Asia passed the grim milestone of 1 million coronavirus-linked deaths on March 11, a Reuters tally showed, as a spike in Omicron variant infections spreads across the region after starting in nations such as Japan and South Korea.
Novavax Inc. and partner Serum Institute of India said on November 1 they received emergency use authorization for their Covid-19 vaccine in Indonesia, making it the first approval anywhere in the world for Novavax.
Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine is highly effective against serious illness, although rival shots from Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca showed better protection rates, a large real world study from Malaysia showed.
Novavax Inc. on Aug. 5 again delayed the company’s timeline for seeking U.S. authorization for its two-dose Covid-19 vaccine, but expects to become a major distributor to lower and middle-income countries this year.
While several countries are relying on Sinovac Biotech’s coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine to end the pandemic, concerns regarding the shot’s efficacy continue to shroud CoronaVac, which is the second most used Covid-19 vaccine product across the globe.
Sinovac Biotech plans to start a clinical trial of the Chinese vaccine maker’s experimental coronavirus vaccine with children and adolescents in September, widening the company’s test on a shot that is already in the final stage of study with adults.
Political polarization and online misinformation are threatening vaccination programs worldwide, with public trust volatile and varying widely between countries, according to a global vaccine confidence study.
