Al Jazeera News :
A World Health Organization official warned only public health measures – not vaccines – can prevent a new surge of COVID-19 cases as the first vaccines are administered in the United Kingdom.
The UK started rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the first Western country to begin vaccinating its population against infection from the new coronavirus.
President Donald Trump’s administration faces new scrutiny after failing to lock in a chance to buy millions of additional doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine. That decision could delay the delivery of a second batch of doses until Pfizer fulfills other international contracts.
Under its contract with Pfizer, the Trump administration committed to buy an initial 100 million doses, with an option to purchase as many as five times more.
But this summer, the White House opted not to lock in an additional 100 million doses for delivery in the second quarter of 2021, according to people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Dr Moncef Slaoui, who is leading the government’s vaccine effort, noted the Trump administration was looking at a number of different vaccines during the summer. He told ABC’s Good Morning America “no one reasonably would buy more from any one of those vaccines because we didn’t know which one would work and which one would be better than the other”.
Margaret Keenan, 90 – the first UK citizen jabbed in the initial phase of a mass vaccination programme – thought “it was a joke” when told she would the first recipient of the COVID vaccine.
The first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were delivered to about 80,000 UK hospitals on Sunday. But the 800,000 doses are only a fraction of what is needed.
The vaccine cannot arrive soon enough for the United Kingdom, which has more than 61,000 COVID-19-related deaths – more than any other country in Europe. The UK has more than 1.7 million cases.
The government is targeting more than 25 million people, or about 40 percent of the population, with the vaccine.
The Trump administration will seek to shore up the US vaccine supply as the coronavirus pandemic killed 15,000 people in the United States last week alone and has overwhelmed hospitals.
Outgoing President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday to ensure priority access for COVID-19 vaccines procured by the US government is given to the American people before assisting other nations.
The signing follows a New York Times report that Pfizer may not be able to provide more of its vaccine to the United States until next June because of its commitments to other countries. The Washington Post also reported the Trump administration months ago passed on the chance to buy twice as many as the 100 million they agreed to.
Pfizer cleared the next hurdle in the race to get its COVID-19 vaccine approved for emergency use after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released documents that did not raise any new issues about its safety or efficacy.
Data on the vaccine submitted to the agency was in line with its guidance on emergency use authorisation, FDA staff said in documents released ahead of Thursday’s meeting of outside experts.
A two-dose vaccination was highly effective in preventing confirmed cases of COVID-19 at least seven days after the last dose, FDA staff said.
The FDA said there was currently insufficient data to make conclusions about the safety of the vaccine in those less than 16 years of age, pregnant women and those whose immune systems were compromised. The FDA is expected to decide on whether to authorise the vaccine within days or weeks.
Morocco is gearing up for an ambitious COVID-19 vaccination programme aiming to vaccinate 80 percent of its adults in an operation starting this month that’s relying initially on a Chinese vaccine that has not yet completed advanced trials to prove it is safe and effective.
The first injections could come within days, a health ministry official said. Facing a public sceptical about the vaccines’ safety and effectiveness, medical experts and health officials have appeared on television in recent weeks to promote the COVID-19 vaccines and encourage Moroccans to get immunized.
A World Health Organization official warned only public health measures – not vaccines – can prevent a new surge of COVID-19 cases as the first vaccines are administered in the United Kingdom.
The UK started rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the first Western country to begin vaccinating its population against infection from the new coronavirus.
President Donald Trump’s administration faces new scrutiny after failing to lock in a chance to buy millions of additional doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine. That decision could delay the delivery of a second batch of doses until Pfizer fulfills other international contracts.
Under its contract with Pfizer, the Trump administration committed to buy an initial 100 million doses, with an option to purchase as many as five times more.
But this summer, the White House opted not to lock in an additional 100 million doses for delivery in the second quarter of 2021, according to people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Dr Moncef Slaoui, who is leading the government’s vaccine effort, noted the Trump administration was looking at a number of different vaccines during the summer. He told ABC’s Good Morning America “no one reasonably would buy more from any one of those vaccines because we didn’t know which one would work and which one would be better than the other”.
Margaret Keenan, 90 – the first UK citizen jabbed in the initial phase of a mass vaccination programme – thought “it was a joke” when told she would the first recipient of the COVID vaccine.
The first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were delivered to about 80,000 UK hospitals on Sunday. But the 800,000 doses are only a fraction of what is needed.
The vaccine cannot arrive soon enough for the United Kingdom, which has more than 61,000 COVID-19-related deaths – more than any other country in Europe. The UK has more than 1.7 million cases.
The government is targeting more than 25 million people, or about 40 percent of the population, with the vaccine.
The Trump administration will seek to shore up the US vaccine supply as the coronavirus pandemic killed 15,000 people in the United States last week alone and has overwhelmed hospitals.
Outgoing President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday to ensure priority access for COVID-19 vaccines procured by the US government is given to the American people before assisting other nations.
The signing follows a New York Times report that Pfizer may not be able to provide more of its vaccine to the United States until next June because of its commitments to other countries. The Washington Post also reported the Trump administration months ago passed on the chance to buy twice as many as the 100 million they agreed to.
Pfizer cleared the next hurdle in the race to get its COVID-19 vaccine approved for emergency use after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released documents that did not raise any new issues about its safety or efficacy.
Data on the vaccine submitted to the agency was in line with its guidance on emergency use authorisation, FDA staff said in documents released ahead of Thursday’s meeting of outside experts.
A two-dose vaccination was highly effective in preventing confirmed cases of COVID-19 at least seven days after the last dose, FDA staff said.
The FDA said there was currently insufficient data to make conclusions about the safety of the vaccine in those less than 16 years of age, pregnant women and those whose immune systems were compromised. The FDA is expected to decide on whether to authorise the vaccine within days or weeks.
Morocco is gearing up for an ambitious COVID-19 vaccination programme aiming to vaccinate 80 percent of its adults in an operation starting this month that’s relying initially on a Chinese vaccine that has not yet completed advanced trials to prove it is safe and effective.
The first injections could come within days, a health ministry official said. Facing a public sceptical about the vaccines’ safety and effectiveness, medical experts and health officials have appeared on television in recent weeks to promote the COVID-19 vaccines and encourage Moroccans to get immunized.
