• BMJ publishes an analysis of global purchase commitments for potential and approved coronavirus vaccines, reporting that 7.48 billion doses from 13 different producers (making up 51 percent of the total projected manufacturing capacity) will go to high-income countries, although they comprise only 13.7 percent of the world’s population. In low-and-middle-income countries, at least one-fifth of the population will be left without access to vaccines until 2022. Source
• Indonesia announces plans to use its limited supply of coronavirus vaccine on working-age people (ages 18-59) before its elderly population, beginning with frontline personnel (healthcare workers, police and the military). The country is aiming to achieve herd immunity by vaccinating 40 percent of its population, using 155.5 million doses from Sinovac and Novavax and 116 million potential doses ordered from Pfizer, AstraZeneca and the Covax facility. It is also developing its own vaccine, called Merah Putih. Source
• Researchers in the UK are exploring whether a mutation in the coronavirus spike protein, called N501Y, may increase transmissibility. Source
