It’s unrealistic pandemic will end soon: WHO

A senior World Health Organization (WHO) official has said it was “premature” and “unrealistic” to think the pandemic might be stopped by the end of the year, but that the recent arrival of effective vaccines could at least help dramatically reduce hospitalisations and death.

The world’s singular focus right now should be to keep transmission of Covid-19 as low as possible, said Michael Ryan, director of WHO’s emergencies programme, on Monday.

“If we’re smart, we can finish with the hospitalisations and the deaths and the tragedy associated with this pandemic” by the end of the year, he said at media briefing.

Ryan said WHO was reassured by emerging data that many of the licensed vaccines appear to be helping curb the virus’s explosive spread. But Ryan warned against complacency, saying nothing was guaranteed. “Right now the virus is very much in control,” he said.

Trump received vaccine in January, says aide

Former US president Donald Trump privately received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine while still in office in January, aides familiar with the matter say, at a time when other public officials took shots on-camera to boost public confidence in the vaccines.

Trump and his wife, Melania, have now received both doses of vaccine, said one of the aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The vaccinations were first reported by The New York Times. At the time, there were only two authorised vaccines in the US - one made by Pfizer and the other by Moderna - each of which is administered in two doses.

US states easing curbs amid experts’ warnings

With the US vaccination drive picking up speed and a third formula on the way, states eager to reopen for business are easing coronavirus restrictions despite warnings from health experts that the outbreak is far from over and that moving too quickly could prolong the misery.

On Monday, the head of the CDC, Rochelle Walensky, urgently warned state officials and ordinary Americans not to let down their guard, saying she is “really worried about reports that more states are rolling back the exact public health measures that we have recommended”.

“I remain deeply concerned about a potential shift in the trajectory of the pandemic,” she said. “We cannot be resigned to 70,000 cases a day and 2,000 daily deaths.”

Twitter to boot users who persist with lies

Twitter said on Monday it will start labelling misleading tweets about Covid-19 vaccines and boot users who persist in spreading such misinformation. The messaging service introduced a “strike system” that will gradually escalate to a permanent ban after the fifth offending tweet.

“We believe the strike system will help further reduce the spread of potentially harmful and misleading information,” the company said in a blog post.