Russia stunned the United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS on Tuesday when it proposed a series of last-minute oral amendments to the meeting’s final political declaration – removing references to “rights”; the decriminalisation of sex work; and harm reduction in the context of the battle against HIV/AIDS. The text of the final declaration had […] Continue reading ->
While the COVID pandemic has highlighted the pathogen risks that can emerge from unsafe animal and food handling in traditional markets – those same markets are also sources of healthy, fresh food for billions of people around the world – healthier and fresher, in many cases, than what may be found on a supermarket shelf. […] Continue reading ->
While European Union (EU) member states continue to oppose a waiver on intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines and medicines, they may soon find themselves at odds with the European Parliament, which is expected to pass a resolution in support of the waiver on Wednesday. Negotiations on the controversial waiver proposal, co-sponsored by India and […] Continue reading ->
WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebryesus called on leaders of the G7 Group of the world’s most industrialized nations to share at least 100 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses with low- and middle-income countries in June and July and 250 million doses by September. His appeal, at a WHO press conference Monday, added to […] Continue reading ->
Uganda has imposed more stringent measures to control COVID-19 transmission after it recorded over 1000 new cases per day on 2 June – its highest tally ever, mostly among people aged between 20 and 39 years. On Sunday, President Yoweri Museveni instituted a 42-day lockdown during which time all schools and institutions of higher learning […] Continue reading ->
Boris Johnson, UK’s Prime Minister, called upon the leaders of high-income countries to commit to vaccinating the world by 2022 – ahead of Friday’s Group of 7 (G7) meeting of most industrialised nations. His appeal came as 230 prominent figures, including 100 former prime ministers, presidents, and foreign ministers penned a letter urging G7 nations […] Continue reading ->
Humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has criticised the European Union’s (EU) opposition to the TRIPS waiver, labelling its counter-proposal published on Friday as a “manoeuvre” to replace a concrete legal solution to COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing. Ahead of next week’s TRIPS council meeting scheduled for 8-9 June, Senior Legal and Policy Advisor at MSF’s Access […] Continue reading ->
UK farmers use half the antibiotics they did in 2014; Mexico has reduced stunting by 6% in the last 30 years, and Pakistan is offering conditional cash transfers to poor families to improve their nutrition. These examples of how countries are trying to fix broken food systems were offered at Friday’s Healthy Food Systems dialogue, […] Continue reading ->
A deal is in the works for the global COVAX vaccine facility to procure two Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines recently approved by the World Health Organization for emergency use – greatly expanding vaccine choices for low- and middle income countries, Africa Centers for Disease Control Director John Nkengasong, told Health Policy Watch on Thursday. “The good […] Continue reading ->
United States President Joe Biden on Thusday unveiled a detailed strategy for sharing 80 million surplus US COVID-19 vaccine doses with other countries in need by the end of June. A detailed allocation plan for the first 25 million of those vaccine doses calls for sharing 75% through the WHO-cosponsored COVAX global vaccine facility – […] Continue reading ->