WHO calls for more vaccine launches as the United States approaches ‘breaking point’

GENEVA, Switzerland – The World Health Organization asked vaccine manufacturers on Friday to dramatically increase production, as US President Joe Biden warned that the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic were pushing the United States to a “point” rupture ”.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that while the number of Covid-19 vaccines administered (115 million) has already exceeded the number of infections worldwide (104 million), more than three-quarters of the vaccines have been distributed in only 10 rich countries.

“Almost 130 countries, with 2.5 billion inhabitants, have not yet administered a single dose,” complained Tedros.

“Unless we suppress the virus everywhere, we can end up at square one,” said the WHO chief, calling on vaccine manufacturers to implement “a massive increase in production.”

At the same time, US President Joe Biden said he needed to “act fast” to push a huge new economic aid package through Congress, because many Americans were close to “breaking point”.

The United States, the largest economy in the world, is the country most affected by the pandemic so far.

Of the nearly 2.3 million people who have died from Covid-19 worldwide since the outbreak in China in December 2019, the U.S. has recorded more than 450,000 deaths.

“I see a lot of pain in this country, a lot of people out of work, a lot of people going hungry,” said Biden in a speech at the White House.

“We can reduce suffering in this country,” said Biden. “I really believe that real aid is on the way,” as he sought support from the Republican Party for his $ 1.9 trillion pandemic aid package.

Macron and Merkel defend the EU

Europe is still the most affected region, with more than 760,000 deaths. And here, the slow launch of the vaccine has generated public anger and plunged the bloc’s leadership into a crisis.

EU member states need to work more closely with pharmaceutical companies to increase the rate of vaccination, said the WHO regional chief.

“We need to come together to speed up vaccinations,” said WHO director for Europe, Hans Kluge, in an interview with AFP.

“Otherwise, competing pharmaceutical companies (must) join forces to dramatically increase production capacity … that’s what we need.”

Despite the troubled start to launch the vaccine in the 27-nation bloc, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron defended the Brussels strategy.

“I fully support the European approach,” Macron said at an online news conference after talks with Merkel. “What would people say if countries like France and Germany were competing with each other for vaccines?”

“It would be messy and counterproductive,” he said.

Merkel, for her part, said that although the slow launch showed that the bloc needed to increase pharmaceutical production capacities, “the basic decision to place orders together as the European Union was and is right”.

However, in a sign of Europe’s growing urgency, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said he hoped the Russian Sputnik V jab would be approved for use in Europe soon.

So far, only vaccines made by AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech have been authorized for use in the EU.

But Spain said on Friday that it would limit the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine to people under 55, the last European country to impose an age restriction on the Anglo-Swedish vaccine.

Last week, the German vaccine authority advised against using the AstraZeneca vaccine for people over 65, judging that “there was not enough data” about its effectiveness in this age group.

The decision came just hours after the EU drug regulator gave the vaccine the green light for use in adults of all ages, saying it believed it would be safe for older people as well.

Still out of control

Pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson has asked U.S. regulators to authorize its vaccine, which requires only one dose and can be stored at normal refrigerated temperatures – unlike some of the other jabs currently in use.

The company said it is on its way to supply 100 million doses to the United States, if authorized.

But tests have shown that the J&J injection is not as effective against the highly transmissible variant first identified in South Africa, which is spreading rapidly around the world.

The South Africa variant and another discovery for the first time in England are causing growing alarm, with experts in Germany warning that they have given the pandemic “another boost”.

“The situation is far from under control,” said Lothar Wieler, of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), a day after the government made it appear that it was considering relaxing some restrictions.

Many governments are agonizing over when and how to suspend outages and other rules.

Israel, which vaccinated more than a third of its population, said it agreed to relax Sunday’s blockade – despite registering more deaths in January than in any other month.

‘It’s a nightmare’

The cultural consequences of the pandemic are still being felt acutely in institutions around the world, with museums in Paris deprived of their usual crowds for months and begging to be reopened.

“It’s a nightmare,” said Christophe Leribault of the Petit Palais, where a recent Danish art exhibition managed to stay open for just a few weeks.

“I was able to negotiate some extensions. But after a year, we had to return the paintings. “

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