Some people who are getting vaccinated with Sinovac or Sinopharm are still dying of Covid — although these breakthrough cases are possible with any vaccine.
In Indonesia, which the Red Cross warned this week is “on the edge of catastrophe,” at least 88 doctors died of Covid-19 between February and June 26. At least 20 were fully vaccinated with Sinovac, according to Dr. Adib Khumaidi, the chief of Indonesian Medical Association’s risk mitigation team. Another 35 had not been vaccinated, and 33 deaths are still under investigation.
An estimated 1,600 doctors in Indonesia have been infected with Covid-19 in May and June alone, although it’s unclear how many of those had been vaccinated.
Medical staff carry a body of a patient who died of Covid-19 at a hospital in Bekasi on July 1, 2021.
Medical staff carry a body of a patient who died of Covid-19 at a hospital in Bekasi on July 1, 2021.
Adib said most medical workers died because they were in a unique circumstance: they were overwhelmed with patients, meaning they had to work long hours with little rest.
“Based on our investigation data, the death of medical workers has nothing to do with the Sinovac vaccine,” Adib said. “The most important thing is taking the Covid vaccine and people should keep following health protocols.”
Dr. Hermawan Saputra, an epidemiologist and member of the Indonesian Public Health Experts Association, said more virulent strains of Covid-19 may have reduced the efficacy of the vaccines.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo received his first dose of Sinovac vaccine in Jakarta on January 13.
Indonesian president Joko Widodo received his first dose of Sinovac vaccine in Jakarta on January 13.
The issue of inoculated people dying from Covid-19 is not contained to Chinese vaccines. A Public Health England report in June found that of the 117 people who died within 28 days of testing positive for the Delta variant in the UK, 50 had received two doses. But such deaths are rare — in total, there were 92,029 Delta cases, of which 58% were unvaccinated. The UK is using Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, which are both mRNA vaccines, and Oxford/AstraZeneca, which uses a different technology.
In an article in the Guardian, statisticians David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters said some deaths were to be expected from good, but not perfect, vaccines.
Virologist Jin cautioned there could be underlying issues in these serious cases. Some vaccinated people hospitalized with Covid-19 might be immunocompromized, meaning their body is not able to produce a strong immune response, he said.