No rush for Covid-19 vaccine
The head of the World Health Organisation says the United Nations health agency will not recommend any Covid-19 vaccine before it is proved safe and effective, even as Russia and China have started using their experimental vaccines before large studies have finished, and other countries have proposed streamlining authorisation procedures.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday vaccines had been used successfully for decades, and he credited them with eradicating smallpox and bringing polio to the brink of being eliminated.
‘‘I would like to assure the public that WHO will not endorse a vaccine that’s not effective and safe,’’ Tedros said.
He appealed to people opposed to vaccination to do their own research. ‘‘The anti-vaccine movement, they can build narratives to fight against vaccines, but the track record of vaccines tells its own story and people should not be confused,’’ he said, appealing to parents in particular.
Last week, Britain said it was preparing to revise its laws so that any effective coronavirus vaccine could be used before it was fully licensed.
Russia became the first country in the world to approve a Covid-19 vaccine, in August, after licensing a shot that had only been tested in several dozen people.
Russian scientists yesterday published data from early studies suggesting that their vaccine was safe and prompted an antibody response, but the
results were limited, and experts said the shot had not yet proven to work.
The Russian vaccine, known as Sputnik V, is now being tested in about 40,000 people and is being offered ‘‘in parallel’’ to key workers like doctors and teachers.
Among those who have received it are one of President Vladimir Putin’s daughters and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.
China has reportedly begun inoculating some high-risk groups with one of its experimental coronavirus vaccines while the large studies
to prove its efficacy and safety are continuing.
■ Unmasked anti-lockdown protesters were arrested by police during violent scuffles in Melbourne yesterday.
Officers were punched by one man at the city’s Shrine of Remembrance. He was one of more than 20 people arrested at the scene.
Up to 300 people gathered at the shrine. The demonstration later moved towards Albert Park, where police surrounded a group of about 30 to 50 protesters and arrested many of them.
Police are on standby for
rallies across Victoria after plans were aired to challenge the state’s strict lockdown rules, which include an 8pm to 5am curfew, and limited travel and time away from home. A pregnant Ballarat woman was arrested over allegations of a separate rally planned there.
As the protest happened, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was updating the daily coronavirus statistics with 11 more people who had died and another 76 cases.
■ India’s coronavirus cases topped 4 million yesterday, leading the world in new infections and closing in on Brazil’s total as the secondhighest in the world.
The 86,432 cases added in the past 24 hours pushed India’s total to 4,023,179. Brazil has confirmed 4,091,801 infections, while the United States has 6,200,186 people infected, according to Johns Hopkins University.
India’s Health Ministry also reported 1089 deaths, for a total of 69,561. Initially, the virus ravaged India’s sprawling and often densely populated cities. It has since spread to almost every state, through villages and smaller cities where access to health care is crippled.
The country’s delayed response to the virus forced the government to implement a harsh lockdown in late March. For more than two months, the economy remained shuttered.
Most of India’s cases are in western Maharashtra state and the four southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. New surges are being recorded in the country’s vast hinterlands.
Even as testing in India has increased to over a million a day, a growing reliance on screening for antigens or viral proteins is creating more problems. These tests are cheaper and yield faster results but aren’t as accurate. The danger is that the tests may falsely clear many who are infected with Covid-19.
In Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state with a limited healthcare system, the situation is already grim. With 253,175 cases and 3762 deaths, the heartland state is facing a shortage of hospital beds and other health infrastructure.