The US government has provided billions of dollars to pharmaceutical companies to increase the production of COVID-19 vaccines, hoping to raise the capacity to produce a billion injections additional each year to share with the rest of the world.
Under the new initiative, the Biomedical Research and Development Authority of the Department of Health and Human Services will ask pharmaceutical companies that have demonstrated the capacity to produce the mRNA vaccines apply for public investment to increase their manufacturing capacity. On United States, the companies Pfizer and Moderna they are the two that produce mRNA vaccines.
The government estimates that increasing manufacturing capacity will help alleviate a global vaccine shortage, especially in low- and middle-income nations, which in turn will prevent deaths and the emergence of more dangerous variants of the virus.
The announcement was revealed by a government official of the President Joe Biden who spoke on condition of anonymity, according to The New York Times.
CONTAGES ARE GROWING
Europe accounts for an incessant increase in coronavirus infections: several countries record highs, including France, Belgium – which is already planning to return to teleworking – Germany, Russia, Norway, Austria, the Czech Republic and Portugal.
In the last week, Europe reported an increase of 5% of deaths from COVID-19, while in the rest of the continents the number of deaths remained stable or decreased, according to the latest epidemiological report of the World Health Organization (WHO), published yesterday.
The agency described Europe as the epicenter of the current pandemic and warned that there could be 500,000 more deaths by February, if action is not taken urgently on the continent.
AP and EFE
MAAZ
