The EU intends to carry out a coordinated vaccination program in its 27 Member States to ensure fair access to doses.

The European Union (EU) vaccination campaign against the coronavirus will begin on December 27, 28 and 29, announced the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

“It is time for Europe. On December 27, 28 and 29 vaccination will begin in the EU,” the head of the EU Executive wrote on her Twitter account.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) plans to meet on the 21st to evaluate the vaccine from the Pfizer-BioNTech laboratories. The Commission will then give its approval to start the campaign.

The United Kingdom and the United States are already immunizing people with this vaccine under national emergency authorizations.

The EU intends to carry out a coordinated vaccination program in its 27 Member States to ensure fair access to doses.

The European Commission signed contracts with seven potential vaccine providers, to ensure that all adult EU citizens can finally be immunized.

Member states will decide who has priority, but the elderly and healthcare workers treating Covid-19 patients will be in front.

The vaccine developed by the US giant Pfizer and the German company BioNTech was shown to be 95% effective in worldwide trials in which two doses are injected three weeks apart.

In Europe, that vaccine is produced at a Pfizer facility in Belgium and shipped on trucks and planes.

It must be stored at -70 degrees Celsius (-94 degrees Fahrenheit) to keep it viable, but can be transported for short periods at 2-8 degrees Celsius.

Stocks ended on a shaky trend and mixed results, after the Federal Reserve pledged to keep buying bonds until the economy makes substantial progress, watching the evolution of vaccines and negotiations on Capitol Hill for a new financial stimulus package.

The Dow Jones industrial index contracted 0.2% this Wednesday, the expanded S&P 500 indicator expanded 0.2% while the Nasdaq technology increased 0.5%, according to figures provided by the Bloomberg agency.

Stocks approached record highs after the Federal Reserve pledged to continue buying bonds and to keep the benchmark rate in the 0-0.25% range, until the economy hits 2% inflation and job growth. % per year.

The Fed said it would buy at least $ 80 billion in Treasuries each month and $ 40 billion in agency mortgage-backed securities until substantial progress has been made.

Operators were very attentive to the progress made in Washington regarding the approval of a new stimulus package, although a final agreement has not yet been reached.

Traders, economists, investors and even Fed officials have said that support is crucial, because the Fed’s tools alone cannot help the economy.

Interest rates tending to zero can boost the mortgage market, the price of company shares, but they cannot assist families and small companies whose businesses have been affected as a result of the pandemic.

If a quick agreement is not reached in the Capitol and the approval of a new package is delayed, the situation can get worse.

The Commerce Department reported today that retail sales plunged 1.1% last month. It is the second consecutive month of weakness, a result much worse than the 0.3% decline that economists expected and the worst record in the last 7 months.

If Congress can reach a deal, it could help the economy weather a bleak winter, before one or more coronavirus vaccines can neutralize the effects of the coronavirus.

In Europe, optimism reigned in the stock markets based on industrial data that showed growth in activity and overshadowed the new restrictive measures throughout the euro zone, to limit movements in the end of the year holidays.

The operators trust that the containment measures will be limited no later than the first half of January.

Also influencing investor sentiment was progress in the London-Brussels negotiations over Brexit.

The leading Euro Stoxx 50 index gained 0.6%, while in London the FTSE grew 0.9%.

The DAX 30 in Frankfurt increased 1.5%, and the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.3%.

The IBEX 35 contracted 0.2% while the Milan MIB climbed 0.2%.

This year, after the questioning of the electoral process of a sitting president and a candidate for reelection, the vote acquired a special relevance.

After weeks of allegations of fraud by President Donald Trump, opposition candidate Joe Biden won a majority in the Electoral College, the body that formally elects the president in the United States, and exceeded the main institutional requirement to assume the White House in the January 20 next.

One month after each presidential election, the Electoral College formally chooses the next president, according to the indirect system of the United States, an appointment that usually goes unnoticed since, in general, the winner celebrates and the loser grants the same night of the elections. and there is no longer any tension or expectation.

State after state, its voters – elected at the polls on November 3 and by early vote and by mail during the previous weeks and months – were announcing their votes for Biden or Trump, until the former surpassed the majority of 270 to vote. win the Presidential.

The day was quiet, but it was not completely immune to the political tension and fear of an outbreak of violence that marked a large part of the electoral process.

Although the difference in votes is important and the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris formula won more than 7 million more votes than its Republican rivals, in reality, in terms of the indirect system, they only won by a few tens of thousands of votes distributed in just one handful of states.

Given this tight lead, Trump and his Republican allies tried to persuade the Supreme Court last week to review 62 electoral votes for Biden in four states, which could have cast doubt on today’s result, but justices rejected this latest effort. last Friday.

That judicial defeat was the culmination of a long list of rulings against Republicans in all states in the past month that were key to Biden’s victory.

Therefore, with the election of the Electoral College, there is only one step left – a formality, actually, before the inauguration: the joint session of Congress on January 6, in which Vice President Mike Pence, as head of the Senate, repeat the count and formally announce the result.