Pfizer has its vaccine almost ready and Chile secured 10 million doses; “Just 20 lucas fell”, the bitter complaint of ABC1 school officials and the worrying detection of a new virus in Japan: three things we learned from the coronavirus this week

The news generated an unprecedented stock market fizz: Pfizer reported Monday that its vaccine prototype was 90% effective and that they could have the first 50 million doses ready in December, and another 1,300 million during 2021. Of those, at least 10 million will be for Chile.

The government, in a secret negotiation during September, managed to close a contract with the North American pharmaceutical company, and to secure a package of 10 million doses if it finally materializes.

The negotiations were in charge of Rodrigo Yáñez, Undersecretary of International Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (RREE) and the head of the Legal Division of the Ministry of Health, Jorge Hübner.

To do this, the government hired the Skaddem law firm in New York, which specializes in contracts of this type.

Both parties signed a confidentiality contract, which included the advance purchase of the vaccine, as long as the prototype met certain milestones, particularly that it is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA, its acronym in English)

Given the good results of the vaccine, Chile assured the arrival of hundreds of thousands of doses by January 2021, of the 10 million doses that were purchased by contract.

Although the government has not wanted to reveal the price it paid for the vaccine – since it is a confidential contract – they did assure from the executive that it is a slightly lower price than developed countries paid to Pfizer.

In addition, thanks to this contract, the country has secured the vaccine reserve, as Pfizer has reported that for now, they are no longer selling their vaccine, given the technical impossibility of manufacturing more doses.

Pfizer must now demonstrate the efficacy of its vaccine to the FDA.

According to the laboratory, this protection efficacy against the SARS-CoV-2 virus was achieved seven days later of the second dose of vaccine and 28 days after the firstsaid the US pharmaceutical company in a joint statement with BioNTech.

So far, according to Pfizer, 94 volunteers were infected with coronavirus and the majority – said the laboratory – were in the group that received placebo and not the active substance. To achieve more robust results, the FDA mandated that companies only request an emergency use authorization to distribute the vaccine until they reach another milestone: when half of the patients in your study have been observed for safety concerns for at least two months after their second dose. Pfizer expects to cross that threshold in the third week of November.

“The school first shielded itself and then they went to see what happens to the children”; “In the morning I am a teacher of first and third grade and in the afternoon I have to do my things”; “It is not just that they give you tools for learning, that they give you training”; “They send you tasks and assume that you are in function of that”; “They have been slow to lower the monthly payments, if obviously much less is spent on infrastructure.”

These were some of the complaints that a study carried out by the consultant Criteria to parents of private schools in the eastern sector of Santiago collected.

The research, which interviewed parents with children from 1st grade to 4th grade, conducted in September, revealed great dissatisfaction.

Beatriz Hirata, Criteria anthropologist in charge of the researchHe pointed out in a report in Qué Pasa, that they wanted to know how the adaptation was in the schools that had more conditions to deal with the changes of the emergency.

The results, he admitted, surprised them. “They are the most expensive schools in Chile and each with different pedagogies, but we were struck by the degree of dissatisfaction of the parents,” he summarized.

They noticed, he assured, a permanent lack of empathy from the establishments. They did not consider that there are separated parents, children with difficulties, that there are parents who have many young children, among others.

The perception of the interviewees is that the schools mostly left the responsibility for learning on the parents. “They were not very proactive and put everything on the parents. They were more concerned with money than with academics ”, pointed out a mother of a high school student.

“They never asked if you had a computer, a printer. They have never said ‘if they don’t have, we can lend them’. The school does not give you physical instruments to improve learning or training. And it is not that they lower your monthly payment “, said another.

“The main pain of the interviewees is that the schools placed the majority of the responsibility for the development of activities on the parents,” said the study. “At the beginning there were many tasks, many jobs. I had to assume the role of teacher ”, complained another attorney.

Another of the transversal complaints was in the collection of monthly payments. “They have not been transparent, they say they cannot lower the monthly payment, they said they have such expenses, but they also do not explain very well what the expenses are and the level of monthly income that the students deliver is very high. Even if you pay millions to officials, there is still money left over “said a mother of a student from 1st to 4th grade.

The demand was generated to make income and expenses transparent. “Getting 20 lucas down is super little”another complained.

Concern among Japanese scientists was the discovery of a new type of coronavirus, 85% similar to the Sars-CoV-2 that is causing the current pandemic.

Check in this video what this finding is about and what are the chances of it becoming a new pandemic.