Financial Times: Cost of vaccinating billions against Covid-19 put at more than $20bn
“The cost to immunize people around the world against coronavirus is likely to exceed $20bn, far surpassing the initial fundraising target of $8bn set for an E.U.-led donors’ meeting to be held on Monday, global health organizations say. International health bodies suggest the full cost could reach $25bn, once funding needed to produce doses in vast numbers and distribute them globally is taken into account…” (Peel/Jack, 5/3).

New York Times: Profits and Pride at Stake, the Race for a Vaccine Intensifies
“…Seven of the roughly 90 projects being pursued by governments, pharmaceutical makers, biotech innovators, and academic laboratories have reached the stage of clinical trials. With political leaders — not least President Trump — increasingly pressing for progress, and with big potential profits at stake for the industry, drug makers and researchers have signaled that they are moving ahead at unheard-of speeds. But the whole enterprise remains dogged by uncertainty about whether any coronavirus vaccine will prove effective, how fast it could be made available to millions or billions of people and whether the rush — compressing a process that can take 10 years into 10 months — will sacrifice safety…” (Sanger et al., 5/2).

POLITICO: Fears rise that Trump will incite a global vaccine brawl
“…On Monday, the European Union is hosting a gathering for countries to pledge funding for research into vaccines and treatments for Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. But once again the U.S. government isn’t expected to participate. … The fear is that Trump will be content with allowing the race to develop and distribute the vaccine to devolve into a global contest — and that poorer countries will be left behind in the rush to procure doses. In essence: that the president’s ‘America First’ view of world affairs as an atavistic scramble for power will lead to unnecessary suffering and death…” (Toosi/Bertrand, 5/3).

Bloomberg: January? Autumn? Doctors Debate Arrival for Covid Vaccine (Krasny, 5/3).

Bloomberg: Covid Exit Strategy Depends on Getting Vaccine to Whole World (Paton, 5/1).

CNN: What happens if a coronavirus vaccine is never developed? It has happened before (Picheta, 5/4).

PA Media/The Guardian: Boris Johnson: Covid vaccine hunt is ‘most urgent endeavor of our lives’ (5/3).

POLITICO: Trump contradicts top health officials with vaccine timeline, malaria drug claims (Ollstein, 5/3).