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Coronavirus Reinfections Are Uncommon, Danish Researchers Report

Coronavirus Reinfections Are Rare, Danish Researchers Report

The vast majority of people who recover from Covid-19 will remain protected from the virus for at least six months, researchers reported Wednesday in a large study from Denmark.

Previous coronavirus infection reduced the likelihood of a second fight for people under 65 years of age by about 80 percent, but only about half for people over 65. However, these results, published in the journal Lancet, have been tempered by many reservations.

The number of infected elderly people in the study was low. The researchers had no information beyond the test results, so it’s possible that only people who were mildly ill the first time were re-infected and the second infections were largely symptom-free.

Scientists have said reinfections are likely to be asymptomatic or mild because the immune system suppresses the virus before it can do much damage. The researchers also did not evaluate the possibility of re-infection with newer variants of the virus.

Still, the study suggests that immunity to natural infection is unpredictable and uneven, and it underscores the importance of vaccinating everyone – especially the elderly, according to experts.

“You certainly cannot rely on a previous infection to protect you from disease again and possibly be quite ill if you are in the elderly area,” said Steen Ethelberg, epidemiologist at Statens Serum Institute, Denmark’s public health department.

Because people over 65 are at the highest risk of serious illness and death, he said, “They are the ones we are most likely to want to protect.”

Rigorous estimates of secondary infections have generally been rare because many people around the world initially did not have access to testing and laboratories need genetic sequences from both rounds of testing to confirm re-infection.

However, the results are consistent with those from experiments in a variety of settings: sailors on a fishing trawler in Seattle, Marine Corps recruits in South Carolina, healthcare workers in the UK, and patients in clinics in the US.

The design and size of the new study benefited from Denmark’s free and extensive tests for the coronavirus. Almost 70 percent of the country’s population was tested for the virus in 2020.

Updated

March 19, 2021, 7:06 a.m. ET

The researchers examined the results of 11,068 people who tested positive for the coronavirus during the first wave in Denmark between March and May 2020. During the second wave from September to December, 72 of these people, or 0.65 percent, tested positive again. compared to 3.27 percent of people who were infected for the first time.

This corresponds to 80 percent protection against the virus in those who were previously infected. Protection fell to 47 percent for those over 65. The team also analyzed the test results of nearly 2.5 million people during the epidemic, some longer than seven months after the initial infection, and found similar results.

“It was really nice to see that there was no difference in protection against re-infection over time,” said Marion Pepper, an immunologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

She and other experts found that 80 percent may not seem great, but protection from symptomatic illness is likely to be higher. The analysis included everyone who was tested, regardless of symptoms.

“Many of these will be asymptomatic infections, and many of them will likely be people who have a virus stain,” noted Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine on Mount Sinai in New York. “An 80 percent reduction in the risk of asymptomatic infections is great.”

The results show that people who have recovered from Covid-19 should receive at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine to increase levels of protection, added Dr. Krammer added. Most people produce a robust immune response to natural infection, “but there is great variability,” he said. After vaccination “we don’t see any variability – with very few exceptions we see very high reactions in practically everyone.”

Experts were less convinced of the results in people over 65, saying the results would have been more robust if more people in that age group had been included in the analysis.

“I wish it had actually been broken down into specific decades over 65,” said Dr. Pepper. “It would be nice to know if the majority of the people who were re-infected were over 80 years old.”

The immune system becomes progressively weaker as we age, and people over 80 tend to respond weakly to infection with a virus. The lower levels of protection seen in the elderly in the study are consistent with these observations, said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University.

“I think we tend to forget that vaccines are amazingly protective in this age group because you can see that natural infections don’t offer the same protection,” she said. “This really highlights the need to provide the elderly with the vaccine, even if they had Covid first.”

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Biden to hit purpose of 100 million pictures in first 100 days

Biden to hit goal of 100 million shots in first 100 days

President Joe Biden is poised to meet his goal of getting 100 million Covid-19 vaccination shots in his first 100 days as early as Thursday, a senior administrative official told NBC News.

The president had reached the goal ahead of schedule, said the official. Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on January 20, approximately 57 days ago. Biden said last week that he expected to hit the goal on day 60.

Biden is expected to make a “vaccination status” announcement later Thursday, where he can discuss the milestone.

Health experts say the president’s goal of 100 million shots in 100 days was an achievable benchmark. After a slower than expected rollout under former President Donald Trump, the rate of vaccination in the US has increased rapidly, firing an average of 2 to 3 million shots per day.

Since taking office, the Biden administration has worked to increase the supply of vaccine doses in the US after states complained that demand for the shots exceeded supply.

Last week the government announced it would buy 100 million additional doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson. The deal would double the country’s supply of the J&J vaccine as the company has already signed a deal with the government to provide 100 million doses by the end of June. Merck Helps Manufacture J & J.’s Covid Vaccine

The government has also signed deals with drug makers Pfizer and Moderna for 600 million doses, which is enough to vaccinate 300 million Americans, as these two vaccines require two shots three to four weeks apart.

Biden is instructing states to qualify all adults ages 18 and older for the vaccines by May 1, he announced a week ago. The government will set up a website in May to help people find vaccination sites nearby, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be issuing new health and safety guidelines for those who have been vaccinated.

Although the pace of vaccination is increasing, there is still another problem with administering it: the hesitation of the vaccine.

Although clinical trial data shows the vaccines are safe and highly effective, just under half of US adults surveyed in December said they are very likely to be vaccinated, according to a study by the CDC.

Officials also encounter an unforeseen problem with the distribution of J & J’s recordings. Although J & J’s vaccine is a highly effective vaccine, particularly against serious illness and death, its rate of effectiveness is lower than that of Pfizer and Moderna, and therefore is perceived as inferior by some Americans.

The administration is also at risk of new, emerging variants. The CDC has announced that the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first identified in the UK, is expected to be the dominant strain in the US by the end of this month or early April. A study published in the British Medical Journal found the highly contagious strain was linked to a 64% higher risk of dying from Covid-19 than previous strains.

Senior health officials, including the White House Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anthony Fauci, urge Americans to get vaccinated as soon as possible. The virus cannot mutate if it cannot infect hosts and cannot multiply.

Correction: The heading of this story has been updated to reflect President Joe Biden’s goal of administering 100 million Covid vaccines during his first 100 days in office will be met as early as Thursday.

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Carola Eisenberg Dies at 103; Helped Begin Physicians for Human Rights

Carola Eisenberg Dies at 103; Helped Start Physicians for Human Rights

The medical group and another advocacy group, Human Rights Watch, exposed the threats to public health, especially children, from anti-personnel landmines in Cambodia. In a report she called for an international ban on these weapons. The group of doctors then teamed up with five other organizations to form the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.

In a statement by Dr. Eisenberg’s death praised Alan Jones, chairman of the board of Physicians for Human Rights, for “the unfathomable number of lives she could touch, improve, ease and save”.

Caroline Blitzman was born on September 15, 1917 in Buenos Aires, the second of three daughters. Her father, Bernardo Blitzman, had emigrated to Argentina from Russia as a baby; Her mother, Teodora (Kahn) Blitzman, came from the Ukraine. Caroline grew up across the street from a slaughterhouse where her father was an executive hides.

After graduating from high school, she trained as a psychiatric social worker at the Hospicio de las Mercedes (now José Tiburcio Borda’s municipal hospital) in Buenos Aires before embarking on a medical career.

“I had to go into medicine to do more than just give the families tickets at Christmas time to get a turkey,” she said in a 2008 interview with the Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine.

In 1944 she graduated from the University of Buenos Aires with a degree in medicine.

Dr. Eisenberg was trained instead at Johns Hopkins University under the guidance of Dr. Leo Kanner, who recently coined the term autism. She worked with him at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

She then moved to the Johns Hopkins Medical School and practiced psychiatry until 1968 when she became a psychiatrist with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Student Health Service.

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Dr. Peter Hotez backs Fauci in his showdown with Sen. Paul over masks

Dr. Peter Hotez backs Fauci in his showdown with Sen. Paul over masks

Dr. Peter Hotez stands after a showdown between Republican Senator Rand Paul and Dr. Anthony Fauci on Capitol Hill for masks on the side of one of the best doctors in the country.

“Dr. Fauci is absolutely right, Senator Paul is absolutely wrong, and it has been for the past 14 months,” said Hotez.

Paul claimed that after their recovery or vaccination, people are not at risk for Covid and therefore do not need to wear masks. The Kentucky Senator also claimed that Fauci was just sporting two masks.

The White House chief medical officer strongly opposed Paul’s comments Thursday during a Senate hearing examining the country’s efforts to respond to the coronavirus.

“I can only say that masks are no theater,” said Fauci. “I totally disagree with you.”

In a Thursday night interview on The News with Shepard Smith, Hotez noted that “masks may need to be removed” but that it is too early and “we are still trying to understand the full performance characteristics of the vaccines”.

“We are only now getting a clue that it is interrupting the asymptomatic transmission,” said Hotez.

The masks debate comes from the fact that almost half of the country has seen an increase in Covid cases. 23 states reported an average of seven days increase in cases last week, according to Johns Hopkins. Half a dozen states are also seeing a higher trend in hospital stays, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital, told host Shepard Smith that the spikes could be the result of highly transmissible new variants.

“The key now is to vaccinate before the variants as soon as possible,” said Hotez.

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Baby Dies in Accident Involving Peloton Treadmill

Child Dies in Accident Involving Peloton Treadmill

An accident with a peloton treadmill killed a child, the company’s managing director said on Thursday.

In a letter posted on the company’s website, John Foley, CEO and co-founder of Peloton, said the company, known for its hugely popular interactive stationary bikes, recently learned of the fatal accident and “a small handful of incidents” along with it Children injured by the treadmill + treadmill.

“While we have known only a small handful of Tread + -related incidents that have injured children, everyone in Peloton is devastating and our hearts go out to the families affected,” said Foley.

The company urged Peloton users to adhere to the safety warnings regarding Peloton products, encouraging members to keep them where children cannot reach them and keep safety keys out of reach of children when the machines are not in use .

“There are no words to express the shock and sadness everyone at Peloton feels as a result of this terrible tragedy,” a spokesman said in a statement.

Details of the accident that led to the child’s death were still unclear. The company said it would not release any further details, such as when and where it took place, “out of respect for family and their privacy.”

The Tread + works similarly to a standard treadmill, but has a 32-inch touchscreen that allows users to exercise with the help of peloton instructors and exercise with others in real time. The price starts at $ 4,295, according to the company’s website.

A spokesman said the equipment was “designed and tested” to be used by people who are at least 16 years old and weigh more than 105 pounds.

A 2020 study by the American Journal of Emergency Medicine found that most home treadmill injuries occurred in children under the age of 16 and that the coronavirus pandemic posed a unique risk of injury as more adults worked from home and children participated in distance learning . The study found that common injuries included hand and finger damage such as frictional burns or degloving, in which some of the skin tissue becomes detached from the muscle below.

During the pandemic, Peloton’s popularity has boomed. The company’s value rose to more than $ 40 billion during the pandemic as physical gyms closed and people’s exercise habits disrupted.

On Thursday, the company’s share price closed 4.6 percent on news of the fatal treadmill accident.

Last year the company suffered another setback when it recalled pedals on about 27,000 of its stationary bikes after receiving reports that clip-in pedals caused injuries that required stitches or other medical care.

Susan Beachy contributed to the research.

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‘I completely disagree with you,’ Fauci tells GOP senator in fiery change over masks

'I totally disagree with you,' Fauci tells GOP senator in fiery exchange over masks

The Chief Medical Officer of the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci, urged Republican Senator Rand Paul back on Thursday that people are not at risk for Covid after their recovery or vaccination.

In a fiery exchange during a Senate hearing examining the country’s efforts to respond to coronavirus, Paul told Fauci that Americans should not wear masks after vaccination due to the likelihood of getting Covid-19 is “practically 0%”.

“Isn’t it just theater?” The Kentucky junior senator, an ophthalmologist, asked during a hearing on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

“You’ve been vaccinated and you hit around in two masks for the show. You can’t get it back,” Paul said. “There’s practically a 0% chance you’ll get it, and you tell people who had the vaccine have immunity – you defy everything we know about immunity by telling people they are wearing vaccinated masks should.”

In response, Fauci said: “Here we go again with the theater.”

“”All I can say is that masks are no theater, “said Fauci.” I totally disagree with you. “

The emergence of new, highly contagious variants poses a threat to people who have recovered from Covid or have been vaccinated, he said.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) speaks during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing on the federal response to the coronavirus March 18, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Susan Walsh | Pool | Getty Images

It has been shown that new variants, especially the strain B.1.351 identified for the first time in South Africa, escape the protection of vaccines.

“In the South African study of [Johnson & Johnson]They found that people who were wild-type infected and exposed to variant 351 in South Africa felt like they had never been infected before, they had no protection, “Fauci said.

Fauci agreed that it was unlikely that anyone would become infected with the original strain for at least six months. “But we in our country now have variants.”

The exchange took place a little over a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new guidelines that those who are fully vaccinated can safely visit other vaccinated people indoors without a mask or social distance.

However, the CDC also recommended that vaccinated individuals should continue to wear masks in public settings, when meeting with unvaccinated individuals from more than one different household, and with individuals at increased risk of developing serious illnesses.

While growing body of evidence suggests that people vaccinated against Covid are less likely to spread the disease to others, it is still not known how long a person’s protection could last or how effective the shots are against emerging variants said the CDC on March 8th.

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A Altering Intestine Microbiome Might Predict How Properly You Age

A Changing Gut Microbiome May Predict How Well You Age

About 900 of these people were seniors who were regularly examined in medical clinics to assess their health. Dr. Gibbons and his colleagues found that middle-aged people from around 40 years of age showed significant changes in their microbiomes. The strains that were most dominant in their guts tended to decrease while other, less common strains were more common, causing their microbiomes to diverge and become increasingly different from others in the population.

“We have found that people drift apart in the different decades of their lives – their microbiomes are becoming more and more unique,” said Dr. Gibbons.

People with the most changes in their microbial makeup tended to have better health and longer lifespans. They had higher levels of vitamin D and lower levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood. They needed less medication and had better physical health, faster walking speeds, and greater mobility.

The researchers found that these “unique” individuals also had higher levels in their blood of several metabolites produced by gut microbes, including indoles, which have been shown to reduce inflammation and maintain the integrity of the barrier that lines the gut and protects. In some studies, scientists have found that giving indoles to mice and other animals helps them stay youthful so that they are more physically active, more mobile, and more resistant to disease, injury, and other stresses in old age. Another metabolite identified in the new study was phenylacetylglutamine. It is not exactly clear what this connection does. However, some experts believe this promotes longevity, as research has shown that centenarians in northern Italy tend to have very high levels.

Dr. Wilmanski found that people whose gut microbiomes had barely changed with age were in poorer health. They had higher levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, and lower levels of vitamin D. They were less active and couldn’t run as fast. They took more medication and died almost twice as often during the study period.

The researchers speculated that some intestinal bugs, which might be harmless or even beneficial in early adulthood, might become harmful in old age. For example, the study found that healthy people who saw the most dramatic changes in their microbiome composition dropped sharply in the prevalence of bacteria called Bacteroides, which are more common in developed countries, where people eat many processed foods full of fat, sugar, and salt and less common in developing countries, where people tend to eat higher fiber diets. When fiber isn’t available, according to Dr. Gibbons like to “mucus,” including the protective layer of mucus that lines the intestines.

“Maybe that’s good if you’re 20 or 30 years old and you have a lot of mucus in your gut,” he said. “But as we get older, our mucus layer gets thinner, and maybe we need to suppress these flaws.”

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Senate to verify Xavier Becerra as HHS secretary

Senate to confirm Xavier Becerra as HHS secretary

Xavier Becerra, candidate for Secretary of State for Health and Human Services, answers questions during his Senate Finance Committee nomination hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on February 24, 2021.

Greg Nash | Pool | Reuters

The Senate plans to confirm Xavier Becerra as secretary for health and human services on Thursday as the US looks to contain Covid-19 and achieve a semblance of normal life by the summer.

Becerra, California’s attorney general, will get approval by a narrow margin in a Senate split between 50 and 50 parties. Almost all Republicans have opposed the former US representative’s nomination, questioning his past healthcare experience and support for Medicare for All.

Becerra would be the first Latino to lead HHS.

The support of Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, should remove the need for Vice President Kamala Harris to cast a casting vote.

If this is confirmed, Becerra will play a vital role in one of the federal government’s most daunting corporations of all time. HHS will help ease Covid-19 vaccinations and testing efforts as health officials hope widespread vaccination will fight back a mutating virus and allow businesses and schools to reopen.

While the spread of the virus has slowed in the United States, the country has about 54,800 Covid-19 cases and at least 1,200 deaths every day, according to a 7-day average calculated by CNBC. About 15.5% of adults and 37.6% of those over 65 are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Becerra will also play a prominent role as the Biden government continues health care reform. President Joe Biden has supported the creation of a Medicare-style public insurance option and changes to control the cost of medication and care.

Becerra becomes the 20th member of the President’s Senate-approved cabinet. The chamber has turned its attention to filling the executive branch since it passed the $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus alleviation law earlier this month.

At a Senate confirmation hearing last month, Becerra said he understood “the enormous challenges that lie ahead”. He said he will work not only to contain the virus, but also to improve access to affordable health care.

Becerra touted his work as California’s attorney general to make Covid treatments more widely available and to crack down on opioid manufacturers.

After her election to the Senate last year, he succeeded Harris as the state’s largest law enforcement officer in 2017. Becerra won a four-year term in 2018.

He represented California in the US House from 1993 to 2017.

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I’m Not Eligible for the Vaccine But. Can I Hunt for a Surplus Dose?

I’m Not Eligible for the Vaccine Yet. Can I Hunt for a Surplus Dose?

I am a college student and I recently learned that my city will open places on the Ministry of Health website to anyone who can be vaccinated if there is an excess of vaccines. We’re still in the first stage of vaccination, but if I check the vaccination website a lot, I could theoretically get an appointment.

Since I am a healthy young person, not an essential worker or at risk, should I wait to be vaccinated in hopes that someone at higher risk or greater risk could take the place? Or should I keep checking this website and taking the dose as soon as it appears? I’m not taking someone else’s place, am I? Ben, Montana

With something perishable – whether it is a lettuce or a thawed carton of Covid-19 vaccines – you can have excess and spoilage with a general deficiency. The minimum order quantity for Pfizer vaccines is one tray of approximately 1,200 doses. Once the vials begin to thaw, they will need to be used in five days. For all approved vaccines, a vial that has been opened once must be used within six hours – Johnson & Johnson uses two hours at room temperature. Each Pfizer vial contains up to six doses. Johnson & Johnson, which has a minimum order of 100 doses, puts five doses in one vial; Moderna will shortly be dispensing 14 doses in each vial.

The point is, vaccines don’t come as “loosies”. Vaccination centers can misjudge the number of registrations, and even when everything is planned correctly, there are sometimes no-shows. Even if a site has a standby list of qualified recipients, there are occasions when a vaccine is wasted unless the eligibility rules are suspended.

Perhaps the question is not whether you would take someone else’s place, but whose place you would take. I think of the verse that we apparently owe to the 19th century English lawyer and joke of Charles Bowen:

The rain, it rains on the righteous
And the unjust guy too.
But mainly to the righteous because
The unrighteous steal the umbrella of the righteous.

In a situation where expired vaccine doses are being offered to all comers – so they don’t just go to waste – you have no reason to believe that the dose you are avoiding will go to someone in greater need. When those concerned with justice demure, the dose can simply go to those who are not so concerned, provided it goes to anyone. There will always be a tradeoff between vaccinating the country quickly and exquisitely fine-tuning the rollout to reflect each person’s risk profile. If a sporadic all-comer approach is the best way to avoid wasted doses, then it’s not unfair and you are not wrong to be part of it.

There will always be a tradeoff between vaccinating the country quickly and exquisitely fine-tuning the rollout to reflect each person’s risk profile.

Updated

March 18, 2021, 8:24 p.m. ET

There is one other thing to note. Although your age is very unlikely to get seriously ill with Covid-19, you can still spread it. In fact, it is not uncommon for people who never show serious symptoms of the disease to transmit the virus. The evidence available suggests that post-vaccination transmission is less likely, perhaps much less likely. Like wearing a mask, your vaccination will help protect you and others. It’s much better for a dose to go in your arm than in the trash.

I live in a state where vaccinations are a priority for people over 65 and people over 16 with chronic illnesses. As elsewhere, the rollout was far from smooth: it was reported that the county received over 30,000 simultaneous phone calls last weekend when it announced that 9,000 appointments were available. No “evidence of chronic condition” is required and our state has made it clear that it relies on the honor system for vaccination seekers.

I am 44 years old and reasonably healthy. I have been overweight since I was a child. At times in my adult life I have been much heavier than I am now, which is exactly the line between “overweight” and “obesity” (classified as a BMI of 30 or higher; I am about 29 years old now). My state regards anyone classified as “obese” as a priority group for vaccination. Is it ethically correct for me to change the definition of the term “chronic condition” and theoretically be one step ahead of someone else who may be in a much higher risk category? Name withheld

You ask if You can lie to get vaccinated faster. My answer is no. But there is an interesting question that you did not ask. Would it be okay to have an eating binge to bring your BMI to 30? In this scenario, you would not be able to assert yourself when requesting an appointment. Surely you would still abuse the system. Any criterion that can be hacked in this way is problematic precisely for this reason. Of course, the BMI thresholds used by states (30 in some cases, 40 in others) are inherently arbitrary: a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last fall found the rate of hospital admissions for Covid-19 increased with our BMI increases linearly, starting with those who are only slightly overweight. This suggests that maintaining yourself at a healthy weight may be a better option than increasing it.

I’ve worked at farmers markets in New York City for many years, but since the pandemic, I’ve moved to full-time communication work at a church (including producing their new livestream) and only invested a day a week in the market. As a market worker, I am now eligible for the Covid vaccine. I want to get vaccinated as soon as possible, for my own safety and for the good of all, but the truth is, my job and lifestyle allow me to stay fairly isolated and protected from infection. Aside from my obvious advantages – or rather the privileges – of being highly computer literate, fluent in English, and having the time to navigate the Byzantine vaccination system, I feel like my exposure is limited than a day-a-week -Worker is essential My entitlement to vaccination is in doubt. I want this vaccine to be introduced ethically, and ideally, privilege doesn’t matter. But is eligibility pure and simple? Damon, New York

What is important is try to remove barriers to vaccination – including those created by lack of access to transport, the internet, or English. Recruiting churches and other community organizations can help reach the city’s underserved and sometimes vaccine reluctant population. Indeed, your work with the Church could enable you to help here. However, once a reasonable system is in place, the authorization is actually the authorization. They don’t suggest using internal connections to skip the line. You will have the advantage of your skills and abilities, but you will likely not qualify for the FEMA zip code restricted vaccination centers, which are specifically targeted at the city’s vulnerable communities. All of this means that your laudable concern for justice does not mean that you should refuse the umbrella that is offered.

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the right way to reopen tourism this summer season

how to reopen tourism this summer

This photo illustration shows a French passport and an international vaccination or prophylactic certificate in front of the Berlaymont, the headquarters of the EU Commission, on March 13, 2021 in Brussels, Belgium.

Thierry Monasse | Getty Images

LONDON – The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, proposed a vaccination certificate for citizens on Wednesday to support tourism-related activities this summer.

Tourism-dependent economies like Greece have pushed for a common EU system that would restore some travel to the region this summer. These countries struggled with fewer visitors in 2020 and want to welcome people back to avoid more serious economic scars.

As a result, the Commission proposed that EU citizens be allowed to use a “digital green certificate” to prove that they have been vaccinated against the virus. that they received a negative Covid-19 test; or they have recovered after contracting the coronavirus.

The idea with the other two options in addition to vaccination is to avoid criticism that the document discriminates against those who have not yet received a shot. However, some nations, including France, are concerned about the idea as young people will be the last to receive a vaccine.

At a press conference on Wednesday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “The certificate ensures that the results, the data it contains, the data and the minimum data set are mutually recognized in each Member State.”

“We want to help Member States restore free movement in a safe, responsible and trustworthy way,” she added.

In addition, a vaccine certificate is a difficult pill for some EU countries given the region’s free movement policy. Until the coronavirus emerged and in most cases European citizens were able to move from one country to another without passport control.

The European Commission also said on Wednesday that all vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency should be automatically recognized by other member states under this new system. However, countries that wished to do so could also recognize vaccines that have not yet been approved by the European regulator.

Hungary, for example, vaccinates its citizens with the Russian vaccine Sputnik V and the shot from China. These have not yet been approved by the EMA.

The document is expected to contain only one very specific record: the citizen’s name and date of birth, the date the certificate was issued, relevant information about a vaccine, test or recovery, and a unique identification name.

“This cannot be maintained by the countries visited,” the Commission said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Brussels-based institution also stated that the certificate will be available free of charge in the language of the issuing country as well as in English and that it is only a temporary mechanism.

“It will be suspended as soon as the World Health Organization declares the end of the international health emergency Covid-19,” says a Commission document.

Wednesday’s proposal will be discussed at the next European summit later this month. In February, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the introduction of a digital certificate could take three months.

The various EU countries and the European Parliament must approve the Commission’s proposal before it can be implemented.