Global Developments and Analysis: Weekly Monitor, 30 November - 06 December 2020

Economic

Expectations for Biden lifting US tariffs dims after clear signal

In an interview with the New York Times on Dec 02, Biden said that he is "not going to make any immediate moves, and the same applies to the tariffs," adding that "I'm not going to prejudice my options." During the election campaign, Biden criticized the tariffs and Trump's trade policies, raising expectations that he would remove the tariffs once he took over the White House. However, in the interview, Biden made it clear he would not do so, at least immediately. "To a certain degree, this is within our expectations because Trump has made the tariffs the most important tool in being 'tough' on China and Biden has vowed to be even tougher on China, so there is not much he can do," Gao Lingyun, an expert from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times on Dec 03. However, Gao said that Biden will eventually remove the tariffs because "as he pointed out before, the tariffs hurt US businesses and farmers." He said that there are several key developments to watch for decisions on the tariffs, including court rulings on the lawsuits filed by the 3,500 US companies. If the court rules that the tariffs are unlawful, "Biden will then be in a better place to call off the tariffs," Gao said. Click here to read... [2]

China's new export law takes effect, putting global businesses on edge

China put into effect Dec 01 a new export control law that allows it to block shipments to foreign companies for national security reasons, adding to the challenge for U.S. President-elect Joe Biden in dealing with the world's second-largest economy. The authorities had provided few details as of Nov 30 on what products or companies would be subject to the new restrictions, which represent a countermove to U.S. sanctions. Faced with uncertainty, businesses are bracing for possible disruptions to supply chains. The outlook will depend in part on how Biden manages the trade war begun under his predecessor Donald Trump. International businesses worry that China could use the new law which allows retaliation against any economy that "abuses" its export controls to block shipments as a weapon in trade war. Concern is mounting among Japanese companies that make high-value-added products in China, such as car batteries and displays. "Some worry about being told to disclose technologies in exchange for export approval," a source familiar with the matter said. Click here to read... [3]

China aims to shake US grip on chip design tools

Three Chinese start-ups established since September last year were founded by or have hired executives and engineers from Synopsys and Cadence Design Systems of the US, the world’s two biggest makers of electronic design automation (EDA) tools, as such software is known.The start-ups include Nanjing-based X-Epic, Shanghai Hejian Industrial Software and Hefei-based Advanced Manufacturing EDA Co, or Amedac, in which Synopsys owns a stake. The US has long dominated the segment, with Synopsys, Cadence, Mentor Graphics and Ansys controlling 90 per cent of the global market for EDA tools. These four companies own much of the intellectual property needed for chip development and count the world’s top chip developers as clients, including Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm, Nvidia, Micron and Huawei. China’s own EDA tools industry, by contrast, has been largely neglected until recently. Its two main homegrown companies, state-owned Empyrean Software, founded in 2009, and Beijing-based Cellixsoft, in 2002, are still unable to match the offerings of Synopsys and Cadence. Click here to read... [4]

China's higher education system is world's largest, officials say

China has built the world's largest higher education system, with more than 40 million students, the Ministry of Education said on Dec 03. The gross enrollment rate in tertiary education increased from 40 percent in 2015 to 51.6 percent last year, said Wu Yan, director of the ministry's department of higher education. Hong Dayong, director of the ministry's department of degree management and postgraduate education, said 3.39 million students obtained master's degrees and 333,000 earned doctoral degrees in China during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period. Three million Chinese students are pursuing postgraduate studies this year at domestic universities or research institutes and the country has more than 460,000 postgraduate supervisors, up by almost 100,000 from 2015, he said. Lei Chaozi, director of the ministry's department of science and technology, said higher education institutions have built more than 60 percent of key national laboratories and their staff members account for more than 60 percent of national high-level talent. The country invested more than 782 billion yuan ($119 billion) in scientific research and development at tertiary institutions from 2016 to 2019, he said. Click here to read... [5]

Two thirds of world's school-age children have no internet access at home: UN report

Two thirds of the world's school-age children - or 1.3 billion children aged 3 to 17 years old - do not have internet connection in their homes, according to a new joint report from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) published Tuesday. The report "How Many Children and Youth Have Internet Access at Home?" notes a similar lack of access among young people aged 15 to 24 years old, with 759 million or 63 percent unconnected at home." Lack of connectivity doesn't just limit children and young people's ability to connect online. It prevents them from competing in the modern economy. It isolates them from the world”, said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF executive director. Nearly a quarter of a billion students worldwide are still affected by COVID-19 school closures, forcing hundreds of millions of students to rely on virtual learning. For those with no internet access, education can be out of reach. Even before the pandemic, a growing cohort of young people needed to learn foundational, transferable, digital, job-specific and entrepreneurial skills to compete in the 21st century economy. The digital divide is perpetuating inequalities that already divide countries and communities, the report notes. Click here to read... [6]

World food prices hit 6-year high amid COVID pandemic

World food prices jumped to an almost six-year high in November, according to the United Nations food agency. An index published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Dec 03 said prices for several food products had risen significantly. The index, which measures monthly changes for a basket of food products, averaged 105 points in November compared with the previous month when it stood at 101 according to an adjusted figure. The monthly increase was the sharpest since July 2012, putting the index at its "highest level since December 2014," the Rome-based agency said. Leading the surge in prices was vegetable oil, rising 14.5% month-on-month due largely to a jump in palm oil prices. The FAO described the increase as "stunning."Cereals, sugar, meat, and dairy also showed rises. The sugar price index was up 3.3% month-on-month amid "growing expectations of a global production shortfall" as poor weather weakened crop prospects in the EU, Russia, and Thailand. Cereal prices were up by a more modest 2.5%, although prices were almost 20% above their level last year. The increases for meat and dairy were the least pronounced, both at 0.9% above the figure for October. Click here to read... [7]

UK, EU negotiators meet in "last-ditch" effort to strike post-Brexit deal

Negotiators from Britain and the European Union (EU) resumed their talks in Brussels on Dec 06 in a "final throw of the dice" as they try to secure a post-Brexit trade deal before the Brexit transition period expires at the end of this month. British chief negotiator David Frost and his EU counterpart Michel Barnier met in a last-ditch effort to resolve the remaining issues in the trade talks as the time is running out. Ahead of the meeting on Dec 06, however, British sources warned there was no guarantee they would succeed, the London-based Evening Standard newspaper reported. The return to the negotiating table followed an hour-long call on Dec 05 between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in which they agreed on a final push to get an agreement. They agreed to "pause the talks in order to brief their Principals on the state of play of the negotiations." Failure to reach a free trade agreement with the EU means bilateral trade will fall back on World Trade Organization (WTO) rules in 2021. Click here to read... [8]

China Foreign Reserves at Highest Since 2016 as Trade Booms

China’s foreign exchange reserves rose by more than $50 billion in November to the highest since August 2016, likely boosted by the weaker dollar and a trade surplus at record highs. Reserves gained for the first time in three months, reaching $3.1785 trillion at the end of November, the People’s Bank of China said on Dec 07. The value of gold assets declined to $110.4 billion. China’s foreign exchange market is expected to be basically stable, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said in a separate statement. The reserves rose mainly due to changing exchange rates and asset prices, SAFE spokesman Wang Chunying said in a statement, noting that the dollar index had fallen and non-dollar currencies rose in general. Click here to read... [9]

China replaces US to become largest trade partner of EU

China replaces the US to become the largest trade partner of the EU in the third quarter of this year, reflecting the resilience and potential of China-EU economic and trade relationship, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing on Dec 04. China edged past the US in the third quarter to become the EU's largest trade partner, latest Eurostat data showed. During the first nine months, trade volume between China and the EU totalled 425.5 billion Euros ($517.3 billion), whereas trade between the US and the EU stood at 412.5 billion euros, according to the statistics bureau. With the EU being China's top trade partner for years, China becoming the largest trade partner for the EU fully reflects the resilience and potential of the China-EU economic and trade relation, Hua said. However, there are some noises in China-EU cooperation as US President-elect Joe Biden enters the White House, with the latest example being the EU has proposed a tech alliance with the incoming Biden administration in a bid to squeeze China out of the global technology trade. Click here to read... [10]

US sues Facebook for 'illegally' favouring immigrant jobseekers

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Dec 03 it has filed a lawsuit against Facebook for allegedly discriminating against American jobseekers by favouring temporary work visa holders in its hiring process. The lawsuit claims that Facebook -- one of the largest employers of Asian tech workers in Silicon Valley -- "refused to recruit, consider, or hire qualified and available U.S. workers" for over 2,600 positions offered between 2018 and 2019. The positions were instead "reserved for temporary visa holders," such as H-1B work visa holders, the Justice Department alleged. The average salary for those jobs was around $156,000. The majority of H-1B visas are awarded to Chinese and Indian nationals. There were more than 420,000 applicants for the 85,000 available H-1B work visas in fiscal 2019, according to data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Nearly three-quarters, or 74.5%, were born in India, followed by mainland China at 11.8%. Silicon Valley tech giants rely heavily on highly skilled foreign workers and have sponsored large numbers of temporary work visa applications over the years. Click here to read... [11]

OPEC, Allies Agree to Increase Output by 500,000 Barrels a Day in January

OPEC and a group of Russia-led oil producers agreed to increase their collective output by 500,000 barrels a day next month, signalling the world’s biggest producers are betting the worst of a pandemic-inspired shock to demand is behind them. The deal marks a compromise after sharp disagreements earlier in the week among a group of producers that have acted in relative concert for months, agreeing to cut production deeply to stabilize oil markets. The coronavirus pandemic sapped global demand early this year, tanking prices and straining the finances of big producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia. The price rout has also laid low big, publicly traded oil companies like Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, triggering big losses and job cuts. Shell and BP PLC both recently cut their dividend for the first time in years to preserve cash. Chevron Corp. on Thursday said it was joining peers in slashing spending. In recent weeks, international oil prices have started to bounce back, climbing some 25% since the start of last month. Asian economies have been recovering strongly, boosting oil demand there. Click here to read... [12]

Strategic

US Navy to divide Japan-based 7th Fleet's operations

The U.S. Navy will divide the maritime area now covered by the Yokosuka, Japan-based 7th Fleet and create a new 1st Fleet to focus on the Indian Ocean, Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite has told Congress. In a hearing of a Senate Armed Services subcommittee on Dec 02, Braithwaite talked of the need to revive the 1st Fleet, currently not in service, to improve the American posture in the Indo-Pacific. "We will reconstitute the 1st Fleet, assigning it primary responsibility for the Indo and South Asian region as an expeditionary fleet," he said, describing "an agile, mobile, at-sea command." "This will reassure our allies and partners of our presence and commitment to this region, while ensuring any potential adversary knows we are committed to global presence to ensure rule of law and freedom of the seas," he added. Braithwaite first floated the idea of re-establishing the 1st Fleet at a Naval Submarine League symposium in November. He pushed the plan forward in Wednesday's hearing, saying that "the decision has been made" to create the new fleet. Asked whether the 1st Fleet will be an expeditionary fleet without a land-based headquarters, at least at first, Braithwaite replied: "That is correct." Click here to read... [13]

European powers rebuke Iran after enrichment announcement

France, Britain and Germany said on Dec 07 they were “deeply concerned” by an Iranian announcement that it intended to install additional advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges and a parliamentary law that could expand its nuclear programme. “If Iran is serious about preserving a space for diplomacy, it must not implement these steps,” the three powers said in a joint statement. The three governments, dubbed the E3, said the plans were contrary to a 2015 agreement between Tehran and world powers that aimed to restrain Iran’s nuclear programme by barring sophisticated centrifuges. The deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is the best and currently the only way to monitor and constrain Iran’s nuclear programme, the three countries said. The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported last month that Iran had installed and begun operating advanced centrifuges at an underground section at Natanz. Click here to read... [14]

‘We distrust Iran’: Germany wants nuclear deal under Biden expanded to include Iranian ballistic missiles

Germany’s foreign minister said on Dec 04 that the country needs to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal with the US, despite Tehran’s vow not to engage in new talks, but to return to the original agreement. “A return to the previous agreement will not be enough,” Heiko Maas told Spiegel. “There will have to be a kind of ‘nuclear deal plus’, which is also in our interest.” Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with China, France, Germany, and Russia, the UK and US in 2015, which meant it accepted restrictions on its nuclear capabilities in return for relief from economic sanctions. President Trump withdrew the US from the agreement in 2018 but talk of renegotiating the deal has grown recently as countries prepare for the possibility of Joe Biden becoming president. But Maas’ Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Dec 03 that Tehran would not look to restart “two years of negotiations” with the US and other JCPOA signatories. Click here to read... [15]

Beijing is ready to enter dialogue with NATO but urges West to take the correct view of China

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has warned NATO to take a rational view of China’s rise and foreign policy, but said it is willing to engage in dialogue with the alliance on the basis of mutual respect. Hua Chunying, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told the gathered press on Dec 01 that Beijing was prepared to cooperate with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Her remarks come on the same day as NATO is set to publish a report which purportedly outlines the growing threat posed by the Chinese state. Hua said China has always had a purely defensive national defense policy and hoped that NATO would recognize this. “I hope NATO can establish a correct view of China and take a rational view of China’s development and foreign policy. China is willing to conduct dialogue and cooperation with NATO on the basis of equality and mutual respect,” the spokeswoman commented. Click here to read... [16]

Beijing blasts US govt over visa restrictions for China Communist Party members

Beijing slammed “extremist anti-China forces” in the US government on Dec 03 as Washington revealed new restrictions on travel to the US by Chinese Communist Party members and their families. The Trump administration issued the new rules, aimed at protecting the US from the party’s “malign influence,” on Dec 03. Under the measures, the maximum validity of B1/B2 visitor visas for party members and their immediate family is being reduced from 10 years to just one month, the State Department said in a statement. Just like other Chinese citizens, Communist Party members – of whom there are around 92 million – could obtain US visitor visas valid for a decade, but Washington changed the rules on Dec 02, the New York Times reported earlier, citing a State Department spokesman. The new rules take immediate effect and allow only a single entry for those affected by the change, the report said, adding that the restrictions would not affect other kinds of visas. Click here to read... [17]

Nord Stream 2: US lawmakers agree to widen sanctions on Russian-German pipeline

US lawmakers have agreed to extend sanctions on companies involved in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, just as the Russian-led company behind the project vowed to restart construction on Dec 05 — exactly a year after work was halted. Under the draft of the annual US defense policy legislation for 2021, agreed to by US lawmakers on Dec 03, more firms involved in the €9.5 billion ($11.6 billion) pipeline to deliver gas from Russia's Siberia region to Germany could be hit with penalties. Companies that facilitate the construction of the pipeline, including ships that help operations to lay pipelines or move rock formations on the seabed, would face sanctions, along with those that provide insurance, reinsurance, testing, inspection, and certification services. More than 120 companies from 12 European countries could be affected, according to reports. The defense bill still has to be passed by Congress. There would be no sanctions against the governments of EU states, including Germany, or the European Union itself in relation to the pipeline, and the draft bill calls for US officials to consult with their counterparts in the bloc before levying penalties. Click here to read... [18]

CANZUK — Could it be Britain's new EU?

CANZUK — a theoretical new trade alliance between the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — has been described as everything from an "absurd fantasy" created by Brexiteers to a "truly modern, future-facing project" in the wake of Britain's departure from the European Union. First mooted a year before the 2016 Brexit referendum, CANZUK would see the four countries build on the Five Eyes intelligence alliance — which also includes the United States — while bolstering trade, foreign policy and defence cooperation. Five years on, the proposal has yet to become a serious policy objective of any of the four governments, but as the end of the Brexit transition period approaches, where Britain leaves the EU's single market and customs union on December 31, momentum for CANZUK is growing. Combined, CANZUK would have the world's largest landmass and therefore supply of natural resources. Click here to read... [19]

India and China gear up for a new battle, this time over water

Amid an unending seven-month long border stand-off between their troops and an economic decoupling, the frayed ties between India and China now have a fresh flashpoint: water. Fuelling this new conflict is a mix of mutual mistrust, lack of transparency and an intense rivalry over one of the world’s largest rivers, known as Brahmaputra in India and the Yarlung Zangbo in China. Late last month, China announced its intentions of building what could be its biggest hydropower project, potentially generating three times more energy than the Three Gorges project, the current largest such project in the world. The nationalist tabloid Global Times quoted Yan Zhiyong, chairman of the Power Construction Corporation of China, as saying that such a project could produce 70 million kilowatt hours and would have “no parallel in history”. While Beijing did not announce the exact location, it indicated that it could be near what is known as “The Great Bend”, where the river turns sharply southwards to enter the Arunachal Pradesh region in northeast India. Click here to read... [20]

Japan, China and South Korea to delay trilateral summit to 2021

Japan, China and South Korea will postpone a planned trilateral summit until next year because of simmering tensions between Tokyo and Seoul over wartime labour, Nikkei has learned. South Korea was supposed to host the meeting this year. But Seoul has not offered a specific schedule or agenda and is now expected to seek a date early in 2021. Japan maintains that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga cannot visit South Korea unless Seoul offers some assurance that assets of Japanese companies will not be seized over their use of Korean workers during World War II. A senior Japanese government official told Nikkei on condition of anonymity that "it is no longer possible to hold the summit this year." South Korean President Moon Jae-in sees the trilateral summit as a way to warm his country's ties with Japan. But Suga has been reluctant to meet given recent developments over the wartime labour issue. Despite the delay, Moon wants Japan's cooperation in order to resume a dialogue with North Korea following the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic games next summer. Click here to read... [21]

Venezuela’s Maduro Tightens Grip as Opposition Boycotts Elections

Venezuela’s authoritarian regime staged congressional elections on Dec 06 that were expected to give President Nicolás Maduro complete control of all levers of power in a vote the country’s opposition and its supporters, including the U.S., rejected as fraudulent. Until now Venezuela’s single-chamber congress, the National Assembly, had been the only government body under opposition leadership. But with Mr. Maduro’s regime having handed control of opposition parties to allies and exiled or jailed prominent adversaries, most opposition leaders called on their countrymen to boycott the vote in protest even if it meant the regime would dominate all of government and the armed forces. Except for a few breakaway candidates not allied with Mr. Maduro, ruling party politicians are expected to take the vast majority of the 277 seats in the National Assembly. “Venezuela’s electoral fraud has already been committed,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Dec 06 afternoon on his official Twitter account. Click here to read... [22]

Saudi Arabia, Qatar Near Deal to End Gulf Dispute, Officials Say

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have reached a tentative deal to end a yearlong feud that has fractured the Middle East, paving the way for broader regional talks that could cool tensions between longstanding Gulf rivals by year’s end, U.S. and Gulf officials said Dec 04. But Gulf officials warned that the initiative could still falter if other countries—Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt—can’t agree on how to resolve a three-year-old attempt to isolate Qatar. Middle East leaders said Dec 04 they were starting new talks, with the ruling emir of Kuwait—which is helping to mediate—expressing satisfaction with progress towards ultimate resolution of the conflict. Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah praised “continuous and constructive efforts made recently to reach a final agreement to resolve a dispute that arose between brothers” and thanked President Trump for his support, according to Kuwait’s state news agency. The signs of progress followed several days of intense U.S.-brokered talks. Jared Kushner, who is Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, and his team flew to Saudi Arabia and Qatar earlier this week in an effort to break an impasse in talks that has thwarted a deal for years. Click here to read... [23]

France to launch platform to flag excessive police checks, Macron says

France will launch an online platform next year for people to flag any unnecessary checks by police, President Emmanuel Macron said on Dec 04. "On police checks, we will set up a national platform with a dedicated dial-in number," Macron told news website Brut in an interview. Macron also said that bodycams for police officers would be widely used from June next year. Click here to read... [24]

Putin appoints veteran reformer Chubais an international envoy

Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed veteran reformer Anatoly Chubais as his special representative for ties with international organisations, the Kremlin said on Dec 04. The announcement comes just days after Chubais, a 65-year-old architect of Russian post-communist reforms in the 1990s and a former leader of a liberal opposition party, resigned as the head of state technology firm RUSNANO which he had run since 2008. Chubais will represent Putin in "achieving goals of sustainable development", the presidential decree on his appointment said. The agenda on sustainable development is a United Nations plan to fight poverty and inequality, adopted by its member states in 2015. Chubais, who said in October that he had been infected with the coronavirus, posted on Facebook that he often had to deal with "something important for the country but not very pleasant for myself"." This time the future assignment is significant for the country and really interesting for me personally," he wrote. Click here to read... [25]

Medical

EU opts for longer Covid-19 vaccine evaluation to build public ‘trust,’ as UK swiftly approves Pfizer-BioNTech jab

Berlin has said that Europe is pursuing a more measured rollout of a Covid-19 jab to maintain “trust,” after the UK celebrated its emergency approval of the German-developed Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Dec 02. German health minister Jens Spahn said Europe could have already approved the vaccine “if we’d wanted to,” but that EU member states favoured a “move forward together.” "It's very important we do this to help promote trust and confidence in this authorization," Spahn added. His words came as British ministers hailed a “UK-led charge” against coronavirus after the country’s regulator became the world’s first to approve the US-German-made vaccine on Dec 02. However, Spahn urged caution over hasty decision-making, and also pointed out that BioNTech is a German company, saying he had made a “a few remarks on Brexit to my British friends” over the claim. Click here to read... [26]

Vaccine distribution preparations underway

Britain is set to administer the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Dec 08, with the NHS giving top priority to vaccinating the over-80s, frontline healthcare workers and care home staff and residents. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine needs to be kept at -70C (-94F) and only lasts five days in a regular fridge. For that reason, it will first be administered in 50 hospitals. About 800,000 doses are expected to be available within the first week. Separately, Indonesia received its first shipment of coronavirus vaccine from China on Dec 06, President Joko Widodo said, as the government prepares a mass inoculation programme. The vaccine still needs to be evaluated by the country's food and drug agency (BPOM) while his administration prepares to distribute it across the vast archipelago of 270 million people, Jokowi said. Click here to read... [27]

Military to help with COVID surge in South Korea and Japan

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Dec 07 ordered the government to mobilise every available resource to track infections and to expand testing by deploying the military and more people from the public service, presidential Blue House spokesman Chung Man-ho told a briefing, as the country struggled to control its latest and largest wave of infections. Moon said testing sites should operate longer hours to allow people working to get tested at their convenience and more drive-through testing facilities should be set up. The positive rate for the latest batch of tests was about 4.2%, compared to the year's average of 1.2%, according to the KDCA. Military moves were afoot in Japan as well, where chief government spokesman Katsunobu Kato said on Dec 07 that Self-Defense Forces nurses were preparing to be deployed to Osaka and Hokkaido to help treat a surge in coronavirus infections as soon as the two prefecture governments request it. Click here to read... [27]

WHO hopes to have 500 million vaccine doses via COVAX scheme in first quarter of 2021 - chief scientist

The World Health Organization hopes to have half a billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines available for distribution by the global COVAX initiative in the first quarter of 2021, its chief scientist said on Dec 04. To date 189 countries have joined the COVAX programme, which is backed by the WHO and seeks to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines. The United States is not among them, having secured bilateral deals. The initial COVAX plan is to vaccinate the 20% of populations at highest risk, including health workers and people aged over 65. "The goal is to get at least 2 billion doses by end of 2021 which will be enough to vaccinate 20% of the populations of countries that are part of COVAX," chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told a Geneva news conference. This would be enough to "bring to an end the acute phase of the pandemic" by reducing mortality and the impact on health systems, she said. Click here to read... [28]

Ex-presidents, Biden to publicly get Covid-19 shot

Former US presidents Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton as well as President-elect Joe Biden are volunteering to take a coronavirus vaccine on camera if it will help promote public confidence. Obama, in an interview with Sirius XM radio, said he would be inoculated if top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci signs off on a Covid-19 vaccine. “If Anthony Fauci tells me this vaccine is safe, and can vaccinate, you know, immunize you from getting Covid, absolutely, I’m going to take it,” Obama said. “I may end up taking it on TV or having it filmed, just so that people know that I trust this science, and what I don’t trust is getting Covid,” Obama said. Freddy Ford, Bush’s chief of staff, told CNN the former president also wanted to help promote vaccination. “First, the vaccines need to be deemed safe and administered to the priority populations,” Ford told CNN. “Then, President Bush will get in line for his, and will gladly do so on camera.” Angel Urena, Clinton’s press secretary, told CNN the former president would also be up for getting a vaccine in public on television. Click here to read... [29]