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April
European countries may have to mix COVID-19 shots amid AstraZeneca crisis
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. Several European countries are considering mixing up COVID-19 vaccines for citizens who received a first dose of AstraZeneca’s shot, an unprecedented move that highlights challenges for governments struggling to tame fresh rises in infections.
Vaccination programmes have been upset after a small number of reports that recipients of the AstraZeneca inoculation have suffered extremely rare blood clots, leading some countries worldwide to suspend its use out of caution.
A senior official for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in an interview published on Tuesday there was a link between the vaccine and rare blood clots in the brain but the possible causes were still unknown.
The EMA later said in a statement that its review of the vaccine was ongoing. It will give an update on its investigation on Wednesday afternoon.
AstraZeneca has said previously its studies have found no higher risk of clots because of the vaccine, millions of doses of which have been administered worldwide.
While many countries have resumed using the shot, some have imposed age restrictions.
In many instances, this has left officials scratching their heads over what to do for people who received a first dose of AstraZeneca but are no longer eligible under the new rules.
While the numbers are small compared with the tens of millions being inoculated across the region, the decision is significant because it has not been tested in late-stage human trials.
Any divergence to the EMA’s marketing authorisation would also be considered as “off label use”, meaning it would not be approved by the regulator and leave individual countries responsible for any possible side-effects.
The EMA had no immediate comment when asked about mixing and matching vaccines and referred to the briefing later on Wednesday.
Some experts say that, because all of the vaccines target the same outer “spike” protein of the virus, they could work together to train the body to fight off the virus. There is no evidence it will be as effective.
Germany was the first European country to recommend on April 1 that people under 60 who have had a first AstraZeneca shot should receive a different product for their second dose.
Norway will decide whether to resume using AstraZeneca’s vaccine or rely on alternatives by April 15.
“The outcome is either you get one vaccine, the AstraZeneca vaccine ... or you get a booster vaccine with other types of vaccines,” Sara Viksmoen Watle, a senior physician at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, told Reuters.
Norwegian authorities are also waiting for the results of a British trial launched in February to explore mixing doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. The timing of the data is not known.
Britain said late last year it would allow people to be given shots of different COVID-19 vaccines on rare occasions, but it has not yet had to do so.
Finland, which resumed using the AstraZeneca vaccine from March 29, but will only give it to people aged 65 and over, said it would wait for the EMA’s conclusions before making a recommendation. It will have to start giving second doses by mid-April.
In France, where the vaccine can now only be used for those aged 55 or older, the issue affects hundreds of thousands of people.
A top health advisory body in charge of defining the use of vaccines, the Haute Autorité de la Santé (HAS), is also contemplating deploying a messengerRNA (mRNA) vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna as a second dose, according to two sources aware of the organisation’s plans.
A formal decision has not been yet taken, however, as experts await more data, notably from Britain, one of the sources added. France has until early May, which marks 12 weeks after the first doses were administered.
The HAS had no comment.
Back in February, it said there was no data to assess interchangeability of AstraZeneca’s vaccine and therefore advised that those who had already received a first dose should not get a different shot when vaccinated for the second time.
“We are left guessing and that makes me and other colleagues feel very uncomfortable,” said Charlotte Senechal, a 52-year-old hospital nurse working in Strasbourg, eastern France. (Reuters)
April
A third of COVID survivors suffer neurological or mental disorders: study
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. One in three COVID-19 survivors in a study of more than 230,000 mostly American patients were diagnosed with a brain or psychiatric disorder within six months, suggesting the pandemic could lead to a wave of mental and neurological problems, scientists said on Tuesday.
Researchers who conducted the analysis said it was not clear how the virus was linked to psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression, but that these were the most common diagnoses among the 14 disorders they looked at.
Post-COVID cases of stroke, dementia and other neurological disorders were rarer, the researchers said, but were still significant, especially in those who had severe COVID-19.
“Although the individual risks for most disorders are small, the effect across the whole population may be substantial,” said Paul Harrison, a professor of psychiatry at Oxford University who co-led the work.
Max Taquet, also an Oxford psychiatrist who worked with Harrison, noted that the study was not able to examine the biological or psychological mechanisms involved, but said urgent research is needed to identify these “with a view to preventing or treating them”.
Health experts are increasingly concerned by evidence of higher risks of brain and mental health disorders among COVID-19 survivors. A previous study by the same researchers found last year that 20% of COVID-19 survivors were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder within three months.
The new findings, published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, analysed health records of 236,379 COVID-19 patients, mostly from the United States, and found 34% had been diagnosed with neurological or psychiatric illnesses within six months.
The disorders were significantly more common in COVID-19 patients than in comparison groups of people who recovered from flu or other respiratory infections over the same time period, the scientists said, suggesting COVID-19 had a specific impact.
Anxiety, at 17%, and mood disorders, at 14%, were the most common, and did not appear to be related to how mild or severe the patient’s COVID-19 infection had been.
Among those who had been admitted to intensive care with severe COVID-19 however, 7% had a stroke within six months, and almost 2% were diagnosed with dementia.
Independent experts said the findings were worrying.
“This is a very important paper. It confirms beyond any reasonable doubt that COVID-19 affects both brain and mind in equal measure,” said Simon Wessely, chair of psychiatry at King’s College London.
“The impact COVID-19 is having on individuals’ mental health can be severe,” said Lea Milligan, chief executive of the MQ Mental Health research charity. “This is contributing to the already rising levels of mental illness and requires further, urgent research.” (Reuters)
April
Digitizing global value chains improves risk management
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. Director of the Policy Support Unit at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Dr. Denis Hew views that the digitization of global value chains (GVCs) can improve risk management and reduce logistical bottlenecks.
"Although the trend toward digitalization predates the pandemic, digital solutions have now become a necessity rather than an option for many firms," Dr Denis Hew stated during the webinar, Global Value Chains in the Post-Pandemic “New Normal", Wednesday.
However, Hew affirmed that boosting the resilience of these value chains necessitates reconsidering policies, including those on data security and human capital management.
The pandemic has expedited digitalization for both businesses and customers, with technology-driven production and distribution activities as well as digital services now in place, according to Hew.
With users better acclimatizing themselves to new-fangled technologies, the “flight to digital” has presented a viable opportunity to the ASEAN+3 region to upgrade and bolster its role in GVCs.
The region is in an inimitable position to not only support greater openness but also increase its competitiveness in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The comprehensive inculcation of novel technologies will mandate steady flow of investment in both hard and soft infrastructures to derive optimal benefits. (Antaranews)
April
ASEAN+3 to remain lucrative for global value chains investment
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. AMRO Chief Economist Dr. Hoe Ee Khor opined that the ASEAN+3 region will remain a highly attractive location for global value chains (GVC) investment during the post-pandemic era.
"Although we have seen some cross-border relocation of GVCs globally, the ASEAN+3 region will remain a highly attractive location for GVC investment in the post-pandemic world," Dr Khor stated during the webinar, Global Value Chains in the Post-Pandemic “New Normal", Wednesday.
Khor drew attention to swift expansion of the region’s middle class that is becoming increasingly affluent.
The large pool of labor is upskilling to the digital economy, according to Khor.
Businesses are espousing novel technologies and creating more commercial opportunities, he remarked.
GVCs are an integral part of the ASEAN+3 economies, constituting 50 percent of their regional and global trade volumes, and fostering regional growth.
Disruptions caused by natural disasters, trade tensions, and the pandemic, have refueled a debate over future trade regimes and possible GVC reconfiguration, presenting both challenges and opportunities to the region.
As long-term globalization benefits still overshadow short-term protectionism gains, the region should remain open to trade and investment in addition to showcasing its collective commitment to multilateralization.
Executive Director of the Asian Trade Centre Deborah Elms remarked that global value chains have helped boost economic growth and development in Asia.
"In a post-pandemic world, they remain critically important,” Elms stated. (Antaranews)
April
North Korea drops out of Tokyo Olympics citing COVID-19, dashing Seoul's hopes
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. North Korea said on Tuesday it would not take part in the Tokyo Olympics due to coronavirus concerns, dashing South Korean hopes that the Games could be a catalyst to revive peace talks.
It will be the first time North Korea has missed a summer Olympics since it boycotted the Seoul games in 1988, during the Cold War.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in had hoped the two countries, still technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, could field a combined team in Tokyo and rebuild momentum for an improvement in relations.
The withdrawal is also a setback for Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s plan, agreed in 2018, to pursue a joint Korean bid to host the 2032 Games.
When South Korea hosted the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018, Kim sent his sister to head the national delegation, and both teams marched under a unified flag at the opening ceremony and fielded a combined women’s ice hockey team.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula rose last month when the North resumed missile tests, although both sides said they wanted to continue dialogue.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said Seoul had hoped the Tokyo Olympics would be a chance to “foster peace and reconciliation” and expressed regret that it could not happen.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the North Korean move “would appear consistent ... with the DPRK’s stringent response to COVID-19,” referring to North Korea by the acronym of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, which took office in January, has sought to engage North Korea in dialogue but has been rebuffed.
The Tokyo Organising Committee said it would “continue to prepare the best possible stage to welcome athletes from all countries and regions”.
The International Olympic Committee said it had asked the North Korean organising committee several times for a telephone conference to discuss the coronavirus situation in North Korea, but North Korea had been unable to comply.
“The IOC has not received any official application from the NOC of DPRK to be released from their obligation to take part in the Olympic Games according to the Olympic Charter,” an IOC spokesperson said.
North Korea’s sports ministry said on its website that the decision to pull out of Tokyo had been made at a meeting of its Olympic committee with Sports Minister Kim Il Guk on March 25.
“The committee decided not to join the 32nd Olympics Games to protect athletes from the global health crisis caused by the coronavirus,” it said.
North Korea says it has not had any coronavirus cases.
The March 25 meeting also discussed ways to develop professional sports technologies, earn more medals at international competitions and expand public sports activities over the next five years, the ministry said.
Kim, known to be a fan of U.S. basketball, has expressed a desire to promote professional sports in North Korea. (Reuters)
April
IMF sees stronger global growth as some COVID clouds begin to clear
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday unprecedented public spending to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily by the United States, would push global growth to 6% this year, a rate unseen since the 1970s.
The IMF raised its 2021 growth forecast from 5.5% less than three months ago, reflecting a rapidly brightening outlook for the U.S. economy, which the IMF now sees growing by 6.4% in 2021 -- the fastest since the early 1980s.
The U.S. forecast was raised by 1.3 percentage points from the IMF’s 5.1% 2021 projection in late January and nearly double the rate it estimated last October.
IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath said the improvement was largely due to increased fiscal support, including a new $1.9 trillion U.S. aid package, accelerated vaccinations and continued adaptation of economic activity to overcome pandemic restrictions.
“Even with high uncertainty about the path of this pandemic, a way out of this health economic crisis is increasingly visible,” Gopinath told a news conference.
However, she warned that the pandemic was still far from defeated and coronavirus cases were still rising in many countries.
“Recoveries are diverging dangerously across and within countries, as economies with slower vaccine rollout, more limited policy support and more reliance on tourism do less well,” Gopinath said.
Forecasts for emerging market economies, while somewhat improved, lagged well behind their developed peers, rising just 0.4 percentage point - half of the advanced economy mark-up - to 6.7% from the view in January.
If realized, the IMF’s 6% global growth forecast for 2021 would mark the fastest pace since 1976 but also comes off the steepest annual downturn of the post-war era last year as the pandemic brought commerce around the world to a near stand-still at times. The fund said the world economy contracted 3.3% in 2020, a modest upgrade from an estimated contraction of 3.5% in its January update.
The latest World Economic Outlook - released at the start of the IMF’s and World Bank’s spring meetings - reflects a dramatic divergence between the outlook for the United States and much of the rest of the world courtesy of another $1.9 trillion in pandemic relief spending recently enacted in Washington.
The outlooks for other advanced economy heavyweights, such as Germany, France and Japan, hardly improved at all since January. Nonetheless, with the heft of the U.S. outlook improvement as the main driver, the IMF marked up its advanced economy growth estimate to 5.1% from 4.3%.
The United States economy this year will join China in regaining a level of gross domestic product that exceeds where it stood before the pandemic struck just over a year ago, the IMF said. China recaptured all of its lost growth by the end of 2020.
China’s growth forecast for 2021 was raised by 0.3 percentage point to 8.4%, an increase that Gopinath said largely reflected external demand for Chinese exports, driven largely by the U.S. stimulus spending. But she said that consumer spending in China was still lagging, and growth was primarily being driven by public investments.
The IMF emphasized the high degree of uncertainty surrounding the outlook, and that improvements could easily be tripped up by any of several factors, with success against the pandemic topping the list.
“Greater progress with vaccinations can uplift the forecast, while new virus variants that evade vaccines can lead to a sharp downgrade,” it said.
Another big risk centers around the persistence of accommodative policies, from the United States in particular.
Long-term interest rates around the world have risen sharply since January, as market participants revise their expectations for how soon the U.S. Federal Reserve begins to normalize its policy stance. (Reuters)
April
Global COVID-19 death toll surpasses 3 million amid new infections resurgence
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide crossed 3 million on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the latest global resurgence of COVID-19 infections is challenging vaccination efforts across the globe.
Worldwide COVID-19 deaths are rising once again, especially in Brazil and India. Health officials blame more infectious variants that were first detected in the United Kingdom and South Africa, along with public fatigue with lockdowns and other restrictions.
(Open tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi in an external browser for global COVID graphic)
According to a Reuters tally, it took more than a year for the global coronavirus death toll to reach 2 million. The next 1 million deaths were added in about three months.
Brazil is leading the world in the daily average number of new deaths reported and accounts for one in every four deaths worldwide each day, according to a Reuters analysis.
The World Health Organization acknowledged the nation’s dire condition due to coronavirus, saying the country is in a very critical condition with an overwhelmed healthcare system.
“Indeed there is a very serious situation going on in Brazil right now, where we have a number of states in critical condition,” WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove told a briefing last Thursday, adding that many hospital intensive care units are more than 90% full.
India reported a record rise in COVID-19 infections on Monday, becoming the second nation after the United States to post more than 100,000 new cases in a day.
India’s worst-affected state, Maharashtra on Monday began shutting shopping malls, cinemas, bars, restaurants, and places of worship, as hospitals are being overrun by patients.
The European region, which includes 51 countries, has the highest total number of deaths at nearly 1.1 million.
Five European countries including the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Italy and Germany constitute about 60% of Europe’s total coronavirus-related deaths.
The United States has the highest number of deaths of any country at the world at 555,000 and accounts for about 19% of all deaths due to COVID-19 in the world. Cases have risen for the last three weeks but health officials believe the nation’s rapid vaccination campaign may prevent a rise in deaths. A third of the population has received at least one dose of a vaccine.
At least 370.3 million people or nearly 4.75% of the global population have received a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine by Sunday, according to latest figures from research and data provider firm Our World in Data.
However, the World Health Organization is urging countries to donate more doses of approved COVID-19 vaccines to help meet vaccination targets for the most vulnerable in poorer countries. (Reuters)
April
IMF favors global minimum corporate tax - chief economist
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. The International Monetary Fund has long favored adoption of a global minimum tax on corporate profits, the Fund’s chief economist, Gita Gopinath, told reporters on Tuesday, calling tax avoidance a troubling issue for the global economy.
Gopinath said current disparities in national corporate tax rates had triggered “a large amount” of tax shifting and tax avoidance, reducing the tax base on which governments could collect revenues to fund needed economic and social spending.
“It is a big concern,” Gopinath told reporters during an online briefing. “We are very much in favor of a global minimum corporate tax.”
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday a global deal on cross-border taxation was within reach as he welcomed a pledge by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to work on a global corporate minimum rate.
Gopinath said the IMF had not taken a position on the ideal level for such a tax rate, adding that governments would need to replenish their coffers after massive spending to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigate its economic impact.
“The hope is that they will move forward better to have more inclusive, sustainable, green economies, and that would require measures both on the revenue side and on the expenditure side,” she said, adding that each country would have to carefully tailor its own actions on the tax front.
Gopinath said the IMF was still studying the Biden administration’s proposal to raise the corporate tax rate to 28%, but noted that the former Trump administration’s decision to lower that tax rate from 35% to 21% in 2017 had had less impact on investment than initially expected.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday said there was “no evidence” that raising the corporate tax rate by seven percentage points would drive business abroad.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted that the 28% rate would be lower than it was at any time since World War Two. (Reuters)
April
Valneva's COVID-19 shot set for Phase Three trial this month
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. Valneva on Tuesday reported positive results for its COVID-19 vaccine in early stage clinical trials and said it planned to launch a Phase Three trial this month.
The French drugmaker, whose shot uses the technology behind its licensed Japanese encephalitis vaccine, tested its vaccine in 153 adults with three dose levels based on a schedule of two doses with vaccinations three weeks apart.
Valneva shares were up 8% in early trading.
The vaccine, Valneva said, was “generally safe and well tolerated across all dose groups tested, with no safety concerns identified by an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board”.
Valneva said the vaccine, for which the U.S. company Dynavax supplies an adjuvant, was also “highly immunogenic”, with “more than 90% of all study participants” developing significant levels of antibodies to the coronavirus spike protein.
“Based on the data assessed, the company has decided to advance the high dose into the phase 3 clinical trial. Other trials, including booster trials, involving antigen sparing doses will also be evaluated,” Valneva said.
The company added that it was working with authorities in Britain to review plans including for potential variant vaccine development and supply.
Valneva has signed a deal with Britain for up to 190 million doses by 2025 in a transaction potentially worth up to 1.4 billion euros ($1.65 billion). The company is also in talks with the European Union to supply it with 60 million doses.
The company said it intended to submit the vaccine for approval in Britain in the autumn of this year and said discussions with other regulatory bodies were ongoing. (Reuters)
April
Clear link between AstraZeneca vaccine and rare blood clots in brain, EMA official tells paper
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. There is a link between AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine and very rare blood clots in the brain but the possible causes are still unknown, a senior official for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in an interview published on Tuesday.
However, the EMA later said in a statement that its review of the vaccine was ongoing and it expected to announce its findings on Wednesday or Thursday. An AstraZeneca spokesman declined to comment on the matter.
“In my opinion, we can now say it, it is clear that there is an association (of the brain blood clots) with the vaccine. However, we still do not know what causes this reaction,” Marco Cavaleri, chair of the vaccine evaulation team at the EMA, told Italian daily Il Messagero.
Cavaleri provided no evidence to support his comment.
The EMA has repeatedly said the benefits of the AstraZeneca shot outweigh the risks as it investigates 44 reports of an extremely rare brain clotting ailment known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) out of 9.2 million people in the European Economic Area who have received the vaccine.
The World Health Organization has also backed the vaccine.
AstraZeneca has said previously its studies have found no higher risk of clots because of its vaccine.
Cavaleri said the EMA would say in its review that there is a link but was not likely to give an indication this week regarding the age of individuals to whom the AstraZeneca shot should be given.
Some countries, including France, Germany and the Netherlands, have suspending the use of the vaccine in younger people while the investigations continue.
REVIEW ONGOING
In response to Cavaleri’s comments, the Amsterdam-based EMA said in a statement on Tuesday: “EMA’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) has not yet reached a conclusion and the review (of any possible link) is currently ongoing.”
The EMA said last week that its review had at present not identified any specific risk factors, such as age, gender or a previous medical history of clotting disorders, for these very rare events. A causal link with the vaccine is not proven, but is possible and further analysis is continuing, the agency said.
A high proportion among the reported cases affected young and middle-aged women but that did not lead EMA to conclude this cohort was particularly at risk from AstraZeneca’s shot.
Scientists are exploring several possibilities that might explain the extremely rare brain blood clots that occurred in individuals in the days and weeks after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.
European investigators have put forward one theory that the vaccine triggers an unusual antibody in some rare cases; others are trying to understand whether the cases are linked with birth control pills.
But many scientists say there is no definitive evidence and it is not clear whether or why AstraZeneca’s vaccine would cause an issue not shared by other vaccines that target a similar part of the coronavirus.
In a separate interview, Armando Genazzani, a member of the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), told La Stampa daily that it was “plausible” that the blood clots were correlated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is based on a modified chimpanzee adenovirus vector, ChAdOx1, developed at Oxford University, and is one of several adenovirus-vector COVID-19 vaccines. The current vaccine rollout represents the first use of viral vector vaccines on such a global scale. (Reuters)