China's regulators and spin doctors rush to remedy a comment from the nation’s top infectious disease official about the “not high” protection rate for its COVID-19 vaccines, amid debate over speedy development using mature technologies and doubts over protection in seniors. A slow roll-out is already presenting challenges to meeting an official 40% target.

America still has a long way to go to meaningfully contribute to ending the global pandemic, but loaning AstraZeneca’s vaccine to Canada and Mexico helps counter the narrative that only China and Russia are helping the rest of the world.

China continues the global push for its domestically-developed COVID-19 vaccines, with a new approval in Eastern Europe and new delivery routes entering clinical trials. 

Takeda agreed with its contract manufacturer to grant access to its dengue vaccine production capacity for Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine. Frontrunner Moderna started a pediatric trial in children as young as six months. GSK and Medicago began the Phase III portion of a Phase II/III vaccine trial. And China is limiting inbound travel to people vaccinated with China-made vaccines.