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Biden wants vaccines available to all adult Americans by May 1
The US president will order COVID-19 vaccines to be available to all adult Americans by May 1, a US official said Thursday.
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US President Joe Biden was due to highlight Thursday evening the spectacular progress in vaccination against COVID-19 which offers hope for a start of a return to normal in the United States this summer.
“I will talk about all the trials of the past year, but, and this is the most important, I will talk about what will come after,” he explained, referring to his speech.
“There are real reasons to hope, I promise you,” he added when, within the European Union, the arrival of a fourth vaccine, that of Johnson & Johnson, allows to consider an acceleration of immunization campaigns.
COVID-19 has killed more than 2.6 million people worldwide, according to the latest report established by AFP.
According to an American official, Mr. Biden was to evoke a trajectory allowing the United States to “move closer” to a normal life by July 4, the day of the American national holiday when Americans could meet in small groups.
Concretely, the tenant of the White House will order that the vaccines be available to all adult Americans by May 1. If this lifting of the age restrictions to be eligible is an important step, it does not mean that everyone will be able to be vaccinated by this date.
He will also announce the deployment of 4,000 additional troops to participate in the vaccination campaign, bringing the total number to 6,000.
New green light from the EU
Across the Atlantic, the EU on Thursday gave the green light to the single-injection vaccine, the first of its kind, from the US laboratory Johnson & Johnson, the fourth authorized in the EU.
“More safe and effective vaccines are coming to the market,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, recalling that 200 million Europeans could be vaccinated with this new serum.
The AstraZeneca vaccine was in the eye of the storm with the suspension of injections by Denmark, Iceland and Norway.
The Danish National Health Agency, the first to announce the decision, has called for caution in the face of “serious cases of blood clots in vaccinated people”, although “at present we cannot conclude that there is a link between the vaccine and blood clots ”.
Norwegian and Icelandic health authorities have also invoked the “precautionary” principle.
The Anglo-Swedish laboratory and the British government have reacted to defend a “safe” and “effective” vaccine.
For its part, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) affirmed that the risk of blood clot was not higher in vaccinated people, while already on Monday, Austria had decided to stop administering a batch of vaccines from the laboratory after the death of a nurse who received it, followed in the wake by Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Luxembourg, and Thursday by Italy.
Pending the results of the ongoing investigation, the European regulator estimated that the vaccine could continue to be used.
France has also ruled that there was for the moment “no reason to suspend” the AstraZeneca vaccine injections. “The benefit of vaccination is considered greater than the risk at this stage,” said Minister of Health Olivier Véran.
“Several hot spots”
The European Commission, which is worried about “several hot spots”, announced Thursday that it was extending its vaccine export control mechanism until the end of June, imposed since the end of January.
German health authorities have thus reported a sharp rise in infections, alarmed at the outbreak of a “third wave”.
Is France preparing to evacuate patients from certain regions to relieve overwhelmed hospitals, especially in the Paris region?
However, she announced the easing from Friday of travel to and from seven countries outside the European Union, including the United Kingdom and Japan, given the already very strong circulation of the British variant, including a study by the journal. BMJ medical revealed that it was 64% more deadly than the original coronavirus.
On the other hand, Portugal presented on Thursday a progressive deconfinement plan, boasting currently of having “contagion levels among the lowest in Europe”.
Brazil, where far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly played down the pandemic and where vaccination only started late, on Wednesday broke a new 24-hour death record (2,286). The country has to date 270,656 deaths.
“We are at the worst time of the pandemic in Brazil, the rate of transmission with the variants makes the epidemic even more serious. The year 2021 will still be very tough, ”Margareth Dalcolmo, pulmonologist at Fiocruz, a benchmark public health institute, told AFP.
In a video released Thursday, four former US presidents, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, encourage people to get vaccinated.
“This vaccine is synonymous with hope”, declared Barack Obama. “They will protect you and protect those you love.”