CHINA TENSIONS RISE OVER COVID — China needs to own up to its early failings in the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said Sunday that the world still needs "to get to the bottom of" the origins of the virus. "China knows that in the early stages of Covid, it didn't do what it needed to do, which was to, in real time, give access to international experts, in real time to share information, in real time to provide real transparency," Blinken said on NBC's "Meet the Press." A World Health Organization report released last month acknowledged that WHO's investigators had been unable to fully solve questions about the origins of the pandemic, but also said that one widespread if unproven theory — that the virus escaped from a Chinese lab — is “extremely unlikely.” Still, WHO said it had difficulties getting its team on the ground in China and getting full access, leading Blinken and other officials, such as national security adviser Jake Sullivan, to voice concerns about the virus’s origins before the report’s release. Meanwhile, a top Chinese health official opened up about the country’s vaccination efforts over the weekend — and the news isn’t great. The official, Gao Fu, said on Sunday that China’s two Covid vaccines, from Sinovac and Sinopharm, “don’t have very high protection rates,” according to the Associated Press’ Joe McDonald and Huizhong Wu. The government is considering mixing them to boost protection, he added. The problem: China has distributed hundreds of millions of shots to other countries. One of them, the United Arab Emirates, last month signed up to be a major production hub of the Sinopharm shot with the expectation that UAE will provide millions more doses around the region. There still are not many options for global vaccination. AstraZeneca has supplied hundreds of millions of doses worldwide, but some countries have stalled its administration amid safety concerns and questions about its efficacy against certain strains. Novavax has also promised to deliver huge supplies around the world, but it’s not ready to file its vaccine for approval just yet. Orders are flowing for a Russian Covid shot, known as Sputnik V. Germany, the Czech Republic and others are in talks to buy some; Austria just finished negotiations for its own batch, and Hungary is administering doses now. But European drug regulators still have not reviewed the shot and Russia hasn’t submitted it for approval, though the bloc said this weekend it will begin monitoring the shot’s safety, as our POLITICO Europe colleagues report. TEXAS RACE REVIVES TRUMP TEAM RIVALRIES — Harrison’s run in the crowded field for an open Texas House seat has prompted complaints from other Trump-era alumni and sparked a behind-the-scenes effort to dent his candidacy, Adam reports. Harrison, former chief of staff to then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar, has rhetorically lashed himself to former President Donald Trump, touting his work during the administration on the Covid vaccine sprint and a range of other health care initiatives. But that’s angered some former White House and HHS appointees, who clashed with Harrison repeatedly over the past four years and viewed him as a driver of conflict that hampered Trump’s policy ambitions. One top Trump HHS official, Roger Severino, has endorsed one of Harrison's opponents. Others have worked to slow Harrison’s momentum, including by counseling Trump not to back him in the race. They argue that Harrison has taken too much credit for Trump’s anti-abortion legacy, and that the deregulatory moves he’s touted on the trail were divisive and ineffectual. Harrison brushed off the criticism in an interview, pointing to a series of donations from other Trumpworld figures, like former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, former Small Business Administration chief Linda McMahon and tech billionaire and Trump ally Peter Thiel. Overall, he’s raised more than $600,000 ahead of the May 1 special election. His candidacy, though, is fueling a broader debate among Trump alums over who should get to carry the former president’s mantle during Biden’s term and beyond. Trump himself is steering clear of endorsing anyone in the race for now, according to his senior adviser, Jason Miller.
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