Millions of Covid-19 vaccines sit unused in US hospitals and elsewhere a week into the huge inoculation campaign, putting the government's target for 20 million vaccinations this month in doubt.
As of Wednesday morning, only a million Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines had been administered, about a third of the first shipment sent last week.
More than 9.5 million vaccine doses, including Moderna's, have now been sent to states, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
While hospitals started giving out Moderna's vaccine, the CDC has not yet reported that data and there may be a lag in reporting the administration of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
Covid around the world - in pictures
The slow pace has barely picked up from the first week when 614,000 inoculations were given although nearly 2.9 million were shipped.
Hospitals said the first Covid-19 vaccinations started slowly last Monday as they prepared the frozen vaccines for use, finding employees to run the vaccination clinics, and ensuring proper social distancing before and after vaccination. Some said they did only about 100 patients the first day.
They were contending with a Covid-19 surge, as cases around the United States surpassed 18 million with 323,000 deaths.
The Trump administration promised to vaccinate 20 million by the end of the year but provided little funding to achieve the goal.
That is nine days to administer nearly 19 million vaccines, more than two million people a day, including Christmas Day.
Almost 5.9 million doses of Moderna's vaccine should go out this week and an additional two million doses from Pfizer and partner BioNTech.
"The commitment that we can make is to make vaccine doses available," US Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr Moncef Slaoui said on Wednesday. He said the rate of people getting vaccinated is "slower than we thought it would be".
Two more vaccines may be approved in February – from Johnson & Johnson Inc and AstraZeneca.
The government's goal is 100 million Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines aministered by March 1.
Operation Warp Speed's Gen Gustave Perna, who is leading the vaccine distribution effort, on Monday said that the CDC data reflects a reporting lag and that the number of vaccinations will catch up as time goes on.
The CDC said its data may also reflect a lag between vaccine dosing and state reporting. Most nursing home vaccinations began in mass only this week, and the CDC data does not specify how many doses from the first shipment were being held by states for that group.
Margaret Mary Health, a 25-bed rural hospital in Indiana, built a drive-thru vaccination clinic at a local fire station and one at a local recreation centre to vaccinate healthcare workers in the surrounding counties, according to chief executive Tim Putnam.
Mr Putnam, who has done traffic control at the clinic's drive-thru, said they have used about 400 of 1,100 doses received.
"We're asking for volunteers from our staff, volunteers from the local community college, to step in and build this process from the ground up," he said.
Some of the largest US hospitals inoculated more than 1,000 people per day, having done dry runs for the vaccine delivery and launch.
Vermont, Delaware and Idaho were among states that confirmed their states had given only thousands of doses – a fraction of those available to them – during the first week.
Jason Schwartz, assistant professor of health policy at Yale School of Public Health, described the initial tally as discouraging and said "the challenges of getting vaccines out as quickly as we're able to manufacture them will only grow".
Johnson & Johnson's one-shot vaccine could speed deployment because it requires a conventional refrigerator and has no specialised procedures to thaw out and administer, said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association for Immunisation Managers trade group. AstraZeneca's two-dose vaccine also can be stored in a refrigerator.
"When it's refrigerator-stable and a one-dose regimen, it can't get any easier than that," Ms Hannan said.
Dr Saul Weingart, the chief medical officer of Tufts Medical Centre in Boston, said the hospital had given about 750 doses of the 3,000 available as of Friday.
It started with 100 inoculations a day and worked up to about 450, he said.
He said modelling by experts at the hospital suggested giving Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine would take 10 minutes, about two to three times as long as a flu shot, a result of the procedures needed because the vaccine is stored in a deep freeze.
Patients need to socially distance before and after being given the vaccine and be monitored for allergic reactions.
The United States gives 170 million flu vaccinations each year within a few months, but for the Covid-19 pandemic, the US will need to provide about three times that number – the Pfizer and Moderna shots are two doses – to reach most Americans by July.
At the current pace, the US appears to have the capacity to administer fewer than a third of the doses shipped in a given week, underscoring the gap.
A spokesperson for Houston Methodist, a hospital in Houston, Texas, said it had given 8,300 employees the vaccine as of Monday with about 7,000 doses left from the first shipment.
The University of Southern California's Keck Medicine medical school vaccinated more than 3,000 employees and said it will take six weeks for everyone, similar to its flu-vaccination schedule.
States and health departments need federal money to hire staff, from data centre workers to track inoculations to call centre employees to field questions, said Adriane Casalotti, chief of government and public affairs of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
The US Congress's coronavirus aid package sets aside more than $8 billion for vaccine distribution, but is delayed.
"You can't hire someone in December and train them up if you don’t know you can pay them in January," Ms Casalotti said.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
'Top Gun: Maverick'
Rating: 4/5
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris
The language of diplomacy in 1853
Treaty of Peace in Perpetuity Agreed Upon by the Chiefs of the Arabian Coast on Behalf of Themselves, Their Heirs and Successors Under the Mediation of the Resident of the Persian Gulf, 1853
(This treaty gave the region the name “Trucial States”.)
We, whose seals are hereunto affixed, Sheikh Sultan bin Suggar, Chief of Rassool-Kheimah, Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon, Chief of Aboo Dhebbee, Sheikh Saeed bin Buyte, Chief of Debay, Sheikh Hamid bin Rashed, Chief of Ejman, Sheikh Abdoola bin Rashed, Chief of Umm-ool-Keiweyn, having experienced for a series of years the benefits and advantages resulting from a maritime truce contracted amongst ourselves under the mediation of the Resident in the Persian Gulf and renewed from time to time up to the present period, and being fully impressed, therefore, with a sense of evil consequence formerly arising, from the prosecution of our feuds at sea, whereby our subjects and dependants were prevented from carrying on the pearl fishery in security, and were exposed to interruption and molestation when passing on their lawful occasions, accordingly, we, as aforesaid have determined, for ourselves, our heirs and successors, to conclude together a lasting and inviolable peace from this time forth in perpetuity.
Taken from Britain and Saudi Arabia, 1925-1939: the Imperial Oasis, by Clive Leatherdale
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Tips on buying property during a pandemic
Islay Robinson, group chief executive of mortgage broker Enness Global, offers his advice on buying property in today's market.
While many have been quick to call a market collapse, this simply isn’t what we’re seeing on the ground. Many pockets of the global property market, including London and the UAE, continue to be compelling locations to invest in real estate.
While an air of uncertainty remains, the outlook is far better than anyone could have predicted. However, it is still important to consider the wider threat posed by Covid-19 when buying bricks and mortar.
Anything with outside space, gardens and private entrances is a must and these property features will see your investment keep its value should the pandemic drag on. In contrast, flats and particularly high-rise developments are falling in popularity and investors should avoid them at all costs.
Attractive investment property can be hard to find amid strong demand and heightened buyer activity. When you do find one, be prepared to move hard and fast to secure it. If you have your finances in order, this shouldn’t be an issue.
Lenders continue to lend and rates remain at an all-time low, so utilise this. There is no point in tying up cash when you can keep this liquidity to maximise other opportunities.
Keep your head and, as always when investing, take the long-term view. External factors such as coronavirus or Brexit will present challenges in the short-term, but the long-term outlook remains strong.
Finally, keep an eye on your currency. Whenever currency fluctuations favour foreign buyers, you can bet that demand will increase, as they act to secure what is essentially a discounted property.
