VOA常速英语:英国和欧盟打响新冠疫苗争夺战

Europe's battle to secure COVID-19 vaccines intensified on Thursday as it threated to use legal means, and even block exports, to ensure supply. Reuters Lucy Fielder reports. European Council President Charles Michel said in a letter to four EU leaders that the bloc should explore all options at its disposal if negotiations with companies over delayed deliveries failed. Meanwhile, Britain insisted it receive all the shots it paid for, after the European Union asked AstraZeneca to divert supplies from the U.K. British cabinet minister Michael Gove said Thursday the U.K.'s orders must be honored. The EU is lagging behind ex-member Britain, as well as the United States and Israel, in rolling out the vaccine. And is now scrambling to get supplies as the West's drug-making giants slow deliveries because of production problems. That's Reuters Lucy Fielder.

A liquid nitrogen leak at a Georgia poultry plant killed six people Thursday. AP's Ed Donahue reports. The call came in from the Foundation Food Group poultry plant in Gainesville, Georgia. "... they found a large contingent of employees that had evacuated, along with multiple victims that were in that crowd that were also experiencing medical emergencies ...." County Fire Chief Zach Brackett says they don't know yet what caused the leak. Poultry plants rely on refrigeration systems. "The product in question that's involved in this incident has been confirmed to be liquid nitrogen." When leaked into the air, liquid nitrogen vaporizes into an odorless gas that is capable of displacing oxygen. Gainesville is the center of Georgia's poultry industry, which is the nation's largest. I'm Ed Donahue.

The Commerce Department reports the U.S. economy shrank by 3.5 percent last year but one economist says it could have been worse. AP's Mike Hempen reports. "If we did not get the recovery in the third quarter and then just the 4 percent rise in the fourth quarter, I think that things could have been substantially worse." That's CFRA research chief investment strategist Sam Stovall, referring to the gross domestic product's record 33 percent surge in the third quarter after it had plunged by the same amount in the second quarter following the arrival of the coronavirus in March. Stovall thinks the economy will begin this year on the upswing. "I think in the fourth quarter we're going to see a gain of more than 3 percent." Stovall expects a strong surge in the second quarter as well. But he says there won't be a sustained economic breakthrough until people have confidence that the COVID vaccinations they're receiving are working. Mike Hempen, Washington. Find more at our website VOAnews.com. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd, VOA news.