EU Turning Away From AstraZeneca Vaccine, Putting Hope in Pfizer-BioNTech

After AstraZeneca failed to meet its delivery targets due to concerns that the COVID-19 vaccine is not efficacious against variants of the virus that are in circulation, the European Union is effectively turning away from the shot. The EU did not renew their order for the vaccine after June and recently concluded a deal with Pfizer for up to 1.8 billion doses of their vaccine to be delivered through 2023. However, the EU has said that it has not completely ruled out renewing the contract with AstraZeneca at some point in the future.

In Germany, the government is set to make the Johnson & Johnson vaccine available to all adults under the age of 60. The country will be receiving another delivery of the vaccine by July, containing around 10 million doses. Around 32.3% of the country’s population has received at least 1 dose of a vaccine and 9.1% are now fully vaccinated.

In India, COVID-19 is still wreaking havoc on an under-vaccinated population. Only 2.75% of the country’s 1.3 billion people have been fully vaccinated. Since April 28, over 3,000 people have died due to COVID-19 every day.

Data Table per Our World in Data (May 9, 2021, 12 AM EST)

In the United States, vaccinations across the country continue to slow down from their one time high in April. Despite this, cases of COVID-19 also continue to fall, with the country recording 21,392 new cases on Sunday, down from the same time last week. The percentage of fully vaccinated Americans now stands at 34.4%.

Data Table per CDC COVID-19 Tracker (May 9, 2021, 6 AM EST)

For more information on COVID-19 vaccination research, distribution, and assessment, check out some of these recent Contagion stories:

Novavax Combination Vaccine Shows Positive Preclinical Results

Inovio Announces Results from its Phase 2 COVID-19 Vaccine Trial

China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 Vaccine Approved by WHO