BREAKING – The United States on Tuesday gave formal notice to the United Nations and the US Congress that it intends to withdraw from the World Health Organization as of 6 July 2021, following President Donald Trump’s announcement after the World Health Assembly on 18 May. The administration first notified the United Nations, and sent […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that it would reconsider its longtime stance that airborne transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus occurs only rarely – after a group of over 239 scientists published a commentary on Monday in the Journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases, urging the agency to acknowledge the greater role played by tiny virus […] Continue reading ->
Cape Town, South Africa – The US government’s recent purchase of almost the entire available stock of Gilead’s remdesivir – a medicine shown to help speed up the recovery of people who are moderately sick with COVID-19 – has raised fears about whether poorer countries will also be left in the dust if a vaccine […] Continue reading ->
A growing bloc of aerosol scientists, epidemiologists, and infectious disease experts are urging the World Health Organization to acknowledge that particles containing SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can remain suspended in the air for hours and be inhaled, potentially representing another route of transmission. Some 239 scientists from around the world urged the WHO […] Continue reading ->
Ibadan, Nigeria – The first time that businessman Soji Adegbite missed his flight, he was heading to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from Nigeria’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport located in Africa’s largest city of Lagos. “I got there just five minutes late but that was all it took to miss the flight,” he told Health Policy Watch. […] Continue reading ->
Access to life-saving dexamethasone will be expanded to some 4.5 million COVID-19 patients in low- and middle-income countries through an advance bulk purchase of the drug in bulk, UNITAID has said. The move is the first concrete step by a global health agency under the umbrella of the WHO ACT accelerator partnership to boost access […] Continue reading ->
In the past three decades, global fish consumption has surged by a stunning 122%. Yet today, only 66% of global stocks are fished within sustainable levels, in comparison to 90% in the 1970s. “There is no healthy planet without a healthy ocean, and the healthy ocean is currently in decline”, said Peter Thomson at a conference Tuesday on overfishing […] Continue reading ->
The United States has secured almost all of Gilead Sciences’ projected production of remdesivir – an antiviral that was shown to reduce hospitalization times for COVID-19 patients- for the next three months. US Health and Human Services (HHS) has secured 100 percent of Gilead’s projected production for July (94,200 treatment courses), 90 percent of production […] Continue reading ->
New Delhi, India – Prime Minister Narendra’s Modi’s ambitious plan to use coal to power India’s economic revival after his government’s strict lockdowns flattened the wrong curve, bringing economic growth to a halt even as the infection epidemic curve continued to rise, seems to have run into significant opposition from unexpected quarters. Since the launch […] Continue reading ->
A six-vial five-day course of remdesivir – a promising COVID-19 treatment – will be priced at US $2340, or $390 per vial for developed countries, Gilead Sciences Chief Executive Officer Daniel O’Day wrote in an open letter on Monday. “Earlier hospital discharge [thanks to treatment by remdesivir] would result in hospital savings of approximately $12,000 […] Continue reading ->