Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Vaccines Slowly Roll Out Around the Globe
AP: Poor Countries Face Long Wait For Vaccines Despite Promises
With Americans, Britons and Canadians rolling up their sleeves to receive coronavirus vaccines, the route out of the pandemic now seems clear to many in the West, even if the rollout will take many months. But for poorer countries, the road will be far longer and rougher. The ambitious initiative known as COVAX created to ensure the entire world has access to COVID-19 vaccines has secured only a fraction of the 2 billion doses it hopes to buy over the next year, has yet to confirm any actual deals to ship out vaccines and is short on cash. (Cheng and Ghosal, 12/15)
The Wall Street Journal: Rollout Of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine Slows In U.K. Due To Allergic-Reaction Monitoring
British doctors say rolling out the Pfizer Inc. -BioNTech SE Covid-19 vaccine beyond hospitals will take longer than anticipated because of logistical challenges and complications thrown up by news in the U.K. of allergic reactions after the injection. Following two severe allergic reactions on Dec. 8, the first day of the U.K. vaccination campaign last week, doctors were told to monitor patients for 15 minutes after each injection. (Sugden, 12/14)
NPR: Canada Administers Its 1st COVID-19 Vaccine Shots
Canada began administering doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, with elderly people and front-line workers among the first to receive shots. In Quebec, 89-year-old Gisèle Lévesque, a resident of the Saint-Antoine nursing home in Quebec City, became the first person in the province hit hardest by the pandemic to receive a vaccine, at around 11:30 a.m. Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu appeared outside the Maimonides Geriatric Centre in Montreal in the afternoon, with newly vaccinated 78-year-old Gloria Lallouz. (Jacobs, 12/14)
In other global developments —
NPR: U.K. Will Make It Easier For Gay And Bisexual Men To Donate Blood
Britain has announced changes that will allow more gay and bisexual men to donate blood – a major victory for campaigners who had sought changes to the rules they said treated all gay and bi men as posing an increased risk of infection. Previously, the government's donor policy dictated that men who have sex with men had to abstain for three months in order to donate. The new rules do away with asking about gender and sexuality, and instead focus on individual behaviors to assess risk. The changes will go into effect in summer 2021. (Wamsley, 12/14)
