Pressure is mounting on US President Joe Biden to provide global leadership to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines in the face of the European Commission’s refusal to support a waiver on intellectual property rights. Biden is expected to host a global leaders’ summit on COVID-19 alongside the United Nations General Assembly next week, and […] Continue reading ->
After months of frustrated efforts to unlock global vaccine supplies for the African continent, WHO and African Union leaders are now pinning their hopes on US President Joe Biden’s reported plan to call heads of state to a “Global Pandemic Summit” on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, which opened today, as a […] Continue reading ->
The current COVID-19 vaccines are effective enough against severe disease in the general population that boosters are “not appropriate” even for the Delta variant, according to an expert review by an international group of scientists from the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and international universities. The review, which looked […] Continue reading ->
As Africa prepares to get even fewer COVID-19 vaccines than expected in the coming months thanks to the supply shortage at COVAX, the continent is also battling with vaccine hesitancy – exacerbated by the lack of vaccinated role models. Africa could receive 155 million fewer vaccines than expected this year from the global vaccine platform, […] Continue reading ->
While a “pandemic treaty” could take years to establish, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Health Regulations (IHR) could be revised more rapidly to significantly improve global disease outbreak response, top US officials are saying.  The statements coincided with a 3-day working group meeting of WHO member states to discuss ways to strengthen the global […] Continue reading ->
As some 32 countries worldwide, including seven African nations, face “code red” oxygen shortages, WHO and its partners are in the midst of a major effort to recruit sufficient supplies to meet countries’ urgent needs for life-saving oxygen.   But while over US$500 million is now available in funds and finance for oxygen through the Access […] Continue reading ->
Although the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued technical guidelines for the development of digital COVID-19 ‘vaccine certificates’, it has stressed that these should not be a prerequisite for international travel.   At the release of the technical guidelines last Friday (27 August), the WHO stated that it “does not support the requirement of proof of […] Continue reading ->