Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on February 7, 2022 - February 13, 2022

COVID-19 VACCINE DEVELOPMENTS

 

The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children began last Thursday, with 517,107 children aged five to 11 registered for their shots as at Feb 1.

 


A study finds that the world would be better protected against new Covid variants and that there would be substantially fewer deaths in low- and middle-income countries if high-income countries donated 46% of their Covid-19 vaccine supplies. The study, led by Qingpeng Zhang of the City University of Hong Kong, added that it was in the wealthy nations’ self-interest to donate doses because vaccine inequality would prolong the pandemic and increase the risk of new variants developing.


Zuellig Pharma is using a blockchain-based network called “eZTracker” to track Covid-19 vaccinations to prevent practitioners from administering expired vaccines and to help prevent the use of improperly stored or counterfeit vaccines by allowing clients to instantly verify the provenance and authenticity of their vaccines via a mobile app.

 


Two studies  by the University of Cape Town and  Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre  show that Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines provide robust cellular protection against serious illness caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, despite evidence of waning neutralising antibody protection against the virus.

 

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