Speaking at a flagship World Health Summit panel global health officials and pharmaceutical executives urged governments to reframe pandemic preparedness as ‘biodefence’ – a core national security asset and not a discretionary health expenditure. BERLIN – That strategic pivot is becoming urgent as both global health and aid budgets shrink and multilateral diplomacy on pandemic […] Continue reading ->
Who will steer the World Health Organization through its next chapter? Explore Health Policy Watch’s daily series examining the platforms, records, and institutional hurdles facing each contender for WHO Director-General, starting today with Hanan Al Kuwari. Access all candidate profiles on our dedicated election site. The State of Qatar has nominated former minister of public […] Continue reading ->
Six years after COVID-19, with Ebola Bundibugyo virus still raging in eastern Congo and the pandemic treaty stalled, a packed World Health Summit workshop asked why the world keeps paying for fire engines instead of fire prevention. BERLIN – By the time Katrín Jakobsdóttir opened the session, people were standing two deep along the back […] Continue reading ->
China has nominated a prominent Chinese health official for WHO Director General in the 2027 elections, multiple diplomatic sources have confirmed to Health Policy Watch. But there are mixed reports about who that candidate actually may be. Some high-level sources have cited Song Li, a senior Chinese Communist Party official who mounted a failed bid […] Continue reading ->
COVID-19 dropped out of the world’s 10 leading causes of death in 2023 for the first time since the pandemic began in 2020, and only two years after it topped the list, according to new World Health Organization estimates released Friday. The virus directly killed an estimated 0.9 million people in 2023, ranking 14th, as […] Continue reading ->
The Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response was not approved by consensus by the United Nations General Assembly, and is likely to be put to a vote at a later stage on the UN calendar. Objections by the United States and a few other states appeared to block a consensus agreement on the […] Continue reading ->
For nearly three hours on 29 July, the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee heard one sentence repeated over a hundred times. “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.” Dr Anthony Fauci, the 85-year-old retired director of the National […] Continue reading ->
Ghana’s parliament invited a vociferously anti-vaccine Kenyan and a conservative Dutch activist campaigning to curtail the World Health Organization (WHO) to address visiting MPs on “health sovereignty” last week. Ghanaian President John Mahama – who is championing African “health sovereignty” via an initiative called the Accra Reset – was a keynote speaker at the WHO’s […] Continue reading ->
While the health harms of biomass cookstoves, and the smoke they produce inside the homes of developing countries has received significant attention in the past two decades, a wide range of chemical and pathogenic air pollutants create hazards in modern homes and buildings – also threatening health. Investments in ventilation, air filtration, monitoring, and clean […] Continue reading ->
This week’s announcement of BioNTech factory closures in Germany marks an end to the country’s pandemic-era COVID-19 vaccine production boom. The Mainz-based pioneer announced that it will manufacture its final batches of the vaccine domestically later this year, transferring all future production to its American partner, Pfizer. This strategic retreat from Germany – which includes […] Continue reading ->