New Coronavirus News from 27 Dec 2020a

Mutated viruses like the new coronavirus strain are 'very common' [13newsnow.com WVEC, 27 Dec 2020]

by Dana Smith

Health experts said the current Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are still effective against the newer, more contagious strains spreading across the UK.

MIDDLESEX COUNTY, Va. — There is a new, more contagious, strain of the coronavirus that’s spreading in countries around the world, but doctors say the current coronavirus vaccine is still effective.

The new strain is infecting people in the UK, other countries in Europe, Japan, and Canada.
Three Rivers Health District Director Dr. Richard Williams said this new strain is no surprise, as viruses constantly mutate and evolve to try and survive.

“There’s no question that that strain is more contagious and that’s not terribly surprising," Williams said. "This type of virus undergoes genetic drift continuingly; and evolutionarily pressure would trend toward a virus that is more contagious and can defeat measures like masking and social distancing.”

Take the flu virus for example – it can “drift” or mutate every year. This is why, every year, you need to get a new flu vaccine.

“It’s very common, depending on the virus," Williams said. "Flu viruses do this readily, coronaviruses do this readily.”

The good news, Williams said the current coronavirus vaccine will still work on this new, mutated strain.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use a new mRNA science that tells the body how to fight the spiked protein you see on the coronavirus.

“Most authorities believe that the spike proteins of the virus - well, although there are signs of genetic drift - they will remain recognizable to the antibodies that result from the vaccines," Williams explained. "And the vaccines will remain effective.”

Covid-19 pandemic: Japan bans entry for foreigners starting Monday amid mutant virus scare [Times Now, 27 Dec 2020]

The cases of the new variant of the virus have been reported by a number of countries, including Denmark, Singapore and Spain.

Tokyo: Japan will suspend entry for foreigners starting Monday to contain the spread of a new strain of COVID-19 first discovered in the UK, the Kyodo news agency reported.

On Friday, Japan has registered the first cases of the new strain of the coronavirus. The country is also seeing record daily infections of the original coronavirus for the fourth day on end.

The media outlet stressed that all Japanese nationals would be obliged to submit negative COVID-19 test results received within 72 hours before their departure from any country that had confirmed cases of the mutant virus. Moreover, passengers would have to pass another COVID-19 test upon their arrival in Japan.

The government added that the entry ban would not apply to the businessmen and students from 10 countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea and Taiwan, with which Japan had reached an agreement regarding the issue.

The media also noted that the government had decided to suspend the issuance of new visas from Monday.

Last week, the UK announced that a new coronavirus strain was detected in the country, with the new variant 70 per cent more transmissible than other SARS-CoV-2 variants. After the news emerged, many countries suspended travel to and from the UK. However, there is no evidence that the new strain is more pathogenic.

The cases of the new variant of the virus have been reported by a number of countries, including Denmark, Singapore and Spain. On Thursday, Japan refused entries from the United Kingdom to everyone, except for Japanese citizens and foreign long-term residents due to risks associated with the discovery of the new coronavirus strain.

New Mutants Puts a Long-Lost X-Man Back in School | CBR [CBR - Comic Book Resources, 27 Dec 2020]

BY BRANDON ZACHARY

A long-dead X-Man has been revived on Krakoa -- and she's finally getting to experience an integral part of that experience.

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for New Mutants #14 by Vita Ayala, Rod Reis & VC's Travis Lanham, on sale now.

One of the core tenants of the X-Men as a concept is to give young mutants a safe haven to learn and grow into the people they want to be. But for some mutants, they never got that full opportunity due to the circumstances happening around them. Now, one long-lost mutant is living the life she should have had years ago.

It turns out that Petra -- one of the X-Men lost in Deadly Genesis who was finally revived upon Krakoa -- is now training with the other young mutants, giving her the chance to experience being a student with the X-Men.

Petra was the daughter of Danish immigrants to America. When she was thirteen, she survived a rock slide that killed her whole family, leaving her alone and in the foster care system.
Although she was eventually adopted, she grew to fear her foster father -- with her mutant powers of geokinesis activating when he tried to sexually assault her. Surviving on the streets alone, Petra hid away from others while growing more refined and powerful with her abilities.
After being caught, Moira MacTaggert took her in, training her alongside three other young mutants (Darwin, Sway and Vulcan). Petra grew more confident and powerful but never got the chance to embrace her abilities. While on a mission to save the X-Men after they'd been caught on Krakoa, Sway and Petra were killed rescuing their teammates.

However, Petra has since been revived -- ironically enough, on Krakoa. Thanks to the Five, she's been restored to life. On top of that, New Mutants reveals that Petra has found a home for herself with the New Mutants. With six former New Mutants turning their attention towards giving many young mutants training and structure to stay focused, this ends up including Petra. Petra is made a member of the "Elementals" squad, which consists of herself, Dust, Sprite and Rain Boy. Going up against the Ferals, Peta quickly proves adept at this combat-heavy form of training.

Petra quickly proves herself a worthy competitor and a crafty fighter, holding her own against Scout and Anole at the same time with relative ease as her team earns a victory. She's part of the group who's impressed by the concept of "mutant technologies," which are essentially combo moves between powers. Petra has also been seen hanging out with Sway and Vulcan on the moon during the events of Empyre, but it's nice to see the long-lost mutant begin to acclimate more and more with the rest of the mutants on Krakoa. Given how potentially powerful she is, Petra is the exact kind of person who should be learning how to be more adaptable with her powers.

With the New Mutants becoming the next generation of teachers for young mutants, it's a perfect time for Petra to finally live the full experience of being an X-Man. Hopefully, it means that she'll eventually graduate and bring her impressive powers back to the X-Men. With threats like Terra Verde and Hordeculture out there in the world, having someone with Petra's power-set could be crucial in the future. Seeing Petra in training also likely makes Moira happy, considering she took the young woman in years earlier.

Fauci: Coronavirus mutation does not make people more ill [FOX 32 Chicago, 27 Dec 2020]

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. health officials believe the coronavirus mutation that set off alarms in parts of Britain is no more apt to cause serious illness or be resistant to vaccines than the strain afflicting people in the United States but it still must be taken "very seriously," the government's top infectious disease expert said Sunday.

Dr. Anthony Fauci endorsed the decision of U.S. officials to require negative COVID-19 tests before letting people from Britain enter the U.S. He declined to weigh in on whether that step should have been taken sooner. He said the variant strain is something "to follow very carefully" and "we're looking at it very intensively now."

He said: "Does it make someone more ill? Is it more serious virus in the sense of virulence?
And the answer is, it doesn't appear to be that way." British officials are telling their U.S. colleagues it appears that the vaccines being rolled out will be strong enough to deal with the new variant but, Fauci said, "we're going to be doing the studies ourselves."

Fauci said the U.S. is at a critical phase of the pandemic, with the worst probably still ahead. He predicted the general population would be getting immunized widely by late March or early April -- beyond the front-line workers, older people and certain other segments of the public given priority for the vaccines.

Fauci spoke on CNN's "State of the Union."

THE CANDLE: The story of SARS-CoV-2 is one of mutation [Paris News, 27 Dec 2020]

By Dr. Jack Brown

Mutation, mutation, mutation — just what on Earth is going on with the SARS-CoV-2 virus? News and social media are now inundated with stories of mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2, making many ask the question, “Will 2021 tell 2020 to ‘hold my beer’?” News organizations and social media can spin or sensationalize science news stories a bit, so what are the facts as science understands them currently?

First, mutations are nothing new with viruses, especially those with RNA-based genomes.

SARS-Cov-2 has mutated thousands of times already. This is nothing new or abnormal. This continuous change in the code of life creates variations. The bits of code that copy the best into future generations win out over time. We are witnessing natural selection in action. Any change in the code of life that favors that organism’s reproduction tends to do well. The foundation of all biological science is built on this fact.

Indian Covid-19 mutation 'N440k' found in one-third of Andhra's coronavirus genomes [Deccan Herald, 27 Dec 2020]

by Kalyan Ray

Indian researchers have found 19 coronavirus variants circulating in India with "escape mutations" that allow them to evade the antibodies generated by immune systems and one such variant is spreading fast in Andhra Pradesh. The genetically tweaked variant with a mutation named N440K has been found in nearly 34% of the 272 SARS-CoV-2 genomes analysed from Andhra Pradesh. The variant has also been seen in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana.

At least one case of Covid-19 reinfection – confirmed by genetic sequencing and reported in a hospital at Noida – was caused by this variant.

"Andhra Pradesh has a population of 4.5 crore. If one of the Covid-19 genomes isolated from this state carry this variant, then we should watch out for the strain,” Vinod Scaria, one of the scientists at CSIR’s Institute for Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi and a member of the team that found the new strain told DH. The paper has been uploaded in a preprint server and yet to be peer-reviewed. The team analysed 6,370 Indian Covid-19 genomes and found that 2% of the genome all over the country was carrying the N440K mutation that originated around July-August in Asia.

On Saturday, a national task force on Covid-19 suggested doing genome sequencing of 5% of all Covid-19 cases nationwide. India carried out far less gene mapping compared to the UK (more than 157,000 sequencing) and the USA (in excess of 50,000).

IGIB has inked an agreement with the Kerala government to carry out a detailed genetic study of the Covid-19 in each of the 14 districts of Kerala.

The new variant’s clinical significance is yet to be understood with scientists observing that further data and analysis would be required to investigate the potential impact of such variants on the efficacy of different vaccines.

“We don't know anything about this mutation’s clinical significance. We only saw its accumulation at one site and would be on the look-out to see if it reproduces elsewhere,” said Sridhar Sivasubbu, another IGIB scientist.

Another variant N501Y that made global headlines as the new mutated UK strain was present in 290 genomes, including genomes from the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, USA, Denmark and Brazil.In Australia, one mutation (S477N) was found in 67% of 14,000 plus genomes that were analysed. The researchers studied more than 240,000 genomes from 133 nations and spotted 126 variants with immune-escape provisions. Eighty six of such variants were seen in 63 countries and 19 variations have been found in India. Besides the N440K, other escape mutations have been seen in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Gujarat and Delhi.

2020 Year of the Pandemic [Voice of America, 27 Dec 2020]

By Steve Baragona

On the penultimate day of 2019, health authorities in Wuhan, China, issued an urgent notice.
Hospitals in the city had seen several patients with a "pneumonia of unknown cause." Medical institutions should step up their emergency plans, the notice said.

A year later, more than 1.6 million people are dead from COVID-19.

The United States has nearly one-fifth of them but just 4% of the world's population.

Before the pandemic, experts ranked the United States as the country best prepared to deal with an outbreak.

"We were wrong," said Lawrence Gostin, director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, part of the team that created the ranking.

A series of failures has made the United States among the world leaders in rates of new cases and deaths per capita.

Here is a look back at some of the key moments when things went wrong this year.

Valerie Dominguez, whose results came back negative, is tested for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, Dec. 9, 2020.

February 5: CDC ships faulty tests

The first tool that doctors need to control any outbreak is an adequate supply of accurate tests to determine who is infected.

On this, the United States failed early and often.

"Rather than rely on tests that were already proven, like tests from (the World Health Organization), which were being made available to the U.S.," Gostin said, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "decided that it was going to produce its own test. That test turned out to be a faulty test."

A manufacturing problem with one of the ingredients rendered the tests inaccurate.
Regulations barred hospital and university labs from producing their own tests until March 3, when the Trump administration lifted the restrictions.

Vice President Mike Pence promised that millions of tests were on their way in the second week of March. But supply shortages, backlogs and long waits for results lasted for months and still are not completely resolved.

That let the virus get out of hand.

U.S. President Donald Trump poses on the Truman Balcony of the White House after returning from being hospitalized at Walter Reed Medical Center for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) treatment, in Washington, Oct. 5, 2020.

April 3: Trump devalues masks

By undermining health officials and encouraging people to disregard their advice, President Donald Trump has helped the virus to spread, experts say.

"This wasn't an administration that was used to dealing with experts," said University of Michigan medical historian Howard Markel. Trump "not only didn't appreciate them, [he] didn't even respect them."

For example, when the CDC first recommended on April 3 that people wear cloth masks in public, Trump read the announcement from the White House press room podium, then undercut it in the next breath.

"This is voluntary. I don't think I'm going to be doing it," he said.

Trump contradicted National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci on whether the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine could treat COVID-19. Trump repeatedly backed the drug before conclusive studies were done. Fauci was skeptical. Studies would later show it did not work.

The president at one point also advocated injecting disinfectants or shining ultraviolet light inside the body.

"Politicians don't have prescription pads for good reason," Markel said.

A protester carries a sign during a rally against Michigan’s coronavirus stay-at-home order at the State Capitol in Lansing, Mich., May 14, 2020.

April 17: LIBERATE MICHIGAN!

In politically polarized America during the 2020 election year, even a deadly pandemic became partisan.

When out-of-control outbreaks forced communities into lockdown, politics muddled the difficult balance between protecting health and the economy.

Trump and Republicans mostly sided with the economy. Trump supported protests against coronavirus restrictions in several states.

As armed demonstrators stood on the capitol steps in Lansing, Michigan, on April 17, Trump tweeted, "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!"

"When the president of the United States urges insurrection against those measures, that's not a small thing," Gostin said. "That is a devastating blow to the ability of our nation's leaders and public health agencies to actually fight this pandemic."

"Not only was it inappropriate, it was very potentially dangerous," Markel added. He noted that authorities later broke up a plot to kidnap Michigan's governor.

Even masks, one of the few effective prevention measures, got caught up in partisan politics.

Trump refused to wear a mask in front of reporters while touring an auto plant in May because, he said, “I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it.”

"The United States is literally the only country in the world where a mask is not a mask. It's a political and iconic symbol," Gostin said. "And that's because the White House so politicized it. It became a red state-blue state issue, when it was really just all of us trying to protect each other."

FILE - U.S. veterans, some wearing protective face masks in the midst of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, carry a wreath to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

Memorial Day

Leaders were not the only ones to blame. Americans ignoring public health warnings have kept the virus going.

"We just seem to be, as a nation, incapable of doing the little things that would keep each other safe, like masks or distancing," Gostin said.

Holidays are dangerous times, when people can't seem to resist gathering without enough precautions.

For example, cases were trending downward in late May. Then came Memorial Day.

Images came in of beaches and pools crowded with maskless people. Cases started climbing again soon after and continued until mid-July.

"We saw a big surge after Memorial Day, after Labor Day and now at Thanksgiving," Gostin said. "And we'll see one again at Christmas."

Daily new case counts have blown past previous records. Daily deaths have topped April's peak.

December 14: First US vaccine dose delivered

Despite the many failings, experts credit the Trump administration for pouring billions of dollars into developing a vaccine.

The administration dubbed its crash drug development program Operation Warp Speed, which critics said did not inspire confidence that its products would be safe.

But experts say no corners were cut in a record-shattering process that took less than a year to deliver a vaccine that regulators have found to be safe and effective.

As the year of the pandemic ends, the vaccines that may end the pandemic are beginning to arrive.

Seismic change: How Covid-19 altered world events in 2020 [BBC News, 27 Dec 2020]

By Helier Cheung

The year 2020 has been like no other. The coronavirus infected more than 67 million people, impacted 80% of jobs, and placed billions in lockdown.

It's tempting to imagine how 2020 would have turned out differently without a pandemic. What extra time would we have had with loved ones? What birthdays, weddings and milestones did we miss?

And while the crisis affected all of us personally, it also shaped news events around the world, with knock-on effects for millions.

Here are just four political issues, from four continents, which were altered by the pandemic.

1. The US election

The presidential election was meant to look very different. There should have been raucous rallies, and busy trips up and down the campaign trail.

Instead, the pandemic meant in-person rallies were delayed, and Joe Biden accepted the Democratic nomination in a near-empty room. Several attendees at a White House event became infected - while the president himself was dramatically flown to hospital after testing positive.

Experts believe there are various reasons why Donald Trump lost - but his handling of the pandemic was one of the biggest factors.

"It's clear the impact of the pandemic hurt Trump considerably," says Alan Abramowitz, political science professor at Emory College. Mr Trump failed to introduce adequate measures, and "to some extent discouraged" public health guidelines like social distancing and mask wearing, he says, turning off enough voters in swing states to tip the balance in Mr Biden's favour.

Ironically, Prof Abramowitz adds, people typically rally behind the president in a crisis. "If Mr Trump had addressed the pandemic seriously and effectively, I think he would have won the election pretty easily."

The pandemic also caused an economic downturn, which typically hurts incumbent presidents.
Allan Lichtman, a historian who devised a "13 keys" system that correctly predicted each presidential race since 1984, called the 2020 election for Joe Biden in August - on the basis of several factors, including the short-term and long-term economy.

"It was Trump's failed response to the pandemic that resulted in his defeat," Prof Lichtman, a professor of history at American University, says. Mr Trump downplayed the pandemic and so failed to contain infections quickly, which "cost him the short-term economic key and the long-term economic key".

Covid-19 meant the Democratic party moved most of their campaigning online - which may have also helped the Biden campaign.

"Biden is memorable for making gaffes and misspeaking," says Miles Coleman, associate editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball, a political analysis newsletter at the University of Virginia.

The pandemic meant Mr Biden adopted a lower profile - and the election became "just an up or down vote on Trump", rather than "a choice between two candidates".

However, Mr Coleman adds, the fact Republicans continued with traditional in-person campaigning also meant "Trump gained with non-white voters in rural areas where people may not have the best internet - where you need to go door to door to reach voters."

Finally, Prof Lichtman believes the pandemic also helped drive the highest voter turnout in more than a century. The pandemic "created a real sense of national emergency… I think that convinced American people - both pro-Trump and pro-Biden - that this election was the most critical event of their lifetime."

2. Hong Kong's protests

In 2019, the world was gripped by an unfolding crisis in Hong Kong. The international financial centre saw near-weekly pro-democracy protests, often involving clashes with police, tear gas, and on occasion live bullets being fired.

While the demonstrations drew condemnation from Beijing and some businesses, the public largely appeared sympathetic - as shown in local elections in late 2019 where pro-democracy groups won by a landslide. Yet by 2020, the streets of Hong Kong were mostly quiet, the movement became subdued, and pro-democracy legislators either resigned - or fled the territory altogether. What changed?

The pandemic, which hit Hong Kong in January, led to a decline in demonstrations at the start, says Joey Siu, a student activist. "Hong Kongers are aware of the seriousness of the virus, given that we've had experience of the 2003 Sars outbreak."

However, the first and second waves of the pandemic were contained relatively quickly. The greater impact, analysts argue, came from how the pandemic led to strict public gathering guidelines - which were also used to penalise people at demonstrations.

Victoria Hui, a politics professor at Notre Dame University, says the authorities had always wanted to stop the anti-government protests, and "the pandemic gave the authorities an excuse" to do so under the guise of public health. Several pro-democracy activists have been fined, and protests banned, under social distancing guidelines.

Ms Siu says many had previously been willing to risk taking part in unauthorised demonstrations as there was still "a chance that we wouldn't get arrested, and a chance we could win at court".

"But now, with the public gathering ban, police are able to prosecute anybody who seems to be taking part in a pro-democracy protest, and fine you HK$2,000 ($260; £190)."

The government says its regulations are based on science, and needed to prevent infections.

Then there were two major developments - the imposition of a sweeping national security law, and the postponement of parliamentary elections - that are widely seen to have restricted Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement.

The national security law made "inciting hatred" of the government, calling on countries to impose sanctions on Chinese officials, or using certain protest slogans, offences punishable by life imprisonment. Beijing has long said that such a law is needed to protect Hong Kong's integrity - but some argue that the timing of the law, which was finally introduced in May, was "fundamentally shaped by Covid-19".

"Beijing calculated that the rest of the world would be preoccupied," says Prof Hui.

The impact of the legislation was instant. Some pro-democracy groups disbanded, and shops took down posters supporting protesters. Activists became much, much more afraid to protest, says Ms Siu.

Supporters of the legislation, however, argued it was needed to restore stability after a year of often violent protests.

A month later, amid a third wave of infections, the government announced that legislative elections would be postponed by a year - despite some health experts saying it was still possible to hold polls safely. The government said the postponement was necessary given the "immense infection risk", and dozens of other elections around the world had also been delayed.

However, rights groups believed it was a political move, as pro-democracy groups had been hoping to win a majority in parliament. In subsequent months, several other pro-democracy politicians were charged by police, or disqualified altogether.

In November, all of Hong Kong's pro-democracy lawmakers resigned in protest - leaving the legislature with almost no dissenting voices for the first time ever.

3. Ethiopia's Tigray crisis

Many outside of Africa had not heard of Tigray, a region in northern Ethiopia, before 2020.

But in November, a conflict erupted between the Ethiopian government and the regional party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) - leading to reports of hundreds dead, and more than 40,000 people fleeing into neighbouring Sudan. There had been fears the fighting could have destabilised the entire region.

One of the triggers for the crisis was the way the government handled the constitutional crisis that emerged after national elections were postponed due to Covid-19.

"The postponement of elections is one of the fundamental causes of this war," says Tsedale Lemma, editor-in-chief of the Addis Standard.

Under new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia had committed to democratic reforms in 2018. The national elections scheduled for August 2020 were the first opportunity for most opposition groups to compete, "after decades of absence from the political space", she says.

"Everyone was excited."

"There were a lot of political tensions between rival groups, and although some had expressed concerns about possible post-election violence… people had hope that the elections would settle tensions."

When the pandemic hit in March, the electoral commission's initial decision to postpone the vote was accepted by most opposition groups. However, it also sparked a constitutional crisis as the government's term was due to end in September.

The government failed to compromise with opposition parties about what should happen next, says Ms Tsedale. Instead, a partisan legal council made the decision to extend the government's term and postpone elections indefinitely until the pandemic was over - and this was voted through by parliament's upper house, which is completely controlled by the ruling party, she adds. This meant the government lost legitimacy with its rivals.

Comfort Ero, Africa programme director at the International Crisis Group, says "the pandemic and the decision around elections added more fuel to what was already a combustible situation."

Ethiopia was already in a "fragile transition", with tensions between the government and the regions, and threats of communal violence, she says. The opposition saw the postponement of elections "as another example of the prime minister not consulting with his rivals and acting unilaterally".

In response, the TPLF - which already had long-standing tensions with Mr Abiy - held its own regional elections on 9 September, in defiance of the federal government.

"That was the straw that broke the camel's back - the TPLF no longer recognised the central government, while the federal government refused to recognise the TPLF - they entered a phase of mutual delegitimisation and after that, war was a matter of when, not if," says Ms Tsedale.

Ethiopian troops captured Tigray's capital in late November, declaring victory - but fighting has continued in parts of the region and the UN has warned of "an appalling impact on civilians". The conflict is "a tragic, sad outcome... we missed a golden opportunity of building politics built on consensus," Ms Tsedale says.

4. Israel's political crisis

In April, political observers began saying that the pandemic had "saved" Benjamin Netanyahu's political career.

Mr Netanyahu had just been sworn in for a fifth term as prime minister, in a unity government with his rival Benny Gantz. The country had been in a state of political limbo for almost a year - despite holding three elections between 2019 and 2020 - as no bloc had enough seats to form a ruling coalition.

In fact, in the most recent, March elections, Mr Gantz was invited to form a government first, as he had a slim majority of MPs backing him, united by the goal of ousting Mr Netanyahu.

However, the opposition "had difficulty forming a government because they came from a very wide range of parties - from right-wing nationalists to left-wing communists," says Anshel Pfeffer, a commentator for Haaretz newspaper.

Then the pandemic arrived, while Mr Netanyahu was still acting as caretaker leader.

"People suddenly felt there was a state of emergency, and Netanyahu took charge of Covid policy, saying he was the only person leading the country in an emergency," Mr Pfeffer says. "The pandemic came at the best possible political timing for Netanyahu - it certainly helped put more pressure on Gantz to join him."

Mr Gantz, who had vowed never to sit in government with Mr Netanyahu as prime minister, defended his U-turn, saying "these are not normal times".

Under the terms of the unity government, Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz would rotate as prime minister, with Mr Netanyahu going first. The agreement was seen by many as a victory for Mr Netanyahu, who had defied opponents' calls to step down after being charged with corruption months earlier. He denies accusations of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

The pandemic brought Mr Netanyahu breathing space, says Tal Schneider, diplomatic correspondent at Globes. "The entire problem behind the scenes is the criminal trial - he just looks to gain more time."

By contrast, she added, Mr Gantz no longer posed a political threat because he was seen as having "cheated his voters" and his base by joining Mr Netanyahu in government.

And the unity government did not stay united for long - just eight months later, it collapsed amid a row over state budgets.

Israeli voters will have their fourth election in two years in March, and Mr Netanyahu has vowed to return with a "huge win".

December is the deadliest month in the US since the coronavirus pandemic began -- and projections for January are 'nightmarish,' expert says [CNN, 27 Dec 2020]

By Christina Maxouris

(CNN)December has been the nation's deadliest month since the Covid-19 pandemic's start -- with more than 63,000 Americans lost to the virus in the past 26 days.

In comparison, the entire month of November saw about 36,964 deaths.

The grim death toll comes on the heels of several brutal months for the US, with Covid-19 ravaging communities from coast to coast, crippling hospital systems and prompting new widespread restrictions. The authorization of two Covid-19 vaccines earlier in December offered some hope of a light at the end of the tunnel -- but experts continue to warn that while the end is in sight, the pandemic is not over and another surge stemming from Christmas travel and gatherings could be on its way.

More than 616,000 people were screened at TSA checkpoints across the country on Christmas Day alone, and hundreds of thousands more traveled in the days leading up to the holiday. Numbers are expected to climb again this weekend.

"The individuals who are traveling, they probably are not going camping in the wilderness.
Probably they are going to see loved ones and having dinner without wearing masks, crowded indoors for prolonged periods of time," emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen told CNN. "There are many people who may have Covid-19 and not know it and then spread it to their loved ones, and then they're going to go back to their home communities and then infect others unknowingly."

"What I worry about is those same individuals are then going to be in the hospitals, in the ICUs in two to three weeks' time," she added. "I just really worry about this surge that we're going to see and how quickly we're going to surpass that 400,000 deaths number."

Nearly 332,000 Americans have died of Covid-19. Another 193,000 could lose their lives over the next two months, according to predictions from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

"The projections are just nightmarish," said Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious disease specialist at the Baylor College of Medicine. "People can still save the lives of their loved ones by practicing that social distancing and masks. And remember, vaccines are around the corner."

Covid-19 hospitalization numbers across the US are already at record-high levels. On Saturday, the country recorded its fifth-highest number of hospitalizations -- with more than 117,300 Covid-19 patients nationwide, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

Another surge of cases and hospitalizations will, inevitably, mean more deaths -- on top of an already devastating death toll.

Vaccine roll-out slow in some places, expert says

Nearly 2 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than 9.5 million doses have been distributed.

Those numbers now include both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines. And while there are lags in data reporting, some experts say vaccine distribution isn't going as quickly as officials had hoped.

"It seems like it's (vaccine distribution) moving a little slower every time we come back to it," said Dr. Esther Choo, a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health & Science University. "It's just a very complicated thing. At every step, there's complexity and there's possibility for delay, whether it's individual state planning, allocation, training, supply of vaccine, storage... there (are) just so many factors at this stage."

"We need to be prepared for the fact that it is going to be a slow roll-out in many places and that it will not change our behaviors or necessarily the trajectory of the pandemic in this country in the short term," Choo said.

Choo's words echo a number of other experts who have warned the American public not to let their guard down as vaccinations begin and to continue following public health measures including wearing masks, social distancing, avoiding crowds and gatherings, and regularly washing their hands.

It likely won't be until summer that vaccines are widely available and begin to make a meaningful impact on the pandemic's course, officials have said. Dr. Anthony Fauci estimates about 70% to 85% of the population needs to get vaccinated against Covid-19 for the country to achieve herd immunity.

Expert: Testing requirements won't help control Covid-19 variant spread

The CDC also announced last week new testing requirements for travelers arriving from the UK, which will go into effect Monday.

Passengers must have a negative PCR or antigen test within 72 hours of boarding a flight from the UK to the US, along with documentation of their laboratory results. Airlines will be required to confirm the test prior to the flight.

This comes after the emergence of a new Covid-19 variant first detected in the UK, which health officials say "has been predicted to potentially be more rapidly transmissible." Since the discovery of the variant, more than 40 countries have restricted travel from the UK and in some cases, travel from other countries that have documented cases with the variant.

But one expert says the new testing requirements for travelers into the US have not been implemented quickly enough to be effective against a reported variant.

"It makes sense that for any place that's experiencing a regional spike in cases that we put new measures in place," emergency medicine physician Dr. Richina Bicette told CNN. "But if they're trying to make sure that the virus isn't imported to the United States, these measures are going to have no effect on that whatsoever."

"The CDC requirements don't take place until Monday," Bicette added. "Until that time, there have been thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people that have traveled into the US from the UK. So there's a high probability that the new variant is already in the United States and we just don't know."

A Growing Number of Countries Find Cases of the New Virus Variant [The New York Times, 27 Dec 2020]

by Hisako Ueno, Mike Ives, Ben Dooley, Raphael Minder, Marc Santora, Isabella Kwai and Norimitsu Onishi

Japan, France, Spain, Sweden and Canada are the latest countries to discover infections with the potentially more transmissible variant first reported in Britain. Surveys show a clear majority of Americans now embrace coronavirus vaccines. Africa struggles with its second wave.

Japan, Spain, France, Sweden and Canada find cases of the new coronavirus variant.

Japan, Spain, France, Sweden and Canada have found small numbers of infections involving a new, potentially more transmissible variant of the coronavirus, most linked to travel from Britain, where it was first detected.

The rapid spread of the variant led to the lockdown of London and southern England this week, prompted a temporary French blockade of the English Channel and resulted in countries around the world barring travelers from Britain. Because few countries have the level of genomic surveillance that Britain does, there is concern that the variant may have been traveling across the world undetected for weeks.

A recent study by British scientists found no evidence that the variant is more deadly than others but estimated that it is 56 percent more contagious.

So far, the British variant has been diagnosed in seven people in Japan, the country’s health ministry said. All had either recently traveled to Britain or been in contact with someone who had.

The discovery in Japan prompted the country to close its borders to all new entry by nonresident foreigners. The ban will go into effect at midnight on Monday and last through the end of January, the public broadcaster NHK reported.

In Spain, the variant was found in the capital region, local authorities said on Saturday. Antonio Zapatero, a regional health official, said that four cases had been confirmed in Madrid, while another three were being treated as suspicious. At least two of the cases involve people who had recently been to Britain and then tested positive in Madrid, as well as some of their relatives.

The first case of the new fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus in France was identified on Friday, according to the French health ministry. Officials said that the patient was a French citizen living in Britain who had traveled from London to Tours, a city in central France, on Dec. 19, a day before the British government imposed a lockdown following the emergence of the variant.

Officials in Sweden announced on Saturday that a case of the variant had been detected there after a traveler visited Sormland, near Stockholm, from the United Kingdom over Christmas, Reuters reported. No additional cases had been detected, the Public Health Agency of Sweden said.

Health officials in Ontario, Canada, said on Saturday that they had confirmed two cases of the variant in the province. The two cases were a couple from Durham, about 90 miles northwest of Toronto. The couple had no known travel history, exposure or high-risk contacts, the province’s health ministry said.

It is normal for viruses to mutate, and most of the mutations of the coronavirus have proved minor. The British variant has a constellation of 23 mutations, several of which might alter its transmissibility. Vaccine experts are confident that the available vaccines will be able to block the new variant, although that has to be confirmed by laboratory experiments that are now underway.

The European Union’s member nations are scheduled to begin vaccinating against the virus on Sunday with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Hungary began administering the vaccine a day early, on Saturday.

A few other concerning variants have also been identified, including one in South Africa and another in Nigeria. Britain said on Thursday that it would ban travel from South Africa after the British health secretary, Matt Hancock, said two people were confirmed to have been infected with the variant that emerged there.

Germany, the Netherlands, Lebanon, Australia and Singapore have identified infections with the new variant. And Denmark, which has wider genomic surveillance than many other countries, detected 33 cases of the variant from Nov. 14 to Dec. 14, according to the Danish health authorities.

The U.S. has not yet reported any cases of the U.K. variant. But the country will require all airline passengers arriving from Britain to test negative for the coronavirus within 72 hours of their departure, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. The rule will take effect on Monday.

Covid, pandemic and lockdown: How 2020 changed the world [Economic Times, 27 Dec 2020]

Synopsis

In the last 12 months, the novel coronavirus has paralysed economies, devastated communities and confined nearly four billion people to their homes. It has been a year that changed the world like no other for at least a generation, possibly since World War II.

Paris: When the world celebrated the dawn of a new decade with a blaze of firework parties and revelry on January 1, few could have imagined what 2020 had in store.

In the last 12 months, the novel coronavirus has paralysed economies, devastated communities and confined nearly four billion people to their homes. It has been a year that changed the world like no other for at least a generation, possibly since World War II.

More than 1.7 million people died. Around 80 million people are known to have contracted the virus, though the actual number is likely much higher. Children became orphans, grandparents were lost and partners bereaved as loved ones died alone in hospital, bedside visits considered too dangerous to risk.

"This is a pandemic experience that's unique in the lifetime of every single person on Earth," says Sten Vermund, infectious disease epidemiologist and dean of Yale School of Public Health. "Hardly any of us haven't been touched by it."

Covid-19 is far from the deadliest pandemic in history. Bubonic plague in the 14th Century wiped out a quarter of the population. At least 50 million succumbed to Spanish Influenza in 1918-19. Thirty-three million people died of AIDS.

But contracting coronavirus is as simple as breathing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"I went to the gate of hell and came back," said Wan Chunhui, a 44-year-old Chinese survivor who spent 17 days in hospital. "I saw with my own eyes that others failed to recover and died, which has had a big impact on me."

The scale of the global disaster was scarcely imaginable when on December 31, Chinese authorities announced 27 cases of "viral pneumonia of unknown origin" that was baffling doctors in the city of Wuhan.

The next day, authorities quietly shut the Wuhan animal market initially linked to the outbreak. On January 7, Chinese officials announced they had identified the new virus, calling it 2019-nCoV. On January 11, China announced the first death in Wuhan. Within days, cases flared across Asia, in France and the United States.

By the end of the month, countries were airlifting foreigners out of China. Borders around the world started to close and more than 50 million people living in Wuhan's province of Hubei were in quarantine.

New disease, lockdown

AFP images of a man lying dead on his back outside a Wuhan furniture shop, wearing a face mask and holding a plastic bag, came to encapsulate the fear pervading the city. AFP could not confirm the cause of his death at the time. Emblematic of the horror and claustrophobia also was the Diamond Princess cruise ship on which more than 700 people ultimately contracted the virus and 13 died.

As the horror went global, the race for a vaccine had already begun. A small German biotech company called BioNTech quietly put their cancer work aside and launched another project. Its name? "Speed of Light".

On February 11, the World Health Organization named the new disease as Covid-19. Four days later, France reported the first confirmed death outside Asia. Europe watched in horror as northern Italy turned into an epicentre.

"It's worse than the war," said Orlando Gualdi, mayor of the Lombardy village of Vertova in March, where 36 people died in 25 days. "It's absurd to think that there could be such a pandemic in 2020."

First Italy, then Spain, France and Britain went into lockdown. WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic. US borders, already closed to China, shut to much of Europe. For the first time in peacetime, the summer Olympics were delayed.

By mid-April, 3.9 billion people or half of humanity were living under some form of lockdown. From Paris to New York, from Delhi to Lagos, and from London to Buenos Aires, streets fell eerily silent, the all too frequent wail of ambulance sirens, a reminder that death loomed close.

Scientists had warned for decades of a global pandemic, but few listened. Some of the richest countries in the world, let alone the poorest floundered in the face of an invisible enemy. In a globalised economy, supply chains ground to a halt. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare by panic buyers.

Chronic underinvestment in healthcare was brutally exposed, as hospitals struggled to cope and intensive care units were rapidly overwhelmed. Underpaid and overworked medics battled without personal protective equipment.

"I graduated in 1994 and government hospitals were utterly neglected then," said Nilima Vaidya-Bhamare, a doctor in Mumbai, India, one of the worst-hit countries. "Why does it take a pandemic to wake people up?" she asked in May.

In New York, the city with more billionaires than any other, medics were photographed having to wear bin liners. A field hospital was erected in Central Park. Mass graves were dug on Hart Island.

'Absolute calamity'

"It is a scene out of a horror movie," said Virgilio Neto, mayor of Manaus in Brazil. "We are no longer in a state of emergency but rather of absolute calamity." Bodies were piling up in refrigerated trucks and bulldozers were digging mass graves.

Businesses closed. Schools and colleges shut. Live sport was cancelled. Commercial airline travel saw its most violent contraction in history. Shops, clubs, bars and restaurants closed.
Spain's lockdown was so severe that children couldn't leave home. People were suddenly trapped, cheek by jowl in tiny apartments for weeks on end.

Those who could, worked from home. Zoom calls replaced meetings, business travel and parties. Those whose jobs were not transferrable were often sacked or forced to risk their health and work regardless.

In May, the pandemic had wiped out 20 million American jobs. The pandemic and global recession could push to 150 million the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2021, the World Bank has warned.

Social inequities, which for years had been growing, were exposed like never before. Hugs, handshakes and kisses fell by the wayside. Human interaction took place behind plexiglass, face masks and hand sanitiser.

Instances of domestic violence soared, so did mental health problems. As city dwellers with means congratulated themselves on riding out the pandemic at palatial second homes in the countryside and governments floundered, tempers boiled among those trapped in cities and rage spilt onto the streets.

The United States, the world's biggest economy and a country without universal healthcare, rapidly became the single worst-hit nation. More than 330,000 people have died while President Donald Trump pooh-poohed the threat and touted questionable treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and floated the idea of injecting disinfectant.

By May, he launched Operation Warp Speed, with the US government spending $11 billion on developing a Covid-19 vaccine by the end of the year. Trump touted it as the biggest US endeavour since creating the atom bomb in World War II.

Not even the rich and powerful could buy immunity. In October, Trump contacted Covid-19 as had Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro in July. Trump's response to the pandemic likely helped cost him the election to Joe Biden. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent three days in the ICU with coronavirus in April.

A-list movie star Tom Hanks and his wife fell sick. Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the greatest footballers of his generation, tennis champion Novak Djokovic, Madonna, Prince Charles and Prince Albert II all tested positive.

2021 vaccine drive

As the year draws to a close, governments are on the cusp of inoculating millions, starting with the elderly, medics and the most vulnerable before moving into mass campaigns presented as the only ticket back to a normal life.

In December, Britain became the first Western country to approve a vaccine for general use and roll out the inoculation developed in the BioNTech lab in cooperation with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

The United States quickly followed suit with EU nations to start on Sunday, but the emergence of a new strain of the virus in multiple countries has dampened some of the euphoria over the start of mass vaccination program.

"If I can have it at 90 then you can have it too," said Margaret Keenan, the British grandmother who became the first person to receive the approved Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

As wealthy nations rush to buy up stocks, 2021 will likely see China and Russia vie for influence by expanding beyond their borders their own, cheaper vaccines.

The extent to which the Covid-19 pandemic will leave a lasting legacy is far from clear. Some experts warn it could yet take years to build up herd immunity through mass vaccination, especially in the face of entrenched anti-vax beliefs in some countries. Others predict lives could snap back to normal by the middle of next year.

Many expect a more flexible approach to working from home, increased reliance on technology and supply chains that become more local. Travel is likely to resume, but how quickly is uncertain. The disease can leave otherwise healthy young people debilitated for months.

If home-working for white-collar workers remains common place, what will happen to commercial real-estate in downtown cities? Could urban centres start to de-populate as people, no longer bound by the commute, move away in search of greener or quieter lifestyles?

There are also concerns about the impact on civil liberties. Think tank Freedom House says democracy and human rights have deteriorated in 80 countries as governments abuse power in their response to the virus.

Others predict that fear of large crowds could have huge consequences, at least for public transport, cultural, sporting and entertainment venues, and the cruise ship industry.

"I think there are going to be some profound shifts in our society," warned Yale School of Public Health's Vermund.

The world economy is also in for a rough ride. IMF has warned of a recession worse than that which followed the 2008 financial crisis. But for many, the pandemic is just a spot on the long-term horizon of a far deadlier, far more challenging and far more life-changing calamity.

"Covid-19 has been something of a big wave that's been hitting us, and behind that is the tsunami of climate change and global warming," says astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell whose 2014 book "The Knowledge" advises how the world can rebuild following a global catastrophe.

U.S. economy to drop to No. 2 earlier due to pandemic [Fortune, 27 Dec 2020]

BY LIZZY BURDEN

The Chinese economy is set to overtake the U.S. faster than previously anticipated after weathering the coronavirus pandemic better than the West, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

The world’s biggest and second-biggest economies are on course to trade places in dollar terms in 2028, five years earlier than expected a year ago, it said on Saturday.

In its World Economic League Table, the consultancy also calculated that China could become a high-income economy as soon as 2023. Further cementing Asia’s growing might, India is set to move up the rankings to become the No. 3 economy at the end of the decade.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said last month it was “entirely possible” for his economy to double in size by 2035 under his government’s new Five-Year Plan, which aims to achieve “modern socialism” in 15 years.

China was the first economy to suffer a pandemic blow, but has recovered swiftly, according to government data. That should prompt Western economies to pay much more attention to what is happening in Asia, according to the report.

“Typically, we compare ourselves with other Western economies and miss out on what often is best practice, especially in the rapidly growing economies in Asia,” it said.

Sweden confirms first case of mutated coronavirus strain in traveler from UK - Xinhua | English.news.cn [Xinhua, 27 Dec 2020]

STOCKHOLM, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- A person who traveled from London to Sweden to celebrate Christmas has been confirmed sick with the new and more infectious variant of the coronavirus that has been rapidly spreading in the UK recently.

Sara Byfors of Sweden's Public Health Agency told a news conference on Saturday that the person has been self-isolating since arriving in the southwestern province of Sormland and that no one else in the household has tested positive for COVID-19. However, Byfors added that there are likely more cases in Sweden that have yet to be detected.

The person started feeling ill after arriving in Sweden, testing positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 21 after experiencing extreme fatigue and body ache. On Saturday, it was confirmed that the person was infected with the mutated strain of the coronavirus.

Byfors said that the Public Health Agency has increased its efforts to monitor the new coronavirus strain and is now aiming to collect tests from everyone who has arrived in Sweden from the UK since October.

"On Monday, we issued a new recommendation urging everyone who has been in the UK to get tested so that we can conduct contact tracing and ensure this virus strain does not spread in Sweden. Those who do not show any symptoms should also get tested," said Byfors.

The Public Health Agency has also urged anyone who has travelled to Sweden from the UK and those in their households to self-isolate.

Asked how Sweden's vaccination program would be affected by a potential spread of the new coronavirus strain in the country, Byfors said it would likely not have a significant impact. However, Sweden's healthcare system is already under great strain, with 536 out of 684 ICU beds with respirators already occupied, newspaper Aftonbladet reported on Saturday.

The Agency's latest figures released on Dec. 23 showed that a total 8,279 people have died in Sweden since the start of the pandemic, and the country has confirmed 396,048 cases. The figures are expected to go up when they are updated on Dec. 29.

According to the website of the World Health Organization, as of Dec. 22, there were 233 COVID-19 candidate vaccines being developed worldwide, and 61 of them were in clinical trials.

A couple of vaccines developed by pharmaceutical companies from the United States, Germany, Russia and China have so far been authorized by several countries and regions for emergency use.

Canada detects first mutant coronavirus variant cases, say health officials [South China Morning Post, 27 Dec 2020]

• The couple have been placed in isolation, the same day that Ontario reimposed a lockdown for several weeks due to a spike in Covid-19 cases
• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country would prolong its suspension of passenger flights from the UK until January 6

The first two cases of a particularly infectious coronavirus variant that recently emerged in Britain have been confirmed in Canada, health authorities said Saturday.

“The cases are a couple from Durham with no known travel history, exposure or high-risk contacts,” Barbara Yaffe, acting chief medical officer for Ontario, said in a statement.

The couple have been placed in isolation, according to the statement, the same day that Ontario reimposed a lockdown for several weeks due to a spike in Covid-19 cases in the province since early December.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on December 23 his country would prolong its suspension of passenger flights from the UK until January 6 in light of the coronavirus strain sweeping Britain.

The discovery of two cases in Ontario “further reinforces the need for Ontarians to stay home as much as possible and continue to follow all public health advice, including the province-wide shutdown measures beginning today,” said Yaffe.

The lockdown in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province at some 14 million residents, will last 28 days in the south of the region and 14 days in the north.

Private indoor gatherings outside the family circle are banned. Essential businesses, such as grocery stores and pharmacies, will be allowed to remain open, but restaurants will be limited to takeaway or delivery service.

As of Saturday, Canada had recorded more than 534,000 cases of Covid-19 with more than 14,700 deaths.

Tougher rules begin for millions in U.K. as new coronavirus variant spreads around the world [NBC News, 27 Dec 2020]

By Adela Suliman

Festive cheer fades as new variant found in several European countries and further afield.

LONDON — Millions of people in the U.K. woke up a day after Christmas to tougher coronavirus restrictions on Saturday as officials in France and other European countries reported their first cases of the mutated, potentially more contagious strain.

Swathes of England were placed under the toughest set of lockdown rules, known as "Tier 4," which will result in the closure of gyms, cinemas, hairdressers and most shops. People will also be restricted to meeting just one other person from another household in an outdoor public space.

The U.K.'s capital, London, has been living under "Tier 4" regulations since last week, while other parts of the country were under lower, less restrictive tiers numbered from one to three.

From Saturday, the number of people living in "Tier 4" in England will increase by 6 million to 24 million people or just over 40 percent of the population.

Scotland, which has its own tier system, moved much of the mainland into the highest level of restrictions for three weeks from Saturday, while Northern Ireland began six weeks of tight limits including a partial evening curfew. Wales remains under a national lockdown.

The total number of deaths from Covid-19 in the U.K. passed 70,000 on Christmas Day, while more than 2 million cases have been reported, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

The rules came into force less than 24 hours after Queen Elizabeth II offered a message of hope in her annual televised Christmas address to the nation.

"Of course for many, this time of year will be tinged with sadness; some mourning the loss of those dear to them, and others missing friends and family members distanced for safety when all they really want for Christmas is a simple hug or a squeeze of the hand," the 94-year-old monarch said.

She added that she was "proud and moved" by the "quiet indomitable spirit" of the country.

Across the English Channel, French health authorities confirmed the country's first case of the mutated virus variant that prompted the strict lockdown measures in Britain.

A French man arrived in France on Dec. 19 from London and tested positive for the new variant Friday, the French public health agency said in a statement.

He had no symptoms and was isolating in his home in the central city of Tours, the statement said. Adding, that authorities were tracing his contacts and laboratories were analyzing tests from several other people who may have the new variant.

The new strain has also been detected in Sweden, Japan, Ireland and Spain, health officials in those countries said. While it was found in places as far flung as Denmark, Iceland and Australia earlier last week.

Elsewhere in Europe, Russia for the first time on Saturday crossed the 3 million mark for the number of coronavirus cases.

In Germany, infections were on the rise as cases jumped by 14,455 to 1,627,103, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Saturday.

Nations in the European Union including France, Germany and Italy will begin mass vaccinations from Sunday, administering the first shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, as the pandemic continues to surge across the continent.