Countries with high COVID-19 vaccination rates have pre-purchased over two billion excess vaccine doses, limiting the supplies available for low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). This emerged from a meeting on Thursday between the heads of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank Group, World Health Organization and World Trade Organization – the multilateral Task Force – […] Continue reading ->
Pressure is mounting on US President Joe Biden to provide global leadership to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines in the face of the European Commission’s refusal to support a waiver on intellectual property rights. Biden is expected to host a global leaders’ summit on COVID-19 alongside the United Nations General Assembly next week, and […] Continue reading ->
After months of frustrated efforts to unlock global vaccine supplies for the African continent, WHO and African Union leaders are now pinning their hopes on US President Joe Biden’s reported plan to call heads of state to a “Global Pandemic Summit” on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, which opened today, as a […] Continue reading ->
The current COVID-19 vaccines are effective enough against severe disease in the general population that boosters are “not appropriate” even for the Delta variant, according to an expert review by an international group of scientists from the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and international universities. The review, which looked […] Continue reading ->
The leading international organization for suicide prevention has called for the decriminalization of suicide – as well as greater investment by countries in suicide prevention, including greater restrictions on access to common suicide tools such as toxic  pesticides and firearms.  The appeals, by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and endorsed by the World […] Continue reading ->
As Africa prepares to get even fewer COVID-19 vaccines than expected in the coming months thanks to the supply shortage at COVAX, the continent is also battling with vaccine hesitancy – exacerbated by the lack of vaccinated role models. Africa could receive 155 million fewer vaccines than expected this year from the global vaccine platform, […] Continue reading ->