WHO says don't dismiss AstraZeneca shot after South Africa delays jabs
GENEVA, Switzerland — The World Health Organization insisted Monday that the AstraZeneca vaccine was still a vital tool in the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic, after South Africa delayed the start of its inoculation programme over concerns about its efficacy against a virus variant.
"It is vastly too early to be dismissing this vaccine," said Richard Hatchett, who heads the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which co-leads the Covax vaccine facility with the WHO and Gavi after the AstraZeneca shot ran into a number of setbacks, including questions about its efficacy for over-65s.
"It is absolutely crucial to use the tools that we have as effectively as we possibly can," he said, speaking at the WHO's regular bi-weekly press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is currently a vital part of Covax, which was set up to procure COVID-19 vaccines and ensure their equitable distribution around the world.
It accounts for almost all of the 337.2 million vaccine doses Covax is preparing to begin shipping to some 145 countries during the first half of the year, once it receives WHO authorisation, which is expected next week.
But a trial at Johannesburg's University of Witwatersrand, concluded the vaccine provided only "minimal" protection against mild to moderate COVID-19 caused by the variant first detected in South Africa.
That was bad news for many poorer nations counting on the logistical advantages offered by the AstraZeneca shot.
South Africa, the continent's hardest-hit nation, had been due to start its campaign in the coming days with a million AstraZeneca doses.
However, the government decided to hold off because of the results from the trial.
"It's a temporary issue that we have to hold on AstraZeneca until we figure out these issues," Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told reporters on Sunday.
South Africa has 1.5 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses, which will expire in April.
AstraZeneca, which developed the shot with the University of Oxford, also stood by its product.
"We do believe our vaccine will still protect against severe disease," it told AFP.
A company spokesperson said researchers were already working to update the vaccine to deal with the South African variant spreading rapidly around the world.
Russian virus deaths
Worldwide, according to official figures, the coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 2.3 million lives worldwide out of more than 106 million known infections.
Russia has recorded a dramatic increase in mortality in 2020 fuelled by the coronavirus pandemic, according to new data published by the Rosstat agency.
The figures showed that between April, when the pandemic hit Russia, and December, the country saw 162,429 coronavirus-related fatalities.
However, as of Monday, the official total released by Russia's health officials stood at only 77,068 virus deaths.
As inoculation programmes are rolled out around the world, Facebook announced Monday it would ban groups that repeatedly spread false claims about the virus and vaccines in general.
The social media giant has updated a list of debunked claims about the virus and existing vaccines with the help of the WHO.
Facebook's critics, however, were unimpressed.
"Facebook has been promising to crack down on Covid and anti-vaxx misinformation for the past year," the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate wrote on Twitter.
"Every time, it fails to meet these headline announcements with action."
Worse than we thought: Biden
Efforts are under way in the United States, the hardest-hit nation, to accelerate its mass vaccination programme, which has been plagued by supply and logistics issues.
The more contagious and possibly more dangerous British variant of the virus is spreading rapidly across the country, said a new study posted online Sunday.
Although yet to be peer-reviewed, it does offer the most comprehensive look at the rise of the variant, known as B.1.1.7. Scientists led by researchers at The Scripps Research Institute analysed half a million test samples collected across the country since last summer.
President Joe Biden, who took office last month, said his predecessor Donald Trump's handling of the pandemic "was even more dire than we thought", in an interview with CBS News Sunday.
There was less vaccine available than they had initially been led to believe, he said.
The United States is the country that has suffered most from the virus, recording more than 463,000 deaths.
Schools reopened Monday in Romania, Denmark and Austria. Museums and shops were also due to reopen in Austria.
But the Netherlands decided to extend its overnight curfew to March 2, because of the more contagious coronavirus variants circulating. The measure has already provoked riots there.
On Tuesday, an international team of experts in China investigating how the outbreak started will speak to the media in Wuhan on Tuesday, the WHO announced.
The briefing, at 4:00pm local time (0800 GMT) at a hotel in the city, will be live-streamed in English on the UN health agency's digital and social media platforms.
The first COVID-19 cases were detected in Wuhan in December 2019.
Scientists think the disease originated in bats and could have been transmitted to humans via another mammal.
But there are no definitive answers so far and top WHO officials have played down the chances of the sensitive investigation mission finding them on the first attempt. — with AFP bureaus
Pharma giants Sanofi and GSK said on July 29, 2020, that they have agreed to supply Britain with up to 60 million doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine. The agreement covers a vaccine candidate developed by France's Sanofi in partnership with the UK's GSK and is subject to a "final contract."
This thread collects some of the major developments in the search for a vaccine to ease the new coronavirus pandemic. (Main photo by AFP/Joel Saget)
As negotiations towards a new pandemic treaty pick up pace, observers warn of watered-down efforts to ensure equitable access to the medical products needed to battle future Covid-like threats.
Shaken by the pandemic, the World Health Organization's 194 member states are negotiating an international accord aimed at ensuring countries are better equipped to deal with the next catastrophe, or even prevent it altogether.
The process is still in the early stages, with the aim of reaching an agreement by May 2024.
But critics warn that revisions being made to the preliminary negotiating text are weakening the language -- notably in a key area aimed at preventing the rampant inequity seen in access to vaccines and other medical products during the Covid pandemic.
"I think it is a real step backwards," Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute, told AFP. — AFP
Africa's first mRNA vaccine hub is ceremonially launched on Thursday to acclaim from the UN's global health chief, who hailed it as a historic shift to help poor countries gain access to life-saving jabs.
The facility was set up in the South African city of Cape Town in 2021 on the back of the success of revolutionary anti-Covid vaccines introduced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
"This precious project... will bring a paradigm shift in addressing the serious problem we faced, the equity problem, during the pandemic, so (that) it's not repeated again," World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tells a media briefing to mark the inauguration. — AFP
China has approved its first locally developed messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine against Covid-19, its manufacturer said Wednesday, months after the relaxation of strict Covid-zero regulations sparked a surge in cases.
The vaccine, developed by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd, has been approved for "emergency use" by Beijing's health regulator, the company said in a statement.
It showed high efficacy in a trial in which it was used as a booster shot for people who have been given other types of vaccines, the company added, without offering further details. — AFP
COVID-19 vaccine maker Novavax raises doubts about its ability to continue its business, announcing plans to cut spending after struggles in rolling out its coronavirus jab.
Shares of Novavax plummeted 25 percent in extended trading, after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates.
While the firm should have enough money to fund operations, the situation is "subject to significant uncertainty," it says in a statement. — AFP
The protection against Covid-19 from being previously infected lasts at least as long as that offered by vaccination, one of the largest studies conducted on the subject says.
Ten months after getting Covid, people still had an 88% lower risk of reinfection, hospitalisation and death, according to the study published in the Lancet journal.
That makes this natural immunity "at least as durable, if not more so" than two doses of Pfizer or Moderna's vaccines, the study says.
The authors nevertheless emphasized that their findings should not discourage vaccination, which remains the safest way to get immunity. — AFP
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