Virus racing ahead of vaccines, warns WHO
UN health body chief says G7’s pledge to share a billion jabs isn’t adequate
GENEVA/LONDON: The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday that Covid-19 was moving faster than the vaccines, and said the G7’s vow to share a billion doses with poorer nations was simply not enough.
Global health leaders warned the pledge was too little, too late, with over 11 billion shots needed. Faced with outrage over disparities in jab access, the G7 powers pledged during a weekend summit in Britain to take their total dose donations to more than one billion, up from 130 million promised in February.
“I welcome the announcement that G7 countries will donate 870 million [more] vaccine doses, primarily through Covax,” WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said. “This is a big help, but we need more, and we need them faster. Right now, the virus is moving faster than the global distribution of vaccines. More than 10,000 people are dying every day... these communities need vaccines, and they need them now, not next year.”
While people in many wealthy nations are seeing a return to a sense of normalcy thanks to high vaccination rates, the shots remain scarce in less well-off parts of the world.
In terms of doses administered, the imbalance between the G7 and low-income countries, as defined by the World Bank, is 73 to one.
In China’s Wuhan, a huge red banner on Tuesday welcomed more than 11,000 students for a massive graduation ceremony over a year after the city was battered by the first global outbreak of Covid-19.
Students sat in crowded rows, without social distancing or face masks, beneath the sign that read, “Welcoming the graduates of 2020 back home. We wish you all a great future.”
Covid-19 first emerged in late 2019 in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, sending the city of 11 million into one of the world’s strictest lockdowns. Restrictions were not eased until April when the city started to reopen after 76 days closed off, although schools remained shut for longer.
The city held limited graduation ceremonies last year, with Wuhan University hosting a mostly online event in June last year. More than 2,200 students at Sunday’s ceremony were graduates who could not attend their graduation last year due to tight virus restrictions.
AstraZeneca hits snag in Covid drug development
AstraZeneca’s antibody cocktail was only 33% effective at preventing Covid-19 symptoms in people who had been exposed to the virus, failing a study that was key to the drugmaker’s pandemic push.
The trial of 1,121 adult volunteers looked at whether the longacting antibody combination could protect people who had recently been in contact with the Sars-CoV-2 virus in places like care homes.