US President Joe Biden has reaped praise for convening a Global COVID-19 Summit on the margins of this year’s United Nations General Assembly that placed vaccine shortfalls in low- and middle-income countries front and center of GA debates. But it remains to be seen if the big commitments repeated once more this week can break […] Continue reading ->
In the coming months, 600 million doses of single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccines, manufactured in Hyderabad, are likely to be exported to Europe or the United States, at a time when India grapples with vaccinating its own citizens. Civil-society organisations are concerned that millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine may end up in the […] Continue reading ->
While a “pandemic treaty” could take years to establish, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Health Regulations (IHR) could be revised more rapidly to significantly improve global disease outbreak response, top US officials are saying.  The statements coincided with a 3-day working group meeting of WHO member states to discuss ways to strengthen the global […] Continue reading ->
This article is the second in a three-part series on COVID-19 booster vaccines, which is an evolving discussion as more evidence emerges about the performance of vaccines against variants. Despite heated debates about doling out booster jabs in healthy people who are already fully vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, there seems to be consensus that at least […] Continue reading ->
Despite the emergence of new WHO concerns over quality control at Sputnik V’s domestic production facilities, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is pushing ahead with a massive international “open-license” manufacturing effort for its Sputnik V vaccine – which breaks the traditional model of vaccine production and leverages existing capacity in poorer countries, desperate for […] Continue reading ->
Proponents of a sweeping World Trade Organization ‘waiver’ on intellectual property rights for all COVID-19 treatments, tests and vaccines face an uphill battle to reach consensus on a text ahead of a WTO General Council meeting scheduled for 27-28 July.  This is despite the recent agreement of the initiative’s opponents, including the European Union, Korea, […] Continue reading ->
From Indonesia and the Seychelles, to Chile and China itself, there are some worrisome indications that the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac COVID vaccines sold by the hundreds of millions to vaccine-strapped low- and middle-income countries may not be performing as well as expected – particularly against rapidly spreading variants of SARS-CoV-2.   At the same time, […] Continue reading ->