Category: Health

A nurse prepares to administer the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Guy’s Hospital in London, United Kingdom, on December 8, 2020.

Frank Augstein | Reuters

Doctors in the UK are pushing for health officials’ decision to change the schedule for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccinations, saying it will not “follow science”.

UK health officials said Wednesday they would prefer to give the first dose of vaccine to as many people as possible as soon as possible, which could delay the supply of those who received the second vaccine by up to 12 weeks. Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine developed with BioNTech recommends giving the second shot three weeks after the initial dose.

The decisions would also apply to the two-dose coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, which the UK approved for emergency use on Wednesday. The first doses are expected to be launched next week and added to a Covid-19 immunization program launched by the UK in December with the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine.

“We have real and serious concerns about these sudden changes to the Pfizer vaccination regime,” the Doctors’ Association UK, a nonprofit advocacy group of voluntary health professionals, said in a tweet Thursday. “It undermines the consent process and doesn’t obey science at all.”

The organization said in a statement that the decision to change the regime is likely to be difficult given the pressure the country’s hospitals are facing from Covid-19 patients. However, the protection shown after just one dose is “considerably less” than with two shots.

Pfizer’s late-stage clinical studies showed that the vaccine was somewhat effective after the first dose was given. In documents released to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in early December, data showed that at least 52% of the vaccine before the second dose and 82% in the combined group of people who took one or two doses, was effective.

However, Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines have been shown to be at least 94% effective when given in two doses about a month apart.

Pfizer, however, pushed back the UK’s decision in a statement to CNBC on Thursday, saying its large clinical trials had tested a 21-day interval. Clinical studies have shown that two doses three weeks apart has been shown to provide maximum effectiveness, the company said.

“The safety and efficacy of the vaccine were not assessed according to different dosing schedules, as the majority of study participants received the second dose within the window specified in the study design,” Pfizer said.

Separately, the UK government said that the advice of the Joint Vaccination and Immunization Committee, which advises it on vaccination programs, “would ensure that more at-risk people receive meaningful protection from a vaccine in the coming weeks and months”.

This would help reduce the number of deaths and ease pressure on the country’s hospitals, especially as the country battles a new, faster-spreading variant of the virus.

“The committee recommends prioritizing the delivery of the first vaccine dose first, as it is most likely to have greater public health impacts in the short term and reduce the number of preventable deaths from COVID-19,” the advisory committee said in a statement Thursday.

Pfizer’s vaccine doses have been launched in the UK for over three weeks, and around 600,000 people have already received their first doses of the medicine according to recent government statistics.

While the decision is ultimately up to health officials, it will be “critical” to monitor alternative schedules to “ensure that each recipient is given the maximum possible protection, which means immunization with two doses of the vaccine,” Pfizer said.

– CNBC’s Matt Clinch, Holly Ellyatt, Steve Kopack and Berkeley Lovelace Jr. contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump speaks in a video posted on Twitter on December 31, 2020.

The White House | Twitter

WASHINGTON – In the final days of 2020 there has been a surge in coronavirus deaths in the US, cases surge to staggering levels, hospitals strained, and much-needed vaccine rollouts lagging behind expectations.

December was America’s deadliest month during the pandemic. But President Donald Trump hardly said a word about the tragic toll of Covid-19.

Instead, the president spent the month pondering unsubstantiated allegations of a stolen election, delaying relief laws before they were signed, weighing cable newscasts, and beating members of his own party.

And on Thursday, the last day of the month and year, Trump tweeted a video boasting about his administration’s response to the pandemic.

In December, the country plunged into the toughest battle against Covid-19, even as vaccines ran out. The nation reported more than 6.1 million new infections and more than 74,140 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The latest totals make December the deadliest month of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States, beating April when more than 60,738 Americans lost their lives to the coronavirus.

Since the coronavirus outbreak began, at least 342,414 Americans have died from the disease, which Trump has repeatedly pledged on 40 different occasions.

In a taped message released Thursday, Trump made the lion’s share of the loan for the unprecedented speed in the development of vaccines, which the stunt called a “medical miracle”.

“Thanks to Operation Warp Speed, we developed a vaccine in just nine months, we have already launched a nationwide vaccination program and we are sending the vaccine all over the world. The world will benefit, we will benefit, and everyone is calling for it . ” Thank you, “said the President.

Trump also took a moment to praise his work on the economy, saying that his administration “built the greatest economy in the history of the world”.

“We’re now doing numbers like no one has seen before, including the highest stock market in the history of the world,” Trump said, adding “the best is yet to come” in his deregistration.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tweets and golfing

Trump, who vacationed last week at his private club in Palm Beach, Florida, returned to the White House Thursday as lawmakers debated laws that would reduce Covid aid payments to $ 2,000 in the face of historic unemployment and business closings would increase.

The President himself pushed for these higher payments despite the fact that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell refused to hold a stand-alone vote on the bill providing for the higher payments, which were passed with the support of both parties in the House of Representatives.

While in Palm Beach, Trump spent several days playing golf on his for-profit golf course, sending 110 tweets, mostly focusing on false claims of a rigged presidential election and the upcoming Georgia Senate runoff.

Trump, despite a series of failed legal challenges, did not concede the election as Democrat Joe Biden, which will be inaugurated on Jan. 20. The president also went on Twitter for support for an upcoming rally in Georgia.

President Donald Trump plays golf at Trump National Golf Club on November 21, 2020 in Sterling, Virginia.

Tasos Katopodis | Getty Images

The president’s refusal to address other aspects of the looming public health disaster comes because the governors of Colorado and California are confirming a new and potentially contagious strain of Covid-19 in their states.

Hospital fights and vaccine stumble

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier Wednesday that the new tribe could put pressure on the country’s hospitals, which are already overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients.

Coast-to-coast hospitals are already running out of available intensive care units and standard beds to accommodate the surge in patients, data from the Department of Health and Human Services shows.

Medical workers prepare to perform a percutaneous tracheostomy procedure on a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) during Thanksgiving Day on November 26, 2020 at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas.

Go Nakamura | Getty Images

Earlier this month, the United States began rolling out vaccines to fight the disease. But health officials have warned that a vaccine will not immediately rid the country of the outbreak.

The nation’s health officials previously stated their goal was to vaccinate at least 20 million Americans with their first shots before the end of the year. You will clearly miss this goal.

Continue reading: Trump blames states when criticized for slow adoption of Covid vaccines

As of Monday morning, more than 11.4 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna two-dose vaccines had been distributed across the country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 2.1 million of these shots were given to humans.

Trump, who was criticized for missing the vaccine target, blamed the unorganized introduction of vaccines for the states.

“The federal government has distributed the vaccines to the federal states,” said the president in a tweet. “Now it is up to the states to manage. Move on!”

– CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger, Will Feuer and Noah Higgins-Dunn contributed to this report.

Still from Ford’s “Finish Strong” spot.

ford

In a new ad campaign starring actor Bryan Cranston, Ford Motor urges Americans to adhere to Covid-19 protocols to save lives in the next phase of the pandemic.

The campaign, part of an initiative the company named #FinishStrong, features a new commercial from filmmaker Peter Berg voiced by the star “Breaking Bad” and “Your Honor”. The spots will be released in early January during college football bowl games on ABC and ESPN and NFL games on Fox.

Ford leaders said on a call Wednesday that the company wanted to step up Covid protocols in the final leg of the pandemic to prevent tens of thousands of additional deaths from vaccine adoption.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKwk8mfI6G8

“We’re entering a really critical time,” said Mark Truby, Ford’s chief communications officer. “Vaccines are just around the corner, but we know from health professionals and so on that until there is a mass launch of vaccines and so on, up to 50,000 more American lives could be saved, and what kinds of numbers will really make a difference. ”

The ad, which contains scenes of frontline workers and those affected by Covid, is intended to set a uniform tone.

“We know Americans don’t necessarily want to be preached, and they don’t want to hear fear tactics,” Truby said. “The idea behind it was how we can develop a positive message that appeals to the sense of humanity, patriotism and the feeling of doing what’s right for each other.”

The company worked on site with the advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy and the Civic Entertainment Group. Ford is dedicating a number of slots during the games in early January that were originally intended to be used to promote its F-150 truck.

Ford has worked with the UAW to manufacture tens of millions of personal protective equipment, including 20 million face shields, 50,000 ventilators, 32,000 respirators and 1.4 million robes, amid the pandemic.

In this file photo dated June 30, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom removes his face mask before giving an update during a visit to Pittsburg, California.

Rich Pedroncelli | AP

California health officials have identified the state’s first case of a new and contagious strain of Covid-19 that was originally discovered in the UK.

The patient is a 30-year-old San Diego County male who showed symptoms on Sunday, government officials confirmed Wednesday.

“I don’t think Californians should feel like this is anything strange. This is expected,” said White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, on Wednesday during a live Q&A session with California Governor Gavin Newsom. Fauci said other states are likely to identify their own cases of the new strain soon.

San Diego county supervisor Nathan Fletcher said the patient was tested for Covid-19 Tuesday morning. Because he had not traveled, state officials believe there are other cases of the new strain in the county, Fletcher said at a press conference after Newsom revealed the case.

Fletcher urged residents to follow public health instructions over the next few days to avoid further burdens on the county’s hospitals, which are “hugely burdened” by an onslaught of Covid-19 patients.

On Tuesday, Colorado health officials confirmed the first case of the B.1.1.7 variant of coronavirus. During a news conference Wednesday, Colorado Governor Jared Polis said the state is investigating a possible second case of the new tribe.

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier Wednesday that the new tribe could put pressure on the country’s hospitals, which are already overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients.

Dr. Henry Walke, the agency’s Covid Incident Manager, said the new variant appears to be spreading “easier and faster than other strains”, but it doesn’t seem to make people sick or increase their risk of death.

A particularly worrying aspect of the Colorado case was that the patient had not traveled, “suggesting this variant was transmitted person-to-person in the United States,” Walke told reporters on a conference call.

Some good news: The new variant doesn’t appear to affect the vaccines’ effectiveness or make diagnosis difficult with existing tests, Fauci told Newsom. The UK has also found that people who were already infected with previous strains of Covid-19 do not appear to be re-infected with this new variant.

Researchers have yet to determine whether the new strain may be resistant to monoclonal antibody treatment, which has successfully helped some patients recover from the disease, Fauci said. Unlike vaccines, which trigger an immune response that attacks different parts of the virus, monoclonal antibodies target a very specific component, according to the country’s leading infectious disease expert.

Monoclonal antibodies have shown promising benefits if the virus is detected early enough. President Donald Trump attributed Regeneron’s treatment for feeling better “immediately” when he was infected and finally hospitalized with Covid-19 in early October.

“We know that about it now, but we’re following this extremely carefully,” said Fauci, adding that they are studying the exposure at the National Institute of Health and a number of laboratories across the country.

– CNBC’s Will Feuer and Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

A Brazilian doctor will voluntarily receive an injection in July 2020 as part of phase 3 studies with a vaccine developed by Oxford University and the UK pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

Nelson Almeida | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON – The coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca has been approved for emergency use in the UK. This is another step in the global fight against the pandemic.

The shot is expected to be launched next week and included in a Covid-19 vaccination program launched by the UK in December. According to government statistics, the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine has so far been given to 600,000 people in the UK.

In a statement, AstraZeneca said the first doses of the vaccine would be released on Wednesday “so that vaccinations can start early in the new year”.

She added that it “plans to deliver millions of cans in the first quarter” as part of its agreement with the UK government to deliver up to 100 million cans in total. As a two-dose vaccine, according to the agreement, it could vaccinate up to 50 million people in the UK of around 66 million people.

However, the UK government said in a statement on Wednesday that the Joint Vaccination and Immunization Committee, which advises it on vaccination programs, had recommended “giving their first dose to as many people in risk groups as possible, rather than”. Providing the required two doses in as short a time as possible. “

“Everyone will continue to receive their second dose within 12 weeks of the first. The second dose completes the course and is important for longer term protection,” he added.

UK Government Secretary Michael Gove had said Monday that approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine could expedite the lifting of strict lockdowns in the country, effectively canceling Christmas celebrations for millions.

Cases have soared in London and the south of England and hospitals have come under significant pressure. A new variant of the coronavirus in the UK is reportedly more transferable and has resulted in travel restrictions for people trying to leave the country.

“An important day”

With the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the UK can significantly accelerate its vaccination program. It’s also cheaper than others and doesn’t need to be stored at extremely low temperatures.

Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer of AstraZeneca, said in a statement: “Today is an important day for millions of people in the UK to gain access to this new vaccine. It has been shown to be effective, well-tolerated, and easy to administer Delivered by AstraZeneca with no profit. “

AstraZeneca’s vaccine is a viral vector vaccine based on a weakened version of the common cold virus that causes infections in chimpanzees. It is designed to prepare the immune system to attack the coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 when it later infects the body.

Dr. Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of the medical journal The Lancet, told CNBC in December that these benefits meant more effective use around the world.

“The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is currently the vaccine that can immunize the planet more effectively and faster than any other vaccine we have,” said Horton, adding that it is important to think about vaccine vaccination on a global scale, “Because yourself if we immunize a country the threat is that you will reintroduce the virus from another country that is not protected. “

The confusion over the trial dates in November led to criticism of AstraZeneca. The first numbers suggest the vaccine may help reduce the spread of Covid-19 and prevent disease and death. This study also found an efficacy of 62% for subjects who were given two full doses, but 90% for a subgroup who received half a dose followed by a full dose.

Moncef Slaoui, head of Operation Warp Speed ​​of the White House, and others in the US expressed concern about the age group tested, saying the 90% effectiveness was only shown for the lowest risk group, the 2,741 people among 55 years.

AstraZeneca said Wednesday that “additional safety and efficacy data for the vaccine will continue to accumulate from ongoing clinical trials”. It added that it continues to work with regulators around the world “to support their ongoing ongoing reviews of emergency supplies or conditional marketing authorizations during the health crisis”.

She added that she is seeking emergency listing with the World Health Organization “for an accelerated path to vaccine availability” in low and middle income countries.

– CNBC’s Sam Meredith contributed to this article.

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden speaks to reporters after making remarks at The Queen in Wilmington, Delaware ahead of the December 22nd, 2020 holiday.

Alex Edelman | AFP | Getty Images

President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday criticized the Trump administration’s efforts to distribute and administer Covid vaccine shots, saying the administration had failed to achieve its own goals.

“The Trump administration’s plan to distribute vaccines is falling far behind,” he said at a press conference. “As I have long feared and warned, efforts to distribute and administer the vaccine are not progressing as they should.”

He said his government will “move heaven and earth” to expedite the distribution and delivery of the Covid vaccines once he takes office on Jan. 20. He reiterated his government’s pledge to have administered 100 million doses of vaccine by his 100th day in office.

“This will be the greatest operational challenge we have ever faced as a nation,” he added. “We’ll get there. It’s going to take a tremendous new effort. It’s not underway yet.”

While more than 11.4 million doses of vaccine had been distributed to states on Monday, just over 2.1 million doses were given, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency notes that when states and jurisdictions report the data, their data may lag behind the actual number of doses given.

“A large difference between the number of doses distributed and the number of doses administered is expected at this point in the COVID vaccination program due to several factors including delays in reporting doses administered, managing available vaccine stocks by jurisdiction, and imminent vaccination launch the federal program for pharmacy partnership for long-term care, “says the agency on its vaccine tracking website.

CDC officials did not respond to CNBC’s request for further comment on the inequality between administered and administered doses.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, admitted Tuesday on CNN that the vaccine roll-out has been slower than expected.

“We are certainly not at the numbers we wanted at the end of December,” he said in an interview with Jim Sciutto. “I think we will see an increase in momentum in January that will hopefully allow us to catch up on the planned pace Jim.”

Michael Pratt, a spokesman for Operation Warp Speed, reiterated that the number of doses reported by the CDC is likely to be too few due to delays in reporting data.

“Operation Warp Speed ​​remains on track to deliver approximately 40 million vaccine doses and 20 million primary vaccination doses by the end of December 2020. The distribution of the 20 million primary doses extends into the first week of January when states place orders she, “he said in a statement.

Dr. Atul Gawande, a member of Biden’s Covid-19 advisory team, said on CBS This Morning Tuesday that the in-depth administration “does not have all the information it needs to understand where the bottlenecks are”.

He also noted that he is concerned that the Trump administration is overly optimistic about the vaccination schedule. Trump’s HHS Secretary Alex Azar has said the general public can be vaccinated by March.

“I worry that if things get back to normal, I’ll be over-promising,” said Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a professor at Harvard University.

He vowed that the Biden administration would be more transparent about where the problems lie, be it with the production, the distribution or the administration of the recordings.

Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn

Center for the Investigation of Existential Risk

LONDON – Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn has figured out what he believes are the top three threats to human existence this century.

While the climate emergency and coronavirus pandemic are viewed as issues that urgently require global solutions, Tallinn told CNBC that artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and so-called unknown unknowns each pose an existential risk through 2100.

Synthetic biology is the design and construction of new biological parts, devices and systems, while unknown unknowns, according to Tallinn, are “things we may not be able to think about right now”.

The Estonian computer programmer, who helped set up the Kazaa file-sharing platform in the 1990s and the Skype video call service in the 00s, has become increasingly concerned about AI in recent years.

“Climate change will not be an existential risk unless there is an out of control scenario,” he told CNBC over Skype.

Of course, the United Nations has recognized the climate crisis as the “defining issue of our time” and recognized its impact as global and unprecedented. The international group has also warned that there is alarming evidence that “critical turning points leading to irreversible changes in key ecosystems and the planetary climate system may have already been reached or passed”.

Of the three threats Tallinn is most concerned about, AI is at the center and it spends millions of dollars making sure the technology is developed safely. This includes investing early in AI labs like DeepMind (partly so he can keep an eye on their activities) and funding AI security research at universities like Oxford and Cambridge.

Referring to a book by Oxford Professor Toby Ord, Tallinn said there was a one-in-six chance people will not survive this century. Why? One of the biggest potential threats in the short term is AI, according to the book, while the likelihood that climate change will cause human extinction is less than 1%.

Predicting the future of AI

When it comes to AI, nobody knows how smart machines get, and it’s basically impossible to guess how advanced AI will be in the next 10, 20 or 100 years.

Trying to predict the future of AI is made even more difficult by the fact that AI systems are starting to create other AI systems without human input.

“There is a very important parameter in predicting AI and the future,” Tallinn said. “How much and how exactly will AI development give feedback on AI development? We know that AI is currently being used to search for AI architectures.”

If AI turns out to be not good at building other AI, we needn’t be unduly concerned as there will be time to dissipate and use AI skill gains, Tallinn said. (Should this line be in quotes? I think we should rephrase if this is not a literal quote.) However, if AI is able to create other AIs it is “very justified to be concerned … about what happens next, “he said.

Tallinn explained how there are two main scenarios that AI security researchers are looking at.

The first is a laboratory accident in which a research team leaves an AI system in the evening to train on some computer servers and “the world is no longer there in the morning”. The second is where the research team produces a prototechnology which is then adopted and applied to different areas “where it has an unfortunate effect”.

Tallinn said it is focusing more on the former as fewer people think about this scenario.

When asked if he’s more or less concerned about the idea of ​​superintelligence (the hypothetical point where machines reach and then quickly surpass human-level intelligence) than three years ago, Tallinn says his point of view is “muddier” or less has become more “nuanced”. “”

“If you say that it will happen tomorrow or that it won’t happen in the next 50 years, I would say that both of them are cocky,” he said.

Open and closed laboratories

The world’s largest tech companies are investing billions of dollars in advancing the state of AI. While some of their research is openly published, many are not, and this has raised alarm bells in some corners.

“The question of transparency is not at all obvious,” says Tallinn, claiming that it is not necessarily a good idea to reveal the details of a very powerful technology.

Tallinn says some companies take AI security seriously than others. For example, DeepMind is in regular contact with AI security researchers at places like the Future of Humanity Institute in Oxford. It also employs dozens of people who focus on AI security.

At the other end of the scale, business centers like Google Brain and Facebook AI Research are less connected to the AI ​​security community, according to Tallinn. We must seek comment from both of them.

If the AI ​​becomes an “arms race,” it will be better if there are fewer participants in the game, according to Tallinn, who recently heard the audiobook for “Making the Atomic Bomb” where we were (typo? Goods?) Great concern about how many research groups worked on science. “I think it’s a similar situation,” he said.

“If it turns out that AI isn’t going to be very disruptive in the near future, it would certainly be useful for companies to actually try to solve some of the problems in a more distributed manner,” he said.

President-elect Joe Biden plans to enact Defense Production Act to boost coronavirus vaccine production after taking office next month, a member of his Covid-19 advisory team said Monday.

“You will see how he invokes the Defense Production Act,” said Dr. Celine Gounder, member of Biden’s Covid-19 Advisory Board, during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”. “There it should be ensured that the personal protective equipment, the test capacity and the raw materials for the vaccines are produced in sufficient quantities.”

The War Manufacturing Act, which allows the president to force companies to prioritize manufacturing for national security, could help the U.S. secure components and specialty products that manufacturers need to make the Covid vaccines. Biden’s team has weighed up whether to invoke the vaccine-making law, NBC News reported last week.

The New York Times reported last week that Pfizer, which makes one of the two emergency Covid vaccines approved in the United States, was in September calling on the Trump administration to help the pharmaceutical giant source some supplies needed for production however, disappointed by a lack of answer.

White House officials have not returned CNBC’s request for comment.

For weeks, the US has been negotiating with Pfizer about additional doses of the vaccine in addition to the original 100 million doses the US set. Last week Pfizer announced it had signed a contract to ship an additional 100 million cans to the US by July.

The Times reported, citing people familiar with the negotiations, that under the deal, the US government had agreed to enact the Defense Manufacturing Act to “provide better access to around nine specialty products for Pfizer Manufacture of the vaccine will be needed “.

Pfizer representatives have not returned CNBC’s request for comment.

A representative from the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement to CNBC that the Trump administration has invoked the Defense Production Act 18 times in relation to vaccine production.

“Efforts to expand production capacity across the country’s pharmaceutical manufacturing base include: improving facilities and production lines with specialized tools and personnel, optimizing the supply chain for raw materials, investing in the production of consumables such as vials and syringes, and increasing the capacity / Finish lines, “said the spokesman.

Through Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. government invested in the efforts of six companies to bring a Covid vaccine to market, but only two have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration: Pfizer’s and Moderna’s. A concern of Pfizer’s appeal to the Defense Manufacturing Act is that it gives preference to the manufacturer over others and provides Pfizer with unfair access to required vaccine components.

Gounder did not explain how or whether Biden intended to apply the law fairly. Her comments come as she and other Biden advisors question the vaccination schedule set by President Donald Trump and his health officials.

Less than 2 million people had received the vaccine as of Saturday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is well below the government’s previously set target to vaccinate 20 million people before the end of the month, despite Adm. Brett Giroir, deputy health minister, has stated that there are delays between states and the CDC data.

Trump coronavirus vaccine tsar Moncef Slaoui told reporters during a press conference Wednesday that the surge in vaccinations has been slower than expected.

“We are here to help states accelerate appropriately,” he said. The goal of 20 million vaccinations is “unlikely to be achieved”.

Two men paint graffiti by frontline workers on a wall during the coronavirus pandemic in Mumbai, India.

Imtiyaz Shaikh | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

SINGAPORE – The Covid-19 pandemic has dragged the global economy into one of the worst recessions ever, and it is not yet clear when a full recovery will occur.

Recent advances in coronavirus vaccines have brightened the economic outlook, but some economists said a potentially slow roll-out of vaccines in developing countries could hinder activity from returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Even in advanced economies, economists believe re-lockdowns in Europe to prevent infections from resurrecting could slow economic recovery.

“The vaccine discovery is a shot in the arm, but not until 2022,” Citi economists said in a report in early December. Still, there will be a “significant improvement” in the global economy in 2021, also because “it’s not difficult to be better than 2020,” they said.

Sharp decrease in activity

The rapid spread of Covid, which was first detected in China, forced many countries into months of lockdowns in 2020, which significantly reduced economic activity.

As a result, gross domestic product – the broadest measure of activity – fell to record lows in many economies.

The International Monetary Fund predicted that the global economy could contract 4.4% this year before climbing back to 5.2% in 2021. The IMF said in October the global economy had started to recover but warned of a return to pre-pandemic levels. “long, uneven and insecure.”

Travel restrictions remain in place

A key feature of coronavirus lockdowns around the world is the total or partial closure of borders, which stalled much of international travel.

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, by November 1, more than 150 countries and areas had eased travel restrictions related to Covid.

However, according to the UNWTO, many restrictions remain in place to limit movement across borders. This contains:

• Open borders only to visitors of certain nationalities or from certain destinations;
• Asking visitors to submit a negative Covid test before being allowed to enter the country;
• Asking visitors to quarantine or self-isolate upon arrival.

The loss of jobs is accelerating

A major consequence of the economic slump caused by the pandemic is an increase in global job losses.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, an intergovernmental entity, said that in some countries the early impact of Covid-19 on labor markets was “ten times greater than in the early months of the 2008 global financial crisis”.

“At-risk workers bear the brunt of the crisis. Low-wage workers were key to ensuring the maintenance of essential services during the lockdown, often at significant risk of exposure to the virus while on the job,” the OECD said in a report.

“They have also suffered major job or income losses.”

The national debt is increasing

Governments have increased their spending to protect jobs and support workers. Globally, government measures to cushion the economic setback from the pandemic totaled $ 12 trillion, the IMF said in October.

Such staggering spending has pushed the world’s public debt to an all-time high – but governments shouldn’t withdraw fiscal support too soon, the fund said.

“With many workers still unemployed, small businesses struggling and 80 to 90 million people likely to find themselves in extreme poverty by 2020 as a result of the pandemic – even after additional welfare – it is too early for governments to remove the exceptional support. “said IMF.

Central banks intervene

Central banks have also helped the economy by cutting interest rates – many to record lows – to help governments manage their debts.

The US Federal Reserve, whose policies affect economies around the world, cut interest rates to near zero and pledged not to raise them until inflation exceeds its 2% target.

Central banks in advanced economies – including the Fed and the European Central Bank – have also increased their asset purchases in order to put more money into the financial system. This is also being done by an increasing number of emerging market central banks looking for ways to support their pandemic-hit economies.

Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine is pictured at Rady Children’s Hospital before being returned to the refrigerator on December 15, 2020 in San Diego, California.

Adriana Drehsler | AFP | Getty Images

The doses of the coronavirus vaccine may have been mistakenly received and distributed in parts of New York, the state’s top doctor said on Saturday.

Dr. Howard Zucker, commissioner for the state Department of Health, said his office had received reports that the ParCare Community Health Network had “fraudulently” received the vaccine and transferred it to “facilities in other parts of the state.”

The vaccine doses, allegedly diverted for “members of the public”, circumvent the state’s plan to give priority to vaccination for frontline health professionals and residents of long-term care facilities, Zucker said. New York’s first introduction of the vaccine was still limited to hospitals and nursing homes.

The ParCare Community Health Network – identified by the state as a provider in Orange County – serves offices in a number of neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the Upper East Side.

On December 16, the company offered “first come, first served” doses of the vaccine via a social media post on Facebook. The job included a registration form for the elderly, those at high risk, and those with underlying medical conditions.

A week later, ParCare posted photos of the Moderna vaccine on Twitter, saying the company had received thousands of doses.

The DOH said it would not comment beyond Zucker’s Saturday statement.

“We take this very seriously and DOH will assist the state police in a criminal investigation into the matter. Anyone who knowingly participated in this program will be held accountable to the full extent of the law,” Zucker said in a press release on Saturday.

A statement from ParCare confirmed the Ministry of Health’s investigation and ensured cooperation during the state investigation.

“In these unprecedented times, we have strived to provide critical health services and deliver COVID-19 vaccinations to those qualified under guidelines from the New York State Department of Health, which includes frontline health workers and first responders “says the statement. partially.

In late October, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a partnership with ParCare to increase the availability of rapid tests at multiple locations in Borough Park and Williamsburg.