Africa experienced a 43% week-on-week increase in COVID-19 deaths, as the Delta variant accelerated infections for the eighth week in a row, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported at its weekly Africa press briefing. Hospital admissions increase rapidly and countries face shortages in oxygen and intensive care beds, as the Africa hit six million cumulative […] Continue reading ->
China came under renewed pressure from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Germany on Thursday to share data it has so far withheld in order to help determine the origin of the SARS-CoV2 virus that has cost over four million lives. Conceding that China had not shared all the data that the WHO virus origins […] Continue reading ->
Pharmaceutical companies continue to develop COVID-19 vaccine boosters amid condemnation of people in wealthy countries getting additional shots when much of the world is unvaccinated. The US Health and Human Services Department reiterated on Monday that booster shots were not necessary for fully vaccinated Americans after meeting with Pfizer, which is conducting a booster trial. […] Continue reading ->
Connection, community, stability – these are not the usual terms associated with video games. Yet a groundbreaking new study from Oxford Internet Institute (OII) found that playing video games may also be beneficial to mental health – particularly in the context of pandemic lockdowns and social gathering restrictions that have been a common feature in […] Continue reading ->
WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus slammed plans by Pfizer and Moderna, as well as a handful of rich countries, to begin offering ‘booster’ COVID vaccines to some groups of people – saying that the world has evolved a “dangerous” two-tiered system of vaccinations, driven by greed instead of enlightened self-interest. “It’s becoming a […] Continue reading ->
The Lambda variant has now been found in 29 different countries, seven of them in Latin America and it is the dominant strain in Peru. The Lambda variant, or the C.37 strain, designated a variant of interest by the WHO on 15 June 2021, was first identified in Peru in August 2020. It is widespread […] Continue reading ->
As Africa recorded its worst pandemic week, the COVAX Facility announced on Thursday that it has taken steps to quickly resume the delivery of vaccines to African countries including diversifying its portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines. Aurélia Nguyen, Managing Director of the COVAX Facility based at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said the COVAX portfolio now consists […] Continue reading ->
Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche has suspended its patent rights on the medication tocilizumab in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) for the duration of the pandemic, the company announced Tuesday. This follows the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation on Monday for interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor blockers to be given to patients hospitalised with severe or critical […] Continue reading ->
After months with virtually no therapeutic options for people with severe COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended the use of a class of medicines called interleukin-6 antagonists on Tuesday. The medicines, tocilizumab and sarilumab, reduced the risk of death and ventilation when combined with corticosteroids, according to a study published the same day in […] Continue reading ->
The Swiss-based journal Vaccines has retracted a controversial paper linking deaths to COVID-19 vaccines, which prompted the resignation of six members of its editorial board last week. The paper was titled ‘The Safety of COVID-19 Vaccinations – We Should Rethink the Policy’, and it attracted massive support from anti-vaxxers who question the safety of vaccines. […] Continue reading ->