Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
China is resuming visa processing for foreigners from dozens of countries, but only if they have been inoculated against Covid-19 with a Chinese-made vaccine.
The move has raised questions about the motivations behind the demand, given China’s vaccines are not approved in many of the countries to which it has opened travel and that it will not accept foreign vaccines made elsewhere, including those approved by the World Health Organization.
The day India started coronavirus vaccinations, Amit Mehra’s name was on the priority list. But he never made an appointment. “I’m not inclined to get vaccinated just because it’s available,” says the 47-year-old Delhi hospital worker.
Two and a half thousand miles away, strolling past a popup inoculation centre near Red Square in Moscow, Magomed Zurabov is similarly reluctant. Suspicious that the pandemic was deliberately engineered, he has no intention of being vaccinated, he says. Instead, he is “taking the necessary precautions”: wearing a mask and using disinfectant.
Analysis: Germany, France, Spain and Italy head an expanding list of EU countries to have put its use on hold
A host of European countries have put all vaccinations with this jab on hold, including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Norway and Ireland. Some others such as Estonia and Austria have suspended vaccinations from particular batches of the vaccine.
The EMA is conducting an investigation into the safety of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine after Germany, France, Italy and other EU countries suspended its use over isolated cases of bleeding, blood clots and low platelet counts.
Director Emer Cooke stated the EMA is "still firmly convinced the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine … outweigh the risk of these side effects." The investigative panel will meet again on Thursday when they will publish their findings to the public.
The EU’s medicines regulator has said it remains “firmly convinced” the benefits of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine outweigh the risks, but isolated cases of blood clots “are a serious concern and need serious and detailed scientific evaluation”.
Emer Cooke, the head of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), said there was no indication that the shot had caused any of the incidents, but the agency was investigating them thoroughly and would report it conclusions on Thursday.
Adm Brett Giroir says Trump’s leadership ‘matters a great deal’
Poll found 49% of Republican men would refuse vaccine
Donald Trump’s former coronavirus testing tsar has urged the former president to address Covid vaccine hesitancy among Republicans, even as the man who some say has assumed Trump’s platform and megaphone, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, criticized vaccine outreach by the Biden administration.
Several recent surveys have shown vaccine hesitancy is highest among Republican men. Public health experts are scrambling to respond.
There has been chaos and confusion in Germany and Italy after their decisions to suspend use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, with vaccination centres closing their doors and appointments being abruptly cancelled.
The countries are two of the biggest on a growing list of European nations that have in recent days ordered a pause in the distribution of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Russia’s Covid vaccines have proven effective against new variants of the coronavirus in trials, a scientist with Moscow’s consumer regulator has said, after the agency reported its first cases of a variant first detected in South Africa (see 10.02am).
Reuters has the story:
In fact, trials have already been done in Russia and we can say with confidence that the [Sputnik V and EpiVacCoriona] vaccines registered in Russia also work against new strains,” Alexander Gorelov, deputy head of research at Rospotrebnadzor’s Institute of Epidemiology, said on state television.
Gorelov gave no details on trials that had tested vaccines against variants first discovered abroad. Researchers conducting trials under the review ordered by Putin said on 27 February that results were looking strong when volunteers were re-vaccinated with Sputnik V against new mutations of the virus.
Public health experts in the US have called for access to vaccines to be widened to better cater for Latino migrants – among the groups hardest hit by Covid-19.
Zackary Berger and Kathleen Page, both associate professors at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Alicia Fernández, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, write:
Current vaccine priority algorithms are inequitable, particularly those that focus on age. Almost 90% of deaths among whites have been in people over 65, but, as CDC data clearly indicate, among Latinos and African Americans more than one-third of those dying of Covid-19 have been younger than 65. And although shared living spaces have undoubtedly fueled the rapid transmission of Covid-19 in immigrant communities, living in a crowded house does not qualify people for the vaccine.
As for essential workers, it’s one thing for a hospital employee to prove they are a healthcare worker, but another thing entirely for a day laborer getting paid in cash to show proof of occupation. Finally, while people all over the country are struggling with poorly designed websites and busy call centers, these approaches are particularly insurmountable for low-income Latino workers who lack the digital skills, language capabilities and time to overcome these barriers.
Washington Post reported on the study which confirmed what researchers have long argued about: the echo chamber effect
A small subset of Facebook users is reportedly responsible for the majority of content expressing or encouraging skepticism about Covid-19 vaccines, according to early results from an internal Facebook study.
The study, first reported by the Washington Post, confirms what researchers have long argued about how the echo chamber effect can amplify certain beliefs within social media communities. It also shows how speech that falls short of outright misinformation about vaccines, which is banned on Facebook, can still contribute to vaccine hesitancy.
As France and Germany join Ireland, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands in suspending the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine – even though the European Medicines Agency and the World Health Organization are advising people to continue taking it – the common refrain in European governments is that they are acting out of “an abundance of caution”.
There have been a handful of reports of blood clots in people recently vaccinated and also a rarer condition called thrombocytopenia, in which people do not make enough platelets. That can result in excessive bleeding. Deaths have been reported in Austria and Italy, which stopped the use of one batch of vaccine for fear it was contaminated. Meanwhile a further death from thrombocytopenia has been reported in Norway, as well as three hospitalisations.
It’s human nature to spot patterns in data. But we should be careful about finding causal links where none may exist
Stories about people getting blood clots soon after taking the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine have become a source of anxiety among European leaders. After a report on a death and three hospitalisations in Norway, which found serious blood clotting in adults who had received the vaccine, Ireland has temporarily suspended the jab. Some anxiety about a new vaccine is understandable, and any suspected reactions should be investigated. Butin the current circumstances we need to think slow as well as fast, and resist drawing causal links between events where none mayexist.
As Ireland’s deputy chief medical officer, Ronan Glynn, has stressed, there is no proof that this vaccine causes blood clots. It’s a common human tendency to attribute a causal effect between different events, even when there isn’t one present: we wash the car and the next day a bird relieves itself all over the bonnet. Typical. Or, more seriously, someone is diagnosed with autism after receiving the MMR vaccine, so people assume a causal connection – even when there isn’t one. And now, people get blood clots after having a vaccine, leading to concern over whether the vaccine is what caused the blood clots.
Brazil has reported 1,127 further Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours and 43,812 new cases of the coronavirus, the health ministry said as the pandemic’s most lethal week for the country comes to an end.
The South American country has now registered a total of 11,483,370 cases, Reuters reports.
France must do everything to avoid another lockdown as pressure on hospitals grows, prime minister Jean Castex has said as the country added more than 26,000 new cases to its tally.
Rather than send the country into a third national lockdown, the French government has implemented a 6pm nationwide curfew and weekend lockdowns in two hotspot regions while shutting shopping centres.
We have to use all weapons available to avoid a lockdown. I’ve never hid it, let’s vaccinate, protect ourselves, get tested,” Castex said on Sunday.
The situation is not getting better, there is a higher and higher number of infections and hospitals are very burdened with many patients, whose average age is getting lower and who don’t always have comorbidities.”
The renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma gives an impromptu performance in a vaccine waiting room in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, after having received his second dose of the coronavirus vaccine. He performs Ave Maria and the prelude to Bach’s Cello Suite No 1 to the small number of patients waiting to receive the dose. Ma, who played for about 15 minutes, is a part-time resident of the area and wanted to ‘give something back’ to his community, according to a local paper, the Berkshire Eagle
Ireland is suspending use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine as a precautionary measure following further reports of blood clots in people who have received it, this time from Norway.
The deputy chief medical officer, Dr Ronan Glynn, said Ireland’s advisory body on vaccines had recommended that deployment of the AstraZeneca jab should be “temporarily deferred” with immediate effect. He stressed, though, that there was no proof that the vaccine had caused blood clots.
Germany warns cases could hit Christmas peak by April; Australia records first local Covid case in more than two weeks; Poland reports rise in daily cases
In Australia a person who works in two Sydney quarantine hotels has tested positive to Covid-19.New South Wales health said it was notified of the new infection late last night. Urgent genomic testing is underway to determine the source of the infection, and the person’s close contacts have also been tested. It is the first locally-acquired case in 55 days in NSW. It’s not counted in today’s numbers but will be included in tomorrow’s.
NSW Health was notified late last night of a new case of COVID-19 in a person who works at two Sydney hotels which provide hotel quarantine for returned travellers. This case will be included in tomorrow’s numbers. pic.twitter.com/seNuUfBHBD
US bought enough doses to vaccinate whole eligible population twice, but continues to resist sharing in effort to ‘over-prepare’
The US is under increasing pressure to share Covid-19 vaccine doses with less wealthy nations, as advocates call for prevention of an emerging “vaccine apartheid” and point to the strategic and diplomatic importance of sharing essential medicines.
Calls to share vaccine doses grew louder this week after the Biden administration announced an additional purchase of 100 million vaccine doses from Johnson & Johnson. The American government has now bought enough doses of vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson to vaccinate 500 million people – nearly the entire eligible population twice over.
The PM has rejected claims of favouring Coalition and marginal seats through subsidised flights; and WA opposition leader Zak Kirkup insists he has no regrets as he prepares for landslide defeat. Follow all the latest updates, live
Good news for NSW residents in Auckland, they will once again be allowed to return to Australia without quarantine, as the New Zeland cluster dies out with no more new cases reported in the recent Auckland cluster since 28 February.
NSW health released a statement last night confirming the (one-way) travel bubble will reopen:
People who have been in Auckland in the past 14 days will be exempt from hotel quarantine provided that they seek testing for Covid-19 after arriving in NSW. They must self-isolate in their accommodation until they receive a negative result.
NSW Health will follow up arrivals from Auckland if a negative test is not recorded for them, to inform them of their obligations.
The OECD has so far been unable to find a clear winner in the contest between former Australian finance minister Mathias Cormann and former European trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström – so the decision may not be finalised until later this month.
Cormann and Malmström, the Swedish candidate, are the final two nominees for the role of secretary general of the Paris based OECD. The selection process is based on seeking to find consensus among OECD member states.
Following discussion with the Selection Committee, the Chair’s conclusions were finalised and these were communicated first to the nominating ambassadors, and then to the Heads of Delegations in plenary. Following these consultations, the Chair has been unable to identify which candidate has the most support. Further steps will be taken in March, with the aim of concluding the process.
A north London business centre previously used to host almost a million people across hundreds of events each year has reopened as an NHS Covid-19 mass vaccination centre. Up to 4,000 people a day will receive shots in dozens of private booths at the Business Design Centre in Islington, treated by trained staff and an army of volunteers. Patients arriving on its opening day expressed excitement and hope that the vaccine programme could eventually end lockdowns
Delaying the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine must be urgently reviewed for cancer patients after a single shot was found to offer inadequate protection, researchers have said.
A study from King’s College London and the Francis Crick Institute – which has not yet been peer reviewed – found that three weeks after the first jab antibody responses were found in 39% of people with solid cancers and 13% of people with blood cancer.