Covid live news: Barcelona curfew ‘not justified’ as infection rates fall, court rules; Japan reports record cases
Spanish court lifts coronavirus curfew imposed on most of Catalonia; critical care beds reaching capacity in Japan
- UK Covid booster jabs highly unlikely to begin soon, JCVI sources say
- Jabbed adults with Delta ‘can match virus levels of unvaccinated’
- Japan sees record number of Covid cases days before Paralympics begin
- Hong Kong reportedly lets Nicole Kidman skip Covid quarantine
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The European Commission has said it had reached a temporary agreement with South Africa to use a plant there to bottle Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines that are being imported into the EU.
Reuters reports that the deal is likely to stir concerns about drugmakers’ power in negotiating supply deals with countries, after WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday he was “stunned” by news that J&J vaccines were being exported from South Africa to the EU.
It is time that all secret vaccine contracts with vaccine manufacturers and distributors are published and reviewed – we have a right to know what has been agreed in our name. In our view, J&J are complicit in vaccine apartheid, diverting doses from those who really need them to the wealthiest countries on earth. It’s colonialist extraction, plain and simple.
Many rich countries are considering offering a third dose of the Covid vaccine to those who have already received two. But are these booster shots necessary?
Preliminary data shows that people do experience a fall in protective antibody levels weeks and months after getting their jabs, particularly against the highly-infectious Delta variant. However, it is unclear what level of antibodies or other tools in the immune system’s armament confer protective immunity.
Related: Are Covid booster jabs necessary?
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