WHO Director General Wishes President Donald Trump Speedy Recovery From COVID-19 – As US Presidential Campaign Enters Uncharted Waters

02/10/2020 Elaine Ruth Fletcher & Madeleine Hoecklin

WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus joined the chorus of world leaders wishing United States President Donald Trump and his wife a speedy recovery from COVID-19 – while the US presidential campaign entered uncharted waters, with the cancellation of campaign rallies and fears that other White House Staff and political allies who had accompanied […] Continue reading ->

Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Unlikely To Be Available To Public Before Spring, 2021; Initial US FDA Authorization Would Be Sought In Late November

01/10/2020 Madeleine Hoecklin

Moderna intends to seek US Food and Drug Administration emergency authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate for frontline medical workers by November 25th at the earliest, and only in late January for use in the general population. That means that the vaccine, if approved on schedule, would only be available for widespread distribution to the […] Continue reading ->

“Follow The Science” – Political Leaders Must Collaborate Like Scientists To Defeat COVID-19

18/09/2020 Grace Ren

Political leaders should find a way to collaborate and “follow the science,” taking a page from researchers, public health practitioners, and healthcare workers who have learned to work together during the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO Health Emergencies Executive Director Mike Ryan said on Friday. “The people have found a way to cooperate, leaders need to find […] Continue reading ->

Global Health Leaders Plead For ‘Billions’ In Immediate Funding To Fight The Pandemic As G-20 Health & Finance Ministers Meet

17/09/2020 Elaine Ruth Fletcher

Against the backdrop of Thursday’s G-20 Health and Finance Ministers meeting on the COVID-19 pandemic, UN and Global health leaders were escalating their pleas to the world’s industrialized countries and global financial institutions for billions of dollars in immediate funding to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The calls echoed statements issued earlier this week by the […] Continue reading ->

Stigma Blots Kenya’s COVID-19 War – Some Patients Fearful Of Seeking Treatment

08/09/2020 Maina Waruru

Nairobi, Kenya – While banker Peter Karagu is one of the over 35,000 people who have contracted COVID-19 disease in Kenya over the past 6 months, he cannot in any way be described as an ordinary victim of the respiratory illness. Throughout his 22 days confined at an isolation ward at Kenyatta University Teaching Research […] Continue reading ->

Clean Air For All: Towards A Global Community Of Action

08/09/2020 Bruno Jochum/Geneva Solutions

September 7 is the first International Day of Clean Air for blue skies launched by the United Nations’ General Assembly. It aims to build a global community of action that calls on countries to work together to tackle air pollution and provide clean air for all. As the COVID-19 lockdowns reminded us of from Wuhan […] Continue reading ->

US Biomedical Advanced Research & Development Agency Reviews Moderna’s US Patents For Alleged Failure To Disclose Federal Funding

03/09/2020 Grace Ren

The US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency (BARDA) is investigating Moderna’s patents for allegedly failing to disclose federal funding, making it the second US agency to review the company’s patents. The BARDA probe comes just days after the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) began an investigation into Moderna’s patents, after pharma watchdog […] Continue reading ->

Unwrapping The Biological Secrets Behind Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Technology

02/09/2020 Elaine Ruth Fletcher

Tal Zaks, chief medical officer at Moderna Therapeutics since 2015, which has become one of the front-runners in the race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, is in fact an oncologist, not a virologist by training. And so it’s perhaps no accident that the innovative “messenger RNA” (mRNA) technology upon which the company’s vaccine candidate […] Continue reading ->

US Department Of Defense Is Investigating Moderna’s Patents For Allegedly Failing To Disclose Federal Support

01/09/2020 Grace Ren

The United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is investigating Moderna, a company developing a much hyped COVID-19 vaccine candidate, for allegedly failing to disclose federal funding on its US patent applications. A Moderna spokesperson on Monday told Health Policy Watch that “the Company believes it has complied with applicable patent reporting requirements regarding patent filings.” […] Continue reading ->

Can Uganda Contain Its COVID-19 Infection Spike? Reflections Of An Emergency Room Doctor

26/08/2020 Samson Wamani

Part of a series of stories about how the coronavirus lockdowns and relaxations are playing out in different parts of Africa. For more on this, see our stories on South Africa and Ibadan, Nigeria. Kampala, Uganda – As Uganda’s coronavirus cases double in only two weeks, the Ministry of Health is considering a second lockdown […] Continue reading ->