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The U.S. COVID-19 vaccine program is expected to get a welcome jolt on Tuesday in the news that one of the biggest vaccine makers in the world will help make Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose jab, potentially doubling the supply from what J&J could achieve on its own.
President Joe Biden will announce later Tuesday that Merck & Co. MRK, +0.10% is teaming up with J&J JNJ, -0.23%, the Washington Post reported, citing unnamed senior administration officials. Biden is scheduled to address the pandemic at an event planned for 4:15 p.m. Eastern with Vice President Kamala Harris also expected to attend.
The unusual deal that will see the two rival drugmakers work together was brokered by the federal government as it works to expand manufacturing of the vaccine, which was granted emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Saturday.
Merck is one of the world’s biggest vaccine makers but its own effort to develop an effective COVID vaccine failed. The U.S. vaccine program has been delayed by a shortage of supplies of the other two vaccines to receive authorization, one developed by Pfizer Inc. PFE, and German partner BioNTech SE BNTX, -2.55% and one developed by Moderna Inc. MRNA, -4.30%. Those two vaccines use the same mRNA technology, require two doses weeks apart and need to be stored at low temperatures, making them trickier to administer.
Merck will dedicate two facilities in the U.S. to the effort with one providing “fill-finish” services, putting vaccine in vials for distribution, while the other will make the vaccine itself, said the paper.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine tracker is showing that as of 6 a.m. ET Monday 96.4 million doses had been distributed to states, 76.9 million doses had been administered and 50.7 million Americans had received one or more doses, equal to 15.3% of the population.
The U.S. added 56,672 new COVID cases on Monday, according to a New York Times tracker, and at least 1,425 people died. The U.S. has averaged 67,470 new cases a day for the past week, down 21% from the average two weeks earlier.
CDC head Dr. Rochelle Walensky reiterated her concerns on Monday that the recent decline in case numbers appears to be stalling, and the U.S. could see a fourth case surge before enough people have been vaccinated.
Dr. Mike Ryan, World Health Organization’s executive director of emergency services, said at a briefing in Geneva that it’s unrealistic to expect the pandemic to be over by the end of 2021, after global cases rose last week for the first time in seven weeks.
The virus “is very much in control,” he said, while conceding that vaccinating healthcare workers and other vulnerable groups will help remove the “tragedy.”
“If the vaccines begin to impact not only on death and not only on hospitalization, but have a significant impact on transmission dynamics and transmission risk, then I believe we will accelerate toward controlling this pandemic,” he said.
In other news:
• A single dose of either the AstraZeneca–Oxford vaccine or the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 shot cuts the risk of hospital admission among older adults by more than 80% percent, Public Health England (PHE) said, citing a preprint study, MarketWatch’s Lina Saigol reported. The real world study, which was published on Monday and hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed, showed that protection against any COVID-19 symptoms in those older than 70 ranged between 57% and 61% for one dose of the Pfizer–BioNTech shot, and between 60% and 73% for the AstraZeneca–Oxford one four weeks after the first shot. PHE said the data suggested the vaccine from U.S. drug company Pfizer caused an 83% reduction in COVID-19 deaths among the over-80s. There were no equivalent data for the vaccine from Anglo-Swedish drug company AstraZeneca, which began to be administered at a later date.
Read: Pfizer vaccine can reduce transmission after 1 dose, new study finds
• Nigeria has received nearly 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the WHO’s Covax program, which aims to ensure that poorer countries get their fair share of jabs, ABC News reported. Ghana was the first African country to receive Covax vaccines last Friday, followed by the Ivory Coast. AstraZeneca said Tuesday that vaccines will arrive this week in countries including he Philippines, Indonesia, Fiji, Mongolia and Moldova.
Alerts and web-browser tools can help you book a Covid-19 vaccine appointment. WSJ’s Joanna Stern met up with Kris Slevens, an IT guy who has booked over 300 appointments for New Jersey seniors, to learn the best tricks to compete in the vaccine-booking Hunger Games. Photo illustration: Emil Lendof for The Wall Street Journal
• Former President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, were vaccinated for COVID-19 in private in January before they left the White House, the Associated Press reported. Trump, who in October was hospitalized after contracting the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, declined the opportunity to receive a public injection meant to boost public confidence in the vaccines. His approach broke with that of other top government leaders including then–Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who received their shots in front of cameras. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been vaccinated on live television.
• Twitter TWTR, -2.43% has begun labeling tweets that include misleading information about COVID-19 vaccines and using a “strike system” to eventually remove accounts that repeatedly violate its rules, the AP reported. The company has started using human reviewers to assess whether tweets violate its policy against COVID vaccine misinformation. Eventually, the work will be done by a combination of humans and automation, it said. Twitter had already banned some COVID-related misinformation in December, including falsehoods about how the virus spreads, whether masks are effective and the risk of infection and death. “Through the use of the strike system, we hope to educate people on why certain content breaks our rules so they have the opportunity to further consider their behavior and their impact on the public conversation,” Twitter said in a blog post Monday.
• Zoom Video Communications Inc.’s ZM, +1.12% rip-roaring ride resumed its meteoric trajectory Monday, with shares jumping as the company detailed the results of becoming a lifeline for those stuck at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic: Booming profit and revenue. The video-communications company reported fourth-quarter net income of $260.4 million, or 87 cents a share, compared with net income of $15.3 million in the year-ago quarter. After adjusting for stock-based compensation and other factors, Zoom reported earnings of $1.22 a share, up from 15 cents a share a year ago. Revenue hurtled 369% higher to $882.5 million from $188.3 million a year ago. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected adjusted earnings of 79 cents a share on revenue of $812 million. Zoom became a household name as the COVID-19 pandemic forced lockdowns across the globe.
Latest tallies
The global tally for confirmed cases of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 climbed above 114.4 million on Tuesday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, while the death toll rose above 2.54 million.
Almost 65 million people have recovered from COVID-19, the data show.
The U.S. has the highest case tally in the world at 28.6 million and the highest death toll at 514,660.
Brazil has the second highest death toll at 255,720 and is third by cases at 10.6 million.
India is second worldwide in cases with 11.1 million, and now fourth in deaths at 157,248.
Mexico has the third highest death toll at 186,152 and 13th highest case tally at 2.1 million.
The U.K. has 4.2 million cases and 123,187 deaths, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world.
China, where the virus was first discovered late last year, has had 100,990 confirmed cases and 4,836 deaths, according to its official numbers.
