2021-01-06 16:20:56 GMT2021-01-07 00:20:56(Beijing Time) Sina English
AFP
A person unpacks a special refrigerated box of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center in Boston, Massachusetts on December 24, 2020.
The European Union’s medicines regulator gave the green light on Wednesday to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, a decision that gives the 27-nation bloc a second vaccine to use in the desperate battle to tame the coronavirus outbreak rampaging across the continent.
The approval recommendation by the European Medicines Agency’s human medicines committee which must be rubber-stamped by the EU’s executive commission comes amid high rates of infections in many EU countries and strong criticism of the slow pace of vaccinations across the region of some 450 million people.
JOSEPH PREZIOSO / Getty Images
A nurse prepares a syringe with the Moderna vaccine at the East Boston Neighbourhood Health Centre (EBNHC) in Boston, Massachusetts on December 24, 2020.
As advisors of an FDA advisory committee heard, the Moderna coronavirus vaccine caused facial swelling in two study participants with recent dermal fillers.
The swelling is an immunological response to the vaccine. Inflammation is part of the immune system kicking into gear, and it can momentarily reacts to foreign objects as well, including fillers
.
Experts say this should not prevent people who have had cosmetic fillers in the past from getting vaccinated for the coronavirus.
| Updated December 30, 2020
JOSEPH PREZIOSO via Getty Images
A registered nurse unpacks a special refrigerated box of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines as she prepares to ready more supply for use at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center in Boston, Massachusetts on Dec. 24, 2020.
Ontario expects to receive its first shipment of the Moderna vaccine in the next 24 hours and plans to vaccinate more than half of its population by the summer, the chair of the province’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution task force said Tuesday.
The news comes as the province faces criticism for closing several vaccination clinics during the holidays.
Retired Gen. Rick Hillier told reporters “in hindsight it was the wrong decision” and said he accepts the responsibility to move more quickly to ensure Ontarians get vaccinated.