A Chinese health expert has been widely castigated after expressing her delight at the progress of Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines, as it could “create trillions” in U.S. dollars and “bring a sense of confidence, happiness and security to the Chinese people.”Her remarks aroused criticism from many Chinese netizens, who said she “took people’s invaluable lives as nothing.”

China said its development of COVID-19 vaccines would soon arrive at the application stage. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that China was currently seeking agreements with various Latin American countries in the hopes of distributing Chinese vaccines to curb the year-long global pandemic.

Li Ling, director of the China National Health Development Research Center, has said on several occasions that China could earn approximately 67 trillion yuan (US$10.2 trillion) this year from COVID-19 inoculation schemes to be rolled out worldwide.

“The invisible GDP will bring a sense of confidence, happiness and security to the Chinese people,” she said at a public forum held in Shanghai on Nov. 29. “Being able to control the spread of the pandemic, reduce the loss of life and maintain the normal operation of society are also invisible benefits.”

“About 30,000 people travel to Guangzhou every day, and they are all quarantined. This practice has lasted for almost a year. This is also the reason why the epidemic in China has not revived,” Li told a Nov. 21 forum in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

Many Chinese netizens did not see eye to eye with Li, who is also a professor at Peking University’s National Development Research Institute. Some said she was “ridiculous” and “cold-blooded.”

“Just for an extra 67 trillion yuan, she took people’s invaluable lives as nothing,” a netizen commented.

“The epidemic has made the rich richer, and the poor have become poorer,” said another.

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