The tobacco industry is using deceptive advertising to promote its products, according to WHO.

While there has been significant global progress in curbing conventional tobacco products, newer tobacco and nicotine products such as e-cigarettes are evading regulation, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) 2021 report on the tobacco epidemic.

Some 5.3 billion people are now covered by at least one of the six tobacco ‘MPower’ control measures recommended by the WHO, including high taxes, bans on promotion, pack warnings and helping people to quit.

But electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) such as ‘e-cigarettes’ are often marketed to children  – and escape regulation, according to the report, which was launched on Tuesday.

The tobacco industry also uses “thousands of appealing flavours and misleading claims about the products” to market these to children and teens, according to the WHO, adding that children who use these products are “up to three times more likely to use tobacco products in the future”. 

“These products are hugely diverse and are evolving rapidly,” said Dr Rüdiger Krech, WHO’s Director of Health Promotion Department. 

“Some are modifiable by the user so that nicotine concentration and risk levels are difficult to regulate. Others are marketed as ‘nicotine-free’ but, when tested, are often found to contain the addictive ingredient. 

“Distinguishing the nicotine-containing products from the non-nicotine, or even from some tobacco-containing products, can be almost impossible. This is just one way the industry subverts and undermines tobacco control measures.”

Youth are targets of the tobacco and nicotine industry

Caleb Mintz: Targetted in Ninth Grade.

Caleb Mintz, a young anti-tobacco advocate from the US told the launch that an official from a vaping company had given a ‘mental health’ talk at his high school where he cast doubt on the dangers of e-cigarettes and vaping.

“When I was in ninth grade, a speaker came to my high school under the guise of a mental health seminar. That speaker turned out to be a representative of Juul Corporation, which is one of the largest vaping conglomerates, and the speaker proceeded to send mixed messages about the safety of the [vaping] devices, saying ‘It is the safest product on the market’,” Mintz said

“As a result of the presentation, many of my peers began to question whether the product  once seen as dangerous was even harmful at all, with some of my closest friends now believing their habits are justified, due to a trusted adult telling them that.”

US anti-tobacco advocate Jasmine Hicks, told the launch that the majority of young people that her organisation, Truth Initiative, reached out to had no idea that e-cigarettes even contained nicotine.

ENDS are ‘highly addictive’

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for better regulation of ENDS, describing nicotine as “highly addictive”.

“Where they are not banned, governments should adopt appropriate policies to protect their populations from the harms of electronic nicotine delivery systems, and to prevent their uptake by children, adolescents and other vulnerable groups,” said Tedros.

Eighty-four countries don’t restrict or regulate ENDS in any way, although 32 countries have banned their sale and 79 have adopted at least one partial measure to prohibit their use in public places, prohibit their advertising, promotion and sponsorship or require the display of health warnings on packaging. 

“More than one billion people around the world still smoke. And as cigarette sales have fallen, tobacco companies have been aggressively marketing new products – like e-cigarettes and heated-tobacco products (HTP) – and lobbied governments to limit their regulation,” said Michael Bloomberg, WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries, who funds much of the global anti-tobacco work.

“Their goal is simple: to hook another generation on nicotine. We can’t let that happen.”

There are an estimated one billion smokers globally, 80% of whom live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and tobacco is responsible for the death of eight million people a year, including one million from second-hand smoke, according to the  WHO.

Almost 80% of high-income countries (HICs) (78%) regulate ENDS while three-quarters of LICs do not.

“The tobacco industry’s ramped up marketing of ENDS and HTPs, especially to young people, is a real threat,” said Rebecca Perl, Vice President of Partnerships and Initiatives at Vital Strategies.

“With its intent on hooking a new generation of tobacco users, the industry is snatching young people’s opportunities, experiences and future potential by shortening their lives. Young people who use new products such as ENDS and HTPs are more likely to regularly use conventional cigarettes, as cited in the report. Yet remarkably 84 countries still have no regulations and restrictions at all on these products.”

Marathon runner Paula Radcliffe

Renowned marathon runner and clean air advocate Paula Radcliffe joined the launch to appeal for public health warnings about tobacco and e-cigarettes to be carried on social media to reach young people.

“Our bodies enable us to do so much and to achieve so much, but we have to look after them and look at the fuel that we put into them,” said Radcliffe. “There are enough stresses around in this world which are unavoidable. I think tobacco is really one that is avoidable. Respect your body and the world by what you put into it and how you live your life.”

 

Image Credits: WHO.

New WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has urged WTO members to find a way to compromise, but rich and poor countries remain an at impasse.

Vaccine access advocates issued increasingly desperate, last minute calls upon the World Trade Organization to take action over a stalled initiative to impose a temporary waiver on intellectual property for COVID medicines, tests and vaccines – even as the initiative appeared doomed to a stalemate for the rest of the summer. 

Ahead of the opening of Tuesday’s two-day meeting of the WTO General Council, Médecins Sans Frontières urged the European Union (EU), Norway, the UK, and Switzerland “to stop stalling the landmark proposal to waive intellectual property (IP) on lifesaving COVID-19 medical tools at the WTO, and join forces with more than 100 countries supporting it by openly engaging in formal negotiations to expedite the consensus. 

“Since the proposal was first tabled nearly 10 months ago, the pandemic has worsened and increasingly hit many countries across Africa, Latin America and Asia, with the disease having killed officially more than 4 million people globally,” MSF noted, referring to a proposal by India and South Africa for a blanket waiver on WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), for COVID-related IP, which supporters say would lower prices faster and stimulate local vaccine and medicines production. 

African COVID surge due to lack of access to medicines and vaccines 

Health workers in Cape Town, getting vaccinated against COVID-19 in March 2021. On a continent beset with supply shortages, South Africa is one of the few African countries to have been able to continue mass COVID vaccinations at scale over the past weeks and months.

 African MSF pointed to the worrisome rise in COVID-related deaths in Africa – linked to the low levels of vaccine access which have seen only about 1.5% of the population vaccinated – in comparison to some 50-60% in many high-income countries. 

“As many countries in Africa right now are reporting a high number of deaths due to the spread of new and existing variants of COVID-19, these governments are in dire need of vaccines, diagnostics, oxygen and other treatments to help save lives of critically ill patients,” said Dr Tom Ellman, director of MSF’s Southern Africa Medical Unit. “While the World Health Organization recommends two newer therapeutics for patients with severe COVID-19, medical practitioners and their patients in many low- and middle-income countries cannot access them due to monopolies, limited supply and high prices. It is outrageous to see countries blocking the TRIPS Waiver that is desperately needed as an important tool to remove legal barriers and allow production to be scaled up by multiple manufacturers for critical COVID-19 drugs, diagnostics and vaccines.”

European countries & industry backed voluntary measures 

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, at a Global Health Summit event in late May. The EU has supported broader vaccine access, in prinicple, but critics say it falls down on practices that would more rapidly open the doors to production in low- and middle-income countries.

European countries have touted increased pharma collaborations – including a recently announced mRNA vaccine production hub in South Africa, as examples of how voluntary measures will be more effective than a blanket waiver.   Pharma voices have also warned that a wide-open WTO IP waiver on complex and sensitive biological vaccine manufacturing processes would open the floodgates to shadowy producers that could suck up critical, but scarce, inputs – without reliably expanding supplies.  And, they point to the fact that global production will scale up rapidly – so that the real solution is for rich countries to stop hoarding current supplies until that can happen. 

But MSF said donations and other voluntary measures have failed to work, pointing out that so far Pfizer and Moderna, the manufacturers of the two most efficacious, mRNA vaccines, have so far allocated only 11% and 0.3% of their production to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).  And the problem is not only with respect to vaccines, MSF points out, citing the recently WHO-approved COVID antibody cocktail treatments, tocilizumab and sarilumab, as examples.

Sarilumab, known by its brand name Regeneron, costs as much as US $1830 per dose, MSF noted. Roche, the Swiss company that produces tocilizumab, has said it will not enforce its patents in some countries. But that does not go far enough to really reduce prices and expand supplies, MSF charged. 

“Two new potential COVID-19 therapeutics, casivirimab and imdevimab, are also patented by Regeneron and are being sold as a cocktail at a dose price of $US 820 in India, $US 2,000 in Germany and $US 2,100 in the US. These high medicine prices and monopolistic actions are barriers to global access,” said the MSF statement.

“At a moment when we are in race against time to save lives and control the spread of unchecked transmission and development of new dangerous variants, pharmaceutical corporation’s business-as-usual approach is intolerable. With potentially promising treatments in the pipeline, opposing countries must stop filibustering the waiver proposal and support it to cover not just vaccines, but also treatments, diagnostics and other health technologies,” said Ellman. 

WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week issued similar pleas and warnings, saying that the world simply lacks the “political will” to end the pandemic – even though it has the means.

But on the eve of the WTO General Council meeting of trade ministers, chances for any sort of breakthrough appeared increasingly slim.  While waiver proponents say that they have over 100 backers for their proposal, most WTO decisions are taken by consensus, and so opposition by even one of the WTOs 164 members would perpetuate the impasse.  Once the General Council breaks, negotiations would not likely resume until mid-September at the earliest – although WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala last week urged WTO members to shorten their holidays in order to come to some sort of agreement, in light of the urgency of the pandemic.

COVAX facility announces new World Bank loan arrangement for vaccine purchases  

COVAX-led vaccine deliveries, launched in February and then nearly halted in April, after India experienced a COVID surge, leading to the diversion of supplies from the Serum Institute of India domestic needs.

Meanwhile, the beleaguered COVAX global vaccine facility, whose ambitious COVID vaccine distribution plan to low-income countries faltered over vaccine hoarding and supply shortages this spring, has made a new deal with the World Bank to finance its advance vaccine purchases. 

The new finance mechanism, announced jointly by Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance and The World Bank, should help ease constraints faced by COVAX in competing for the future purchase of available vaccine doses on the open market – making it less dependent on rich country donations to seal deals for large vaccine pre-purchases. 

That reliance upon rich country largesse and donations, which were not always provided in a timely manner proved to be a key stumbling block in the COVAX facility’s ability to compete and secure large quantities of vaccine doses from multiple suppliers in the initial phases of COVID vaccine rollout, critics told Health Policy Watch in a recent story on COVAX’s shortcomings. 

Gavi announcement thin on details of new arrangements

Gavi CEO Seth Berkley

But Monday’s announcement was thin on details of who would, in fact, be taking out the loans for the vaccine purchases – COVAX or the countries themselves – as well as timeframe and terms for repayment. 

The new arrangement will “accelerate COVID-19 vaccine supply for developing countries through a new financing mechanism that builds on Gavi’s newly designed AMC (advanced marketing commitment) cost-sharing arrangement,” said the Gavi/World Bank press release. “This allows AMC countries to purchase doses beyond the fully donor-subsidized doses they are already receiving from COVAX.”

Asked by Health Policy Watch for further details on the new financing mechanism, GAVI did not immediately reply. 

Some 92 low- and middle-income countries participate in Gavi’s longstanding AMC scheme, which offers  a wide range of vaccines for childhood diseases at free or concessionary prices – and more recently COVID vaccines. 

Bolstered by the new finance, COVAX says it will be able to make available up to 430 million additional COVID vaccine doses, or enough to fully vaccinate 250 million people, for delivery between late 2021 and mid-2022. 

Adjusted 2021 COVAX supply forecast remains highly ambitious – even after setbacks 

In light of the supply problems already seen, COVAX delivery goals for 2021 have been dialed back significantly – from the 1.8 billion doses that COVAX had initially aimed to provide.  

The global supply forecast of the COVAX Facility for 2021 and 2022, as of 6 July.

The latest forecasts, issued on 23 June, and 6 July suggest that the facility still aims by the end of December to have some 1.8 milion vaccine doses available, and deliver some 1.1 to 1.5 billion.  

However, even that remains a highly ambitious goal – insofar as only 138 million COVID vaccine doses had been delivered globally by the COVAX facility, as of 23 July.  

According to the new Gavi-World Bank finance arrangements, countries with “approved World Bank vaccine projects” can then confirm the purchase of additional doses through COVAX and the Gavi AMC facility, benefitting from a wider choice of vaccines as well as delivery windows. 

“On receiving a request from the country, the World Bank will provide COVAX a payment confirmation, allowing COVAX to make advance purchases of large amounts of vaccine doses with manufacturers at competitive prices.

“There will be several supply offerings where countries will have the opportunity to select and commit to procuring specific vaccines that align with their preferences,” said the press statement by Gavi and The World Bank. 

“Accessing vaccines remains the single greatest challenge that developing countries face in protecting their people from the health, social, and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said World Bank Group President David Malpass. “This mechanism will enable new supplies and allow countries to speed up the purchase of vaccines. It will also provide transparency about vaccine availability, prices, and delivery schedules. This is crucial information as governments implement their vaccination plans.”

Supporters of the COVAX facility have long affirmed that the model is solid – but more predictable finance is needed to allow the facility to compete for vaccines more aggressively in the marketplace. 

Civil society advocates have charged that the more fundamental problem with COVAX remains the charity-based model that it represents – anchored in donations of money or vaccines by rich countries – rather than support for the wider production of vaccines in LMICs themselves. 

COVAX is co-led by Gavi, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Oslo-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) – all working in partnership with UNICEF and the PAHO Revolving Fund to distribute vaccines and support vaccine campaigns on the ground in countries.  

Image Credits: Felix Dlangamandla, DGTresor , Western Cape government, European Commission, Gavi , WHO.

A major global ‘pre-summit’ on food systems took place in Rome on Monday.

The world needs an investment of US$40 billion per year by 2030 to eradicate hunger. And these investments must be accompanied by major reforms in food systems to make them more efficient, resilient, and sustainable, said experts at a major global “pre-summit” on food systems, Monday.

Transformations to food systems should focus on providing seed security to smallholder farmers, training on improved planting techniques, and ensuring production of more nutritious, biodiverse and climate-resilient crop varieties.

The UN Pre-Summit taking place in Rome from 26-28 July, is a stage-setter for the full-fledged UN Food Systems Summit, scheduled for September in New York. 

“We are here in Rome to bake the cake that will be iced in September. And as we harvest from the rich and diverse outcomes of this process, I am hopeful we will agree on the key ingredients needed to support our countries,” said Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, at the pre-summit opening Monday.

Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, at the UN Food Systems pre-summit opening on Monday.

The series of pre-summit sessions aims to foster dialogue between farmers, indigenous peoples, civil society, researchers, private sector, ministers of agriculture, environment, and health, and policy leaders. Meanwhile, UN agency officials and government ministers called for greater and more innovative investment from high-income countries and the private sector. 

“We’ve got the expertise in this room and around the world to end hunger,” said David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP). 

“Now it is time to act. We do not necessarily need more meetings, we need more monvey and more investment to eradicate hunger,” said Gerd Müller, Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“Increased investment in sustainable transformation, in agriculture, renewable energy, education, and…fair value chains between developing and industrialized countries” is needed from industrialized nations, said Müller, calling on the G20 and G7 to adopt a smarter and more targeted agenda on food systems.

“We need to look at ways where we can create innovative financing to make sure that we can bridge the gap of US$40 billion a year. And not only resources coming from our traditional donors, but also resources coming from the private sector and from domestic resources,” said Gilbert Houngbo, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Gilbert Houngbo, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Failures of the current food system – obesity, undernutrition & starvation 

Global food systems are currently in dire need of reform, experts stressed at the pre-summit, co-hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),the  International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the Italian government.

“The dominant global food systems…are wasteful, inequitable, undemocratic, and unsustainable,” said Anne Nuorgam, Chair of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. 

Sufficient food is produced to feed the world’s population, but one third of it, almost 1.3 billion tonnes, is lost or wasted every year throughout the supply chain from initial agricultural production to household consumption. Along with lost nutritional opportunities, that food-waste also contributes to climate change, in terms of the climate footprint of wasted energy, water resources, fertilizers, and other production inputs. 

Increased industrialization of the food production chain, including greater reliance on monocultures, production of cheap starches and processed foods, is exacerbating, rather than easing, the twin crises of obesity and malnutrition  –  with the number of food insecure people growing in recent years. 

Over the past five years, the world has regressed on progress towards tackling hunger. In 2015, there were 80 million people on the brink of starvation and today there are 270 million. 

During COVID-19, there was an increase of 165 million people dealing with chronic food insecurity and 135 million people with acute food insecurity. 

“In 2020, the increase [in food insecurity] was equal to the sum of the increase over the last five years,” said Professor Sheryl L. Hendriks, Director of the Institute for Food, Nutrition and Well-being at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. She was speaking at ‘Achieving Zero Hunger: Nutritiously and Sustainably,’ a parallel session organized by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). 

Food systems on the whole also fail to provide adequate calories and nutrition to approximately 760 million people. 

“The world needs a wake up call. We are in serious trouble,” said Beasley.

Industrialized food systems driving deforestation, biodiversity loss & climate change

Today’s food systems are fragile and unequal, requiring widespread reforms in policies, farming practices, and financing.

In addition, industrialized food systems are the number one cause of deforestation and they are among the main drivers of climate change, biodiversity loss, and erosion of topsoil. 

Food systems, overall, generate massive amounts of pollution and produce close to one third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Even in Europe, for instance, agricultural chemicals and fertilizers used on crops and for livestock production are a major, neglected cause of air pollution – due to the particulate emissions that they generate. 

Land grabs from indigenous peoples are instigated by food systems, forcibly displacing indigenous communities, destroying livelihoods, and violating human rights.

“The system is not fit for purpose,” said Mari Pangestu, World Bank’s Managing Director of Development Policy.

Despite the large divergence in perspectives between actors in food systems, “there is consensus on one thing: the status quo is not acceptable,” said Houngbo.

“We have to recognize that we do have failures, not only market failures, but failures around the whole chain,” he added. 

Reforms to food systems should focus on small farmers

Farmers should be central to transformations in food systems, said the experts on Monday. 

There are some 500 million smallholder farms worldwide that over 2 billion people depend on for their livelihoods. These small farms produce 35% of the world’s food supply and 80% of the food consumed in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Smallholder farmers typically produce small volumes on relatively small plots of land and are vulnerable in supply chains. 

“This is where we must invest,” said Beasley. 

David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme.

Fostering seed security, secure land tenure & crop diversity  

Ensuring seed security to smallholder farmers is defined as providing farmers and farming communities with access to adequate quantities of quality seed and planting materials, adapted to their agro-ecological conditions and socioeconomic needs. 

Seed security is particularly important to farmers in areas that experience frequent droughts or other natural disasters. 

“We need to put farmers and indigenous peoples first, both in access to crop diversity and in seed policy and practice,” said Aksel Jakobsen, State Secretary of International Development for the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

“Policy and regulation must provide farmers with the legal space to save, use, sell and exchange seeds from their harvests,” said Jakobsen. “By providing legal space and empowering local communities by strengthening farmers seed systems, we are investing in a true path towards ending hunger.”

Smallholder farmers would also benefit from access to high quality and affordable farming equipment and training on basic planting techniques.

Providing smallholder farmers with tools and technologies they need 

“We must give smallholder farmers the tools and technologies that will help them boost their deals and manage the impact of growing climate shocks as we race to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement,” Samantha Power, Administrator of USAID, said at the GAIN event on Monday.

Samantha Power, Administrator of USAID.

“The poorest farmers in the world deserve the same access to the innovative new tools and services that wealthier farmers benefit from,” said Andrew Youn, Co-founder of One Acre Fund, at the GAIN session.

Crops developed with biotechnology are able to withstand harsh weather conditions and reduce hunger in the face of climate change. Drought tolerant crops can help maintain farm productivity and yield. 

Farmers should also be empowered to invest in farming techniques that benefit the environment by ensuring the health and sustainability of the soil and land. Agroforestry, which involves the integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal farming systems, is a technique to reduce erosion.

Transition to ‘agroecology’ and ecosystem restoration 

Scientific innovation is a critical part of reforming food systems and reducing hunger worldwide. Innovations, such as bio science plant breeding, solar irrigation, carbon capturing soil, and digitized blockchain technology to assure land rights, could be important to benefit smallholder farmers and the environment. 

Advocates from farmers’ associations called for policies that respect the rights of family farmers and indigenous peoples to natural resources, especially land, water, forestry, and seeds. 

They also advocated for the transition to agroecology and ecosystem restoration, including promoting local traditional crops, which are often neglected and underutilized.

In addition, adequate financing should be directed to farmers through national committees and cooperatives with family farmers. 

“To be bold, for us, is to transform our food system into something that is sustainable, resilient, regenerative, healthy, nutritious, just, and empowering to people, including family farmers, which improves production in crops, livestock, fisheries, forestry, herding and pastoralism,” said Estrella Penunia, Secretary-General of the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development. 

Estrella Penunia, Secretary-General of the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development.

“We need to move beyond incremental change,” said Peter Bakker, President and CEO of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. “Transformational change is what we need and it is urgent.”

Private sector has important role to play in reforms 

“Solving food insecurity is not only a government problem. The private sector has to play an equally important part,” said Sunny Verghese, Executive Director of Olam International, speaking at the GAIN event.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development announced the launch of the Business Declaration for Food Systems Transformation on Monday.

“Business commits to help lead the food system transformations by implementing actions in their companies, their sectors and their value chains,” said Bakker. 

“We must not exclude the private sector. They must be part of the solution,” said Beasley. “As I talk to the private sector, I know you need a return on your investment, but be willing to make a little bit less to empower the smallholder farmers and to change systems in developing nations so that we all share this success.”

Big timber, cattle, palm, and pulp and paper cause significant damage to the environment, but “[we should] never make these sectors the enemy,” said Dr. Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). 

“Those sectors have a responsibility to lean in and to drive sustainability. That is what we need to see them do,” she added. “And governments need to set policies that do not subsidize, that do not cause further destruction. [They should] subsidize the smallholder, and big agriculture, if that is what is needed, but not with those negative consequences.”

Image Credits: FAO, FAO.

Drones hovering above Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium form the shape of planet earth at the opening ceremony Friday, 23 July

The long-delayed 2020 edition of the Tokyo summer Olympics opened Friday against the sober backdrop of soaring COVID infection rates, but with plenty of pomp and ceremony nonetheless –  including a massive fireworks display and an aerial show of drones resembling planet earth hovering above Olympic Stadium, while John Lennon’s “Imagine” echoed across the night sky.   

Only about 950 VIPS, including United States First Lady Jill Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron, attended the gala opening ceremony – leaving the 68,000 seat Olympic Stadium virtually empty – but still booming with chords of characteristically Japanese video game sounds, followed by classical music, as well as  amplified recordings of cheering crowds – while protestors against the games marched outside. 

With mostly – but not always – masked Olympic athletes parading around the nearly-empty stadium, the games are being widely perceived as a global test case for how “normalization” might look against the persistent pandemic risks – now being fueled by the highly infectious Delta variant spreading across Japan.  

Despite weeks of  speculation over whether the games might be canceled at the last minute due to growing public health risks, critics said that the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) organizers to go ahead irregardless, was not a surprise – in light of the billions of dollars in TV broadcast revenues at stake.  

Japan Takes Very Stringent Measures – Global test case if they are sufficient  

But the measures being taken by Japan and the IOC to cope with the obvious risks, were also strict – and unprecedented. They contrasted sharply with the risky in-person crowds of spectators that marked the recent European football cup matches.  

Some 11,000 Olympic athletes were being carefully sequestered in Japan’s Olympic village – consigned to live, eat and work out under strict supervision at the village – and with their personal contacts limited to their immediate trainers and team. 

That, after undergoing a rigorous regime of pre- and post- travel testing, as well as quarantine upon arrival. Although vaccination was not a mandatory condition for participating, some 80% of participating athletes have been vaccinated, the IOC reported. 

With the 68,000 seat stadium closed to the public, Tokyo residents were being urged to stay home and watch the games on TV. 

Tokyo infections hit new peak – 200 Olympic athletes test positive 

Masked protesters cordoned off by police outside of Olympic Stadium as the 2020 Olympic games hold opening ceremony.

Even so, as of opening night, some 200 of the 11,000 athletes competing had already tested positive for COVID. That included athletes from: Australia, Chile, Czech Republic, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States. 

Among the Czech delegation, where six athletes all fell ill, an unvaccinated team doctor Vlastimil Voráček, who had previously claimed that gargling and sucking lozenges can prevent COVID was the first to test positive. All travelled together on a charter flight.

With case counts inside the village growing, Guinea’s government initially announced that its national team would pull out of the Tokyo Olympics, but later reversed the decision.

“Due to the resurgence of COVID variants, the government, concerned with preserving the health of Guinean athletes, has decided with regret to cancel Guinea’s participation in the 32nd Olympics scheduled for Tokyo,” said the initial Guinean statement, which was retracted after the government said that it had received more guarantees from Japanese health authorities. 

Individual top athletes from other countries opted to sit out the games at home – rather than risk traveling only to become infected. 

Tokyo reporting peak in new cases

Olympics cauldron lit signaling the start of the year-delayed 2020 games .

On 22 July, the eve of the games, the megacity of Tokyo was also reporting almost 2,000 new cases a day, the megacity’s highest peak since 7 January, when 2520 new cases a day were reported. 

Although Japan’s overall infection levels remain well below those of European countries such as the United Kingdom and France, or even the United States – those latter nations all have greater levels of COVID variant protection, with some 40-50% or more of their population fully vaccinated.  

While only 23% of Japanese are fully vaccinated so far, vaccines are now becoming more available, and the government is urging people to turn out en masse to get the jabs.  Large-scale vaccination venues were set up by the Tokyo metropolitan government to speed up the pace of the immunizations.  

But until rates rise further, the overriding concern remains the risk of a dangerous spike in serious cases. 

Protests on streets and social media

The public opposition to the staging of the games – despite the measures put in place – was plainly evident on opening night. 

Hundreds of masked protestors gathered outside of the Olympic stadium venu with placards bearing slogans such as “Olympics killing the poor” – only to be met and cordoned off by even more masked police.  

On social media, too, opponents of the games were making themselves heard.  

“It’s On!  Let the games begin,” tweeted the IOC as the “Olympic cauldron” was set afire by the Olympic torch that had been kept alight throughout the dark pandemic year – marking the formal start of the games at the end of the ceremony.  

“No” one Japanese protestor  tweeted back  

“There’s no beds in hospitals that are vacant anymore in Tokyo.  The infection cases are increasing rapidly. People are going to die in their own home, without any medical care.”

Those competing themes of sobriety and excitement will accompany the games throughout the coming two weeks – and only at the end will it become clear which message will remain as the legacy of the OIympics 2020-2021.

Image Credits: @Olympics, @NYPost , IInternational Olympics Committee .

Zeng Yixin, Vice Minister of the National Health Commission, rejecting the WHO strategy at the latest Chinese government press conference on the SARS-CoV2 origins on Thursday, 21 July.

Chinese officials have rejected WHO’s proposal for a more rigorous Phase II investigation of the origins of the SARS-CoV2 virus, including renewed consideration that the virus may have escaped from a laboratory, describing the new plan as “impossible” at a press conference.   

“We will not accept such an origin-tracing plan as it, in some aspects, disregards common sense and defies science,” said Zeng Yixin, Vice Minister of the National Health Commission, at the press conference organized by the Chinese State Council Information Office on Thursday, rejecting the WHO plan out of hand. 

“We hope the WHO would seriously review the considerations and suggestions made by Chinese experts and truly treat the origin tracing of the COVID-19 virus as a scientific matter, and get rid of political interference,” Zeng said.  

 New WHO plan would address omissions of first virus origins mission to Wuhan

WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus calls for a new approach to the SARS-CoV2 quest and more Chinese “transparency.”

The plan for a revamped second phase of investigations was presented by WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to member states at a closed-door meeting last week. 

WHO’s new and tougher strategy, includes the creation of an international Scientific Advisory Group on Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) to replace the international group that led the first mission to Wuhan in January 2021. 

That first mission yielded a report that was widely criticized as papering over Chinese data omissions. It also failed to carefully consider the hypotheses that the virus might have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) that was researching bat coronaviruses – a theory that dozens of experts around the world say remains just as plausible as the theory that the virus escaped somewhere along the food chain – until more evidence is gathered.

In response to those concerns, WHO now wants to obtain and review more data on Wuhan’s sensitive coronavirus research laboratories, as well as data on wild animal species on sale in 2019 at the city’s live animal markets, to assess the likelihood that the virus may have escaped from a laboratory – as compared to infecting humans via a food-borne source. 

WHO also is requesting more raw data from China on the first COVID patients, and on population-level serology screening in Wuhan, which could lend insight into where and when in 2019 the first COVID cases really began to appear. China had previously refused to provide the data, saying that it violated privacy laws. 

WHO applying more pressure on China

In his remarks last week to member states, Tedros explicitly described the new plan of attack, as including:

  • “First, integrated studies of humans, wildlife, captive and farmed animals, and environment, as part of a One Health approach.
  • “Second, studies prioritizing geographic areas with the earliest indication of circulation of SARS-CoV-2, and neighbouring areas where other SARS-related coronaviruses have been found in non-human reservoirs;
  • “Third, studies of animal markets in and around Wuhan, including continuing studies on animals sold at the Huanan wholesale market;
  • “Fourth, studies related to animal trace-back activities, with additional epidemiology and molecular epidemiology work, including early sequences of the virus;
  • “And fifth, audits of relevant laboratories and research institutions operating in the area of the initial human cases identified in December 2019.”

“We expect China to support this next phase of the scientific process by sharing all relevant data in a spirit of transparency. Equally, we expect all Member States to support the scientific process by refraining from politicising it,” Tedros told member states at the closed-door meeting.

In a subsequent media briefing on Thursday, the WHO DG also publicly called upon China to share data more transparently, while acknowledging in the strongest terms to date, the plausibility that the virus may have escaped from a laboratory. 

The Wuhan Institute of Virology, guarded by police officers during the visit of the WHO team in early February, 2021.

“There was a premature push to reduce one of the [origins] options, the laboratory theory,” the WHO DG said, referring to the report on the virus origins that came out of the WHO-led mission to Wuhan in January. “I was a lab technician myself, an immunologist, and have worked in the lab and lab accidents happen.”

While WHO’s new move has been criticized by China, it has been applauded by former critics of the global health agency.

“Last week, Tedros showed tremendous courage when he called on the Chinese government to be more transparent in the sharing of raw data,” Jamie Metzl, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and one of the co-authors of a series of open scientific letters that criticized the WHO-led investigation for inadequately exploring the possibility that the SARS-CoV2 could have “escaped” from the WIV, said in an op-ed published on CNN.

“Given the leadership and moral courage Tedros has shown by calling for a full examination into the pandemic origins, the United States and its partners around the world must come together in support of the integrity of the WHO and his leadership,” said Metzl. 

China supports conclusions of the first origins report 

The report by the first SARS-CoV2 origins team concluded that of the four possible hypotheses about where the virus originated, the possibility of a laboratory biosafety incident was “extremely unlikely.”

The report generated widespread criticism from member states as well as an ad-hoc group of scientists, who published a series of open letters to WHO detailing how the investigation was limited by China and lacked the data and access necessary to carry out an unrestricted inquiry. 

China, on the other hand, has said that it continues to support the conclusions made by the report. Officials insist that SARS-CoV2 has natural origins, most likely the result of a natural spillover event involving zoonotic transmission.

At a press briefing on 16 July, Zhao Lijian, Spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called on countries to “respect the opinions of scientists and scientific conclusion, instead of politicizing the issue.” 

Zhao Lijian, Spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, at a press conference on 16 July.

In addition, the WIV has not reported any leaks or staff infections since it first opened in 2018, said Chinese officials. 

“We believe a lab leak is extremely unlikely and it is not necessary to invest more energy and efforts in this regard,” said Liang Wannian, the Chinese team leader of the joint WHO-China mission in January, speaking at the State Council Information Office press conference on Thursday. 

Chinese officials express disappointment

Senior Chinese health officials have expressed keen disappointment with the new WHO approach. 

“I was surprised when I saw WHO’s origin-tracing plan for the second phase,” said Zeng, at the Thursday media event. “The plan has set the assumption of China leaking the virus due to violating research instructions as one of the research priorities. We can’t possibly accept such a plan for investigating the origins.” 

At yesterday’s conference, the Chinese panelists proposed an alternative approach to the second phase of the investigation, focusing on zoonotic transmission and investigating early cases in other countries.

A panel of senior Chinese health officials discussed the COVID-19 origin investigation at a press conference on Thursday organized by the State Council Information Office.

“In the next step, I think animal tracing should be the priority direction,” said Liang. “It is the most valuable field for our efforts.”

“The second phase of origin-tracing should be extended on the basis of the first phase, guided by the relevant WHO resolutions, and carried out after full discussion and consultation among member states,” said Zhao, in a separate press briefing yesterday organized by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

“The work that has already been done in the first phase should not be repeated, especially when a clear conclusion has been reached,” Zhao added. “Instead, we should promote origin-tracing on the basis of full and extensive consultations among member states, including search of early cases in various places and countries around the world.”

Chinese officials call for investigation into US military lab

In an attempt to deflect attention and blame, Chinese authorities also have tried to suggest that the virus could also have escaped from a laboratory in the Untied States, pointing in particular to the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Maryland.

Chinese officials have suggested that the US should invite an international team of scientists to conduct an independent investigation into Fort Detrick.

Conspiracies, largely peddled by Chinese officials, continue to swarm around Fort Detrick, with reports of some five million people in China signing a petition calling on WHO to investigate the bio-lab.

“What dark secrets are hidden out of sight at Fort Detrick?” asked Zhao at a press briefing on Wednesday. 

“Facing the 630,000 American lives lost to the coronavirus, the US should be transparent, take concrete measures to thoroughly investigate the origins of the virus at home, thoroughly investigate the reason of its botched response and who should be held accountable, thoroughly investigate the mysteries over Fort Detrick and its over 200 overseas bio labs,” said Zhao. 

The prominent military germ lab was temporarily shut down in 2019 by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) because it didn’t have “sufficient systems in place to decontaminate wastewater” from its highest-security labs.

The lab reopened in March 2020 and was accompanied by an announcement from officials that no dangerous pathogens had escaped the lab.

US ‘deeply disappointed’ with China’s response

“[China’s] position is irresponsible and frankly dangerous,” said Jen Psaki, the White House Press Secretary on Thursday at a press briefing. “We are deeply disappointed.”

“Alongside other member states around the world we continue to call for China to provide the needed access to data and samples, and this is critical so we can understand and prevent the next pandemic,” Psaki said.

Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary, at a press briefing on Thursday.

Relations between the US and China have suffered as a result of the probe, increasing tensions between the nations. 

“This is about saving lives in the future and it’s not a time to be stonewalling,” said Psaki.

In late May, US President, Joe Biden, instructed the country’s scientific and intelligence communities to investigate and publish a report on the pandemic’s origins by late August. One of the theories being examined is the possibility that the novel coronavirus emerged from a lab accident. 

“I have now asked the Intelligence Community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back to me in 90 days,” said Biden. 

The US has expressed its dissatisfaction with the joint origins investigation, describing the report as “insufficient and inconclusive” in late May. The Biden Administration even appears to be positioning itself to take independent action if the WHO investigative process doesn’t succeed. 

“Unfortunately, phase one…did not yield the data and access from China that we think is necessary,” said Psaki. “But [the US] support[s]…the phase two plan…because it’s rigorous and science-based.”

Experts express concern over the future of the origins investigation

China’s refusal to participate in WHO’s next phase of the origin probe is “outrageous & absolutely unacceptable,” tweeted Metzl. 

According to Metzel, the “process has been compromised from the very beginning,” he told CNN.

The joint study by the international committee and their Chinese counterparts was agreed upon at the World Health Assembly last year, which gave the Chinese government a certain degree of control over the process.

“It’s been clear from day one that the Chinese have no interest in a full investigation into the pandemic origins and…they’ve been doing everything possible to block that,” Metzl said. 

“Given the critical importance of fully investigating the origin of Covid-19 and preventing future pandemics, China’s rejection of a full investigation poses a threat to the world that cannot be tolerated,” said Metzel in an op-ed on CNN. 

An alternative strategy is needed to conduct the SARS-CoV2 investigation without China’s cooperation. This will require the US and its partners both to support the WHO-organized process and set up a separate mechanism for an in-depth probe, said Metzl. 

The US should involve the Group of 7 (G7), an intergovernmental political forum for the world’s seven largest advanced economies, Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) countries, or the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of 37 member countries that develop economic and social policy.

“Although not having full access to all of the relevant resources in China would hamper this investigation, a great deal of progress can be made by pooling efforts, accessing materials available outside of China, and creating secure whistleblower provisions empowering Chinese experts to share information,” said Metzl.

“The international community must proceed with a forensic investigation, with or without China’s cooperation,” Dr Richard H. Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University, told Health Policy Watch.

“Many threads of forensic investigation are available outside China. In particular, information relevant to the origin of SARS-CoV-2 may exist at the US-based research partner of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (EcoHealth Alliance), at the US-government research funders of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and EcoHealth Alliance (USAID, DTRA, DARPA, DHS, and NIH), and at the US- and UK-based scientific publishers that handled publications of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and EcoHealth Alliance (Springer-Nature, Lancet, and PLoS),” Ebright added.

Creation of new body and expert group to investigate disease origins

In the meeting with WHO member states last week, Dr Tedros announced the establishment of a new body to investigate the origins of SARS-CoV2 and future pandemics.

The permanent International Scientific Advisory Group for Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), which will be composed of experts nominated by member states, will “play a vital role in the next phase of studies into the origins of SARS-CoV2,” said Tedros. 

“The world needs a more stable and predictable framework for studying origins of new pathogens with epidemic or pandemic potential,” said Tedros.

“Finding where this virus came from is essential not just for understanding how the pandemic started and preventing future outbreaks, but it’s also important as an obligation to the families of the 4 million people who have lost someone they love, and the millions who have suffered,” said Tedros.

WHO will launch an open call for nominations for “highly qualified” members of the new advisory group from member states.

Image Credits: China Daily, WHO, CNN, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, C-Span.

Cambodia, Iran and Bangladesh are the first lower-income countries to receive delivery of a donation from Japan of over 11 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, beginning this weekend.

Cambodia and Iran received 332,000 and 1,087,570 doses respectively on Friday, while Bangladesh is scheduled to receive 2,45,200 doses on Saturday, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance said in a statement.

The Japanese vaccine donations are being distributed via Gavi’s COVAX Advance Market Commitment scheme – that provides vaccines free of charge to some 92 low-income countries in Southeast Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean region, Western Pacific, Latin America, and elsewhere.

Announcing the donations, the government of Japan said: that “In order to overcome COVID-19, it is important to promote equitable access to vaccines not only in Japan but also throughout the world. Japan will continue to work towards securing equitable access to safe, effective and quality-assured vaccines through various support, responding to the needs of developing countries and the world, in cooperation with relevant countries and international organizations.”

Japan itself has lagged in its own vaccination campaign, despite being a high-income country – creating added risks of a spike in serious COVID cases as the 2020 Olympics get underway – a year late.

Seth Berkley, Gavi CEO said in the statement: “ In operationalising its dose donation, the Government of Japan has further grown its commitment to global equitable access. We look forward to seeing Japanese doses flowing to a number of countries in the coming weeks.”

Read more here…

Image Credits: Gavi .

A doctor preparing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the Naval Hospital in Bremerton, Washington, US.

Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine was approved for use in children 12 to 17 years of age by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), making it the second vaccine recommended for use in children in Europe, following the EMA’s approval of Pfizer’s Comirnaty child vaccine formulation in May.

The effects of Moderna’s vaccine in adolescents was evaluated in a study with 3,732 participants. The study demonstrated that the vaccine produced a similar antibody response in those aged 12-17, as compared to young adults 18-25, for whom the vaccine was already approved.

None of the 2,163 children receiving the vaccine became infected with SARS-CoV2, while four of the 1,073 children that were given a placebo injection developed COVID-19.

The side effects in children were similar to those in people over the age of 18, including pain and swelling at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle and joint pain, chills, nausea, and fever.

The safety of the Moderna vaccine, as seen in adults, was confirmed in the adolescent study, the EMA stated. .

Although the EMA’s vaccine advisory committee noted that the study was too small to detect new uncommon side effects, the EMA concluded that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks.

Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was similarly evaluated in a study of 2,260 children aged 12 to 15 years. Of the 1,005 children that received the vaccine, none developed a COVID infection, compared to 16 children out of the 978 who received a placebo jab.

The most common side effects in children were pain at the injection site, tiredness, headache, muscle and joint pain, chills, and fever. The side effects were usually mild or moderate and improved within a few day of the vaccination.

The EMA said that it will continue to monitor the safety and efficacy of both vaccines in children as it is used across the region in vaccination campaigns.

Image Credits: Flickr – Official US Navy.

COVAX / vaccine equity
COVAX vaccine deliveries in Africa.

Without urgent action to boost supply and ensure equitable access to vaccines across every country, COVID-19 vaccine inequity will profoundly impact and impede socio-economic recovery in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

This is according to the Global Dashboard for COVID-19 Vaccine Equity, a joint initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government.

A high price per COVID-19 vaccine dose, in addition to other vaccine and delivery costs, has the potential to place a strain on fragile health systems, undermining routine immunization and other essential health services. 

Alternative, accelerated scaled-up manufacturing and vaccine sharing with LMICs could have added $38 billion to the countries’ GDPs, if these countries had similar vaccination rates as high income countries. 

“Vaccine inequity is the world’s biggest obstacle to ending this pandemic and recovering from COVID-19,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“Economically, epidemiologically and morally, it is in all countries’ best interest to use the latest available data to make lifesaving vaccines available to all.”

According to the new dashboard, richer countries are projected to vaccinate quicker and recover economically quicker from COVID-19, while poorer countries haven’t been able to vaccinate even their health workers and most vulnerable populations. 

Some low- and middle-income countries have less than 1% of their population vaccinated, said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner. These countries may not achieve pre-COVID-19 levels of growth until 2024. 

In addition, Delta and other variants are forcing some countries to reinstate strict public health social measures, further worsening social, economic, and health impact.

Steiner called for ‘swift, collective action’ on behalf of governments and policymakers to promote vaccine equity worldwide. 

“It’s time for swift, collective action – this new COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Dashboard will provide Governments, policymakers and international organizations with unique insights to accelerate the global delivery of vaccines and mitigate the devastating socio-economic impacts of the pandemic.”

The Dashboard is facilitated by the Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All, which aims to improve collaboration across the countries and organizations, in support of an equitable and resilient recovery from the pandemic. 

Image Credits: UNICEF.

On 2 March, Nigeria received a delivery of vaccines from COVAX which landed in Abuja.

IBADAN – Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, has officially exhausted all the doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine it received in March from COVAX, according to Dr Faisal Shuaib, CEO of Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).

Twenty-one African countries have seen COVID-19 cases rise by over 20% for at least two weeks running, and the current peak is 80% higher than Africa’s previous peak when data from South Africa (which accounts for 37% of cases) is excluded, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa region.

“Be under no illusions, Africa’s third wave is absolutely not over.  Many countries are still at peak risk and Africa’s third wave surged up faster and higher than ever before. The Eid celebrations which we marked this week may also result in a rise in cases. We must all double down on prevention measures to build on these fragile gains,” Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, told the regional media briefing on Thursday.

Vaccine doses are slowly inching upwards. One million Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses – part of approximately 25 million doses donated by the US government to Africa – were delivered this week, according to Jessica Lapenn, US Ambassador to the African Union.

The doses had gone to Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Ethiopia, the Gambia and Senegal. An additional 1.2 million vaccine doses will soon be delivered to Cameroon, Lesotho, Niger republic, Zambia and the Central African Republic, Lapenn told an Africa CDC press briefing on Thursday.

“These deliveries are the first tranche of approximately 25 million COVID-19 vaccine doses being donated to Africa. That’s out of 80 million doses that the Biden administration announced for global donations last month. In the next coming weeks, we’ll continue to see additional deliveries to reach this 25 million,” Lapenn said.

Jessica Lapenn, US Ambassador to the African Union

 

 

This comes as WHO urges African countries to urgently ramp up COVID-19 vaccinations as the squeeze on vaccine shipments eases.

“Around 60 million doses are set to arrive in the coming weeks from the US, Team Europe, the United Kingdom, purchased doses and other partners through the COVAX Facility. Over half a billion doses are expected through COVAX alone this year,” according to the WHO.

“A massive influx of doses means that Africa must go all out and speed up the vaccine rollout by five to six times if we are to get all these doses into arms and fully vaccinate the most vulnerable 10% of all Africans by the end of September,” said Dr Moeti.

Nearly 70% of African countries will not reach the 10% vaccination target for all countries by the end of September at the current pace. Around 3.5 million to 4 million doses are administered weekly on the continent, but to meet the September target this must rise to 21 million doses at the very least each week, according to the WHO.

Just 20 million Africans, or 1.5% of the continent’s population, are fully vaccinated so far and just 1.7% of the 3.7 billion doses given globally have been administered in Africa.

US assists African Union to achieve vaccine target

The African Union (AU) has a target of vaccinating at least 60% of people on the African continent, and Lapenn confirmed that the US government is engaging with the Africa CDC and the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) to coordinate the allocation of the vaccine doses to African countries. 

A breakdown of the shipments provided by the Africa CDC showed Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Senegal, Gambia, Zambia, Niger and Cameroon got 151,200 doses of J&J vaccine while Ethiopia received 453,600 doses.

In addition to these deliveries, Health Policy Watch recently reported the US government will also donate an additional 500 million Pfizer vaccine doses globally starting in August, as committed by US President Biden before the recent G7 Summit.

While Africa’s share of this donation, which will be delivered through COVAX, has yet to be determined, Strive Masiyiwa, the AU Special Envoy and coordinator of the AVATT, requested half of the total donation – 250 million doses.

The US government has also pledged its support to the local manufacture of COVID-19 vaccine doses in Africa with its recent contribution, through the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), to a $700 million loan being made to expand Aspen pharma in South Africa. It has also signed an agreement with Senegal and other partners for production of COVID-19 vaccines in Senegal. 

DFC said the technical assistance will help mobilize technical and financial resources from public and private entities to contribute to the development of Fondation Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD), a vaccine manufacturer in Dakar, Senegal, to bolster the production of COVID-19 vaccines in the country.

“These commitments are part and parcel of the US’ historic leadership on humanitarian and health assistance across the continent, including our support to combat COVID-19,” said Lapenn.

“Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the US has provided roughly $541 million, and health humanitarian and economic support assistance to sub-Saharan Africa for COVID response. This follows a roughly $100 billion worth of investment in Africa’s public health over the last two decades.”

Urgently refilling Africa’s vaccine stocks

Dr John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa CDC

Dr John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa CDC, said the vaccines donated by the US government will help to ensure that vaccination continues or resumes in African countries that are either running out of doses or had already exhausted the doses received even though only 1.3% of people in Africa have been fully immunised.

“As of today, the continent has acquired 82.7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses among 51 Member States. Of that number, 61.3 million doses have been administered, representing about 74%. In order words, doses are not being wasted as up to about 75% of the doses have been used,” Nkengasong said.

According to the Africa CDC, Morocco has used up about 80% of its supplies. South Africa has also exhausted 64% of its supplies, Egypt (68%), Nigeria (99.97%) and Algeria (68%).

In Nigeria, Shuaib announced on Wednesday that the country had used 3,938,945 doses of Astrazeneca vaccines across 36 states and the country’s capital city, representing 98% utilization of the 4,024,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine it received from COVAX. 

“This comprises 2,534,205 people who have been vaccinated for the first dose, and 1,404,205 who have received their second dose of the vaccine. This is to say that all vaccines given to Nigeria in this first phase have been exhausted,” Shuaib said.

He also announced that during the vaccination exercise, Nigeria recorded 14,550 cases of mild to moderate side effects out of which only 148 cases were considered to be severe and no deaths. 

“As plans and preparation for the second [vaccination] phase commences, ‘a whole family approach’ vaccination mechanism would be utilized. This is because Nigeria is plagued with other preventable and treatable diseases. We will use the opportunity of COVID-19 vaccination to integrate with other health systems,” he added.

J&J vaccine delivery timeline emerges

Elaborating on a recent deal struck between AVATT and Johnson & Johnson for 400 million doses, Masiyiwa confirmed that at least 45 African countries will be receiving the J&J vaccine through COVAX in two phases. 

In the first phase, J&J will ship six million single doses of its COVID vaccine to 27 African countries that have already paid for their vaccines. 

By the end of August, 45 African countries will have received their first shipment. Thereafter, J&J will ship an average 10 million doses per month from the Aspen facility in South Africa to African countries till the end of the year.

“In January, we would have moved to 20 million doses a month and we will continue exponentially increasing that until all 400 million doses have been delivered by September next year,” Masiyiwa said.

Strive Masiyiwa, the AU Special Envoy and coordinator of the AVATT

More local COVID-19 vaccine production deals

On Wednesday, Pfizer-BioNTech announced a deal with South Africa’s Biovac Institute, which will see the African company helping manufacture about 100 million COVID-19 vaccines for the African Union in the coming year.

“The deal is to ‘fill and finish’ the vaccine, the final stages of manufacturing where the product is processed and put into vials. It does not cover the complicated processes of mRNA drug substance production, which Pfizer and BioNTech will do at their own facilities in Europe,” Nkengasong said.

Under the deal, Biovac will get the ingredients for the vaccine from Europe, blend the components, put them in vials and package them for distribution. This deal is similar to the arrangement between South Africa-based Aspen and Johnson and Johnson.

Morocco has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Swedish company Recipharm to establish and scale-up COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity in the country while South Africa has also signed an agreement between Biovac, Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines, a network of universities, WHO, COVAX, and Africa CDC for the establishment of the first COVID-19 mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub in Africa. 

In April 2021, Egypt also signed two agreements between Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA) and Sinovac for COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing in the country. Algeria has also announced production of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in partnership with Russia.

Masiyiwa described local production of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa as an effective opportunity for the continent to tackle “vaccine nationalism” that had largely limited the continent’s ability to quickly access and roll out COVID-19 vaccines even though it is willing to pay for the doses. 

“The countries with the production assets control the release of vaccines. So we at least could rely on production assets on African soil,” he said.

 

Image Credits: NPHCDA.

Arid soils in Mauritania, crops have failed and the region faced a major food crisis in 2012. Over 700,000 people were affected in Mauritania and 12 million across West Africa.

Biodiversity sits at the heart of the simultaneous fight against both COVID-19 and the climate crisis, said experts during a Wednesday event hosted by the Society for International Development (SID). 

At the event, ‘The Vaccine for Biodiversity’, panelists discussed re-focusing attention on the current health and climate crisis, and how new pandemics should and can be prevented in the future by looking at humankind’s relationship with nature. 

Two competing approaches have emerged – one that focuses on the interconnectedness between planetary health and human health and the other that sees health as a commodity – noted Ruchi Shroff, Director of Navdanya International based in Italy.

The view of health as something to be purchased through the pharmaceutical industry or found in biomedical vaccines “separates us from nature”, said Shroff. 

“[We see ourselves] as those that can control and can predict nature, and can also manipulate nature without any thought of the consequences.” 

Such a paradigm has led to disastrous effects, both on the planet’s health and our health. 

“It has exposed the extent and the interconnective precarities of all our global systems, and has shown the health emergency we are facing is deeply connected to the health emergency the earth is facing.” 

New zoonotic diseases rise from global food industry 

biodiversity
Antibiotics are commonly used in animals—often without the input of veterinarians—to boost their growth and keep them from picking up infections

Safeguarding biodiversity has provided a “heavy blanket of resilience”, but the global industrial food system threatens this protection with new zoonotic diseases arising as a result. 

Neglected zoonotic diseases kill at least two million people annually, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. 

“We are, ironically, becoming connected to disease rather than to diversity,” said Shroff. 

The evolutionary interaction between people and nature in the past has built up an extraordinary reservoir of biodiversity. 

But in spite of biodiversity’s impact and calls to curb mass extinction, none of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets have been met for the second consecutive decade. 

Biodiversity loss has worsened, with ten million hectares of forests cut down globally between the years 2015 and 2020, for industrial and agricultural use. Pesticides have led to soil erosion and water depletion, and plant varieties that have existed for generations have also been substituted by highly uniform and commercial varieties. 

In addition, the growing use of antimicrobials in farm animals has become a major contributor to drug resistance. 

Shroff proposes that the upcoming UN 2021 Food Systems Pre-Summit shifts away from existing models that sideline real solutions, and instead focuses on a holistic and integrated response, bringing back an agro-ecological and biodiversity-based paradigm.

“This means farming in nature’s way, as co-creators, as co-producers with diversity, respecting nature’s ecological cycles, respecting people’s rights.” 

Food crisis worsened by COVID-19 

Inka Santala of Woolongong, Australia

A study conducted by the Community Economies Research Network (CERN) that examined the food systems of various countries during the pandemic, found that Finland, typically considered a relatively stable and secure state within the European Union, had several structural weaknesses in its food production and distribution systems in the early onset of COVID-19.  

Since the national recession of the 1990s, Finland has been heavily dependent on food aid distributed by local profit organizations, and has supported the import of products from overseas. 

However, COVID-19 restrictions and border closures placed even more pressure on already trained charity organizations, with their limited capacity, to respond to growing demand. 

This only fueled the currently inequitable and distracted food system, eventually escalating the unfolding climate crisis, said Inka Santala of Woolongong in Australia. 

Santala called for just and sustainable food systems during and post-pandemic to tackle the climate crisis. This includes more climate-friendly agricultural programs and support for organic farmers, subsidies to focus on social enterprises and local food initiatives, and the introduction of more progressive taxes that balance growing income inequalities. 

“It remains necessary to expand food systems not only locally, but also on a planetary scale, considering we are all sustained by the same biosystem.” 

Alternative community-based food systems turn food into ‘common good’  

Vegetable seller at Gosa Market in Abuja, Nigeria. Traditional markets provide access to healthy, fresh foods that play critical roles in feeding individuals and households globally.

With COVID-19 essentially hitting a ‘pause button’ on normal life, CERN researchers also found sustainable food systems that provided for those most vulnerable during the pandemic, and examined how such community-based programs could serve as a transitional process towards more just and equitable ways of dealing with the pandemic. 

This includes food distribution networks in cities such as Sydney that were able to coordinate and expand the use of emergency use provisioning, and the New Zealand National Food Network that redirected food surpluses to people who needed it most. 

There are also traditional markets, where food safety is well-assured, that support food security, local farm production, and more sustainable agro-ecosystems. 

Stephen Healy of Western Sydney University called these diverse forms of food systems a way of making food “common”, shifting the way we access resources that nourish, sustain, and protect us into a good that can be shared worldwide, and can be extended for the “common good”.

“The pandemic does offer us an opportunity to think about how mutuality can be made to endure through time.” 

Image Credits: Oxfam International/Flickr, Commons Wikimedia, SID, Michael Casmir, Pierce Mill Media.