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Egypt Prepares to Export Locally Made Covid Vaccines to Africa

Egypt seeks to become a hub for inoculations on the African continent. (Archival photo - Reuters)
Egypt seeks to become a hub for inoculations on the African continent. (Archival photo - Reuters)
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Egypt Prepares to Export Locally Made Covid Vaccines to Africa

Egypt seeks to become a hub for inoculations on the African continent. (Archival photo - Reuters)
Egypt seeks to become a hub for inoculations on the African continent. (Archival photo - Reuters)

Egypt is preparing to export locally-manufactured COVID-19 vaccines to African nations, looking forward to becoming a hub for inoculations on the continent grappling with the virus.

Egyptian authorities are expected to discuss potential export plans with a Chinese delegation in late February, Bloomberg news site quoted Heba Wali, president of the state-run Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (Vacsera), as saying.

The move comes as a government official said a batch of locally made Sinovac vaccines had been sent to the Palestinian territories, in the first overseas shipment.

Negotiations are also underway to provide neighboring Libya with the Sinovac vaccine, according to Wali.

She said other African countries had requested shipments, without identifying them, saying distribution could be via the COVAX alliance or direct payments, depending on circumstances.

The World Health Organization said on Friday that Egypt is one of six African countries that will be given technology to produce mRNA vaccines.

Egypt has so far manufactured 27 million-30 million Sinovac doses and has the capacity to create a total of 100 million in 2022, acting Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar said on Sunday.

It recently sent 500,000 Sinovac doses to the Palestinians, he added.

Talks are underway with AstraZeneca Plc on the possibility of producing its vaccine in Egypt, Wali said.

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Varieties

Götz Valien: The Last Dinosaur in the Movie Poster Industry

Götz Valien (Getty)
Götz Valien (Getty)
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Götz Valien: The Last Dinosaur in the Movie Poster Industry

Götz Valien (Getty)
Götz Valien (Getty)

In a digital age, Götz Valien is Berlin’s last movie poster artist, producing giant hand-painted film adverts.

For more than three decades, Austrian-born Valien, 65, earns a modest living producing film posters to hang at the city’s most beloved historic cinemas, a craft he says will probably die with him, at least in western Europe.

He adds a distinctive pop art flourish to each image coupled with the beauty of imperfection, part of the reason he has managed to extend his career well into the 21st century, according to an article published by The Guardian.

“Advertising is about drawing attention and I add the human touch, which is why it works,” he told the newspaper.

Valien’s work plays up the image’s essence: the imposing bow of a ship, the haunting eyes of a screen siren, a mysterious smile. He jokingly calls himself a Kinosaurier – a play on the German words for cinema and dinosaur.

His nearly-7x9-meter canvases long-graced the “film palaces” of the German capital, including the majestic Delphi in the west and the socialist modernist masterpiece Kino International on Karl Marx Allee in the east.

But the former’s adverts finally went digital in 2024, while the latter is closed for a years-long, top-to-bottom revamp. Dozens of independent cinemas among his clients have simply gone out of business.

The century-old Filmtheater am Friedrichshain (FaF) is the last movie theater in Berlin still employing Valien to tout its new releases, with his large-format posters covering its facade and interior walls around the ticket-and-popcorn counter.

Movie posters have existed as long as the nearly 130-year-old film industry.

But these days, few releases stay long enough in cinemas to justify bespoke art to advertise them, communications studies professor Patrick Rössler of the University of Erfurt, who has studied the history of film posters, told local media. And most independent cinemas don’t have the profit margins to afford them, even at what Valien calls his bargain-basement prices.