Dr Fauci, who made the comments the University of NSW’s inaugural David Cooper Lecture on Wednesday, said the best way to get COVID-19 under control was through vaccination. He said richer countries had a responsibility to get the jabs into developing nations.“As long as there’s the dynamic of virus replication, somewhere, there will always be the threat of the emergence of variants, which could then come back,” Dr Fauci said.“And even though most of the rest of the world is vaccinated, it can threaten the world that has felt that they’ve controlled the virus, when they’re still quite vulnerable.”Dr Fauci said the COVAX facility played an important role in helping vaccinate poorer countries, but more needed to be done. He believed the US would perhaps like to be part of a movement to help developing nations establish their own vaccine production facilities.The top infectious diseases expert also commended Australia on its response to the coronavirus pandemic.“You had the capability and the uniformity of your citizens that when you shut down, you really shut down very effectively,” he said.“You got a level down to essentially, as low as you possibly could get. And then when you had a situation where you opened up again, you responded quickly and efficiently.”The US has had more than 32 million coronavirus and over 560,000 deaths. In comparison, Australia has recorded 29,450 cases and 909 deaths.NED-3560 Vaccine Rollout in AustraliaDENMARK PULLS THE PLUG ON ASTRAZENECA JABDenmark announced on Tuesday it would stop using the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine altogether, becoming the first European country to do so over suspected rare but serious side effects.Despite recommendations from the World Health Organisation and European medicines watchdog to continue using the inoculation, “Denmark’s vaccination campaign will go ahead without the AstraZeneca vaccine,” Health Authority director Soren Brostrom told a press conference.Denmark was the first country in Europe to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca jab in its vaccination rollout, after reports of rare but serious cases of blood clots among those that had received the vaccine.More than a dozen countries followed suit but all but a few have since resumed the use after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) emphasised the benefits of the vaccine and deemed it “safe and effective”.Denmark had however continued to hold off using the vaccine as it conducted investigations of its own.In Denmark, two cases of thrombosis, one of which was fatal, were linked to vaccinations after more than 140,000 people received the jab made by the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker.In the country of 5.8 million inhabitants, eight per cent have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and 17 per cent have received a first dose.Since suspending use of the AstraZeneca jab in March, Denmark has continued with the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna jabs.The AstraZeneca suspension delays the country’s ambitious vaccine rollout plans, but the health authority said in a statement that the availability of other vaccines combined with the pandemic being under control at the moment meant the inoculation campaign could continue without it.EU TURNS TO PFIZER AFTER J & J SUSPENSIONThe EU is turning more heavily to BioNTech/Pfizer to make up for suspended Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses and for longer-term needs to fight the mutating coronavirus, its chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.BioNTech/Pfizer is bringing forward delivery of 50 million doses to the second quarter, starting this month, to help make up for the shortfall of the J & J jabs that were meant to start rolling out, she said in a televised statement.The European Union is also negotiating with BioNTech/Pfizer for 1.8 billion doses of a second-generation of its mRNA vaccine to combat variants, to be delivered in 2022 and 2023, she said.“As we can see, with the announcement by Johnson & Johnson yesterday, there are still many factors that can disrupt the planned delivery schedules of vaccines,” she said, referring to the company’s decision to suspend European deliveries while rare blood clot cases possibly linked to its shot are investigated in the United States.“It is therefore important to act swiftly, anticipate and adjust whenever it is possible,” she said, announcing the second-quarter delivery of 50 million BioNTech/Pfizer doses originally scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year.Von der Leyen said that would bring the total number of BioNTech/Pfizer doses for April, May and June to 250 million — accounting for more than half of all jabs to be given in this quarter.Question marks are now above the adenovirus-type vaccines produced by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson in the wake of suspected blood clots.While the European Medicines Agency has authorised AstraZeneca for all adults, many EU countries have taken the precaution of limiting its use to only older segments of the population.Von der Leyen made clear that BioNTech/Pfizer was increasingly the go-to supplier for the bloc, with no health problems so far associated with its mRNA vaccine which has proven to be highly effective against the main strains of the coronavirus present in the EU.On Tuesday, US health authorities recommended a “pause” in the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine “out of an abundance of caution” over potential links to a rare type of blood clot, in a blow to the country’s immunisation campaign.The disorder appears similar to that observed in rare cases of people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe — and the shots by both companies are based on adenovirus vector technology.The US Food and Drug Administration and the Centres for Disease Control are assessing the “potential significance” of six reported cases of a type of clot in the brain called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) in combination with low levels of blood platelets (thrombocytopenia).All the cases involved women between the ages of 18 and 48, and symptoms occurred six to 14 days after vaccination.As of Monday, local time, more than 6.8 million doses of the single-shot J & J vaccine had been administered in the US — meaning that the rare effect appears to have been detected in around one in a million cases.“People who have received the J & J vaccine who develop severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath within three weeks after vaccination should contact their health care provider,” the FDA said.The CDC will convene a meeting of a top expert committee on Wednesday local time to further assess these cases and their significance, and the FDA will also carry out its own investigation.“Until that process is complete, we are recommending this pause out of an abundance of caution,” it said, to ensure the medical community was aware of the development and could develop appropriate treatment plans.The FDA said that normally, an anticoagulant drug called heparin is used to treat these blood clots, but in this case administering heparin might be dangerous.That might be because the disorder resembles a rare reaction to heparin, in which the body forms antibodies in response to the thinner which in turn triggers platelets to form dangerous clots.Commenting on the development, University of Florida infectious disease and vaccine design specialist Natalie Dean tweeted that “a pause is not permanent” and that the FDA is right to be responsive to safety concerns.“We have additional insights from the AZ vaccine used in Europe, which is also adenovirus-based,” she added.The FDA was set to hold a news conference later Tuesday morning. The statement came days after the European Union’s drug regulator said it is also reviewing possible blood clot cases in people given the J & J shot.NED-3602-AstraZeneca-Side-EffectsPANDEMIC IS GROWING WHO WARNS The COVID-19 pandemic has entered a critical phase as infections exponentially increase despite widespread measures aimed at stopping them, the WHO warned on Monday, local time, with record case numbers in South Asia triggering tough new restrictions.The coronavirus has already killed more than 2.9 million people and infected nearly 136 million across the world.But the World Health Organisation’s technical lead on COVID-19 Maria Van Kerkhove said “the trajectory of this pandemic is growing … exponentially.” “This is not the situation we want to be in 16 months into a pandemic, when we have proven control measures,” she told reporters, adding “we are in a critical point of the pandemic right now”.India has overtaken Brazil as the country with the second-highest number of infections, after logging more than 168,000 new cases in a single day.The recent, rapid increase of infections has taken India’s total number of cases to 13.5 million, above Brazil’s 13.48 million.“The solution is for everyone to stay home for two months and end this (pandemic) once and for all. But the public doesn’t listen,” said Rohit, a 28-year-old waiter in Mumbai.“Nobody follows the rules in the restaurant … If we tell customers to wear masks, they are rude and disrespectful to us.” Experts have warned that huge, mostly maskless and tightly packed crowds at political rallies, mass religious festivals and other public places have fuelled the new wave of cases.In the Himalayan city Haridwar on Monday, maskless Hindu pilgrims squeezed shoulder-to-shoulder on the banks of the Ganges River jostling for a dip as they observed a Kumbh Mela ritual, despite the risk of infection.Held once every three years, Kumbh Mela is often labelled the world’s largest religious gathering, but the 2021 event has posed a challenge to health officials who are struggling to enforce pandemic safety measures.Several regions have tightened curbs on activity while Maharashtra, India’s wealthiest state and current epicentre of the country’s epidemic, imposed a weekend lockdown and night curfew.But the government is desperate to avoid a repeat of last year’s nationwide March shutdown — one of the world’s toughest — which caused widespread human and economic misery.AUSSIE NURSE GIVING LIFESAVING JABSAustralian nurse Lou Faint has earned a beer. She has spent up to seven days a week working in the accident and emergency department at Sandwell General Hospital in Birmingham, England, for the past year. And from Monday, April 12, her hard work — and Britain’s — will be rewarded with lockdown restrictions eased, allowing her to drink a pint in the beer garden of her local the Crown and Cushion.The 25-year-old, who arrived from Perth just a few months before the pandemic hit, is hoping that the COVID vaccine she has received might also help her get back to see her family in Australia sooner. “I’m really excited because I’m hoping that it will mean that being vaccinated that returning to Australia to see my family will be easier, maybe the government will reduce the quarantine time, who knows?,” she said.“But that was my biggest motivator for getting the vaccine, returning to Australia to see my family.“It’s been 14 months since I’ve seen them. It doesn’t sound like very long but to me, it is.”Britain’s march out of lockdown will see not just the reopening of beer gardens, for the first time this year, but also that of hairdressers, beauty salons, gyms and non-essential shops. “It’s been five months since I’ve been out for anything, it’s really, really exciting,” Ms Faint said. “With the amount of people who have been vaccinated (in the UK) we’re pretty safe and I’m hopeful things will remain open.”The frontline nurse has observed first hand the impact of the vaccine — and Britain’s third lockdown — on reducing COVID-19 cases. Her hospital has reduced the number of COVID beds from 20 to only four beds. And now, those beds are not always full, compared with January when they were overwhelmed.The drop in cases happened as early as mid-February as the vaccine roll out ramped up.The case for taking a vaccine in Britain was obvious because of the staggering death toll of more than 120,000.Ms Faint said she could understand why people in Australia may not see the urgency of getting a jab because of its successful suppression strategy. But she said that from her experience, the vaccines were safe and effective.“It’s concerning to see the number of people who believe the vaccines are mandatory and therefore, do not want to be vaccinated,” she said.“People are reluctant to get vaccinated because COVID-19 is barely existent withinAustralia’s borders and the virus isn’t affecting the daily lives of people like it is in the UK so a lot of Australian’s don’t understand the need.”— With Stephen Drill, Europe correspondent
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