Issued on: 25/08/2021 -
Paris (AFP)
The slow rollout of coronavirus vaccines will cost the global economy $2.3 trillion in lost output, a report released Wednesday found.
The Economist Intelligence Unit's study found that emerging and developing economies, whose vaccine rollouts are far behind those of wealthier countries, will bear the brunt of those losses.
The report comes as advanced nations move towards providing booster shots to their populations while the international effort to provide vaccines for poorer nations remains inadequate.
The study calculated that countries which fail to vaccinate 60 percent of their populations by mid-2022 will suffer the losses, equivalent to two trillion euros, over the 2022-2025 period.
"Emerging countries will shoulder around two-thirds of these losses, further delaying their economic convergence with more developed countries," the EIU said.
It warned the delayed rollout of vaccines could fuel resentment, increasing the risk of social unrest in developing economies.
The Asia-Pacific Region will be the worst hit in absolute terms, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the losses.
But as a percentage of GDP, sub-Saharan Africa will suffer the worst losses.
Around 60 percent of the population of higher-income countries received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine as of late August, compared to just one percent in poorer nations, according to the study. Two doses are required to be fully vaccinated for most shots.
"Vaccination campaigns are progressing at a glacial pace in lower-income economies," it said.
The report's author, Agathe Demarais, said the international effort to provide coronavirus vaccines to poor nations, Covax, has failed to live up to its even modest expectations.
"There is little chance that the divide over access to vaccines will ever be bridged" with rich countries providing only a fraction of what is needed, she said in a statement.
"Finally, the focus in developed economies is shifting towards administering booster doses of coronavirus vaccines, which will compound shortages of raw materials and production bottlenecks," she added.
The EIU said its study was conducted by combining its in-house forecasts for vaccination timelines in around 200 countries with GDP growth forecasts.
© 2021 AFP
A Bedouin paramedic swabs her patient for a coronavirus vaccine booster shot at a medical center in the Bedouin town of Rahat in the southern Negev, Israel, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
By: Scripps National
Posted at Aug 23, 2021
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization has called for a two-month moratorium on administering booster shots of COVID-19 vaccines as a means of reducing global vaccine inequality and preventing the emergence of new coronavirus variants.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Hungary’s capital Monday that he was “really disappointed” with the scope of vaccine donations worldwide.
He called on countries offering third vaccine doses to forward what they would use for booster shots to other countries so they can increase their vaccination coverage.
Tedros said that vaccine injustice and vaccine nationalism increase the risk of more contagious variants like the delta variant emerging.
Several countries have started giving the COVID-19 booster shot or plan to administer it in the fall.
The U.S. will begin offering booster shots in September to people who were fully vaccinated eight months prior. President Joe Biden was asked about whether the U.S. should be giving booster shots while other countries struggle to get the vaccine. He said that the U.S. can help other countries and offer booster shots to its people.
"We can take care of America and help the world at the same time," Biden said.
The Biden administration announced in early August that it had donated 110 million COVID-19 vaccines to 65 different countries.
By Rachael Rettner
But health professionals say you should still get vaccinated.
A nurse administers the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to a man at a community outreach event in Los Angeles on Aug. 22, 2021. (Image credit: REDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
The delta variant has dealt a blow to COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness, which has dropped by about 25 percentage points since the variant became the dominant strain of coronavirus in the U.S., a new study among healthcare workers finds.
The study, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that the vaccines' effectiveness against COVID-19 infections declined from 91% prior to the delta variant's emergence, to 66% after the rise of the delta variant in the summer.
Despite this "moderate reduction," health officials stressed that "the sustained two-thirds reduction in infection risk underscores the continued importance and benefits of COVID-19 vaccination," the authors wrote in the study, published Tuesday (Aug. 24) in the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
Related: How deadly is the coronavirus delta variant?
The study is based on information from more than 4,000 health care workers in six U.S. states (Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas and Utah), from mid-December 2020 through mid-August 2021. During the study period (both before and after the rise of the delta variant), the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against infection was 80%, the study found.
Eight-three percent of healthcare workers in the study were vaccinated; 65% had received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 33% had received the Moderna vaccine and 2% had received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The researchers say their finding showing a decline in vaccine effectiveness after the rise of delta should be interpreted with caution, because vaccine effectiveness may also be declining as a result of the increased time since people were vaccinated. In other words, people's immunity may have waned somewhat with the passage of time, rather than just as the result of a new variant.
RELATED CONTENT
—14 coronavirus myths busted by science
—'The war has changed,' against new delta variant, internal CDC presentation says
—28 devastating infectious diseases
The study also did not examine the severity of the infections. But a second CDC study, also published Tuesday in MMWR, did examine severity by looking at the rate of hospitalizations for COVID-19 among vaccinated and unvaccinated people in Los Angeles.
This second study, which examined more than 43,000 COVID-19 infections among L.A. residents from May 1 through July 25, 2021, found that 71.4% of infections were among unvaccinated people, 25.3% of infections were among fully vaccinated people and 3.3% of infections were among partially vaccinated people. At the end of the study period, the COVID-19 infection rate among unvaccinated people was nearly 5 times higher, and the hospitalization rate nearly 30 times higher, than the rate among fully vaccinated people.
"These infection and hospitalization rate data indicate that authorized vaccines were protective against SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19 during a period when transmission of the delta variant was increasing," the authors wrote. "Efforts to increase COVID-19 vaccination, in coordination with other prevention strategies, are critical to preventing COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths."
Dolly Parton touches on decision to fund Moderna vaccine
Singer-songwriter Dolly Parton recently sat down for a chat and got candid about her decision to fund the Moderna vaccine research during the start of the pandemic.
The singer got candid about it all during her interview with told U.K.'s Absolute Radio.
There she was quoted saying, “When the pandemic came out, I just felt kind of led to do something because I knew something bad was on the rise, and I just wanted to kind of help with that, so I donated to help with that. Mine was a small part, of course.”
For those unversed, Parton has donated over $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
There she claimed, “I probably get a lot more credit than I deserve, but I was happy to be part of that and to be able to try to stop something in its tracks that's really become such a monster for all of us.”
“So I was happy to do that. My heart just kind of leads me into where I'm supposed go and what I'm supposed to do at the time.”
When will the Moderna vaccine get FDA approval?
Updated: Aug. 23, 2021,
Moderna’s two-shot vaccine continues to be available under emergency use authorization only.Gerald Herbert | AP Photo
By Katherine Rodriguez | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Now that the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19 has received full U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, many want to know: When will the Moderna vaccine receive the same approval?
Moderna’s two-shot vaccine continues to be available under emergency use authorization only.
The company announced in June it started a “rolling submission” to the FDA of data from its COVID-19 vaccine studies.
“We are pleased to announce this important step in the U.S. regulatory process for a Biologics License Application (BLA) of our COVID-19 vaccine,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a press release at the time. “We look forward to working with the FDA and will continue to submit data from our Phase 3 study and complete the rolling submission.”
Moderna submitted its Biologics License Application to the FDA about one month after Pfizer’s submission, meaning that full approval of its vaccine could be coming up within the next few weeks.
Large-scale studies have also continued on Moderna’s vaccines after the company gained emergency use authorization for them.
It is now up to the FDA to scrutinize the data to see if the vaccine meets the criteria for full approval.
Up until Monday, Pfizer’s vaccine was available through emergency use authorization, which the FDA authorized in December 2020 for those ages 16 and older.
The drugmaker then presented a Biologics License Application to the FDA on May 7 for patients 16 and older. The FDA approved that application Monday.
Related stories about COVID-19:
What does FDA approval mean for the COVID vaccine?
Will everyone get COVID at some point?
What is an endemic? Could COVID become an endemic?
The Delta variant symptoms to look out for if you are fully vaccinated
No comments:
Post a Comment