New digital technologies such as smartphone apps and localization data have been used to model and monitor the COVID-19 pandemic. But along with hopes that these tools will help curb the pandemic, their use by both authoritarian and democratic governments can invoke images of dystopian surveillance. These tensions and more will be discussed Wednesday at […] Continue reading ->
19 June 2020 (Ibadan, Nigeria) – We are at war with COVID-19, a war we must win to survive, said Dr John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control, on Friday at a workshop on “Home-Grown Solutions to the COVID-19 Health Crisis,” hosted by the United Nations Development Programme. Since the continent’s first confirmed […] Continue reading ->
In the past forty years, the world has done “really well” on improving food availability. But meanwhile, diets have shifted in “very bad”, unhealthy directions. Even people who can afford nutritious food are opting for junk food instead, said Steve Godfrey, of the Geneva-based food and nutrition NGO, GAIN, at a conference on food systems […] Continue reading ->
While children seem to largely escape the worst COVID-19 infections, lockdowns to curb the pandemic have increased exposure to a different threat to children’s health – abuse and violence. In Eastern Uganda, where so far no child has been infected with COVID-19, lockdowns have led to an uptick in reports of child abuse, exploitation, and […] Continue reading ->
About 1.7 billion people, or 22% of the world’s population, has at least one underlying health condition that puts them at increased risk of becoming seriously ill with COVID-19, according to a new modelling study published in Lancet Global Health. Based on the new assessment, about 4% of the world’s population, in total, is at […] Continue reading ->
A major clinical trial ongoing in the United Kingdom has fingered dexamethasone, a common anti-inflammatory drug used to treat arthritis and asthma, as the “first” treatment to actually reduce mortality among COVID-19 patients – by as much as one-third. The preliminary findings were announced by the trial’s principal investigators, Martin Landray and Peter Horby, both […] Continue reading ->
A severe disruption of reproductive and children’s health services during the pandemic could cause more deaths in women, children, and adolescents than COVID-19 itself, according to World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “The indirect effects of COVID19 on this group may be greater than the number of deaths due to the virus itself,” […] Continue reading ->
The early resignation of Roberto Azevedo from the post of Director General (DG) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), sets the stage for a highly politicized competition over his successor – who will face a major challenge in demands to reshape the WTO in the wake of repeated US complaints about its trade dispute rulings […] Continue reading ->
Switzerland is now the world’s safest country since the pandemic started, followed by Germany and Israel, according to a Regional Safety Assessment of 200 territories and regions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, Asia and Europe were the regions most successful in fighting the coronavirus although there were wide variations within Europe in terms of how countries […] Continue reading ->
Dogs could be trained to discern COVID-19 in humans, reported researchers from The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Medical Detection Dogs and Durham University in a podcast last Wednesday. The study has received £500,000 from the UK government and hopes to be able to train dogs for rapid virus detection in airports […] Continue reading ->