AP: African health official blasts ‘terrible’ vaccine inequality
” ‘It will be extremely terrible to see’ rich countries receiving COVID-19 vaccines while African countries go without, especially as a new surge in cases begins on the continent of 1.3 billion people, Africa’s top public health official said Thursday. As the world watches mass vaccinations begin in Britain, Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director John Nkengasong has warned that Africa might not see vaccines until after the second quarter of 2021. Nkengasong urged the United Nations to summon a special session to discuss the ethical, fair distribution of vaccines to avoid ‘this North-South distrust in respect to vaccines, which is a common good’…” (Anna, 12/10).

Reuters: COVID-19 vaccine supply in Americas to take many months — WHO
“Latin American countries will not get enough COVID-19 vaccines for months when they come available and they should develop immunization plans focusing first on health workers and the elderly, the World Health Organization advised on Wednesday. Its regional branch for the Americas, PAHO, warned that vaccines being developed now will take months to arrive and supplies might not become sufficient until after 2021…” (Boadle, 12/9).

BRAZIL

PRI: Vaccine wars: Brazil needs China’s COVID-19 shot, but Bolsonaro prefers Oxford jab (Hackel, 12/9).

CANADA

Financial Times: Canada prepares to roll out Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine next week (Rocco/Kuchler, 12/9).

The Hill: Canada authorizes Pfizer coronavirus vaccine (Sullivan, 12/9).

CHINA

CNBC: Developing nations are first in line for China’s Covid vaccines. Analysts question Beijing’s intent (Ng, 12/9).

New York Times: Chinese Covid-19 Vaccine Gets Key Push, but Doubts Swirl (Wee, 12/9).

Science: Great efficacy claimed for another COVID-19 vaccine, this one from China (Cohen, 12/9).

INDIA

AP: India says it may approve vaccine in weeks, outlines plan (Ghosal, 12/9).

Reuters: Factbox — Indian pharma industry’s COVID-19 vaccine plans (12/10).

UNITED KINGDOM

CNN: How the U.K. beat the U.S. to Covid-19 vaccine authorization (Hassan, 12/9).

UNITED STATES

AP: Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine faces last hurdle before U.S. decision (Neergaard/Perrone, 12/10).

Devex: What Trump plans to do with America’s leftover COVID-19 vaccines (Igoe, 12/10).

The Hill: U.S. to distribute 2.9 million COVID-19 vaccine doses immediately upon FDA authorization (Bowden, 12/9).

Scientific American: FDA Commissioner Says Vaccine Approval Process Will Be Transparent and Guided by Data (Lewis, 12/10).