Bangladesh plans to vaccinate 80 mn people against Covid by next January - Bangladesh aims to administer Covid-19 vaccines to nearly half of its population by next January. Health Minister Zahid Maleque said the Bangladeshi government is working to vaccinate 80 million people by December and January, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Bangladesh's state-run news agency BSS. The minister said the government is considering vaccinating children aged between 12 and 17 years. Bangladesh has already announced a target of vaccinating 80 per cent of its population by 2022. The South Asian country has so far got nearly 70 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Moderna's search for African vaccine manufacture site set to intensify - chairman - Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa could be potential locations for Moderna's planned vaccine factory in Africa, the U.S. drugmaker's co-founder and chairman said as it steps up its search for a site on the continent. Moderna said last week it would build a plant in Africa to produce up to 500 million doses of vaccines a year, including its COVID-19 shot, as pressure grows on pharmaceutical companies to manufacture drugs in lower-income countries.

Covid: UK's early response worst public health failure ever, MPs say - The UK's failure to do more to stop Covid spreading early in the pandemic was one of the country's worst public health failures, a report by MPs says. The government approach - backed by its scientists - was to try to manage the situation and in effect achieve herd immunity by infection, it said. This led to a delay in introducing the first lockdown, costing thousands of lives, the MPs found. But their report highlighted successes too, including the vaccination rollout. It described the approach to vaccination - from the research and development through to the rollout of the jabs - as 'one of the most effective initiatives in UK history'.

Covid Spread Was 8% Lower In Democrat-Led States Than GOP Because Of Stricter Restrictions, Study Finds - The peer-reviewed study, led by researchers at Binghamton University, determined a Public Health Protective Policy Index (PPI) that measured the “stringency” of states’ public health policies and analyzed those findings in relation to states’ Covid-19 transmission and the governors’ partisan affiliation. The researchers looked at Covid-19 rates and policies between March and November 2020, as well as when specific states’ Covid-19 cases peaked. Democratic-led states had a PPI that was approximately 10 points higher on average than states with GOP governors, though the study notes some Republican-led states like Maryland, Vermont and Massachusetts had stricter measures that were closer to the Democratic states.

COVID-19: 'A slap in the face' - Families of pandemic victims attack MPs' report and call for judge-led inquiry - Families of COVID-19 victims have attacked an MPs' report into government failings during the pandemic as 'laughable' and a 'slap in the face' - and say a judicial inquiry is needed to get to the truth. The report said decisions on lockdowns and social distancing early in the pandemic were 'one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced' and cost thousands of lives. It said 'groupthink' among officials meant chances to delay the spread of the virus were missed, and it was a 'serious early error' not to lock down sooner.

COVID-19 curbs in Sydney could ease early amid surge in vaccinations - New South Wales could ease more restrictions in Sydney a week earlier than planned on Oct. 18 as Australia's most populous state races towards its 80% double-dose vaccination target, the government said on Wednesday. The southeastern state is expected to hit the mark over the weekend, beating forecasts, and officials previously promised to relax further restrictions on vaccinated residents on the first Monday after reaching that milestone. 'If we hit 80%, we've always said it will be the Monday following,' state Premier Dominic Perrottet told ABC Radio. 'We will have this discussion with our team on Thursday and we will make a decision to be announced on Friday.'

Covid Has Killed Hundreds of Police Officers. Many Still Resist Vaccines - Over the last year and a half, a majority of the roughly 40 police officers who patrol Baker, La., a suburb of Baton Rouge, tested positive for the coronavirus. All of them recovered and went back to work — until Lt. DeMarcus Dunn got sick. Lieutenant Dunn, a 36-year-old shift supervisor who coached youth sports and once chased down someone who fled the police station after being arrested, died from Covid-19 on Aug. 13. His wedding had been scheduled for the next day.

Covid-19: Ethnic minority deaths were ‘unacceptably high’ during pandemic, MPs say - A damning report from MPs has slammed the “unacceptably high” death rates among people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study, from the cross-party Science and Technology Committee and the Health and Social Care Committee, said serious errors and delays, including on testing, care homes and the timing of the first lockdown, have cost lives during the virus outbreak. The pandemic exacerbated existing social, economic and health inequalities among ethnic minority communities, the MPs said.

Brazil's Bolsonaro says he is 'bored' by questions on COVID-19 deaths - Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday that he did not want to be 'bored' with questions about the milestone of 600,000 COVID-19 deaths that Latin America's biggest country passed a few days ago. Bolsonaro's poll numbers have fallen due to his handling of the pandemic, rising inflation and a weak economy. Brazil has the world's second highest COVID-19 death toll after the United States, and Bolsonaro has long sought to minimize the impact of the virus, touting unproven cures and railing against lockdowns.

Covid study linking vaccines to rare side effect of myocarditis was wrong, researchers admit - A research study that linked a very rare side effect to the Covid-19 mRNA vaccines has been withdrawn by researchers after they made a major mathematical error. The Canadian study attracted headlines after it suggested there was a 1 in 1,000 risk of people developing myocarditis or inflammation of the heart after receiving the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines. But the paper’s conclusions were wrong, and the calculation flawed. The numbers used by the researchers, from the Ottawa Heart Institute, underestimated the amount of vaccines delivered in Ottawa over a two-month period with the result being 25 times smaller than the true figure. They had initially based their estimate on a total of 32,379 vaccines doses and 32 cases of myocarditis, when in reality more than 854,000 doses had been given between June 1 to July 31. The study’s findings have been used by anti-vaccination websites and social media accounts in Britain, the United States and Canada.

Merck aims to double supply of Covid-19 antiviral pill on rising demand - Merck plans to double manufacturing capacity for its antiviral pill to treat Covid-19 next year as governments scramble to procure a treatment that a late-stage trial showed cuts hospital admission and death rates in half. The mounting demand for Merck’s drug, the first oral treatment shown to prevent severe disease in vulnerable people with coronavirus, is a sign that it could trigger the same kind of worldwide rush faced by makers of early Covid-19 vaccines. Merck, which this week asked US regulators to authorise use of the drug called molnupiravir, told the Financial Times it had secured deals with Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and South Korea to supply doses in the past week and is in talks with several other governments.

Moderna Argues to FDA for Half-Dose of Vaccine as Booster - In documents released Tuesday morning, Moderna argued that the Food and Drug Administration should authorize a half-dose of its coronavirus vaccine as a booster shot for recipients at least six months after the second dose, citing evidence that the vaccine’s potency against infection wanes over time. The agency noted in its own analysis that, overall, available data show Moderna and the other vaccines “still afford protection against severe Covid-19 disease and death in the United States.” Moderna cited the rate of breakthrough infections, “real world evidence of reduced effectiveness against the Delta variant,” and falling levels of neutralizing antibodies from its vaccine six to eight months after a second dose. The company said its clinical trial studies showed that a third injection boosted antibody levels — one measure of the immune system’s response — higher than what they had been before the second dose.

COVID-19: 'Surges of illness' for 'months and perhaps even years to come', WHO expert warns - 'Surges of illness' caused by COVID-19 are going to continue for 'months and perhaps even years to come', the World Health Organization's (WHO) special envoy for the disease has warned. Speaking to Kay Burley, Dr David Nabarro said 'the pandemic is very much with us all over the world right now', and those who have not been vaccinated will be particularly affected by spikes in illness. With government data showing the UK is recording more than 30,000 COVID-19 cases a day, Dr Nabarro warned that the 'virus has not gone away' and is 'continuing to mutate'. 'It's capable probably of causing all sorts of future problems', he said. He appeared on Sky News following the release of a highly critical report by MPs that found thousands of lives have been lost due to delays and mistakes by both government ministers and scientific advisers.