Covid-19 Update

Of Special Note

• Focus on Europe’s problem with suspected AstraZeneca vaccine health risks
• Poland may be headed to lockdown
• Brazil sees record death rate

From NYT

• Europe / Vaccines -The European Medicines Agency, the E.U.’s top drug regulator, will most likely pronounce the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine safe after concerns about a potential link with blood clots or abnormal bleeding led to it being suspended in multiple countries. But millions of Europeans have been shaken by the back-and-forth and will be more hesitant about vaccination. In France, the government has swerved from lauding the AstraZeneca inoculation a few days ago to suspending it. A poll by the Elabe Institute published Tuesday showed that only 20 percent of French people now trust the AstraZeneca vaccine, with 58 percent skeptical and 22 percent undecided. So far, only 9.8 percent of E.U. residents have been vaccinated, leaving the bloc far behind Britain and the U.S.
• Europe / Travel – The E.U. on Wednesday proposed a free certificate that would allow people to travel more freely if they could show proof of vaccination, a negative test or a documented recovery from the coronavirus. It is intended to salvage the summer for tourism-dependent member states. “The Digital Green Certificate will not be a precondition to free movement, and it will not discriminate in any way,” Didier Reynders, a top E.U. official, said, adding that the aim was to “gradually restore free movement within the E.U. and avoid fragmentation.”
• Poland / Restrictions – Poland, which has experienced a significant upswing in coronavirus cases, will tighten restrictions nationwide starting on Saturday.
• West Bank / Vaccines The occupied West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip received their first shipment of Covid-19 vaccines on Wednesday from the global vaccine sharing initiative Covax.
• Britain / Vaccines -Britain’s National Health Service warned Wednesday of a “significant reduction” in vaccine supplies from manufacturers that would last a month.
• Serbia / Vaccines – Serbia, which has signed deals for 11 million doses of Russian, Chinese and Western vaccines, has become Europe’s second-best vaccinator after Britain. It has sealed deals for more than 11 million doses with Russia and China, whose products have not been approved by European regulators, as well as with Western drug companies.

From BI

• Photos show what Europe’s 3rd COVID-19 wave looks like as hospitalizations mount and Italy enters another lockdown

From Vox

• Covid-19 has taken 3.9 million years of Americans’ lives
• What the pandemic taught us about America’s working class

From The Guardian

• Delaying England’s winter lockdown ‘caused up to 27,000 extra Covid deaths’;
• John Magafuli, one of Africa’s most prominent Covid-19 sceptics, dies of ‘heart condition’;
• Brazil sees record daily case rise
• EU threatens to halt vaccine exports to UK unless it gets ‘fair share’
• Tanzania’s Covid-denying president, John Magufuli, dies aged 61
• Blanket ‘do not resuscitate’ orders imposed on English care homes
• Delaying England’s winter lockdown ‘caused up to 27,000 extra Covid deaths’