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Hopes for a first wave of vaccinations before the end of 2020 received a boost from the American firm Moderna, which said it was requesting emergency authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine in the United States and Europe on Monday.
After leading US scientists warned Americans to prepare for an “increase overlapping the increase,” Moderna reported that the full results had confirmed a high efficacy estimated at 94.1 percent.
It was slated to join US pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, which applied for similar approvals last week, and predicted that their vaccine could receive the green light in the US shortly after December 10.
If the US Food and Drug Administration agrees that Moderna’s product is safe and effective, the first of two doses of the drug could be injected into the arms of millions of Americans in mid-December.
“We believe that our vaccine will provide a powerful new tool that can change the course of this pandemic,” said Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel.
Health Secretary Alex Azar told CBS News: “We could see these two vaccines outside and get into people’s arms before Christmas.”
Developed in conjunction with the US National Institutes of Health, the bumps were generally well tolerated, with the most common side effects including injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, joint pain, and headache.
Moderna expects to have approximately 20 million doses of the vaccine, called mRNA-1273, available in the US by the end of the year, and between 500 million and 1 billion doses globally by 2021.
The news came after prominent American scientist Anthony Fauci voiced his fears as millions of travelers returned home after Thanksgiving holidays.
The United States is the most affected country, with more than 267,000 deaths from Covid-19, and the administration of President Donald Trump has issued mixed messages about the use of masks, travel and the danger posed by the virus.
“What we are hoping, unfortunately, as we go through the next two weeks in December is that we could see an increase superimposed on the increase we are already in,” Fauci told NBC News on Sunday.
– Fourth wave –
At least 1,460,018 deaths have been recorded worldwide since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a count from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Monday.
The World Health Organization (WHO) insisted on Monday that it was doing its best to find the animal origin of the virus, even though it has yet to dispatch a full team of experts to China to investigate the matter.
Observers have raised concerns that the agency gave in to Chinese pressure and delayed the investigation, but WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus responded, urging critics to stop “politicizing” the issue.
In a briefing, Tedros added that he was alarmed by the rapidly worsening Covid-19 situations in Brazil and Mexico, urging them to be “very serious” in stopping the spread.
Meanwhile, Europe is still struggling to reduce the daily number of deaths and infections with a variety of curbs, closures and tests after deaths surpassed 400,000 over the weekend.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a total closure for the weekend and a curfew for the rest of the week.
In Asia, Hong Kong on Monday announced social distancing measures at some of its strictest levels in the city since the start of the coronavirus pandemic as authorities battle a fourth wave of infections.
“This new wave of Covid-19 has hit Hong Kong very quickly,” said CEO Carrie Lam, adding that the new restrictions would take effect from Wednesday.
Anger over the rising number of infections sparked a riot at a Sri Lankan prison where guards shot dead eight inmates and injured at least 71 others.
However, Australia’s success against the pandemic saw international students arrive in Australia for the first time since the borders closed in March, and a charter flight landed in Darwin on Monday.
The situation in the former world epicenter of New York remains precarious, with Governor Andrew Cuomo warning that small gatherings are now responsible for 65 percent of the spread.
“Now we are concerned about overwhelming the hospital system,” Cuomo said, adding that the state may need a new shutdown.
The risk of covid in most of the US is now considered “critical” and more than 93,000 people are hospitalized, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
Scientists estimate that around 70 percent of the population will need to be vaccinated to end the outbreak, and this may not be possible until the second half of next year.
Amid signs of growing global skepticism about vaccines, the president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Francesco Rocca, warned on Monday: “To defeat this pandemic, we also have to win. the parallel pandemic of mistrust. “
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