Coronavirus

Rich Countries Snatching Up Vaccines Before Poorer Countries Have a Chance, Advocates Warn

More than half a billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, according to the New York Times, and more than 75% of them have gone to people in the world’s richest countries: countries like the US, Canada, and the UK. According to a blog post in March from the People’s Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of around 50 anti-poverty and global aid groups, rich nations around the world are vaccinating one person every second, while the majority of poorer nations have yet to distribute even a single dose of the vaccine. The post warned that developing nations are facing critical shortages and medical supplies to cope with the number of cases they are facing. Many poorer nations won’t have widespread access to the vaccine until 2023 or 2024, according to a recent New York Times report.

Published

4 years ago

April 9, 2021

Kiki

Advocates are sounding the alarm on a disturbing trend in the global vaccination roll-out: poorer Black and brown countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, which are arguably in most dire need of the COVID-19 vaccine in comparison to more well-to-do countries, are having trouble getting any access to the vaccine at all because rich, Western countries have rushed to claim vaccine does for themselves.

More than half a billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, according to the New York Times, and more than 75% of them have gone to people in the world’s richest countries: countries like the US, Canada, and the UK. According to a blog post in March from the People’s Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of around 50 anti-poverty and global aid groups, rich nations around the world are vaccinating one person every second, while the majority of poorer nations have yet to distribute even a single dose of the vaccine. The post warned that developing nations are facing critical shortages and medical supplies to cope with the number of cases they are facing. Many poorer nations won’t have widespread access to the vaccine until 2023 or 2024, according to a recent New York Times report.

In many poorer nations, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated already dismal economic and health conditions. In Yemen in the Middle East, for example, the pandemic has been layered on top of an ongoing civil war and humanitarian crisis. Lack of access to clean water due to the war had already led to rampant disease outbreaks, such as cholera, even before the pandemic.

So why have all the vaccines gone to rich countries and so few to the countries that need it most? According to the New York Times report, one issue is that governments of western countries have struck deals with vaccine manufacturers to ensure they get first dibs on the vaccines. Another issue, according to the People’s Vaccine Alliance, is that rich countries have allowed vaccine manufacturers to patent vaccine technology rather than requiring that they share it. This has prevented poorer countries from being able to produce vaccines for themselves, rather than having to import them.

“One year into the global pandemic, it’s an outrage that vaccine factories are lying idle, unable to produce COVID-19 vaccines because rich countries are prioritizing the patents of pharmaceutical companies ahead of the lives of people across the world, said Nick Dearden, Director of Global Justice Now, which is a part of the People’s Vaccine Alliance. “A global suspension of patents is needed to speed up the production of these vaccines everywhere.”

In public remarks at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs on Monday, Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called for more global aid for vaccine roll-out in poorer countries, noting that greater instability caused by the pandemic in those countries would be devasting for their citizens, but also poses concerns for the United States.

Kiki

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Authorities Warn: There’s a COVID Surge in California

According to data estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the coronavirus in California’s wastewater has spiked for eight consecutive weeks. Hospitalizations and emergency room visits have also increased since the rise of the new subvariants. Over the last month, Los Angeles County experienced an average of 389 hospital patients per day that tested positive for the coronavirus. The FLiRT subvariants such as KP.3.1.1. Made up over 2% of coronavirus samples nationwide, an increase of more than 7% last month.

Published

4 months ago

August 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Photo provided by California Black Media.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

California is experiencing a COVID-19 surge this summer, experts warn, as numbers of infections increased for the third month this year.

State public health authorities attribute the summer COVID surge to more infectious subvariants that have emerged as the coronavirus evolves.

Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, stated that subvariants of COVID-19 called FLiRT increased in recent months, particularly one named KP.3.1.1 that has become the most common strain in the country.

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases expert at UC San Francisco, said that the subvariant KP.3.1.1 seems most adept at transmission.

“The subvariant is the one that people think will continue to take over, not only in the United States, but … around the world,” Chin-Hong said.

The majority of the people who tested positive for COVID-19 complained of a sore throat and a heavy cough. Risk factors that can increase the illness include age, underlying health issues, and vaccine dosage.

Health experts stated that the demand for the COVID-19 vaccine has increased in Northern California. However, people are having a hard time getting the vaccine due to the increasing number of cases.

Oakland Post

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California Black Media

Gov. Newsom and Gov. DeSantis Go Head-to-Head in Nationally Televised Debate

Conservative Fox News personality Sean Hannity moderated the duel, during which the TV pundit, more than once, injected his opinion, and appeared to be providing subtle assists to DeSantis. As the debate progressed, it was clear that opinions about each topic discussed was representative of the philosophical and political chasm that divides liberal and conservative America, and a preview of campaign mudslinging that is bound to intensify as the 2024 presidential campaign ensues.

Published

1 year ago

December 10, 2023

Oakland Post

The debate between Gov. Gavin Newsom and Gov. Ron DeSantis was moderated by Fox News personality Sean Hannity. California Black Media image.

By California Black Media

In an intense, 95-minute-plus televised faceoff between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Nov. 30, the men traded jabs and putdowns, defended their respective gubernatorial records, disagreed sharply on how to solve the country’s most pressing problems, and expressed clashing views on the performance of the Biden-Harris administration.

Conservative Fox News personality Sean Hannity moderated the duel, during which the TV pundit, more than once, injected his opinion, and appeared to be providing subtle assists to DeSantis.

As the debate progressed, it was clear that opinions about each topic discussed was representative of the philosophical and political chasm that divides liberal and conservative America, and a preview of campaign mudslinging that is bound to intensify as the 2024 presidential campaign ensues.

“I’ll tell you why I’m here,” Newsom said. “I’m here to tell the truth about the Biden-Harris record and also compare and contrast Ron DeSantis’ record and the Republican Party’s record” with that of California.

DeSantis blasted Newsom’s management of the COVID-19 crisis and criticized Newsom for prevalent crime, homelessness and deteriorating social conditions in California cities.

“You have the freedom to defecate in public in California,” DeSantis said. “You have the freedom to pitch a tent on Sunset Boulevard. You have the freedom to create a homeless encampment under a freeway and even light it on fire. They’re not the freedoms our founding fathers envisioned.”

Newsom took a jab at DeSantis’ presidential candidacy, predicting that the Florida Governor would be endorsing GOP frontrunner Donald Trump soon.

“There’s one thing we have in common,” Newsom said. “Neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

BayCityNews

FDA Updates Approval of Pfizer Booster Vaccine for Children Under 5

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated its approval Tuesday of the Pfizer-BioNTech booster vaccine, making it available to some children under age 5. Before this update, children under 5 were not eligible for COVID-19 booster shots. Instead, they received three doses of the regular vaccine.

Published

2 years ago

March 22, 2023

Oakland Post

As of December 2022, children age 4 and younger who have not been vaccinated receive the omicron variant-specific booster vaccine as the third dose in their primary vaccine series, following two doses of the original Pfizer vaccine.

By Eli Walsh
Bay City News

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated its approval Tuesday of the Pfizer-BioNTech booster vaccine, making it available to some children under age 5.

Before this update, children under 5 were not eligible for COVID-19 booster shots. Instead, they received three doses of the regular vaccine.

However, children in that age range who completed their initial vaccination series before December 2022 only received three doses of the original Pfizer vaccine, and are less protected against more infectious variants of the virus as a result.

FDA officials updated the vaccine’s emergency use authorization Tuesday to allow those children who only received the original Pfizer COVID vaccine to receive one dose of the bivalent booster if it has been at least two months since they completed their initial series.

Other children under age 5 are not eligible for the booster, although everyone age 5 and up is eligible for a booster.

“Currently available data show that vaccination remains the best defense against severe disease, hospitalization and death caused by COVID-19 across all age groups, and we encourage all eligible individuals to make sure that their vaccinations are up to date with a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine,” said Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

Clinical data has found that both the original Pfizer vaccine and the booster vaccine that targets the omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are safe for everyone aged 6 months and up and effective at preventing the worst outcomes of COVID infection, including serious illness and death.

COVID vaccines are available at primary care providers, retail pharmacies and some facilities operated by local health departments.

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