[ad_1]
Plans for vaccination programs began to take shape in Europe and the United States following recent advances, but the surge in coronavirus cases prompted new and grueling restrictions, and Austria took the unpopular step on Tuesday of closing schools and stores.
Global hopes of beating the pandemic were high after the American biotech firm Moderna said its vaccine candidate was nearly 95 percent effective in a trial, a week after similar results announced by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
Leading US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci praised the results, telling AFP the data exceeded expectations. “The idea that we have a 94.5 percent effective vaccine is astonishingly impressive,” he said.
Moderna, whose clinical trial involved more than 30,000 participants, expects to have roughly 20 million doses ready to ship in the United States by the end of the year, with the elderly and others at risk to be first in line to receive injections.
The US Food and Drug Administration may approve the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines early next month, according to Moncef Slaoui, head of the government’s “Operation Warp Speed” vaccine search.
He said that 25 million people a month will be vaccinated starting in January.
France also said it was “preparing to start” a vaccination program to be launched in January pending regulatory approval from France and the EU, with a budget of 1.5 billion euros ($ 1.8 billion) for launch in 2021. according to spokesman Gabriel Attal.
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel urged the EU not to prolong negotiations to buy the company’s vaccine, as other nations that have signed deals (Canada, Japan, Israel, Qatar and Britain) will take priority.
“It is clear that with a delay this will not limit the total amount but it will slow down delivery,” Bancel told AFP, noting that the United States has already reserved 100 million doses.
Moderna is still in negotiations with the European Commission for the sale of 80 million doses of the vaccine, Bancel said.
Meanwhile, Russia is pushing ahead with the development of two candidate vaccines, and President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday urged members of the BRICS alliance from major emerging countries to mass-produce them.
“It is very important to unite (so that) these products have a wide circulation,” Putin said during an online summit of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Putin noted that Russia has manufacturing agreements with China and India, which is home to the world’s largest vaccine producer, the Serum Institute of India.
Russia announced in August that it had registered Sputnik V, named after the Soviet-era satellite, which it has since said is 92 percent effective. Putin announced a second coronavirus vaccine, EpiVacCorona, last month.
– Tear gas in Athens –
With the widespread availability of any vaccine still a long way off, restrictions on free movement, meetings, and business were inevitable as the second wave of the coronavirus continued to grow.
Curbs have made a comeback in Europe, often in the face of protests.
In Greece, police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse a demonstration marking the anniversary of a deadly student uprising in 1973, which took place Tuesday in defiance of a ban imposed due to the pandemic.
In Austria, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz provoked a strong reaction to the new measures that closed schools and shops until December 6, which according to Pamela Rendi-Wagner, leader of the Social Democratic opposition, reflected a “total loss of control”.
“Austria has gone from being a model country to being at the bottom of the table in terms of infections,” said Rendi-Wagner, herself a physician and former health minister.
The number of daily infections in the Alpine nation of 8.8 million people rose from 1,000 in early October to 5,984 on Tuesday.
In Europe, coronavirus cases topped 15 million on Tuesday, while infections globally have topped 55 million with more than 1.3 million deaths, and experts warn that the coming months will be difficult and dangerous.
Italy said it had inspected more than 230 nursing homes and nursing homes and identified 37 with violations, shutting four of them outright.
The virus swept through the nation’s nursing homes during the first wave of the pandemic, and many residents died before they could be hospitalized and without being examined.
Contrary to the trend in Europe, Russia has not imposed a new lockdown at the national level, even as it reported a record 442 new coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday.
– America reeling –
Meanwhile, infections in the United States show no signs of abating after a million new cases in less than a week increased the total number to 11,206,054 with 247,229 deaths.
The spikes have prompted new restrictions in several states, while experts are warning families about big gatherings for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
As enthusiasm for the encouraging results of vaccine trials grows, Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, cautioned that it would be crucial to convince people to get vaccinated, particularly in the US, Where anti-vaccine sentiment is high.
“A vaccine with a high degree of efficacy is useless if nobody gets vaccinated,” he said.
SIGN UP TO THE DAILY NEWSLETTER
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
