission, on Dec. 1, 2022, bringing a list of 1,290 individuals who were allegedly diagnosed with leukemia after getting a COVID vaccine. More people joined them on Dec. 2, filing their complaints with the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the top disciplinary body.
Obtaining medical compensation is difficult in China as there is a lack of independent medical investigations, which are usually done by experts chosen by the Chinese regime.
“We have sacrificed our lifelong health and even our lives after being forced to be vaccinated against COVID-19. However, we have not been given the dignity and justice we deserve,” reads an open letter posted on Chinese social media. It was allegedly written by families of vaccine victims and edited by Tan Hua, a Shanghai resident who claims that she had an adverse reaction from a rabies vaccine.
In 2014, Tan developed epilepsy, a chronic neurological condition characterized by recurrent seizures, after receiving a rabies vaccine manufactured by a Chinese company.
Tan told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times that she is still struggling to get compensation from the rabies vaccine manufacturer.
She said that the hardship is both physical and financial, on top of the unfair treatment of the communist regime.
“I have encountered problems in seeking proper diagnosis and fair compensation. My mother, Hua Xiuzhen, was sentenced to imprisonment for defending my rights, and she has been deprived of her retirement pension and other welfare,” she said.
“Our lives have been extremely difficult, and it is even more difficult to see a doctor. We have been under strict surveillance all these years.”
Tan’s mother, Hua Xiuzhen, wrote on her Twitter account: “For the past nine years, we have been defending our rights. I was imprisoned, and I have been living under control and surveillance for half of the nine years.”
Nine of the petitioners have been under criminal detention by Chinese police.
Chen Lei, the father of a 10-year-old girl who reportedly died from COVID vaccination, drives a van with a sign that reads: “Forced administered COVID jabs. Got acute leukemia. Unfair.” Chen is among those petitioners detained in Beijing. He was controlled and monitored by local police in his hometown in China’s central Henan Province for some time after he was sent back. (Courtesy of Chen Lei)
The Epoch Times couldn’t verify the open letter’s authenticity.
Appeals of COVID Vaccine Victims
The petitioners criticized their local governments for forcing or coercing them to take COVID vaccines. “If unvaccinated [with COVID vaccines], we are not allowed to go to school, go to work, or even go to the supermarkets,” reads the open letter.
They claimed they were healthy people and that some had pre-vaccination health reports proving their good health status before the COVID vaccination.
They demanded a one-time total compensation for various economic losses from medical treatment and financial support to cover their medical and daily living expenses.
“The government shall pay for damages caused by mandatory vaccines, and the manufacturers [of the relevant vaccines] shall pay for damages caused by voluntary vaccines,” the letter reads.
Aside from the COVID vaccine, mandatory vaccines also include the Hepatitis B vaccine, BCG vaccine, live attenuated polio vaccine, and DPT vaccine, etc. Voluntary vaccines refer to those that citizens receive at their own expense, such as chickenpox and influenza vaccines.
For death cases after the inoculation, the petitioners can ask the local governments to pay compensation in accordance with the provisions of China’s compensation law: a one-time payment of death compensation and funeral expenses, and additional living expenses to be paid to the incapacitated family members who were supported by the deceased.
Calling for Fair, Independent Medical Assessment
On top of these financial appeals, the protesters’ most urgent need is to have an independent medical investigation of the adverse reactions caused by the vaccines, but the process is controlled by the Chinese regime, claimed the petitioners.
“The disease control centers, medical associations, and medical experts chosen by these governmental institutions make assessments in accordance with government decisions—and they are the judge, jury, and executioner. They claim that the post-vaccination adverse reactions are just coincidental so as to avoid their responsibility,” reads the open letter.
Families of the alleged victims of COVID vaccination said that they had sent cases of adverse reactions for medical assessment in different provinces or regions, from which they received different, even contradictory, results from experts. They questioned the independence of medical professionals in their letter:
“When the other party [the Chinese regime] has grasped all medical resources and the right of explanation, which isn’t put under any supervision mechanism, can we commoners get any fair and justified result?”
Head of the Expert Group on COVID Response at China’s National Health Commission, Liang Wannian, center, answers a question as he sits with colleagues Feng Zijian, right, and Tong Yigan, second left, at a press conference addressing the World Health Organization (WHO) report on the origins of SARS-CoV-2, at the National Health Committee in Beijing, on March 31, 2021. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
China’s top health watchdog has set up rules and stipulations on choosing medical experts for medical assessments of post-vaccination side effects. Experts who “violate work disciplines” and are not in line with other stipulations set out by “provincial-level government health departments and medical products administrations” are to be removed from the experts’ team, according to the “Vaccination Abnormal Reaction Assessment Methods” set out by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2016.
Top Chinese Medical Expert Claims Side Effects Are ‘Inevitable’
Wang Fusheng, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said at a press conference on July 23, 2022, that COVID vaccines “will not cause leukemia and diabetes.” He said the claims that counter those of the regime are “irresponsible and erroneous remarks on the internet.”
Wang claimed that domestically made vaccines are “safe.”
According to Wang, 90 percent to 100 percent of children (ages 3 to 12) and teenagers (ages 12 to 17) have been inoculated since 2021. “The temporal coincidence of mass vaccinations with the natural occurrence of certain serious diseases is an inevitable phenomenon,” he said at the press conference.
Numerous Cases of Post-vaccination Side Effects Reported
The number of patients who have reportedly developed leukemia or diabetes is just the tip of the iceberg due to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) strict censorship of information.
Hundreds of Chinese netizens who belong to a social media group claimed that they or a family member suffered from leukemia that developed after taking Chinese-made vaccines.
Another WeChat group reportedly had about 600 members who claimed their children were diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes after getting Chinese COVID vaccines.
Qian Dalong, a victim of adverse reactions from COVID vaccination, holds a protest placard that says, “Cerebral infarction after CoronaVac,” in Beijing on Dec. 28 (Qian Dalong/The Epoch Times)
Chen Yilin, a 10-year-old girl from China’s central Henan Province, died of leukemia on Oct. 23, 2022, and she was blind and deaf from the disease before she died, according to her father.
Wang Jun (pseudonym), a Panjin city resident in Liaoning Province, told The Epoch Times on May 31, 2022, that his wife was diagnosed with acute leukemia after receiving two Sinovac vaccinations.
Qian Dalong, a Beijing resident, was diagnosed with cerebral infarction (stroke) after receiving a third dose of the Sinovac vaccine on Oct. 28, 2021.
The Chinese CDC-approved experts called the adverse reactions a “coincidental” link between vaccination and the symptoms.
The aforementioned Tan Hua expressed her sympathy for the victims of COVID vaccines on Chinese social media and blasted the CCP for ignoring the livelihood of the Chinese populace.
“If chickens in the farm get sick, they are likely thrown away. What about people?”
Li Xi contributed to this report.