The past 10 days have seen a flurry of new US initiatives to meet the World Health Organizations target of vaccinating 70% of the global population – including a new Global Action Plan; involvement of PEPFAR networks to strengthen health system response; and most recently, a special US thrust in Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation. […] Continue reading ->
Within one year, Africa has gone from waiting for its first COVID-19 vaccine shipment from the WHO-supported global COVAX facility to having excess doses available that some countries are  struggling roll out efficiently.  Reflections on the first anniversary of the massive COVAX vaccine rollout.  On 24 February 2021, Health Policy Watch reported the global COVAX […] Continue reading ->
In the wake of the chaotic, and often failed, global response to the COVID pandemic, the United States is not waiting for an elaborate international treaty or convention on future pandemics, which will take years to negotiate.  Instead, Washington wants to fast track a series of nitty-gritty, but far- reaching changes in the existing International […] Continue reading ->
ISLAMABAD – The timing couldn’t have been worse.  On the same day that Bill Gates, completed his maiden visit to Pakistan to cheer on the country’s progress towards polio eradication, WHO and Malawi health authorities announced that a small child thousands of kilometers away in Malawi had been ill with polio – infected by a […] Continue reading ->
Immunosuppressed individuals living in the United States and Israel have been among the first to receive a novel new “vaccine” that preventively boosts their defenses against COVID-19 infection with a cocktail of long-acting antibodies. The vaccine by AstraZeneca, branded as Evusheld, works on the principle of “passive immunization”, and contains two long-acting monoclonal antibodies (tixagevimab […] Continue reading ->