Following is a summary of current health news briefs.
Canada becomes first country to allow Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 12-15
Canada on Wednesday became the first nation in the world to authorize the use of Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 12 to 15, describing the move as a light at the end of the tunnel. Supriya Sharma, a senior adviser at the Canadian federal health ministry, said the Pfizer vaccine, produced with German partner BioNTech SE, was safe and effective in the younger age group.
U.N. chief pushes voluntary sharing of COVID-19 vaccine licenses
U.N. chief Antonio Guterres believes vaccine makers should allow other companies to produce versions of their COVID-19 shots, a U.N. spokesman said on Wednesday, as the World Trade Organisation discussed waiving patent rights to boost supply to developing countries. “The Secretary-General has often called for technology transfers and sharing of know-how and voluntary licensing or sharing of licensing,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
As COVID-19 rages in India, scientist warns further waves ‘inevitable’
A top scientific adviser to the Indian government warned on Wednesday the country would inevitably face further waves of the coronavirus pandemic, as almost 4,000 people died in the space of a day. With hospitals scrabbling for beds and oxygen in response to a deadly second surge in infections, the World Health Organization said in a weekly report that India accounted for nearly half the coronavirus cases reported worldwide last week and a quarter of the deaths.
Younger people filling up COVID-19 intensive care wards in Americas, PAHO says
COVID-19 infections continue to spread fast across the Americas as a result of relaxed prevention measures and intensive care units are filling up with younger people, the director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday. In Brazil, mortality rates have doubled among those younger than 39, quadrupled among those in their 40s and tripled for those in their 50s since December, Carissa Etienne said.
Exclusive: Lilly hit by staff accusations, FDA scrutiny at COVID drug factories
Eli Lilly & Co employees have accused a factory executive of altering documents required by government regulators in an effort to downplay serious quality control problems at the U.S. plant producing the drugmaker’s COVID-19 treatment, according to an internal Lilly complaint and a source familiar with the matter. The unsigned report, filed April 8 in Lilly’s confidential employee complaint system and reviewed by Reuters, is the latest sign of manufacturing problems at the drug giant. The complaint asserts that the executive, a top quality official at the company’s factory in Branchburg, New Jersey, rewrote findings by Lilly technical experts at the plant, which has been under investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to make the conclusions appear more favorable to the company.
Put idle capacity to work now making vaccines, says WTO head
The world cannot act soon enough to put idle manufacturing capacity to work making COVID-19 vaccines to help redress a massive imbalance in global supply, the head of the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday. WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and treatments was “both the moral and economic issue of our time”. The World Health Organization said in April that of 700 million vaccines globally administered, only 0.2% had been in low-income countries.
Vaccine tourism: Canadians fly south for shot as U.S. demand falls
With COVID-19 vaccine demand declining in the United States, some Canadians facing third-wave lockdowns are flying south to get inoculated, perhaps months earlier than they would be able to at home. Jimmy Simmons, 37, saw friends in their 40s struggling to get a shot in the hard-hit Canadian province of Ontario. The Toronto businessman decided to spend a few weeks in New York City to meet clients and get vaccinated. He got his first of two shots on Tuesday.
Biden says he plans to back WTO IP waiver for COVID-19 vaccines
President Joe Biden on Wednesday threw his support behind a proposed World Trade Organization waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, bowing to mounting pressure from Democratic lawmakers and more than 100 other countries. Biden, who had backed a waiver during the 2020 presidential campaign, voiced his support after a speech at the White House.
Moderna booster increases antibodies against COVID-19 variants, early data shows
Moderna Inc said on Wednesday early human trial data shows that a third dose of either its current COVID-19 shot or an experimental new vaccine candidate increases immunity against variants of COVID-19 first found in Brazil and South Africa. The booster shots, given to volunteers previously inoculated with Moderna’s two-dose vaccine regimen, also boosted antibodies against the original version of COVID-19, Moderna said.
Free booze, baseball tickets offered as U.S. demand for COVID-19 vaccine drops
Robert Day walked up to a house in northwest Detroit, eager to talk about nearby COVID-19 vaccination sites and pitch a local program that pays $50 to anyone who brings someone to a clinic to get inoculated. A man sitting on the porch, who refused to give his name, tore up the flyer Day had handed him and stormed inside.
(With inputs from agencies.)
