• China’s deputy head of an expert task force on vaccine development under the State Council, Wang Junzhi, announces that China plans to approve 600 million doses of inactivated coronavirus vaccines in the coming weeks. Data on these vaccines (from China’s National Biotec Group and Sinovac Biotech), which are in phase III trials in South America, the Middle East and Asia, have not been released. Other Chinese vaccine developers, CanSino and Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical with candidates in phase III trials say that they can produce from 100 to 300 million doses in 2020. Sources 1,2
• Russia – which has the world’s fourth-highest number of coronavirus cases. launches a massive national vaccine campaign. Source
• Although US public health officials expected enough coronavirus vaccines for 20 million people by the end of the month, Pfizer will only be able to provide 6.4 million vaccine doses my mid-December, leaving states – such as California, who has 2.4 million healthcare workers and is receiving only 327,000 doses of vaccine – to decide how to ration the supply among priority populations. Source
• NIH sponsors the first US government workshop on long-term COVID-19, during which public health officials, researchers and people living with long-term COVID-19 agree that the condition needs to be recognized as a syndrome, diagnosed, researched and treated. Source
• Daily coronavirus cases in Japan and South Korea reach record-breaking highs of 584 and 629, respectively. Source
