In a first face-to-face meeting in Geneva since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization’s 194 member states appeared set to adopt a landmark decision to negotiate a new treaty or framework convention governing pandemic response, dubbed “Our World Together”, and with over 100 countries now declaring co-sponsorship.   But from the start […] Continue reading ->
Ahead of World AIDS Day, 1 December, UNAIDS has warned that the world could face 7.7 million AIDS-related deaths over the next 10 years if leaders fail to tackle inequalities exacerbated by COVID-19.  If transformative measures needed to end HIV/AIDS are not taken, the world will also remain dangerously unprepared for pandemics to come, said […] Continue reading ->
As pandemic treaty negotiations kick off again at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva this week, countries face a stark choice. Will they decide to move ahead on a new system that vests an independent entity with greater powers to monitor their own national alert and responses – in the name of faster pandemic […] Continue reading ->
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 ->
Pakistan and eight other countries, mostly in or around conflict zones, face the largest gaps in vaccine commitments needed to reach a WHO goal of 70% coverage by September 2022.  The data is part of a new “COVID Global Tracker” – launched Wednesday during a first-ever meeting of the world’s foreign ministers, convened by US […] Continue reading ->
A “Zero Draft” report by a WHO Working Group gives cautious endorsement to advancing negotiations over a new “Pandemic Treaty” among WHO’s 194 member states.  That endorsement by the Working Group of member states remains couched in highly nuanced, diplomatic language that makes it clear how big the lift may be to actually negotiate a […] Continue reading ->
Ahead of a critical G20 meeting this weekend, WHO and its partners are asking the world’s leading industrialized nations  to come up with another US$ 23.4 billion over the course of the coming year to address stark shortages in COVID vaccines, tests and treatments remain dismally low in Africa and other parts of the developing […] Continue reading ->
Only five African countries are likely to reach a WHO global goal of vaccinating 40% of their populations by the end of the year, and the continent’s roll-outs may be slowed further by a global shortage of the syringes need to administer vaccines. UNICEF has reported an imminent shortfall of up to 2.2 billion syringes […] Continue reading ->
An ambitious  wish list of global economic and fiscal  measures that the world should adopt to combat the COVID-19 pandemic has been floated by the World Health Organization- just ahead of a critical G-20 meeting of the world’s most industrialized nations this weekend.  These include proposals for massive debt relief to debt-ridden countries and a […] Continue reading ->