Under cloudy skies, Ghana’s first precious doses of Covid-19 vaccines arrived Wednesday morning at Accra’s Kotoka International Airport. They are also the first supplies to be distributed by the WHO co-sponsored COVAX facility on the African continent. The arrival of some 600,000 vaccines marks a milestone in months of effort by WHO, UNICEF, GAVI and […] Continue reading ->
Vaccinating all of Africa’s health workers would need half a percent of all the doses that the G-7 countries have purchased, according to Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans. On Tuesday, Global Citizen launched a five-point ‘Recover Better Together’ plan for the world, aimed at getting millions of citizens behind ending COVID-19 for all, ending the […] Continue reading ->
The European Commission will establish an emergency biodefense plan to prevent, mitigate and respond to new variants of the coronavirus that are supercharging transmission and threatening the performance of available vaccines. Creation of a voluntary licensing mechanism involving local manufacturers is one of the strategies proposed in the plan to hasten the production of updated […] Continue reading ->
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the profound dangers of having social, economic and health care systems that marginalize public health. To go forward, we must start by looking back. We must build a stronger foundation with better systems that can prevent future pandemics and also weave health into all aspects of society, from our workplaces […] Continue reading ->
In the next two weeks, distribution of millions of doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca SARS-COV2 to health workers across Africa will get underway, said the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control in a joint press briefing with the WHO Regional Office for Africa on Thursday.  CDC Director John Nkengasong told Health Policy Watch that […] Continue reading ->
Fulfilling the legacy of its pioneering name, the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, was over 91% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 cases and 100% effective in preventing severe COVID, according to results published Tuesday in The Lancet.  Globally, that means that the Sputnik vaccine joins the club with just two other coronavirus vaccines that have demonstrated […] Continue reading ->
WHO called on European countries to step up their game to curb the highly contagious COVID-19 variants that are overtaking the region, already straining overstretched health systems. Meanwhile some researchers were warning that the new virus variants could spell double trouble if the mutation first identified in South Africa, in particular, makes new vaccines just […] Continue reading ->
Despite the “enormous” contributions that migrants have made to society, they still face discrimination, social exclusion, and struggle to access health services even years after migrating, especially during the current pandemic, the first survey ever of migrant health during COVID-19 has found. The report, which was led by Ghent University and the University of Copenhagen […] Continue reading ->