What you need to know about coronavirus on Wednesday, December 9

Dr. Venkat Chandra has spent the past nine months on the front lines of the pandemic, and his parents have missed him. The crisis has made it impossible for him to travel from the United Kingdom to India, where they live, and he hasn’t seen them in more than a year.

He came one step closer to being able to visit them yesterday after becoming one of the first in the world to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine outside of clinical trials, Ivana Kottasová and Sarah Tilotta report. In London, recently vaccinated 91-year-old Kenyon Martin told CNN he plans on hugging his family once he develops immunity to Covid-19. “Well there is no point dying now, having lived this long, is there?”

These heart-warming scenes capped off Britain’s first day of mass immunization, a first in the West, prompting UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock to cry on live television, telling ITV that “it makes you so proud to be British.” Hours later, US President Donald Trump signed a largely symbolic executive order aimed at prioritizing the shipment of the coronavirus vaccine to Americans before other nations.

The histrionics from American and British leaders point to growing vaccine nationalism in wealthier nations. Campaigners warned on Wednesday that the vaccine deals done by them mean many living in low and middle-income nations may have to wait years before being immunized. Rich countries with 14% of the world’s population have brought more than half of all the most promising vaccines, the People’s Vaccine Alliance said. Nine out of 10 people living in 67 poor countries will miss out on the vaccine in 2021.

The Alliance’s statement said the deals made by rich countries mean they have “hoarded enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations nearly 3 times over.” A case in point is Canada, which has bought enough doses to immunize its citizens five times over, it writes. “Unless something changes dramatically, billions of people around the world will not receive a safe and effective vaccine for Covid-19 for years to come,” Anna Marriott, Oxfam’s health policy manager, said in a statement.

To fix the problem, the Alliance is calling on pharmaceutical companies working on Covid-19 vaccines to share their “technology and intellectual property through the World Health Organization Covid-19 Technology Access Pool, so that billions more doses can be manufactured and safe and effective vaccines can be available to all who need them.”

YOU ASKED. WE ANSWERED

Q: Can life return to normal now that Covid-19 vaccines are going to be rolled out in the US?

A: The White House coronavirus task force warned states in a weekly report that current vaccination plans won’t reduce the spread of the disease for months.

“The current vaccine implementation will not substantially reduce viral spread, hospitalizations, or fatalities until the 100 million Americans with comorbidities can be fully immunized, which will take until the late spring,” the report, obtained by CNN, read. “Behavioral change and aggressive mitigation policies are the only widespread prevention tools that we have to address this winter surge.

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WHAT’S IMPORTANT TODAY

US regulators confirm 95% efficacy for Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed the efficacy and safety of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, suggesting that it will receive an emergency use authorization (EUA) after a key committee meeting Thursday. FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn told CNN he also thinks another vaccine, produced by the US firm Moderna, has met the regulator’s criteria. “Our team has done their initial analysis, and we do feel that, preliminarily, that the success criteria have been met,” Hahn said.

This comes as AstraZeneca’s vaccine candidate was found to have 70.4% efficacy in an interim analysis of Phase 3 trial results, published for the first time in a peer-reviewed journal. The findings are in line with the efficacy level that AstraZeneca announced last month, which also showed 90% efficacy in a subset of volunteers who, it turns out, mistakenly got a lower first dose of vaccine. The data came from trials conducted outside the US, and AstraZeneca has yet to seek an EUA from the FDA. An Operation Warp Speed official said last week that the FDA may prefer US-generated data when it’s time to authorize the vaccine candidate.

Germany struggles to contain deadly surge

Germany, a role model for its mitigation efforts in the first wave of the pandemic, recorded 590 coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, its highest single-day total yet, according to the Robert Koch Institute. Chancellor Angela Merkel said November’s partial lockdown was not enough, and suggested tougher restrictions ahead of the Christmas holidays. Several German states will tighten lockdown measures as the country struggles with surging infections — 20,816 new cases reported today alone.

Canada is also in the throes of a deadly second wave, and seeing straining hospital capacity across the country as health officials impose more restrictions and lockdowns, Paula Newton reports. What went wrong? Canadian Thanksgiving in early October saw infection rates surge for weeks afterwards. Now daily cases are now 10 times higher than they were in late summer with deaths averaging about 88 per day now.

Biden details plan to combat coronavirus pandemic in first 100 days

US President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday laid out his three-point plan to combat the pandemic, an approach in dealing with the virus that continues to contrast with President Trump’s, Kate Sullivan reports. The plan includes an aim to have at least 100 million Americans vaccinated in his first 100 days in office, a pledge to sign a face mask mandate on his first day in office and efforts to get kids back to school safely.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci urged Americans to stay home for the holidays as the US surpassed 15 million reported Covid-19 cases on Tuesday. “People travel for Christmas, they congregate at parties, at social gatherings and dinners,” Fauci said Tuesday in a discussion with the National Urban League. “So the months of December and January are going to be very problematic.”

ON OUR RADAR

• A Royal Caribbean cruise ship has returned to port in Singapore after an 83-year-old passenger tested positive for Covid-19. The “cruise to nowhere” itinerary around Singapore was part of a much-vaunted program to reinvigorate domestic travel in the country amid the pandemic.
• Nine months into the pandemic, 42% of Americans say their household income is still below what it was before the coronavirus outbreak.
• A woman in Oklahoma with worsening cold-like symptoms tested negative for Covid-19 three times before receiving a positive test. She is now urging others not to rely on test results if they feel sick.
• The home of Rebekah Jones, who was fired from her job as a state data scientist after accusing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration of minimizing the pandemic and skewing state data, was raided. She worries her seized computer and phones will reveal sources who leaked her damaging information on the state’s coronavirus response.

TOP TIP

If you’re looking forward to playing the pandemic card in order to skip the holidays with family this year, you’re not alone.

With health officials warning Americans to consider the risks of traveling for the holidays and advising against gathering in large groups, breaking with holiday obligations might be easier than ever this festive season. Here’s how people are making new traditions in the pandemic.

TODAY’S PODCAST

“Most of the experts that I’ve spoken to have suggested that 70% of the population will have to be immune. Now, it could be smaller. It could be larger. But that’s the guess right now in order to really shut down the virus and frankly, make it go away.” — FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn

With a vaccine rollout underway in the UK, and the FDA potentially days away from approving a vaccine, what happens next? CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta speaks to FDA Commissioner Dr. Hahn about the decision-making process. Listen Now.