Urgent need for new vaccine
United States health advisers have endorsed a one-dose Covid19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, putting the nation on the cusp of adding an easier-touse option to fight the pandemic.
The acting head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said the agency would move quickly to follow the recommendation, which would make J&J’s shot the third vaccine authorised for emergency use in the US.
Vaccinations are picking up speed, but new supplies are urgently needed to stay ahead of a mutating virus that has killed more than 500,000 Americans.
After a day of discussions yesterday, the FDA panellists voted unanimously that the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks for adults. Once the FDA issues a final decision, shipments of several million doses could begin as early as tomorrow.
‘‘There’s an urgency to get this done,’’ said Dr Jay Portnoy of Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. ‘‘We’re in a race between the virus mutating – and new variants coming out that can cause further disease – and stopping it.’’
More than 47 million people in the US, or 14 per cent of the population, have received at least one shot of the two-dose vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, which the FDA authorised in December. But the pace of vaccinations has been strained by limited supplies and delays due to winter storms.
While early J&J supplies will be small, the company has said it can deliver 20 million doses by the end of March, and a total of 100 million by the end of June.
J&J’s vaccine protects against the worst effects of Covid-19, and can be stored for up to three months at refrigerator temperatures. The previous vaccines must be frozen.
Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations in the US have fallen dramatically since their January peak. But public health officials have warned that those gains may be stalling as more variants take root across the country.
■ The United Nations Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution demanding that all warring parties immediately institute a ‘‘sustained humanitarian pause’’ to enable the unhindered delivery of Covid-19 vaccines and the vaccination of millions of people in conflict areas.
The British-drafted resolution yesterday, co-sponsored by 112 countries, reiterated the council’s demand made last July 1 for ‘‘a general and immediate cessation of hostilities’’ in major conflicts from Syria and Yemen to Central African Republic, Mali and Sudan and Somalia.
Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward, the current council president, said the resolution would help to bring vaccines to 160 million people in conflict areas or displaced by conflict.
The council also called for donations of vaccines from richer developed nations to lowand middle-income countries and other countries in need, including through the COVAX Facility, the ambitious World Health Organisation (WHO) programme to buy and deliver coronavirus vaccines for the world’s poorest people.
Ivory Coast yesterday became the second country to receive a shipment of vaccines from Covax, with 504,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India.
The vaccines arrived in the commercial capital, Abidjan, as part of the first wave of vaccines sent by Covax. The first shipment was sent to Ghana on Thursday, marking the beginning of the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history, according to the WHO and Unicef.
Some 24 other countries are expected to start receiving vaccines via Covax next week.
The US has praised Tanzania for finally acknowledging the resurgence of Covid-19, after claiming for months that it had defeated the pandemic through prayer – and is urging the country to share infection data and accept vaccines.
High-profile deaths this month, including that of the vicepresident of the semiautonomous island region of Zanzibar, appeared to lead Tanzania’s populist President John Magufuli to acknowledge publicly this week that Covid-19 was back.
Magufuli has openly questioned Covid-19 vaccines, without providing evidence. Tanzania is one of the few countries in Africa that has not signed up for Covax.
Tanzania last updated its number of infections last April. That figure remains at 509. Unlike other African countries, it did not lock down during the pandemic, and it has promoted this to tourists.