• Over 7 million people have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, including South African president Cyril Ramaphosa.

• Scientists found that antibodies produced by the vaccine were able to fend against an engineered version of the virus that contained mutations seen in the P.1 variant from Brazil.
• The lab study was performed by University of Texas Medical Branch and others, and was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged the company to serve EU countries before exporting doses elsewhere.
• "It has to honour the contract it has with European member states before it can engage again in exporting vaccines," she said Thursday.

• Johnson made the comment during a Zoom call with Tory members of parliament.
• Sources say what he claimed that the free market, and profit motives, drove drug firms to develop vaccines.

• Previously, a large number of EU countries blocked its use after reports that it had caused blood clots.
• Many, including France and Germany, agreed to use the vaccine again after the European Medicines Agency reported that the Oxford University-made vaccine is safe.
• Sweden, Denmark and Norway will take longer to review the report.

• Sheikh Mohamed Hamad Mohamed al-Khalifa, the son of the King of Bahrain, is currently in quarantine in Kathmandu.
• The Nepali government says the delegation promised to bring the AstraZeneca vaccine, but instead brought the Chinese-made Sinopharm. The are being held in cold storage "as the authorities ponder how to handle the situation."

• The legislation was approved in response to a very small but vocal group of vaccine-skeptics who are against Covid-19 inoculation.
• Advocacy groups like Physicians for Human Rights and Meretz lawmakers say it's a blatant violation of privacy and that there are better ways to encourage people to get inoculated. The law is set to expire in 90 days.

“We are going to give people who were part of our Phase 1-2 study from last summer a boost with another dose of the current vaccine. We expect that the antibody levels may rise against current variants to strengthen protection," said Dr. Mikael Dolsten, Chief Scientific Officer, Pfizer-BioNTech.

The move is being called the largest vaccination drive in the world. The country is using two vaccines in its fight against the coronavirus -- a locally manufactured version of Oxford-AstraZeneca, and an Indian-produced vaccine called Covaxin. Covaxin's efficacy is not yet known.

The incoming administration will focus vaccine efforts on people who are more likely to get infected, and by expanding the number of vaccination sites.

The move is part of the incoming administration's effort to reassure the public of the vaccine's safety.