The United States has secured almost all of Gilead Sciences’ projected production of remdesivir – an antiviral that was shown to reduce hospitalization times for COVID-19 patients- for the next three months. US Health and Human Services (HHS) has secured 100 percent of Gilead’s projected production for July (94,200 treatment courses), 90 percent of production […] Continue reading ->
A landmark meeting hosted next week by the International Energy Agency (IEA) will bring together major powers to debate the key actions for a climate-friendly COVID-19 recovery in an online forum open to public viewing. The IEA Clean Energy Transitions Summit will be live-streamed July 9th, and bring together the world’s largest economies and developing […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization will be sending a mission to China on 6 July to investigate the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus subtly announced at a Monday press briefing. The mission aims to fulfill decisions made in a unanimously passed World Health Assembly resolution in late […] Continue reading ->
New Delhi, India – Prime Minister Narendra’s Modi’s ambitious plan to use coal to power India’s economic revival after his government’s strict lockdowns flattened the wrong curve, bringing economic growth to a halt even as the infection epidemic curve continued to rise, seems to have run into significant opposition from unexpected quarters. Since the launch […] Continue reading ->
Ibadan, Nigeria – Twenty-two year-old Uwaila Vera Omozuwa, freshly admitted to university, had retreated to study in a church in the city of Benin, Nigeria during lockdown, when she was raped and killed on May 30. The following day, 18-year-old Barakat Bello was reportedly raped and killed in Oyo state. 29-year-old Azeezat Shomuyiwa and 21-year-old […] Continue reading ->
A slew of new and repurposed public health technology has been rapidly developed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. But in the whirlwind of contact tracing apps, artificial intelligence, and location tracking being used for public health surveillance, old ethical dilemmas have resurfaced around who is actually benefiting from these technologies. “The question remains; […] Continue reading ->
High-level WHO official Emer Cooke has been nominated as the head of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the critical regulatory body for European health product approvals. Cooke, an Irish national with 30 years’ experience in international regulatory affairs, is currently the Director of the WHO’s Regulation and Prequalification Department since 2016. In this role, she […] Continue reading ->
Germany has pledged an unprecedented € 500 million to the World Health Organization for 2020, making this the “highest amount” ever provided by the country, said Jens Spahn, German Minister of Health at an impromptu WHO press briefing on Thursday. The German contribution, equal to about 20% of WHO’s annual budget, plugs the major funding […] Continue reading ->
Africa must tackle both the climate and coronavirus crises at the same time, according to a new paper published by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), joining other regional agencies such as the European Commission and the World Health Organization in calling for a “green recovery” from COVID-19. The paper, Climate Change and Development […] Continue reading ->
24 June 2020 (Cape Town, South Africa) – From today, South Africans volunteers will join thousands of people in the UK, US and Brazil in testing a COVID-19 candidate vaccine developed by the Oxford Jenner Institute. The South African Ox1Cov-19 Vaccine VIDA-Trial will involve 2,000 people, including 50 people living with HIV, in a collaboration […] Continue reading ->