Italy blocks AstraZeneca vaccines as fears about vaccine nationalism heighten

Italy blocks AstraZeneca vaccines as fears about vaccine nationalism heighten

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These are the last saved in the dispute between the EU and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company after AstraZeneca reduced the number of doses of the Covid-19 vaccine that it said it could deliver to the bloc in early 2021. The European Commission subsequently adopted measures giving Member States ability to restrict the export of doses outside the EU, in certain situations, powers that Italy invoked on Thursday

Amid the disagreement, French President Emmanuel Macron questioned the effectiveness of the Oxford / AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for people over 65, to the dismay of health experts. Some European countries have also set a maximum age limit for recipients of the injection, citing the lack of information from clinical studies on its effects on older people.

Sweden, Germany and Belgium eliminated the upper age limits after data from the UK, released on Monday, suggested that a single dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine is highly effective against serious infections and hospitalization among elderly populations.
The slow pace of vaccination in the EU has become a turbulent political issue, and several member states have turned to countries outside the bloc to drive faltering implementation, reports Zamira Rahim. Only 5.5% of the EU’s 447 million population received the first dose of the vaccine, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO) released Wednesday.

On Thursday, the leaders of Austria and Denmark announced plans to launch a joint research and development fund with Israel for the possible future production of vaccines against the coronavirus.

Other EU countries have turned to Russia and China to fill the gaps in the supply of vaccines with unilateral purchases. On Monday, Slovakia granted emergency authorization for the Moscow Sputnik V vaccine after a delay in the supply of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.

Slovakia is the second EU country to independently grant authorization for Sputnik V, after Hungary, which started launching the vaccine in February. Hungary is also the first EU country to launch the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, which has not been approved by the bloc’s vaccine regulator, the European Medicines Agency.

YOU ASKED. WE RESPOND

Q: Is testing for Covid-19 still important?

ONE: Covid-19 test numbers are dropping in the USA. And that is bad news. Without the test, there is no way to know where the pandemic is heading and whether vaccines are working. And there is no way to make use of one of the most important tools in the fight against infectious diseases: contact tracking.

“Although the public may see vaccination as a priority now – and it is a priority – widespread testing is still essential for infection control,” said Romney Humphries, medical director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Thursday market . “It will help us to track the real impact. Are we really seeing a reduction in cases?” she said.

Send your questions here. Are you a healthcare professional battling Covid-19? Send us a message on WhatsApp about the challenges you are facing: +1 347-322-0415.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT TODAY

The US should not lift restrictions until new daily infections drop to less than 10,000, says Fauci

The United States should not ease its restrictions on the pandemic before the number of new coronavirus cases drops to less than 10,000 a day and a substantial proportion of Americans are vaccinated, Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN yesterday.

The last time the US saw less than 10,000 new daily cases was almost a year ago, on March 22, 2020. The number has not dropped below 50,000 daily cases since mid-October, and the seven-day average on Wednesday was over 64,000, report by Madeline Holcombe, Theresa Waldrop and Lauren Mascarenhas.

This occurs as more states move to vaccinate people below the retirement age. In Gila County, Arizona, anyone over the age of 18 can be vaccinated. But even as the vaccine was launched in the United States picking up speed, concerns remain about Covid-19 variants, some of which appear to be more transmissible.

Countries that make dubious claims about Covid-19 – and what that means for the world

Last year, countries around the world shared data on Covid-19 cases and deaths with WHO – information that is crucial to informing the global fight against the disease. However, three countries – Tanzania, Turkmenistan and North Korea – are being less than transparent or negating the scale of the problem by not updating or reporting any data from Covid-19, reports Laura Smith-Spark.

Dr Peter Drobac, a global health specialist at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, told CNN that the pandemic made it clear “how critical leadership is and how dangerous it is to have leaders who are unwilling to admit the problem and bring together the people to respond. “Mixed messages or denial about basic interventions, such as wearing masks, helped fuel the rapid spread of the virus in the United States and Brazil, leading to many preventable deaths, he said.

China approves sale of traditional medicine products to treat Covid-19

China has approved three traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) products for sale to help treat Covid-19, the country’s National Medical Products Administration announced on Wednesday. Herbal products come in granular form and trace their origins back to “ancient Chinese prescriptions,” the agency said in a statement. They were developed from TCM drugs used in the early days of the pandemic and which have been “evaluated by many academics and frontline experts”.

The safety and effectiveness of TCM is still debated in China, where there are adherents and skeptics. In recent years, ancient remedies have been repeatedly hailed as a source of national pride by Chinese President Xi Jinping, himself a well-known supporter of the TCM, report Nectar Gan and Jessie Yeung.

ON OUR RADAR

A vaccination clinic was set up inside a school on the grounds of the Neasden Temple in London.
  • Inside the largest Hindu temple in Europe, which is misinforming Covid-19 and administering the vaccine.
  • – It’s too early for that. Small business owners react to Texas by abandoning their mask mandate and other pandemic restrictions.
  • The global vaccine-sharing initiative, COVAX, offers hope for vaccine equality to roll out across Africa.
  • Lisa Racine was unable to visit her father at the nursing home where he lives because of the pandemic. So, she decided to get a part-time job there to see him more often.
  • It is difficult for elderly people living at home to be vaccinated. One city found an innovative solution by partnering with the fire department and local service Meals on Wheels.

BEST TIP

Children aged 9 to 11 in the United States who have more screen time are more likely to develop binge eating disorder a year later, the study concluded – and social media is the main culprit.

Every hour spent on social media was associated with a 62% higher risk of binge eating disorder a year later, while every hour spent watching television or movies was associated with a 39% higher risk, the study found.

The pandemic has encouraged prolonged screen-based behaviors, and has often demanded this through online education. Here are some strategies that parents can follow to reduce risks.

TODAY’S PODCAST

“These are portraits of people who are just taking a break between patients at work or to breathe. And I wanted to capture that moment and that emotion in their eyes.” – Jayashree Krishnan, an artist who lives in Seattle.

Krishnan has painted more than 150 first aid portraits from around the world since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Today, she shares her experiences capturing the tiredness, fear and hope on the faces of those frontline workers. Listen now.

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