"In a Weibo post on Thursday, Dr Tao refuted allegations that he had blasted Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine.

He argued that his previous blog was an 'extremely sarcastic' column aimed at pointing out the errors in the manual of the Sinopharm vaccine.

He claimed he had suspected that many of the side effects had been listed by mistake. Therefore, he decided to write a blog to mock the flawed handbook to call for the drugmaker's attention.

To ensure his followers the safety of the medicine, Dr Tao claimed he had received the first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine and would get his second dose on Saturday.

'Hereby, I extend my apologies to numerous web users and citizens across the nation, and express my despisal against the evil actions of overseas media,' Dr Tao wrote."

Over the top retraction actually gives more credence to the original post.