Health News Roundup: Vaccine alliance secures $2 billion to fund COVID shots for poor nations; World's top intensive care body advises against remdesivir for sickest COVID patients and more

Vaccine alliance secures $2 billion to fund COVID shots for poor nations A facility set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the GAVI vaccine group has exceeded an interim target of raising more than $2 billion to buy and distribute COVID-19 shots for poorer countries, but said it still needs more.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Fauci not advising Biden, sees no reason to quit Trump now: Reuters interview

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said he has had no contact with President-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus transition team and sees no reason to quit to join that effort when there is so much to do now to fight the surging pandemic. "I stay in my lane. I'm not a politician. I do public health things," he said in an interview on Thursday ahead of next week's Reuters Total Health conference.

Vaccine alliance secures $2 billion to fund COVID shots for poor nations

A facility set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the GAVI vaccine group has exceeded an interim target of raising more than $2 billion to buy and distribute COVID-19 shots for poorer countries, but said it still needs more. The GAVI alliance said on Friday that the funds for an advance market commitment (AMC) will allow the COVAX facility to buy an initial one billion vaccine doses for 92 eligible countries which would not otherwise be able to afford them.

World's top intensive care body advises against remdesivir for sickest COVID patients

Antiviral remdesivir should not be used as a routine treatment for COVID-19 patients in critical care wards, the head of one of the world's top bodies representing intensive care doctors said, in a blow to the drug developed by U.S. firm Gilead. Remdesivir, also known as Veklury, and steroid dexamethasone are the only drugs authorised to treat COVID-19 patients across the world. But the largest study on remdesivir's efficacy, run by the World Health Organization (WHO), showed on Oct. 15 it had little or no impact, contradicting previous trials.

Chicago and Detroit told to hunker down as pandemic surges

Chicago's mayor issued a month-long stay-at-home advisory on Thursday, and Detroit's public schools called a halt to in-person instruction to curb the spread of the coronavirus as more than a dozen U.S. states reported a doubling of new COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks. The two Midwestern cities became the latest in a growing number of states and metropolitan areas - including New York, California and Iowa - moving this week to re-impose public health restrictions that had been eased in recent months.

South Korean firm to produce 150 mln doses a year of Russian COVID-19 vaccine: RDIF

South Korea's GL Rapha will make more than 150 million doses of Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine per year, Russia's sovereign wealth fund said on Friday, one of its biggest production deals announced so far as Moscow aims to boost output abroad. While Russia is ramping up its domestic production capacities, which will be focused on meeting its own needs, it has also reached agreements to produce 500 million doses annually abroad, which will supply other countries.

New COVID-19 infections in England steady at 50,000 a day: ONS

The rate of people contracting COVID-19 in England remained at around 50,000 per day in the week to Nov. 6, little changed from previous weeks, an official estimate showed on Friday. The Office for National Statistics estimated that 1 in 85 people had COVID-19 in England last week, up a little from the 1 in 90 estimate the week before.

Swiss start rolling review of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine candidate

Swiss drugs regulator Swissmedic said on Friday it has begun a rolling review of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate from U.S.-based Moderna, which is currently analyzing data from a large-scale clinical trial in thousands of patients. Exclusive: Indonesia to start mass COVID-19 vaccination this year - President

Indonesia has sought emergency authorisation to start a mass vaccination campaign by the end of the year to combat the coronavirus in the archipelago, the Southeast Asian nation's president said on Friday. In an interview with Reuters, President Joko Widodo, commonly known as Jokowi, said plans were already advanced to distribute the vaccine across the entire country.

China approves Shanghai Fosun's unit to run human testing for BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine

Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group said on Friday that its unit has received clinical trial approval from China's National Medical Products Administration for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by German firm BioNTech. The experimental COVID-19 vaccine, BNT162b2, is more than 90% effective based on initial results from large trials outside China, BioNTech's partner Pfizer Inc said on Monday.

Israel signs deal with Pfizer for potential COVID-19 vaccine

Israel signed a deal with Pfizer Inc on Friday to receive 8 million doses of the drugmaker's potential COVID-19 vaccine, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, enough to cover close to half of Israel's population. Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE confirmed a deal was forthcoming in a statement on Thursday but did not disclose financial details. There was no immediate comment from the two companies on Friday.