Covid: Sparring over ‘vaccine nationalism’
A day after Britain became the first Western country to authorize a coronavirus vaccine, British and American officials bickered over which government’s drug-approval process was better, leading scientists to warn that the debate could undermine public faith.
In Britain, official euphoria was giving way to the difficult choices involved in how to administer it. Roughly 800,000 doses of the approved Pfizer vaccine were being packaged in Belgium for shipment to Britain, which plans to begin vaccinations on Monday.
“Vaccine nationalism has no place in Covid or other public health matters of global significance,” said Jeremy Farrar, a scientific adviser to the British government. “Science has always been the exit strategy from this horrendous pandemic — that science has been global.”
Access to vaccines: Advanced and developing countries alike could suffer significant damage if lower-income nations do not get a fair share of coronavirus vaccines, according to a new report from the Eurasia Group, a political research and consulting firm. If vaccine access is equitable, the analysis found, it would generate at least $466 billion in economic benefits by 2025 for 10 of the world’s largest donor countries.
Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.
In other developments:

■ A series of cyberattacks is being aimed at the companies and government organizations that will be distributing coronavirus vaccines around the world, IBM has found. It is unclear whether the goal is to steal the refrigeration technology or to sabotage their transport.

■ The U.S. on Wednesday recorded its greatest daily virus death toll, 2,885, surpassing the record set in April. The number of people in the hospital for Covid-19 was more than 100,000, nearly double the high point in spring.

■ Germany and Greece extended their lockdowns, while Austria loosened restrictions. Russia readied the Sputnik V vaccine to be administered starting on Saturday.
The New York Times