MOSCOW - The Delta COVID-19 strain spreads as easily as chickenpox, with fully vaccinated people also transmitting the virus, The Washington Post has reported, citing an internal document from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), expected to be published later on Friday. The transmissibility of the Delta variant is almost as high as chickenpox, with each infected perso [...]

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has found a link connecting mRNA vaccines, such as Pfizer and Moderna, to rare heart conditions following inoculation, and has recommended that these side effects are listed. The EMA published its findings that there is a risk of heart inflammation conditions - myocarditis and pericarditis – following the administration of mRNA Covid vaccines on Friday [...]

While waiting for the final decision on the controversial vaccine, Norway has decided to distribute its stock of AstraZeneca to fellow Nordic countries that actually want to use them despite the associated risks. Norwegians run a greater risk of dying from being inoculated with AstraZeneca's vaccine than from COVID-19, the National Institute of Public Health (FHI) concluded in its analysi [...]

While Argentina-born Cuban revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara would be 93 on 14 June 2021, the island is finalising testing its domestically made anti-coronavirus vaccines as the end of the pandemic is nowhere in sight. Latin America experts have shed light on how Che and Fidel laid the ground for Cuba's healthcare and biotech development. Cuba's biotechnological industry is gainin [...]

The majority of Russians believe they haven’t yet had Covid-19, new research reveals, but more than half of people say they aren’t actually worried about catching the virus and far fewer say they’ve signed up for a vaccine so far. That’s according to a new survey conducted by Moscow’s Levada Center, a pollster registered as a foreign agent by Russia’s Justice Ministry over links to [...]

Those of us who put forward an alternative view to the prevailing orthodoxy on the virus or on vaccinations are being vilified, threatened and cancelled. This is not how science, or a functioning democracy, works. I haven’t written for a while, sorry. Instead, I have been sorting out two complaints about my writing made to the General Medical Council (GMC). Also, a complaint from NHS England, an [...]

San Marino, a tiny landlocked state, surprised many of its European neighbours when it began easing anti-COVID restrictions in mid-April, several months after it stocked up on Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. It may be one of Europe’s smallest states, but it’s winning the COVID battle thanks to Russia’s vaccine. The country, which has a population of 34,000, has seen coronavirus cas [...]

India has received its first batch of the Russian-made Sputnik V jab. Heavily hit by a new wave of Covid-19 infections, the country has expanded its vaccination drive in a bid to inoculate its entire adult population. An aircraft carrying the vaccines touched down in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad on Saturday. “First batch of Sputnik V vaccine arrives in Hyderabad, India! That's t [...]

Austria is to order a million doses of Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, one month after a successful phone call between Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and the Kremlin. It will be the third EU country to receive the formula. The news came from the chancellor himself, who revealed that Vienna and Moscow are engaged in talks, and said a deal should be agreed soon. On Tuesday, Kurz explained th [...]

Brussels’ beleaguered coronavirus vaccination program could be poised to get a shot in the arm as the EU’s central regulator completes its initial stage in appraising Sputnik V, the vaccine developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Center. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) told Russian media on Tuesday that the scientific consultation process was now finalized. “As a next step, the company ca [...]

After a video of his mother’s condition went viral, the son of a woman who was hospitalized after receiving Pfizer’s Covid jab told RT that, even though he was not an anti-vaxxer, he had serious doubts about the drug’s safety. Brant Griner issued an appeal on Facebook last week, after his mother began experiencing serious medical issues several days after taking the vaccine. In a now-vi [...]

Touting his administration's coronavirus pandemic response, outgoing US President Donald Trump has been particularly praising the amount of COVID-19 tests performed in the United States, claiming: "we test more than anybody". Donald Trump pointed a finger at his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, stating that it "would be his fault" if the 2020 presidential election did not go [...]

With the vaccine not providing immediate immunity to the coronavirus, over two hundred Israeli citizens have been diagnosed with the disease days after getting the Pfizer/BioNTech jabs, local media reported. The number of those who got Covid-19 despite being vaccinated was at around 240 people, according to data from Channel 13 News. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which the Israeli health au [...]

No stranger to controversy, US President Donald Trump’s first term in office has been riddled with contentious domestic issues, including his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, nonexistent health care replacement for the Affordable Care Act and even his initiative to bolster the US’ southern border. As Trump’s hold on the White House dwindles even further - now that electors have ca [...]

Covid-19 vaccines created using public funds should not be used to fuel obscene private profits, a senior Oxfam official told RT, amid growing concern that poor nations can’t afford to inoculate their populations. An alarming report authored by Oxfam International in collaboration with a group of other human rights organizations warned that only one in 10 people in poor countries are set to rece [...]

A wide-ranging anti-coronavirus vaccination campaign began in Moscow on Saturday, with thousands signing up for shots online, in the Russian capital. Frontline workers were given first priority, as previous indicated. Those wishing to participate have to sign up online before receiving their initial dose of Sputnik V at one of the city’s 70 specialist clinics. The vaccine consists of two se [...]

Four trial participants who received the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine experienced facial paralysis, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA said the issue should be monitored as the jab becomes more widely available. The potentially concerning cases were revealed after the US drug regulator published an analysis of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine ahead of a meeting to consider emergency [...]

As long as health insurance firms and drug companies continue to “gouge people,” the US will not be equipped to handle a pandemic, physician Dr. Margaret Flowers has told RT’s ‘On Contact.’ With 12 million people infected and 255,000 dead in the US, Dr. Flowers told ‘On Contact’ host Chris Hedges on Saturday that “it’s fair to say that we have lost control of the virus, and [...]

The Covid-19 virus had been active in Italy months before it was first officially detected, new research has found, raising further questions about the true origins, extent and actual duration of the ongoing pandemic. The new groundbreaking study, conducted by scientists with Milan Institute of Cancer and the University of Siena, was published this week by the Tumori Journal. The research is based [...]

Russia was widely criticized when it became the first country in the world to register a coronavirus vaccine in August. It was accused of rushing through the approval of the ‘Sputnik V’ formula for political or propaganda gain. Since then the whole development of the vaccine has been dogged by Schadenfreude as the press leapt on signs of impropriety in the data, and Russia has even been acc [...]

Given the continued disruptions caused by the pandemic and uncertainty about a vaccine, it would behoove the countries of the world to dial down tensions and expand collaborations, writes Vijay Prashad. In mid-October, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its World Economic Outlook report, which offered some dizzying data. For 2020, the IMF estimates that the global Gross Domestic P [...]

Americans were stunned to learn that the Doctors Without Borders humanitarian aid group is operating inside the US to help with Covid-19, after CNN medical expert Dr. Sanjay Gupta drew attention to their efforts. “This is probably one of the worst stories I’ve covered in my career here at CNN. … Doctors Without Borders have come to the United States to do their work,” Gupta said, whi [...]