“Mother detained after Chinese vaccine protest”, 17 April 2019

A Chinese health activist has been detained for more than a month, her husband said... after she participated in a protest over faulty vaccines -- a re-occurring issue in China.

According to police documents posted online by Li Xin, his wife He Fangmei is under "criminal detention" at the Xinxiang detention centre in central Henan province. He... who had said her daughter was diagnosed with a neurological disease after receiving vaccinations for hepatitis A, measles, and other illnesses, participated in a protest against faulty vaccines in Beijing in early March. She was later detained by local police in Henan province on March 5 and charged with "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" -- a broad offense that Chinese authorities often use to arrest activists… The local police in Huixian city did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment…

In January, at least 145 children were administered expired polio vaccines in eastern China -- less than a year after a major manufacturer of rabies shots was found to have fabricated records. The pharmaceutical firm responsible for the rabies vaccines, Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology company, was handed a fine and asset seizure totalling 9.1 billion yuan ($1.36 billion) in October. In February, China's corruption watchdog said it disciplined more than 80 officials linked to the rabies vaccine scandal…