Pune: The tiny clinking vials supervised by silent PPE-wearing technicians belie the excitement inside the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India, a major player in the fight against coronavirus.The firm, founded in 1966 in the western city of Pune, is producing millions of doses of the Covishield vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, for India and much of the developing world.Unlike the rival Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Covishield can be stored and transported using standard refrigeration. It is also significantly cheaper than the vaccines developed by Pfizer or the US firm Moderna, making it better suited for countries with poorer populations and rusty infrastructure.Even before the pandemic, the Indian firm was a world leader in vaccines, producing 1.5 billion doses a year and inoculating two out of three children in 170 countries against diseases such as polio, mumps, meningitis and measles.Its journey kicked off on a stud farm, where the … [Read more...] about Inside the world’s biggest vaccine factory, India’s Serum Institute
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Russia’s RDIF Reaches Agreement to Produce COVID-19 Vaccine Sputnik V in Turkey
"The vaccine will be supplied both to the domestic market in Turkey and to other countries", the RDIF said. The RDIF added that Turkish partners are showing great interest in the Russian vaccine, which has an efficacy rate of over 90 percent, for inoculating the country’s population, as well as for its production in order to further export it to third countries. … [Read more...] about Russia’s RDIF Reaches Agreement to Produce COVID-19 Vaccine Sputnik V in Turkey
Olympian Dana Vollmer back in pool and aiming for Rio
She wasn’t. And now Vollmer, who won the 100-meter butterfly at the winter national championships this month, looks like a strong bet to make her third Olympic team and compete in Rio de Janeiro in August. And if that comes to pass, she’ll certainly be one of the athletes for Bay Area sports fans to watch in 2016. … [Read more...] about Olympian Dana Vollmer back in pool and aiming for Rio
Essex lorry deaths: Four people-smugglers jailed for a total of 78 years
Nica was given 27 years, Hughes got 20 years in prison, Harrison was sentenced to 18 years, and Robinson was jailed for 13 years and four months - all for 39 counts of manslaughter and a people-smuggling conspiracy. On October 23, 2019, the bodies of 39 Vietnamese were discovered in the back of a refrigerated lorry at an industrial estate in Grays in Essex, near London. Autopsies concluded that the provisional cause of the death of the victims was a combination of hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation and hyperthermia, or overheating in an enclosed space./. … [Read more...] about Essex lorry deaths: Four people-smugglers jailed for a total of 78 years
New details in Essex lorry case revealed at court
London (VNA) – A British truck driver who discovered 39 dead Vietnamese migrants in a refrigerated lorry waited about 23 minutes before notifying police, a court was told on October 27. Maurice Robinson, 26, had collected the sealed container from the southeast English port of Purfleet after it had arrived on a cargo ship from Zeebrugge in Belgium, and opened its doors shortly afterwards in nearby Thurrock in the early hours of October 23 last year. Inside he found the bodies of the migrants who had suffocated to death after being trapped in the dark inside for at least 12 hours, in unbearably high temperatures. However, instead of immediately calling police, Robinson made several phone calls to others accused of roles in the people-trafficking scheme, a prosecutor told London’s Old Bailey court. He also drove the truck in a loop around the surrounding industrial area, taking 23 minutes before alerting officers, jurors in the trial of four men charged with involvement … [Read more...] about New details in Essex lorry case revealed at court