Many insurance plans cover it now.

Officially not permitted but unofficially permitted

“Two of the most effective coronavirus vaccines —one developed by BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. and the other by Moderna Inc. — have not been approved in China, and Chinese vaccines such as those made by Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and subsidiaries of China National Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. have not been approved in most Western nations."

https://www.caixinglobal.com/2021-03...101673186.html

This is pretty outdated (your article is from two months ago). Per post #579 BioNTech is in final approval stages. No word on Moderna so far.

Sinopharm was approved by the WHO on 8 May 2021 WHO approves Sinopharm vaccine in potential boost to COVAX pipeline | Reuters and is in wide usage in many countries Sinopharm: CoronaVac – COVID19 Vaccine Tracker (trackvaccines.org)

The bolded one will be approved.

I have not heard this. As far as I know it is not yet available but it will be because of the Fosun partnership. If it’s not approved for use in China then it’s either BS or it’s smuggled in from elsewhere.

A member of our Wechat group got his first shot today (he didn't mention which hospital/clinic). I have an appointment to get my first dose on June 11 at Shanghai #1 Hospital (the nice part of it); they are sort of doing walk-ins also, but this entails going there in the morning and hoping for an appointment the same afternoon. #1 Hospital is way north of the Bund so going there twice in one day isn't an experience I relish.

Is your appointment guaranteed for Pfizer or might they give you something else come that day?

Yes, that hospital is remarkably on the ball.

So will you be getting some kind of formal WeChat or other record of your Pfizer vaccine? Or am I getting the impression this is some kind of grey market offering of the Pfizer “good stuff”

Because I have zero intention of getting a vaccine that doesn’t come with some useful paperwork.

It's a government run hospital, so they are kind of obligated to provide receipts (including fapiao) for everything. Saving paper isn't really a priority of theirs.

Right but are you not getting any digital WeChat info? Every time I get a covid test it registers in my WeChat health account. I have no idea how China is managing their records and control of vaccination status.

My understanding of the health codes is quite limited, but following are my personal observations (no vaccine experience yet to report):
-I have 3 separate health code apps -- Alipay, WeChat (added this one because my gym doesn't accept Alipay health codes), and my office building (need it to use the elevator)
-all have been perpetually green...Alipay even during my quarantine, which was early on
-I've been to the doctor/hospital 3 times since Covid broke, and was swabbed each time, but was not asked to show my phone or passport --> health code data presumably didn't change
-the only people I know who got downgraded to yellow/orange were living or working in the semi-recent hot zone just west of Henan Rd. Apparently, the contact tracing feature of the health codes was activated then, which extended the dragnet quite a bit

When I get vaxed, I will make an effort to include proof of such to the health code providers, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm also not especially concerned because I presume a piece of paper (that I photograph and save to my phone) will be sufficiently convincing.

If it's like most documents, any old scrappy xeroxed piece of paper will do as long as it has an authentic-looking red "chop" on it.

Interesting. My Shenzhen WeChat health program gives each test result history for me in the code and is assigned to my passport number. I just want to be able to have no doubts about it being official when I go to apply for my green code back to China in September.

I don't have ANY personal experience with the travel health codes, but I've heard that they run on a native app (so WeChat, Alipay, my office building's app, etc. are not relevant). I think it's reasonable to assume that the software will improve (a lot or a little is anyone's guess) between now and when you fly back in September.