Bhinneka News Online: Wednesday Morning Briefing: WHO members to meet on new coronavirus variant

What you need to know about the coronavirus today

WHO meets over new variant; drugmakers expect to confirm vaccine effective against it
The World Health Organization has called a meeting of members for Wednesday to discuss strategies to counter a new, more infectious variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in Britain. A spokeswoman said the meeting was designed to help with information-sharing.

At least four drugmakers expect their COVID-19 vaccines will be effective against the new fast-spreading variant and are performing tests that should provide confirmation in a few weeks. The mutation known as the B.1.1.7 lineage may be up to 70% more infectious and more of a concern for children.

In the event that the variant presents vaccine developers with an unexpected challenge, an advantage of Pfizer and BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine is that scientists can quickly re-engineer genetic material in the shot to match that of the mutated protein, whereas modifying traditional vaccines would require extra steps.

S. Korea logs second-highest daily coronavirus tally
South Korea reported its second-highest daily tally of coronavirus cases as a survey underscored growing public dissatisfaction with President Moon Jae-in’s handling of the latest wave of infections hitting the country.

According to a poll by research firm Realmeter published on Wednesday, six in ten South Koreans believe urgency should be prioritized over safety when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines and that inoculations should begin as soon as possible given the rapid surge in new cases.

Domestic media has lambasted the government’s approach to securing vaccines as too relaxed and overly reliant on domestic vaccines which will take more time than overseas options.

Vaccine stirs rare hesitation in nearly virus-free Singapore
As Singapore prepares to roll out COVID-19 vaccinations, its striking success in controlling the virus is making some question whether they should take the jabs.

In a city-state where compliance with the authorities is generally high, some Singaporeans fear potential side effects - even if minimal - are not worth the risk when daily cases are almost zero and fatalities are among the world’s lowest.

But the government is keen to open more of the economy with the help of the vaccine in a country dependent on travel and trade and preparing to host the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering next year.

To show the vaccine is safe, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 68, said he and his colleagues would be among the early recipients of the shots. They will be free, voluntary and given first to healthcare workers and the elderly. The first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived this week and Singapore expects to have enough vaccines for all 5.7 million people by the third quarter of 2021.

Coronavirus reaches end of earth
The coronavirus has landed in Antarctica, the last continent previously free from COVID-19, Chile’s military said this week, as health and army officials scrambled to clear out and quarantine staff from a remote research station surrounded by ocean and icebergs.

Chile’s armed forces said at least 36 people had been infected at its Bernardo O’Higgins base, including 26 army personnel and 10 civilian contractors conducting maintenance at the base. The permanently staffed research station, operated by Chile’s army, lies near the tip of a peninsula in northernmost Antarctica, overlooking a bay often dotted with icebergs.

Researchers with the British Antarctic Survey estimate about 1,000 people at 38 stations across the frozen continent had safely navigated the southern hemisphere winter without incident. But an uptick in travel to and from the region this spring and early summer have heightened infection risk. The Magallanes region, one of the closest populated areas to Antarctica and take-off point for many boats and planes headed to the continent, is among the hardest-hit in Chile.

Track the global spread with our live interactive graphic here.

Breakingviews - Corona Capital: Olympics, Daimler, Klarna Health spending puts the Tokyo Olympics on track for a world record and the UK’s ad watchdog takes a dim view of Klarna’s coronavirus message. Catch up on the latest pandemic-related financial insights.

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U.S.

President Donald Trump threatened to not sign an $892 billion coronavirus relief bill that includes desperately needed money for individual Americans, saying it should be amended to increase the amount in the stimulus checks. U.S. government operations are being funded on a temporary basis through Dec. 28, waiting for the $1.4 trillion in federal spending for fiscal 2021 that is also part of the bill.

Trump granted a full pardon to George Papadopoulos, a former campaign aide who pleaded guilty as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Trump also pardoned Alex van der Zwaan, 36, the Dutch son-in-law of Russian billionaire German Khan. Van der Zwaan was sentenced to 30 days in prison and fined $20,000 for lying to U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators about contacts with an official in Trump’s 2016 campaign. The full list of pardons is here.

With hundreds of millions of dollars pouring into twin Jan. 5 Georgia runoff elections to determine control of the U.S. Senate, Democrats and a constellation of allies are waging an all-out campaign to mobilize as many Black voters as possible. The success of their efforts - targeted advertising, virtual events and even door-to-door canvassing despite the coronavirus pandemic - will likely decide the outcome, analysts said.

Challenging police violence … while Black

SPECIAL REPORT: African Americans bear an outsize burden of aggressive policing. And when they try to hold cops accountable for excessive force, the doctrine of qualified immunity reinforces the inequity.

A police officer was relieved of duty following his involvement in the killing of a Black man in Columbus, Ohio, according to Mayor Andrew Ginther, the second incident in which a Black man was killed by police in the city in the past month. The latest shooting took place as investigations continue over the Dec. 4 killing of a young Black man, Casey Christopher Goodson, triggering protests in downtown Ohio demanding transparency in the investigations.

Business

Amazon to face U.S. union push in year ahead

In 2021, Amazon.com is poised to face a renewed challenge from groups it has long countered: unions. Energized by protests at Amazon’s U.S. warehouses and a more labor-friendly administration assuming office, unions are campaigning at the world’s largest online retailer to see if its warehouse or grocery workers would like to join their ranks.

6 min read

Global cargo logjam deepens, delaying goods bound for retailers, automakers

Amazon seller Bernie Thompson shifted half of his production out of China to reduce his business risks and still found himself in the crosshairs of logistical chaos besetting the movement of goods around the globe.

4 min read

Google told its scientists to 'strike a positive tone' in AI research - documents

Google this year moved to tighten control over its scientists’ papers by launching a “sensitive topics” review, and in at least three cases requested authors refrain from casting its technology in a negative light, according to internal communications and interviews with researchers involved in the work.

6 min read