Coronavirus live news: American FDA panel approves Pfizer vaccine as Biden advisor warns ‘no Christmas parties’
Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine approved by US panel; Israel abandons Covid-19 curfew plan ahead of Hanukkah; London has highest Covid-19 case rate in England
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Mexico’s coronavirus spokesman said Thursday the country’s median age of death from Covid-19 was a shockingly young 55, as compared to an average of 75 in many European countries, AP reports.
Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell said that nonetheless, Mexico’s future coronavirus vaccination program would target the oldest Mexicans first.
López-Gatell said the country’s high rates of obesity, diabetes and hypertension explained Mexico’s lower average age of death. He said Mexico has among the highest rate of obesity in the world.
López-Gatell said Mexico’s approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine could come Friday. But he said all acquisitions of vaccines would be at the federal level, and that individual state governments could not purchase their own.
That came after one opposition-party state governor said some fellow governors were weighing acquiring vaccines on their own.
Mexico has seen a total of 1,217,126 test-confirmed coronavirus cases and 112,326 confirmed deaths, although official estimates of deaths are closer to 150,000.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been named Time magazine’s person – or persons – of the year for 2020 for their performance in the US’s pandemic election:
The magazine said: “Together, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris offered restoration and renewal in a single ticket. And America bought what they were selling: after the highest turnout in a century, they racked up 81 million votes and counting, the most in presidential history, topping Trump by some 7 million votes and flipping five battleground states.”
Related: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris named Time magazine’s 2020 person of the year
Read the original article at The Guardian