Parliamentarians from around the world have called on the World Health Organization to engage civil society in the establishment of a “pandemic treaty,” if the organization hopes to have such a document not only ratified but also implemented. “The current process remains exclusionary,” said Giada Girelli, a senior analyst on human rights and justice at […] Continue reading ->
“Every aspect of the COVID-19 response, beginning with the origins of the pandemic in Wuhan to China’s current Zero-COVID strategy, has had severe restrictions on human rights,” according to Prof Lawrence Gostin, a member of the independent Panel for a Global Health Convention. Speaking Monday afternoon at the UNITE Global Summit in Lisbon, he called […] Continue reading ->
The United States, once a reluctant partner in the initiative for a new global pandemic accord, is now keen to move ahead in negotiations over an agreement. The accord would expedite more rapid global data sharing and response to looming threats as well as ensuring greater equity in access to medicines and treatments, said the […] Continue reading ->
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has extended quarantine measures in the two districts at the epicentre of the country’s Ebola epidemic for another 21 days, citing the need to protect gains in the fight against the virus. This marks the third renewal of lockdowns in Kassanda and Mubende, and authorities are hopeful it will be the […] Continue reading ->
Deadlock may once again be the name of the game at the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights—TRIPS, for short. A communication from Switzerland and Mexico questioning the need to extend the waiver on intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines to therapeutics and diagnostics is laying bare the divergences […] Continue reading ->
A report presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) on Thursday found the potential for larger, deadlier outbreaks of monkeypox outbreaks in Central Africa and internationally – as the more dangerous Clade 1 of the virus become more transmissible. “Many people in the US CDC (Centers for […] Continue reading ->
The SARS-CoV2 virus just won’t give up. As the northern hemisphere heads into its third pandemic winter, experts say the continued evolution of Omicron’s sub-variants indicates a fresh wave is coming, but no one knows which variant will fuel it. Scientists have catalogued 390 Omicron lineages and 48 recombinants of the virus – which occur […] Continue reading ->
While there is unanimous agreement that equity is the essential ingredient in any future pandemic treaty ‘recipe’, World Health Organization (WHO) member states are unclear about how can it be incorporated practically. This emerged from an informal consultation on how to “operationalise and achieve” equity convened on Wednesday by the WHO intergovernmental negotiation body (INB), […] Continue reading ->
At a World Trade Organization Public Forum this week, public health advocates argued for the creation of a new WTO framework to stimulate voluntary offers by countries to supply more ‘public goods’ to trading partners and the world, including investments, assets and know-how critical to protecting the world against future pandemics and other health or […] Continue reading ->
“This is really a historic meeting,” said Dr Ilona Kickbusch, co-chair of the European Health Forum at Gastein (EHFG). “Twenty years ago was the very first time there was any talk of a European global health strategy, and it took place right here at Gastein.” “It was in 2003 that global health first became a part […] Continue reading ->