A version of this story appeared in the May 11 edition of CNN’s Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction newsletter. Sign up here to receive the need-to-know headlines every weekday.
Kids as young as 12 will soon be able to get the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in the United States, marking another milestone in the country’s already record-breaking vaccination campaign.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded emergency use authorization for the Pfizer shot to include youths aged 12-15 on Monday, making it the first coronavirus vaccine authorized for younger teens and adolescents. States will be given the go-ahead to administer the shot to the new age group as soon as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gives its final approval, expected Wednesday, although doctors who already have doses on hand can use their discretion in using them before that. The move opens the door for another 5% of Americans (nearly 17 million people) to get inoculated and 85% of the US population will soon be eligible for the vaccine.
President Joe Biden welcomed the news on Monday, saying: “The light at the end of the tunnel is growing, and today it got a little brighter.” The President’s comments highlighted the positive impact that the country’s robust vaccination program has already had in bringing down cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Nearly 58% of US adults have already had at least one dose and 34% of the entire population is fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.
Other parts of the world, however, are battling cataclysmic outbreaks with few to no vaccines in sight, reminding us of the stark divisions caused by an inequitable global vaccine rollout. High- and upper-middle income countries represent 53% of the world’s population, but have received 83% of the vaccines, while low- and lower-middle income countries – which account for 47% of the global population – have received just 17% of the vaccines, according to new World Health Organization (WHO) data. “Yes, vaccines are reducing severe disease and death in countries that are fortunate enough to have them in sufficient quantities, and early results suggest that vaccines might also drive down transmission,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday. “But the shocking global disparity in access to vaccines remains one of the biggest risks to ending the pandemic.”
Tedros added that “globally, we are still in a perilous situation,” pointing to a rapid rise in cases and deaths in the WHO’s South-East Asia region, which includes India – where the world’s worst coronavirus outbreak continues to unfold. India officially recorded 329,942 cases of Covid-19 and 3,876 deaths on Tuesday, bringing its total case load to over 22.9 million and its death toll to 249,992. So far, less than 3% of the country’s 1.3 billion people are fully vaccinated.
To protect more Indians against the virus, the Indian government has shifted its focus from supplying vaccines to other countries through the COVAX scheme, a vaccine-sharing initiative for lower-income countries, to prioritizing its own citizens. But as COVAX is largely reliant on India’s vaccine manufacturers, countries which are depending on those doses are still waiting.
YOU ASKED. WE ANSWERED.
Q: How can a parent be sure that Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine won’t affect their child?
A: People have been asking if vaccines could have an impact on fertility for as long as pediatrician Dr. Yvonne Maldonado – who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases – can remember.
There’s a whole group of people who have been talking about what they call “primary ovarian insufficiency” – an extremely rare condition when a woman’s ovaries stop releasing eggs – and they’ve attributed that to other vaccines in the past, Maldonado says. So it wouldn’t be surprising if those same people are making that same spurious connection with the Covid-19 vaccine, she said.
There is no evidence at this point that this vaccine will affect development or fertility. It is a mRNA vaccine platform – it enters the cell and serves as a template for antibody development and almost immediately disintegrates into little pieces that are inert. It’s made from nucleic acids, which are basically the building blocks of all our cells, and these aren’t incorporated into anything. They just fall apart and are eliminated.
For more questions on kids and the Covid-19 vaccine, read the rest of CNN’s Q&A with Dr. Maldonado here.
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WHAT’S IMPORTANT TODAY
WHO classifies Indian strain as a “variant of concern”
The B.1.617 Covid-19 variant, which was first identified in India, has been classified as a “variant of concern” by the WHO. This label indicates that the identified variant may show, among other indicators, to be more transmissible, cause more severe disease, fail to respond to treatment, evade immune response or fail to be diagnosed by standard tests.
Quantifying the risk posed by the variant will require real-world data in addition to greater genomic surveillance, WHO officials said Monday, who added that they will be releasing more information on the variant on Tuesday.
People in England will soon be able to hug again
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a further easing of pandemic restrictions in England on Monday, saying the move would mark the “single biggest step” towards normality. From May 17, international travel to countries on a “green list” will be allowed without quarantining, and indoor hospitality and entertainment will re-open, along with some larger events, including concerts and sports events. The government also wants to see “intimate contact between friends” restored in England, senior minister Michael Gove told the BBC on Sunday. Asked if that meant hugs would be allowed again from around May 17, Gove answered: “Yes.”
The UK’s Covid-19 alert level was also lowered from level four – which states that transmission is high or rising exponentially – to level three – where the epidemic is in general circulation, on Monday. The country is now recording around 2,000 new coronavirus cases a day, compared with a daily peak of over 76,000 in January, according to government data. Daily deaths have also drastically dropped.
The UK has recorded the worst death toll in Europe with more than 127,000 fatalities, but emerged from a devastating second wave with the help of a successful vaccination campaign. More than 50 million vaccine doses have been administered nationwide so far, with the program on track to offer all adults a shot by the end of July, the government said Sunday.
Why India’s Covid chaos could make global shortages worse
India’s Covid-19 crisis has spiraled out of control, devastating families across the country and wreaking havoc on the country’s health system. And while the country’s current health emergency threatens to stall its own economic recovery, it’s also sending shockwaves through several important global industries, including the shipping, pharmaceutical, textile and financial sectors.
That’s because 80% of world goods trade by volume is carried on ships, with more than 200,000 of an estimated 1.7 million seafarers hailing from India. But as the country’s crisis persists, some experts fear that travel restrictions on people from India could led to an impending shortage of seafarers that could disrupt the global supply chain.
Another major concern is the pharmaceutical sector, given that India is the world’s largest supplier of generic drugs. In the US, 90% of all prescriptions are filled by generic drugs and one in every three pills consumed is produced by an Indian generics manufacturer, according to a joint study from Confederation of Indian Industry and KPMG in April 2020. But Indian drug makers get as much as 70% of their raw materials from China, a link in the supply chain that now looks vulnerable. Read more here on how India’s current situation could affect you.
ON OUR RADAR
- The European Union took further legal action against AstraZeneca over delayed shipments of its Covid-19 vaccines on Tuesday, just weeks after the EU first announced it was suing the British-Swedish-British drugmaker over an alleged breach of its vaccine supply contract. The move marks a dramatic escalation of a months-long dispute.
- The Biden administration is open to sharing coronavirus vaccines with North Korea, according to two sources familiar with internal discussions. Administration officials believe that the North Koreans won’t be ready to engage with the US until the threat from the pandemic has passed, which is one reason why sharing vaccines could grease the wheels for initial diplomatic engagement, current and former officials said.
- China is setting up “a line of separation” at the summit of Mount Everest to prevent the mingling of climbers from Nepal and those ascending from the Tibetan side, which is in China, as a precautionary measure given Nepal’s surging cases.
- Germany marked another grim milestone on Tuesday, reporting a total of 85,000 deaths from coronavirus, according to the country’s national agency for disease control and prevention.
- China is experiencing a rural tourism boom amid the Covid-19 pandemic as city dwellers escape its rapidly expanding urban centers for small communities, farms and orchards for a taste of the simple life.
TODAY’S TOP TIP
Rest!
For the first time in more than a year, many of us are ready to imagine the next chapter of our lives. But as we prepare for the “new normal,” CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains how rest will play a crucial part as we begin to emerge from the pandemic.
But first we have to talk about change – and the stress that can accompany it.
Gupta says that stress can be good – and even essential for brain health. That’s because we used to think that humans have a certain number of brain cells, which eventually die off, and that was it. But we’ve learned more recently that it is quite possible that humans are able to generate new brain cells throughout our entire lives. As an extra bonus, humans also possess the ability to form new connections between those new brain cells, and maybe even change the brain circuitry, which is known as neuroplasticity. For some, the pandemic has allowed for space to begin taking those steps to rewire, and even expand, our neural pathways to build healthy habits for a happier and safer lives.
One of the great shifts that we could make, Gupta says, is to recognize rest. If we truly build rest into our schedules and treat it as the priority it should be, then even pretty intense stress can be okay and can help facilitate growth.
Learn more on the most recent episode of Dr. Gupta’s “Chasing Life” podcast.