Category: Health

Walgreens pharmacist Jessica Sahni will hold the vaccine against Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the New Jewish Home in New York on December 21, 2020.

Yuki Iwamura | Reuters

Pfizer said it had fully enrolled its Covid-19 vaccine study in children ages 12-15, an important step before the vaccine could be used in that age group.

The study, an extension of the study used to support the company’s emergency approval for the vaccine in people aged 16 and over, enrolled 2,259 children between the ages of 12 and 15, Pfizer told CNBC on Friday. The entry on a government clinical trial website has been updated to determine that subjects are no longer being recruited.

The vaccine developed with German partner BioNTech was approved in December for people aged 16 and over. Studies in younger age groups are needed to ensure the correct dose as well as safety and effectiveness in these different groups, said Dr. Evan Anderson, a pediatrician at Emory University School of Medicine.

“I am very uncomfortable sending my children back to school where, despite the school’s best efforts, there is a real risk of getting Covid-19,” Anderson told CNBC in October.

While children are less affected by Covid-19 than adults, they still catch the virus and get sick. Some even died. According to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, more than 2.5 million cases of Covid-19 in children were reported as of Jan. 14, about 13% of all cases.

“Children can still get sick and die from Covid-19,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an infectious disease doctor at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital. “In the past year, as many children died of Covid-19 as of influenza. And we recommend an influenza vaccine for children.”

Offit also pointed out that children can suffer from a disease related to Covid-19 called multisystem inflammatory syndrome, “which can be debilitating”.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Jan. 8, there were 1,659 cases of the syndrome in children named MIS-C and 26 related deaths. There were a total of 78 deaths from Covid-19 in children under 4 years old and 178 in children between 5 and 17 years old, according to CDC data, although those numbers do not explain all deaths from the United States

Children compete for class at PS 361 on the first day of returning to class during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, United States, on December 7, 2020.

Carlo Allegri | Reuters

Pfizer declined to say when it expected results from the study, which would depend on the observed infection rate, to compare the rates in the placebo group with those who received the vaccine. With infection rates higher in the US since the fall – the 7-day average of daily cases now stands at 187,500, according to a CNBC analysis of the Johns Hopkins University data – vaccine effectiveness studies have shown their ads are getting faster.

However, enrollment for adolescent studies has been slower than hoped, at least for Moderna’s study in children ages 12-17, Moncef Slaoui, chief advisor to Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine effort, said at their last meeting on Dec. January.

By then, around 800 children had been included in the study for over a month, of which around 3,000 were needed. Moderna’s vaccine was approved for people aged 18 and over in December, weeks after its teenage study began. Pfizer lowered the age of his trial to 12 years in October.

“While enrollment was lower during the holiday season, we expect an increase in the new year as planned,” said Moderna spokeswoman Colleen Hussey on Friday. “We are on track to provide updated data by mid-2021.”

AstraZeneca, whose vaccine developed by Oxford University is in late-stage trials in the US and approved in the UK, told CNBC Friday that it plans to continue UK trials in a new protocol for children ages 5-18 from the coming months. “”

Johnson & Johnson, whose results are expected in the third phase in adults, said it was in talks with regulators about including pediatric populations in its development plan. The same technology used for the Covid-19 vaccine was found to have been used in vaccines given to more than 200,000 people, including people over 65, infants, children, HIV-positive adults, and pregnant women .

Typically, vaccine trials are conducted in younger age groups after they have been shown to be safe and effective in older groups. The manufacturers of Covid-19 vaccines have indicated that they will follow this plan here as well.

Moderna’s chief executive Stephane Bancel said earlier this month the company is unlikely to have data on children ages 11 and younger who would include a lower dose before next year. He said he expected data for children 12 years and older could be available before September.

U.S. public health officials such as White House Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anthony Fauci, said they hope that by fall 75% to 80% of the US population could be vaccinated so life can return to some form of normal.

About 78% of the US population, or 255 million people, are over 18 years old, according to a CNBC analysis of the census data. Another 25 million people are between 12 and 17 years old.

Fauci did not immediately respond to a query about the need to include children in vaccinations in order to meet his goal of 75% to 80% coverage.

“It is important that all children are vaccinated, and manufacturers cannot conduct these trials fast enough,” Angela Rasmussen, virologist and subsidiary at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Safety, told CNBC on Friday. “The more people of all ages are vaccinated, the better.”

United States President Joe Biden speaks about his administration’s plans to respond to the economic crisis during a Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Response in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on January 22, 2021.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

President Joe Biden painted a dire picture of the coronavirus outbreak in the nation in his early days in office, warning that it will be months before the course of the pandemic changes and that the death toll is expected to be over the next several weeks will increase dramatically.

“A lot of Americans hurt. The virus is on the rise. We have 400,000 deaths that are expected to reach well over 600,000,” Biden said Friday, before signing two executive orders that reduce hunger and amid workers’ rights the pandemic should strengthen.

The US exceeded 400,000 total Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday, a quarter of them in the past 36 days. This is based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. On Biden’s first full day as president on Thursday, he told reporters after meeting his Covid-19 advisors, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation is likely to top 500,000 Covid-19 deaths in February.

Biden warned Friday that the outbreak continues: “There is nothing we can do to change the course of the pandemic over the next few months.” The President has repeatedly warned that the situation is likely to get worse before it improves.

Although it wasn’t immediately made clear which projections Biden was referring to, a key projection by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that the US could reach 600,000 Covid-19 deaths by March if states relaxed social distancing mandates. However, the model’s current projections show that Covid-19 deaths will be just over 560,000 Covid-19 deaths by the end of April.

A spokesman for the Biden administration was not immediately available to comment on the president’s projections.

The United States has reported a drop in Covid-19 cases in the past few days, a glimmer of hope after a surge since the fall and during the winter holiday season. According to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data, the US reports an average of around 187,593 new Covid-19 cases every day, a 22% decrease from the previous week.

However, the nation is still “in a very grave situation,” Fauci said during his first press briefing at the White House under the new administration on Thursday, noting the country’s high death toll and overstretched hospital capacity.

Fauci said the daily number of cases appears to be plateauing and is turning around based on the weekly average. It’s possible the decline is still due to reduced reporting after the holidays, he added.

“When we see that we think it’s real,” said Fauci.

Biden’s warnings come as the country races to get 100 million Covid-19 vaccine shots administered within the first 100 days of its administration. The introduction of the vaccine in the nation has been slow to start, despite health experts having said Biden’s goal of 100 million shots is feasible.

The rate of vaccinations has increased over the past week. The US administered 1.6 million Covid-19 vaccines between Thursday and Friday. This is based on recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that 100 million shots in 100 days would be a viable target if this daily count continued.

Biden has dismissed the idea that the target might be too low a threshold, claiming that he was told before he took office that the target might be too high. Biden’s spokesman did not respond to CNBC’s question regarding the president’s comments.

“I find it fascinating that yesterday the press asked, ‘Is 100 million enough?’ The week before they said, “Biden, are you crazy? You cannot make 100 million in 100 days, “said the president during the press conference on Friday.” God willing, we will not just do 100 million, we will do more than that. “

– CNBC’s Jacob Pramuk and Nate Rattner contributed to this report.

Scientists work in a laboratory testing COVID-19 samples at the New York City Health Department during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in New York on April 23, 2020.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

New York State runs about 1,000 genome tests every week to look for new, contagious variants of Covid, said state health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, at a news conference on Friday.

“The new varieties are terrifying: the British variety, the Brazilian variety, now the South African variety,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo at the briefing. “The British variety is here.”

Zucker said the state has done about 6,000 genome tests so far and only found the strain that came from the UK. New York officials have so far identified 25 of these cases, including two new cases in Westchester County and one new case in Kings County. Said Cuomo. According to Zucker, there were no deaths in these cases.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters on Friday that there was “some evidence” that the mutated strain could also be more deadly than the original, which hailed from Wuhan, China.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously said there was no evidence that any of the new variants were more deadly or causing more serious illness.

When asked about the potential for higher mortality associated with the British tribe, Zucker said he was in contact with the British science advisor and the evidence is still preliminary.

“The fact that it’s more communicable means there will be more cases. If there are more cases, there will be more hospitalizations, and obviously if there are more hospitalizations there is an obvious risk of more deaths,” Zucker said.

At the briefing, Cuomo said he hoped that President Joe Biden’s new administration would boost vaccine production and enable increased vaccine distribution. New York had given more than 975,000 people at least one dose of the vaccine as of Thursday, according to the state vaccine tracker.

“The British tribe is spreading. We still only have a vaccination rate of 60% to 70% of our hospital workers. This is a problem,” said Cuomo.

Allyson Black, a registered U.S. Air Force nurse, is serving Covid-19 patients in a makeshift intensive care unit at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California on January 21, 2021.

Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON – Health experts have warned that despite restrictions, the US is likely to struggle to contain the spread of a highly infectious variant of coronavirus, underscoring the importance of taking aggressive action immediately to protect as many people as possible.

The variant, which was first discovered in the UK and known as B.1.1.7, has an unusually high number of mutations and is associated with more efficient and faster transmission.

There is no evidence that the mutant strain is associated with more severe disease outcomes. However, because it is more transmissible, more people are likely to be infected, which can lead to a higher number of serious infections and further deaths.

Scientists first discovered this mutated strain of the virus in September. The worrying variant has since been detected in at least 44 countries, including the US, which has reported its presence in 12 states.

Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the US variant’s modeled trajectory “is growing rapidly in early 2021 and will become the predominant variant in March”.

The forecast suggests Britain, which has seen the strain grow exponentially in the months since its discovery, will struggle to control its effects.

How is the situation in the UK?

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced lockdown measures in England on January 5th, ordering people to “stay at home” as most schools, bars and restaurants had to close. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have similar measures in place.

The restrictions, which are expected to remain in England through at least mid-February, were put in place to ease the burden on already stressed hospitals in the country amid the surge in Covid admissions.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a press conference on Coronavirus (COVID-19) on Downing Street on January 15, 2021 in London, England.

Dominic Lipinski | Getty Images

Government figures released on Thursday said the UK had 37,892 new Covid cases with 1,290 deaths. A day earlier, the UK saw a record high in Covid deaths when data showed an additional 1,820 people had died within 28 days of a positive Covid test.

Dr. Deepti Gurdasani, clinical epidemiologist at Queen Mary University in London, stressed that the UK response suggests that the variant will spread rapidly geographically and increase its incidence if aggressive measures are not taken immediately to curb the spread of the virus in places where it has established itself in the community. “

Gurdasani cited results of a closely watched study conducted by researchers at Imperial College London that showed “no signs of a decrease” in Covid rates between January 6-15, despite England being locked, “suggesting that This is also the case with restrictions, and because of the higher transferability it is difficult to contain this effectively. “

Researchers in the study, published Thursday, warned that if the prevalence of the virus in the community were not significantly reduced, the UK healthcare system would remain under “extreme pressure” and the cumulative number of deaths would rise rapidly.

“All of this means that the window of opportunity for containment is very short. Given the lower level of active surveillance in the US, the variant may have spread more widely than expected and containment policy must reflect this,” Gurdasani said.

“This means strict containment efforts not just where the variant has been identified, but in all regions where it could have spread. And active surveillance with contact tracing to identify all possible cases, while maintaining strict restrictions to chains of transmission interrupt. “

Patients arrive in ambulances at the Royal London Hospital in London on January 5, 2021. The British Prime Minister made a national televised address on Monday evening, announcing that England would take action against the Covid-19 pandemic for the third time. This week, the UK recorded more than 50,000 new confirmed Covid cases for the seventh straight day.

Dan Kitwood | Getty Images News | Getty Images

To date, the UK has had the fifth highest number of confirmed Covid infections and related deaths in the world.

What measures should be considered in the US?

On his second day in office, President Joe Biden announced comprehensive measures to combat the virus, including the establishment of a Covid testing committee to improve testing, address supply shortages and provide direct funding to hard-hit minority communities.

Biden said the executive orders said, “Help is on the way.” He also warned it would take months “to reverse this”.

“The key to all of this is reducing human interactions, and the strategy must be broadly the same as it was before, what has worked elsewhere and much more,” said Dr. Simon Clarke, an associate professor of cell microbiology at the University of Reading, told CNBC over the phone.

Clarke said the U.S. states, for example, need to consider reducing the number of people in retail or recreational settings, and it might be necessary to close bars or limit their opening hours, as studies show that the risk of transmission is higher indoors is.

“None of these things we do to protect ourselves eliminate the risk, none of them make us Covid safe – all it does is reduce the chances of getting infected,” said Clarke.

“The virus has just pushed this back with this evolutionary step, and it will now be even more difficult to achieve the same level of protection.”

Introduce vaccines “as soon as possible”

“Everyone wants to believe that vaccines are the solution, and they’re going to make a huge difference, but it’s not the whole solution,” said Dr. Kit Yates, lecturer in mathematical biology at the University of Bath and author of “The Mathematics of Life and Death,” told CNBC over the phone.

Yates said the new US administration should do everything possible to introduce Covid vaccines “as soon as possible” to ease pressure on health facilities, but insisted that this should be part of a multi-faceted approach.

Some other measures U.S. states should consider, according to Yates: encouraging people to work from home if possible, physical distancing, improving ventilation in school, encouraging children to wear masks, giving financial support to these self-isolating and effective testing and tracing protocols.

“These are the boring, terrible, non-pharmaceutical measures that nobody wants, but the alternative is just too scary to think about.”

A medical worker fills a syringe with the Gam-COVID-Vac vaccine (under the brand name Sputnik V) in Butovo, in southern Moscow.

Sergei Savostyanov | TASS | Getty Images

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Russian vaccine Sputnik V Covid-19 saw a number of improvements on Thursday as Hungary and the United Arab Emirates became the first countries in the European Union and the Gulf region to register the emergency shot.

Hungary’s decision was confirmed by President Viktor Orban’s spokesman, who said that if the country agrees to a shipping agreement with Moscow, it will be the first EU country to receive the vaccine. This is because the country’s cases have fallen from a high of more than 6,000 a day in early December to below 2,000 a day.

“This decision is very important as it shows that over 90% of the vaccine’s safety and efficacy is valued by our partners in Hungary,” said Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, in a statement.

The EU drug regulator has not yet approved the Russian stab, although Chancellor Angela Merkel gave Sputnik further hope on Thursday, suggesting that the German vaccine regulator could advise Russia on steering the EU approval process. The RDIF has submitted Sputnik for EU registration and expects its review in February.

UAE approval comes amid a dramatic surge in infections

The UAE approval comes amid a record spike in cases in the little Gulf Sheikh, which excelled internationally by welcoming tourists and fully reopening its economy by late summer last year.

Confirmed coronavirus cases have more than tripled in about three weeks, prompting Emirati authorities to suspend unnecessary hospital surgery and “entertainment” activities in their busy hotels and restaurants just days after the country gave assurances that the virus was under Control was to fail.

The UAE’s daily number of cases hit a record high of 3,529 on Thursday, well above neighboring Gulf states, where registered infections are below 500 per day.

A man from the Emirates wearing a protective mask walks at al-Barsha Health Center in the Gulf of Dubai on December 24, 2020.

GIUSEPPE CACACE | AFP via Getty Images

Sputnik V will be the third vaccine to be used in the United Arab Emirates after China’s Sinopharm vaccine and the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine developed in the US and Germany were released to the public in December. The country of around 10 million people is running the second fastest national vaccination campaign in the world after Israel per capita, according to the government, and aims to vaccinate half of the country’s population by the end of March.

“The decision is part of the UAE’s comprehensive and integrated efforts to ensure a higher level of prevention,” the country’s health ministry said in a statement on Thursday about Sputnik’s approval. “The study results have demonstrated the vaccine’s effectiveness in eliciting a strong antibody response to the virus, its safety to use and its compliance with international safety and efficacy standards.”

Lack of late-stage experimental data

The approvals came despite detailed research data not yet published on the results of the phase 3 human vaccine study. The capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, began phase 3 testing for Sputnik V earlier this month but has not released any data on it. 1,000 volunteers in the emirate have received their first dose, according to RDIF.

Sputnik V, which according to its developer, the Gamaleya Research Institute, is 91% effective after two doses, has been used across Russia for months. Scientists expressed concern about what many have described as the rush to launch the vaccine, which gave the green light for mass use in Russia ahead of the completion of Phase 3 trials.

As the first step in the largest vaccination campaign in Argentina’s history, first line health workers are receiving the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus.

Patricio Murphy | SOPA pictures | LightRocket | Getty Images

Analysis of the phase 1 and phase 2 studies of the vaccine was published in The Lancet in September, which found that the initial results did not show any significant negative side effects, but further studies were required.

“The results of the Phase III clinical trials are expected to be published shortly,” according to the official Sputnik V.

Prior to Thursday’s announcements, it had been approved for emergencies in nine countries and territories outside Russia – Algeria, Argentina, Bolivia, Belarus, Serbia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Turkmenistan and the Palestinian Territories.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) blamed Walgreens and the federal government for the Garden State’s sluggish vaccine rollout during an interview Wednesday night on CNBC’s The News with Shepard Smith.

“The big reason is the federal program with CVS and Walgreens,” Murphy said. “They basically amassed these cans, they are planning visits to long-term care homes, they are extending their lives and they are suffering from their weight, especially at Walgreens, and that is where most of the remaining cans are.”

Murphy suggested to Shepard Smith that Walgreens “put more bodies on the case” to solve the rollout problem.

On Tuesday, Murphy said that New Jersey was effectively equipped to distribute the vaccine, but that all vendors were missing “are the vaccine doses.” New Jersey has a population of approximately 8,882 million people and has distributed 898,550 vaccines while only 432,220 of them have been administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pointing out the Covid vaccine doses under state control, Murphy said they get into people’s arms more efficiently.

“There aren’t many doses in hospitals or other distribution points that we directly control that are not in use,” Murphy said. “We get shot in the arms with all areas we can control.”

Smith pushed back with Murphy, insisting that “people lose” when it comes to the slow adoption of vaccines. There are currently more than 123,000 Americans in the hospital and an average of 3,000 people die each day, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data. The pandemic has killed more than 400,000 people since the pandemic started early last year. Murphy pointed to the federal government.

“There is no question that we have a huge imbalance between supply and demand that, with all due respect, begins with the federal government, at least to this day, after they dropped the ball – too promising and too little delivered,” Murphy said. “So if Walgreens hits 1,000, if CVS hits 1,000, and we as a state continue to do what we do, which gets vaccines into people’s arms, we’ve still been disappointed by the Fed.”

Murphy applied for up to $ 20 billion in federal aid to help with Covid’s deficits. President Joe Biden said Friday that he would use the Defense Production Act to increase vaccine supplies during his first month in office.

President Joe Biden has Dr. Anthony Fauci was selected to lead a U.S. delegation to the World Health Organization’s annual meeting this week, undoing outgoing President Donald Trump’s plan to withdraw from the international aid group.

The new government plans to work with WHO on an international Covid Response Plan as one of Biden’s first major policy changes, the transition team said hours before his inauguration on Wednesday.

Biden’s transition team said Fauci will make comments to WHO on Thursday at their annual board meetings.

“Once the United States resumes its relationship with WHO, the Biden Harris Administration will work with WHO and our partners to strengthen and reform the Organization, support and provide COVID-19 health and humanitarian aid advance global health and health security. ” “said the transition team in a statement.

The reintegration into the United Nations Health Organization is one of the most important changes Biden plans to make to combat the global pandemic. He also plans to enact executive ordinance on Wednesday “requiring masks and physical distancing in all federal buildings, in all states, and by federal employees and contractors.”

The changes make good one of Biden’s key campaign promises. He vowed to rejoin the global health agency on his first day in office if he defeated Trump, whose decision to leave the WHO as America faced the worst coronavirus outbreak in any country in the world has received bipartisan criticism from lawmakers.

“WHO looks forward to the delegation from the new US administration attending tomorrow’s board meeting,” said WHO spokesman Andrei Muchnik in a statement.

Following Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sent his congratulations to new President and Vice President Kamala Harris on Twitter.

“To a healthier, fairer, safer and more sustainable world,” he said in a tweet.

Trump announced in late May that the country would withdraw from the United Nations Health Department, but the process shouldn’t be completed until July this year. Trump repeatedly criticized the WHO for being too “China-centered” and denounced the disproportionate amount of funding the US had allocated to the agency compared to other countries.

Foreign Secretary-designate Antony Blinken told Senators Tuesday during his confirmation hearing that the United States will also be participating in Covax, the global alliance aimed at providing low-income countries with coronavirus vaccines jointly managed by WHO. The Trump administration previously refused to participate in the program.

In April, Trump said his administration would stop funding the WHO while reviewing the agency’s role in “serious mismanagement and cover-up of the spread of the coronavirus”. The United States was the organization’s largest donor, providing nearly $ 893 million to the agency over the 2018 and 2019 fiscal cycle.

Whether the president was empowered to resign from WHO under US law also came up for debate, according to a June Congressional Research Service report. The answer would likely require a court to “address several complex first impression issues,” the bipartisan organization noted.

However, the Trump administration said in September that the US would “reduce” its commitment to WHO until it officially leaves. The US planned to call back health department personnel from all WHO offices, including its headquarters, and attend some of the organization’s meetings and events on a case-by-case basis, according to the State Department.

WHO’s Tedros said in August that he hoped the United States would reconsider its decision to leave the organization. The problem is “not the money”, but the lack of cooperation amid the pandemic.

“It is actually the relationship with the US that is more important and its overseas leadership,” he said.

Tedros added that WHO is “very open to any assessment or evaluation” of its performance in response to the pandemic. In an interim review published on Monday, the Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response criticized WHO for waiting until January 30 for an international health emergency to be declared.

“WHO is expected to validate outbreak reports for pandemic potential and deploy support and containment resources, but its powers and resources to carry out its duties are limited,” said panel co-chair and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in a statement.

– CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr. and Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

Pharmacy students Anne Brandt (l) and Sarah Schulz are preparing six syringes from a vial with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer for vaccination of medical staff at the Leipzig University Hospital. There are currently more requests for vaccination appointments than can currently be offered.

Image Alliance | Image Alliance | Getty Images

Since Germany started its vaccination campaign together with the rest of the EU at the end of December, it has encountered a number of logistical challenges.

Now, nearly a month after the program began, the slow progress made by some German lawmakers and health professionals is causing frustration and concern.

Health Minister Jens Spahn had targeted 300,000 vaccinations per day, but the country has not yet achieved this. Data from the health department, the Robert Koch Institute, released on Tuesday showed that just over 62,000 vaccinations (most of which were first doses) had been given in the past 24 hours.

Since the start of vaccinations in Germany in all 16 federal states on December 27, almost 1.2 million people in Germany (the priority groups are currently healthcare workers, residents of nursing homes and employees, as well as the elderly) have received a first dose of the coronavirus Vaccine and nearly 25,000 have received their second dose.

In contrast, the UK, which became the first country in the world to approve and introduce the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine (partly developed in Germany), and the Oxford-AstraZeneca University candidate started its Covid vaccination program in early December to date, over 4 million people have been vaccinated to date vaccinated with their first dose of vaccine (over 450,000 had their second dose) and by the end of last week they were being vaccinated over 300,000 vaccinations per day.

Wide range of problems

The EU had a policy of buying coronavirus vaccines as a block, but some countries, including Germany, also made their own additional purchase agreements.

Nonetheless, supply problems were already a problem at the beginning of the vaccination campaign in Germany, as vaccines were not available in certain centers and other difficult logistical problems arose with the vaccination of his priority groups such as the elderly. This has resulted in inconsistent vaccine delivery performance from state to state within the country.

Dr. Stefan HE Kaufmann, a renowned immunologist and microbiologist in Germany and founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, told CNBC on Tuesday that the vaccination process was associated with challenges from the start.

“The number one priority (in the vaccination campaign) is currently the elderly and people with serious illnesses, especially in children’s homes. This process is ethical, but very time-consuming. It also includes health care workers and medical staff in nursing homes and hospitals. Apparently some of the nursing home staff are hesitant about vaccination, “he noted.

Fenna Martin (C) vaccinates Marielotte Kilian (L), 87, and Richard Kilian (R), 86, against Covid-19 in the vaccination center, which was installed on January 19, 2021 at the convention center in Wiesbaden, western Germany, which opened in the western state of Hesse its first six vaccination centers in the midst of the novel coronavirus.

ARNE DEDERT | AFP | Getty Images

So far, only the vaccines developed by Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna have been approved for block use by the European Medicines Agency. The easier to store and transfer (and cheaper) candidate from AstraZeneca and Oxford University has not yet been approved.

When it comes to introducing vaccines, time is of the essence, especially in cases where there is an increase due to the more transmissible mutations. Nevertheless, Germany has registered fewer cases than many of its neighbors and has recorded just over 2 million infections to date. The death toll stands at 47,958.

A key problem for both the UK and the EU is that supply cannot meet current demand for vaccines, and Germany was no exception. Early reports of people struggling to get a vaccination appointment because doses are tight. However, vaccine manufacturers have promised to ramp up production and deliver millions more doses over the next few weeks and months.

In the meantime, however, “the doses secured for immediate use are insufficient,” said Kaufmann.

“While so-called vaccination centers have been set up throughout Germany, vaccines for a rapid maximum vaccination rate are currently lacking in these centers. (The) hope is that the process will be accelerated after the difficult and time-consuming vaccination has been achieved (at nursing homes),” he said and noted that the speed of the German vaccination campaign “would have been faster if more doses of BioNTech and Moderna had been secured”.

“In my opinion, everything must be done to get more doses for immediate or short-term use. This is all the more important as mutant strains that could evade vaccine-induced immune responses are becoming more common,” he warned.

Political criticism

Germany is not the only one who sees a slow start to its vaccination campaign. The European Commission has been criticized across the EU for failing to procure enough vaccines for the block.

Florian Hense, European economist at Berenberg, told CNBC that the approval and procurement process has left the EU behind, or at least behind, other countries like the UK and the US when it comes to sourcing vaccines.

“Since the EU negotiated and approved vaccinations with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of its member states, the German vaccination campaign was always ‘un-German’, regardless of what you associate with the term,” he told CNBC on Monday.

Elderly people who have just been vaccinated against COVID-19 wait briefly for side effects before leaving the vaccination center at the Messe Berlin exhibition center on the opening day of the center during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic on January 18, 2021 in Berlin, Germany. The center is the third to open in Berlin. Three more are to be opened in the coming weeks as soon as supplies of the Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines pick up speed.

SEAN GALLUP | AFP | Getty Images

“I suspect that the EU’s later approval delayed the start of vaccinations and has since limited the pace of vaccinations per day as vaccinations arrived in the EU more slowly than the UK, US (per capita)” “

Needless to say, other parliamentarians have criticized the government’s overall strategy. Dr. Janosch Dahmen, doctor and German MP for the Greens, told CNBC that he was “very concerned because Germany is already behind”.

“The progress of the vaccination campaign is far too slow and one of the reasons is the supply bottleneck. The more pressing problem, however, is that the vaccination infrastructure shows several problems, mainly staff shortages, distribution problems in the federal states and much more too much of a central approach,” he said.

“As a doctor and a politician, I am very concerned about the situation here and, apart from all the efforts we need to make to make the nationwide vaccination campaign more effective, we need to build bridges through testing, self-testing and testing, and we need to put more effort into contact tracing which is another important part of fighting this pandemic, “said Dahmen.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Tuesday that Covid vaccine rollout in the US may be slowing down because not enough people want to get the shot.

While the future government in Biden will initially focus on improving access to vaccines, Gottlieb said public health efforts must also address the concerns of some Americans.

“I think we also have to work … on the demand side of this equation. We can’t lose sight of that and assume that everyone wants this vaccine,” said the former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. “Squawk Box.”

President-elect Joe Biden, who will take office on Wednesday, has pledged to vaccinate 100 million people in 100 days. Last week, Biden revealed more details about his plan, including building coronavirus vaccination clinics by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the US National Guard. Biden also intends to speed up the schedule for when Covid vaccines might be available in pharmacies.

Biden’s plan to tackle the slower-than-expected vaccine rollout is an “all-encompassing approach, and then see what works,” said Gottlieb, who headed the FDA from 2017-2019 under President Donald Trump. Gottlieb is now a member of the board of directors of Pfizer, which makes one of two vaccines for which the FDA receives emergency approval. The other is made by Moderna.

“We talked about the fact that access is currently the real challenge, and now we are talking about the supply because we are gradually reaching a stable state of supply and it is difficult to increase the supply in the short term,” said Gottlieb. “At some point, demand will be a problem.”

Right now, demand for coronavirus vaccines remains high as older Americans are eligible for shots, Gottlieb said. Since age is a major risk that makes people more susceptible to hospitalization or potentially dying from Covid-19, these Americans seem more willing to take the vaccine.

“Even in younger cohorts there will be very strong demand, but I think once we get to 100 million, maybe 120 million vaccines, demand will be weak,” said Gottlieb, basing his forecast on the number of US adults who received a flu shot in the past year.

“These were people who were concerned about going out with Covid and getting flu vaccines. This could be the universe of people who really have significant demand for a Covid vaccine,” he added.

Biden has tried to reassure Americans about the safety and effectiveness of Covid vaccines in an effort to increase the number of people willing to get the shot. In December, after receiving his first two-dose shot of the Pfizer vaccine on live television, Biden said there was “nothing to worry about”.

According to the latest available data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 12.3 million Americans received their starting vaccine dose as of Friday morning. About 31.2 million cans were distributed.

Covid vaccines are playing a vital role in fighting the devastating pandemic in the US and the world. In the United States alone, there have been nearly 24.1 million confirmed coronavirus cases and at least 399,008 deaths from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The virus has also caused significant economic damage as millions of people have lost their jobs and closed businesses in the United States. Widespread vaccination against Covid is seen as critical to a more robust economic recovery and the stock market. For example, JPMorgan analysts wrote in a weekly communication to customers: “In the future, the greatest macro risk appears to be the delivery, distribution and intake of vaccines.”

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC employee and a member of the boards of directors of Pfizer, the genetic testing startup Tempus, and the biotech company Illumina. He is also co-chair of the Healthy Sail Panel of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean.

Dr. Coveline Gounder, a member of the Covid Advisory Board of President-elect Joe Biden, slammed the Trump administration’s piecemeal Covid response as some states in the US struggled to get the vaccine doses they needed.

“I think we have already received too many patchwork reactions in the states,” said Gounder in an interview on Monday evening for “The News with Shepard Smith”.

In a briefing on the coronavirus on Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the federal government was sending his state 50,000 less doses of vaccine than the week before. The state received fewer doses when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded immunization rights to people over 65 years of age on Jan.

On Monday, Cuomo sent a letter to Pfizer asking if New York State could buy vaccines directly from the company. Last week, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer made a similar request to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.

Gounder told host Shepard Smith that this approach could cause more problems than it could solve.

“I think Governor Cuomo himself had already said in the spring that the ventilator situation was essentially ‘one big Ebay’ with all states bidding against each other for ventilators, and I think this is one approach to vaccine allocation In all honesty, this will lead to the same situation that he himself criticized last spring, “said Gounder.

Data from the CDC shows that the US gets an average of 900,000 vaccinations per day. During an interview with Fox News, Azar quoted the CDC number and criticized the Biden government’s goal of “100 million gun shots in the first 100 days.”

“We’ll have 250 million doses of vaccine distributed by the end of April,” said Azar. “If by then they have only had 100 million vaccinations, it will be a tragic waste of the opportunity we gave them.”

Gounder, an epidemiologist at NYU, qualified Azar’s testimony, noting that the distribution did not mean actual injections of the vaccine.

“We saw, however, that the distribution is very different from shooting in the arms, that the last mile of delivery is really the hardest part here,” explained Gounder. “Second, we have to confirm that this number of doses, the 250 million figure he cites there, will really be down.”

Cuomo beat him up in a separate letter to Azar for “confusing” the public about vaccine supplies. Azar admitted on Friday that there are currently no supplies.

Biden consultant Dr. Michael Osterholm warned that the worst of the Covid pandemic is yet to come and the data supports his dire prediction. The U.S. is rapidly approaching 400,000 deaths in the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That is roughly one in 822 Americans. According to the Covid Tracking Project, at least 23,000 people were in intensive care units in the United States for 19 consecutive days due to Covid. The HHS reported that nearly 80% of ICU beds nationwide are occupied.

Gounder said the US is “at our fifth peak right now” and that the next few months will be all about “shift protection” to avoid another.

“We really need to focus on things like masking and social distancing, outside instead of inside, well-ventilated spaces,” warned Gounder. “If we do these things it may be our final climax, but it really depends on each of us doing what needs to be done to get back to normal life.”