A group of leading pharmaceutical industry executives called upon global health leaders to work together to unlock export barriers, open up supply chain bottlenecks, and encourage high-income countries that are hoarding vaccines to redirect their excess doses to the WHO co-sponsored COVAX global vaccine facility – as ways to rapidly scale up equitable vaccine access […] Continue reading ->
One of the few silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic is the unprecedented collaboration of every sector of society to overcome it – best demonstrated by the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-Accelerator), which celebrated its first anniversary on Friday. The ACT-Accelerator’s most famous pillar is the vaccine facility, COVAX, which has distributed almost 40 […] Continue reading ->
Despite rising calls for a pandemic treaty, including from 25 world leaders in an open letter last month, some global health experts doubt that a treaty would be the most efficient way to quickly strengthen the world’s capacity to beat COVID – and prevent future pandemics. “I don’t think we have time to negotiate another […] Continue reading ->
COVID-19 infections fell significantly – by 65% percent – after a first dose of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in a study of more than 373,000 British residents who received one of the two jabs. The first in a series of two new studies, published by the University of Oxford, found that the […] Continue reading ->
The African Union Commission (AUC) is developing a COVID-19 Disaster Recovery Framework to guide its member states on how to respond effectively and in a timely manner to future pandemics – as well as other health emergency risks. The framework, still in the initial stages of development, will soon be shared with the AUC’s 55 […] Continue reading ->
Progress towards global malaria targets has stalled in recent years, and the COVID-19 pandemic has posed a serious threat to malaria responses worldwide, but a number of countries are nearing the goal of zero cases of malaria, said WHO, in a forum convened just ahead of World Malaria Day on 25 April. The forum Reaching Zero: […] Continue reading ->
Islamabad, Pakistan: Even as Pakistan faced an intense third wave of COVID-19, health authorities ‘silently’ suspended vaccination registration for its frontline Healthcare Workers (HCWs) for more than a month – ostensibly because of low registration and concerns about fake registrations. But following queries by Health Policy Watch on Monday, Ministry of Health officials suddenly did […] Continue reading ->
Climate activists have high hopes that at this week’s Leaders Summit on Climate, hosted by US President Joe Biden with forty other heads of state, climate change will be framed as a health issue that is exacerbating the risk of future pandemics, as well as causing seven million deaths a year right now as a […] Continue reading ->
There is a “possible link” between the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and very rare cases of blood clots, but the benefits of the single-dose vaccine outweigh the risks, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has announced. In a statement released on Tuesday, the EMA safety committee said that the rare, but serious blood clot disorders, […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) and member states have an obligation to listen to stakeholders in a “sympathetic and respectful manner” as non-state actors (NSAs) play critical roles in supporting global health work generally – and more immediately addressing COVID-19 and its impacts on communities. That call was made by Mara Burr, director of multilateral […] Continue reading ->