Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

[Bart S]

More articles about Covaxin

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ind ... aign=cppst

The issue as per them is:
DCGI approval is identical for both vaccines (which may or may not be an issue )
Bharat Biotech has not released any efficacy data to any journal
Covaxin is not indigenous as the adjuvant is imported (where have we have seen this type of nitpicking before )

You forget to mention that Gagandeep Kang, the author/interviewee of that article is one of those commie/liberandu type 'eminent persons'/academics/intellectuals who is a pathological Modi-hater and was one of the people who signed a petition asking not to vote for Modi. Hence the deliberate FUD being spread.

[Bart S]

I am not sure why some people are screaming that Covaxin is 100%, 110%, 200% safe. No one is questioning if it is safe or not.

Really? Every commie and their dog has been spreading FUD about the vaccine not being safe and that the Indian govt is risking people's lives such nonsense.

[suryag]

Covaxin is not indigenous as the adjuvant is imported (where have we have seen this type of nitpicking before )

there is no freaking way a vaccine based on inactivated coronavirus could be indigenous as the virus itself is imported

[Bart S]

I don't want to be a conspiracy theorist but these sudden accolades seem a bit out of place for the deep state media machine. Or as other posters have posited that this is just to dump the responsibility on India while China and west can continue with their old ways.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/indias-vac ... 1609930891

The 'conspiracy' if any, especially by the Bill Gates types is to get India to forego a portion of the doses that we need for domestic vaccinations, to supply WHO, Gates Foundation and other globalist do-gooders to cover states in Africa and even Pakistan possibly. So we do they work, make the sacrifice, while they take the credit.

GOI should put their foot down and insist that all exports be directly negotiated with themselves rather than some shady deals be cut directly with Indian cos by the globalists.

[vijayk]

[vimal]

I don't want to be a conspiracy theorist but these sudden accolades seem a bit out of place for the deep state media machine. Or as other posters have posited that this is just to dump the responsibility on India while China and west can continue with their old ways.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/indias-vac ... 1609930891

The 'conspiracy' if any, especially by the Bill Gates types is to get India to forego a portion of the doses that we need for domestic vaccinations, to supply WHO, Gates Foundation and other globalist do-gooders to cover states in Africa and even Pakistan possibly. So we do they work, make the sacrifice, while they take the credit.

GOI should put their foot down and insist that all exports be directly negotiated with themselves rather than some shady deals be cut directly with Indian cos by the globalists.

I hope the GST on exported vaccine is set to 80%.

[vera_k]

Be glad there is some demand for these early vaccines at all.

Vaccine rollout hits snag as health workers balk at shots

The desperately awaited vaccination drive against the coronavirus in the U.S. is running into resistance from an unlikely quarter: Surprising numbers of health care workers who have seen firsthand the death and misery inflicted by COVID-19 are refusing shots.

“I don’t think anyone wants to be a guinea pig,” said Dr. Stephen Noble, a 42-year-old cardiothoracic surgeon in Portland, Oregon, who is postponing getting vaccinated. “At the end of the day, as a man of science, I just want to see what the data show. And give me the full data.”

[nam]

The only way to get ahead of the virus is to go full steam 24/7 vaccination drive. Ask the pharma for an all out 3 shift production for the next 6 months.

[Ashokk]

Brazil's Bolsonaro asks India to expedite Covid vaccine shipment as delays loom

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to expedite a shipment of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine amid broader delays to the vaccine's arrival in Brazil, according to a letter on Friday.
Bolsonaro's letter, released by his press office, comes amid growing pressure to speed up Brazil's vaccine rollout and end the world's second-deadliest coronavirus outbreak. Critics say the immunization campaign is running behind regional peers, and they question why the government has not moved more quickly.
"To enable the immediate implementation of our National Immunization Program, I would appreciate ... the supply to Brazil, with the possible urgency and without jeopardizing the Indian vaccination program, of 2 million doses," Bolsonaro wrote in the letter, shared by his press office.
His message to Modi comes as the federally funded Fiocruz biomedical center said on Friday that the active ingredients needed to fill and finish millions of doses of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine in Brazil, previously slated to arrive in the country on Saturday, may not land until the end of the month.
Read our coronavirus live blog for all the latest news and updates
Fiocruz, which was counting on the shipment Saturday to supply the government with doses this month, said it was in talks to import more finished doses of the vaccine, likely from India on top of the 2 million it has already ordered.
A source involved said the active ingredient is ready to be shipped to Brazil but is waiting for an export license from China, where it is produced.
Earlier, Fiocruz requested an emergency use authorization for AstraZeneca vaccines coming from India, which are expected to arrive in Brazil in the middle of this month.

[Ashokk]

Serum’s vaccine despatch delayed another 48 hours

PUNE: The massive airlift of the Covishield vaccine doses from here has been delayed by another 48 hours. It is now likely to happen only by Monday. Vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India has dismissed talk of the transportation delay being due to “price negotiations” with the Union government.
Transportation was first expected to begin on Thursday, and then Friday.
Pune airport director Kuldeep Singh said, “No movement has happened today (Friday) too. As said earlier, we are fully prepared and ready from our end. We can easily handle (the transportation) and are at present handling more than 150 tonnes of cargo in a single day.”

An airline representative said on condition of anonymity that “transportation has been postponed until Monday. We don’t have any more information on this right now”.

Meanwhile, SII chief executive officer Adar Poonawalla said, “There is absolutely no price negotiation at all. The rollout will happen in a few days. There are due processes to be followed before we transport the vaccine doses,” he told TOI.
Poonawalla has announced that Covishield will be offered to the government at a special price of Rs 200 a dose for the first 100 million doses. It will be available in the market for Rs 1,000 a dose.

SII has 50 million doses ready at its Manjari plant in Pune. It has been waiting for the government to place a formal order for the doses before it can undertake the massive transportation exercise. Poonwalla said his company is making 50-60 million doses of the vaccine every month.

SII has a fleet of refrigerated trucks to transport the vaccine in cold packs from its plant in Manjari to Pune airport and also to closer destinations, including Mumbai.
At Pune airport, authorities are considering options such as changing domestic flights to cargo flights with the permission of the DGCA and opening a special slot for quick transport of the vaccine, in addition to transporting the vaccine by road, experts and airport officials said.
Officials said all options, including creating a special slot for destinations which do not have scheduled flights from Pune and opening the runway for flights at night, may be considered. At present, Pune airport does not operate flights after 8 pm due to runway re-carpeting work.
IndiGo, in an official statement, said, “In line with our business model and cost leadership strategy, we are happy to evaluate the shipment of Covid-19 vaccines on board our aircraft and will promise to contribute to the best of our abilities.”

[chanakyaa]

One noobie question for the uninitiated in the vaccine making. How much is SII dependent on AZ (for any secret sauce or other ingredients) that would constrain Serum's ability to scale?

[dhyana]

AstraZeneca's vaccine (AZD1222) is a recombinant, attenuated adenovirus. The base virus (ChAdOx1)- which would ordinarily cause 'the common cold' in a chimpanzee (but not really present in humans per se)- isn't anything special to manufacture/grow. Making a recombinant version of that virus is also not challenging at all. In this case (AstraZeneca's version), spliced-in genetic modifications (the secret sauce/IP) include:

a) the coding sequence for the coronavirus spike protein, and
b) neutering it (making it non-replicating in humans; that's the attenuation part)

So, the only issues that remain for manufacturing it:

a) Any adjuvant that might make it more immunogenic in the body (and enhance its efficacy). It's unclear that there is any 'secret sauce' here (probably not necessary since it's a live virus), though that certainly is the case w/ others- such as the Novavax vaccine candidate (NVX-CoV2373)- the base recombinant spike protein itself is licensed for production by Serum, and the adjuvant is provided by Novavax. The adjuvant is most certainly necessary in these protein/protein subunit vaccines since the protein itself usually doesn't trigger enough of an immune response.

b) The license to produce said vaccine.

Imho, the license and the 'seed virus' is essentially what AstraZeneca has sold to Serum. And Serum has a license for 1-billion doses total, so further production is constrained by the license itself.

[Zynda]

World War-V: Bengaluru is ready for the fight

With vaccination set to begin from January 16, health officials n Bengaluru are gearing up to vaccinate around 1.67 lakh registered health workers in the first phase.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP’s) Dasappa Hospital will play a key role in vaccine distribution in Bengaluru. All the vaccines that arrive from the airport will first head to Dasappa Hospital which has been identified as a centralised cold storage in the city. Located near Town Hall, ice-lined refrigerators for storing the vaccines.

BBMP sources said that vaccines from Dasappa Hospital will be transported to 141 cold chains in the city. These cold chains have been set up at the BBMP’s primary health centres. As of now, 1,506 vaccination centres have been identified. Alhough all these centres may not be utilised in the first phase of vaccinating frontline workers, hey will play a bigger role when the vaccination will be rolled out to masses. Around 100 people will get the jab at each designated centre initially.

BBMP health officials said that on the day of vaccination, the vials will be sent from the cold chains to the vaccination centres for inoculation.

Currently, 1,700 vaccinators have been trained for the purpose. According to the officials, the vaccination process for the registered frontline workers may be completed in a matter of two to three days.

A total of 1,67,937 frontline workers (1,46,019 from 4,300 private facilities and 21,918 from 292 government facilities) have been identified for inoculation in the first phase.

[Zynda]

Bengaluru healthcare workers wary of taking Covid-19 vaccine

Hospitals in Bengaluru will conduct a survey of their healthcare workers to determine if they’re comfortable taking the Covid vaccine.

The decision comes amid allegations and speculations of adverse reactions caused by the Covid-19 vaccination and the absence of data on Phase 3 clinical trial in Indian population. More than 1.68 lakh healthcare workers are on the priority list for the Covid vaccination in BBMP limits.

On January 3, India approved the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine (Covishield) and another developed by pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech (Covaxin) for emergency use.

BBMP officials visited Ramaiah and Suguna hospitals last week, asking them to identify three rooms for vaccination and ensure the immunisation of at least 100 healthcare workers per day from 8 am to 5 pm.

Ramaiah hospital authorities said many of their healthcare workers were reluctant to get vaccinated.

Dr Naresh Shetty, president, MS Ramaiah Hospital, said: “We have more than 3,000 healthcare and frontline workers, including housekeeping staff. As an institutional policy, we want to protect everyone as they’re on the frontline and we don’t want to take chances.”

Healthcare workers’ apprehension stems from the fact that both the vaccines have received only an emergency use authorisation and have not completed the mandatory Phase 3 trial in India.

“Being an institution that does clinical research, we do a lot of multinational drug trials and know how a trial goes. Until one has a Phase 3 trial completely done in different locations and involves all genders, age groups, co-morbidities like diabetes and hypertension, etc, and how they respond to each of this, we will not have a true answer for everyone,” Shetty explained.

An African may respond differently than a European or an Indian. A lot of people don’t know if they’re going to be volunteers in a trial or if they’re being assured the protection of a vaccine.

“A lot of people may back out at the last minute. We’re doing a study on how many people don’t want to take it and the reasons behind it. Many are doctors and they should be able to explain their apprehensions. We cannot mandate the vaccination,” he added.

Healthcare workers at Suguna Hospital are also apprehensive. Dr Rekha G, the medical superintendent of Suguna Hospital, said: “Nobody is volunteering to go first. They want others to take it first. They’re thinking, raising queries and asking around. We’re planning to do a survey and get their consent individually before the vaccination happens. The BBMP has already approached us for three rooms for vaccination.”

Pushpa M C, nursing superintendent, Suguna Hospital, said the 90 nurses working under her supervision were not very confident in the current circumstances. Sixty-five of the nurses are women. “I work in the Covid ward and I haven’t hugged my 12-year-old daughter since March. I live on the first floor while my husband, daughter and mother-in-law live on the ground floor. We cannot handle adverse reactions after the vaccination,” she said.

Dr Ravindra Ramaiah, Medical Director, Suguna Hospital, said: “Our doctors have been discussing this. There is a lot of confusion. It’s voluntary. I suspect some of our doctors are not going to take it. In my personal opinion, I might refuse Covaxin as there’s no data. I’m sceptical. At least some data from other countries is available for Covishield.”

Dr Ravindra Mehta, Pulmonologist, Apollo Hospital, Jayanagar, said: “Covishield has gone through a trial and passed the regulator somewhere in the world, and has also published in an eminent journal. But with Bharat Biotech, though the company said it has published the data in five publications, we cannot find anything anywhere. n my personal opinion, we’re leaning towards Covishield over Covaxin. We’re healthcare workers and don’t care about the politics, we just need data.”

Who’ll be vaccinated first?

No of healthcare workers shortlisted for Covid vaccination in Bengaluru 1,68,647

Narayana Health Group: 6,828
MS Ramaiah Group: 3,000
Apollo, Bannerghatta Road: 1,790
Apollo, Mysuru: 1,100
Apollo, Seshadripuram: 735
Apollo, Jayanagar: 678
Suguna Hospital: 507

[IndraD]

any suggestion on what should those hcw do who have received one dose of pfizer and then next delayed by 3 months? it is not supposed to work that way. Should they now get 2 proper oxford doses? or 2 doses 3 months apart of pfizer is ok?

[dhyana]

The short answer is that any definitive guidance wrt dosing deviations (which were not studied in the trials themselves) is akin to pulling it out of one's Musharraf.

The long answer is it depends on a lot of variables: actual vaccine type (live vs inactivated virus vs protein subunit vs new-fangled mRNA), quality of immunogenicity conferred (neutralizing antibodies and/or T-cell mediated), etc.

The Pfizer vaccine was studied w/ 21-days b/w doses, +/- 2 days grace period. However, the US CDC routinely authorizes a +/- 4 day grace period for vaccines (and that applies for the Pfizer one as well), based on numerous immunogenicity studies of prior vaccines- so a reasonable recommendation. The UK MHRA's guidance of up to 3-months b/w doses is truly a Musharaff play.

In a similar spirit, I will go out on a limb: the second dose will 'probably' confer excellent protection. The antibodies themselves are durable enough to last >3 months. It's just if you are willing to accept a reduced protection for that 3-month intervening period of time, when there is only a documented 52% efficacy for one-dose. As well, there were 10 participants in the study that got severe Covid in the trial after only the 1st dose (9 were in the placebo arm, one was in the vaccinated arm).

The Brits have rolled their dice. Most likely, at this time, no government will intentionally mix up different vaccines- though as others have alluded to, the Brits have been studying that as well. For now, an average Joe won't be offered that option of mixing up vaccines (since they've all been procured by governments directly). This might change in the future when the private sector obtains supplies, though by that time, there should be enough vaccine stock (in Western countries at least) so that this extended dosing interval nonsense is put to rest.

[chaitanya]

Mods, sorry for the OT - will remove the post after it’s seen.

Dhyana, your posts are very informative on the science of the vaccine. I am actually starting some research in this area and have a lot of questions - would it be possible for me to ask these offline? If so, what’s the best way to reach out to you?

[dhyana]

pm sent

[SandeepA]

Millions of doses of the various covid vaccines have already been administered across many countries particularly to the most 'at risk' groups. Has any study come out to show its effect on the overall infection rate in these countries/communities yet? Any pointers appreciated

[saip]

^^Me thinks it is too early. Only 3% have so far been vaccinated in the USA with most of the coastal states, where most of the people are, having vaccinated less than 1.5%.
CDC

[IndraD]

Israel is leading the race
They have vaccinated everyone above 60.
All HCW, Frontline workers
24 hrs vaccination drive & millions doses ready in fridge.
Any shipment of vaccine flies through Tel Aviv only, so many doses they have ordered

[SandeepA]

^^Me thinks it is too early. Only 3% have so far been vaccinated in the USA with most of the coastal states, where most of the people are, having vaccinated less than 1.5%.
CDC

maybe too early overall but with most at risk populations(frontline workers etc) being the early recipients of the vaccine the trend should start showing by now..no?

[nam]

In my personal opinion, I might refuse Covaxin as there’s no data. I’m sceptical. At least some data from other countries is available for Covishield.”

This report is a typical hitjob on Bharat Biotech. No one is going to mass vaccinate using Covaxin at this stage. The comment is as if, people are forced to take Covaxin. And no, the doctor is not getting the vaccine, because Covaxin has completed Phase 3 volunteer mobilization.

I am pretty sure the reporter would have printed the comment, completely out of context.

The hit job is because Covaxin is the cheapest of all the vaccine being developed. The objective is to create doubt in the public.

[nam]

SII has it's own vaccine coming up and Bharat Biotech is trialing a nasal spray vaccine, just like a flu jab.

I am pretty sure, in coming months, someone will figure out that pharma companies have tried to make money on what is essential a fly jab.

That is why Covid vaccine has such a disproportionate level of success. Covid is after all a flu virus.

[Vayutuvan]

^^Me thinks it is too early. Only 3% have so far been vaccinated in the USA with most of the coastal states, where most of the people are, having vaccinated less than 1.5%.
CDC

You mean most population density, right?!!! There are as many people in the hinterland as in the coastal states.

[vera_k]

South Dakota has pushed the vaccine to about 5% of the population, and has also crushed the curve. However, this is likely because that state did not have a strict lockdown or mask mandate, and has therefore reached somewhere close to herd immunity. Does make one think if a big vaccination campaign is necessary, and if allowing people to get vaccinations in the normal course of things won't be enough.

Worldometer

[vijayk]

https://news.rediff.com/commentary/2021 ... dda68723bc
1st Covishield vaccines consignment leaves Serum Inst

[Rishi_Tri]

^^^^
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/coronavirus

India recorded 12,584 new cases on 11 Jan 2021. Its the lowest since 10,974 new cases recorded on 17 Jun 2020. Also, it's down 87.15% from high of 97,894 new cases recorded on 17 Sep 2020 and that too without any vaccination, without people observing much social distancing (how does one do that in India is itself a big ??), and with large sections of the masses not wearing any masks.

India was supposed to have a China Virus High post Dushera / Deepavali. It didn't happen. India was supposed to have a China Virus High post New Year. It didn't happen. Understanding of China Virus especially as it affects countries such as India is very poor and simple transposition of Western patterns does not explain anything.

In fact a very common refrain among people is that a disingenuous industry has developed around China Virus. The numbers may be inflated with hospitals, etc. more than eager to earn that quick money riding the China Virus wave.

With summer just a few weeks away (it starts hitting 40 degrees in Delhi and other parts of India in March), the cases may fall further. With thus so, there may be few voluntary takers of the vaccines outside of the high risk groups.

[vijayk]

Congress woman Jayapal infected with Corona

[dhyana]

Behind a paywall...

Chinese Covid-19 Vaccine Far Less Effective Than Initially Touted in Brazil

China’s effort to boost its image by providing Covid-19 vaccines to the developing world suffered a setback after one of its leading inoculation candidates turned out to be 50% effective in late-stage trials in Brazil, significantly lower than earlier results showed.

Brazil’s Butantan Institute, a São Paulo-based public institute that is the first to complete late-stage trials of the CoronaVac vaccine, had said last week that it was shown to be 78% effective and offer total protection against severe cases of the disease.

But after rising pressure from Brazilian scientists, some of whom accused the trial’s organizers of misleading the public, Butantan said Tuesday those rates only included volunteers who suffered mild to severe cases of Covid-19. When data from all volunteers was considered—including those who contracted “very mild” cases of Covid-19 and required no medical assistance—the total efficacy rate fell to 50.4%, Butantan said.

Sinovac didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Sinovac and Butantan had initially scheduled to reveal the efficacy rate by Dec. 15 but delayed it a week, citing a decision to collect additional data. A week later, the announcement was delayed again, which Brazilian researchers attributed to Sinovac’s request for more time to consolidate data from trials in Indonesia and Turkey.

“It’s extremely unusual, I’ve never seen this,” said Denise Garrett, an epidemiologist at the Washington-based Sabin Vaccine Institute who worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for more than 20 years. “They had already delayed the results—it seems they found them to be unsatisfactory so they came up with a way to announce the results in a more favorable way,” she said.

The problem for Sinovac's CoronaVac is that it elicits poor neutralizing antibody levels (about 1/3 as much as for Covaxin/AztraZeneca). By simple inference, it was never going to produce a 90-95% efficacy rate. It didn't really need to- just needed to be cheap, effective enough (>50% efficacy is still the threshold for CDC/EMA/WHO) demonstrated by trusted data, to be a sensible option for many countries. Moreover, the Brazilian data is likely very close to its 'true' efficacy, since there are 15K trial participants there (by far, the biggest proportion of their Phase 3 study enrollment), not a bunch of small 1-2K participant cohorts (in multiple other countries, i.e., Turkey/Indonesia, etc.) amalgamated together. Because there would never be trial enrollment/conduct discrepancies amongst countries, right? It's a bad look, but probably nothing new for the CCP.

AztraZeneca's selective breast-beating debate of 90% vs 62% efficacy is much less egregious (no hiding of data). And may be there's a lesson to be learned for DCGI and Bharat Biotech as well. Sloppy statements such as 'clinical trial mode' without further explanation doesn't cut it anymore in a world of 'transparency'- more nuanced messaging is needed. Inoculate small numbers of people if you must. Better yet, purchase those vials (if one wishes to support the home team), sit on them a bit until BB's Phase 3 interim data analysis comes out, and then when there is reasonable efficacy demonstrated, proceed with mass vaccinations. This might be close to the actual plan, given the limited initial GOI purchasing data in the public domain.

A 50-70% efficacy target is a reasonable neighborhood for this class of (inactivated) vaccines. Not a highly immunogenic mRNA vaccine (with huge neutralizing antibody levels), but as mentioned previously, likely confers more broad-spectrum protection against mutations because of the multiple antigenic targets (against which the host can produce antibodies) presented by a whole virion.

[Raja]

In fact a very common refrain among people is that a disingenuous industry has developed around China Virus. The numbers may be inflated with hospitals, etc. more than eager to earn that quick money riding the China Virus wave.

Erm, I don't know how it was in the rest of India but I have not seen anything that makes me think that numbers are over reported in Gujarat. In fact, I am willing to bet good money that they were underreported. I know of so many educated and well off families choosing to not get tested unless there was no choice and often on the advise of family doctors that I am willing to bet that this was the dominant trend across the state. It was and is a common practice to measure oxygen levels yourself and getting tested only when they start dipping.

When my parents had a scare I insisted that they get tested which I must say was very fast and easy. They come to your house within 24 hours and you got the results within another 24. But it took a lot of convincing to make them go against the advise of well wishers and friends. Fortunately, Modiji has been giving correct information and signs regarding covid from the beginning and that helped in convincing them. If we had an idiot like Trump, I bet things would have been so much worse off

[Amber G.]

Another apparently very good news:
Initial results in JNJNews:
Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine look very very promising. Paper here:
Interim Results of a Phase 1–2a Trial of Ad26.COV2.S Covid-19 Vaccine

Neutralizing-antibody titers against wild-type virus were detected in 90% or more of all participants on day 29 after the first vaccine dose (geometric mean titer [GMT], 224 to 354) and reached 100% by day 57 with a further increase in titers (GMT, 288 to 488), regardless of vaccine dose or age group.

[Amber G.]

One noobie question for the uninitiated in the vaccine making. How much is SII dependent on AZ (for any secret sauce or other ingredients) that would constrain Serum's ability to scale?

Short Answer: There are no "secret sauce" or hard to find "ingredients" ..to scale up any established good vaccine producing facility, given necessary resources can manufacture it. (Of course, producing billions of *anything* and distribution is *very* hard)

[vijayk]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ation.html

China lockdown

[manjgu]

another thing which i learnt yesterday was : a vaccine will not produce similar efficacy %/levels amongst all populations... a vaccine could work more effectively in country A vs country B. further efficacy levels are only known in long term. This is god sent opportunity for India to scale up and be the most cost effective vaccine supplier/exporter. i imagine to see ' made in india' vaccines all over the world ! The vaccines will not give life long immunity and repeat doses will be required...only the frequency of repetition is unknown presently.

[vijayk]

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13718024/ ... tterr/amp/

China tricked world on lockdown?

[g.sarkar]

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/artic ... death-toll
The Latest: China Says COVID-19 Hospitalizations Above 1,000
China says it is now treating more than 1,000 people for COVID-19 as numbers of cases continue to surge in the country’s north.
By Associated Press, Wire Service Content Jan. 14, 2021
BEIJING — China says it is now treating more than 1,000 people for COVID-19 as numbers of cases continue to surge in the country’s north.
The National Health Commission said Friday that 1,001 patients are under care for the disease, 26 of them in serious condition. It says 144 total new cases were recorded in the previous 24 hours.
The province of Hebei, just outside Beijing, accounted for 90 of the new cases, while Heilongjiang province farther north reported 43 new cases.
While there have been no reports of hospital bed shortages, Hebei has begun constructing a new quarantine center outside the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang in case it is needed.
Shijiazhuang and the cities of Xingtai and Langfang are under virtual lockdown, confining more than 20 million people to their homes.
......
Gautam
Can we believe anything they say?

[DavidD]

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13718024/ ... tterr/amp/

China tricked world on lockdown?

It's quite ironic that some Chinese were screaming Western propaganda when images of people down on the street were shown, and now some Westerners are calling it Chinese propaganda.

If China can pull off a conspiracy of this level, the rest of the world should just give up. For all we know the Chinese could all be lizard people who've been fooling the world that they're humans! Why else would they have chosen a lizard-like fictional animal as their symbol?

[g.sarkar]

https://indianexpress.com/article/india ... s-7146860/
Special flight from Brazil for 2 million Covid-19 vaccine doses
The move follows a request from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in a letter last week to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the vaccines without jeopardising the Indian vaccination programme.
Written by Shubhajit Roy | New Delhi | January 15, 2021
With India set to launch its nationwide vaccination drive against Covid Saturday, a specially equipped aircraft from Brazil is expected to land in Mumbai over the weekend to collect 2 million doses of the vaccine to mark the first such export from the country, sources told The Indian Express.
The move follows a request from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in a letter last week to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the vaccines without jeopardising the Indian vaccination programme. Sources said Brazilian authorities have struck a commercial deal with Serum Institute of India in Pune, with reports from Brazil indicating that the Chinese vaccines deployed in the country are of less efficacy than claimed. The Pune firm has tied up with AstraZeneca to manufacture the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford.
While the first consignment will be from Serum, Brazil has also selected Bharat Biotech’s vaccine, sources said. “There is no point storing more vaccines beyond India’s current capacity. So the vaccine export to other countries doesn’t affect India’s vaccination plans,” a senior government official told The Indian Express.
.....
Gautam
Did not the Brazilian President minimize Kovid for a long time? I hope we are charging full price not friendship prices.

[Tanaji]

Vaccine pricing is already decided. SII cannot charge more than a fixed amount. This was part of the agreement with astra zeneca and Oxford.