• Brazil surpasses 450,000 deaths from COVID-19, as its hospitals continue to be overwhelmed and vaccination has slowed to 450,000 per day. Source
• Moderna issues a press release announcing results from the 3,732- person phase II/III TeenCOV study of its coronavirus vaccine in adolescents ages 12 to less than 18 years. The vaccine was 100 percent effective at 14 days after the second dose (using an adult case definition) and 93 percent effective 14 days after the first dose (using a CDC definition for adolescents based on milder cases with a single symptom and a positive PCR test result). The data will be submitted to global regulators in June. Source
• The US State Department issues a level four travel advisory for Japan, where a continuing outbreak of coronavirus has most of the country under a state of emergency. Source
• Endpoints News reports that Pfizer’s recent agreement to sell 1.8 billion doses of its coronavirus vaccine to Europe at an estimated price of € 15.50 ($18.86) per dose would generate $20 billion, and that the company’s expected vaccine sales would reach $70 billion (based on a 70 percent profit margin, a 50/50 spilt with partner BioNTech, 20 percent in taxes and “negligible” R & D expenses. Source
• In the Philippines, where the country is undergoing the worst economic slowdown in over 70 years, less than one percent of the population has been vaccinated. A survey of 1,200 people found that 68 percent were either unsure about vaccination or unwilling to get the vaccine- mainly due to concerns about side effects or death. Millions of doses of AstraZeneca, PfizerBioNTech, Sinovac and Sputnik V coronavirus vaccines are expected to arrive in June. Source
• The New York Times publishes its analysis of the number of coronavirus cases and COVID-19 deaths in India. While the country’s official counts for cases and deaths as of May 24 are 26,948,800 and 307,231, respectively, the actual counts are likely to be far higher. The Times included estimates for a conservative scenario(404.2 million cases and 600,000 deaths), a more likely scenario (539 million cases and 1.6 million deaths), and a worse scenario (700.7 million vases and 4.2 million deaths), noting that the pandemic in India has been much larger than “…official figures suggest.” Source
• US White House Senior COVID19 Adviser Andy Slavitt announces that 50 percent of adults in the country are fully vaccinated. Source