A No. 10 spokesman said: “The Prime Minister spoke to EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen this evening.“He expressed his grave concerns about the potential impact which the steps the EU has taken today on vaccine exports could have.”First Minister Arlene Foster branded it an “incredible act of hostility” and accused Brussels of playing politics with people’s lives.“The European Union has once again shown it is prepared to use Northern Ireland when it suits their interests but in the most despicable manner – over the provision of a vaccine which is designed to save lives,” she said.“At the first opportunity the EU has placed a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland over the supply chain of the coronavirus vaccine.”She said the EU had used Article 16 of the Brexit deal in an “aggressive and most shameful way” and “it is now time for our Government to step up”.The Republic of Ireland’s Premier Micheal Martin has spoken to the European Commission’s president Ursula von der Leyen to “express concerns” about the plan.
In a statement, the European Commission said: “To tackle the current lack of transparency of vaccine exports outside the EU, the Commission is putting in place a measure requiring that such exports are subject to an authorisation by Member States.“In the process of finalisation of this measure, the Commission will ensure that the Ireland / Northern Ireland Protocol is unaffected. The Commission is not triggering the safeguard clause.“Should transits of vaccines and active substances toward third countries be abused to circumvent the effects of the authorisation system, the EU will consider using all the instruments at its disposal.“In the process of finalising the document, the commission will also be finetuning the decision-making process under the implementing regulation.”Brussels fired the first shot in the vaccine war this week after sensationally claiming Britain is “hijacking” doses.The bloc then tried to slam the back door shut on medicines entering Northern Ireland using powers under Article 16 of the Brexit deal, which was signed just 29 days ago.The article allows the EU to override the treaty and was devised as a last resort to alleviate serious disruption to trade in Northern Ireland after Brexit.
As tensions boiled over, chief eurocrat Ursula von der Leyen accused AstraZeneca of misrepresenting its contract with the bloc and ordered the firm to find up to an extra 50 million doses for the continent from Britain.Under the EU vaccine plan customs authorities in bloc countries will have to notify the Commission every time jabs are being sent to the UK – allowing them to keep an eye on our supplies.The new rule, which comes into force on Saturday, local time, and lasts until March, means vaccine makers will have disclose all shipments they’ve made abroad in the last three months to try to catch out those heading to the UK.It comes as another 1,200 people have died a year to the day after the UK’s first virus death was recorded.But there’s hope the country may have finally battled past the peak as the death toll has dropped by 11 per cent on last week, and new infections have dropped by 30 per cent on last week, according to The Sun.
COUNTRIES TIGHTEN BORDERS AS VARIANTS SPREADA ban took effect on Saturday on noncitizens travelling to the United States from South Africa, amid warnings over the threat posed by a virus variant spreading rapidly there and signs that it could weaken the effectiveness of vaccines.Other countries hoping to slow the spread of the more contagious variants include Canada, which has announced some flights from Mexico and Caribbean nations will be suspended. International travellers must take coronavirus tests when they return to Canada and will have to wait up to three days for results in an approved quarantine hotel at their own expense.Restrictions in France and Germany began this weekend, with France banning most travel from all countries outside of the European Union. Travellers from EU countries will be required to present a negative test before entering France, said Jean Castex, the French prime minister.In Germany, nonresidents from Portugal, Brazil, South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini (the former Swaziland), Britain and Ireland — will be restricted from entering the country, even if they test negative for the virus.DOUBTS LINGER OVER WHO TEAM IN WUHANThe group of experts from the World Health Organisation are investigating the origins of the coronavirus in Wuhan, the city where COVID-19 was first recorded. Doubts linger over whether the experts will be given unfettered access to data and allowed to conduct independent interviews.
“The team plans to visit hospitals, laboratories and markets. Field visits will include the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Huanan market, Wuhan CDC [Center for Disease Control and Prevention] laboratory,” the WHO said on Twitter.The team of independent experts, due to remain for two more weeks in China, will also speak with some of the first COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, it said.“All hypotheses are on the table as the team follows the science in their work. They should receive the support, access and the data they need.”Thea Fischer, a Danish team member, said visiting the Huanan seafood wholesale market, where the virus was initially believed to have spread, would provide insight into whether it was the centre of the outbreak or just an amplifier of the virus.“It is now that the actual field work can begin, and it is my expectation that for this part of the mission we will have unhindered access to the requested destinations and individuals,” Professor Fischer told Reuters from Wuhan.“It is important to remember that the success of this mission and origin-tracing is 100 per cent depending on access to the relevant sources. No matter how competent we are, how hard we work and how many stones we try to turn, this can only be possible with the support from China,” she said.
Zhang Hai, from Wuhan, who lost his father to COVID-19, has demanded a meeting with the research team.“I’d like to ask WHO experts who are in China if they dare to hear the experiences of family members of the victims,” Mr Zhang said.“If they are on a fact-finding mission but do not meet us, isn’t that fooling the whole world? We will not recognise or accept any investigation results that are false.”
BRAZIL GOVERNMENT ‘LET COVID SPREAD’The Brazilian Government has been accused of deliberately allowing coronavirus to spread as the country’s death toll hit over 222,000.Authorities were “intentionally” trying to infect the public with the virus, a study by a top university has claimed.According to The Sun US, the Centre for Research in Public Health Law at the University of Sao Paulo and Conectas Direitos Humanos – one of the most respected justice organisations of Latin America – have been collecting and analysing the data since March 2020.The document obtained by Spanish newspaper El Pais states: “Our research has revealed the existence of an institutional strategy, promoted by the Federal Government, spearheaded by the Presidency of the Republic, that intentionally seeks to ensure the spread of the virus.”It comes 10 months after right wing President Jair Bolsonaro dismissed the deadly bug as “just a flu.”
Researchers found there was “the commitment and efficiency of the Federal Government’s work in favour of the extensive spread of the virus in Brazilian territory.”They argue that spreading the virus deliberately came with an agenda “of resuming economic activity as quickly as possible and at any cost”.It comes as a Brazilian supreme court judge authorised the opening of an investigation into the possible responsibility of Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello for the collapse of the health system in the Amazonian city of Manaus during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Brazil.Brazil now has the second-highest COVID-19 death toll in the world after the US.
VACCINE CANDIDATE COULD BEAT UK VARIANTUS biotech company Novavax has announced that a UK study suggested it was almost 90 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19 and was effective against the new Kent variant.The company said that it was ready to submit its data to the regulator in what promises to add another significant boost to the vaccination program.”NVX-CoV2373 has the potential to play an important role in solving this global public health crisis,” said the company’s president and CEO Stanley Erck.Britain has ordered 60 million doses of the Novavax vaccine, with the first deliveries expected before the end of March.The vaccine is the first to show clear effectiveness against the Kent variant, with about half the cases in the final-stage trial of 15,000 people caused by the new strain.It comes as Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot COVID-19 vaccine has an overall efficacy of 66 per cent, the company announced on Friday (local time), following results from a phase 3 trial of almost 44,000 people across many countries.The figure however was as high as 72 per cent in the United States but went down to 57 per cent in South Africa, where a more transmissible variant is dominant.The company added that the vaccine was 85 per cent effective in preventing severe COVID-19 across all geographical regions.
“We’re proud to have reached this critical milestone and our commitment to address this global health crisis continues with urgency for everyone, everywhere,” the company’s CEO Alex Gorsky said.The company will seek FDA emergency use authorisation in the coming week, making it the third vaccine available in the world’s hardest-hit country.The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were the first to be authorised in the US, and both have efficacies of around 95 per cent.But the comparisons are not considered like-for-like, because those trials reported results before newer, more transmissible mutations of the virus became dominant in some parts of the world.These variants, such as B. 1.135 in South Africa and P. 1 in Brazil, elude some of the blocking action of antibodies triggered from vaccines made against the common strain of the coronavirus.The fact that the J & J vaccine requires only one shot, and can be stored for up to three months at 2-8 degrees Celsius, give it major logistic advantages over the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. These two are based on mRNA technology and require deep freezing.
FRIDGE TURNED OFF, VACCINES RUINEDMore than 1,000 doses of precious COVID-19 vaccine had to be destroyed in Florida after a worker accidentally turned off a refrigerator.According to the New York Post, Palm Beach County health officials said the grievous blunder was unintentional and caused by “human error,” according to a statement released to WPBF 25 News.The catastrophe was discovered 22 January, when staff members found that the power supply had accidentally been turned off to a refrigerator inside a mobile outreach vehicle.The fridge held 232 vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and the vials contained a total of 1,160 doses.
‘WHO CARES?’: NY GOVERNOR ON NURSING HOME DEATHS“Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died.”That’s how Gov. Cuomo callously responded to the damning state lawyer general’s report that revealed his administration downplayed the total number of nursing home residents killed by COVID-19.According to the New York Post, during his first remarks on the spiralling controversy, Mr Cuomo said, “If you look at New York State, we have a lower percentage of deaths in nursing homes than other states.”
“A third of all deaths in this nation are from nursing homes,” he said.“New York State, we’re only about 28 per cent — only — but we’re below the national average in number of deaths in nursing homes.”“But who cares — 33 [per cent], 29 [per cent] — died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died.”Gov. Cuomo also announced on Friday, local time, that limited indoor dining will return to Big Apple bars and restaurants beginning Valentine’s Day as the rate of new coronavirus infections in the five boroughs continues to tick down.Local eateries have been pushing hard for the restoration of at least some indoor service as the coronavirus pandemic continues to crush their finances — and a string of cold snaps and winter storms has put a crimp on outdoor dining and further bitten into their bottom lines.COACHELLA CANCELLED AS CALIFORNIA SEES 40K DEATHSThe Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach Country Music Festival which were scheduled for April have been cancelled under a new health order issued in California, as the state continues to struggle with infection rates.
According to the ordinance, issued by the Riverside County Public Health Office, the festivals attract hundreds of thousands of attendees from around the world, which would create a hotbed for the spread of the virus.“The scope and number of attendees and the nature of the venue would make it infeasible, if not impossible, to track those who may be placed at risk,” an official said.It comes as the US is on track to see its worst economic contraction since the end of World War II in the wake of the economic toll of the pandemic which has seen public events cancelled statewide.California is America’s largest state economy, which produced more than $US3 trillion of economic output in 2019, more than India’s GDP. But some economists are optimistic, with the US averaging a million vaccinations per day.James Knightley, an economist at ING, told The Times: “There was undoubtedly a loss of momentum as COVID restrictions tightened, but early signs suggest 2021 is starting well with the latest dollars 600 fiscal stimulus payment boosting spending, California starting to reopen and the vaccination program gaining momentum. Five per cent-plus growth looks achievable this year.”
Powered by WPeMatico
