The European regulator pronounces Monday on the vaccine against the Covid-19 of Novavax, while the warnings multiply, in the United States and in Europe, in front of the progression of the variant Omicron particularly contagious. The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is holding an extraordinary meeting on Monday to examine the application for authorization of Novavax. She announced that she would communicate the result.
Novavax uses a more traditional technology than those used for already authorized vaccines, which could, according to the American firm, reduce skepticism among the unvaccinated. For company CEO Stanley C. Erck, the vaccine “could help overcome major obstacles to global immunization, including challenges of global distribution and vaccine reluctance.” In contrast, the company acknowledged that it is “evaluating its vaccine against the Omicron variant” and is still working on a specific version to combat this particularly contagious variant.
The fifth vaccine authorized in the EU
The serum, which could become the fifth anti-Covid vaccine authorized in the European Union, is, like childhood vaccines already widely used, a so-called “subunit” vaccine, based on proteins that trigger a immune response, virus-free. The European Commission has already signed a contract with Novavax for the advance purchase of 200 million doses of its vaccine once it has been approved by the EMA.
At the same time, warnings are increasing in the United States and Europe in the face of the wave of contamination caused by the Omicron variant. White House adviser on the health crisis, Anthony Fauci, warned on Sunday that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 “was rampant” across the world, worrying about the number of Americans still unvaccinated. “This virus is extraordinary,” said Anthony Fauci, referring to its speed of spread. “He’s going to take over” and “we’re going to have some tough weeks or months as we get closer to winter.”
Measures all over Europe
In Germany, the group of experts advising the government also sounded the alarm on Sunday in the face of the spread of the Omicron variant and called for further reductions in contact with the population “as soon as possible”.
In the Netherlands all non-essential shops, restaurants, bars, cinemas, museums and theaters have been closed from Sunday until January 14, while schools must keep doors closed until at least January 9. “This is inevitable with the fifth wave and with Omicron spreading even faster than we had feared,” said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
More than 5 million dead since the start of the pandemic
In France, the Minister of Industry, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, has tested positive for Covid-19, at a time when the country is facing a high level of contamination, with some 50,000 new cases per day. The mobilization against anti-Covid measures is also continuing, as in Belgium, where a march against vaccination and the health certificate brought together several thousand people on Sunday in Brussels. The police made a few arrests during clashes after the dispersal of the procession.
The pandemic has killed at least 5.34 million people worldwide since the WHO office in China reported the onset of the disease at the end of December 2019, according to a report drawn up by AFP on Sunday from from official sources.