Johnson & Johnson is set to release its Phase 3 COVID-19 clinical trial results in two weeks and immediately file for emergency authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – an announcement that is likely a harbinger of positive results.  This news on the development of the first one-shot COVID-19 vaccine, accompanied by […] Continue reading ->
Governments have spent at least €93 billion on COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics globally since the beginning of the pandemic, a new study has found. Research published on Monday by the kENUP Foundation, a European non-profit supporting research-based innovation in health industries, found that in 11 months, the public sector invested heavily in the development of […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) research investigation in China to study the origin of the SARS-CoV2 virus that triggered a worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 is not intended to apportion blame, Executive Director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme Michael Ryan stressed in a press briefing on Monday. The statement was made hours after WHO Executive Director […] Continue reading ->
Two new studies published this week highlight the challenges to health policy posed by COVID-19 – with seriously ill COVID-19 patients continuing to suffer with “Long COVID”  months after being released from the hospital – while completely asymptomatic cases drive more than half of overall disease transmission.   More than three quarters of patients diagnosed with […] Continue reading ->
Some 42 countries around the world are now rolling out brand new COVID-19 vaccines to their populations. But 36 of those are high-income countries, 6 are middle-income countries, and none at all are low-income countries, said WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a WHO press briefing on Friday.  He and other WHO officials […] Continue reading ->
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), the EU drug regulator, recommended issuing a conditional marketing authorization for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, which follows the authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in late December.  “This vaccine provides us with another tool to overcome the current emergency,” Emer Cooke, Executive Director of EMA, said in the press release. “It is […] Continue reading ->
The United Kingdom’s decision to delay the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine being rolled out en masse in the nation is a risky strategy – not only for those getting the vaccine, but also in terms of the longer-term public health impacts such delays could have in terms of future SARS-CoV2 mutations, some […] Continue reading ->
Nearly all countries’ development rankings have been shaken up, following the addition of new climate and environmental metrics in a UN global index designed to measure human progress, with the greatest decline in ranking position occurring among high income and developed countries. The 2020 Human Development Report, published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), […] Continue reading ->
The launch of the Nutrition for Growth Year of Action aims to combat global hunger, exacerbated by COVID disruptions and climate change. After a year marred by huge setbacks for global food security, a group of governments and nutrition organisations this week launched a forward-looking initiative for 2021 to address the global hunger and nutrition crisis. […] Continue reading ->
The approval of the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine candidate last week in the United Kingdom is stoking fears that the global rollout of vaccines to fight the pandemic could also stimulate a counter-pandemic of fake online cures as well as criminal attempts to sabotage or interrupt vaccine supply chains.  To counter the growing threat, a […] Continue reading ->