Healthcare professionals, and particularly community health workers who have been the backbone of local and national health systems during the COVID crisis, are also unsung ‘first responders’ to the massive mental health fallout from the pandemic, now and going forward. That is the central theme of a webinar panel on ‘COVID-19 and Frontline Workers’, Wednesday, 30th […] Continue reading ->
“Mass trauma” from COVID-19 has worsened mental health worldwide, WHO officials said at the 74th World Health Assembly (WHA) on Monday. The long neglected issue received special attention on the Assembly’s closing day, with member states expressing broad support for more action – after a year that saw new mental health issues emerge even while […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Assembly (WHA) passed a resolution on preventing violence against women and girls at Monday’s plenary – but only after heated discussion on Saturday resulted in a watered-down version with no reference to “sexuality education”. However, during the plenary session after the resolution had been adopted, Argentina’s representative, María Jimena Schiaffino, expressed disappointment […] Continue reading ->
Women-led sectors and nations have been at the forefront of the COVID-19 response – despite only a quarter of global leaders being women, speakers at a World Health Assembly side-event noted on Friday. “Women have been delivering good health pre-pandemic – and during the pandemic,” said Dr Farah Shroff, head of the Maternal and Infant […] Continue reading ->
Debate Over WHO Investigation of SARS-CoV2 Virus Origins Heads For Showdown in World Health Assembly
The debate over the future direction of WHO’s investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV2 appeared to be heading for a showdown in the closing days of the World Health Assembly – following another sharp statement from the United States on the issue – this time directed squarely at WHO and WHA member states. The terse […] Continue reading ->
Indonesia could manufacture 550 million COVID-19 vaccine doses a year if pharmaceutical companies were prepared to share the know-how, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told a World Health Organization event Friday. Sadikin was addressing the first anniversary of the WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), set up to encourage countries and manufacturers of COVID-19 products […] Continue reading ->
Amidst fresh calls from US President Joe Biden ordering the science and intelligence community to come up with a more detailed account of how the SARS-CoV2 virus emerged – it’s unclear how much action the World Health Assembly will really see on the issue. Language in the the final-agreed draft of a WHA resolution, Strengthening […] Continue reading ->
China told the World Health Assembly on Wednesday it will continue to support developing countries’ access to affordable COVID-19 vaccines – but it stopped short of any commitment to supplying its recently-approved Sinopharm vaccine to the WHO co-sponsored Global COVAX vaccine facility. WHO officials had said they hoped China would join the COVAX facility, following […] Continue reading ->
Controlling a disease outbreak requires cooperation both behind borders and between countries, experts said at a Wednesday event co-organised by the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Global Health Centre. And one key, neglected area of international cooperation has been travel restrictions, where countries worldwide have created a cacophony of different measures to control COVID. “Travel measures are […] Continue reading ->
A longstanding dispute over a perennial World Health Assembly resolution on the health situation in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories claimed a full day of WHA delegates’ attention – as countries on both sides of the bitter conflict battled over a draft decision in a prolonged debate, leading up to a painstaking virtual vote by roll […] Continue reading ->