Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Spanish Court Requires Incapacitated Woman to Get Vaccination
A judge in northwest Spain has overruled a family鈥檚 objections and decided to allow health authorities to administer a coronavirus vaccine to an incapacitated woman in a nursing home. The case appears to be the first known instance of a court in Europe requiring someone to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The Spanish government repeatedly has stressed that shots would be voluntary, as have authorities in other European countries. (Wilson and Cheng, 1/13)
As India launches an ambitious effort to vaccinate 300 million people against the coronavirus within six months, it is employing two vaccines 鈥 both manufactured domestically but approved under very different circumstances. One is CoviShield, the vaccine developed by Britain鈥檚 AstraZeneca and Oxford University, which clinical trials show is about 70% effective in preventing COVID-19 and is being manufactured in India by the Serum Institute, the country鈥檚 largest drugmaker. The other is Covaxin, developed by an Indian company in conjunction with the government but whose performance in late-stage clinical trials has yet to be published. Health authorities nevertheless approved the vaccine for 鈥渞estricted emergency use.鈥 (Bengali and Parth, 1/14)
In updates from China 鈥
A World Health Organization mission to discover the origins of the coronavirus got off to an inauspicious start on Thursday when two members of the team were barred from entering China after failing health checks. The group of scientists arrived in Wuhan on Thursday to begin the long-awaited investigation, according to the WHO, but two researchers were blocked from continuing on to Wuhan. The two researchers had tested positive for covid-19 antibodies in their home countries before leaving. All members of the team, tested before leaving and once again in Singapore, tested negative for the virus. (Kuo, 1/14)
At least two federal agencies worked to distribute Covid-19 tests from a Chinese genetics company, despite warnings about security risks from U.S. intelligence and security officials, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal. In the early days of the virus, BGI Group or people trying to distribute its products approached at least 11 states in a sometimes aggressive push to get the products into government-run laboratories or set up entire labs, according to people who received the approaches and documents. BGI, China鈥檚 leading genetics company, enlisted a foundation tied to a former U.S. president and used a company linked to the United Arab Emirates鈥 top spy to promote its efforts. (Strobel, Scheck and Hope, 1/13)
More than 500 new cases have been found since Jan. 2 in Hebei, the industrial province surrounding Beijing, sparking a 鈥渨artime mode鈥 response from Chinese authorities fearful of the virus spreading before the upcoming Spring Festival, when hundreds of millions of Chinese crisscross the country to go home each year. The jump in infections comes as a World Health Organization mission investigating the origins of the pandemic is expected to arrive Thursday. An embarrassing glitch occurred last week when Beijing announced on the day several members of the team had already begun their journeys to China that their visas were not approved, prompting a delay 鈥 and frustration from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. (Su, 1/13)