China delays approval of BioNTech Covid-19 shot to preserve confidence in Chines

China's government is slow-rolling approval of its first foreign Covid-19 vaccine out of concern it could undermine confidence in Chinese vaccines, delivering further evidence of the tenacity of vaccine nationalism in the face of a resurgent pandemic. Chinese health authorities worry that public doubts about Chinese vaccines stemming from approval of Germany's BioNTech SE's vaccine could disrupt the country's plans to use the homegrown shots to reach an ambitious vaccination goal before the end of the year, according to people familiar with the deliberations. China was expected to approve the BioNTech vaccine, which is based on state-of-the-art mRNA technology, by…