More than 700 healthcare workers and patients have died, and more than 2000 have been injured in attacks on health facilities across 17 emergency-affected countries and fragile settings since December 2017, according to a new WHO report released on Tuesday. Countries at risk included Ethiopia, Yemen, Syria, Mozambique, Nigeria, occupied Palestinian territory, Myanmar and the […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for a moratorium on COVID-19 vaccine boosters until at least the end of September to enable a minimum of 10% of the population of every country to be vaccinated. Making the appeal at the WHO’s COVID-19 media briefing on Wednesday, Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Gheybreysus said support for […] Continue reading ->
IBADAN – On Sunday 1 August, two planes carrying four million doses of the Moderna vaccine from the US touched down in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city. With the arrival of the new doses, Nigeria will be able to resume its COVID-19 vaccination programme which was suspended on 22 July when the Nigeria Primary Healthcare Development […] Continue reading ->
This article is the third 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. Alongside the heated policy debate over the disproportionate consumption of COVID vaccines in rich countries, a handful of senior scientists are pushing back against the scientific […] Continue reading ->
Sixteen countries have pledged more than 610 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for 2021-2022 through COVAX, the global vaccine sharing facility, and low and middle income countries have already received 37.7 million donated doses. The United States under President Joe Biden is leading the pack with a total pledge of 260 million doses, followed by […] Continue reading ->
Unvaccinated pregnant women infected with the Delta variant run a greater risk of contracting severe COVID-19, according to a UK study of 3371 pregnant women admitted to the hospital with symptomatic COVID-19. The study, conducted by the UK Obstetric Surveillance System (UKOSS), found that 24% of pregnant women admitted in the first wave had moderate […] Continue reading ->
A “preponderance of evidence” proves that the SARS-CoV2 virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), the Chinese research institute studying bat coronaviruses, concluded a report by US Congressional Republicans, released on Monday. “As we continue to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, I believe it’s time to completely dismiss the wet market […] 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 ->
#COVIDReporting: For the past 18 months, Health Policy Watch reporters have covered the COVID-19 pandemic. But they have not been immune from its impacts on their personal lives as the virus has wreaked havoc with their lives. Over the next few weeks, we will bring you their stories. DELHI – Despite the utmost care, bordering […] Continue reading ->
The war against COVID-19 has changed with the emergence of the highly transmissible and deadly Delta variant, said an internal US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) slide presentation. The document, which has not yet been released, was obtained by the Washington Post and calls for a new and more aggressive masking and vaccination […] Continue reading ->