The global vaccine divide has been wide since the early days, with poorer nations—including much of Africa—struggling to get their hands on any shots at all, while rich nations like the U.S. quickly developed a vaccine glut. Now things appear to be getting even worse.
The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, had pledged to contribute hundreds of millions of doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to COVAX—the global alliance devoted to providing vaccines to underserved countries—as part of COVAX’s goal of distributing up to 2 billion doses by year’s end. But as The New York Timesreports , the Institute was already 140 million doses behind schedule when it announced yesterday that, with India facing the world’s worst coronavirus surge, it was suspending all vaccine deliveries outside the country at least until the end of 2021.
“We continue to scale up manufacturing and prioritize India,” said CEO Adar C. Poonawalla in a statement. “We also hope to start delivering to COVAX and other countries by the end of this year.”
According to UNICEF, COVAX has delivered just 65 million doses worldwide so far, putting it nowhere near on track to meet its 2 billion goal—and that was before the Serum Institute pullback.
The United Nations Security Council has taken note of the distribution crisis, issuing a statement yesterday focusing on Africa specifically, which to date has received barely 2% of the world’s available vaccine supply, despite having some 16% of the world’s population. The Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling for wealthy nations to step up delivery of vaccines to the continent; to waive intellectual property rights on vaccines, making it easier for Africa to manufacture the shots domestically; and to loosen global trade rules, allowing for expedited delivery of vaccine shipments.
But a key piece of the plan—the waiver of intellectual property rights—is already facing pushback in the U.S. As STAT reports, more than a dozen Republican lawmakers signed a letter urging President Joe Biden to reverse his “disastrous decision” to support a move by the World Trade Organization to temporarily suspend IP rights. The WTO has not yet ruled on the proposal, which it has been considering since last fall.
One bright spot in the current crisis: China. On Thursday, Beijing announced that it would be delivering vaccines to nearly 40 African nations, and promising either to donate the shots for free or sell them at “favorable prices.” China had already pledged to distribute half a billion vaccine doses to 45 countries—and it has the capacity to manufacture plenty more. Together, four Chinese manufacturers say they are able to produce 2.6 billion doses per year, according to the Associated Press. The U.S. is helping too, with Moderna now beginning to ship shots overseas, though the destinations and the quantity of doses are not yet clear, according to Bloomberg. Of course, no one country or corporation alone can solve the vaccine inequity problem; that will require a global commitment. Until that happens, the rich countries will keep getting richer and the poor poorer—and sicker.
VACCINE TRACKER
About 352 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of this afternoon, of which 279.4 million doses have been administered thus far, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 38.1% of Americans have been completely vaccinated.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday issued a new rule allowing thawed, undiluted doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be stored at refrigerator temperatures of 2°C to 8°C (35°F to 46°F) for up to one month. Previously, the limit had been just five days. The ruling will enable vaccination sites to hold onto doses longer, without rushing to administer them or risk wasting them as vaccine demand slows.
If you got the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, you may need a third shot later this year, the CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna told Axios yesterday. Somewhere between eight and 12 months after the second dose, there may be a need for a booster, meaning that people who got their shots the earliest could be lining up to be jabbed again by September. That doesn’t mean that existing immunity would simply vanish by the eight-to-12 month point, but early research suggests that it could gradually fade.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
The Global Situation
More than 164.9 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 3.4 million people have died. On May 19, there were 671,092 new cases and 13,244 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here is every country with over 2.5 million confirmed cases:
In India, 4,529 people died of COVID-19 yesterday according to official reports, setting a world record for deaths in a 24-hour period. The previous record was set in the U.S. on Jan. 12, 2021, when 4,475 people lost their lives. So far, a confirmed total of 283,248 people have died of the disease in India, though experts believe that both cases and deaths are being dramatically underreported across the sprawling country.
Elsewhere, things are looking up across the European Union, where daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 dropped by about two-thirds from April 14 to May 19, according to The Wall Street Journal. Behind the improvement is a surge in vaccinations, with nearly one-third of E.U. adults having received at least one vaccine dose, double the total of a month ago.
Some in the region are unsatisfied with the speed at which their governments are rolling back pandemic-related social-distancing ordinances. Austria, for example, might have avoided bloodshed last week when authorities seized weapons and ammunition from radical opponents of pandemic restrictions who had been planning violent protests that included using firebombs against police officers, the Associated Press reported today. The plotters allegedly discussed their plans in an Internet chat group that the police surveilled.
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. had recorded more than 33 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. Nearly 588,000 people have died. On May 19, there were 29,293 new cases and 655 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
The pandemic has been a boon for telehealth among Medicare recipients, according to a report published yesterday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Before the coronavirus hit, just 18% of Medicare respondents said their doctor offered telehealth appointments; that figure has now soared to 64%. Of those whose doctors do offer telehealth, nearly half have taken advantage of the service. Up to a third of Medicare recipients, however, say they do not know if their doctor offers telehealth; this uncertainty is especially prevalent among people living in rural areas, who may be in the greatest need of telehealth due to the distances they have to travel for appointments.
The New England Journal of Medicine yesterday published a letter from a group of experts reporting their new research showing that vaccines have been effective in curbing infections and deaths in nursing homes. More than 132,000 nursing home residents in the U.S. have died since the start of the pandemic, representing more than 20% of the nation’s COVID-19-related deaths. The new research, covering more than 20,000 nursing home residents across 21 states, found that among recipients who had received one vaccine dose, 4.5% became infected, and most of those showed no symptoms. Among those who had received both doses, the figure fell to just 0.3%.
At a City Hall press briefing yesterday, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio said he’s considering holding lotteries, with cash prizes going to vaccinated people whose names are drawn. That follows the path blazed by Ohio, where similar lotteries are being held weekly for five weeks, with a prize of $1 million. DeBlasio has not specified the frequency or prize amount of a New York lottery. Currently, 59% of the city’s adult population has received at least one shot.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of May 20, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
The Long Recovery
Even after the pandemic ends, it will be a long time before people recover from the trauma they’ve undergone. The slow speed of recovery, writes Ed Yong in The Atlantic, will be like that experienced by survivors of mass shootings. Read more here.
C-Suite Wisdom
More than a year into the pandemic, 15 CEOs tell the Wall Street Journal what the lockdown taught them about communication, flexibility, leadership and more. Read more here.
A Plea for the Weakest of the Herd
Wajahat Ali, whose four-year-old daughter suffers from a rare form of cancer, pleads the case for vaccinating our way to herd immunity, in The New York Times. The argument becomes more persuasive when the person in need has a name and a face. Read more here.
Drone-Delivered Doses
Vaccines may be widely available in the U.S., but people in remote areas—including farmers and oil rig workers—still have trouble gaining access to them. As The Washington Post reports, drones are becoming a new way to fill that gap. Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Jeffrey Kluger and edited by Elijah Wolfson
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