WHO calls for greater vaccine rollout as US approaches ‘breach’

Geneva – The World Health Organization on Friday called on vaccine manufacturers to significantly boost production, as US President Joe Biden warned that the economic downturn from coronavirus infection was pushing the United States towards ” break. ”

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that while the number of COVID-19 vaccines given – 115 million – had now surpassed the number of diseases worldwide – 104 million – more than three-quarters of the views were given in just 10 rich countries.

“Almost 130 countries, with 2.5 billion people, have yet to give a single dose,” Tedros complained.

“If we don’t get rid of the virus everywhere, we could get it back at square one,” said the WHO chief, urging vaccine manufacturers to “cause a big increase in production. in action. ”

Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden said he needed to “act quickly” to push a major new economic relief package through Congress, as many Americans were on the verge of “breaking through.”

The U.S., the world’s largest economy, is the country that has been plagued by the pandemic so far.

Of the nearly 2.3 million people who have died from COVID-19 worldwide since the uprising erupted in China in December 2019, the U.S. has recorded more than 450,000 deaths.

“I see great pain in this country, a lot of people out of work, a lot of people going hungry,” Biden said in a White House speech.

“We can reduce suffering in this country,” Biden said. “I truly believe that real help is on the way,” seeking support from the Republican Party for its $ 1.9 trillion pandemic relief package.

Europe remains the worst region, with more than 760,000 deaths.

And here, the slow rollout of the vaccine has sparked public outrage and crushed the bloc’s leadership.

EU member states needed to work more closely with drug companies to increase the rate of inoculation, the WHO regional head said.

“We need to come together to speed up vaccinations,” WHO Europe director Hans Kluge said in an interview.

“Also, competitive pharmaceutical companies (need to) go hand in hand with efforts to significantly increase production capacity … that’s what we need.”

Despite a troubled start when the vaccine was distributed in the 27-nation bloc, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron defended Brussels’ strategy.

“I fully support the European approach,” Macron told an online press conference following talks with Merkel. “What would people say if countries like France and Germany competed with each other for vaccines?”

“It would be a lie, and a result,” he said.

Merkel said, for her part, that while a slow rollout showed that the bloc needed to increase drug production capacity, “the basic decision was to order together how the European Union was right and proper. ”

Nevertheless, as a sign of a growing crisis in Europe, EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell said he hoped Russia’s Sputnik V bullet would be approved for use in the region. Europe soon.

To date, only the vaccines manufactured by AstraZeneca and by Pfizer-BioNTech have been approved for use in the EU.

But Spain on Friday said it would ban the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people under 55, the latest European country to impose an age restriction on the Anglo-Swedish picture.

Last week, the German vaccine authority advised not to use the AstraZeneca vaccine for people over 65, judging that there was “insufficient data” on its effectiveness in this age group. .

The decision came just hours after the EU medicines regulator gave the vaccine the green light for use in adults of all ages, saying it believed it would be safe for the elderly as well.

The drug company Johnson & Johnson has asked U.S. regulators to approve their vaccine, which requires only one dose and can be stored at normal cooling temperatures – unlike some of the other images used right now.

The company has said it is on track to deliver 100 million doses to the U.S. if authorized.

But tests have shown that the J&J bullet is less effective against the highly transient hybrid first identified in South Africa that is rapidly spreading around the world.

The South African variant and the next to be discovered in England are causing more fear, with German experts warning that they have “given another impetus to the pandemic.”

“The situation is far from out of control,” said Lothar Wieler of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), a day after the government thought it was considering imposing some restrictions.

Many governments are concerned about when and how to build closures and other regulations.

Israel, which has vaccinated more than a third of its population, said it had agreed to take a break from Sunday – despite more deaths being recorded in January than in any other month.

The cultural output from the disease is still felt to be spreading in centers around the world, with museums in Paris without the usual population for months and demanding reopening.

“It’s a nightmare,” said Christophe Leribault of Petit Palais, where a recent Danish art exhibition remained open for just a few weeks.

“I was able to negotiate some expansion. But a year later, we had to return the pictures. ”