Rwanda became the recipient of the one-billionth COVID-19 vaccine delivered by COVAX, the global platform set up to ensure equitable access to the vaccines,announced last Friday. After numerous supply problems – most seriously when its key supplier, the Serum Insitute of India, was banned from exporting its vaccines by the Indian government – COVAX was […] Continue reading ->
The European Union (EU) has described India’s call for an urgent meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference to discuss the body’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including a proposed waiver of relevant intellectual property protections, as “premature”. Addressing the WTO General Council informal meeting on Monday, EU Ambassador João Aguiar Machado said […] Continue reading ->
A new South African study shows that a second Johnson & Johnson dose, administered 6-9 months after the initial single-dose vaccine provided 84% protection against hospitalization from the Omicron SARS-CoV2 variant – results that even outperformed those of an earlier South African study looking at effectiveness of the two-dose Pfizer regime in the face of […] Continue reading ->
As the world marks two years since the emergence of the first reports about a “novel coronavirus” circulating in Wuhan China, countries in Europe, North America and elsewhere are facing yet another “tsunami” of infections – this time driven by the highly-infectious Omicron variant, warned WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.  He spoke at […] Continue reading ->
Vaccine equity advocates see huge potential in India’s decision to grant an emergency use license to CORBEVAX™, an open-license vaccine dubbed “The World’s COVID-19 Vaccine” by its developers at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. The protein sub-unit vaccine, engineered at Baylor’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD), received the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) […] Continue reading ->
A global grassroots movement of scientists based on crowdsourcing ideas, expertise, and goodwill has already generated – and freely released – more than half of the known structural information on the main protease of SARS-CoV-2. Based on this, they are now on a quest for an open-source drug that can block the virus from replicating. […] Continue reading ->
Driven by Omicron, Africa is facing a steep wave of new COVID infections – last week reporting the fourth highest number of cases ever recorded in a single week, said WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday.  He was speaking at an exclusive media briefing in Geneva behind closed doors to a handful […] Continue reading ->
In what should be reassuring news for health systems the world over,  preliminary lab results suggest that Moderna’s authorised COVID booster dose of 50 µg offers 37-fold more protection against Omicron than the first two vaccine jabs after 29 days. And a 100 µg booster -comparable to the dose received in the first two shots […] Continue reading ->