The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 can replicate only after using its spike proteins to bind with receptors on human cells, then injecting its genetic code into a host cell, as depicted in this artist’s impression, then hijacking the host cell’s reproduction machinery. Credit: SCIGRAPHIX / S. Westermann
Given Covid fatigue, you’re excused if you cut down on doomscrolling and tried to ignore the bad pandemic news as 2020 wound down. But welcome to 2021. Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths continue rising in the United States and elsewhere, vaccine rollouts are proceeding slower than hoped, and a post-holiday surge in cases looms.
Here are brief summaries of several important recent developments and ominous trends:
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Video report by ITV News Health Editor Emily Morgan
The UK has been embroiled in a growing row over the decision to delay giving the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccines.
Patients in the UK could have to wait up to 12 weeks after their first Pfizer jab instead of the recommended 21 days in order, the British government says, to speed up the vaccine rollout.
The delay will also apply to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, although, with some evidence from trials that a second dose up to 12 weeks later does not interfere with the efficacy of the jab, this has caused less global controversy.
6 Jan 2021
The UK government has said it wants to give a single dose of Covid vaccine to as many members of priority groups as possible.
While everyone should get a second dose within 12 weeks, this is a lot longer than the gap of three weeks between doses that was originally planned.
The World Health Organization’s expert scientific advisors have said they do not recommend that other countries follow the British approach – but the WHO also says it understands why the UK has chosen to go down this road.
There are big differences of opinion among experts around the world about whether the British approach is the right one. Here’s what we know about the UK’s vaccination strategy.
6-MIN READ
Covid-19 Vaccine Roll Out Urgent as More Infectious New Strains Take Hold
A woman wearing a mask looks at her mobile phone. (Image for representation/ REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji )
Drugmakers worldwide defied predictions by finalising not just one vaccine in record time, but half a dozen.
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The spread of more infectious coronavirus strains in Britain and South Africa, with isolated cases of the UK variant appearing in dozens of countries, has made inoculating a maximum number of people as quickly as possible more urgent than ever, experts say.
Here s a rundown on how the vaccination story is unfolding:
Synopsis
Faced with surging pandemic and new, more transmissible coronavirus variants, some countries are hoping to broaden immunisation by giving some protection to as many people as possible with a first dose, and delaying second doses.
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Mixing or switching between COVID-19 vaccines is largely driven by the same aim - vaccinating as many people as possible as the pandemic still rages.
LONDON/CHICAGO: Britain and other nations are considering ways to stretch scarce supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, including by delaying second doses, reducing dose sizes and switching vaccine types between the first and second shots.
The proposals have generated fierce debate among scientists. The following is the rationale behind, and criticism of, these alternative strategies: