Deadly US pandemic on the rise as regulators meet over Pfizer vaccine

FILE PHOTO: Syringes are seen in front of the BioNTech and Pfizer logos in this illustration taken on November 10, 2020. REUTERS / Dado Ruvic

WASHINGTON – U.S. regulators were due to meet Thursday to evaluate Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency approval, as the country posted one of the worst daily death toll from COVID-19 with more than 3,000 people lost to the pandemic. .

Other countries in the Northern Hemisphere were also dealing with a sudden increase in the winter virus, as the number of global infections approached 70 million with more than 1.5 million deaths.

It is not confirmed when the US Food and Drug Administration will issue the emergency authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, but Health Secretary Alex Azar indicated officials have early next week in mind.

“Now we can do something that will hopefully end this … pandemic,” said Terri White, a nurse education specialist at UW Health in the state of Wisconsin, where staff are being trained to administer the vaccine.

“I know our entire team is really excited about that prospect … to help get our lives back to normal.”

Top US government scientists said, however, that people with a known history of severe allergic reactions would be asked not to take the Pfizer vaccine, following a similar warning in Britain.

The United States is the worst affected nation in the world, with more than 15 million known infections and nearly 290,000 deaths.

US Army Gen. Gus Perna, who oversees logistics across the country, said he had given the order Wednesday to begin distributing syringes, needles, alcohol wipes and diluents needed for the Pfizer vaccine, a process that is expected to is completed on Friday.

The next vaccines to receive approval could be those made by Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, probably in that order.

The United States expects to vaccinate 20 million people this month, with residents of long-term care facilities and healthcare workers at the front of the line. The goal is to reach 100 million by the end of February and the entire population by June.

‘I am very excited’

After Britain applied the first approved vaccines in the Western world, Canada also approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Wednesday.

The first shipments to 14 Canadian sites are slated to arrive Monday, with people receiving vaccines a day or two later, according to Maj. Gen. Dany Fortin, the commander tasked with coordinating the distribution.

Health workers and vulnerable populations, including the elderly, will be the first to receive it.

“I am very excited. I want to get vaccinated as soon as possible because I have a new baby,” Toronto resident Michelle told AFP.

“She is less than six months old and obviously my main concern throughout the pandemic has been to protect her.”

Israel accepted its first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine on Wednesday, with the goal of launching it on Dec. 27, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to be the first to be injected, although the vaccine has yet to overcome regulatory hurdles there.

Both Russia and China have already started inoculation campaigns with domestically produced vaccines.

‘I hope better days come’

As European countries eagerly await vaccines, the EU medical regulator was hit by a cyber attack in which documents related to the Pfizer vaccine were accessed, the firm said Wednesday.

The European Medicines Agency has promised to reach a decision on the conditional approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine before December 29, and the decision on Moderna’s candidate will be made on January 12.

But while the wealthiest nations have the financial and logistical capacities to implement vaccines, there are concerns that the poorest and most vulnerable parts of the world will be left behind.

African Union President Moussa Faki Mahamat said Wednesday that “those who have the (financial) means should not monopolize vaccines.”

At an annual Christmas toy and food raffle in a poor neighborhood in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where Mrs. Santa Claus was hugging children behind a plastic “hug curtain”, people waited for her to end. suffering.

“I hope better days are coming,” said Valmira Pereira, a house cleaner. “That next year we will be able to give real hugs, to feel that human warmth that we all miss.”

/ MUF

Read next

Don’t miss the latest news and information.