Lady Gaga, the American singer-songwriter, will be curating a massive benefit concert with Global Citizen to fundraise for the global coronavirus crisis. The virtual concert titled, One World Together at Home, will be streamed live on the Global Citizen website and a number of other platforms on 18 April, from 2 – 10PM Eastern Standard Time. […] Continue reading ->
The European Union, China, and Norway Wednesday joined UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in decrying United States President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend US funding to the World Health Organization – at a critical moment in the international agency’s coordination of the global COVID-19 response. Trump announced Tuesday night that the US administration would suspend […] Continue reading ->
While much of the public fanfare around new COVID-19 drugs has centered around the lupus drug, hydroxychloroquine, and a failed Ebola remedy, remdesivir, other researchers are keen to explore the potential of other time-worn remedies – although here, too, experts are urging extreme caution.    Ivermectin, the antiparasitic drug that turned the tide in the […] Continue reading ->
People with COVID-19 are dying at significantly higher rates in communities in the United States with higher air pollution levels, according to a new Harvard University study  – the first such study to systematically examine links between air pollution and higher COVID-19 mortality.  For every 1 microgram/ cubic meter (µg/m3) increase in average annual levels […] Continue reading ->
The European Medicines Agency on Friday issued new guidance supporting the use of Gilead Sciences’ antiviral remdesivir as a COVID-19 treatment under compassionate use programmes. The new EMA guidelines on remdesivir recommend its compassionate use  in adult COVID-19 patients experiencing severe disease requiring invasive mechanical ventilation. Such compassionate use programmes are set up by individual […] Continue reading ->
A new study examining data from nearly 90% of mainland China’s confirmed COVID-19 cases found that the death rate among people older than 80 was 13.4%, as compared to only .32% for people under the age of 60. Almost one in five patients over the age of 80 were likely to require hospitalisation, as compared […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization has received more than US $622 million of a US $675 million ask to fund WHO’s first Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan for COVID-19, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.  “We continue to be encouraged by the signs of global solidarity to confront and overcome this common threat,” […] Continue reading ->
Some 33 Members of the European Parliament released an open letter Friday urging top leadership in the European Commission (EC) to prohibit exclusive licensing for COVID-19 products developed with European Union (EU) grants, and demanding transparency in the research and development pipeline to ensure affordability commitments are met.  In a separate letter signed by 37 […] Continue reading ->
The US Food and Drug Administration granted investigational emergency use approval for convalescent blood plasma as a potential COVID-19 treatment on Tuesday.  Cloned antibodies from recovered COVID-19 patients showed impressive ability to neutralize SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the disease, in cell cultures, according to a paper published Wednesday on the preprint server BioRxiv. Two of […] Continue reading ->