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Moderna Covid-19 vaccine all set for FDA emergency approval

If Moderna’s vaccine is approved by the FDA, it will become the second shot to be greenlighted in America. Moderna’s vaccine is based on the same technology as Pfizer’s – mRNA. The actual virus is not embedded inside these vaccines and people who get the shots can’t catch the virus from it. Instead, the vaccine contains a piece of genetic code that trains the body’s immune system to recognize the spike protein on the surface of the Covid-19 virus and helps mount an organic defence when the attack comes.

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Vaccination in Asia-Pacific expected mid or late 2021, says World Health Organisation

“The development of safe and effective vaccines is one thing. Producing them in adequate quantities and reaching everyone who needs them is another,” WHO Regional Director Dr. Takeshi Kasai told reporters in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

While some countries that have independent vaccine purchase agreements might start vaccination campaigns in the coming months, others could see vaccination begin in the middle or late 2021, said Dr. Socorro Escalante, WHO’s coordinator for essential medicines and health technologies.

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New kind of loans and bonds could fill $28 billion Covid funding gap: WHO

The WHO and GAVI vaccine alliance aim to provide poor and middle-income countries with diagnostic tests, drugs and vaccines through a fund known as the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which was set up last April.

Bruce Aylward, a senior WHO adviser and its ACT coordinator, said that new financing mechanisms – including concessional loans and catastrophe bonds – were discussed at a meeting of the ACT facilitation council on Monday, co-chaired by Norway and South Africa.

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UV-emitting LED lights can kill novel coronavirus quickly & efficiently, says study

In order to disinfect a bus, train, sports hall, or plane by chemical spraying, the scientists said physical manpower is needed along with time for the chemicals to act on the surface.

“Disinfection systems based on LED bulbs, however, can be installed in the ventilation system and air conditioner, for example, and sterilise the air sucked in and then emitted into the room,” Hadas Mamane, co-author of the study from the American Friends of Tel Aviv University in the US. said.

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