Thought of the Day - March 2 - Vaccine Wars - Two Weeks On

Vaccine Contracts:

• Latin American countries are complaining of unreasonable demands being made by Pfizer. According to Argentina, Pfizer not only asks for liability protection against civil claims from citizens who suffer serious adverse events after being vaccinated but also for cases brought due to Pfizer’s own negligence, fraud or malice. Pfizer made similar demands of the Brazilian government;

• China will supply COVAX with 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses.

Vaccine Development and Deployment:

• Ghana became the first country to get free vaccines through the COVAX initiative;

• Indonesia is one of the first countries to announce that the COVID vaccine will be mandatory;

• Israel passed a law allowing the Health Ministry to disclose information on people who have yet to be vaccinated;

• Mexico issued a warning on the alleged illegal application of Pfizer’s vaccine in the state of Nuevo Leon;

• Senior officials around the world continue to get canned for jumping the line to get a vaccine. Last week: Peru's Foreign Minister, Argentina's Health Minister, Ecuador's Health Minister, and, here at home, the head of Canada's Pension fund all left their posts;

• Iran says Barakat COVIran Vaccine is 90% effective against Coronavirus. The vaccine candidate is currently in its second stage of human trials;

• Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine stimulated roughly two-thirds lower levels of neutralizing antibodies [in other words - only one third] against the South African variant of the coronavirus in a lab study;

• Pfizer does not need to be in cold storage for up to two weeks;

• It seems Québec is still sticking to its no-second-dose strategy, and it looks like BC will be following suit, delaying the second dose for four months.

Vaccine Approvals (& Politics):

Things are progressing globally with the approval of existing vaccines and the arrival of new options:

• The J&J/Janssen vaccine has been added to the list following approval by Bahrain, Saint Vincent/Grenadines and the US;

• San Marino, the Italian-enclosed city-state that has been one of the worst-hit countries in the world, has followed other EU countries frustrated with approval delays and approved Sputnik V;

• Germany’s health authority said it "will soon reconsider its decision not to recommend the AstraZeneca vaccine for people over 65" - whatever that means;

• A number of countries have given wholesale blessings to multiple vaccines; a strategy to try to secure vaccine supply at a reasonable price. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for example approved five vaccines in February;

• Here in Canada, we have finally approved AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine this past week.

Cheers

Cliff