Did COVID emerge from Australian beef? WHO investigators echo China’s claim
By Bhavya Singh| Updated: 11th February 2021 4:52 pm IST Photo for representation only.
After a heavily controlled WHO visit to China, a team of 14 scientists investigating the origin of the pandemic concluded their month-long investigation by echoing the Communist Party’s claim that ‘cold-chain products’ such as Australian beef could have led to the initial outbreak.
Peter Embarek, leader of the WHO team said that further studies should be conducted to determine whether the virus was imported into the country – possibly on frozen meat sold at the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan where the first cases were detected.
The US has administered nearly 30M doses of Covid-19 vaccine
A healthcare worker administers a dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at Nassau Community College in Garden City, New York, on January 30. Johnny Milano/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The US has administered more than 29.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC reported that 29,577,902 doses have been administered about 59% of the 49,932,850 doses distributed.
That means 24 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and about 5.25 million people have been fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.
States have 72 hours to report vaccine data, so data published by the CDC may be delayed.
Under growing pressure to explain the sluggish vaccine rollout in the EUâs 27 member countries, officials insisted on Wednesday they were contractually entitled to vials produced at factories in Britain to make up for a shortfall on the Continent.
EU officials also brushed aside arguments from AstraZeneca that the United Kingdom was only getting a reliable supply because it signed deals three months earlier than the EU.
âWe reject the logic of first come, first served,â the EUâs Health Commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, told reporters in Brussels.
âThat might work at the neighbourhood butchers, but not in contracts and not in our advanced purchase agreements.â