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WASHINGTON — The coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech provides strong protection against Covid-19 within about 10 days of the first dose, according to documents published on Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration before a meeting of its vaccine advisory group.

The finding is one of several significant new results featured in the briefing materials, which include more than 100 pages of data analyses from the agency and from Pfizer. Last month, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that their two-dose vaccine had an efficacy rate of 95 percent after two doses administered three weeks apart. The new analyses show that the protection starts kicking in far earlier.

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Opinion: What South Korea Can Teach Us About Vaccine Hesitancy

Tue, 2020-12-08 00:25 — mike kraft

In early September, officials in South Korea announced an ambitious plan to vaccinate 30 million people against the flu — 10 million more than last year, an increase aimed at keeping down rates of the flu while the country battled the coronavirus.

But as The Times reported last week, the internet soon got in the way. As the vaccine was distributed, a few logistical problems popped up, and South Koreans began circulating grave stories online — pictures of vaccine boxes that looked like they had been stored unsafely, reports of vaccine contaminated with mysterious white particles.

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Trump administration officials passed when Pfizer offered in late summer to sell the U.S. more vaccine doses.

Tue, 2020-12-08 00:08 — mike kraft

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/07/world/covid-19-coronavirus#trump-covid-vaccine-pfizer

Trump administration officials passed when Pfizer offered in late summer to sell the U.S. government additional doses of its Covid-19 vaccine, according to people familiar with the matter. Now Pfizer may not be able provide more of its vaccine to the United States until next June because of its commitments to other countries, they said.

As the administration scrambles to try to purchase more doses of the vaccine, President Trump plans on Tuesday to sign an executive order “to ensure that United States government prioritizes getting the vaccine to American citizens before sending it to other nations,” according to a draft statement and a White House official, though it was not immediately clear what force the president’s executive order would carry.

That included whether it would expand the U.S. supply of doses beyond what is spelled out in existing federal contracts.

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Hundreds ill, 1 dead due to unidentified illness in India

Mon, 2020-12-07 23:54 — mike kraft

Hundreds ill, 1 dead due to unidentified illness in India NEW DELHI (AP) — At least one person has died and 200 others have been hospitalized due to an unidentified illness in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, reports said Monday. The... AP NEWS

NEW DELHI (AP) — At least one person has died and 200 others have been hospitalized due to an unidentified illness in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, reports said Monday.

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As UK prepares to roll out COVID-19 vaccines, scepticism remains

Mon, 2020-12-07 16:10 — mike kraft

As UK prepares to roll out COVID-19 vaccines, scepticism remains A sizeable minority of people believe conspiracy theories about the coronavirus and COVID-19 vaccines, some experts have warned, just as countries prepare to launch mass inoculations to get the pandemic under control. Britain begins its vaccine programme this week and others are likely to follow soon, so governments are seeking to reassure people of vaccines' safety and efficacy in order to get a critical mass to take them.

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Biden picks Xavier Becerra to lead HHS, coronavirus response, names other team leaders

Mon, 2020-12-07 15:06 — mike kraft

Biden picks Xavier Becerra to lead HHS, coronavirus response WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden has picked California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be his health secretary, putting a defender of the Affordable Care Act in a leading role to... AP NEWS

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Europe battles surge in coronavirus deaths in nursing homes

Sun, 2020-12-06 17:07 — mike kraft

Europe battles surge in coronavirus deaths in nursing homes MADRID (AP) — As the two mortuary workers pushed a stretcher with a bagged corpse out of the room, the elderly man in the adjacent bed briefly awakened from his dementia. “Is he dead?” he... AP NEWS

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U.S. and Europe head in opposite coronavirus directions

Sun, 2020-12-06 16:51 — mike kraft

U.S. sets new coronavirus records while Europe bends the curve Europe's surge is subsiding. America's is getting worse. Dave Lawler Axios

While the U.S. continues to set records for new coronavirus cases, European countries have managed to turn their own terrifying spikes around.

The big picture: As some states in the U.S. crack down to head off the worst, the debate in countries like the U.K. and France has shifted to whether and how to lighten their own restrictions before the holidays.

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