Pandemic not ending soon: WHO
GENEVA/WASHINGTON: A top World Health Organization (WHO) official has said it was premature to think the Covid-19 pandemic might be stopped by the end of the year.
The world’s focus 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.
Ryan said the WHO was reassured by data that many of the licensed vaccines appear to be helping curb the disease. But he warned against complacency. “Right now the virus is very much in control,” he said.
‘Trumps took jabs in Jan’
Former US president Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump privately received the coronavirus vaccine while still in office in January, aides familiar with the matter have disclosed, at a time when other public officials took shots on-camera to boost public confidence in coronavirus vaccines. The Trumps’ vaccinations were first reported by The New York Times. At the time, there were only two authorised vaccines available in the US - Pfizer and Moderna.
WTO waiver opposed
The US Chamber of Commerce said it opposed calls for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to back a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights to speed vaccine production in poor countries, calling them “misguided”.
In a statement, the influential US business lobby said it supported new WTO director general Ngozi Okonjo-iweala’s proposal to encourage more licensing agreements to produce vaccines.
France okays AZ for U75s
France will allow people under 75 years of age with existing health problems to get the Astrazeneca vaccine, the health minister said, departing from an earlier stance that the vaccine should be for under-65s only.
When the Astrazeneca vaccine was approved for use by EU regulators this year, France and other countries including Germany, Italy and Austria said it shouldn’t be given to the elderly, citing a lack of sufficient data.