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Some countries are preparing to launch mass vaccines against the coronavirus disease, but it will be more than a year before the world returns to “normal”, according to one expert.
Frederik Kristensen, deputy director of the Oslo-based Coalition for Innovations in Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI), asked people to be patient about how long it will take for life to return to normal.
Although many see “light at the end of the tunnel” with vaccines, he said, it is not yet clear whether they will halt transmission of the disease.
There is also the problem of distributing the vaccine in the necessary quantity.
But he said that if vaccines can be made effectively, the world can go back to normal in “2022, at least.”
Kristensen said he understood how parts of the population might be reluctant to take a vaccine that developed so quickly, but believed that reluctance would eventually be overcome.
“People will have confidence that this is the best way to protect themselves, their loved ones and others,” he said.
However, he warned that poorer countries run the risk of being overlooked during the launch of coronavirus vaccines.
“I’m very worried,” Kristensen said. “If we now have pictures around the world of how everyone in the rich part of the world is receiving vaccines and nothing happens in the [developing] part of the world, that’s a big, big, big problem. “
Kristensen issued the statement as Britain, France, the United States and China prepared for vaccination programs.
CEPI is a partnership between public, private, philanthropic and civil organizations launched in 2017 to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics in an equitable way.
$ 1.1 billion was pledged to fund the development of nine candidate coronavirus vaccines, including those from American firm Moderna and British company AstraZeneca.
Nearly 2 billion doses of vaccines have been promised through the Covax Facility, an international alliance led by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is negotiating with labs for equitable access to the vaccine, Kristensen said.
But the figure is theoretical given that the vaccines have yet to be approved and some may be rejected, he said.
As for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which are in the most advanced stage, they use technology that requires storage at minus 70 degrees Celsius for the first and minus 20 C for the second.
The question is how to distribute them in the poorer hot countries, Kristensen asked.
“We have been to places where the last mile of transportation occurs on the back of a motorcycle,” he said.
He called for a new wave of vaccines available around the world that ideally require only one dose and are effective in the long term.
High
The United States recorded a record number of coronavirus cases in 24 hours for the third day in a row.
A tally from Johns Hopkins University showed that the world’s worst-hit country, which has seen a dramatic resurgence of the virus in recent weeks, reached nearly 230,000 new infections and 2,527 Covid-related deaths on Saturday alone (Sunday in Manila).
For two weeks, the US has regularly passed 2,000 deaths a day, as it had in the spring at the height of the country’s first wave of the outbreak.
US health officials warned of a spike after millions of Americans traveled to celebrate Thanksgiving last week despite pleas from authorities to stay home.
The coronavirus has killed more than 1.5 million people and infected 66 million worldwide since it emerged in China last year, according to a count from official sources compiled by Agence France-Presse.
Vaccine for queen
In Britain, it was reported that the 94-year-old Queen Elizabeth will receive the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech just weeks after UK regulators granted emergency approval. The launch of the vaccine will begin next week.
The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, 99, are in line to receive the early jab due to their age and will not receive preferential treatment, the Mail on Sunday reported.
The newspaper said Britain’s top royals would reveal that they have been given the vaccine “to encourage more people to take the vital jab” amid fears that so-called anti-vaccines could take a toll on your enthusiasm.
British health officials are set up to use criteria based on age and vulnerability to decide who gets the vaccine first.
Nursing home residents and their caregivers will be the first to get vaccinated, followed by those over 80 and front-line health and care personnel.
Britain has booked 40 million doses of the vaccine in total and is slated to receive an initial batch of 800,000 to begin deployment next week.
Moscow jab throw
The WHO warned that vaccines are not a magic bullet for the coronavirus crisis, as Russia began vaccinating its high-risk workers and other countries prepared for similar programs.
He cautioned against what he said was a mistaken belief that the pandemic would soon end with vaccines on the horizon.
“Vaccines do not equal zero Covid,” said WHO emergency director Michael Ryan, adding that not everyone will be able to receive it early next year.
“Vaccination will add an important, important and powerful tool to the set of tools that we have. But by themselves, they won’t do the job. “
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also warned against the “growing perception that the pandemic is over” with the virus still spreading rapidly, putting enormous pressure on hospitals and healthcare workers.
Health officials in Moscow said they had opened 70 coronavirus vaccination centers in the Russian capital that would initially offer hits for social, educational and health workers.
51 bets
The WHO said 51 candidate vaccines are currently being tested in humans, and 13 are reaching the final stage of mass testing.
The United States is expected to give the green light to vaccines later this month, while Belgium, France and Spain have said injections will begin in January for the most vulnerable.
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