More than a year into the world’s largest global health emergency, health diplomats have fought hard to ensure that every country across the globe secures access to lifesaving coronavirus health products, including vaccines, treatments, and diagnostics.   That has not happened yet, given that 80% of countries that are now rolling out vaccines are either high-income […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization is set to deploy over 100 experts to Guinea – to respond to a widening circle of Ebola virus cases in a country that was also at the epicenter of the historic 2013-2016 West African Ebola outbreak, officials said at twin press events in Brazzaville and Geneva on Thursday.      […] Continue reading ->
The WHO head of the international expert mission to China to investigate the origins of the SARS-CoV2 virus, told a press briefing Thursday that the international expert group is not seriously considering the Chinese theory that the virus outbreak in Wuhan, first infected Wuhan residents through imported frozen foods.  The theory that imported frozen foods […] Continue reading ->
MOMBASA, KENYA – Africa’s ports are vulnerable to crime and corruption. Now they’re set to be the main thoroughfare for COVID vaccines entering the continent. Here’s why we need a better strategy to curb potential counterfeits coming through. Black-green tears of moss streak the facades of once-white buildings. The city is a maze of narrow […] Continue reading ->
As low- and middle-income countries begin receiving their first batches of vaccines and commence their vaccination campaigns, at least 40 countries across Africa are seeing a second wave and record case numbers are being reported in the southern African region, where the B.1.351 variant is spreading. Rwanda has become the first country in East Africa […] Continue reading ->
Cape Town – The first South African health workers will be vaccinated against SARS-CoV2 on Wednesday with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, instead of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was recently shown to be unable to stop mild or moderate infection against the B.1351 (501Y.V2) variant dominant in South Africa. In a hastily assembled Plan B, […] Continue reading ->
The United States government has now secured enough COVID-19 vaccines to vaccinate every American adult after purchasing an additional 100 million doses each from Pfizer and Moderna, President Joe Biden said Thursday However, currently vaccines are in short supply across the country and logistic challenges abound.  Biden used the option in the contracts negotiated last year […] Continue reading ->
In the next two weeks, distribution of millions of doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca SARS-COV2 to health workers across Africa will get underway, said the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control in a joint press briefing with the WHO Regional Office for Africa on Thursday.  CDC Director John Nkengasong told Health Policy Watch that […] Continue reading ->