Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
UK Steps Up Vaccine Efforts To Combat Omicron
AP: British Line Up For Shots In Nation's Bid To Head Off Omicron
Long lines formed Monday at vaccination centers across England as people heeded the government's call for all adults to get booster shots to protect themselves against the omicron variant and as the U.K. recorded its first death of a patient infected with omicron. (12/14)
Bloomberg: U.K.’s ‘Warp Speed’ Booster Rollout Is Already Struggling
Boris Johnson’s strategy for tackling a U.K. surge in omicron infections is already facing setbacks, as medics warn of bottlenecks and staffing shortages in the vaccine booster program. The British prime minister promised to ramp up delivery of boosters to “warp speed” to achieve its target of reaching all adults by the end of December, and late Monday announced that hundreds of new vaccine sites would open across the country, including at soccer stadiums and racecourses. (Biggs and Mayes, 12/13)
In other news about vaccines —
Reuters: Moderna To Produce Millions Of MRNA Vaccines In Australia
U.S. drugmaker Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) will produce millions of mRNA vaccines a year in Australia after agreeing to set up one of its largest manufacturing facilities outside the United States and Europe. The deal, a second such commitment in Asia Pacific by a western mRNA vaccine developer, underscores efforts by governments around the world to build up local production and prepare for future pandemic threats after limited early access to shots led to slow COVID-19 vaccine rollouts. (Jose and MIshra, 12/13)
The Washington Post: São Paulo Says It Has Fully Vaccinated 100 Percent Of Its Adults. Will It Be Enough To Stop Omicron?
In a world struggling to convince people to take the coronavirus vaccine, the news was striking. São Paulo, the largest city in the Western Hemisphere, announced late last month that it had succeeded where others had failed. One hundred percent of its adult population had been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus — a remarkable rate in an era characterized by an intransigent and growing global anti-vaccine movement that has hobbled vaccination efforts from Europe to the United States. (Sa Pessoa and McCoy, 12/13)
In other covid news from around the globe —
The Wall Street Journal: China Reports First Omicron Covid-19 Case In The Mainland
Chinese authorities in the northern port city of Tianjin said they had detected the mainland’s first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant, putting what China has called its “zero tolerance” Covid-19 strategy to a further test. (Qi, 12/13)
AP: Canadian City Kingston Limits Gatherings To 5 Over Variant
A city in Canada’s most populous province is limiting gatherings to a maximum of five people in response to the spread of the omicron variant and the variant prompted several regions in Ontario to announce new public health measures on Monday. (12/14)
The New York Times: Across The World, Covid Anxiety And Depression Take Hold
A recent cartoon in the French daily Le Monde featured a bedraggled man arriving at a doctor’s office for a Covid-19 vaccine. “I am here for the fifth shot because of the third wave,” he says. “Or vice versa.” His bewilderment as France suffers its fifth wave of the pandemic, with cases of the Delta variant rising sharply along with Omicron anxiety, captured a mood of exhaustion and simmering anger across the world two years after the deadly virus began to spread in China. (Cohen, 12/13)
