Health News Roundup: 55.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines distributed; WHO team probing COVID-19 visits Wuhan lab

55.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines distributed, 33.8 million administered: U.S. CDC The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered 33,878,254 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Wednesday morning and distributed 55,943,800 doses.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

WHO team probing COVID-19 visits Wuhan lab, meets 'Bat Woman'

A team of investigators led by the World Health Organization visited a virus research laboratory in China's central city of Wuhan and met with a prominent virologist there in its search for clues to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. The experts spent about 3-1/2 hours at the heavily-guarded Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been at the centre of some conspiracy theories that claim a laboratory leak caused the city's first coronavirus outbreak at the end of 2019.

Britain has given 10 million people a first COVID-19 vaccine dose More than 10 million people in Britain have received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Wednesday, describing the milestone as "hugely significant". Britain is aiming to offer a shot to all over-70s, highly vulnerable people, and frontline medics and care workers by the middle of February.

WHO preparing to deliver vaccines across Syria from April despite conflict The World Heath Organization is deploying teams across Syria for a vaccination programme that will be rolled out both in government-held areas and territory outside state control, perhaps as soon as April, it said on Wednesday. Dr Akjemal Magtymova, WHO representative in Damascus, said the body's COVAX programme plans to immunize 5 million Syrians -- 20% of the population across all parts of the country -- despite the conflict now entering its 11th year.

COVAX allocates first tranche of 330 million vaccine doses to poor countries The COVAX vaccine-sharing facility has allocated at least 330 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for poorer countries and will aim to deliver these and many millions more in the first half of 2021, agencies leading the scheme said on Wednesday. Publishing an interim distribution plan, the COVAX Facility said distribution would cover an average of 3.3% of total populations of 145 countries taking part in the initial round.

Bayer reaches $2 billion deal over future Roundup cancer claims Bayer AG struck a $2 billion deal to resolve future legal claims that its widely used weedkiller Roundup causes cancer, the German company said on Wednesday. Bayer has been struggling to finalize the settlement of claims that Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides cause non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of cancer. Bayer inherited the business and the litigation as part of a $63 billion acquisition of Monsanto in 2018.

U.S. community health centers say they have given more vaccines than government data show Some U.S. community health centers say they are doling out COVID-19 shots far faster than government data suggests, likely accounting for some of a gap between how states and the federal government describe the availability of vaccine doses. The federal government said only about 60% of nearly 56 million doses of vaccines from Pfizer Inc or Moderna Inc that have shipped have been used. Yet states such as New York have said that their supplies are stretched thin.

U.S. COVID Task Force says new cases on decline but variants pose threat New COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations appear to be on a downward trajectory in the United States as the Biden administration remains confident that it can hit its target of 100 million vaccines in 100 days, the White House Coronavirus Task Force said on Wednesday. However, Rachel Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that new COVID-19 variants popping up across the country could threaten that positive momentum.

Exclusive: Merck anti-baldness drug Propecia has long trail of suicide reports, records show Newly unsealed court documents and other records show that Merck & Co and U.S. regulators knew about reports of suicidal behavior in men taking the company's anti-baldness treatment Propecia when they decided not to warn consumers of those potential risks in a 2011 update of the popular drug's label. Internal records from Merck were made public in late January, when a federal magistrate in Brooklyn, New York, granted a 2019 Reuters motion to unseal 11 documents filed in years of litigation alleging Propecia caused persistent sexual dysfunction and other harmful side effects.

AstraZeneca, Oxford expect 'next generation' COVID-19 vaccine to tackle variants by autumn - executive AstraZeneca and Oxford University aim to produce a next generation of COVID-19 vaccines that will protect against variants as soon as the autumn before the Northern Hemisphere winter, an executive at the British drugmaker said on Wednesday.

Asked when AstraZeneca could produce a next generation vaccine to tackle new variants, AstraZeneca research chief Mene Pangalos said "as rapidly as possible".

55.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines distributed, 33.8 million administered: U.S. CDC

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered 33,878,254 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Wednesday morning and distributed 55,943,800 doses. The tally of vaccine doses are for both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, vaccines as of 6:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the agency said.