With 1,486 mass infections in a week, the Japanese medical system is in a hurry! Europe and the United States rush for monkeypox vaccine, how big is the impact? WHO: Stop harming or even killing monkeys

 Does the vaccine track add imagination?

As of 17:15 local time on the 10th, the number of newly confirmed cases of the new crown in Japan has reached 250,379, the first time the number of new cases exceeded 250,000 in a single day. At the same time, large-scale mass infections broke out in Japan. In the past week, 1,486 mass infections of the new coronavirus occurred across the country, a record high. The full-scale outbreak has overwhelmed the Japanese medical system, and the number of emergency requests for new crown patients has continued to soar.

Facing the global spread of Omicron BA.5, more and more countries are advancing new vaccination programs, which may increase the demand for vaccines. Among them, the Japanese government plans to approve the Omicron bivalent vaccine as early as October this year and start vaccination; the European Medicines Agency has also begun a "rolling review" of Pfizer and BioNTech's Omicron vaccine, or will be in September Completed; the United States has ordered 105 million doses and 66 million doses of the next-generation vaccine against Omicron from Pfizer and Moderna, respectively, which are expected to be delivered this fall and winter.

As of August 10, the monkeypox virus has spread to about 80 countries and regions, including the United Kingdom, Spain, the United States, Australia, Germany, and France, with a total of more than 18,000 monkeypox cases. WHO has classified it as an "international emergency". public health incident." According to the World Wide Web, on August 9, local time, World Health Organization spokeswoman Margaret Harris emphasized that the virus "is spreading from person to person. Do not stigmatize any animal or group, and stop harming or even killing monkeys. the behavior of". In response to the increasingly severe monkeypox epidemic, many countries in Europe and the United States are scrambling for vaccines.

However, it may be the monkeypox vaccine that makes Europe and the United States more nervous. Among them, the monkeypox vaccine in the UK may be exhausted in the next 2-3 weeks; Italians have to go abroad to get vaccinated; the US Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday urgently authorized a new monkeypox vaccine injection method, making every injection The dose of the vaccine was reduced to one-fifth of the conventional dose.

Japan's epidemic is dangerous

Japan is becoming the "epicenter" of the global epidemic.

On August 10, according to CCTV News citing Japan's Fuji TV report, as of 17:15 local time on the 10th, there were 250,379 new confirmed cases of the new crown in Japan, exceeding 250,000 for the first time, exceeding the 249,772 previously reported on August 3. this all-time high.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan has assessed the current epidemic situation in Japan and believes that the increase in the number of infected people will continue, and Japan is in the stage of "continuously refreshing the highest infection level".

Behind the increasingly severe epidemic in Japan, may be due to the large-scale outbreak of mass infections. According to a report by the Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK) on the 10th, in the past week as of August 7, there were 1,486 new coronavirus cluster infections across Japan, an increase of 12% from the previous week and a record high.

Moreover, the mainstream strain of this wave of Japanese epidemics is Omicron BA.5, whose transmission speed and immune escape ability far exceed all previous new crown variants.

According to the World Health Organization, Japan has recorded more than 1 million new cases in a single week for three consecutive weeks, ranking first in the world.

The full-scale outbreak of the epidemic has overwhelmed the Japanese medical system.

On August 10, Japan’s Tokyo Broadcasting Corporation reported that under the current seventh wave of the new crown epidemic, Japan’s medical resources are tight, and the number of emergency requests for new crown patients continues to soar.

According to data from the Fire Department of Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, in the week from August 1 to 7, the number of "difficult first-aid cases" for emergency patients who could not be identified as receiving hospitals in a short period of time reached 6,589, a record for two consecutive weeks. new highs. As of 11:00 am on August 10, the ambulance dispatch rate of the Tokyo Fire Department has exceeded 96%, and the emergency situation is very urgent.

Moreover, a large number of emergency patients are queuing for treatment, and the time from calling an ambulance to being delivered to the hospital continues to lengthen. According to the Tokyo Broadcasting Corporation, a new crown patient in his 70s waited more than 35 hours from calling an ambulance to being admitted to the hospital.

More worryingly, Japanese children are becoming the epicentre of the new crown contagion. According to Kyodo News, in the week ending August 2, the number of newly infected people under the age of 10 in Japan reached 300,000, more than double the peak of the sixth wave of the epidemic in Japan.

According to the report, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan, as of July 28, there were at least 101 nurseries across the country that were fully closed, and 99 public primary and secondary schools closed in July, more than double the number in June. The number of closures is still gradually rising as the outbreak spreads rapidly.

At present, the vaccination rate of children aged 5 to 11 in Japan is still low, and government statistics show that only 18.3% have completed 2 doses of the vaccine. Japanese officials have expressed concern that such low vaccination rates make it difficult to predict how infections in Japanese children will develop in the future.

new vaccine program

Faced with the global spread of the Omicron variant BA.5, more and more countries are advancing new vaccination programs.

On August 10, according to the Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK), the vaccine manufacturer Moderna submitted an application for approval of the bivalent vaccine developed by Omicron to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare on the same day. It is the second vaccine manufacturer after Pfizer. .

In addition, Kyodo News quoted sources as saying that the Japanese government plans to approve the above-mentioned two vaccines as early as October this year and open them to the public for vaccination.

Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Tuesday it had begun a "rolling review" of a booster vaccine for the coronavirus from Pfizer and BioNTech.

The vaccine under review is a bivalent vaccine, targeting the new coronavirus Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5. These two strains are currently widespread around the world. The vaccine will start clinical trials this month.

EU officials plan to roll out the bivalent vaccine during a vaccination surge this fall. The EMA expects the new vaccine under review to be approved in September.

Prior to this, the U.S. government had announced that it had agreed to purchase 66 million doses of a new-generation vaccine against Omicron from Moderna, involving an amount of $1.74 billion; it also purchased 105 million doses of the same vaccine from Pfizer. If approved by regulators, the vaccine for Omicron is expected to be delivered this fall and winter.

On August 10, Wang Huaqing, chief expert of the immunization program of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, also said that some countries, including my country, are currently conducting research and development of new vaccines. There may be single seedlings or combined seedlings in the future. But new vaccine development takes time, and there are some uncertainties in the development process.

The market expects that with the launch of new vaccines for new variants of Omicron, it may stimulate global demand for vaccines this fall. German biotech company BioNTech revealed that deliveries of the two vaccines against the new coronavirus Omicron variant will begin as early as October this year, which may help stimulate demand in the fourth quarter.

Monkeypox vaccine in emergency

What is currently making Europe and the United States more nervous may be the monkeypox vaccine.

Many parts of Europe are facing a shortage of monkeypox vaccines as a surge in monkeypox cases has led to a surge in vaccination demand. On August 10, Xinhua News Agency quoted British media reports that the British monkeypox vaccine is likely to be exhausted in the next 2-3 weeks.

On August 10, local time, the British "Financial Times" reported that an internal letter from the British National Health Service showed that there are currently only 8,360 doses of monkeypox vaccine left in the UK, of which about 5,000 doses are designated for the capital where confirmed cases are concentrated. regions, while the 100,000 doses of the newly ordered vaccine will not be shipped until the end of September.

It means that the supply of monkeypox vaccine in the UK is likely to be stretched. The letter calls on the UK Health Service to develop emergency plans to ensure that vaccines are available to key risk groups in the UK before they arrive.

According to the "Financial Times" report, the United Kingdom has so far reported at least 2,859 confirmed cases of monkeypox, the vast majority of which are males.

The emergency monkeypox vaccine in the UK may only be a microcosm of Europe, and other European countries are also facing a shortage of monkeypox vaccines.

Among them, Italy started monkeypox vaccination this week, but only 4,200 doses were distributed in high-risk areas. Therefore, PrEP in Italia, an Italian sexual health advocacy group, said that the promotion of vaccines in Italy was too slow, and some gay men went overseas to get vaccinated.

The head of the European Medicines Agency, Emer Cooke, has warned that the current supply of monkeypox vaccine is limited and that shortages may persist for some time.

Currently, the Danish pharmaceutical manufacturer Bavaria Nordic is a manufacturer of monkeypox vaccines, and its Jynneos vaccine is currently the only vaccine authorized by Europe and the United States to prevent monkeypox. The company has about 30 million doses of its Jynneos vaccine this year, and it has about 16 million in stock. However, most of the vaccines have been pre-ordered by the United States, and the cumulative order has reached 13 million doses, of which 1.4 million doses have been delivered.

In the face of more and more countries urging shipments, Bavaria Nordic in May asked the United States to share about 215,000 doses of monkeypox vaccines scheduled for delivery in response to "international requests." But the U.S. has only agreed to delay deliveries.

Currently, the monkeypox outbreak in the United States is very urgent. According to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of confirmed cases of monkeypox in the world has reached 30,189, of which the United States recorded 8,933 cases, ranking first in the world, accounting for more than 29%.

In addition, the supply of monkeypox vaccine in the United States is also very tight, and many vaccination sites are frequently closed due to shortages. Faced with this situation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on August 9 urgently authorized a new way of injecting the monkeypox vaccine, which reduces the dose of the vaccine per injection to one-fifth of the conventional dose.

On August 9, local time, World Health Organization spokesperson Margaret Harris warned that monkeypox is now spreading from person to person.