The nine-price HPV vaccine is "hard to find" and has given rise to scalpers: technology agents earn tens of thousands a month, or are involved in crimes. Since the nine-valent HPV vaccine was launched in China in April 2018, it has been in short supply.

[ original title] Nine-valent HPV "a vaccine is hard to find" has spawned scalpers: technology agents earn tens of thousands a month, or may be involved in crimes

Nine-valent HPV vaccine (Nine-valent human papillomavirus vaccine) since April 2018 Since its launch in China, demand has always been in short supply. For the convenience of citizens, online vaccination appointment services have been launched in many places.

The nine-valent HPV vaccine approved for sale in my country comes from the American company Merck . It is exclusively distributed in China by Zhifei Biotechnology. The annual batch issuance volume is only a few million, which is far from meeting domestic needs, resulting in an "online battlefield" for vaccine reservations. "It's very intense. After the seedlings are released, they're all gone in one second."

Recently, reporters discovered during an unannounced investigation that the "hard to find seedlings" has given rise to rampant scalpers, some of whom even have professional technical and business teams. Their business scope involves robbing on behalf of others, existing seedlings, and smuggling seedlings from Hong Kong. For example, it costs about 1,500 yuan (scalper fee) to plunder on behalf of others, while existing seedlings cost two to three thousand yuan.

A scalper said frankly that he earns tens of thousands a month. In this regard, some lawyers said that the technical team behind the scalpers may have committed a computer-related crime, and if the scalpers knowingly still solicit customers for them, it may constitute a joint crime.

Scalpers have a professional team, claiming that "it is a competition of technology"

Currently, the HPV vaccines available in mainland China include GlaxoSmithKline and Wantai Biological's bivalent HPV vaccine, Merck's quadrivalent HPV vaccine and nine-valent HPV vaccine vaccine. The “price” of the HPV vaccine refers to the number of virus types it targets. Therefore, the nine-valent HPV vaccine is more popular in the market.

According to Zhifei Biotech’s financial report, the annual batch volume of Merck’s nine-valent HPV vaccine in China was 3.324 million in 2019 and 5.066 million in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 52.41%—despite such a large increase, it still cannot meet market demand. There is a joke: Moutai for men, HPV vaccine for women.

reporters randomly interviewed 8 women who had received the nine-valent HPV vaccine, and 3 of them said it was not difficult to make an appointment. Ms. Ding initially made an appointment in Wuhan, but she never got the vaccine. She returned to Xiangyang in early 2020 and called the epidemic prevention department, and the appointment was successful the next day. Ms. Zhou from Chengdu made an offline appointment in November 2018, and got her seedlings in March of the following year.

The other five women all said it was difficult to date. Ms. Zhong from Chengdu tried to make an appointment through the Appointment Miao app for more than half a year, but failed to make an appointment. In the end, she made an appointment through two connections. Even so, it took more than half a year to get vaccinated. Ms. Chen started to make appointments at Baoding in April 2019 through various official channels in the city. They all responded nervously and asked to ask again in a few months. She tried three times without success. She later found a relationship and got an appointment. Ms. Yan from Beijing called more than 10 community hospitals in September 2020, and finally got in line at a community hospital in Dongcheng District. The hospital said it might take a year. In July 2021, Ms. Yan spent two weeks trying to grab an account online every afternoon, but failed to get one. It happened that that month, the community hospital notified her that the vaccine had arrived. Ms. Ran and Ms. Wu got the vaccine through the private hospital, which cost 4,800 yuan and 6,000 yuan respectively, one or two thousand yuan more than the original price.

The reporter opened the "Know Vaccine and Easy Appointment" vaccine appointment applet, selected the nine-price HPV vaccine, and found that there were very few hospitals that could make appointments. Many vaccinators said that even if they can make an appointment, it only takes "seconds" to get vaccinated.

Through a netizen who was suspected of being a "trustee", the reporter contacted the HPV vaccine scalper Bingbing.

Scalper Bingbing’s team’s “vaccine grab process”.

Bingbing claims that they have a dedicated technical team and business team, and she has business in Sichuan, Hunan, Guangdong, Jiangsu and other provinces. The team requires those who make reservations to first bind their identity information on the WeChat "Zhimiao Yiyue" applet. Half an hour to an hour before the start of the call, they can log in to the scalper's computer by scanning the WeChat code, and the scalpers will use the computer program to help grab the account. , if you are not worried, you can apply for WeChat account operation. After successfully grabbing the number, the customer enters the "Zhimiao Yiyue" applet to check, and transfers the money after confirming that the appointment is successful.

This team is working on behalf of the four-price and nine-price HPV vaccines. There is a handling fee of about 800 yuan for grabbing four prices, and about 1,500 yuan for nine prices.

Different cities have different difficulty levels. On November 1, when the nine-price HPV vaccine was released in Hefei, Bingbing reminded in the group: "More than 100,000 people in Hefei are grabbing 20 vaccines. Everyone must be mentally prepared." Bingbing also said that in Chengdu, under normal circumstances, even if Through them, 10 people can make an appointment with 1 to 2 people."Every game in Chengdu is a competition between technologies. There are many people looking for agents to grab it, and there is no restriction on household registration. There are more people and fewer vaccines." On November 1, an appointment for the nine-price HPV vaccine was made at a community health service center in Chengdu. The Bingbing team’s success rate is only 10%.

was successfully snatched four times. Some people were looking for scalpers to snatch

across provinces. Bingbing had a "nine-price exchange group". When the reporter first entered, there were more than 130 people. After a month, it had grown to 332 people. Bingbing will post snatching messages in the group every one or two days.

The reporter asked his friend Xiao Zhang to contact Bingbing to make an appointment with the nine-valent HPV vaccine. Before purchasing on your behalf, you must send your name and ID number to Bingbing, and Bingbing will create a special group for customers who have made reservations for vaccines of the same price at the same hospital.

For the first time, none of the four people who made appointments through Bingbing were successful. “Today was a bit of a turnaround.” Bingbing explained that this was because the vaccine was pre-ordered and the hospital used it to sell ready-made vaccines. "This is normal. By making an appointment to push the vaccine quota, there are not that many vaccines that can actually be obtained. Current vaccines are expensive, (scalper fee) 2,800 yuan."

The second time, Xiao Zhang still did not make an appointment. There were 5 customers in the small group, and 3 of them got appointments. Bingbing said that Xiao Zhang was on the list, but the appointment information could not be found on "ZhiMiaoYiYue". After final confirmation, it may be the same name.

Vaccine appointment information released by scalper Bingbing

For the third time, Xiao Zhang still did not make an appointment. In this case, all Bingbing's customers were wiped out. Bingbing explained that the longest-lasting customer took almost a month and seven or eight attempts to succeed.

For the fourth time, Xiao Zhang finally made an appointment. Local news in Chengdu shows that 1,000 seedlings will be released in Wenjiang District this time. Xiao Zhang observed that in this round, 4 of the 6 customers in Bingbing’s small group were snapped up. For this event, Bingbing only charged 1,350 yuan per person, which was 150 yuan cheaper than usual.

At the beginning of December, when he went to the hospital to get the first shot, Xiao Zhang communicated with the four women in line and learned that only one person had made an appointment in line, and the other three people all made appointments through scalpers online, and the prices were similar. Among these three people, some even came from Chongqing to get vaccinated.

Bingbing and other scalpers told reporters that generally speaking, the scalper fee for the three-shot nine-price HPV vaccine is 1,500-1,700 yuan, and rarely exceeds 2,000 yuan. The fee for scalping fresh seedlings is about 2,600 yuan. The

reporter contacted a scalper who claimed to have internal channels in the hospital. After paying the money, he can directly arrange to be vaccinated at the community hospital, which costs 2,300 yuan. If you are worried about direct transfer, you can add 100 yuan and go for salted fish transaction.

Bingbing also has existing channels. She told reporters that she only operates community hospitals, not private hospitals. When reporters asked whether there were any current seedlings in Beijing, Bingbing said that both Daxing District and Haidian District are available. The handling fee for Daxing is 1,500 yuan within two weeks; Haidian is more expensive, costing 1,800 yuan, but there are quotas every week. Bingbing refused to disclose the hospital information and vaccination time, "I will be notified one or two days before the vaccination."

Some netizens asked Bingbing in the group whether there was any vaccine available in Chengdu. Bingbing said that she could transfer her number and get it done within two days. The so-called number transfer is to replace the customers who did not pay after the reservation was successfully made at night.

Transaction records between customers and Bingbing

Scammers pretend to be "scalpers", and there are many people who have been deceived.

In the gray tunnel of nine-price HPV vaccine agency, there are "regular" scalpers, and there are also scammers.

Ms. Xiao from Cixi City, Ningbo is 24 years old. She told reporters that seeing that her friends with connections were about to get the nine-price HPV vaccine, she had no connections and had to find scalpers.

Three months ago, Ms. Xiao found a "scalper" who claimed to have the vaccine through Weibo . The "scalper" said that the three-shot nine-price HPV vaccine plus the reservation fee totaled 4,800 yuan. She only needed to submit her personal information for review. You can make an appointment. Under the guidance of the "scalper", Ms. Xiao transferred 4,800 yuan to the other party through the bank, and her identity information was also disclosed to the scammer. After that, she exposed the matter through online posts and received many private messages from girls who had the same experience. "A girl was defrauded of tens of thousands of yuan." She told The Paper.

Make an appointment for vaccination through small programs such as ZMiao Easy Appointment and Vaccine Appointment. One shot of the nine-price HPV vaccine in a community hospital generally costs about 1,300 yuan, and three shots cost about 4,000 yuan.A self-proclaimed "regular" scalper told The Paper: "In reality, there are indeed existing vaccines, but the reservation fee is much more expensive than the agent. Generally speaking, 'regular' scalpers basically only charge the agent fee after success, and let the bank first Those who transfer money by card, even include vaccine fees, or receive a message of successful appointment immediately, are scammers at first glance. For example, Zhimiao Yiyue does not send text messages and can only check whether the appointment is successful through a small program. "

Huge Profits. Nowadays, some community hospital staff even make money by reselling the nine-price HPV vaccine and passing it off as inferior. According to previous reports by The Paper, many women in Chongqing have recently been vaccinated with the nine-price HPV vaccine through personal prepayment by Zhou Moujing, a staff member of Dashiba Community Hospital in Jiangbei District, but were arranged to be vaccinated at five or six other hospitals, or even "on-site." Vaccination in the car. Some girls reported that they could not find their vaccination records after vaccination, and no formal invoices were issued. In July this year, Zhou Moujing was punished by the Jiangbei District Health Commission and suspended from practicing for 18 months for using the bivalent HPV vaccine to inject others with the nine-valent HPV vaccine. After the incident, Zhou Moujing was detained.

In addition to the aforementioned scams, there is another scam involving smuggling, which is the purchase of Hong Kong seedlings on behalf of others. The reporter contacted a scalper on Xianyu who claimed to have Hong Kong seedlings. He said that the three-shot injection cost 6,300 yuan by mail and 6,800 yuan on-site. Yinzi said that she was in Shenyang, but they had a cooperative clinic that could vaccinate. The Hong Kong version of the nine-valent HPV vaccine is also called plus . The vaccination age is 9 to 45 years old and has a wider audience, but it is all from Merck.

"Our vaccine comes from Shenzhen. How did Hong Kong get to Shenzhen? I don't need to say more." Yinzi said that after the Hong Kong version of the vaccine crosses the border, the code will be erased, but the barcode can be scanned, and the barcode also distinguishes the old and new versions. An important basis for the Hong Kong vaccine is that "human flesh is brought back with anti-counterfeiting marks, and the numbers on the packaging must match the number of injections."

public reports show that the ingredients of the Hong Kong vaccine may have expired due to improper storage during transportation.

Through scalper Bingbing, the reporter’s friend successfully made an appointment for the vaccine.

Scalper claims to earn tens of thousands a month, lawyer: Suspected of crime

Bingbing told The Paper that she is an agent (salesperson) and their team focuses on Chengdu, but they recruit salespeople from all over the country. Generally, a salesperson can earn 300-400 yuan per order, depending on the agent's own pricing. "For example, in Chengdu, (the technical team) gave an agency price of 1,000 yuan, and our quotation was basically 1,300 yuan to 1,500 yuan." As for the existing seedlings, Bingbing said that she cooperates with the hospital. Although the charges are more expensive, the management costs are also high. I earn about three to four hundred yuan per order.

"Anyway, it's not a problem for me to make tens of thousands a month." Bingbing said.

Lu Yijie, an lawyer at Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, believes that the legal characterization of scalping technical teams must examine the principles of technical means. Once the technical team deletes, modifies, adds, or interferes with the functions of the computer information system, causing the computer information system to fail to operate normally and causing serious consequences, such as illegal gains of more than 5,000 yuan or economic losses of more than 10,000 yuan, etc., it may be was found guilty of damaging computer information systems. When the technical team only uses the "robbing" method of automated operations, the handling in practice is slightly different. Some legal professionals believe that this technique does not involve data modification, is not widely used, and does not constitute a crime. However, with the intensification of the crackdown on Internet crimes in recent years, many courts will also consider this technique to be an unconventional method of structuring network requests. Destroying the order of fair transactions and harming the interests of consumers, common crimes include providing intrusion, illegal control of computer information system programs and tools, etc. If an agent or salesperson knows that the technical team is using illegal methods to grab tickets and still solicits customers for them, it may constitute a joint crime.

Lawyer Lu Yijie said that if the scalpers claimed that the hospital staff they targeted were true and reached the prescribed amount, they would be suspected of bribery, and the targets would be suspected of accepting bribes or non-state staff accepting bribes.

In order to eliminate scalpers, some places have taken measures on the reservation route.For example, in Shenzhen City, regardless of household registration, women with ID cards aged 16 to 26 years and 5 months can participate in the lottery. The lottery process is automatically completed by the IT system. Applicants do not need to participate in person on site. The entire process is videotaped and accepted. Social supervision leaves no room for scalpers to take advantage of. The Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention also arranged for citizen representatives to witness the entire lottery process and supervise it.

In August 2021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Control and Prevention responded to netizens on People's Daily Online " Leadership Message Board " to report that "the nine-valent HPV vaccine is difficult to make appointments and scalpers are rampant", a technology company that provides appointment services, The phenomenon of scalpers should be cut off through technical means, such as manually dragging the puzzle to a designated location to prevent scalpers from using machines, upgrading and enhancing the human-machine verification algorithm. After a successful appointment, the person who made the appointment cannot cancel the appointment on his own, and it must be confirmed by the vaccination clinic. Cancellation of appointments, etc. in the background of the vaccination clinic. The root cause of the

scalper problem is the imbalance between market supply and demand.

The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that there are approximately 120 million people of appropriate age (16 to 26 years old) for the nine-valent HPV vaccine. According to the calculation of 5.066 million batches of nine-valent vaccine issued by Zhifei Biotech in 2020, the number of people who can receive the vaccine is less than 1.5% of the total. In Shenzhen, which has a large population base, the winning rate of the nine-price HPV vaccine in each lottery is less than 3%; The Paper reporter rushed to buy the nine-price HPV vaccine from a private hospital through live broadcast in a Taobao store during Double Eleven. The price reached 5104 yuan.

reporters noted that on November 17, 2020, the World Health Organization launched a global strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer . China and other 194 countries will vaccinate 90% of girls before the age of 15 by 2030. HPV vaccine. Many places in China have begun to promote this work, but they are all bivalent HPV vaccines.

The good news is that with Merck monopolizing the global batch distribution of the nine-price HPV vaccine, domestically produced vaccines are beginning to break through. Not long ago, the World Health Organization stated that the bivalent human papillomavirus vaccine produced by a Chinese company has officially passed certification and can be purchased by the United Nations system. This means that the quality and safety of domestically produced vaccines have been internationally recognized. However, public reports show that the domestically produced Jiujia is expected to be put on the market around 2025 at the earliest.

source: The Paper client