In a rush to jumpstart more global vaccine manufacturing capacity, the global COVAX vaccine facility is now stepping into the fray.  A new COVAX Supply Chain and Manufacturing Task Force has laid out a three-stage plan to enhance existing vaccine production capacity, as well setting up a new “vaccine manufacturing group” – to further expand […] Continue reading ->
A sweeping report on the global pandemic response has found that the World Health Organization should have taken a more “precautionary’ approach to the emerging SARS-COV2 virus in the early days of the pandemic, advising countries earlier on that it could be transmitted person-to-person — rather than only warning of such a “possibility”. The report […] Continue reading ->
Limitations in COVID-19 testing capacity and surveillance—as well as uneven demand for testing—are likely masking the true severity of COVID-19 on the African continent, fueling the dangerous myth that much of Africa has been unscathed by COVID-19. Test positivity rates were above 10% across many African Union (AU) member states during the second wave—substantially higher […] Continue reading ->
India’s COVID crisis has laid bare the health costs of inadequate access to medical oxygen supplies – faced by many other countries even before India’s pandemic surge began.  Already in February, WHO said that oxygen shortages to treat those seriously ill were impacting more than half a million people in low- and middle-income countries every […] Continue reading ->
KAMPALA – A chorus of human rights organizations, joined by the United Nations, have condemned Uganda’s controversial law that criminalizes same-sex relationships, sex work and imposes mandatory HIV testing on people accused of rape – calling on the east-central African country to amend the law as it would violate human rights standards and undermine public […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has decided to classify the B1.617 variant first identified in India as a “variant of concern”, according to Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO lead on COVID-19. “There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility of B1.617,” Van Kerkhove explained to the WHO’s biweekly media briefing on Monday. In addition, a […] Continue reading ->
In a far-reaching statement, WHO and the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA) called on the pharma industry to provide much wider access to clinical data for all new medicines and vaccines approved, or under review, and even those that had been rejected.  “Clinical trial reports should be published without redaction of confidential information […] Continue reading ->