Five people have died in a major fire at the Serum Institute’s manufacturing facility, charged with producing India’s supply of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine –  just days after the country’s national vaccine campaign got underway. Serum Institute Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla was quick to say that the fire at its main complex in Pune, would not […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – Scientists are concerned that antibodies that could detect SARS-CoV-2 in South Africa’s first wave will be less effective against a virus variant that first emerged here and is known as 501Y.V2.  What’s worse, they still don’t know if brand new COVID-19 vaccines will work against the variant – which is deemed to […] Continue reading ->
The demands of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic are draining resources from global health research and development (R&D) programs and disrupting clinical trials and other work, presenting a potential post-pandemic scenario of a world more vulnerable to a host of infectious threats. That’s what our organization, the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), learned after conducting extensive, […] Continue reading ->
In a brief, but historic speech Thursday morning before WHO’s Executive Board, President Joe Biden’s Chief Medical Advisor, Dr Anthony Fauci, reversed course on four years erratic and often hostile approaches to the World Health Organization and global health – which had alienated and bewildered friends and allies worldwide. .  As one of the first […] Continue reading ->
Almost twenty years after a landmark WHO treaty was adopted to curb tobacco consumption, a new “pandemic treaty” could become a key tool to garner stronger political commitment from member states to better prevent, prepare and respond to infectious disease outbreaks, WHO’s Director General said on Wednesday..  The recommendation, initially proposed by the European Council’s […] Continue reading ->
Right after the pomp and ceremony of the heavily guarded inauguration of new US President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris is over, a deadly serious new war on COVID-19 is due to get underway –  including rejoining the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of the new Administration’s seven point COVID pandemic plan.  That […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) response to COVID-19 was too slow, hampered by an antiquated pandemic alert system, lack of resources and a lack of authority with member states, according to an interim report by the Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response, presented to the WHO’s Executive Board meeting on Tuesday. It took the […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVID-19 vaccine access platform, COVAX, is geared up to deliver vaccines to “far more” than 20% of member states’ populations beyond 2021, Dr Kate O’Brien, the body’s director of vaccines, told its Executive Board meeting on Tuesday. She was responding to concerns and criticisms expressed by member states at the […] Continue reading ->