From Michigan to Motihari — the latest COVID-19 vaccine updates give reasons for both jubilation and anxiety

As people around the world look to get their hands on the COVID-19 vaccine, incidents of fake vaccines and treatments being sold on the dark web are rising, according to Checkpoint Research.

So-called ‘COVID-19 vaccines’ are being touted for $250 apiece. Other treatments like Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine are also being peddled online.

And, it’s not just the dark web that making the most of a bad situation. The number of ‘vaccine’ related website on the normal world wide web has spiked three-fold in the month of November.

The US’ COVID-19 vaccination program is scheduled to kick off today. A convoy of trucks loaded with the vaccine was seen leaving Pfizer’s manufacturing facility in Michigan.

After getting approval on December 11, doses of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved vaccine are being carried to hospitals and clinics across the country.

Of these refrigerated trucks comes with a GPS-enabled thermal tracker to keep an eye on the location and the temperatures of the doses are they travel to their destination. Once the vaccine is delivered, it has to be thawed out before it can be administered. Once it is no longer at sub-zero temperatures, the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine has to be used within five days.

The price of the vaccine is one of the reasons that the Indian government is reportedly not keen on buying the Pfizer candidate, according to Business Standard. This adds to already existing conundrum of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine requiring minus 70 degrees Celcius to survive, something that India’s current cold storage infrastructure cannot support.

Pfizer is selling its vaccine at $37 per dose. That more than a 100% mark up on the price of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. According to the Serum Institute of India (SII), the vaccine dubbed Covishiled will only cost the government $3 per dose.

COVID-19 vaccine candidates:

• Covishield: $3
• Bharat Biotech: $3-6
• Zydus: $3-6
• Sputnik V: $10
• Pfizer: $37
• Moderna: $25-37

India’s Ministry of Health has sent states and union territories (UTs) guidelines on how to manage the massive challenge for distributing the vaccine across the seventh-largest country in the world with the second-largest population.

The guidelines dictate that no more than 100 people can be present during a session at each site per day. However, the centre noted that the number of people per session may be increased 200 — if the supporting logistics are present.

“Conduct of the vaccination process [will be] similar to the election process,” said the government’s draft standard operating procedure (SOP) document. People who are above the age of 50 will be identified using the Lok Sabha voter list.

• Priority 1: Health care workers - 1 crore
• Priority 2: Frontline workers - 2 crore
• Priority 3: People above 50 years of age - 26 crore
• Priority 4: People below 50 years of age with chronic illness - 1 crore

"The beneficiaries will be tracked through a digital platform called Co-WIN. All information on this platform will be updated in real-time," explained the document.

As the government’s outlined plan to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine, southern states may receive more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine even though they’re less populous that their counterparts, according to the Times of India.

Tamil Nadu for instance has more people above the age of 50 years than Bihar, Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan.

Kerala, meanwhile, tops the list when it comes to having the highest proportion of people with diabetes and hypertension.

Those who participated in the clinical trials conducted for Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine but got placebo doses instead by get the option to take the real thing.

“This vaccine transition option will be voluntary and will be implemented in alignment with the regulatory authorities where the trial is conducted,” Pfizer said in a statement.

Canada received its first batch of the Pfizer and BionNTech COVID-19 vaccine on December 13. This initial group of 30,000 doses will be distributed across 14 different locations. The most vulnerable sections of the population, which includes the elderly in long-term healthcare facilities as well as healthcare workers, will be first in line for the shots.

However, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has appealed to the public at large to continue to exercise precaution. “Over fight against COVID-19 is not over,” he said.

The German chemical company, CureVac, has enrolled the first participant for the 2b/3 trial of its vaccine candidate — CVnCoV. The study is expected to include more than 35,000 participants at sites in Europe and Latin America.

According to the company, the trial is expected to seamlessly merge into a Phase 3 efficacy trial. All the participants will be ages 18 or older. They will receive a two-dose schedule of either the vaccine dose or the placebo.