If all goes according to plan, the European Union countries will also be able to start vaccinating against the coronavirus this month and before the end of the year.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced this Tuesday, after hours of speculation, that it brings the meeting of its scientific committee, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), to the 21st to decide on approval of the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech.

In principle, said meeting was scheduled to take place on the 29th “at the latest.”

Since regulatory bodies in the United Kingdom and the United States authorized the use of the vaccine, pressure from various European governments, including Germany, to accelerate these deadlines has been growing.

In a statement, the regulatory agency assures: “Following the receipt yesterday afternoon of the additional data requested by the CHMP from the company and pending the outcome of its evaluation, an exceptional CHMP meeting has been scheduled for 21 December to conclude if possible. The meeting scheduled for December 29 will be held if necessary. “

As photos rolled in of Brits first, and Americans and Canadians later, receiving their coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech, pressure on the European regulator to advance deadlines that would otherwise go to early January , was older.

“Our goal is that there is an authorization before Christmas and that we can start vaccinating this year, also in Germany […] we all know that the sooner the better,” said German Health Minister Jens Spahn on Monday, a message that has repeated this Tuesday.

Community sources cited by Reuters say that the pressure on the organization increased, both from the Commission and from several governments, after the authorization granted by the British regulator and the US FDA.

Hours before the announcement, the 23rd of this month had been leaked as a possible meeting date, something that Spahn called “good news.”

The German minister recalled that, in the end, the decision rests with the EMA and insisted that it is crucial to act prudently to have the confidence of citizens, since the success of the vaccine depends above all on the number of people who decide to inject it. .

“We have decided from the outset not to resort to emergency approval like the UK or Israel, but to proper approval at the European level.” And he added: “Safety first.”

The German Health Minister once again stressed the importance of European unity, also at the time of the authorization of the vaccine. “We have always said that we were going to do it through the European route, not the national one.

We have jointly guaranteed and requested vaccines and invested in production and research together and we are also going to do the authorization together, ”Spahn added at a press conference on Tuesday.

Germany, which is experiencing a resurgence of the second wave of the pandemic that has forced the closure of schools and non-essential trade, is seeing these days how other countries have begun to administer a vaccine produced in part by a German company,while its citizens cannot yet access it.

BioNtech-Pfizer’s vaccine is a German-American project, initially created by a German company and co-produced and financed by the US pharmaceutical giant. “I think we should be proud that the first approved vaccine in the world comes from Germany,” he said. Spahn.

The minister stressed on Monday that more than 400 vaccination centers have been created, 10,000 doctors and health workers are activated, ready to begin mass vaccinations, and calculated that by the end of next summer, about 60% of citizens could be vaccinated against covid-19.

That is the percentage from which the vaccine begins to be effective in fighting the pandemic.

When, in early December, the companies Pfizer and BioNTech submitted the request for approval of their vaccine against covid, the European regulator issued a statement in which it announced that its scientific committee would meet to conclude its evaluation “during an extraordinary meeting scheduled by December 29 at the latest “.

Since then, Emer Cooke, the executive director of the agency, has left the door open to a change of date in interviews and meetings with European parliamentarians.

According to an agency official quoted by Reuters, pressure from several European governments to accelerate this process increased “through the usual channels of communication” after December 2, when the British regulator granted an emergency authorization to the vaccine.

The EMA has denied being under political pressure to go faster. It usually takes at least seven months for a vaccine to be approved after obtaining complete data from the manufacturers. Now, as they have explained, they even work night shifts in the evaluation of the vaccine.

The European Commission, for its part, indicated before the announcement that the EMA is “an independent agency and the authorization process is in its hands.” And he denied trying to force a date advance.

“The Commission does not compromise on safety and does not exert any political pressure on the EMA to do so,” said a spokesman, adding that Brussels “is fully committed to authorizing only a vaccine that is deemed safe and effective by its independent scientific agency. ”.

The Comptroller General of the Republic issued a statement in which it explained that in the first semester from January to June of this year, the coronavirus and the global economic crisis it unleashed impacted the economic activity of Panama, which contracted by -18.9% , compared with the same period of 2019.

However, the logistics and financial infrastructure has not deteriorated and Panama, unlike other countries in the region, they explain.

They indicate that Panama maintains its investment grade due to the confidence of risk rating agencies that the country’s recovery will be much faster compared to other economies also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Panama, during the first semester of 2020, relevant activities have sustained the performance of the national economy and marked a positive dynamic, such as: government services, private health services and agricultural activity ”.

In the first half of 2020, government services grew 8.4%, with an accumulated growth due to the hiring of collaborators in the health sector, necessary to address the health crisis; private health services with growth in these six months of 3.6%, while agricultural activity showed an increase of 4.3%, highlighting in a relevant way the cultivation of bananas with 43.0% and the production of eggs in 8.9% and less measure the cultivation of legumes with 2.5%.

Other activities related to the rest of the world that showed increases were: port services; rice and corn in the agricultural sector, fishing and within the exploitation of mines and quarries, the export of copper concentrate.

The figures generated by the INEC are published at a time when the country is experiencing a gradual reopening of blocks that will contribute to the national economic reactivation, including the rise of new operations such as electronic commerce and home delivery service, as a result of adaptation of supply and demand in the face of a new reality.

“The negative impact between January and June was reflected in the decrease in operations or the total closure of activities that impacted the Panama Canal, the Colon Free Zone, air transport, personal services, commerce, construction, hotels, restaurants, services business, manufacturing industry, electricity, education and financial intermediation ”.

The published figures of the Quarterly Gross Domestic Product of the main Central Banks and Statistical Institutes of the region demonstrate the adverse effect of the health emergency resulting from the outbreak of the new coronavirus (COVID-19).

The accumulated impact in the same period for the United States was -19.0%, for Colombia it was -7.5% and for Costa Rica it was -4.1%, among others, with significant drops, mainly in the second quarter of the year, which marks a drop in widespread economic activity.

As in Panama, these institutions support economic behavior due to the effect of the global pandemic and the actions taken by their governments in matters of public health, such as mobility restrictions and total quarantine.

“Close to Home” is a series inspired by the fact that so many of us are spending more of our time at home and learning to appreciate our sanctuaries now more than ever. At the same time, we know that our readers—and viewers—care about giving back to others all over the world, so our interview subjects discuss both their homes and their passion projects, efforts they’ve committed to that have resulted in social impact.

In the latest in this series, we spoke to actress Javicia Leslie, who in January will become the first Black Batwoman, starring as the titular superhero role on the CW’s “Batwoman.”

Javicia Leslie is currently in Vancouver filming the CW’s “Batwoman,” but home for her is actually in Los Angeles—a two-bedroom apartment she bought earlier this year. At the moment, the apartment is being gutted, and she hopes the renovation is complete by the time she gets back stateside.

Her design style: “Clean and modern as modern can be,” she told Mansion Global and Penta. In terms of the apartment itself, it was the view, the large windows and the amenities that really appealed to her. “Lighting affects how I feel,” she said.

And thanks to the recreational amenities, “it almost feels like I’m in a resort.” She’s making everything feel more modern and sleek, replacing dark cabinets to light or white colors.

While Ms. Leslie, 33, is passionate about her home design as well as her groundbreaking role as the first Black Batwoman—“I love that this is where it starts,” she says of her big break—she also has a foundation called The Chandler Foundation, which is geared toward giving back to children in need.

As part of the Chandler Foundation—coined for her family name—she’s raised money to build a school in Haiti, collected athletic supplies for Los Angeles’s public schools, and even had a backpack drive in Washington, D.C.—close to where she grew up—where kids picked up pre-packed backpacks and could have their hair cut and braided, for free, before the start of the school year.

“A huge passion of mine is being able to give kids the opportunity to feel free to follow their dreams at their fullest capacity,” she said.

Another issue of great importance to her: social justice. “This isn’t new for us,” she said of the Black Lives Matter movement. “I pray that as a country, as a world, we find a way to shed light… and to understand we can’t do this ourselves. We need help.” During this highly politicized environment, it’s important “to hold people accountable,” Ms. Leslie said. “Don’t allow people just to tell you what they’re gonna do.”

And lasting change will come when everyone does their part, she said. “In order for us to make a change, we have to do this together. As Black people, we’ve been doing this by ourselves for so long. This is real life for us. This isn’t a movement for us, this isn’t a hashtag.”

Suga promises a stimulus plan focused on the environment and digital innovation

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga vowed on Friday to structure a stimulus package aimed at lifting the economy out of the pandemic-generated recession through environmental investment projects and digital innovation. .

“We are defining a package that can rebound our economy while achieving a digitized and carbon neutral society after the pandemic,” Suga said after a meeting with his government’s economic council.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) said in a draft proposal, seen by Reuters on Friday, that the government should create a fund of a size “comparable to global standards” to support companies with investments in green technologies, without suggesting a specific figure.

Suga has said that Japan will reach zero emissions by 2050 and his party’s recommendations will serve as the basis for the government’s discussions on a new fiscal stimulus package, to be designed by the cabinet by order of the prime minister.

The party’s proposal, which suggests incentives to provide investment in green technologies, will be among the pillars of the stimulus plan, along with a spending package that seeks to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The document will be presented to the government on Monday, according to an LDP source.

“By deploying all available policy resources, the public and private sectors must work together to reach the goal of zero emissions by 2050,” said the draft, which will be subject to changes after the executive’s discussions.

In addition to calling for deregulation and applying tax exemptions, the proposal also calls on the government to expand or create a new state-funded credit program and guarantee schemes to help companies hit by the COVID-19 crisis.

“It appears (that the new package) will clearly fall short of just providing financial support to deal with the pandemic,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at the Norinchukin Research Institute. “There will be a growing number of measures aimed at shaping a post-COVID-19 society.”

Ruling party officials have called for an additional budget valued at between 20 and 30 billion yen (192 and 288 billion dollars), which could partly finance the stimulus package.