The European Union is due to try Tuesday to harmonize the measures put in place by its member states to prevent the variant of the coronavirus detected in the United Kingdom from spreading, while several countries plan to start vaccinating on Sunday.
The objective is “a reopening of the borders in a coordinated manner”, indicated Monday a European diplomatic source, and in particular to allow the “targeted returns” of travelers and truck drivers who found themselves blocked by the brutally implemented measures since this weekend.
In particular, they had the effect that “many French but also foreign truckers are stranded in the United Kingdom in inhuman conditions,” French unions denounced in a press release.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had to work on Monday to reassure his compatriots about their supplies. Many of them also see their plans for the Christmas holidays collapsed.
The World Health Organization (WHO) was reassuring on Monday, rejecting the idea that the new variant of the virus is “out of control”, as the British Minister of Health Matt Hancock had said on Sunday. Statements which had raised alarm and led dozens of capitals to suspend flights from the United Kingdom.
“There is no tangible proof that this virus is indeed more contagious, (but) there is clear evidence that it is more widespread in the population”, for his part estimated the senior adviser of the American government program vaccination, Moncef Slaoui.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which on Monday gave the green light to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, said for its part “not too worried”. According to her, there is so far “no evidence” to say that the treatment would not protect against the mutant virus.
The vaccination campaign in the EU is expected to start on December 27, 28 and 29, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
France will start its own on Sunday 27, announced Monday the Minister of Health Olivier Véran. “The most vulnerable among us first, after medical examination, information and collection of consent. A smooth start,” he announced on Twitter.
– Biden vaccinated –
In the United States, where emergency authorization has been granted for vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna and where the campaign has already started, President-elect Joe Biden received a first dose of vaccine live on Monday in front of television cameras. .
“I can’t wait to get the second dose!” He said, thanking “the scientists and the people who made it possible,” as well as “the frontline workers,” “real heroes. “.
The United States surpassed the mark of 18 million cases of coronavirus on Monday, with more than 319,000 dead since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University, whose count refers.
The country, the most affected in the world in absolute terms, is facing a spectacular rebound in the epidemic. And despite the glimmer of hope brought by vaccines, the United States is expecting a very dark winter.
More than 115,000 people sick with the coronavirus are currently hospitalized in the country, a record, according to the Covid Tracking Project, which tracks data in the United States daily.
Congress must approve a new plan to support families and businesses hard hit by the pandemic. The aid package, which amounts to nearly 900 billion dollars, must take over from the gigantic 2.200 billion plan adopted as a matter of urgency at the end of March.
The House of Representatives approved the plan on Monday, and the Senate vote is expected.
In particular, checks will be sent to families next week: $ 600 per adult and per child. The pandemic has plunged many households, especially single mothers, into the infernal cycle of poverty, unpaid rents and food banks.
– “Morally acceptable” –
In France, the National Council of the Order of Physicians announced on Monday that it had filed a complaint against six doctors including Professor Didier Raoult, a world-renowned infectious disease specialist and controversial advocate of hydroxychloroquine.
Didier Raoult is at the heart of a controversy for having crushed the management of the crisis by the authorities and conflicts of interest in international research on the treatment of Covid-19. His words had pushed the departmental council of the Order of Physicians to seize the disciplinary jurisdiction, and the Cnom chose to join it.
As for the Vatican, it urged Catholics on Monday to be vaccinated against Covid-19, explaining that all vaccines developed are “morally acceptable”, including those produced from cells of fetuses aborted in the last century.
The Vatican, however, states that “the use of these vaccines does not imply moral endorsement of abortion” and calls on pharmaceutical companies and government health agencies to “produce, approve, distribute and offer ethically acceptable vaccines that do not create of problems of conscience “.
Even if vaccination in general must remain “voluntary”, the Church stresses that it is an act for “the common good” and “the protection of the weakest and the most exposed”, a standpoint who clearly oppose anti-vaccine movements.
burs-ahe / plh
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