The WHO on Friday said that it does not expect widespread immunization against COVID-19 until the middle of next year, despite growing expectations in the US, the worst-hit nation, that a vaccine could be released within weeks.
The Geneva-based WHO also insisted it would never endorse a vaccine that is not proven safe and effective, amid concerns over the rush to develop a jab for COVID-19.
The disease has killed more than 879,000 people and infected more than 26 million others worldwide.
The UN health agency welcomed the fact that a “considerable number” of vaccine candidates had entered final stage trials, which typically involve tens of thousands of people, but “in terms of realistic timelines, we are really not expecting to see widespread vaccination until the middle of next year,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said.
Russia has already approved a vaccine, and research published in The Lancet medical journal on Friday said that subjects involved in early tests developed antibodies with “no serious adverse events.”
However, scientists cautioned the trials were too small — just 76 participants — to prove safety and effectiveness.
Washington has also urged US states to get ready for a potential vaccine rollout by Nov. 1, sparking concerns that US President Donald Trump’s administration is rushing to begin distributing a vaccine.
In Australia, at least 15 people have been arrested at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance and Albert Park after more than 200 protesters defied the city’s stage-four lockdown to hold an anti-lockdown rally yesterday.
Police in New South Wales also arrested three people at an unauthorised protest in Sydney’s Hyde Park while another protest was held at Sydney’s Olympic Park. Smaller protests were also held in Townsville, Brisbane and Byron Bay.
Organized by a broad coalition of online groups linked by a mish-mash of conspiracy theories, yesterday’s Melbourne protest was planned in defiance of lockdown restrictions, mandates on mask-wearing in Victoria, 5G, vaccinations and “child trafficking and pedophilia.”
Victoria police took a hardline approach, charging five people with incitement for their alleged involvement in organizing the protest.
Among them was Fanos Panayides, a prominent member of Australia’s conspiracy movement and one of the organizers of a similar protest held in Melbourne in May.
Meanwhile, flamboyant former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been taken to hospital with the disease.
He has an early-stage lung infection, but was breathing on his own after being hospitalized in Milan and has not been intubated, his personal physician said on Friday.
Alberto Zangrillo, who is also on the staff of San Raffaele Hospital, where Berlusconi was taken early in the day, said that test results were reassuring and “make us optimistic” for the 83-year-old business mogul’s recovery over the next “hours and days.”
Zangrillo said that he examined Berlusconi at home a day earlier and decided it best to hospitalize him after detecting “bland pulmonary involvement.”
Berlusconi resisted at first — “his mood’s not the best” — but agreed to be hospitalized after hearing the details of his condition, Zangrillo said.
Former Cook Islands prime minister Joseph Williams has died of COVID-19 in Auckland, the New Zealand Ministry of Health said yesterday, taking the number of COVID-19-related deaths in the country to 24.
Williams, who was in his 80s, was a well-known doctor as well as a politician and author, living in New Zealand. He was briefly prime minister of the Cook Islands in 1999 after having served as the South Pacific nation’s minister of health and education.
Additional reporting by Reuters, AP and the Guardian
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
Pakistani police yesterday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her TikTok account. In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces. “The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson said. Investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday “for honor,” the police report said. The man was subsequently arrested. The girl’s family initially tried to “portray the murder as a suicide” said police in
RSS