on September 28, 2020, White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Scott
Atlas speaks on Covid-19 testing in the Rose Garden of the White
House in Washington, DC. MANDEL NGAN / AFP
President Donald Trump’s controversial coronavirus
adviser resigned Monday, while hopes for a first wave of
vaccinations before the end of 2020 received a further boost with
an announcement from US firm Moderna.
Scott Atlas, a favored coronavirus adviser of the US president,
who tweeted in October “Masks work? NO,” has submitted his
resignation, effective as of December 1, Fox News reported.
Lacking relevant experience or qualifications in public health
or infectious disease, he also called in November for people in
Michigan to “rise up” against Covid-19 measures.
Atlas stepped down as hopes rose for a first wave of
vaccinations before the end of the year after Moderna said it was
filing for emergency authorization of its vaccine in the United
States and Europe.
After top US scientists warned Americans to brace for a “surge
superimposed on the surge,” Moderna reported full results had
confirmed a high efficacy estimated at 94.1 percent.
It was set to join American pharmaceutical maker Pfizer and
Germany’s BioNTech, which applied for similar approvals last week,
and have predicted their vaccine could be greenlit in the US
shortly after December 10.
If the US Food and Drug Administration agrees Moderna’s product
is safe and effective, the first of the drug’s two doses could be
injected into the arms of millions of Americans by the middle of
December.
Health Secretary Alex Azar told CBS News: “We could be seeing
both of these vaccines out and getting into people’s arms before
Christmas.”
Co-developed with the US National Institutes of Health, the jabs
were generally well tolerated, with the most common side effects
including injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, joint pain and
headache.
Moderna expects to have approximately 20 million doses of the
vaccine available in the US by the end of 2020, and between 500
million to a billion doses globally in 2021.
The news came after leading US scientist Anthony Fauci voiced
his fears as millions of travelers returned home after the
Thanksgiving holiday.
The United States is the worst-affected country, with more than
267,000 Covid-19 deaths, and the Trump administration has issued
conflicting messages on mask-wearing, travel and the danger posed
by the virus.
“What we expect, unfortunately, as we go for the next couple of
weeks into December is that we might see a surge superimposed on
the surge we are already in,” Fauci said Sunday.
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– Fourth wave –
More than 1.4 million people have died worldwide since the
outbreak in China last December, according to a tally from official
sources compiled by AFP.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) insisted Monday it was doing
everything possible to find the animal origins of the virus,
although it hasn’t yet sent a full team of expert investigators to
China.
Observers have voiced concern the agency has bowed to Chinese
pressure and dragged its feet over the investigation, but WHO chief
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hit back and urged critics to stop
“politicizing” the issue.
At a briefing, Tedros added he was alarmed over a rapid
worsening of the Covid-19 situations in Brazil and Mexico, urging
them to be “very serious” about halting the spread.
Europe meanwhile is still battling to lower the daily toll of
death and infection with a variety of curbs, lockdowns, and tests
after fatalities topped 400,000 at the weekend.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a total weekend
lockdown and a curfew for the rest of the week.
In Asia, Hong Kong on Monday announced social distancing
measures at some of the strictest levels in the city since the
start of the pandemic, as authorities battle a fourth wave of
infections.
“This new wave of Covid-19 has hit Hong Kong very quickly,”
chief executive Carrie Lam said.
Anger over rising infection numbers sparked a riot in a Sri
Lankan prison where guards shot dead eight inmates and wounded at
least 71 others.
However, Australia’s success against the pandemic saw
international students arrive for the first time since it shut its
borders in March, with a charter flight touching down in
Darwin on Monday.
The situation in former global epicenter New York remains
precarious, with Governor Andrew Cuomo warning small gatherings are
now responsible for 65 percent of the spread.
“We are now worried about overwhelming the hospital system,”
Cuomo said, warning a new lockdown could be needed.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said his state’s hospital
intensive care units could be overloaded in just a couple of
weeks.
Covid risk across most of the US is now considered “critical”
and more than 93,000 people are hospitalized, according to the
Covid Tracking Project.
Scientists estimate around 70 percent of the population will
need to be vaccinated to bring an end to the outbreak, and this may
not be achievable until the second half of next year.
Amid signs of growing global vaccine skepticism, International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies president
Francesco Rocca warned Monday: “To beat this pandemic, we also have
to defeat the parallel pandemic of distrust.”
-AFP