Alzheimer's dementia tanzania
Hadija Kisanji, 78, who suffers from dementia sits with her daughter Mariam and grandchildren.

Africa’s population over the age of 60 will triple by 2050, bringing “a sharp rise in neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, with profound health and economic costs”, according to a paper published in Nature last week.

The paper highlights a five-year strategy, headed by a pan-African task force, to address this demographic shift on the continent, focusing on “early detection, timely care, data-driven systems, and equitable innovation”.

Some three-quarters of people living with Alzheimer’s globally are undiagnosed, denying them access to appropriate treatment and care. 

Given widespread systemic weaknesses in the health systems of several African countries, this may well be the fate of many of the estimated 226 million Africans over 60 projected to be living on the continent by 2050 (up from 69 million in 2017). 

Currently, only 12 African countries submit data to the Global Dementia Observatory.

Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt already have some of the highest dementia-related disease burdens in the world, and by 2050, 14 million Africans are expected to develop Alzheimer’s and related disorders. 

Health system transformation

The “6×5” plan developed by the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC) aims to assist African countries to address this growing problem using low-cost innovations.

It comprises six interventions over the next five years: strengthening advocacy and health literacy; positioning brain health as a socioeconomic driver; breaking down silos of people and data; repurposing local resources; investing in artificial intelligence and digital health, and boosting research funding. 

Advocacy and health literacy

“In many African cultural settings, dementia is often linked to madness, witchcraft and demonic possession, or it is dismissed as a natural part of ageing,” the report notes.

To address this stigmatising approach, it proposes health literacy campaigns aimed at establishing dementia as “a biological issue that requires immediate attention”. 

Brain health as a socio-economic driver

“Positioning brain health as a cornerstone of Africa’s societal well-being, economic growth and sustainable development is imperative,” according to the plan.

It calls for health policy makers to recognise brain health as a critical economic priority, and address individual and societal determinants of brain health across people’s entire lifespans.

This would start with the first 1,000 days of life, a critical phase for brain development, and include childhood education to build cognitive skills and lifelong learning opportunities.

It would also encompass women’s health initiatives to address gender disparities, initiatives to promote emotional resilience, and healthy ageing strategies that incorporate physical activity, nutrition and social engagement.

“The continent has a deeply rooted heritage of social connectedness, collective identity and intergenerational support – factors shown to promote cognitive well-being and mitigate cognitive decline,” the report notes.

Worldwide projections of Alzheimer's prevalence
Alzheimer’s disease is projected to affect over 106 million people by 2050

Repurposing local resources

“The continent needs a comprehensive Pan-African Resource Repurposing Strategy for Brain Health – one that identifies underutilised resources and fosters sustainable, affordable and locally driven solutions,” the report notes.

Expertise in managing infectious diseases such as HIV can be harnessed to help with the early detection of dementia, for example.

Community health workers can be trained to identify early signs of the disease, primary healthcare facilities can serve as hubs for cognitive screening, education and management, and dementia care can be included in non-communicable disease (NCD) services.

Breaking down silos

“A well-integrated research and data ecosystem is essential for identifying high-risk populations and implementing targeted dementia prevention and early intervention strategies,” the report notes.

However, Africa’s research and information systems are fragmented, with “weak data-sharing platforms, limited connectivity between research hubs, and a lack of standardised mechanisms for harmonisation and reporting”. 

It proposes establishing “a Pan-African network of research centres” to drive a harmonised, transdisciplinary approach to data generation and utilisation. 

It also advocates for “strengthening cross-sector collaboration through partnerships between health systems, governments, researchers and nongovernmental organisations” and global partnerships.

Tech-enabled systems

“Digital health solutions offer accessible, scalable and cost-effective alternatives to traditional healthcare approaches,” and Africa’s mobile technology “revolution” means it is well placed to adopt these, the report notes.

New digital biomarkers enable early and accurate detection, monitoring and treatment of brain disorders – including data from speech patterns and typing.

This “allows for passive and remote monitoring of cognitive changes”, which facilitates the use of AI.

Digital technologies can also play a critical role in “identifying and mitigating modifiable risk factors associated with cognitive decline”, including “sleep patterns, physical activity, social engagement and mental health indicators (such as depression)”.

But AI-driven solutions are often developed on and for high-income populations, which means Africa needs “a pan-African strategy for AI and machine learning solutions in brain health”.

Strengthening research funding

“To attract investment from both public and private sectors, brain health leaders must present a compelling economic and social case,” the report notes. 

It proposes that brain health is integrated into existing healthcare priorities such as maternal and child health, NCDs and social determinants of health. 

Way forward

As Africa transitions to a society with smaller families, there is the prospect of greater economic wealth as the working-age population becomes proportionally larger than the non-working-age population – and this offers a chance to implement measures to prepare for an older population, the paper argues.

To effectively implement the priority areas outlined in the 6 × 5 Plan, DAC launched a pan-African task force on brain health in March 2025. 

The task force’s organising committee, which provides strategic oversight, is composed of DAC, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Economic Forum (WEF), the World Bank, Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) and the African Union. 

DAC leads the secretariat, which coordinates operational support and communication. Six thematic chairs – covering research, nonprofit, industry, policy, economics and systems thinking – shape strategy and liaise with working group leads. 

Six working groups, led by operational leads from the five geopolitical zones, focus on executing the priorities of the 6 × 5 plan, ensuring regionally relevant and inclusive solutions across Africa.

“Unlike research efforts that focus on therapeutic interventions, DAC’s model emphasises health system transformation, from earlier detection and evidence-based care pathways to strengthening workforce training and improving global data sharing,” according to a media release from the Geneva-based collaboration.

Image Credits: Kizito Makoye Shigela/HPW, UCLA .

European Union Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall and Danish Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke address reporters at the United Nations in Geneva as time runs out to strike a global plastics treaty.

GENEVA – The European Union said Tuesday it is ready to make a deal on a global plastics treaty but will not accept an agreement “at any cost,” leaving the door open to rejecting a weak outcome as negotiators enter the final 72 hours of talks with core provisions still deadlocked.

“The EU is here to deal, but not at any cost,” Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall told journalists when asked about reports the bloc was prepared to walk away if production limits were excluded from the final agreement. “If there is no agreement that is good enough, these are negotiations. That’s always an opportunity for everyone in negotiations.”

The commissioner’s carefully worded intervention came as high-level delegations arrived at the United Nations hoping to break a week-long impasse over production caps, health provisions, toxic chemical restrictions, financing, and definitions of key terms, including “plastic pollution” itself.

Countries also remain divided on the treaty’s fundamental scope: whether the agreement should address the full lifecycle of plastics — from feedstock extraction to disposal — or focus only on waste management and recycling.

The EU and an alliance of over 100 states are pushing for hard caps on plastic production, but face stiff opposition from plastic-producing nations. The “like-minded nations” group led by Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran and their allies—flanked by the United States and India—have shown no signs of softening their total opposition to production limits in the treaty.

“Everyone will need to compromise,” Roswall said, calling on all 184 nations present to speed up progress towards a deal. “We have a global responsibility to fix this. No country can do this on its own.”

Danish Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke, speaking alongside Roswall, characterised the negotiations as “very difficult,” warning that tensions and “drama” would escalate in the coming days as Thursday’s deadline looms over the talks.

“There’s going to be a whole lot more drama in the days to come,” Heunicke said. “If you are looking for drama, I’d say stay here, because more drama is going to happen. But our goal is that this drama should end up in a deal.”

Both officials declined to specify the EU’s red lines, citing the sensitivity of ongoing negotiations. However, Heunicke emphasised production as a key concern, calling plastic pollution “one of the greatest environmental challenges” globally.

“We know it harms our health, it harms our oceans, it harms our future,” Heunicke said. “At the same time, we also know that plastic production is increasing at an exponential rate. That’s why the EU is here … to secure a legally binding international agreement on how plastic is produced, consumed and disposed of.”

The consensus-based format of the negotiations, which requires unanimous agreement for the treaty to be accepted, has been roundly criticised by nations and observer delegations for allowing nations seeking to weaken or remove articles on health, toxic chemicals and production limits to maintain their positions with little incentive to compromise.

Juan Carlos Monterrey, Panama’s negotiator, told a panel on Monday that the like-minded nations had “not moved an inch” since talks began last week.

Ninety-nine per cent of plastics are made from oil, gas and coal, generating a market projected to reach $1 trillion annually in the next decade. Major petrochemical states see booming plastic production as a hedge against declining demand for fossil fuels in traditional energy markets.

Behind closed doors

Press conference held on Tuesday by the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty.

Progress in the negotiations has been difficult to gauge for civil society observers and media alike. Crucial debates over the treaty’s scope, definitions of key terms like “plastics” and “plastic pollution,” limits on toxic chemicals used in plastics and production caps have all occurred behind closed doors.

Neither INC representatives nor the UN Environment Programme, which oversees the negotiations, have held a press conference since Saturday. That briefing offered few details, with INC chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso deflecting questions about specific treaty articles and which issues were proving the most difficult to bridge between nations.

Negotiators are working from a text with nearly 1,500 items of disagreement on which no progress has been made since Saturday, leaving nations 13 pages further from agreement than after the last round of talks in Busan, South Korea, in December.

Melissa Blue Sky, a senior attorney at the Centre for International Environmental Law, noted that the brackets don’t indicate the weight of support: while some clauses have backing from 100 countries, others may have only one supporter, yet all appear equal.

“The draft text is misleading because it presents all options as having the same weight, when in fact, some text additions have the support of over a hundred countries and some with only one,” Blue Sky said. “The INC cannot continue with the status quo and expect the negotiations to result in a final treaty.”

As nations race to find a compromise, experts from the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty — after a brief venue shuffle due to meeting room overbooking — held a press conference stressing the health and environmental consequences if negotiations fall short.

“The science is really undeniable that we need plastic production reduction and we need [it] on global levels and at national levels to be really, really ambitious if we’re going to see any benefits,” said Natalia Grilli, an environmental scientist from the University of Tasmania. “For us, the science is clear. We’re not negotiators … so it’s not that we have red lines. We’re responding to the science.”

It remains unclear when the next treaty text will be released. The clearest picture of progress from recent negotiating flurries will likely emerge at Wednesday’s expected plenary session, though none has been formally scheduled.

Sources close to national delegations told Health Policy Watch they expect negotiations to extend deep into Thursday night and likely into Friday morning, an all-too-typical endgame for UN environmental negotiations.

“If it was only up to the EU, then we all know how high ambitions would be,” Heunicke said. “It is not, however, up to the EU.”

“If we all stick to our red lines, that deal is impossible,” the Danish environment chief added. “We will be worse off if we don’t succeed in making a deal. That’s not me saying a deal at any price, but a deal that is legally binding and has strong text and lays the ground for our work in the years ahead.”

“With four more days to go, we have more square brackets in the text than plastic in the sea,” EU Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall said.

GENEVA — The world’s attempt to forge a plastics treaty billed as the most important environmental deal since the Paris climate accord is falling apart after three years of talks.

With negotiations due to end Thursday evening, 184 nations gathered in Geneva remain deadlocked over basic definitions, the scope of the treaty and whether to limit plastic production at all.

The working text contains nearly 1,500 brackets marking disagreements as of Monday evening — five times more than after the previous failed round in Busan, South Korea, in December. The document has grown by 13 pages since the last draft, adding discord to a negotiation process that appears increasingly rudderless.

After nearly three years of talks, countries have yet to agree on a definition of “plastic pollution” itself. Some countries are “even questioning whether the treaty is about plastic” at all, according to an open letter from leading environmental observers Monday.

“With four more days to go, we have more square brackets in the text than plastic in the sea. It’s time to get results,” European Union environment chief Jessika Roswall said. “We have to speed up negotiations and I call again on all parties to be constructive. We cannot miss this historic opportunity to land a global plastics treaty.”

Strong opposition to production limits at the negotiations, known as INC5.2, was expected, clearly telegraphed by plastic-producing nations ahead of this week’s meeting.

The deadlock pits a small group of leading petrochemical nations, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United States and their allies against more than 100 countries seeking mandatory production cuts for plastics, which are made from fossil fuels.

With Thursday’s deadline looming, the impasse has frustrated nations and civil society groups seeking action on a crisis affecting human health and the planet.

New talks, same problems 

Opening excerpt of Article 6 of the Plastics Treaty from the “assembled text” forming the basis of negotiations at INC5.2.

The central battlefield since treaty talks began in 2022 is Article 6, which addresses plastic production caps. The article remains entirely bracketed, meaning no agreement exists on any of its text.

A group of so-called “like-minded” nations led by Saudi Arabia, Russia, Malaysia, Iran, Morocco, India, Cuba and Kazakhstan want the article and its reference to production limits deleted entirely. These nations argue the crisis can be addressed through improved waste management, recycling and product design.

Proponents of production limits say the treaty is ineffectual without caps, given that less than 10% of plastics are currently recycled.

“This process cannot result in a narrow waste management treaty,” representatives from the Cook Islands said, noting that small island states already sinking beneath the waves due to sea level rise are also drowning in plastic.

Frustration with the treaty process is mounting as Thursday’s deadline approaches.

The United States, the world’s second-largest plastic producer behind China, aligns with the “like-minded” group. The US pivot under President Donald Trump struck a major blow to hopes of a strong treaty, reversing the Biden administration’s late support for production limits.

US delegates cite plastics’ importance to the American economy and view hard production limits as infringements on sovereignty and an overstep of the treaty’s authority. 

The US delegation has proposed striking language describing the treaty’s scope as covering the “full life cycle of plastics,” which would include every step from fossil fuel extraction through production to disposal. 

This change in the treaty’s scope would focus the agreement entirely on waste management, dashing ambitions for the treaty to address production and live up to its billing by UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen as the most consequential environmental agreement since the 2015 Paris Accord.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that a waste-management-only approach would still result in a 47% increase in mismanaged plastic waste by 2040 as the production boom outpaces infrastructure. Plastic leaked into the environment would increase 50% by 2040 from 2020 levels.

Decades of research and billions of dollars have been poured into plastic recycling, yet it remains ineffective. The OECD projects plastic production will triple by 2060 under current trends, with less than 10% recycled. Just 6% of plastics produced in 2040 will be made from recycled materials.

“It is now clear that the world cannot recycle its way out of the plastic pollution crisis,” The Lancet Plastics Countdown stated in a report released last week on the opening day of the talks.

The other club 

On the other side of the table, more than 100 nations support legally binding plastic production limits and phase-out dates.

This coalition includes the 27 member states of the European Union and other European allies, the United Kingdom, Australia, Switzerland, Canada, 39 small island developing states, and large numbers of African and Latin American nations.

Many nations beyond the core group of 100 seeking production cuts have voiced support for limiting chemicals of concern in plastic production, a measure also opposed by the United States and the ‘like-minded’ group.

Current proposals list “203X” as placeholder dates for banning single-use plastics, which account for half of global production. The next article states that countries may register for exceptions from these undetermined deadlines.

“We will not stand by while our future is bartered away in a stalemate,” Ilana Seid, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, said.

Health provision on the chopping block

Many high-ambition nations are also pushing for Article 3, which outlines how plastic chemicals threaten health and the environment. But this article, too, remains largely in brackets.

The proposed health component was put forward by Mexico and Switzerland and supported by over 80 countries. It would include legally binding obligations to remove hazardous chemicals from plastics, updated as toxicity science evolves, plus traceability and transparency mechanisms for chemicals of concern.

More than 16,000 chemicals are used in plastics, over 4,200 of which are considered “highly hazardous” to human health. An additional 5,000 compounds are classified as “unknowns,” with no public data on their safety or long-term impacts.

Health is mentioned 36 times in the draft text and features in the agreement’s first sentence, which cites protecting “human health” as a key objective.

Some nations state health is beyond the treaty’s scope and should be handled by the World Health Organization. At the last World Health Assembly, however, some of the same member states, such as Russia, argued that the agency shouldn’t be involved in the plastics issue, because it was being handled by UNEP.

Other countries argue that plastic’s threat to health should be referenced only as a “potential impact,” despite extensive scientific evidence to the contrary.

“Many of the chemicals added to plastic during manufacture are hazardous, including endocrine disruptors that lead to hormone imbalance, reproductive disorders, infertility, kidney disease and cancer,” WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week.

“Emerging evidence also connects plastic exposures to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular risks,” Tedros added. “We call on all countries to negotiate, adopt and implement a strong treaty that protects health from the harms of plastic pollution.”

‘Plastics Crisis’ Costs Trillions, Kills Hundreds of Thousands Each Year, Lancet Finds

Consensus isn’t working

INC Chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso meets with Indigenous Peoples groups in Geneva.

The requirement for unanimous agreement embedded in the treaty negotiation framework has allowed low-ambition countries to block progress with little incentive to change course, generating widespread frustration with the INC’s rules of procedure from nations and civil society alike.

Ethiopia’s delegation said consensus had been used to “hold the entire process hostage” and called for informal discussions to address challenging articles.

“So far, the INC negotiation process is broken. We are currently in damage-control mode, particularly the failure for a vote against consensus, which has continued to place the plastic treaty process into uncertainty,” said Leslie Adogame, executive director of Nigerian environmental think tank SRADeV, part of the International Pollutants Elimination Network.

Some countries and environmental groups had hoped INC Chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso would allow a vote in Friday’s plenary to change the rules to a simple majority if consensus proved impossible. The chair yet to bring up such a vote.

“We risk having a meaningless treaty without any binding global rules like bans and phase-outs,” Eirik Lindebjerg of the World Wildlife Fund told AFP.

“Expecting any meaningful outcome to this process through consensus is a delusion,” Lindebjerg said. “With the time remaining, the ambitious governments must come together as a majority to finalize the treaty text and prepare to agree it through a vote.”

During a Saturday press conference, Valesco danced around questions on the most contentious issues in the text and how he plans to move forward. UNEP’s Andersen acknowledged progress had to speed up but insisted a deal remains within reach through compromise.

“I’m not saying which would be the compromises. But it is critical when you’re negotiating that countries … begin to talk about what it looks like in terms of compromise,” Andersen said.

Momentum to overrule the consensus structure is building as major plastic producers show no signs of changing positions. Russia, Kuwait and Kazakhstan spoke at Saturday’s plenary session, decrying any attempts to move away from consensus.

Ministers arrive as the clock ticks

Talks continue at the Palais des Nations in Geneva as delegates from over 180 countries attempt to finalise a binding global agreement to curb plastic pollution.

High-level ministerial delegations arrive Tuesday with hopes to break the deadlock. With key sections of the treaty still unresolved, it’s unclear whether those delegations will have greater authority to expedite hard decisions.

“We need to see the speed accelerate irrespective of who’s arriving when,” Andersen said Saturday. “We’re all counting the days. I don’t think that there’s a set point at which the negotiations have to arrive at the time of the ministers’ arrivals.”

Should the talks fail yet again — negotiations were supposed to conclude in Busan but that meeting ended without agreement, forcing this overtime round — high-ambition nations may explore alternatives such as creating their own framework or treaty outside the UN process.

With greenhouse gas emissions from plastic production set to more than double by 2050, patience with countries seeking to lock in increased production is wearing thin. The emissions pose increasing threats to natural ecosystems, human health and the planet.

“After three years of trying to work by consensus, the negotiations are now at a breaking point,” environmental groups said in a joint statement. “This cannot continue. Member States must use every tool of multilateralism at their disposal and move forward with solutions that aren’t hostage to those defending the status quo.”

Image Credits: UNEP, UNEP, UNEP, UNEP.

Lucy Mukasia, a clinician at Kibera Health Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, sorts antiretroviral medicines.  Decisions by WHO-listed regulatory authorities can help pave the way for the expedited approval of new drugs and vaccines in low-and middle income countries that have less capacity to undertake lengthy and expensive reviews.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated government regulatory authorities in Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom as WHO-Listed Authorities (WLAs), a status granted to national authorities that meet the highest international regulatory standards for medical products.

The recognition widens the pool of WHO-recognized authorities significantly beyond the previously recognized authorities in Europe, the United States and Singapore.

“WHO has designated national regulators in Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom as WHO-listed authorities, meaning they meet the highest international standards for regulation of medical products,” said Tedros at a briefing Thursday for Geneva UN press.

Additionally, the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) –  which had received partial WLA recognition in October 2023 – also had its listing scope expanded, so that the WHO recognition now covers all regulatory functions, Tedros said.

Pharmacy at Zouan health centre, Cote d’Ivoire. Approval of new drugs may be slower in countries that lack capacity to undertake regulatory reviews of new products.

“Around 70% of countries worldwide still face significant challenges due to weak or inadequate regulatory systems for evaluating and authorizing medical products.  WHO-listed authorities play a pivotal role in ensuring more efficient use of limited resources, enabling faster access to quality-assured life-saving medical products to millions more people,” Tedros added saying, “This is an example of the unique role that WHO plays in strengthening national health systems.”

The WLA framework was established in 2022  to incorporate lessons leaned from the COVID-19 pandemic – where slow regulatory processes sometimes delayed approvals by low- and middle-income country regulators of vaccines or medicines that had already been cleared by stringent authorities elsewhere.  It paved the way for regulatory authorities, especially those in developing countries, to rely on the prior deliberations and decisions of other reputable regulatory agencies, in making their own decisions to approve new medicines, vaccines and medical devices. This helps facilitate more cost-effective and streamlined approval of life-saving medical products in countries with fewer resources and capacity to undertake extensive reviews, WHO says.

“The principle of reliance is central to WHO’s approach to regulatory systems strengthening and a cornerstone for effective, efficient and smart regulatory oversight of medical products,” said Dr Yukiko Nakatani, WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Systems, Access and Data. “WHO-Listed Authorities are key enablers in promoting trust, transparency, and faster access to quality-assured medical products, especially in low- and middle-income countries.”

Effectively, the new approvals expands the base of WHO-listed authorities to which other countries can refer significantly beyond the traditional referral points of the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) and the European Medicines Regulatory Network, as well as Singapore (approved in 2024), to include both the UK and Canada, as well as more partners in Asia.

In parallel moves, the African Union and the African Centers for Disease Control have been supporting the operationalization of an African Medicines Agency, which could further harmonize and streamline medicines and vaccines reviews and approvals on the continent. In June, the head  of Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) Dr Delese Mimi Darko was appointed as the inaugural Director-General of the AMA at a Conference of State Parties (CoSP) in Rwanda.

See related AMA coverage here:

https://healthpolicy-watch.news/african-medicines-agency-countdown/

Image Credits: ©EC/ECHO/Anouk Delafortrie, Brian Otieno/ Global Fund.

GENEVA — Fossil fuel and petrochemical lobbyists have descended on UN plastics treaty negotiations in record numbers, as delegates from over 180 countries attempt to forge a global agreement to stem the tsunami of plastic pollution drowning the planet.

According to a new analysis by the Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL), at least 234 lobbyists representing fossil fuel and chemical interests are attending the talks in Geneva, exceeding the combined delegations of the European Union and its 27 member states. 

Industry representation, which has steadily increased since talks began in 2022, now outnumbers expert scientists by three to one and Indigenous representatives by four to one. Nineteen of the lobbyists are registered as members of national delegations, including those of Egypt, Kazakhstan, China, Iran, Chile and the Dominican Republic.

“We have decades of evidence showing the fossil fuel and chemical industries’ playbook: deny, distract, derail,” said Ximena Banegas, CIEL’s lead campaigner on plastics and petrochemicals. “After obstructing climate negotiations for years, why would anyone expect them to act in good faith at the plastics treaty talks?”

CIEL cautioned that its estimate likely underrepresents the scale of lobbying, as some participants may not openly declare industry affiliations. The figure also omits representatives from adjacent sectors such as consumer goods and waste management, as well as informal advisers and lobbyists active in the inter-sessional rounds held since the collapse of talks in Busan, South Korea, last December.

“Involving the very corporations that profit from harm in shaping the path forward guarantees one thing: a treaty that protects their bottom line—not the public or the planet,” Bengas added.

UN Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen addresses the opening plenary of negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland.

Over 99 per cent of plastics are derived from oil, gas or coal, creating a near-total overlap between fossil fuel and petrochemical interests. Many of the same companies have also sought to influence international climate negotiations, with fossil fuel lobbyists numbering 1,773 at COP29 in Dubai. 

“The treaty meant to stop plastic pollution is being shaped by those who profit from it,” said Dylan Kava, communications lead for the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network. “You cannot solve a crisis by putting its primary cause at the decision-making table. And you cannot speak of justice while sidelining the very communities fighting for survival.”

Industry-aligned countries, including China, Russia, Iran and the US are pushing for a treaty centred on downstream measures such as recycling, circular economy principles and waste management. Yet less than 10 per cent of plastic waste is recycled globally, despite decades of investment and research.

“It is now clear that the world cannot recycle its way out of the plastic pollution crisis,” a landmark study in The Lancet, published on the opening day of talks, concluded.

More than 100 countries, including EU member states and the Alliance of Small Island States, support a legally binding cap on plastic production, reiterated at the UN Oceans Conference in Nice, France, in June. Many others have backed proposals to phase out harmful polymers and chemicals of concern.

“We need to get a solution to this problem. Everybody wants it. I’ve yet to meet somebody who is in favour of plastic pollution,” Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, told delegates. “Plastic pollution is already in nature, in our oceans and even in our bodies. If we continue on this trajectory, the world will drown in plastic, with grave consequences for planetary, economic and human health.”

“But this does not have to be our future,” Andersen said. “It is in your hands to ensure it does not happen. It is in your hands to protect us all, the environment and future generations.”

Intimidation by design

Talks continue at the Palais des Nations in Geneva as delegates from over 180 countries attempt to finalise a binding global agreement to curb plastic pollution.

The petrochemical industry’s tactics extend beyond influencing treaty language or embedding lobbyists within national delegations.

Ahead of the Geneva talks, The Guardian reported on a coordinated campaign of intimidation, surveillance and obstruction by fossil fuel and petrochemical representatives targeting scientists and negotiators.

Bethanie Carney Almroth, a professor of ecotoxicology at the University of Gothenburg and member of the Scientists’ Coalition, described repeated instances of harassment, verbal abuse and invasive monitoring by industry figures at negotiations, unofficial side events, academic conferences and emails.

“I have a privacy screen protector on my phone because they walk behind us and try to film what’s on our screens—what notes we’re taking or who we’re messaging,” Almroth told The Guardian. “I would never open my laptop in a public space without knowing who is behind me. It’s a high-vigilance, high-stress environment.”

The UN Environment Programme, which oversees the treaty process, has faced repeated criticism since negotiations began in 2022 over a perceived lack of safeguards against conflicts of interest. Similar allegations have dogged the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in its handling of industry access to climate COPs, including last year’s COP30 in Baku. 

Support for strengthening the plastics treaty has grown steadily. Chart showsthe  number of nations backing WWF “must-haves,” which include global chemical bans, circular economy design requirements, financing, and guarantees to strengthen the treaty over time.

Greenpeace wrote to UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen on Tuesday, warning that the “once in a lifetime” opportunity to address the plastics crisis risks being “fatally undermined” by unchecked industry interference.

“There is clear precedent for action to prevent conflict of interest,” the letter stated, citing the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which explicitly excludes tobacco industry representatives. “The companies profiting from plastic pollution must not be allowed to shape the treaty meant to stop it.”

Ahead of the talks, a University of Cambridge study coined the opposition to the treaty the “petrochemical historical bloc,” finding the bloc is “driving up plastics production, externalizing the costs of pollution, distorting scientific knowledge and lobbying to derail negotiations.”

“There’s a fundamental, irreconcilable conflict of interest between the companies producing plastics and all of us who want to end plastic pollution,” said Rachel Radvany, head environmental health campaigner for CIEL.

“We have been calling on Member States since the beginning, and even more as we’ve seen the negotiations progress, to put strong conflict of interest policies in the treaty text and in the future COPs,” Radvany added. “This is not normal, and this should not be the way it works.” 

Organised resistance

President Donald Trump’s return to office has been hailed as “an answered prayer” by the US plastics industry.

Organised resistance to a global plastics treaty centred on production caps has been led by Saudi Arabia, supported by Russia, Iran and China since talks began in 2022. Under President Donald Trump, the United States has now joined their ranks.

This week, Reuters reported that the US delegation circulated letters urging countries to oppose treaty provisions targeting plastic production limits and chemical restrictions. These were described as “red lines” for the administration.

“We will not support impractical global approaches such as plastic production targets or bans and restrictions on plastic additives or plastic products – that will increase the costs of all plastic products that are used throughout our daily lives,” the memo, seen by Reuters, reads.

Limiting hazardous chemicals is a core demand from public health advocates. More than 16,000 chemicals are used in plastics, over 4,200 of which are considered “highly hazardous” to human health. An additional 5,000 compounds are classified as “unknowns,” with no public data on their safety or long-term impacts.

The Health Crisis That Could Make or Break the UN Plastics Treaty

While the previous US administration opposed production limits throughout much of the negotiation process, President Joe Biden made a notable policy reversal ahead of the last round of talks, dropping objections to caps on plastic production. 

However, following Trump’s victory ahead of the December negotiations in South Korea, the Biden administration largely abstained from participation in that final round in Busan. Industry representatives hailed Trump’s return to office as “an answered prayer” for US plastic producers.

The new administration first signalled its opposition at an informal meeting in Nairobi, where it stated: “We support an agreement that focuses on efforts that will lead to reducing plastic pollution, not on stopping the use of plastics.”

Speaking to E&E News as talks resumed in Geneva, a spokesperson said the US approach would reflect “the Trump administration’s America First foreign policy,” adding: “The United States supports an agreement that respects national sovereignty and focuses on reducing plastic pollution without imposing onerous restrictions on producers that would hinder US companies.”

With consensus required for the treaty to advance, the firm alignment of the US with the petrochemical bloc has dealt a heavy blow to hopes of a strong agreement.

“They’re basically going full MAGA,” a source close to the talks told The Guardian. “They’re clearly coordinating with Saudi Arabia, Russia and others, because they’re using the same language.”

Production surge as industry seeks a lifeline

Expanded government investment in petrochemical sector production capacity, particularly in the Middle East, China and the United States, has “flown under the radar of the public,” a 2023 study by the University of Lund concluded.

The diplomatic resistance of petrostates to a strong treaty has unfolded in parallel with a rapid expansion of their global petrochemical infrastructure.

The global petrochemical industry was valued at $638 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $838bn by 2030. The broader oil and gas sector, responsible for supplying the fossil fuel feedstocks for plastic production, is valued at $6.9 trillion, making it one of the largest industries in the world.

Global plastic output has grown more than 250-fold since 1950, from less than two million tonnes to 475 million tonnes in 2022. At current rates, plastic production is projected to triple by 2060, according to the OECD. 

Today, plastics production already releases more than 2 gigatons of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases annually. If the plastics industry were a country, it would be the world’s fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, behind only China, the US, India and Russia.

If plastics production triples as expected, it would account for roughly a quarter of the remaining carbon budget that scientists say must not be exceeded to avoid breaking the Paris Agreement target of 1.5C. 

Despite engaging with the UN Plastics treaty process, major producers plan continued expansion of petrochemical and plastics production, according to University of Lund Research.

“We know for sure that all main producers are increasing capacity: US, China, South Africa, Brazil, Iran, Saudi Arabia,” Joan Marc Simon said, founder of Zero Waste Europe, told DW. “The only place where capacity is going down slightly is in the European Union. The rest of the world is increasing.”

This shift is not incidental, but central to the industry’s long-term survival. As demand for fossil fuels in the energy sector declines amid a shift to renewables, oil and gas companies have increasingly turned to plastics as a lifeline. Industry projections suggest that plastic production could double in the next 10 to 15 years, and triple by mid-century. 

Since the treaty process began in 2022, major producers—including Dow, ExxonMobil, BASF, Chevron Phillips, Shell, SABIC and Ineos—have added 1.4 million tonnes of new plastic production capacity. Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company, plans to channel about one-third of its oil production to plastics and petrochemicals by 2030. 

“The petrochemical industry needs plastic as a safe haven from carbon liabilities,” a 2021 report from the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) found. “Increasing plastic production offsets falling demand for its fossil fuels. Plastic waste generation is expected to rise sharply as a result.”

Follow our UN Plastics Treaty coverage: 

https://healthpolicy-watch.news/plastics-crisis-costs-trillions-kills-hundreds-of-thousands-each-year-lancet-finds/

Image Credits: UNEP, UNEP, White House , UNEP.

A trial participant is prepared for a blood test during a trial of new medicines for drug-resistant TB.

Close collaboration between researchers and community groups has been key to South Africa more than halving the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in the past decade, according to researchers and community activists.

Women researchers and advocates have been at the heart of the country’s fight against TB, and several South African scientists have also led global TB research breakthroughs, according to presenters at a webinar on Thursday, co-hosted by Global Health Strategies, Bhekisisa and Health Policy Watch.

But the sudden and substantial loss of donor funding this year may translate into 580,000 fewer people being tested for TB and 35,000 fewer getting TB treatment this year, according to researchers writing in the International Journal of TB and Lung Disease (ITLD).

The country lost $34 million overnight from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) – $12 million for TB prevention, $5 million for screening, $10 for testing and $7 million for treatment.

This cut could have a dire impact on the figt against tuberculosis, which kills over 56,000 South Africans daily.

Interdisciplinary collaboration

 

 

Top: (L-R) Valeria Mizrahi, Thuli Khanyile (moderator), Anura David. (2nd row) Monica Longwe, Sibongile Tshabalala, Mia Malan (moderator), Lee Fairlie and Nandipha Titana.

Watch the full webinar >>

Professor Valerie Mizrahi, a leading TB researcher for over three decades, says that South Africans have made “massive contributions” to the global TB fight because of “a high degree of integration, collaboration and coordination”.

“We are a community of people who work together to tackle the disease in an interdisciplinary way,” Mizrahi told the webinar.

Basic scientists, clinical researchers and public health specialists collaborate with civil society advocates, community engagement experts, and government “with a unified vision of what we’re trying to achieve,” said Mizhari, who recently retired as director of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town. 

“At the core of this integrated enterprise are women.”

“South Africa has a fantastic TB programme,”  Prof Lee Fairlie told the webinar, detailing how advances in TB diagnosis and treatment, including new and shorter regimens for multi-drug resistant TB, had been pioneered in the country.

New TB vaccines are in late-phase trials, while researcher Anura David, from Wits University’s Diagnostic Innovation Hub, is currently working on a TB self-test based on an oral swab to deliver faster, easier results.

But the funding cuts have “severely affected” TB research, said Fairlie, who needs to “work hand-in-glove with communities” when recruiting people for these TB studies.

Resources for data collection and monitoring and evaluation have been hard hit.

A pharmacist holds two sets of pills in her hand, showing the difference between those taken under the newer regiment for drug-resistant TB versus the old treatment at the Sizwe Tropical Diseases Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Certain programmes – such as those aimed at men who have sex with men and transgender people – have disappeared completely, said Fairlie, director at maternal and child health at the Reproductive Health Institute (RHI) at Wits University in Johannesburg.

Some 15,000 frontline staff and 9,000 technical staff have lost their jobs, according to the TB Accountability Consortium in a recent presentation to the South African Parliament.

“Many people have lost funding. Many people have had to be retrenched. And of course, this takes us a steps back from potential breakthroughs around optimal treatment for both HIV and TB,” said Fairlie.

She added that there is a real risk that “people are falling out of care, not having access to treatment, which if you’re living with HIV, obviously increases your risks of becoming diseased with TB”. 

Sibongile Tshabalala, chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), said a recent survey of around 8,000 patients at 300 clinics found TB testing has dropped and that waiting times have increased since posts for health workers and testing facilities have been eliminated. Only half of those surveyed 

The TAC’s education campaigns on TB and HIV have also been affected.

Appeal to the government

A little TB patient at Brooklyn Chest Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.

Before the funding cuts, the South African government launched its “End TB” campaign, which aims to test five million people for the bacteria by the end of next year. 

But the TB Accountability Consortium points out that there is only funding for three million TB tests, and describes the health budget as “chronically underfunded”.

Half the world’s funding for TB research and development comes from only two sources: the Gates Foundation and the US National Institutes for Health (NIH), which has changed its funding priorities since the Trump administration assumed power, said Mizhari.

“This is forcing us to look inward as African countries and to actually take our seat at the table of responsibility for looking after this field,” said Mizhari.

She warned that the South African TB sector is going to be “severely tested in the near term”, and the only way in it can unlock the necessary funds from donors and funders is to “make a very, very powerful case for the value proposition for tuberculosis, and I think that we’ve all got to think very deeply about what that is going to entail in a resource limited setting where there are so many other competing priorities.”

Time to prioritise

“We cannot sit back and just accept that this is the way things are going to be,” Mizhari urged. “We need to look at what our priorities are. We need to find much better ways to share information, to avoid duplication, and to double down on what it is that we need to do. There is no public health problem that is more severe and serious than TB.”

Tshabalala urged the private sector to invest in TB, particularly urging large employers to step in.

Meanwhile, Fairlie pointed out that researchers are “entirely dependent on donor funding”, and called for “increased collaboration across the spectrum” to ensure that “important work remains funded”.

This article is based on a webinar co-sponsored by Health Policy Watch, Global Health Strategies and Bhekisisa. Watch the full webinar.

Image Credits: TB Alliance, USAID, Southern Africa/Flickr.

WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at Thursday’s press briefing in Geneva.

WHO has confirmed reports of 99 people who died of malnutrition-related deaths in 2025, up until the end of July, including 64 adults and 35 children, most of the latter  under the age of five, said WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday. 

According to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, the number of malnutrition deaths this year has twice as high, exceeding 200 deaths as of the first week of August.  

Speaking at a press briefing for the Geneva UN Press Corps, Tedros added that while more supplies are now flowing into Gaza, the food as well as medical aid now entering, “is only a fraction of what is needed.”

Tedros also called for the release of the 50 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, 22 of which are believed to be alive – “and for their humane treatment and access to medical care and food.”

In a special UN Security Council session on Wednesday, Israel, the United States and hostage family members denounced the Hamas starvation of their loved ones. The session followed last week’s release by Hamas of video footage of two gaunt hostages, Rom Braslavsky and Evyatar David – with David tallying the meager rations he had eaten over the past week.

Hamas released a video Aug. 1 showing 24-year-old Israeli hostage Evyatar David, visibly emaciated, tallying his food rations, and digging what he called his own grave inside a tunnel in Gaza.

“In July, nearly 12 000 children under five years were identified as suffering from acute malnutrition, the highest monthly figure ever recorded,” Tedros said at the briefing.

“Diseases continue to spread, fuelled by overcrowding and deteriorating water, sanitation and hygiene conditions, severely affecting the youngest,” he added, noting the growing concerns with two outbreaks in particular, of meningitis and Guillain-Barré syndrome, the latter a condition in which the immune system attacks the nerves, and which may be triggered by an acute bacterial or viral infection.

“As of the 31st of July, a total of 418 suspected cases of meningitis and 64 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome have been reported, with a noticeable increase in July,” he noted.

Iman, six months old, is screened for malnutrition at an UNRWA medical point in Gaza city in July 2025.

Dying of hunger and in the search for food

WHO officials said that the data on malnutrition deaths, last updated on 29 July, was compiled from direct reports by Gaza hospitals, and then evaluated by WHO on the basis of factors such as body mass index, before being added to the count.  

“Meanwhile, people are dying not only from hunger and disease, but also in the desperate search for food,” Tedros said. Since 27 May, more than 1600 people have been killed and nearly 12,000 injured while trying to collect food from distribution sites, he said. 

The large number of deaths have been blamed not only on Israeli army open-fire orders, but also on the paucity of food distribution points – including four points controlled by the controversial Humanitarian Foundation – following a prolonged food blockade in March and April.  

Gaza Palestinians tote away food from a UN distribution site in late June – desperate crowds have had to run a gauntlet of Israeli army fire in their quests to reach only a few food distribution points.

The flow of supplies began to increase in May-July, and even more over the past week, with more UN as well as commercial trucks permitted to enter, along with airdrops of food packages into Gaza by Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and others. But as of July, the total volume of supplies entering the enclave only amounted to about  60% of the caloric needs of Gaza’s population of two million, according to data compiled by The Guardian from Israeli military reports of food truck deliveries. 

Meanwhile, more and more supplies are being looted en route to distribution points by desperate mobs of hungry people. Social media footage has also shown both armed gangs and Hamas gunmen, riding atop convoys of the flatbed trucks laden with sacks of flour and other essentials.

With increased desperation, has come  “a breakdown of law and order, creating dangerous conditions under which humanitarian operations are forced to be conducted,” said Tedros.

“The overall volume of nutrition supplies entering Gaza remains completely insufficient to prevent a further deterioration in the nutritional situation,” said Rick Peeperkorn, head of WHO’s office in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, speaking by video relay from Jerusalem. “The market needs to be flooded. There should also be a little to the diet, dietary diversity,” he added, noting a “complete breakdown in access to any diverse, nutritious foods.”

WHO is also supporting Gaza’s sole malnutrition treatment center in Gaza, and there too, “supplies are very low.”

Fears of repeat attack by Israeli military on WHO warehouse 

Despite the Israeli military attack on WHO’s main medical supply warehouse and staff residence in late July, WHO has als0 continued shipments and deliveries of medical supplies to Gaza’s hospitals, Tedros said.  The WHO warehouse and nearby staff residence were attacked by Israeli military drones and artillery shells on 21 July. Four male staff members were also detained in the incident, with one still in Israeli custody. See related story. 

WHO Denounces Israeli Attacks on its Gaza Warehouse and Staff Residence in Latest Military Offensive

Despite the damage, WHO has delivered a total of 68 trucks of essential medicines, blood, trauma and surgery supplies since late June, Tedros said.

But the WHO Director General expressed concerns about the risks posed by ongoing Israeli military operations in the vicinity of the warehouse, located in the coastal area of Deir Al Balah, which has only recently begun to see widespread military operations.

“Our premises need ongoing protection,” Tedros said. “Displacement orders issued….yesterday are risking the safety of our warehouse, which is 500 metres from the evacuation zone,” he noted. 

Medical evacuations – more host countries needed 

Sick and injured Palestinians leave Gaza for an airlift to the UAE via Israel’s Ramon airfield in July 2024 – so far 7,522 patients have been moved, but twice that number remain trapped in Gaza in urgent need of specialized medical care abroad.

More than 14,800 patients in Gaza are also in urgent need of medical evacuation for specialised medical care,  Tedros stressed, appealing to host countries to accept more evacuees. 

Since the conflict began in October 2023, WHO has helped to evacuate 7522 patients from Gaza, Tedros added, including 15 critically ill children moved to Jordan on Wednesday. 

“We urge more countries to step forward to accept patients and for medical evacuations to be expedited through all possible routes,” Tedros said.

“The ongoing blockages must be stopped and greater volumes of aid need to come in to rebuild critical reserves,” he added, calling for a “scaled-up, sustained and unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid, including food and health aid, in line with international humanitarian law, via all possible routes.

“We also call for humanitarian corridors to evacuate those in need of urgent medical care outside Gaza.  We call for the protection of health workers, patients and all civilians. 

“We call for the release of all remaining hostages, and for their humane treatment and access to medical care and food.

“We call for the immediate and unconditional release of our [WHO] colleague who has been detained since the 21st of July. And most of all, we call for a ceasefire, and a lasting peace.”

Correction – A statement that data on Hamas reported malnutrition deaths in Gaza was more than five times higher than WHO figures was based on incorrect interpretation of the data.  Hamas reported an excess of 200 deaths by the first week of August, roughly twice that of WHO figures. 

Image Credits: UNRWA, E. Fletcher/Health Policy Watch, Hostages and Missing Families Forum , X/Channel 4 News , WHO.

HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr making the announcement to cancel the mRNA research.

WHO says mRNA technology holds particular potential in developing vaccines against emerging epidemic threats. Scientists in the United States and abroad called on US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to release the data that informed his decision to cancel the US investments in mRNA vaccine research. 

The World Health Organization on Thursday decried the United States decision to cancel some $500 million in current and planned government investments in mRNA vaccine research, describing the decision as “unfortunately and untimely.”

“This is, of course, a significant blow,” said Joachim Hombach, Executive Secretary of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), at a press conference hosted by WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for Geneva’s UN press corps.

The mRNA vaccines “served us extremely well for COVID,” Hombach added. “We also know that very promising work is going on in relation to influenza vaccines. From our perspective, mRNA vaccine platforms are particularly useful in developing vaccines against emerging epidemic threats, because these platforms can be very rapidly adapted. So from our perspective, this is an important technology, and work needs to continue.”

Joachim Hombach, WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), at a WHO press briefing Thursday.

Hombach expressed confidence, however that research would continue elsewhere in the world, citing Moderna’s recent publication of successful Phase 3 trial results for a new seasonal mRNA influenza vaccine “which also holds promise in relation to pandemic vaccine development.

“So this is …an unfortunate and untimely move, but we are confident that the research endeavours will continue because it’s an extremely promising technology.”

Scientists demand disclosure of data upon which the decision was made

Scientists in the United States and abroad, meanwhile, called upon the HHS Secretary make public the data supporting the decision by HHS, announced Tuesday, to halt all new investments in mRNA research as well as to  “wind-down” ongoing mRNA vaccine development activities, made through the HHS’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

“RFK and his advisors should tell us on what data he is basing his decision on, so that it can be examined independently and critically,” said Professor Andrew McMichael, emeritus professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford.

“There is a wealth of high-quality data to show mRNA vaccines are safe and effective.”

Prof Robin Shattock, Professor of Mucosal Infection and Immunity, Imperial College London, said it is unclear what evidence Kennedy is referring to, as mRNA vaccines “have been highly scrutinised by regulatory bodies on an ongoing basis”.

“[Kennedy] has provided no evidence to show that alternative vaccines are any different to mRNA vaccines concerning claims of safety and the unfounded claim that mRNA vaccines drive the mutation rate of viruses,” he said.

Claims decision followed ‘comprehensive review’

A healthcare worker in British Columbia, Canada receiving one of the first mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in mid-December 2020; To date, 13.6 billion vaccine doses have been administered with over 70% of the world’s population receiving at least jab, while mRNA vaccines became the dominant technology.

In his announcement, Kennedy said the decision was taken in conjunction with “experts” and “follows a comprehensive review of mRNA-related investments initiated during the COVID-19 public health emergency”.

“BARDA is terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu,” said Kennedy.

“We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.”

However, McMichael said that mRNA vaccines to prevent COVID-19 had been “given to 50 million people in the UK and reduced infection rates by over 70%”. 

“Three doses reduced mortality in the elderly by 93% and in the UK 400,000 lives were saved,” added McMichael.

“Mild side effects were found in about 10%, serious side effects in around 1 in 800; deaths around one per million. I personally have taken that risk seven times.”

AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer and Sanofi Pasteur are amongst the companies affected by the decision – which involves contract terminations, “de-scoping”, rejecting and cancelling “pre-award solicitations”, and restructuring collaborations, according to the HHS media release.

Emory University is the only university named, and it had its contract terminated. The Emory Vaccine Center is one of the world’s foremost vaccine research facilities, investigating vaccines for a range of illnesses including influenza, HIV, cancer, tuberculosis.

‘Impossible’ for mRNA vaccines to increase virus mutation rate

Rendition of the SARS-CoV2 virus that first circulated in Wuhan, China in late 2019. While mutations regularly occurred during the ensuing pandemic, no evidence suggets vaccines accelerated the rate of change.

Kennedy also claimed that mRNA vaccines can help “encourage new mutations and can actually prolong pandemics as the virus constantly mutates to escape the protective effects of the vaccine”.

Mutation is part of the natural process of viruses, and some like HIV mutate faster than others.

McMichael said that it is “impossible” for mRNA vaccines to increase the virus mutation rate, and their major advantage “is that they can be made quickly and can be designed to combat new variants effectively”..

Meanwhile, Prof Stephen Evans, Emeritus Professor of Pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that, as no mRNA vaccines had been licenced against flu, “there is no large-scale evidence on their efficacy, but no reason to believe they are ineffective”. 

Evans added that “a recent trial showed greater efficacy for an mRNA vaccine than a standard flu vaccine” – apparently referring to the Phase 3 Moderna trial cited by WHO.  

US immunologist Rick Bright, who headed BARDA between 2016 and 2020, described the decision as a “bad day for science and a huge blow to our national security”, warning that there would be “dangerous repercussions”.

Alex Pym, director of Infectious Disease at Wellcome Trust, said that “mRNA vaccine technology has been in development for decades” and “has been shown to be safe and effective against infectious diseases”.

“The US has been a global leader in vaccine R&D and the loss of this funding could be felt worldwide. Continued investment in this area is vital to ensure we fully realise the potential of these promising technologies to existing and emerging diseases,” added Pym.

Kennedy has a long history of anti-vaccine activity, primarily through the organisation he founded, Children’s Health Defense. Anti-vaxxers were a prominent part of his support base during his short-lived presidential campaign, prior to joining forces with Republican candidate Donald Trump in his successful presidential bid. 

An analysis of almost 300 million tweets on Twitter (now X) in 2021 found that 800 accounts were responsible for a third of all vaccine misinformation retweets – and the most prominent of these accounts belonged to Kennedy, who was responsible for more than 13% of these retweets.

Image Credits: HHS , E. Fletcher/Health Policy Watch , Flickr – Province of British Columbia, peterschreiber.media/Shutterstock .

The consumption of sugary drinks is driving NCDs including obesity and diabetes.

The language on health taxes has been further weakened in the latest draft of the political declaration on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), due to be adopted by the UN High-Level Meeting (HLM) in September  – and it’s a done deal unless UN member states raise specific ojections.

Member states have until noon Eastern Time on Thursday to “break the silence” on the draft political declaration, which involves reopening negotiations on issues that are considered “red lines” by member states.

Reference to a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) has been removed altogether, while languge on alcohol policy has been watered down, the NCD Alliance told a meeting of allies on Wednesday.

The target of getting member states to “implement health taxes” on unhealthy products such as tobacco, alcohol and SSBs in the zero draft, has been replaced by asking them to “consider” measures such as “policies and fiscal measures for prevention and health promotion”, said Marijke Kremin, the NCD Alliance’s advocacy and policy manager in New York.

In addition, the language on the environmental determinants of NCDs (primarily air pollution) has also been weakened, said Kremin.

The zero draft’s target of 80% of primary health facilities having access to essential medicines for NCDs and mental health by 2030 has been reduced to 60%.

Some targets survive

However, tobacco control, hypertension and improving mental health care remain the cornerstones of proposed action to contain NCDs. 

The zero draft’s 2030 global targets of 150 million fewer people using tobacco, 150 million more people controlling their hypertension and 150 million more people having access to mental health care, have survived the negotiations.

Kremin said that the coming weeks ahead of the HLM on 25 September could be “very fast moving and potentially somewhat volatile” as “breaking the silence is becoming more and more commonplace”.

“We see a handful of countries breaking silence over a handful of routine items,” she explained.

“In the instances where silence is broken, that usually means the [country] delegation will work things out bilaterally with the co-facilitators. Any changes to the text means that an updated document is re-shared and placed back under silence.” 

Once the co-facilitators decide that they have worked enough with member states in good faith, they will submit it to the President of the General Assembly. 

Despite the UN member states’ reluctance to encourage health taxes – largely attributed to power lobbying by tobacco, alcohol and junk food companies – there is growing recognition that such taxes can help address the crisis of funding for global health.

On Tuesday, WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyusus told African leaders in Ghana that a 50% increase on taxes on harmful products like tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks could “generate an additional $3.7 trillion globally within five years and save millions of lives”. 

Image Credits: Adam Jones / Flickr, Heala_SA/Twitter.

Summit host, Ghana’s President John Mahama.

“Africa needs health without aid,” former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo told the continental health sovereignty summit in Accra, Ghana, on Tuesday.

He appealed to leaders to establish a health fund under the auspices of the African Development Bank, funded initially by an airline tax on tourists flying to African countries – an idea that has been floating around the African Union for the past few years.

Obasanjo addressed the opening of the summit, convened by Ghana’s President John Mahama in response to the 40% reduction in development aid in the past two years – the steepest cuts taking place over the past eight months since US President Donald Trump assumed office.

Obasanjo, one of the sponsors of the summit, urged leaders not to “wring their hands” but “find solutions” to the funding crisis.

Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria, was one of the drivers of the summit.

Mahama said he was building on the momentum from other countries, including Rwandan President Paul Kagame, to mobilise more funds for health during a time of “overlapping and intensifying global crisis” – caused by wars, pandemics, climate shocks, economic volatility and widening inequalities.

“This is not merely a funding gap. It is a crisis of imagination, a vacuum of solidarity and a deep failure of shared responsibility,” said Mahama.

Presidential task team

He announced the formation of the Presidential High Level Task Force on Global Health Governance, a platform for African leaders to engage with global and continental partners and to redesign the health governance system.

“The world has changed, but global health governance has not kept pace with the changing world. At this moment, we’re called to redesign the architecture that has, for far too long, excluded Africa’s voices, excluded Africa’s needs and innovations.”

He acknowledged that the abrupt loss of US funding had brought the country’s community-based health delivery model “to its knees”.

In response to the cuts, Ghana has uncapped its national health insurance scheme financing and launched the Ghana Medical Trust Fund, to mobilise capital to tackle chronic diseases.

Mahama also announced that a health tool called SUSTAIN is being rolled out to assist governments to identify all their domestic and international sources of health funding, identify gaps and plan for sustainability.

SUSTAIN (an acronym for Scaling Up Sovereign Transitions and Institutional Networks), will also assist countries to mobilise funding from the private sector, philanthropic partners and the Africa diaspora, said Mahama.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also offered technical assistance to countries to mobilise more resources.

Opportunity for self-reliance

Dr Tedros addresses the summit

WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the summit that the “sudden and steep cuts to aid” is “causing the most severe disruptions to health systems since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic”.

Tedros added that, according to WHO’s latest analysis, “health aid is projected to decline by up to 40% this year compared to just two years ago. This is not a gradual shift – it is a cliff edge. Lifesaving medicines are sitting in warehouses, health workers are losing jobs, clinics are closing, and millions are missing care.”

However, within the crisis lies “an opportunity to shake off the yoke of aid dependency, and embrace a new era of sovereignty, self-reliance, and solidarity”, Tedros said.

“Africa does not need charity. Africa needs fair terms.”

He urged countries to develop health benefit packages for essential services, and raise money from health taxes on tobacco, alcohol and sugary drinks. A 50% increase on taxes on harmful products like tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks could “generate an additional $3.7 trillion globally within five years and save millions of lives”, said Tedros.

African countries can also save through pooled procurement for medicines, investment in domestic manufacturing and better budget execution using digital public financial management systems.

But Tedros warned that up to 13% of health budgets in low- and middle-income countries go unspent due to weak public financial systems.

Tedros warned that debt service burdens are crowding out social investments, while the illicit flow of money is weakening economies.

“In 2023, Africa received $74 billion in aid – but lost $90 billion to illicit financial flows and $55 billion to corporate tax exemptions,” said Tedros. “Africa lost much more than it gained. This is unacceptable.”

Mahama urged countries to reject the “outdated notion” that health drains their economies, instead insure that finance ministers frame health as a capital investment and a “productivity multiplier and not a consumption expense”.

“The WHO has shown that for every $1 invested in health resilience yields up to $4 in returns. This return is even greater in Africa, where youthful populations represent latent economic dynamism.”