HAVEN'T I VACCINE YOU BEFORE?

According to The Australian ($), co-chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation Professor Allan Cheng has left open the possibility of a second vaccine rollout to achieve herd immunity, while emphasising that even if it is not achieved through the first phase some restrictions will ease.

With those changes unlikely to include Australia’s international border reopening for most of 2021, Cheng explains that the duration of immunity is still an open question, as is whether it’s even possible to achieve herd immunity with the range of vaccines on offer, and that while the AstraZeneca vaccine likely cannot be injected more than twice, the mRNA-based options should allow for multiple doses.

He has also told The Sydney Morning Herald that Australia is likely to push ahead with vaccinating elderly people with the Pfizer drug despite the deaths of about 30 elderly recipients in Norway — which, as Bloomberg reports, health authorities note could well be coincidental — but that Australia will need to prepare for rare cases of anaphylaxis in people with allergies.

PS: Ahead of the rollout of the World Health Organization’s COVAX immunisation program for poorer nations next month, Al Jazeera reports that WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warns a flurry of bilateral deals and a “me-first approach” among richer countries puts the world at the brink of a “catastrophic moral failure”; for example, while more than 39 million doses of vaccine have been administered in 49 higher-income nations, just 25 doses had been given in one poor country.

PARDON ME?

According to CNN, Donald Trump is set to issue around 100 pardons and commutations on his final day in office Tuesday, the bulk of which sources say concern white-collar crimes but, for now, do not include the president himself, his family, anyone involved in the Capitol Hill siege, or other names such as journalist Julian Assange.

The news comes after Trump’s original pardon schedule was disrupted by the Capital Hill siege, and as advisers reportedly urge him to not to pardon rioters or, in that it would convey guilt, himself.

Elsewhere, the ABC reports the FBI is vetting all 25,000 National Guard troops coming to Washington for Joe Biden’s inauguration amid fears of an insider attack, while The New York Times ($) notes that, after state capitols become “fortresses”, Trump supporters barely showed up.

And in what has to be one of the lightest condemnations from a world leader, The Guardian reports Scott Morrison has called Trump’s inciting comments “incredibly disappointing” but that it is not for him to “provide lectures to anybody”.

PS: Less than two days before Trump leaves office, Johns Hopkins University has the US at just below 24 million COVID-19 cases cumulatively — more than double the next highest official count, India, at 10.5 million — and about 398,000 deaths.

WINDING DOWN

Category one tropical cyclone Kimi continues to work its way off the coast of north Queensland, with the ABC reporting an emergency alert was yesterday issued for Palm Island residents.

However the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts that the cyclone, which briefly became a category two event yesterday, is weakening and a coastal crossing is becoming unlikely.

NAVALNY REMANDED IN CUSTODY

Finally, according to the ABC, a Russian judge has ordered Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to be remanded in custody for 30 days, after the politician was arrested at a Moscow airport upon flying home for the first time since he was poisoned.

The news comes after the foreign ministers of Germany, Britain, France, and Italy called for the release of Navalny — who claims his initial conviction for embezzlement and new charges for fraud are politically motivated — while the Russian government has effectively told foreign governments to mind their own business.