UK’s vaccine approval raises world’s hopes for COVID-19 fight 

The news that Britain has approved the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech has raised expectations that other countries could also begin immunizations in the near future. (AFP/File Photo)
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Updated 03 December 2020
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UK’s vaccine approval raises world’s hopes for COVID-19 fight 

  • Light at the end of the tunnel as Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine wins UK regulatory body’s approval
  • Rollout next week raises hopes of ending pandemic and rebuilding economies by mid-2021

LONDON: The news that Britain has approved the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech has raised expectations that other countries could also begin immunizations in the near future and slowly bring the curtain down on a pandemic that disrupted the global social and economic order like no other event in living memory.

Trials have shown that the Pfizer/BionTech shot offers 95 percent protection against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which to date has infected 64 million people worldwide and killed nearly 1.5 million since it first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

The approval by Britain’s medicines regulator, MHRA, means a mass vaccination campaign could begin in the UK as early as next week, with the first 800,000 doses distributed to the elderly and most vulnerable as a priority. The government has already ordered some 40 million doses — enough to vaccinate 20 million people.

Recipients will be given two injections, spaced 21 days apart, with immunity developing after the first dose. Its full effect kicks in around a week after the second booster. Scientists say the side effects are mild and tend to last no more than a day or two. Pfizer/BioNTech has priced the vaccine at around $19.50 per dose, or $39 per patient.

“With 450 people dying of COVID-19 infection every day in the UK, the benefits of rapid vaccine approval outweigh the potential risks,” Andrew Hill, senior visiting research fellow in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool, told Reuters news agency.

The messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine itself is truly revolutionary, taking a small fragment of genetic code from COVID-19 to train the body’s immune response to recognize the virus. Until Wednesday, nothing like it had been approved for use in humans.

This announcement came as a huge relief to publics, businesses and governments worldwide after months of lockdown measures, crippling pressure on health services and grinding economic turmoil. It is also expected to calm anxiety and stress as families and individuals forced to remain indoors and separated from loved ones see the first glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

“It’s the protection of vaccines that will ultimately allow us to reclaim our lives and get the economy moving again,” Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, said in his remarks lauding the approval.

Pfizer/BioNTech announced the success of its phase three advanced trials in early November — a remarkable feat given it only began work 10 months ago. Vaccine development can take up to a decade under normal circumstances.

Since then, US pharmaceutical giant Moderna and the UK’s Oxford University/AstraZeneca team have unveiled their own workable vaccines — a reassuring sign that the virus can be fought on multiple fronts.

Although the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is highly effective, it is also expensive, must be stored in special boxes packed in dry ice at -70 C, and can only be kept in a fridge for five days once delivered. For developing countries, the high cost and logistical challenges could prove prohibitive. If more vaccine approvals follow in the coming days and weeks, governments will likely shop around for the best deal.




Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson wearing a face mask because of the coronavirus pandemic leaves number 10 Downing Street in central London on December 2, 2020, to take part in the Prime Minister Question (PMQs) session in the House of Commons. (AFP)

The Moderna vaccine, which uses the same mRNA model employed by Pfizer/BioNTech, had an equally impressive efficacy rate (95 percent) in phase three trials. Better yet, it is stable at normal refrigerator temperatures of 2-8 C for up to 30 days, and can be stored for months at -20 C.

The Oxford team has found a lower-cost alternative with an average of 70 percent effectiveness but which can be stored at fridge temperature. The vaccine, which adapts a chimpanzee virus that is harmless to humans to train the immune system, may prove a far more practical option for developing countries.

Although this is all positive news, experts have repeatedly cautioned that the world should not expect the pandemic to be fixed overnight. Production, distribution and repairing the economic damage caused by the lockdowns will take several months assuming no new, unforeseeable problems crop up.

“Distribution of the vaccines across the whole of the globe means that there will be a substantial time lag before COVID-19 is truly tamed, with more and greater personal and economic losses along the way,” Dr. John C. Hulsman, president and managing partner of John C. Hulsman Enterprises, said in a recent oped for Arab News.




The UK news has raised expectations that other countries could also begin immunizations in the near future and slowly bring the curtain down on a pandemic that disrupted the global social and economic order like nothing else in living memory. (AFP/File Photo)

“It is estimated it will take until the end of next summer (August or September) before the virus is fully under control and the world can begin to breathe again and return to normal. Even then, humanity will not yet be out of the woods, as it is unclear how long the immunity the vaccines offer will last.”

Several countries, including some in the Middle East, are involved in talks with leading companies and research institutes engaged in various phases of trials. The World Health Organization (WHO), meanwhile, is engaged in preparatory talks with countries on ways to ensure prompt and fair distribution of successful vaccine candidates. 

Many nations, including Arab countries with strong relations with potential producer states, began talks earlier this year with a view to obtaining a vaccine. “I know that most ministries of health have had talks with Moderna and AstraZeneca to book their quantities,” Belal Zuiter, senior consultant at Cambridge Pharma Consultancy in London, told Arab News in August. “I think the Arab world will have enough doses within the first two or three months after a vaccine is produced.”

On Nov. 27, Saudi Pharmaceutical Industries and Medical Appliances Corp. (SPIMACO) signed an agreement with German biopharmaceutical company CureVac to supply and distribute a coronavirus vaccine in the Kingdom. The CureVac vaccine successfully passed the first phase of clinical trials with more than 90 percent effectiveness in early November.




A Saudi and German pharmaceutical deal signed in November includes the possibility of extending the supply and distribution rights to the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. (AFP/File Photo)

The agreement includes the possibility of extending the supply and distribution rights to the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.

“Saudi Arabia will be one of the first countries to receive the vaccines,” Abdullah Al-Assiri, assistant deputy minister for preventive health, said during an interview on Saudia TV in early November. Saudi health officials have previously announced plans to offer free vaccinations by the end of 2021 to 70 percent of residents who have not contracted the virus.

Incidentally, several Arab countries were among those that formally expressed their interest in participating in the COVAX facility, described as an “insurance policy” to access COVID-19 vaccines. The mechanism is designed to guarantee rapid, fair and equitable access to the world’s largest and most-diverse vaccine portfolio.

“The idea behind COVAX is just to make sure all countries, whether rich or middle-income or low-income, will be able to access at least enough supplies of the vaccine for priority groups,” Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar, head of Infectious Hazard Management Unit at WHO’s Cairo office, told Arab News earlier.

Once a vaccine has been approved by regulatory agencies and/or prequalified by WHO, the COVAX facility will then purchase these vaccines to try and initially provide doses for an average of 20 percent of each country’s population, focusing on healthcare workers and the most vulnerable groups.

The goal is to deliver 2 billion doses by the end of 2021.

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Twitter: @RobertPEdwards


’Kyiv should be ours’: Russians boosted after Putin-Trump call

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’Kyiv should be ours’: Russians boosted after Putin-Trump call

“I am rooting for our country, I love it very much and I just want Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) to just, after all, get justice done,” Anastasia told AFP
Asked what her main feeling was following the talks, pensioner Sofiya said: “Uncertainty“

MOSCOW: A day after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump spoke by phone on Ukraine, showering each other with compliments, Russian home-maker Anastasia had one wish: for Moscow to finish what it started in 2022.

In the fourth spring of Moscow’s devastating offensive, which has killed tens of thousands, diplomatic movement in recent days has given Russians a boost in confidence that victory — in some shape or another — is approaching.

In the call with Trump on Monday, the Russian leader once again brushed off calls for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, as demanded by the West and Kyiv.

Despite that, the US president said the “tone” of the conversation was “excellent.”

Russia controls a fifth of Ukraine and holds an upper hand on the battlefield.

“I am rooting for our country, I love it very much and I just want Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) to just, after all, get justice done,” Anastasia told AFP in the Moscow suburbs, echoing official language calling for the defeat of Ukraine.

Not knowing how or when it would happen, the 40-year-old mother, who declined to give her surname, said she was getting impatient.

“I don’t want my children to have to solve this issue. Let’s decide it here and now.”

But she had no trust in Trump — who she said is “just a businessman” who “wants money and nothing else” — and worried the “Anglo-Saxons” will trick Russia.

Putin has shown no sign of scaling down his maximalist demands for ending the Ukraine conflict, seeking little short of capitulation from Kyiv.

At talks in Istanbul last week, Russian negotiators demanded Ukraine abandon territory it still controls in the east and south.

Russia also wants Ukraine barred from NATO and for Western military support to end.

Putin has repeatedly called for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to be removed from office.

Confidence was tinged with uncertainty in Moscow after the Putin-Trump call, in which the Russian leader floated a vague “memorandum” that would outline demands for a peace deal and Trump said Kyiv and Moscow would begin talks swiftly.

Many in Moscow did not know what Trump or Putin meant.

Asked what her main feeling was following the talks, pensioner Sofiya said: “Uncertainty.”

“It’s interesting what will happen to us, not only to our families, but our country,” said the 72-year-old, who declined to give her surname.

Like many, Sofiya saw no real progress from last week’s talks — the first direct negotiations on the conflict in more than three years.

“I don’t know how to express this, but I would like calm and peace,” she said.

Moscow has ramped up military censorship amid its Ukraine offensive, threatening years in prison for those who criticize or question the campaign.

Zelensky said Russia was not serious about talks and is trying to “buy time” to continue its offensive.

Putin was indeed hoping to advance more on the ground and will not “miss the opportunity” for a summer offensive, said Russian analyst Konstantin Kalachev.

He called the Trump call a “tactical victory” for the Russian leader.

“Russia is hoping to push them (Ukrainian forces) this summer,” Kalachev said.

“There will be no peace, while Russia has not yet used the option of a final offensive,” he said, highlighting the prospect of a summer ground campaign.

Though Putin said both sides should be ready to make “compromises,” few were forthcoming from the Kremlin or on the streets of Moscow.

“I believe that Odesa, Kharkiv, Nikolayev (Mykolaiv), Kyiv should be ours,” said another pensioner, 70-year-old Marina, who also declined to give her surname, reeling off a string of Ukrainian cities that Russia has not formally claimed.

Russian state TV said Moscow’s negotiators threatened in Istanbul to seize more land if Ukraine does not pull its troops out of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions that Moscow claims to have annexed.

“If the four regions will not be recognized in the nearest future, the next time there will be six regions,” said state TV presenter Yevgeny Popov.

Moscow’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky later evoked Russia’s 21-year war with Sweden in the 18th century, hinting Moscow was ready for a long fight.

Marina, too, said she would support Russia to fight on, even as thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed.

“Of course, it is a big shame that our people are also dying,” she told AFP. “But there is no other way.”

Poland to try suspect in alleged Russian plot to assassinate Zelensky

Updated 9 min ago
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Poland to try suspect in alleged Russian plot to assassinate Zelensky

  • The man, identified as Pawel K., was arrested in April 2024
  • Prosecutors said he had declared his readiness to act for Russia’s military intelligence

WARSAW: Polish authorities have indicted a man charged with planning to help Russian foreign intelligence services prepare a possible attempt to assassinate Ukraine’s president, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

The man, identified as Pawel K., was arrested in April 2024 after cooperation between Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors, and faces up to eight years in prison.

According to prosecutors, he had declared his readiness to act for the military intelligence of the Russian Federation and established contacts with Russians who were directly involved in the war in Ukraine.

“The activities were to help, among other things, in the planning by the Russian special services of a possible assassination attempt on the life of ... the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky,” the prosecution said in a statement.

Pawel K.’s tasks included collecting and providing information on security at the Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport in southeastern Poland, prosecutors said.

Poland, a hub for Western military supplies to Ukraine, says it has become a major target of Russian spies, accusing Moscow and its ally Belarus of trying to destabilize it — accusations which the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.


PKK urges Turkiye to ease leader’s solitary confinement for any peace talks

Updated 48 min 46 sec ago
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PKK urges Turkiye to ease leader’s solitary confinement for any peace talks

  • The disbanding mechanisms are unclear yet
  • Hiwa said the PKK has shown “seriousness regarding peace,” but “till now the Turkish state has not given any guarantees”

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq: The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has said Türkiye should ease prison conditions for its founder Abdullah Ocalan, declaring him the group’s “chief negotiator” for any future talks after a decision to disband.

The Kurdish group, blacklisted by Ankara and its Western allies, announced on May 12 it had adopted a decision to disarm and disband after a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that cost more than 40,000 lives.

The group’s historic decision came after an appeal by Ocalan, made in a letter from Istanbul’s Imrali prison island where he has been held since 1999.

Zagros Hiwa, spokesman for the PKK’s political wing, told AFP on Monday that “we expect that the Turkish state makes amendments in the solitary confinement conditions” to allow Ocalan “free and secure work conditions so that he could lead the process.”

“Leader Apo is our chief negotiator” for any talks with Türkiye, Hiwa added in an interview, referring to Ocalan.

“Only Leader Apo can lead the practical implementation of the decision taken by the PKK.”

The disbanding mechanisms are unclear yet, but the Turkish government has said it would carefully monitor the process to ensure full implementation.

Hiwa said the PKK has shown “seriousness regarding peace,” but “till now the Turkish state has not given any guarantees and taken any measure for facilitating the process” and continued its “bombardments and artillery shellings” against the Kurdish group’s positions.

The PKK operates rear bases in Iraq’s autonomous northern Kurdistan region, where Türkiye also maintains military bases and often carries out air and ground operations against the Kurdish militants.

Turkish media reports have suggested that militants who had committed no crime on Turkish soil could return without fear of prosecution, but that PKK leaders might be forced into exile or stay behind in Iraq.

Hiwa said the PKK objects to its members or leaders being forced to leave, saying that “real peace requires integration, not exile.”


Second man in court over arson attacks linked to UK PM Starmer

Updated 58 min 28 sec ago
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Second man in court over arson attacks linked to UK PM Starmer

  • Neither of the suspects has been charged under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act
  • Police said the first fire involved a Toyota Rav4 car that Starmer used to own

LONDON: A second man to be charged over a series of arson attacks on houses and a car linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared in a London court on Tuesday.

Over five days earlier this month, police were called to fires at a house in north London owned by Starmer, another at a property nearby where he used to live, and to a blaze involving a car that also used to belong to the British leader.

Last week, Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych, 21, was charged in connection with the fires, and on Tuesday Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, who was born in Ukraine, appeared in court accused of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life.

“The alleged offense arises from three fires set at locations linked to the prime minister in the last fortnight,” prosecutor Sarah Przybylska said. “At this stage the alleged offending is unexplained.”

Neither of the suspects has been charged under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act which aims to target hostile state activity.

Police said the first fire involved a Toyota Rav4 car that Starmer used to own. Days later, there was a blaze at a property where Starmer once resided and the following day there was an attack on a house in north London that he still owns.

Starmer, who has lived at his official 10 Downing Street residence in central London since becoming prime minister last July, has called the incidents “an attack on all of us, on our democracy and the values we stand for.”

Wearing a light blue hoodie, Carpiuc, who was arrested on Saturday at London’s Luton Airport, spoke only to confirm his name and address while listening to the proceedings through a translator.

He was remanded in custody until a hearing on June 6 at London’s Old Bailey court when his co-accused Lavrynovych is also due to appear.

The prosecutor said a decision would be taken at this hearing as to whether the case would proceed under the terrorism protocol.

Carpiuc’s lawyer Jay Nutkins said his client had lived in Britain for nine years and had just completed a two-year degree at a university in Canterbury.

“He denies being at the scene of any of these fires,” Nutkins said.


Carpiuc funded himself through construction work, Nutkins said. On a casting website for models and actors, an entry under Carpiuc’s name said he was born in western Ukraine and was seeking work as a model.

On Monday, police arrested a third man in connection with the fires and he remains in police custody.


Russia accuses NATO of ‘aggressive actions’ in Baltic Sea after Estonia tries to seize tanker

Updated 20 May 2025
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Russia accuses NATO of ‘aggressive actions’ in Baltic Sea after Estonia tries to seize tanker

  • Zakharova said Moscow was closely monitoring events in the Baltic

MOSCOW: Russia on Tuesday accused NATO of carrying out what it called aggressive actions in the Baltic Sea that impeded the freedom of shipping after Estonia tried and failed to seize a tanker.

Estonia said on Thursday last week that Moscow had briefly sent a fighter jet into NATO airspace over the Baltic Sea during an attempt to stop a Russian-bound oil tanker thought to be part of a “shadow fleet” defying Western sanctions on Moscow.

Asked about the matter at her weekly news briefing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow was closely monitoring events in the Baltic and would react to what she called illegal actions by NATO vessels if they caused risks.