Can Pakistan Effectively Respond to Coronavirus Pandemic?

Pakistani public health system's ability to deal with Covid19 pandemic is increasingly being questioned with the number of confirmed coronavirus cases spiking in the country. The current hotspot is in southern Sindh province where the provincial government is taking the lead in fighting its spread by shutting schools, closing restaurants and shopping malls and banning large gatherings such as weddings and conferences. The federal government has closed Pakistan's western border with Iran where the coronavirus pandemic is raging. Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority has started screening all incoming passengers and stopped flights to and from several countries hit by the pandemic. Pakistani health experts are advising people with flu-like symptoms to self-isolate in their homes. The best known treatment for the severely ill is Resochin, the anti-malarial antiviral made by Bayer Pakistan. Hydroxycholroquine (HCQ), made by Getz Pakistan, is also reportedly effective in treating Covid19.

Coronavirus Global Pandemic

Is Pakistan Ready?

Pakistan is among only 6 countries in the world that have taken the steps they need to evaluate their ability to withstand a global pandemic, according to a 2017 report sponsored by the World Bank. The 6 countries named in the report are: Eritrea, Finland, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania and the United States.

Covid19 Coronavirus. Source: US CDC

Pakistan's ability to deal with a pandemic is now being tested by the coronavirus. The current hotspot for it is in southern Sindh province where the provincial government is taking the lead in fighting its spread by shutting schools, closing restaurants and shopping malls and banning large gatherings such as weddings and conferences. The federal government has closed Pakistan's western border with Iran where the coronavirus pandemic is raging. Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority has started screening all incoming passengers and stopped flights to and from several countries hit by the pandemic. Pakistani health experts are advising people with flu-like symptoms to self-isolate in their homes.

Pakistan is ramping up coronavirus testing and setting up isolation wards at many hospitals in Sindh and across the country. More testing accounts for the spike in confirmed cases. The best known treatment for the severely ill is Resochin, the anti-malarial antiviral made by Bayer Pakistan.

In response to a recent request by Pakistan's Express Tribune newspaper staff, World Health Organization Executive Director Dr. Michael J. Ryan said Pakistan has great capacity in public health but he also talked of challenges posed by the Coronavirus pandemic. “Pakistan has a highly mobile population with mega cities and undeserved people,” he said.  “So there is a great challenge facing Pakistan. But Pakistan has also demonstrated time and again with dengue, polio and other diseases how all of the government and society’s approaches can be made to work.”

Dr. Palitha Gunarathna Mahipala, World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Pakistan, also lauded Pakistan's response to Covid19 pandemic, according to The News. He said,  “Pakistan has timely come up with one of the world’s best National Response Program against COVID-19 and it is being implemented very effectively. Authorities are doing their job and now it is the responsibility of the people to follow the instructions and take preventive and precautionary measures to avoid contracting the viral disease.”

The World Bank report titled "From Panic and Neglect to Investing in Health Security: Financing Pandemic Preparedness at a National Level" was written by experts from the World Bank,  the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the African and Asian development banks, and finance officials from various governments. The report included estimates of the economic damage various epidemics had done. For example, the viral pneumonia SARS — which ultimately killed only 774 people — shrank China’s gross domestic product by 0.5 percent in 2003. The report also broke down costs on a per capita basis. A major flu pandemic, for example, would cost Afghanistan only $12 per citizen, India $31, Pakistan $28 and the United States $248.

Social Distancing:


The current hotspot is in southern Sindh province where the provincial government is taking the lead in fighting its spread by shutting schools, closing restaurants and shopping malls and banning large gatherings. The federal government has closed Pakistan's western border with Iran where the coronavirus pandemic is raging. Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority has started screening all incoming passengers and stopped flights to and from several countries hit by the pandemic.

Italian experience with coronavirus has shown that even a well-developed public health system in a rich European country can be overwhelmed by rapidly growing pandemic such as Covid19.  The best way to handle the situation is to cut the infection rate by keeping people about 6 feet apart. This is being called "social distancing".

Social Distancing to Limit Infection Rates 

Based on what the United States has learned from what is happening in Italy, major cities and states in America are taking steps to reduce large gatherings of people. Offices, schools, restaurants and shopping centers are closed with shelter-in-place orders in Silicon Valley and the larger 6-county San Francisco Bay Area.

Herd Immunity:

Herd immunity develops when a large percentage of population is infected or vaccinated. Dr. Arindam Basu, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Environmental Health at University of Canterbury, has recently written an article in The Conversation arguing that it is "unethical and potentially dangerous" to wait for herd immunity to develop in the absence of a vaccine.  It could result in hundreds of thousands or even millions of deaths among the most vulnerable segments of the population such as the elderly and the immune-compromised.

Pakistan's Assistance to China:

Chinese President Xi Jinping has thanked Pakistan for its support during coronabirus outbreak in his country. "China is deeply grateful for Pakistan's support. Facts have proved once again that China and Pakistan are true friends who share weal and woe and good brothers who share each other's joys and sorrows. The special friendship is a historical choice, and is deeply rooted in the hearts of the two peoples," said Xi.

Resochin (Chloroquine) Produced by Bayer Pakistan 

At the peak of the outbreak in February, Bayer Pakistan exported to China 300,000 tablets of Resochin (Chloroquine) that proved effective in treating coronavirus infections and saving lives in Wuhan. Resochin is an antiviral drug used for treating malaria. Chloroquine is manufactured by not just Bayer but several other drug companies as well.  China and many other countries discontinued its production years ago.   Several Pakistani pharmaceutical companies also manufacture HydroxyChloroquine which has lower toxicity and fewer side effects. The United Kingdom has banned hoarding and export of both of these drugs. In addition, Pakistan donated 7,000 surgical masks to China at the peak of the coronavirus outbreak.  A recent paper titled "An Effective Treatment for Coronavirus (COVID-19)"  by James M. Todaro, MD and and Gregory J. Rigano, Esq. has published data showing the efficacy of familiar anti-malaria drugs Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine for treatment of and as prophylactic against COVID-19.

In Vitro Efficacy of Chloroquine(CQ) vs Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) Ag...

Recently, Chinese research (reported in Clinical Trials Arena) reported that “data from the drug’s [chloroquine] studies showed ‘certain curative effect’ with ‘fairly good efficacy’ … patients treated with chloroquine demonstrated a better drop in fever, improvement of lung CT images, and required a shorter time to recover compared to parallel groups. The percentage of patients with negative viral nucleic acid tests was also higher with the anti-malarial drug… Chloroquine has so far shown no obvious serious adverse reactions in more than 100 participants in the trials… Chloroquine was selected after several screening rounds of thousands of existing drugs. Chloroquine is undergoing further trials in more than ten hospitals in Beijing, Guangdong province and Hunnan province.”

A small French study found only 25% of COVID19 patients who took it for 6 days still had the virus while 90% of those who had not taken it still had Covid-19.

HCQ (Hydroxychloroquine) Manufactured by Getz Pakistan

Economic Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic:

Service sector accounts for  50% of the world GDP and 54% of Pakistan's GDP.  Social distancing will significantly impact the services, particularly retail, restaurants, travel, transport and education sectors. Imran Khan has expressed fear that the pandemic will devastate the economies of developing countries.

“My worry is poverty and hunger," Khan said. "The world community has to think of some sort of a debt write-off for countries like us, which are very vulnerable, at least that will help us in coping with (the coronavirus).”

Summary:

Pakistan is among only six countries in the world that have taken the steps they need to evaluate their ability to withstand a global pandemic, according to a 2017 report sponsored by the World Bank. The current hotspot is in southern Sindh province where the provincial government is taking the lead in fighting its spread by shutting schools, closing restaurants and shopping malls and banning large gatherings. The federal government has closed Pakistan's western border with Iran where the coronavirus pandemic is raging. Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority has started screening all incoming passengers and stopped flights to and from several countries hit by the pandemic.  The best known treatment for the severely ill is Resochin, the anti-malarial antiviral made by Bayer Pakistan.  Dr. Michael Ryan and Dr. Palitha Gunarathna Mahipala of the World Health Organization (WHO) have talked of challenges Pakistan faces but also praised the steps it has taken to fight coronavirus pandemic.

Here's the latest Coronavirus Pandemic Update:

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Comment by Riaz Haq on March 18, 2021 at 12:50pm

#Pakistan imports #COVID19 #vaccines for private sale, starting with 50,000 doses of #Russia’s #SputnikV. Pakistan's 220 million is favored with a very young population and doctors believe they can still give jabs to 40 to 50 million people this year. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/pakis...

Pakistan has begun importing Covid-19 vaccine for private sale, starting with 50,000 Sputnik V Russian shots.

The consignment will be the first of regular deliveries, officials said, and came as the country braces for a third wave of infections.

Officials have again closed schools and begun locking down hotspot neighbourhoods as the UK variant drives a new spike in cases. Pakistan has appeared to escape the heavy death tolls of many countries, but the coronavirus has again flared up in recent weeks.

Hospital daily admissions and the number of people in critical care were rising fast, said Asad Umar, the minister overseeing the government's Covid-19 response.

He said if compliance with the rules did not improve “we will be forced to place stronger restrictions on activities”.

“Please be very very careful. The new strain spreads faster and is more deadly.”

Pakistan's vaccination programme has until now relied on donations from China and allocations from the World Health Organisation's Covax scheme, which have yet to arrive.

The government last year gave permission for businesses to import vaccines, in a country where private hospitals and clinics fill gaps left by underfunded and overstretched public provision.

“This is the first shipment of 50,000 doses which came last night only,” an official of AG Pharma which imported the vaccine told Reuters. Local media reported another 150,000 doses were on their way.

Pakistan began vaccinating health workers six weeks ago and opened up jabs to the elderly last week. Shots have so far been donations from China, with a tranche of 17m Oxford AstraZeneca shots due from Covax, but currently delayed

It remains unclear how much private clinics will be able to charge for vaccinations. Pakistan had at first agreed that private firms would be able to sell vaccine without price caps, but that decision had been reversed, said health minister Dr Faisal Sultan.

“Now, however, there is a formula, already in vogue, to determine max price,” he said. “So yes, there is a price cap that DRAP (Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan) will recommend and get approval for,” he said.

The decision to allow commercial imports of the vaccine with an exemption on upper price caps had sparked criticism that it will create inequality.

Pakistan has a history of vaccine hesitancy and still sees stubbornly high numbers of people refuse to give their children polio shots. Officials fear a nationwide Covid vaccine roll out will be hit by similar scepticism.

But the country of around 220 million is favoured with a very young population and doctors believe they can still give jabs to 40 to 50 million people this year.

Comment by Riaz Haq on March 24, 2021 at 11:08am

#Pakistan buys 1 million Sinopharm & CanSino Biologics #CovidVaccine doses from #China. Asad Umar: “We want them to deliver 7 million by the end of April, but they have not confirmed this yet. They might have some supply issues” #vaccine #COVID19 https://reut.rs/3lJaYcB


Pakistan has bought more than 1 million doses of Chinese Sinopharm and CanSino Biologics COVID-19 vaccines, its first purchase from any manufacturer having previously relied on donations, the government said on Tuesday

The shots are due to be delivered this month, with talks under way for another 7 million doses from the same companies.

The country is experiencing a sharp rise in COVID-19 infections has recorded 633,741 coronavirus cases and nearly 14,000 deaths, with 3,270 infections and 72 deaths reported in the past 24 hours.

Prime Minister Imran Khan tested positive on Saturday.

“We have purchased 1 million and 60,000 doses of Sinopharm and CanSino vaccines,” Asad Umar, minister in charge of pandemic operations, told Reuters. “We will be receiving the consignment before the end of March.”

“We want them to deliver that 7 million by the end of April, but they have not confirmed this yet. They might have some supply issues,” Umar added.

Pakistan is currently vaccinating frontline healthcare workers and citizens over the age of 60 free of charge using over 1 million Sinopharm doses donated by China.

Pakistan has so far relied on such donations and on allocations from the World Health Organisation-backed COVAX/GAVI scheme for poorer nations.

The first COVAX/GAVI batch of up to 4 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine had been due to be delivered to Pakistan this month, Umar said, adding it was delayed due to the issues the vaccine was facing worldwide.

Pakistan is aiming to vaccinate around 70 million people out of its 220 million population to reach sufficient community immunity. The country’s 100 million under 18s not yet required to be vaccinated.

With 45 million due to be covered by COVAX/GAVI provisions, Umar said Pakistan would need to cater for around 25 million of the population.

Pakistan, one of the first countries in the world to allow private imports of COVID-19 vaccines for sale on the open market, has already received a batch of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, and also expects to get a separate batch of CanSino this week for commercial sale.

Authorities expect richer Pakistanis will buy their own vaccination shots through this route, but the commercial administration of vaccines is yet to begin as the government settles pricing issues.

Transparency International has raised concerns about the private sale of vaccines in a letter to the prime minister, saying it will cause inequality and open the door to corruption.

Authorities have proposed a price of 8,449 rupees ($54.30) per pack of two injections of Sputnik V and 4,225 ($27.15) per injection for Convidecia, which will be CanSino’s trade name.

According to a mechanism approved by the government, the trade price for an imported vaccine will add 40% mark up to the landed cost, with another 15% for retailers or hospitals.

Umar said the proposed prices were being reviewed after Sputnik V’s importers had some concerns, but adding he does not see it changing.

Comment by Riaz Haq on April 1, 2021 at 6:34pm

#Pakistan receives another large #COVID19 #vaccine shipment from #China. 500,000 Sinopharm doses & 60,000 CanSino jabs received, with a further 500,000 vaccine doses expected on Thursday. 800,000 doses have so far been given in Pakistan https://aje.io/9n3t7 via @AJEnglish

Pakistan is set to receive another batch of 500,000 doses of the Chinese-developed Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine, bringing the total number of doses procured in the last 24 hours to more than a million, the country’s health minister says.

On Wednesday, Pakistani health minister Faisal Sultan received a batch of 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine and 60,000 doses of the CanSino vaccine procured from northern neighbour China.

“The coronavirus vaccination campaign was started quite a while ago, and it was started with vaccines donated by the Chinese government,” Sultan told reporters at a news conference in the capital Islamabad on Wednesday, calling it “an important occasion”.

A further batch of 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine purchased by Pakistan is expected to arrive on Thursday, he said, bringing the total tally of vaccines in the country to more than 2.5 million.

Sultan said the government was also “finalising orders for millions of doses” of vaccines that were expected to arrive by June.


Pakistan’s rate of vaccination of fewer than 0.3 people vaccinated per 100 members of the population is one of the lowest among countries where vaccination campaigns have been launched, according to official data and the Our World in Data dataset.

On Wednesday, the government expanded its vaccine eligibility criteria to include citizens aged more than 50. Citizens who are over 60 years of age and those who work in the healthcare sector remain eligible to receive the vaccine.

Vaccines are currently being provided free of charge to citizens by the Pakistani government. The government has also approved the sale of the Russian-produced Sputnik V vaccine, but sales have not yet begun.


Pakistan continues to grapple with a strong third wave of infections countrywide, with daily new infections, active case rises and deaths all being recorded at their highest levels since the country’s first peak of cases in June 2020.


On Wednesday, the country registered 4,974 new cases of the virus, with an active case rise of 2,730 to 53,127 and 96 deaths taking the death toll to 14,530, according to official data.

The actual spread of the virus is likely to be far higher due to limited testing, with the country’s test-positive rate of 9.9 percent far higher than the World Health Organization guideline figure of 5 percent.

Comment by Riaz Haq on April 2, 2021 at 1:22pm

#Pakistani, #Chinese firms to make #coronavirus jab in #Pakistan . Searle Pakistan will be the first company to manufacture a #COVID19 #vaccine in Pakistan, said the jab has shown promising results in Phase 1 and 2 trials. #pandemic #pharmaceutical

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/pakistani-chinese-firms-to-ma...

A Pakistani pharmaceutical company has signed a deal with a Chinese firm to produce a COVID-19 vaccine in the country, according to an official announcement on Thursday.

In a letter to the Pakistan Stock Exchange, Searle Company Limited said it had finalized an agreement with China’s Livzon Mapharm Inc. to manufacture a novel coronavirus vaccine – V-01 – in Pakistan.

“The Searle Company Limited has successfully concluded an exclusive licensing and supply agreement with Livzon Mapharm Inc. for the Recombinant Novel Coronavirus Vaccine (V-01),” read the letter.

“The licensing agreement also covers the manufacturing transition of (V-01) in Pakistan.”

Searle, which will be the first company to manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine in Pakistan, said the jab has shown promising results in Phase 1 and 2 trials.

“The Phase Ill clinical study will include multiple countries and enroll more than 20,000 subjects, with the aim to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity of V-01 program,” the letter said.

According to the company, the vaccine has “many potential advantages such as strong safety profile … long durability, and easy to scale up for manufacturing.”

Searle said it was hopeful that “the relevant authorities will take up the matter on urgent basis and support fast-track approval to carry out Phase 3 clinical trials in Pakistan.”

Pakistan has so far approved four COVID-19 vaccines for use in the country – China’s Sinopharm and CanSino, along with Russia’s Sputnik V and the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab.


Infections hitting new highs

Pakistan on Friday reported 5,234 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily spike since June 20 last year, raising its overall tally to 678,165.

Another 83 patients died in the last 24 hours, pushing the fatality count to 14,613, according to the Health Ministry.

As many as 607,205 patients have recovered so far, leaving the number of active cases at 56,347, latest data showed.

Infections have surged in the South Asian country of over 200 million in recent days, with more than 75,000 reported in March alone.

Asad Umar, the country’s planning minister who is leading its pandemic response, said the entire region has been experiencing a “severe” COVID-19 spike.

“It is vital that we all contribute to containing the spread by taking sensible precautions. Wear a mask, avoid crowded places, wash hands or sanitize often, reduce travel to only essential work,” he said on Twitter.

As part of efforts to stem surging infections, the government has reimposed a blanket ban on all kinds of public gatherings across the country and is enforcing expanded lockdowns in the worst-hit areas.

Educational institutes have also been closed until at least April 11 in districts with high infection rates.

Comment by Riaz Haq on April 2, 2021 at 5:14pm

China approves clinical trials for Livzon Pharma unit's COVID-19 vaccine

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vaccine-livzo...

China’s medical products regulator has approved clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by a subsidiary of Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc, the Chinese company said late on Tuesday.

The potential vaccine joins more than ten candidates that Chinese scientists have moved into human testing, with four of them now cleared for wider public use and one for limited emergency use.

The protein-based injection, dubbed V-01, could be transported and stored at normal refrigerator temperatures of 2-8 degrees Celsius, Livzon Pharma said in a filing, without giving further details.

As of the end of February, Livzon had invested 67 million yuan ($10.3 million) into researching and developing the candidate, which is being jointly developed by its subsidiary based in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai and the Institute of Biophysics of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Separately, CanSino Biologics Inc, whose injection-based vaccine has been used in China and secured supply deals with countries including Pakistan and Mexico, said earlier on Tuesday it had obtained approval from China’s National Medical Products Administration to conduct human testing for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate administered via inhalation.

Comment by Riaz Haq on April 3, 2021 at 12:54pm

Pakistan’s Searle Company has entered into an agreement with a Chinese firm to manufacture the coronavirus vaccine in Pakistan. This is the first contract Pakistan has signed with a pharmaceutical company to begin the domestic production of COVID-19 vaccine.

https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/pakistan-firm-signs-covid-...

“The Searle Company has concluded an exclusive licensing and supply agreement with Livzon Mapharm Inc. for the recombinant novel coronavirus vaccine (V-01)” reads the firm’s April 1 letter to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The contract also covers the manufacturing transition of the V-01 vaccine in Pakistan.

The vaccine developed by China’s Livzon Pharmaceutical Group had shown promising results in phase I and II clinical trials. The phase III trial would enroll 20,000 people in multiple countries to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity of the vaccine, the company said.

Among the many COVID-19 vaccine projects around the world, “V-01 has many potential advantages such as strong safety profile, high neutralising antibody titres, long durability and easy to scale up manufacturing” the document said. The protein-based vaccine V-01 could be transported and stored at normal refrigerator temperatures at 2-8 degrees Celsius.

Urgent basis
Pakistani private pharmaceutical company hoped that government officials and relevant authorities would “take up the matter on urgent basis and support for fast-track approval to carry out phase III clinical trials in Pakistan” to pave the way for local vaccine manufacturing. Searle has two state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Lahore and Karachi.

Experts have urged the government to initiate local production of the vaccines to speed up the vaccination process in the country of 220 million people. Health professionals believe the pandemic has opened the way for health transformation in Pakistan and offers the country the opportunity to advance its medical research and develop domestic biomanufacturing capacity to make the country self-sufficient and better prepared for the future.

Pakistan earlier announced that it would import China’s CanSino COVID-19 vaccine in bulk to package three million doses locally at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad.

Pakistn has so far approved four vaccines for use in the country – China’s Sinopharm and Cansino, Russia’s Sputnik V and Oxford University’s AstraZeneca

Comment by Riaz Haq on April 4, 2021 at 1:10pm

Young #Pakistanis rush to purchase #Russian #SputnikV #vaccine for sale at $80 for 2 doses. #Pakistan is offering free vaccines to frontline #healthcare workers & people aged 50+. Some companies have bought large quantities for their employees. #COVID19 https://reut.rs/3fF2Ske

Thousands of Pakistanis rushed to get inoculated in the first round of commercial sales of COVID-19 vaccines that began over the weekend, with vaccination sites in the southern city of Karachi saying on Sunday they had already sold out.

Pakistan is currently offering free vaccines to frontline healthcare workers and people over the age of 50, but the drive has thus far been slow, and last month the country allowed commercial imports by the private sector for the general public.

The first round saw the commercial sale of the two-shot Russian Sputnik V to the general public for about 12,000 Pakistani rupees ($80) for a pack of two doses.

Despite the cost, a number of centres offering the shot reported long queues, with some in Karachi waiting in line for close to three hours. Most in the queue were young Pakistanis still not eligible for government’s free vaccination.

“I am very happy to get it, since now it is required for travelling,” Saad Ahmed, 34, told Reuters on Sunday after he got his shot at an upscale private sector hospital in Karachi.

While the private sale of vaccines has begun, the government and importers are still locked in a pricing dispute.


Pakistan initially agreed to exempt imported vaccines from price caps, but later rescinded the exemption and said it would set maximum prices.

One pharmaceutical company, which had already imported 50,000 doses of Sputnik V, took the government to court, where it won an interim order allowing it to sell it until pricing is decided.

As soon as vaccination was opened for walk-in customers, there were long lines of people, Dr Nashwa Ahmed, who runs vaccination at Karachi’s South City Hospital, told Reuters.

Pictures of queues outside the hospital late into the night were shared on social media.

The hospital procured 5,000 doses of Sputnik V and in just over two days all its stock had been administered or pre-booked, said a hospital official who asked not to be identified.

Companies, including one of Pakistan’s largest banks, have also purchased large quantities to have staff inoculated, the official said.

The private sales start as the country deals with a fresh wave of COVID-19 infections and healthcare facilities are fast filling to capacity.

The number of patients now in critical care has reached 3,568, the highest since the pandemic started, a cabinet minister, Asad Umar, said on Twitter. Pakistan has thus far reported 687,908 infections and 14,778 deaths.

Comment by Riaz Haq on April 5, 2021 at 6:46pm

For the United States there are three different influenza vaccine production technologies approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)external icon:

egg-based flu vaccine,
cell-based flu vaccine, and
recombinant flu vaccine.
All commercially available flu vaccines in the United States are made by private sector manufacturers. Different manufacturers use different production technologies, but all flu vaccines meet FDA safety and effectiveness requirements. Different vaccines have different indications. See Influenza Vaccines — United States, 2019-2020 Influenza Season for specific indications.


https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/how-fluvaccine-made.htm



There is a third production technology for flu vaccines that was approved for use in the U.S. market in 2013 and that involves using recombinant technologyexternal icon. Recombinant flu vaccines do not require having a candidate vaccine virus (CVV) sample to produce. Instead, recombinant vaccines are created synthetically. To make a recombinant vaccine, flu scientists first obtain DNA, i.e., genetic instructions, for making a surface protein called hemagglutinin (HA) found on influenza viruses. HA is an antigen, which is a feature of a flu virus that triggers the human immune system to create antibodies that specifically target the virus. This DNA for making flu virus HA antigen is then combined with a baculovirus, a virus that infects invertebrates. This results in a “recombinant” virus. The role of the baculovirus is to help transport the DNA instructions for making flu virus HA antigen into a host cell. Once the recombinant virus enters a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) qualified host cell line, it instructs the cells to rapidly produce the HA antigen. This antigen is grown in bulk, collected, purified, and then packaged as recombinant flu vaccine. These vaccines are then quality and potency tested by FDA prior to FDA approving release of the vaccine lots to the public.

Comment by Riaz Haq on April 7, 2021 at 4:59pm

#China's #vaccine diplomacy: Aid more countries with 1st EU GMP certificate. #COVID19 #Pakistan #LatinAmerica #Mexico #Africa #Europe #SouthAsia #SoutheastAsia #UAE https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-04-05/COVID-19-China-vaccines-aid-m... via @cgtnofficial

With a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine receiving the first Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certificate issued by the Hungarian authorities, Chinese jabs are reportedly a step closer to becoming a global public good.

Confidence in Chinese vaccines boosted

The China National Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (Sinopharm) announced on Saturday that its COVID-19 vaccine has acquired the GMP certificate issued by the Hungarian National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition (OGYEI), becoming the first Chinese COVID-19 vaccine to receive such a certificate.

Besides enhancing the competitiveness of Chinese vaccines in Europe, vaccine experts told the Global Times that the issuance of this certificate will boost small European countries' confidence in Chinese vaccines as the continent struggles with the low roll-out and uneven distribution of vaccines.

"This decision made by Hungary can provide a reference for the future approval of Chinese vaccines in other EU countries, which will also lead to more recognition of Chinese vaccines in the EU," Feng Duojia, president of the China Vaccine Industry Association, was quoted by the Global Times as saying.

At least 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Sinopharm have been supplied around the world.

China is donating COVID-19 vaccines to 80 countries and three international organizations besides exporting them to over 40 countries, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Tuesday.

Hua said China is also cooperating with over 10 countries in vaccine research, development and production.

In the past week, six new countries received Chinese vaccines and more countries intend to purchase more Chinese vaccines.

Lebanon became the latest Asian country to receive the first batch of Chinese vaccines as the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) delivered a batch of COVID-19 vaccines to the Lebanese army on Sunday at their request.

Georgia, Sri Lanka and Nepal also received their first batches of Chinese vaccines in the past week.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday morning welcomed a batch of 600,000 doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese government, tweeting that "Thank you! people of #China for prioritizing #lka in this battle against #COVID19 pandemic."

Ethiopia in east Africa and El Salvador in central America were also the two newest recipients of Chinese vaccines in the past week.

Meanwhile, other countries either began or continued purchasing Chinese vaccines to help them fight the ongoing pandemic.

For example, Mongolia, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and the Philippines received their first batches of purchased Chinese vaccines. Meanwhile, Bolivia and Zimbabwe respectively got their second and third shipments of purchased Chinese

Comment by Riaz Haq on April 11, 2021 at 10:18am

Full Q&A: ‘Rule Makers, Rule Breakers’ author Michele Gelfand on Recode Decode
Gelfand studies why some cultures desire rules, why others avoid them and what gets the best results.

https://www.vox.com/2018/11/28/18115426/michele-gelfand-rule-makers...

On the latest episode of Recode Decode with Kara Swisher, cultural psychologist Michele Gelfand joined Kara in studio to talk about her new book, “Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our Minds.”

A distinguished professor at the University of Maryland, Gelfand studies why different cultures (in families, in different countries and within companies) accept different levels of rule-making. On the corporate level, she said an overly strict rule-abiding culture can lead to PR disasters like United Airlines dragging a paying passenger off one of its planes. But that doesn’t mean the inverse is the right way to go, either.



----------------


I started seeing some of these contrasts, so I wanted to try to actually assess it with surveys first, in this case it was across 30 nations, try to put countries on a continuum. Even though all cultures have tight and loose elements, their rule makers and rule breakers, some cultures — in our data, Japan, Germany, Austria, Pakistan — had much stronger rules. And other cultures — like New Zealand, Netherlands, the United States in general, Brazil, Greece — they were much more permissive.

---------------------

I’ll just give an example. We did this very simple technique where we collected daily diaries from people in the United States and people in Pakistan. And they have really extreme stereotypes of each other. Pakistanis think Americans are half naked all the time. They don’t just think we’re loose, they think we’re exceedingly loose. Americans think Pakistanis ...

If they think of Pakistanis at all.

------------------------

They don’t think about Pakistanis as playing sports or reading poetry. They think about them as excessively tight. So what we did was a very simple intervention to get them out of those echo chambers, because they just meet in the media. They don’t see each other for their daily lives. We randomly assigned people in Pakistan ...


--------------------------

They’re bad. Big bad wolf. We basically gave them, for a week’s time, in Pakistan, daily diaries of Americans. They were not edited, so people were still waking up with their girlfriends and still drinking more. Americans saw daily diaries of Pakistanis. They were still in the mosques more, but they saw so much broader range of situations that they were in.

By the end of the study, the cultural distance that they perceived between each other was dramatically reduced. The stereotypes that they had of each other was dramatically reduced, and they said things ...

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