The Mastercard Foundation will spend US$ 1.3 billion over the next three years to help vaccinate 50 million Africans against COVID-19 and accelerate the continent’s economic recovery from the pandemic, one of the world’s biggest foundations has announced. Tuesday’s announcement by the Foundation and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention(Africa CDC) comes less […] Continue reading ->
Boris Johnson, UK’s Prime Minister, called upon the leaders of high-income countries to commit to vaccinating the world by 2022 – ahead of Friday’s Group of 7 (G7) meeting of most industrialised nations.  His appeal came as 230 prominent figures, including 100 former prime ministers, presidents, and foreign ministers penned a letter urging G7 nations […] Continue reading ->
Humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has criticised the European Union’s (EU) opposition to the TRIPS waiver, labelling its counter-proposal published on Friday as a “manoeuvre” to replace a concrete legal solution to COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing. Ahead of next week’s TRIPS council meeting scheduled for 8-9 June, Senior Legal and Policy Advisor at MSF’s Access […] Continue reading ->
The WHO-sponsored COVAX facility raised another US $2.4 billion on Wednesday from donors to fund more COVID vaccines for low- and middle-income countries – exceeding their total funding target and bringing the total pledged to the COVAX AMC to US $9.6 billion, following a GAVI COVAX AMC Summit “One World Protected” virtual event. But the […] Continue reading ->
Researchers engaged in mosquito gene drive technologies are optimistic that new World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on best research practices will ensure that their work is safe and ethical. Such guidance also helps research results advance from laboratories to be used in the field,  the researchers told Health Policy Watch. Due to limiting regulatory frameworks, […] Continue reading ->
With vaccine deliveries delayed by India’s decision to prioritise local vaccination over export requests, Africa’s leading disease control agency suggested COVID-19 could become endemic. John Nkengasong, director of Africa’s CDC, told reporters on Thursday that Africa needs to immunise population majorities quickly, but the vaccine delays make this unlikely.  “With the rate of immunisation in […] Continue reading ->