Category: Health

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.

Patrick Pleul / Image Alliance via Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s opposition to a $ 900 billion coronavirus bailout package, largely passed by U.S. lawmakers late Monday, jeopardizes the first major climate change piece of legislation to have received Congress approval in about a decade.

Trump has threatened a veto of the stimulus package, which includes $ 600 direct checks for individuals and $ 35 billion to fund clean energy projects, and plans to reduce the use of chemicals to warm the planet.

The climate regulations included in the deal come after the Trump administration slashed more than 80 key environmental regulations in four years and just before President-elect Joe Biden took office.

Biden plans to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and use executive orders to expose many of Trump’s environmental setbacks. He’s also pushing for a $ 2 trillion plan, which needs Congressional approval, to move the country from fossil fuels to clean energy and green jobs. Trump officially withdrew the country from the Paris Agreement in November.

Although Biden’s legislation is likely to face immense hurdles if the GOP controls the Senate, which will be decided with two crucial runoff elections in Georgia in January, policy experts and environmental groups say the bipartite-backed climate action in the stimulus package signals that Biden can achieve this could make significant strides in combating global warming. It is also a sign that the US will join a wider global effort to reduce fossil fuel emissions to warm the planet.

“The spending bill just passed by Congress, with support from both Democrats and Republicans, points the way ahead,” said Michael Mann, climatologist and professor of atmospheric science at Penn State University. “It’s a positive sign that 2020 could be the year we turned around the corner on climate action in the US.”

The stimulus plan will cut the production and consumption of fluorocarbons (HFCs), which warm the planet, by 85% in the US over a 15 year period.

The ozone-depleting chemicals are often found in air conditioners and refrigerators. While they make up a smaller percentage of greenhouse gas emissions, fluorocarbons pack 1000 times the heat storage capacity of carbon dioxide.

More from CNBC Environment:
Rethinking Stimulus: How Covid’s Economic Recovery Can Combat Climate Change
Biden will rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. Here’s what happens next

HFCs are used by nations around the world in a targeted manner to curb global warming. In October 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda, a landmark agreement was reached by delegates from 197 nations around the world to phase out HFCs.

So far 72 countries have ratified the Kigali Agreement. Despite the support of US manufacturers and chemical companies, the Trump administration did not accept the pact and instead proposed to reset the Obama-era standards to reduce the use of HFCs.

The stimulus package also includes bipartisan renewable energy legislation, which will provide approximately $ 35 billion in government funding for clean energy projects.

“This bill is the most important step we have taken to improve the climate of this Congress, and its passage is strong evidence that both parties support cooperation in creating climate solutions and investing in advanced energy technologies, while at the same time the our country’s most vulnerable citizens are cared for, “Senator Chris Coons, D-Del. said in a statement earlier this week.

The legislation includes tax credits for solar and wind power that would fuel Biden’s plan to have a carbon-free electricity sector by 2035. The broader bill also includes investments for more sustainable transport and re-approves a program that provides funding for low-income homeowners to upgrade equipment, heat pumps and other household items to clean energy products.

The stimulus package also includes measures to capture and store carbon from production and power plants, reduce diesel emissions from some vehicles, and finance oil exploration projects.

“Congress has made an unprecedented downside to tackling climate change in this legislation by agreeing to phase out effective HFCs, invest in renewables and extend much-needed tax incentives for wind and solar,” said Grant Carlisle, senior Policy Advisor at Natural Resource Defense Council.

“But that’s just a start,” said Carlisle. “In order to cope with the climate crisis, the federal government must accelerate its efforts to convert our economy to clean energy and away from dirty fossil fuels.”

Snow falls as people wearing face masks walk through the Asakusa district on March 29, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan.

Tomohiro Ohsumi | Getty Images

SINGAPORE – Towards the end of 2020, many investors are viewing Asia as the region with one of the best economic prospects for the next year as the coronavirus outbreak can be relatively better controlled.

However, a recent surge in Covid cases in some countries threatens to dampen the region’s economic outlook, some analysts have warned.

“For some of the Asian giants, this year’s problems with Covid-19 are unlikely to get better when the clock strikes 12 noon on New Year’s Eve,” said research firm Pantheon Macroeconomics.

However, many parts of Asia – where the virus first appeared – remain lower than in Europe and the US, data from Johns Hopkins University showed.

For some of the Asian giants, this year’s Covid-19 problems are unlikely to get better when the clock strikes 12 noon on New Year’s Eve.

But some countries are now struggling with a far worse resurgence than they did earlier in the pandemic. Even areas that have made great strides in containing the virus may not be spared. Taiwan this week reports its first locally transmitted case since April 12 – underscoring the difficulty in eradicating Covid.

Here’s a look at the Asian economies grappling with a renewed spike in coronavirus infections and how that would affect their economic prospects.

Japan

• Covid-19 balance sheet: 207,007 cumulative confirmed cases and 2,941 deaths as of Wednesday, according to Hopkins data.

The number of daily reported coronavirus infections in Japan rose again in November and topped 3,000 for the first time last week, Hopkins data showed.

According to Reuters, medical groups in the country warned the pandemic will put a significant strain on the health system. However, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has failed to declare a state of national emergency – although he said he was suspending a travel subsidy program to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the news agency reported.

Economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics wrote in a Wednesday report that the Japanese government’s “relatively soft” rules on social distancing don’t appear to be working and that this could lead to tougher measures in the coming months.

“Therefore, a second and more effective nationwide state of emergency in Japan early next year cannot be ruled out,” the economists said. That would weigh on Japan’s economy in the first quarter of 2021, they added.

South Korea

• Covid-19 Record: According to Hopkins, there were 53,533 cumulative confirmed cases and 756 deaths on Wednesday.

As in Japan, the daily incidence in South Korea reached unprecedented levels this month – above 1,000 for the first time since the outbreak.

But unlike in Japan, the government in South Korea has taken a tougher stance in response to the new wave of Covid cases.

The government on Tuesday announced a nationwide ban on gathering five or more people and ordered the closure of tourist attractions such as ski slopes and other winter sports facilities, Yonhap news agency reported.

This move, according to Pantheon Macroeconomics, would allow most of South Korea’s economic damage to be contained, for the most part, in the fourth quarter of this year.

Malaysia

• Covid-19 balance sheet: 98,737 cumulative confirmed cases and 444 deaths on Wednesday, according to Hopkins data.

The Southeast Asian country kept Covid cases to a minimum before the recent surge from October, Hopkins data showed. This prompted the government to impose a new round of partial closure measures in some parts of the country.

Economists with consulting firm Capital Economics said the outlook for the Malaysian economy had become “less optimistic” this quarter, particularly in the area of ​​consumer spending.

“A second wave of the virus and the reintroduction of many restrictions on movement have reversed the sharp recovery in home consumption in the third quarter. Google’s high-frequency mobility data suggests social distancing continues to weigh on activity,” a report said Tuesday.

But the other parts of the economy – like exports – should continue to perform strongly, so the macroeconomic success of the recent resurgence is likely to be “much less” than the previous wave, the economists said.

A visitor tries a plant-based meat substitute at the Restaurant & Bar and Gourmet Asia Expo at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Hong Kong on November 11, 2020.

Peter Parks | AFP | Getty Images

SINGAPORE – The demand for meat alternatives has increased and will continue to increase, but the industry still has hurdles to overcome in various parts of the world, analysts said.

According to Google Trends, global search interest for the term “plant-based meat” skyrocketed in early 2019 months before Beyond Meat went public.

The global meat substitute sector is valued at $ 20.7 billion and is expected to grow to $ 23.2 billion by 2024, market research firm Euromonitor told CNBC.

This growth is being fueled by concerns ranging from animal welfare to food security to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In times of shock and instability, building a low-risk value chain means focusing on opportunities, and the shift towards plant-based meat is showing no signs of slowing,” said Elaine Siu, executive director of The Good Food Institute Asia -Pacific.

However, obstacles remain for the burgeoning market.

Cultural barriers

The plant-based meat market in Asia could be constrained by established perceptual issues, Siu said.

For example, pig meat, or vegetarian meat, used to be mainly eaten by Buddhist practitioners in China, she said.

“The replication of the taste and texture of meat has never been pushed beyond relatively basic levels,” she said, adding that these traditional products serve a specific purpose and “are considered to be of limited appeal to certain groups.”

“In order for plant-based meat to develop its full market potential in Asia, the sector must continue to break away from its association with traditional fake meat, which is expected to be sold at a low price and which carries historical image baggage.” said Siu.

Objections from the traditional meat industry

Ranchers could also stand in the way of the alternative protein sector, particularly in the US, said Simon Powell, global head of thematic research at the American bank Jefferies.

The US Cattlemen’s Association filed a petition in 2018 calling for an official definition of the terms “beef” and “meat” to keep vegetable proteins out of the description.

A herd of cattle gathers in the shade of an old barn in Owings, Maryland on May 4, 2020.

Mark Wilson | Getty Images News | Getty Images

“Incumbent producers will be working hard with their governments to change labeling and play around with consumer advertisements to say it can’t be called meat,” Powell told CNBC of Zoom. “I think that’s possibly one of the biggest obstacles.”

The European Union rejected proposals in October to ban restaurants and shops from using words such as sausage or burger to describe meat alternatives.

Consumer confidence, consumer fatigue

Powell added that if any of the vegetable meat companies had “an accident” or an issue with their recipe that resulted in a “massive recall”, customers could fear consuming these alternatives.

“This is a big ‘if’ … but if they have a big recall of products, it could hurt consumer confidence,” he said. “Eventually you will get these events. It will set the industry back a little.”

Separately, Powell said the “instagrammability” of plant-based foods is one reason the market is growing “all over the world”. The market’s growth could be hampered as the novelty of meat alternatives wears off or wears off, he said.

A view of the signage leading to one of the testing centers at Heathrow Airport on December 22nd, 2020 in London, England.

Joseph Okpako | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The United States will require people traveling from the UK to test negative for Covid-19 no later than 72 hours prior to departure, the CDC said in a statement late Thursday.

The announcement comes after the UK announced earlier this week that it had identified a new strain of Covid-19 that appears to be spreading faster. The CDC said President Donald Trump will sign the ordinance on Friday, Christmas Day, and the measure will take effect on Monday.

The CDC said passengers would be required to provide airlines with documentation of their laboratory results from polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or antigen testing.

The airlines would also have to confirm that the passengers tested negative before boarding, the agency said. They would also have to prevent passengers from boarding if they refuse to take a test.

Earlier this week, Delta Air Lines, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways urged passengers to conduct negative tests before boarding flights to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. United Airlines also requires negative test results for passengers flying from London Heathrow to their hubs in Newark, New Jersey, Washington DC or Chicago.

The new strain prompted dozens of countries to quickly restrict travel from the UK to prevent the strain from invading their own borders. The US had already restricted entry from the UK in March, with the exception of foreigners who had been in the country in the past two weeks.

However, the World Health Organization said the new variant was also discovered in Australia, Denmark, Italy, Iceland and the Netherlands.

Earlier this week, the CDC suggested that the new strain could already be circulating undetected in the US. While the variant has not yet been found in the country, the CDC found that the US has only sequenced a fraction of Covid infections.