Rio de Janeiro (AFP)
No respite on Friday in Latin America where Brazil has become the third country which deplores the most deaths from the coronavirus, against which the UN has called for a vaccine accessible to all, to be considered as a "global public good".
On the treatment side, the resounding and highly criticized Lancet study, which doubted the interest of hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19, finally sank with the withdrawal of three of its four authors.
Brazil, which has 212 million inhabitants, has become behind the United States and the United Kingdom, but ahead of Italy, the third most bereaved country. More than 34,000 died from the coronavirus there, with a new daily death record (1,473), according to the Ministry of Health. For specialists, the official figures are largely undervalued.
The disease continues to run rampant in the rest of Latin America, putting pressure on health systems.
Faced with the severe oxygen shortages necessary to keep patients alive, the government of Peru, a country where the 5,000 dead mark has been crossed, said on Thursday that it was considered a "strategic resource".
"The patients have no more oxygen inside (of the hospital), I had to buy two balloons so that my father can be transferred there", tells Olga Bravo, 44 years, in Lima.
In Nicaragua, the only Central American country that has not adopted restrictive measures, the International Federation for Human Rights has accused the government of hiding the gravity of the epidemic, which left 46 dead, according to the ministry. health. The NGO Observatorio Ciudadano (Citizen Observatory) for its part listed "980 deaths from pneumonia or suspected cases of Covid-19".
- Mea culpa -
The spread of the virus is also accelerating in Mexico, which crossed the 1,000 death mark in 24 hours for the first time on Wednesday. The total balance exceeds 11,000 deaths there.
Globally, the pandemic has killed more than 387,000 people since the virus first appeared in China in late December. The United States remains by far the most affected country (more than 108,000 deaths), followed by the United Kingdom (39,904), Brazil (34,021) and Italy (33,689).
The race for vaccines and treatments is still mobilizing large pharmaceutical companies.
"A vaccine against Covid-19 must be seen as a global public good, a vaccine for peoples," said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday during a virtual summit of the Alliance for the vaccine under the auspices of the United Kingdom. It brought together more than 35 heads of state and government and raised $ 8.8 billion for immunization in general.
Submerged in criticism from scientists, the study in the medical journal Lancet, behind the short-lived suspension of WHO clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of Covid-19, finally lost all credibility on Thursday. Three of its four authors requested its withdrawal.
"We can no longer vouch for the veracity of the sources of the primary data", write these scientists, questioning the refusal of the company having collected them, directed by the fourth author, to give access to the database.
Following a Lancet mea culpa, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Wednesday the resumption of clinical trials on this drug, derived from an antimalarial.
The uncertainty about this treatment remains, however. The same day, another study conducted in the United States and Canada published in the New England Journal of Medicine had concluded that the molecule is ineffective in the prevention of Covid-19.
As European borders continue to reopen as the summer tourist season approaches, as in Austria on Thursday, the European Central Bank has pulled out all the stops to fight the recession, almost doubling its fund to support the economy.
burx / am / hh
© 2020 AFP