The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and Mastercard on Tuesday announced a US $125 million commitment of seed funding to a new COVID-19 Treatment Accelerator – whose aim as its name implies, will be to speed up the development of urgently needed drugs to treat people infected with COVID-19. Just hours later, the […] Continue reading ->
The World Trade Organization’s director general Roberto Azevêdo announced on Tuesday that he was suspending all WTO meetings at its Geneva offices, following the confirmation of a COVID-19 case among staff. It was the first publicly-announced case of the novel coronavirus infection at a Geneva-based United Nations or UN-affiliated organization since the epidemic began, which […] Continue reading ->
As the governments around the world struggle to control surging COVID-19 outbreaks, health experts highlighted cracks in global health systems that created conditions ripe for the pandemic. A report titled Power, Privilege & Priorities released Monday by Global Health 50/50 found that an inequality of health benefits and an inequality of opportunities inside organizations have […] Continue reading ->
As the World Health Organization and WHO member states celebrate 15 years since the signing of the the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC), the global uptake in e-cigarettes, as well as targeted advertising aimed at children and adolescents, threatens the worldwide gains that have been achieved in reducing tobacco use. The convention is the […] Continue reading ->
WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to redouble their efforts on COVID-19 containment, saying that China’s stunning success shows that goal still may be attainable – even as 16,470 new cases of the fatal virus mushroomed elsewhere across the globe in the past 24 hours. “This not a drill. This is not […] Continue reading ->
The World Bank on Tuesday announced the immediate release of US$12 billion to support countries struggling to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. That followed news that the global death rate from the novel coronavirus was now averaging around 3.4% as compared to around 2% of cases previously reported by WHO. In comparison, estimated fatality rates […] Continue reading ->