There are emerging hopes that sometime in 2023, WHO can declare that the COVID-19 global health emergency is over, said WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking at a pre-holiday press briefing on Wednesday. Meanwhile, however, the world continues to invest some $2 trillion in wars and “killing each other” – but not nearly […] Continue reading ->
COVID-19 was a “global stress test” for parliamentarians, whose job is to propose policies, said Kelvin Yil Lee Wuen, a parliamentarian from Malaysia. Speaking Monday at the UNITE Global Summit in Lisbon, the MP proposed five global policy recommendations, which he said his own country had adopted. 1 – Create conducive policies and infrastructure to […] Continue reading ->
The SARS-CoV2 virus just won’t give up. As the northern hemisphere heads into its third pandemic winter, experts say the continued evolution of Omicron’s sub-variants indicates a fresh wave is coming, but no one knows which variant will fuel it. Scientists have catalogued 390 Omicron lineages and 48 recombinants of the virus – which occur […] Continue reading ->
China administered the world’s first oral aerosol COVID-19 vaccine boosters in Shanghai on Wednesday, as new lockdown measures were imposed on Wuhan, the supposed birthplace of the pandemic. Chinese vaccine manufacturer CanSino Biologics said in a media statement that the inclusion of its vaccine in Shanghai’s booster vaccination program marked “the start of the rollout […] Continue reading ->
The Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, was the epicenter of the early outbreaks of SARS-CoV2, a new, peer-reviewed study asserts, following its examination of early COVID-19 cases in the region and environmental samples originating from the market. The study, published by Science Magazine, reinforces the theory that the emergence of SARS-COV2 occurred via […] Continue reading ->
The mystery around the rash of acute, serious hepatitis cases that have afflicted over 1000 children under the age of 16 may have been unravelled by a group of Scottish researchers who say that the interaction of two common adenoviruses, or related herpes viruses, may have caused the condition in genetically susceptible children who failed […] Continue reading ->
WHO has issued stiff, dual warnings over a surging global rate of COVID infections alongside a still-expanding outbreak of Monkeypox. The latter is set to be the focus of a discussion by a WHO Emergency Committee meeting Thursday, as the committee reconvenes to decide if a public health emergency should be declared over the virus […] Continue reading ->
Vaccine manufacturers are in a race to develop or tweak COVID-19 vaccines to address the Omicron variants that are sweeping through the globe – and get them ready for use as boosters when the weather cools in the northern hemisphere. More infectious Omicron strains BA.4 and BA.5 have become dominant in many parts of the […] Continue reading ->
Two leading researchers who have raised questions about the reliability of Sputnik V’s vaccine efficacy ratings across age groups shared their concerns with Health Policy Watch. One called the results “impossible” and “very concerning”. More than 70 countries have approved the use of Sputnik V, Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine, based on the reported 91.6% efficacy across […] Continue reading ->
The wider use of pooled procurement in national health systems can help low- and middle-income countries get a better deal on pharmaceuticals – here’s how and why. Low- and middle-income countries are making strides in bolstering their domestic pharmaceutical sectors—evidenced by the recent deal between South Africa’s Afrigen Biologics and Belgium’s Univercells, to develop the […] Continue reading ->