During the COVID-19 pandemic, other respiratory viruses such as influenza and RSV have decreased, assumingly due to the related public health measurements. However, as social distancing regulations are decreasing, the usual illnesses may reappear in higher rates than before. In south-east Queensland RSV cases in children have risen, causing pediatric wards to be filled over the last month. Case numbers are three to four times higher than they were the year before. Some experts say that 2021 could be a dangerous year for infections, when life is going back to normal. 
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"Pfizer and BioNTech SE announced an advance purchase agreement with COVAX for up to 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. The doses will be delivered throughout 2021. COVAX is a global initiative coordinated by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organization (WHO), to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income levels. COVAX includes an Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) financial mechanism that aims to ensure that 92 low- and lower-middle-income countries will be able to secure access to COVID-19 vaccines at the same time as higher-income countries. The first doses are expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2021, subject to the negotiation and execution of supply agreements under the COVAX Facility structure."

- Written by Globe Newswire -
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Barney Graham and his team are one of more than 150 vaccine developers racing against time to develop vaccines that reduce the severity of COVID-19, or block infection by SARS-CoV-2. Barney is a vaccinologist and deputy director at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He was also speaker and member of the scientific advisory committee at ReSViNET’s past meeting in Accra, Ghana. In January, Graham and his colleagues were just about to start manufacturing the Nipah vaccine for human trials when they got wind of a disease caused by a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. They quickly changed their plans and swapped in the SARS-CoV-2 RNA instead. Clinical tests followed quickly and took just six weeks. In a phase I safety trial, Graham’s mRNA vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 was well tolerated by people, and a phase II study has begun to determine the dose required. A phase III trial designed to assess the vaccine’s efficacy is scheduled to start this month.