Following months of delay, and delicate backdoor negotiations, WHO now says that it “hopes” an international team has been mandated by the World Health Assembly to investigate the sources of the SARS-CoV2 virus can travel to China in January to begin their fieldwork. “The International team is currently working on logistical arrangements to travel to […] Continue reading ->
Three-quarters of COVID-19 trials reviewed specifically excluded pregnant women, despite investigating medications that are already used by expectant mothers. Authors of an opinion piece published in The Lancet Global Health journal, based on a data review, warned that although pregnant women are among those most in need of effective and safe therapies, they are routinely […] Continue reading ->
Striking through the politicised warnings and potentially hollow gestures, a new study has found that COVID-19 vaccines could remain out of reach until at least 2022 for nearly one- fifth of the global population – despite months of pleas and appeals to ensure their widespread global distribution. The study, published in The BMJ, is the […] Continue reading ->
Second in a series: In the wake of the expanding media attention to a suppressed WHO report evaluating the early days of Italy’s COVID-19 pandemic response, WHO has begun circulating guidelines to staff for responding to the media over questions that have remarked about recommendations for Q&A The internal WHO memo obtained by Health Policy […] Continue reading ->
Ibadan, Nigeria. Ambrose Dlamini, eSwatini’s Prime Minister, has become the first world leader to die after testing positive for COVID-19. His death sends a clear and chilling message across Africa: the worst days of the pandemic are not behind us. Dlamini passed away on Sunday 13 December in South Africa, where he was receiving treatment […] Continue reading ->
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Sixty different local authorities in England have reported around 1,000 infections caused by a new COVID-19 variant. The variant is not thought to have an impact on disease severity or mortality, or on the efficacy of a vaccine. It has been reported to WHO. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in Parliament today: “We have identified […] Continue reading ->
One out of every four health facilities worldwide lacks even the most basic access to water supplies. And in the world’s 47 least developed countries, one in every two facilities lacks such access, according to a new WHO report, co-authored with UNICEF, on access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in health care facilities. The […] Continue reading ->
WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday issued yet another plea to leaders of rich countries to “honor their pledges” to fund COVID-19 vaccines sufficient to immunize the highest risk groups across the world. He spoke a day after South African officials raised the spectre that the world was heading towards a state […] Continue reading ->
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United States Food and Drug Agency Commissioner Stephen Hahn Friday said that the agency will “rapidly work toward the finalization and issuance of an emergency use authorization” for the cutting edge Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine – following a vote by an independent FDA expert panel on Thursday recommending that the vaccine be approved. FDA Commissioner @SteveFDA […] Continue reading ->
The combined health and economic shocks triggered by COVID-19 have revealed profound weaknesses in health systems, with direct consequences on the future of healthcare, says a new World Health Organisation report on global health financing systems. “COVID-19 has revealed [the] underlying weakness of country and global health financing systems. There needs to be a proactive […] Continue reading ->