The World Health Organization (WHO) expects to publish its COVID-19 death statistics “shortly”, despite objections from the government of India – apparently because the year-long study puts the Indian death toll at around four million while the government’s official death figure is 520,000 (to end 2021). The row between India and the WHO was first […] Continue reading ->
India’s air quality data, removed at the last minute from the WHO Air Quality database update just prior to its launch two weeks ago, has been restored again to the online repository. The omission of data from dozens of cities in one of the world’s most polluted nations went unnoticed by major media until it […] Continue reading ->
The Biden administration will no longer enforce its mask mandate for travel after a federal judge in Florida struck down the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mandate for planes, buses and trains Monday afternoon. US District Court Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle ruled in favor of the Health Freedom Defense Fund which had […] Continue reading ->
Getting medical supplies and equipment to those Ukrainians who need it as fighting intensifies is one of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) biggest concerns, according to WHO Europe spokesperson, Bhanu Bhatnagar on Tuesday. “An increase in fighting could further threaten our supply chains in and out of affected areas.,” said Bhatnagar, who is currently in […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization has reported that it is investigating some 74 cases of acute childhood hepatitis, of an unknown origin, in the United Kingdom along with five suspected and confirmed cases in the Republic of Ireland. That follows on previous reports of similar, severe hepatitis cases of an unknown origin among a cluster of […] Continue reading ->
The latest study on the effectiveness of a second COVID-19 booster, published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, has shown that within a period of two weeks to one month after receiving the jab, recipients’ infection rates dropped by one-half and severe cases and deaths by three-quarters. The study, conducted by Israel’s […] Continue reading ->
Nathalie Strub-Wourgaft, a senior scientist at the Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative (DNDi) has a vision that could be critical to halting the next pandemic – but is esoteric, difficult to organize and even more challenging to build the trust and buy-in needed to make it really work. The vision is of a common clinical-trial […] Continue reading ->
China’s financial hub Shanghai continues to see rising COVID-19 cases despite the country’s attempts at a “no COVID” policy. The city reported over 27,000 coronavirus cases on Thursday, a new high, following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s announcement a day earlier reinforcing the zero-tolerance approach to COVID. “Prevention and control work cannot be relaxed,” Xi said […] Continue reading ->
Aspen, the South African based pharmaceutical company licensed to produce the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, has not yet received a single order from the African continent and might close its COVID vaccine production line. This was disclosed by Dr John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, at a media […] Continue reading ->
Nearly ten years of air pollution data for dozens of Indian cities – among the most polluted in the world – was deleted from the latest World Health Organization Air Quality database just before WHO published the report on 4 April 2022, Health Policy Watch has learned. The Indian air quality data, spanning the years […] Continue reading ->