The Year Of The Vaccine
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January 06, 2021
As 2020 came to a close and the new year opened up, Covid-19 infection rates went soaring again in a second wave that included a new, apparently more contagious, strain of the virus.
Nevertheless, at the same time, a wave of optimism washed through world economies as vaccine excitement took hold, especially in the West. In December, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine got emergency approval and the EU, UK, US and Canada opened vaccination campaigns. News of government approvals and successful trials, video of frontline workers and political leaders getting injections, and above all the prospect of returning to business as before, inspired some revisions to growth forecasts. Capital Economics, for example, lifted its estimate for 2021 world GDP to 6.8%.
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Rome, Italy/Dhaka, Bangladesh
The start of mass vaccinations has raised hopes that COVID-19 can be beaten, but ending the pandemic hinges on tackling a plethora of last mile challenges - from a lack of fridges to vaccine hesitancy and fraud, according to specialists.
In order to tame a disease that has killed more than 1.6 million people and battered the global economy, billions of vaccine doses must be shipped to people in every corner of the world, including war zones and remote, poverty-stricken areas.
Accessing such regions and finding suitable cold storage for vaccines during the journey and on arrival will be a huge task.
Thomson Reuters Foundation Published: 15 Dec 2020 09:10 PM BdST Updated: 15 Dec 2020 09:10 PM BdST A volunteer receives an injection from a medical worker during the country s first human clinical trial for a potential vaccine against the novel coronavirus, at the Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, South Africa, June 24, 2020. Reuters
The start of mass vaccinations has raised hopes that COVID-19 can be beaten, but ending the pandemic hinges on tackling a plethora of last mile challenges - from a lack of fridges to vaccine hesitancy and fraud, according to specialists. ); }
In order to tame a disease that has killed more than 1.6 million people and battered the global economy, billions of vaccine doses must be shipped to people in every corner of the world, including war zones and remote, poverty-stricken areas.
ANALYSIS-COVID-19 vaccines raise hope but the last mile challenge looms Reuters 12/15/2020
By Thin Lei Win and Naimul Karim
ROME/DHAKA, Dec 15 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The start of mass vaccinations has raised hopes that COVID-19 can be beaten, but ending the pandemic hinges on tackling a plethora of last mile challenges - from a lack of fridges to vaccine hesitancy and fraud, according to specialists.
In order to tame a disease that has killed more than 1.6 million people and battered the global economy, billions of vaccine doses must be shipped to people in every corner of the world, including war zones and remote, poverty-stricken areas.