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A 42-year-old healthcare worker in Telangana died on Wednesday, a day after he was inoculated with the anti-coronavirus vaccine. However, the state government said it was not linked to the vaccine shot, even as the postmortem of the deceased is yet to be conducted.

Telangana’s Director of Public Health and Welfare said the male worker was vaccinated on January 19 at Kuntala PHC in Nirmal district of northern Telangana. A day later, he developed chest pain and was brought dead to District Hospital, Nirmal at around 5:30 am.

“Preliminary findings suggest that the dead seems to be unrelated to the vaccination. As per the guidelines, postmortem will be conducted by a team of doctors,” a statement issued by the Director of Public Health and Welfare read.

The statement further said that the district Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) committee will submit its report to the state AEFI committee, which will further brief the Centre.

This is the third incident of a healthcare worker dying after getting vaccine shots. In both cases, the Union Health Ministry has denied that the deaths could be attributed to the severe adverse events following immunisation. The nationwide vaccine drive, which was kickstarted on January 16 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aims to inoculate over three crore healthcare and frontline workers before it is made available for the general public.

In the first two cases, Mahipal Singh, a 52-year-old who worked as a wardboy in a government hospital in Moradabad, died on Sunday, a day after he was vaccinated. The post-mortem procedure in the second case — that of 43-year-old Nagaraju, an employee of the state health department in Bellary, Karnataka, who died on Monday, two days after getting the vaccine — was being done.

The Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP), on behalf of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), announced on Tuesday the launch of the COVID-19 vaccines pre-order programme for the 55 African Union (AU) member states, including Egypt.

In a statement, sent to Ahram Online, AMSP said that the programme is supported by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) that will facilitate payments by providing advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to $2 billion to the manufacturers on behalf of the member states.

The programme launch came on the wake of the announcement made by the African Union Chairperson, President Cyril Ramaphosa on 14 January that the African Union has secured a provisional 270 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for Africa through its COVID-19 African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), according to the statement.

Previously, AVATT has secured a provisional 270 million COVID-19 vaccines doses from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca.

“These are historical times. For the first time in history, Africa has secured access to millions of vaccine doses in the middle of a pandemic as most of Western countries. There is still a huge shortage of vaccine doses and that is why this continental collaboration has designed a fair allocation coupled with timely and equitable access of COVID-19 vaccines across the continent,” said African Union Special Envoy Strive Masiyiwa.

“Our vaccine financing facility builds on the success of our Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (PATIMFA) to open access to COVID-19 vaccines to African states based on a whole-of-Africa approach favoured by the African Union. By providing advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to $2 billion to candidate vaccine manufacturers, Afreximbank will ensure that African states are able to rapidly access COVID-19 vaccines, at competitive prices and in a timely manner thereby contributing to saving lives and livelihoods,” according to the President and Chairman of the Afreximbank Board of Directors, Benedict Oramah.

To support vaccination operations, the AMSP has also launched a new category on vaccine accessories which will help AU’s member states to procure products such as ultra-low temperature freezers, personal protection equipment, cotton wool rolls, syringes and needles.

“The biggest challenges to COVID-19 vaccine access in Africa have been the financing of the vaccines and the logistics of vaccinating at scale, but we are glad that this gap is being filled by the Afreximbank financing facility. The critical decision now is how to get started so that once we start there will be no disruptions and this is where AMSP will play a very big role,” said Director of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), John Nkengasong.

抗疫进入新阶段 俄罗斯开始广泛接种新冠疫苗

俄罗斯社交网络VK公关总监德米特里·卢什尼科夫（Dmitry Lushnikov）谈到自己决定接种新冠疫苗的时说：“接种疫苗的副作用和风险比感染病毒要小。”他12月中旬到区医院打第一针（卫星V疫苗要打两针）时，除他之外只有两个自愿接种的人。但三个星期后打第二针之前，据他介绍，医院里已经排起长队了。莫斯科就是这样于2020年12月开始启动疫苗接种的。俄罗斯总统普京在内阁会议上称其为“大规模接种”，并下令2021年1月18日起转为“全面”接种。

根据莫斯科市长官网信息，目前60岁以上的莫斯科市民、慢性病患者、各大专院校18岁以上学生、工作中不得不与大量人群接触的所有行业工作人员（包括医院、中小学校、市政服务机构、酒店、餐厅、理发店、银行、教堂和电影院等单位工作人员）有权在莫斯科接种新冠疫苗。记者也属于这些类别。

圣彼得堡接种疫苗的条件也相似，不过优先为医疗工作者、社会工作者和患有慢性病的公民接种。莫斯科州所有18岁以上且没有医疗禁忌的居民都可以接种，其他地区也是优先为医务和社会工作者接种。国立医院均免费接种疫苗。也可以在莫斯科的私人诊所接种，但要收费（不是支付疫苗费用，而是医生接诊费）。

副作用

俄罗斯暂不为18岁以下居民、急性呼吸道病毒感染患者、孕妇和哺乳期妇女、慢性疾病发病期患者及参加过新冠疫苗临床试验的公民（以免得到错误的试验结果）接种疫苗。卢什尼科夫在自己的脸书（Facebook）页面上是这样描述副作用的：“12月打的第一针。第一天感觉特别困，晚上产生生病的感觉。第二天晚上肩膀（打针的地方）痛、头痛，没有发烧。有一夜睡觉时打针一侧手臂痛。第三天开始就不再有任何症状了。”

莫斯科一家非商业组织工作人员德米特里·佩斯捷列夫（Dmitry Pesterev）也接种了新冠疫苗，并且打第一针后就感觉到了严重的副作用。他说：“连续两天高烧39度，身体酸痛，之前运动留下的一些旧伤开始疼痛，全身特别难受，打寒战，剧烈头痛。后来这些感觉突然就没了，我希望打第二针以后不要再有这些感受。”

“劝说”打疫苗及打疫苗给“奖励”

秋天第二波新冠疫情爆发时，65岁以上的莫斯科人、18岁以上大学生、慢性病患者被禁止免费或优惠使用公共交通，其车票被冻结，但可以继续坐地铁和公交车，只不过要全额购买车票。12月29日莫斯科市长谢尔盖·索比亚宁（Sergey Sobyanin）宣布，所有公民只要接种新冠疫苗即可重新获得乘坐公共交通工具的优惠。据俄新社援引萨哈林州州长瓦列里·利马连科（Valeriy Limarenko）新闻处的消息报道，萨哈林州接种新冠疫苗的人可获得一枚胸牌，持该胸牌可以在该地区不戴口罩散步。

但全俄民意研究中心12月23日做的一项调查显示，只有38%的俄罗斯人打算接种疫苗，同意接种疫苗的人中93%的人年龄在45岁以上。调查说：“52%的公民不愿意接种疫苗，年龄25-34岁之间的年轻俄罗斯人中这一比例最高（70%）”。大部分拒绝接种疫苗的人表示对疫苗感到担心、不信任、了解不够以及疫苗研发得太快。

此外，据路透社去年年底报道，俄罗斯公务员、预算机构和市政机构工作人员被强制接种疫苗，否则就要被辞退。莫斯科地区一家供水企业“莫斯科供水管道公司”的一位工作人员证实确实存在这方面的压力。一位不愿透露姓名的莫斯科供水管道公司工作人员说：“起初说给我们奖金，后来又说给休假，再后来就开始不着边际了，对我们说：‘我们怎么办，因为找不到打疫苗的人把你们辞退吗？’”

12月底记者安娜·沙弗兰（Anna Shafran）公布了与莫斯科供水管道公司负责人的一段对话录音，这一信息从而得到证实。据工作人员介绍，在这之后就没有再威胁他们，但仍继续劝说他们接种疫苗。莫斯科一家住房公用事业机构的女性工作人员（她未透漏该机构的具体名称和自己的名字）也证实了存在威胁辞退以及劝说打疫苗的事实。她说：“他们威胁要辞退我，我都已经考虑向检察院起诉了，但后来我感染了新冠病毒。目前还不清楚，接下来会怎么样。”

卫星V疫苗的小型版和中国疫苗的测试

准备大规模投放的不只有卫星V疫苗，1月11日俄罗斯卫生部为伽马列伊中心颁发了研究抗新冠药物“卫星Light”的许可证。据伽马列伊中心主任亚历山大·金茨堡（Alexandr Gintsburg）介绍，这是源自卫星V疫苗的首个组份，抗体可以保持三四个月，有效率约为85%。但俄罗斯总统普京表示，这种疫苗可以立即给数千万人接种。这种双组份疫苗的有效率达93%，时效3年。

此外，据《俄罗斯报》援引Petrovaks制药公司（该公司对疫苗进行了测试）的消息报道，秋天时中国的重组新冠（Ad5-nCov）疫苗也在俄罗斯进行了测试，而且也表现出较高的有效率。但中国疫苗是否会在俄罗斯注册尚未可知。俄罗斯卫生监督局局长阿拉·萨莫伊洛娃（Alla Samoylova）1月14日在盖达尔经济论坛会议间隙时间接受塔斯社采访时说：“我国是否会有进口新冠疫苗，理论上来讲有可能。但必须先注册，之后才能上市。”

疫苗供应的统计和计划

莫斯科市长索比亚宁在“俄罗斯24电视频道”直播节目中说，1月14日莫斯科共有14万人接种疫苗，同时还有2.2-2.4万人等待打第一针。俄罗斯共有多少人已接种疫苗，目前尚无确切数据。俄罗斯副总理塔季娅娜·戈里科娃（Tatyana Golikova）宣布，各部门已准备好更大规模的接种疫苗。她说：“一月底前各地区将收到210万剂疫苗，我们要扩大疫苗接种范围。”

脊髓的神经细胞可能因为受伤遭到破坏，比如脊柱骨折。神经细胞无法自行恢复，因此，在折断处下方，瘫痪和麻木会伴随人终生。
科学家制造出一种病毒，可以深入细胞并在细胞内建立起需要的基因（这是基因治疗中的常见疗法）。

要将这种病毒加入控制脊髓的神经元和神经元突起很难，因为那些神经元位于脑干深处。所以，生物学家将这种“间谍病毒”植入皮层神经元，它们的突出会与脊髓重要的神经元结合。在病毒的作用下，皮质神经细胞能产生超白细胞介素-6（hIL-6），超白细胞介素-6顺着神经元突起进入在脊柱折断时受损的脊髓神经元，并促使它们恢复。

治疗后，脊椎中的神经通路得以恢复，四肢也不再麻木。研究者希望，这项技术能为瘫痪人士提供及时帮助。

Around 30 percent of those hospitalized with the coronavirus in England were readmitted for treatment within five months of their first release, a new study has found, claiming to shed more light on the “long Covid” phenomenon.
The pre-print study, which has yet to undergo peer review, concluded that those discharged from hospitals after receiving treatment for Covid-19 “face elevated rates of multiorgan dysfunction” and frequently require re-hospitalization, citing nearly 50,000 English patients reviewed in the research.

“Of 47,780 individuals in hospital with Covid-19 over the study period, 29.4 percent were readmitted and 12.3 percent died following discharge,” the paper said, with its authors noting that it is the largest study of its kind to date.

While much about what’s been dubbed “long Covid” or “Post Covid Syndrome” (PCS) – a condition in which symptoms of the virus, sometimes atypical ones, linger for months – remains unknown, a growing body of evidence suggests a large proportion of patients suffer symptoms well beyond their initial infection. Figures provided by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), for example, indicate that up to one-fifth of England’s coronavirus patients still experience symptoms five weeks after contracting the illness, while half of that number experience them for at least 12 weeks.

Studies on American military veterans showed that some 20 percent of those with Covid-19 had to return to hospital for treatment within 60 days of discharge, while nine percent died. Citing that research, the authors of the UK-based study said that Covid-19 was found to be “associated with increased odds of acute kidney injury, renal replacement therapy, insulin use, pulmonary embolism, stroke, myocarditis, arrhythmia, and elevated troponin.”

Spearheaded by lead author and principal statistician Daniel Ayoubkhan of the ONS, the new research on hospital readmissions concluded that “the long-term burden of Covid-related morbidity on hospitals and broader healthcare systems is likely to be substantial” given the high prevalence of PCS.

To date, the UK has tallied some 3.4 million coronavirus infections and just over 90,000 fatalities since the outbreak kicked off in late 2019, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, putting it among the top-five worst-hit nations in terms of total case counts. While recent days have seen a gradual fall in new infections, the NHS’ National Medical Director Stephen Powis said on Monday that “severe pressure” on the healthcare system would likely not let up for some time, pointing to a more infectious variant of the virus that’s gripped large swaths of the country. His warning came as a nationwide lockdown remains in effect amid efforts to distribute one of several vaccines now approved for use in the UK.