Washington (AFP)

The authorization of Pfizer / BioNTech's vaccine against Covid-19 was imminent in the United States on Friday, driven by the impatience of President Donald Trump who demanded that health authorities take place the same day, while the concern reigned in Europe in the face of "too high" levels of contamination as Christmas approached.

"Get out the damn vaccine NOW," the US leader tweeted Friday morning, who has focused his entire response to the pandemic on the ultra-rapid development of a cure.

According to several media reports, Mr. Trump's chief of staff demanded that the director of the United States Medicines Agency (FDA) finalize the authorization process on Friday, or else resign.

A committee of independent experts recommended Thursday to the FDA, described as "big slow turtle" by Donald Trump, to authorize the vaccine of the alliance Pfizer / BioNTech.

The decision was expected on Saturday but could therefore ultimately intervene even more quickly.

"You can trust (in this vaccine). There is no political interference," Biden said Friday from his home base in Wilmington, Delaware.

Only three weeks have passed since the manufacturers filed their application for authorization.

Vaccinations could start as early as Monday or Tuesday, US Health Minister Alex Azar said.

The United States, the most affected country in the world in absolute numbers, has just recorded nearly 6,000 deaths from Covid in 48 hours, and their overall death toll is approaching 300,000.

The world's largest economy has chained sad records: for a week, with the exception of the weekend, the figures for new daily contaminations have been over 200,000.

Faced with this outbreak of the epidemic, new restrictions are being taken locally: in New York, restaurants will no longer be able to serve indoors from Monday.

- "High risk" -

Worldwide, the new coronavirus has killed at least 1,582,721 people, for nearly 70 million confirmed infections, according to a report established by AFP.

Europe is the area that recorded the most new contaminations this week (+236,700 on average per day).

The pandemic, which had been receding since mid-November, has stabilized there at a high level.

In France (nearly 57,000 dead), there is a "high risk" of an outbreak "in the coming weeks", alerted the public health body France on Friday, which calls for "greater vigilance, especially in the perspective end of year celebrations ".

The French government announced Thursday evening a cautious deconfinement from December 15, while maintaining restrictions: curfew from 8:00 p.m. every day, including December 31 (but not on December 24), continued closure of cinemas, theaters and museums at least until January 7.

"We would have been irresponsible to open up and pretend everything was going very well," President Emmanuel Macron explained on Friday.

“Christmas is in our hands,” he said.

"Obviously, we have to meet, but less than usual for Christmas, less numerous".

The pandemic is also "too high and dangerous" in neighboring Belgium, partially confined, warned virologist Steven Van Gucht, spokesperson for health authorities, on Friday.

"Unlike the Netherlands or Germany, fortunately we are not yet seeing a new general increase", but the new contaminations have hardly decreased for two weeks and "the burden on hospitals is still too high", he said. -He underlines.

As for Switzerland, with an "exponential" growth of the epidemic (+5,000 cases per day) and contamination rates among the highest in Europe, it is "in a critical situation", warned its president Simonetta Sommaruga .

The country adopted a package of measures on Friday including the closure of restaurants, bars, shops, leisure and sports establishments, museums and libraries at 7 p.m.

- Reverse for Sanofi / GSK -

The United Kingdom, the most bereaved country in Europe (63,082 dead), for its part announced that it was reducing the duration of its quarantine for travelers arriving from abroad or the "contact cases" of a patient from Covid from 14 to 10 days.

Here too, the epidemiological situation remains precarious, with an outbreak of cases in London and the South East.

But the country launched its vaccination campaign against Covid-19 on Tuesday, after being the first country to give the green light to the vaccine of the American-German alliance Pfizer / BioNTech.

Canada, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have since followed suit, and the European Medicines Agency is expected to issue an opinion by the end of December.

In parallel with the progress of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, French laboratories Sanofi and British GSK suffered a setback: they declared that their anti-Covid vaccine would not be ready until the end of 2021, after results less good than expected in the first clinical trials .

They are now counting on availability of the vaccine in the fourth quarter of 2021, while they were initially targeting a registration application in the first half of the year.

Also on Friday, the British laboratory AstraZeneca and Russia announced clinical trials combining their two vaccines against the new coronavirus.

Recognition for the Russian product, praised by the authorities but freshly welcomed by Westerners.

burs-mba-la / seb

© 2020 AFP