• The New York Times reports that Moderna has shipped only one million doses to low-income countries, far less than Johnson and Johnson (25 million) and Pfizer/BioNTech (8.4 million). Moderna only does business with a few middle-income countries; it has delayed their shipments as it fills orders with the EU, and charged some middle-income countries higher prices than the EU and the US pay. Dr. Tom Frieden, a former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a five-year initiative to prevent epidemics and cardiovascular disease, said Moderna is “…. behaving as if they have absolutely no responsibility beyond maximizing the return on investment.” Stéphane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO, said “it is sad” that his company’s coronavirus vaccine had not reached more people in poorer countries, but that the situation was out of his control. Source
• Brazil marks 600,000 deaths from COVID-19, second only to that of the US (which has reached 712,822 deaths). The country’s vaccination campaign has accelerated; 46 percent of the population is now fully vaccinated, slowing the death toll. Source
• Baya, a rare young snow leopard described as “sweet and playful”, died at South Dakota’s Great Plains zoo after showing COVID-19 symptoms. Other big cats at the zoo had similar symptoms, including Keesa, a tiger, who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Source