Independent Panel Co-Chairs Blast Slow Pace of Pandemic Reforms – Call for UN Summit After Next Week’s Special World Health Assembly

22/11/2021 Elaine Ruth Fletcher

Six months after publication of their landmark report, Make it the Last Pandemic, the co-chairs of Independent Panel have re-entered the political fray over the slow pace of urgently needed reforms to vaccine equity, pandemic finance and countries’ legal obligations – that they say are required to end the COVID-19 pandemic and head off the […] Continue reading ->

United States FDA Clears COVID Vaccine Boosters for All Adults Over 18 – Pfizer & Moderna 6 Months After Second Jab

19/11/2021 Elaine Ruth Fletcher

The United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) on Friday gave its greenlight to the mass rollout of both Pfizer and Moderna COVID booster shots to all adults over the age of 18, from six months after a person’s second vaccine dose. J&J vaccine boosters would be authorized after just two months of the […] Continue reading ->

Reflections on the ‘Other COP’ – Progress on Tobacco Control Despite COVID and Industry Attacks

19/11/2021 Gan Quan

While the world was focused last week on the Glasgow Climate Conference (COP26), officials from 160 countries and the European Union gathered virtually to address another urgent global crisis – the crisis in tobacco consumption that is one of the largest causes of death worldwide, year after year. Otherwise known as COP9, the ninth Conference […] Continue reading ->

UK Approves Long-acting HIV Injectable Antiretroviral Treatment

19/11/2021 Raisa Santos

People living with HIV in England and Wales may be eligible for injectable antiretroviral treatment every two months, rather than daily pills. Two injectable drugs, cabotegravir and rilpivirine, were recommended for use by the UK National Institute for Health and Care (NICE) on Thursday after trials proved they work as effectively as daily tablets, according […] Continue reading ->

One Death Every Two Minutes from Cervical Cancer – and Vaccination Trends Moving in Wrong Direction

17/11/2021 Elaine Ruth Fletcher

Some two-thirds of deaths of women from cervical cancer are happening in low- and middle-income countries that have not yet included human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for girls and young women into their immunization regimes, said WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Gheybresus on Wednesday. He was speaking at a high level event that saw First […] Continue reading ->

White House to Invest Billions of Dollars in Expanding US Vaccine Manufacturing – for This Pandemic and Next

17/11/2021 Elaine Ruth Fletcher

In a bid to better respond to both domestic and global needs, as well as future threats, the Biden Administration plans to spend billions of dollars to expand US vaccine manufacturing capacity enabling production of 1 billion vaccine doses a year by mid-2022, two top White House officials told US media on Wednesday. The announcement […] Continue reading ->

Half the People Living with Diabetes Can’t Afford Insulin, WHO Report Shows

13/11/2021 Aishwarya Tendolkar

The inflated costs of insulin and control of its price and supply – are barriers preventing people with diabetes from accessing this life-saving medicine, according to a report released by the World Health Organization (WHO). Insulin is the basis of diabetes treatment, essential for nine million people with type 1 diabetes who cannot make […] Continue reading ->

As COVID-19 Surges, Europe May Have to Introduce Harsh Measures, says WHO

12/11/2021 Kerry Cullinan

It may be too late for many European countries to avoid harsh measures to try to curb the intense transmission of COVID-19, according to World Health Organization (WHO) officials on Friday. “Almost two million cases of COVID-19 were reported in Europe last week, the most in a single week in that region since the pandemic […] Continue reading ->

Moderna Disputes That US Government Scientists Co-invented COVID mRNA Vaccine

12/11/2021 Raisa Santos

Moderna has fired back against claims made by US National Institutes of Health (NIH) that its scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAD) helped to invent the crucial component of the pharma company’s COVID-19 vaccine, stating that the mRNA sequence was “selected exclusively” by Moderna scientists. “We do not agree that […] Continue reading ->

India’s Covaxin Vaccine Shows 77.8% Efficacy in Interim Phase 3 Results

11/11/2021 Raisa Santos

Following World Health Organization approval last week, interim data from a phase 3 trial of BBV152, a COVID-19 vaccine developed in India, reports 77.8% efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19. The study, published in The Lancet, indicated that BBV152 induced a robust antibody response, with the majority of adverse events, including headache, fatigue, fever, and pain at […] Continue reading ->