Coronavirus Archives

Experts outside China are watching a COVID-19 surge, worried a nation of 1.4 billion people is inadequately vaccinated and may not have the tools to treat a wave of illness expected to kill more than one million people through 2023.

Tobacco, alcohol and cannabis are being consumed much less by French adolescents since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, though lockdowns are not the only reason for this downward trend, according to a recent study.

More funding must go towards researching the effects of long COVID which currently affects 17 million people in the EU, patient representatives said at a conference organised by the European Commission on Tuesday (13 December).

The boss of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Albert Bourla, has once again refused to meet lawmakers on the European Parliament's Special COVID Committee and answer their questions regarding the vaccine contracts the EU purchased during the pandemic.

People in the Chinese manufacturing hub of Guangzhou clashed with white hazmat-suited riot police on Tuesday night (29 November), videos on social media showed, as frustration with stringent COVID-19 rules boiled over, three years into the pandemic.

China posted another record high COVID-19 infections on Monday (28 November), after an extraordinary weekend of protests across the country over restrictive coronavirus curbs, in scenes unprecedented since President Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago.

Available monoclonal antibody medicines may not be effective against the new COVID-19 omicron sub-variants, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has warned.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon's radical left-wing group La France Insoumise (LFI) will present a bill to lawmakers next week aimed at reinstating health workers who did not get the COVID-19 vaccine, though it remains uncertain whether other left-wing parties will back it.

The purchase of COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic has been a success story and "a small European miracle", European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas told the European Parliament's special committee on COVID during a hearing on Wednesday (26 October).

The virus is faster than we can ever be in adapting vaccines, Marco Cavaleri, head of health threats and vaccines strategy at the European Medicines Agency (EMA), told MEPs on Wednesday (October 26).

Faced with numerous questions from EU lawmakers on Monday (10 October), pharmaceutical giant Pfizer remained vague about the opacity of its vaccine purchase contracts and the text messages exchanged with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. This was enough to raise the tension a notch.

European lawmakers voted in favour of a non-binding report calling for increased spending on education and culture in order to combat the decline in the mental health of children and young people.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Monday (12 September) recommended the authorisation of an adapted bivalent vaccine targeting the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 in addition to the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 as a booster shot. 

Most COVID-19 vaccine contracts signed by the European Commission lacked specific provisions to address supply disruptions, and procurement processes could have been more scrutinised, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) found in a new report released Monday (12 September).

The European Commission proposed measures to prevent a surge of COVID-19 cases in the upcoming autumn and winter season, calling for member states to enact a coordinated approach. 

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has greenlit two adapted mRNA COVID-19 vaccines targeting the original strain of COVID-19 as well as the BA.1 Omicron subvariant.

The EU's medicines watchdog said Wednesday (10 August) it aims to approve this autumn a Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine adapted for two fast-spreading subvariants of the Omicron strain.

The European Commission said on Tuesday (2 August) that it had signed a joint procurement contract with Spanish pharmaceutical firm HIPRA for the supply of its protein COVID-19 vaccine, which will be available if approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Austrian leaders appealed for national unity after a doctor who faced death threats from anti-vaccination activists and coronavirus pandemic conspiracy theorists took her own life.

Amid a tripling of new COVID-19 cases in the past six weeks, the EU's Health Commissioner called on member states to step up preventative public health measures in a letter obtained by EURACTIV dated Monday (18 July).

The European Ombudsman has harshly criticised the EU executive for their response to texts between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Albert Bourla, and confirmed the finding of maladministration.

As COVID-19 cases continue to spike across the EU, on Monday (11 July) health agencies recommended second booster doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines for those older than 60 and the clinically vulnerable.

The text messages between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Albert Bourla, are nowhere to be found, the Commission said in their response to the European Ombudsman’s accusation of maladministration.

EU member states and the European Parliament reached a provisional deal on the long-awaited file on serious cross-border threats to health on Thursday (23 June). The deal has a strong focus on prevention, Parliament rapporteur Véronique Trillet-Lenoir told EURACTIV.