World Health Organization Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced his new team of 36 directors at headquarters on Tuesday, according to an internal message to WHO staff, seen by Health Policy Watch. Nine of the appointments, including key positions heading the Departments of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, and the newly-combined Department of Environment, […] Continue reading ->
A four year WHO-sponsored investigation of the origins of the COVID pandemic by an international group of experts has concluded that “most scientific data and accessible published scientific evidence” support the hypothesis that the novel SARS-CoV2 virus first entered the human population either directly from virus-carrying bats, or from bats to humans via intermediate hosts.   […] Continue reading ->
Mistrust undermined the pandemic agreement talks – but, ironically, the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) galvanised member states to reach agreement, according to Ambassador Anne-Claire Amprou, co-chair of the talks. “There was a lack of trust. That means that when member states wanted to make a proposal, sometimes it created suspicion […] Continue reading ->
At around 3am Wednesday, after three years of often intense negotiations, World Health Organization (WHO) member states agreed on a draft Pandemic Agreement, which sets out basic terms of engagement to prepare for, prevent and respond to pandemics. Bleary-eyed negotiators and co-chairs Precious Matsoso and Anne-Claire Amprou welcomed the final greening of the entire text […] Continue reading ->