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HEALTH-VIRUS NEWSERIES
World’s first Covax jab injected as US eyes J&J rollout
ACCRA, March 1, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo on
Monday became the first recipient of a coronavirus vaccine under the global
Covax scheme, as US health workers prepared to distribute nearly four million
doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson jab.
Covax, a scheme designed to ensure poorer countries do not miss out on
vaccinations as worries grow that rich nations are hogging the doses, is
aiming to deliver at least two billion jabs by the end of the year.
Akufo-Addo received his AstraZeneca shot live on television along with his
wife, while in neighbouring Ivory Coast a presidential spokesman got the
country’s first jab, also part of a Covax delivery.
Ivory Coast received some 504,000 jabs from Covax, while Ghana got 600,000
that it will start to roll out this week.
“It is important that I set the example that this vaccine is safe by being
the first to have it, so that everybody in Ghana can feel comfortable about
taking this vaccine,” the president said.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi also got his coronavirus jab on
Monday — although a glitch in the online booking system meant thousands of
others were turned away from hospitals nationwide.
And in the United States, 3.9 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson
vaccine are due to be delivered after it became the third jab approved by US
regulators.
The J&J rollout comes as a boost to President Joe Biden’s plan to beat
back a virus that has killed more than half a million Americans, making the
US the world’s worst-hit nation.
– Legal wrangle –
Vaccines are seen as crucial to returning the world to normality and
healing the economy after a pandemic that has claimed more than 2.5 million
lives across the globe.
Over 224 million doses have been administered worldwide, according to
national data compiled by AFP, with the Philippines among the latest
countries to launch a rollout on Monday.
But rich countries have bought up the vast majority of those available,
prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to warn that the crisis cannot
end unless poor countries can vaccinate their populations too. A new row is
brewing over a call led by India and South Africa for intellectual property
rights to the vaccines to be waived.
Backed by dozens of governments, they argue that this would boost
production and ultimately bring the pandemic to a swifter end.
But the United States, the European Union and Switzerland — home to major
pharmaceutical firms — oppose the idea, which is being thrashed out at a
World Trade Organization meeting on Monday and Tuesday.
– Globes glitches –
Meanwhile, the seesaw nature of virus restrictions continued.
Finland announced a state of emergency and moved towards tighter rules,
while Germany began to lifting curbs Monday with the opening of salons.
“It’s such a relief,” Hans-Joachim Berthold, a 64-year-old Berliner, told
AFP after rushing to his newly opened hairdressers. “I couldn’t bear to look
at myself in the mirror before!”
But while inoculation campaigns are now well under way, the spread of
highly infectious Covid variants has fuelled worries that they could prove
more resistant to the vaccines.
Britain has appealed for a person infected with the potent Brazilian
strain to come forward after they failed to leave contact details while being
tested — meaning they could still be infecting others without knowing it.
In some countries, widespread vaccine scepticism remains another obstacle
to achieving mass immunity, although a survey of six countries suggests
willingness to get the jab is on the rise.
Even in France, the country with the least enthusiasm of those surveyed,
willingness is up to 59 percent, the study by KekstCNC found.
And while vaccine scepticism is relatively low in Russia, a separate poll
suggested a deeper Covid-scepticism: two-thirds of respondents believe the
disease itself is a manmade biological weapon.
In the entertainment world, mass vaccinations are fuelling hopes of an
eventual return to live events with big crowds.
But the usually-glitzy Golden Globes on Sunday night illustrated how
normality is still a long way off, with awards dished out to film and
television stars against a backdrop of awkward technical glitches.
Initial reviews were biting, Variety calling it a “lazy, clueless
ceremony” and Deadline dubbing it “bloated and glitchy”.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 2325 hrs