Health News Roundup: Biden says biggest vaccine donation 'supercharges' battle against coronavirus; China invites Taiwanese to come to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Biden says biggest vaccine donation 'supercharges' battle against coronavirus

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday that a donation of 500 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to the world's poorest countries would supercharge the battle with the virus and comes with "no strings attached." Biden, speaking alongside Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla in the English seaside resort of Carbis Bay ahead of a G7 summit, thanked other leaders for recognizing their responsibility to vaccinate the world.

Third member of U.S. FDA advisory panel resigns over Alzheimer's drug approval

A third member of a panel of outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has resigned in protest over the agency's decision to approve Biogen Inc's Alzheimer's disease treatment despite the committee's recommendation against doing so. Aaron Kesselheim, a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School who had served on the FDA's advisory committee for nervous system drugs since 2015, told Reuters on Thursday he was stepping down from the panel.

China invites Taiwanese to come to get vaccinated against COVID-19

China's government said on Friday that it welcomed Taiwanese to come and get vaccinated against COVID-19 and called on Taiwan to remove obstacles and allow its people to receive the "highly effective" Chinese shots. China claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory and has repeatedly offered to send vaccines to the island, which is battling a spike in domestic infections but has expressed concern about the safety of Chinese shots and has not cleared them for use.

Exclusive: Eli Lilly memo says firm did not make false statements to FDA

A week before Eli Lilly disclosed to regulators that the U.S. Justice Department was investigating its New Jersey factory, the drugmaker told employees that its own inquiry, led by an outside law firm, found no evidence of wrongdoing there, according to a company memo reviewed by Reuters. On April 8, a group of employees filed an anonymous complaint internally alleging that an executive at its Branchburg, New Jersey, factory had altered documents required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Japan city uses tsunami lessons for COVID-19 vaccinations

Tamio Hayashi, 77, doubted he could ever navigate the internet systems set up to register for COVID-19 vaccines across most of Japan. He hated the idea of using the "troublesome" systems that have broken down and befuddled other older residents, hobbling Japan's inoculation push.

G7 to donate 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer countries

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expects the Group of Seven to agree to donate 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer countries during its summit starting on Friday, and help innoculate the world by the end of next year. Just hours after U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to supercharge the battle against the coronavirus with a donation of 500 million Pfizer shots, Johnson said Britain would give at least 100 million surplus vaccines to the poorest nations.

CDC says U.S. travelers can avoid wearing masks in outdoor transit hubs, ferries

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday it will no longer require travelers to wear masks in outdoor transit hubs and in outdoor spaces on ferries, buses and trolleys, due to the lower risk of coronavirus transmission outdoors. The change is the first in the CDC's transit mask policy announced in January and came after a lengthy review by the White House Office of Management and Budget's regulatory arm.

U.S. National Cathedral bells toll 600 times to mark COVID-19 victims

On a rainy Thursday evening in Washington D.C., the bells at the National Cathedral tolled 600 times, once for every 1,000 Americans who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Fifteen months into the pandemic, the official U.S. death toll is approaching 600,000, even as a national vaccination program has successfully reduced the rate of daily infections and deaths.

Young, Indian, Unvaccinated: the world's largest inoculation drive falters

India began an inoculation drive for its 1.38 billion people in earnest in mid-January. Healthcare, frontline workers and the elderly were the first eligible, followed by people aged over 45 in April and then adults aged 18-45 in May.

'Extraordinary times, extraordinary measures': U.S. approach to vanquish pandemic

The United States will continue to press for a waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments even as it and other Group of Seven rich nations sharply expand donations of vaccines to poorer countries. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Thursday the Biden administration was working on multiple fronts to end the pandemic.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)