Headlines: Canada, first country in the Americas to approve a vaccine against Covid-19
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gives a press conference to take stock of the government's efforts in its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, December 7, 2020. © REUTERS / BLAIR GABLE
Text by: Achim Lippold Follow
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Canada yesterday approved the vaccine from the Pfizer / BioNTech alliance.
The first Canadians can therefore be vaccinated as early as next week
.
The press welcomes the imminent arrival of the first doses of the vaccine.
"
This is excellent news,
" writes for example the French newspaper
Le Devoir
.
From next week therefore,
"
the most important vaccination campaign in the history of the country will therefore be set in motion ... to prioritize immunization of vulnerable populations
",
writes the daily.
A total of almost 250,000 doses will be available in Canada by the end of December.
Quebec will receive 4,000 at the start,
"
a very small quantity which will allow the logistics of vaccine distribution to be tested
, ”
the newspaper specifies.
Canada lagging behind
The first vaccinations will be administered to people living in retirement homes
.
According to
Le
Devoir,
we will probably have to wait until next fall in order to be able to vaccinate the majority of the population.
As for the population which does not appear in these categories, that is to say more than 3.4 million people, it will have to wait until the summer, or even next fall, before being vaccinated.
"
Compared to other OECD countries, such as the United Kingdom or even the United States, which plan to complete the vaccination of their population in June or even before, Canada is lagging behind,
"
notes the Quebec newspaper.
No vaccines yet for American inmates
The United States is also preparing for the vaccination campaign.
But for now the vaccine is not approved.
An important step is taking place this Thursday, December 10, 2020. About twenty experts will examine live on the internet, for the sake of transparency, the data of the vaccine against Covid-19 from the American-German duo Pfizer / BioNTech.
One thing is already certain: the treatment will initially not be accessible to the prison population.
This is not officially listed in the category of vulnerable people while the situation in prisons is catastrophic, according to the
Washington
Post
.
People infected with the virus are more or less neglected.
According to the newspaper, these are mostly African-American men who are isolated from the rest of the detainees, often placed in tents without heating and without medical treatment.
According to testimony obtained by the
Washington Post
, some sick prisoners were transported from their tents to treatment units on stretchers.
This means that they are only taken care of when they are too weak to walk on their own.
It should be noted that detainees in the United States are proportionately affected four times more by Covid-19 than the rest of the population.
But despite this situation, at least 13 states are so far not planning any vaccination campaign in prisons.
Free access to vaccine in Colombia
Colombia adopted a law yesterday that guarantees free and universal access to vaccination against Covid-19 from next year.
According to President Ivan Duque who signed the law, this text gives Colombia a
“
new, more modern capacity to manage this situation
”
.
The law allows the authorities to engage in multilateral partnerships and facilitate the acquisition of the vaccine, through a budget specially reserved for this purpose.
The Colombian newspaper
El
Tiempo
specifies that the country is part of the global access system for the vaccine against the Covid-19, the Covax.
But this mechanism, supposed to guarantee equitable access to the vaccine, only allows treatment to be administered to 20% of the Colombian population.
Brazilian authorities want to advance the start of vaccination
Brazil is also preparing to vaccinate its population.
The government is under pressure to bring the vaccine to market.
The government, which was very reluctant to vaccinate, leaving the governor of the State of Sao Paulo to take the lead, reverse-pedals and announces a possible marketing of the drug again in December.
But according to the Pfizer laboratory, this will be impossible given the delay taken by the Brazilian authorities.
It's on the front page of the weekly
Carta Capital
.
The Minister of Health also said he agreed to use the Chinese Coronavac vaccine so much decried by President Jair Bolsonaro, if it receives the approval of the Brazilian health authorities.
In the meantime, a video of the president published yesterday, among others on the
Brasil 247
site,
provoked the indignation of many Brazilians.
We see Jair Bolsonaro mocking patients with Covid-19, declaring in a shrill voice: “
Ah I have the Covid
!
".
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