Dr Vinh-Kim Nguyen is accustomed to straddling two worlds – academia and front-line medical work. But those dual roles took on new meaning this year as Nguyen, new co-director of the Global Health Centre of the Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID), travelled to Montreal during the first Covid-19 wave to treat patients and organize urgent services […] Continue reading ->
The United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is investigating Moderna, a company developing a much hyped COVID-19 vaccine candidate, for allegedly failing to disclose federal funding on its US patent applications. A Moderna spokesperson on Monday told Health Policy Watch that “the Company believes it has complied with applicable patent reporting requirements regarding patent filings.” […] Continue reading ->
Healthcare systems were not ready for COVID-19, which has been declared as ‘the defining global health crisis of our time’. The extended practice of self-care among individuals has helped to ease the strain on healthcare systems and improve the delivery of treatment in communities, providing vulnerable patients with the care they need. Personalized health and […] Continue reading ->
The European Commission has announced that it will join the new WHO-sponsored COVID-19 vaccine facility (COVAX) with a € 400 million commitment – inching the visionary global fund much closer to reality. If the new COVAX facility becomes a reality, it would set a historic precedent of multilateral cooperation, not only on the pandemic, but […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization will establish a new high level review of the Organization’s capacity to respond todisease outbreaks in the framework of the International Health Regulations (IHR) that govern emergency response. The aim is to ensure that WHO is “as effective as possible in operations as they unfold,” announced Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus […] Continue reading ->
This Tuesday, European researchers documented two new cases of COVID-19 reinfection, just a day after the first genetically proven case of reinfection was reported in a 33-year old man in Hong Kong. The 33-year old had contracted two genetically distinct strains of Covid-19 over a period of four and a half months. The potential for […] Continue reading ->
The US Food and Drug Administration Commission Stephen Hahn on Monday apologized for overstating the effectiveness of convalescent plasma as a treatment for COVID-19, after the agency faced backlash for Hahn’s claims that the treatment could reduce mortality by as much as 35%, made during an announcement of the FDA emergency approval of the therapy […] Continue reading ->
There is insufficient evidence that treating people hospitalized for COVID-19 with blood plasma from recovered patients is safe and effective – and more randomized clinical trials are thus needed, warned the World Health Organization on Monday. Evidence overall remains “inconclusive,” said WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan at a WHO press conference on Monday. She spoke […] Continue reading ->
An breakthrough new COVID-19 saliva test, named SalivaDirect, received emergency use approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, potentially opening the door to broader testing. The new FDA-approved test, developed by researchers from the Yale School of Public Health, is about as sensitive as a traditional COVID-19 test, but is less invasive to perform, […] Continue reading ->
Health experts and access advocates warn that rich countries may leave poorer countries in the lurch as states scramble to preorder doses while COVID-19 vaccine candidates enter late stage clinical trials. The United Kingdom on Friday secured 90 million doses of two promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates, joining a growing group of rich countries buying up […] Continue reading ->