The United States may have experienced nearly 17 million additional COVID-19 cases in the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH study,  published this week in Science Translational Medicine, suggests that for every coronavirus infection recorded until mid-2020, nearly 4.8 more […] Continue reading ->
A “terrible third wave” of the COVID-19 pandemic is now hitting Africa in full force – with about 20 of the continent’s 54 countries experiencing particularly sharp rises in new infections, African Centers for Disease Control director, John Nkengasong told Health Policy Watch at a press briefing on Thursday.  Per-capita rates of new SARS-CoV2 cases […] Continue reading ->
A new initiative by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Health Organization(WHO) on Tuesday aims to help countries to promote healthier school environments – including nutritious school lunches, opportunities for more physical activity, and mental health support – for 1.9 billion school-aged children and adolescents worldwide. An estimated 365 […] Continue reading ->
Africa could start producing its own cutting-edge COVID-19 vaccines within a year via an mRNA technology transfer hub that is being set up in South Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday. But the speed at which the new hub may be able to swing into full-scale vaccine production depends on whether pharmaceutical […] Continue reading ->
Proponents of a sweeping World Trade Organization ‘waiver’ on intellectual property rights for all COVID-19 treatments, tests and vaccines face an uphill battle to reach consensus on a text ahead of a WTO General Council meeting scheduled for 27-28 July.  This is despite the recent agreement of the initiative’s opponents, including the European Union, Korea, […] Continue reading ->
From Indonesia and the Seychelles, to Chile and China itself, there are some worrisome indications that the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac COVID vaccines sold by the hundreds of millions to vaccine-strapped low- and middle-income countries may not be performing as well as expected – particularly against rapidly spreading variants of SARS-CoV-2.   At the same time, […] Continue reading ->