global health
Global Health Matters podcast host Dr. Garry Aslanyan, TDR

After Dr Garry Aslanyan became an avid follower of podcasts, he realized there was a dearth of material from the genre in his own global health field. So he set out to fill that gap with a new series featuring public health professionals and policymakers from around the world who have made a difference – and can inspire others as well. 

The Global Health Matters podcast hosted by Aslanyan, a public health professional  with TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, co-sponsored by UNICEF, UNDP, the World Bank and WHO, is now entering its second season of broadcasts. It features a diverse mix of themes and line-up of speakers – has picked up an audience of followers in places as diverse as Yemeni villages and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.   

The first episode of Season 2 was launched on Tuesday, April 12. It focuses on “Championing Health Equity in South Africa.”

“The podcast gives people a unique peek into the experiences of people who are just like them,” Aslanyan told Health Policy Watch. “Listeners can relate to the guests and their experiences and compare what they themselves are living through – they can think, ‘can I do this?’ or ‘how does that work?’ or ‘what can this mean for me in my own setting or country?’”

The podcast began at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when new, virtual information tools became all the more important to people confined for days and weeks at home. The podcast series has already covered a broad range of innovative and inspiring research topics – from climate change and health  to science communication  and the challenge of ‘decolonizing global health.’ 

With a focus on sharing perspectives and voices from low- and middle-income countries, the series has already been downloaded more than 11,000 times by listeners in more than 130 countries, Aslanyan said. “The hope is to inspire listeners to do something in their day job with the information they heard,” Aslanyan said. 

South Africa at the nexus of the global health equity debate 

This week’s episode on “Championing health equity in South Africa” takes a long look at the country’s COVID vaccine campaign, whose successes and setbacks were a weathervane for the rest of Africa, as well as its precedent-setting examples in advocating for HIV medicines access, in light of the recent pandemic. 

“As of early March, 74% of those in high-income countries have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, compared with just 11% of people in low-income countries. As the world commits to global access to medicines and vaccines, is this just on paper or a reality?” the podcast teaser states.  

“Can South Africa’s experience with tackling HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 point to future solutions for other low- and middle-income countries? How has intellectual property rights affected development of vaccines across Africa?”

Appearing on the podcast are three guests: human rights lawyer and activist Fatima Hassan; UNDP policy specialist Judit Rius Sanjuan; and Petro Terblanche, Managing Director of Afrigen Biologics, host of the new mRNA hub in South Africa.

Season 2 of Global Health Matters launched this week: Championing Health Equity in South Africa.

The goal: To inspire

Aslanyan said he started the series after becoming an active listener of podcasts himself. He fell for the audio genre because it runs against the current of 30-second social media soundbytes, providing more thoughtful and detailed coverage of issues in a digestible format – that listeners can tune into while they are travelling or doing something else. 

But when he searched for something that “really covers global health, I did not find much” – especially not one that featured voices from  low- and middle- income countries. So, he and his team decided to start their own series. 

“The ability to get a more insightful, in-depth understanding of a topic is why this medium is appealing. And for us at TDR, most importantly, this allows people from around the globe to learn from the experiences of others and apply them to their own reality,” said Aslanyan. 

Although WHO’s Regional Office for Europe offers a ‘Health in Europe’ podcast, and WHO headquarters features a popular Science in Five video series, Global Health Matters is the only broad-based and regular global health podcast featured by WHO, where TDR is based. 

Aslanyan has postgraduate training in public health and health policy and systems. While not a trained media professional, he was driven by a clear public health mission: to inspire his colleagues in the field. 

“You may not immediately think somebody trained in public health to host a podcast, but I have done all kinds of work for organizations focused on global health,” Aslanyan explained. “I also have experience in innovation and advocacy and have worked in government departments in Canada before moving to Geneva where I really pushed the boundaries of national health.”

He said public health professionals need to be knowledgeable but also able to present things in a way that galvanizes the public around different causes. He had not thought of himself as that person before starting Global Health Matters, but since launch last year he hears from listeners that this is exactly the role he and his guests are fulfilling. 

“What makes me think that the podcast medium is amazing is the way that we reach cities, towns and villages in the most remote parts of the world, which is VERY satisfying – we know that from our stats,” Aslanyan says. 

What were some of the most popular episodes last year?

“COVID-19 in Africa: the role of research” helped debunk some of the myths around why there was less virus on the continent. 

Global Health Matters Episode 3.

An episode on “Climate change’s impact on health” looked at the impact of climate change on rural areas whose communities’ health and livelihood depends on the environment. A particular focus was on Maasai communities in northern Tanzania, where persistent droughts have made the people vulnerable to sleeping sickness, a disease spread by the tsetse fly.

There was also a piece on Communicating science, not fiction featured Natalia Pasternak, founder of Brazilian-based Instituto Questão de Ciência, which combats pseudoscience and advocates for evidence-based treatments. Natalia spoke of her own personal experience as a member of  WhatsApp groups for mothers that took a sudden turn into vaccine skepticism.

And thousands of kilometers away, in the Western Pacific, Navigating digital health waves featuring Dr Alvin Marcelo, Executive Director of the Asia eHealth Information Network, explained how the Philippine government allowed open access to data from COVID-19 tests, creating a big opportunity for health researchers and services, for instance better matching of COVID-19 test results from particular locations with availability of hospital bed spaces.

Natalia Pasternak, founder of Brazilian-based Instituto Questão de Ciência
Dr Alvin Marcelo, Executive Director of the Asia eHealth Information Network.

“Of course, we get feedback on every episode,” Aslanyan said. “It seems all of them have touched, inspired or at least piqued the interest of our listeners.”

He said that he and his team at TDR stepped into podcasting with no experience but they have already learned a lot. Season 2 builds on last year’s, bringing in additional topics such as science diplomacy, corruption in health, migration and health and diversity in global health. 

Aslanyan said he also hopes to add an even greater variety of personalities to the podcasts, including, potentially, some guests who are public health service recipients rather than providers.

He added that two universities in the global North and South are using some podcast episodes to assist students in understanding complex public health subjects – a  testimony to the information and clarity being provided by the show. 

“We think it gives learners the ability to relate to the topics they are studying,” Aslanyan said. In terms of the spread and reach of his audience- it’s both surprising and satisfying, Aslanyan adds.

“Sometimes I look at the analytics data showing the people listening to the podcast, and I think, my gosh, who are these eight people in that small city in Yemen who listened to me? I have no idea who they are, but they are there, in a place I don’t know, and I imagine they are probably working in public health.”

The first episode of Season 2 launched on Tuesday April 12. Find it here. Link here to all Season 1 episodes of Global Health Matters.  Find it on YouTube Championing Health Equity in South Africa

Follow @TDRnews on Twitter, TDR on LinkedIn and @ghm_podcast on Instagram for updates about upcoming shows.

Image Credits: WHO, GHM Show , GHM.

The second season of the Global Health Matters podcast series kicks off with a close-up look at South Africa’s health equity initiatives and champions. Health Policy Watch will be featuring episodes from the series throughout the coming year as part of a TDR-supported series. 

As the world commits to equitable access to medicines and vaccines, is this just on paper or a reality?  In the case of COVID-19, as of early April 2022, 74% of people in high-income countries had been fully vaccinated, compared with just 15% in Africa and 11% of people in low-income countries worldwide. 

With 30% of people fully vaccinated, South Africa, has one of the highest COVID vaccination rates in sub-Saharan Africa. And it has been an African leader in the manufacture of COVID vaccines, as well as a leader in the global campaign to waive intellectual property rights on COVID vaccines, tests and treatment – not to mention the historic role it played a generation ago in the legal battles that paved the way for the widespread manufacture of low-cost, generic antivirals for HIV treatment. 

Can South Africa’s experience with tackling HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 point to future solutions for other low- and middle-income countries? And how has the state of play regarding intellectual property rights for COVID health products affected development of vaccines across Africa? 

Global Health Matters podcast host Garry Aslanyan fields these and other questions to three leading South Africans scientists, policymakers and health activists, including Fatima Hassan (founder of the Health Justice Initiative), Petro Terblanche (Managing Director of Afrigen Biologics), and Judit Rius Sanjuan (Policy Specialist at UNDP). 

Click here to catch this episode, the first of the second season of TDR’s Global Health Matters podcast.  Find it on YouTube: Championing Health Equity in South Africa

Link here for all Season 1 episodes of Global Health Matters. 

The last Ebola patient leaves a treatment centre in the Democratic Republic of Congo at the end of March 2021, marking the countdown to declaring the end of that pandemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) convened public hearings for only the second time in its history on Tuesday, asking interested parties what substantive issues should be contained in its proposed international instrument on pandemic preparedness and response.

The first and only other WHO hearings were held 22 years ago in the run-up to the adoption of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, according to WHO principal legal officer Steven Solomon.

Welcoming the public hearing, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that informed opinion and active public cooperation are of the utmost importance to improve health, and it was important to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the world is “better prepared” for the next pandemic. 

Tedros had been mandated by last year’s World Health Assembly Special Session to convene public hearings to inform the work of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) which is in charge of negotiating the pandemic instrument or treaty.

INB co-chair, South Africa’s Dr Precious Matsoso, described the hearings as “remarkable” and “historic”.

Dr Precious Matsoso, INB co-chair

Narrow responsibility

However, the Civil Society Alliance for Human Rights in the Pandemic Treaty warned that the consultative process risks being “inadequate”.

“While this week’s public hearings reflect the INB’s stated objective to consult the public to some extent, it has interpreted its responsibility to do so very narrowly,” according to the alliance.

“The INB has allocated minimal time to engaging with the wide range of stakeholders who could inform the process and improve both the legitimacy and quality of the Treaty that emerges.”

Dr Meg Davis, from the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, also said that participants had been given no indication of whether or how their submissions would be included in the negotiations and recommended policymaking models to ensure meaningful civil society engagement.

A number of organisations gave two-minute speeches focusing on a wide range of issues including ‘One Health’, research and development (R&D) and intellectual property rights at the hearings, which continue on Wednesday and then reconvene in mid-June.

Equity means sharing Research and Development

Professor Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute in Geneva.

All member states have committed to equity at the heart of any pandemic instrument, but Professor Suerie Moon, co-director of the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Global Health Centre, told the hearings that “equity requires collective research and development of vaccines, drugs and diagnostics”.

Pointing out that COVID-19 has led to the development of technology transfer hubs in South Africa and the Republic of Korea, Moon warned that “there’s a risk that new factories will sit idle in the next emergency unless the new international instrument forges agreement on obligations to share knowledge, data and intellectual property before and during future emergencies”. 

“It’s unlikely, however, that countries or companies will do so out of the goodness of their hearts,” added Moon. “To make such sharing feasible, we have to tie it to commitments to jointly finance research and development to share pathogen samples and genomic sequencing data. In other words, the key idea is collective research and development for collective benefit.”

Acknowledging that intellectual property was a difficult issue, Moon nonetheless said that if equitable access was to become a reality “the new instrument must include the nuts-and-bolts provisions to make sharing technology for pandemics the new normal”. 

To address IP, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) recommended that governments should “agree to collectively use exceptions to intellectual property rights that are permitted in existing trade agreements and treaties”.

“A model for this is the WIPO Marrakesh Treaty for the Blind, which mandates its members to use exceptions in copyrights to enhance global access to works made accessible to persons who are blind or have other disabilities,” according to KEI’s James Love.

KEI also proposed “a robust chapter on transparency”, adding that “the lack of transparency in many areas for the current pandemic is an appalling and unnecessary policy failure, and one that both makes it more difficult to manage a pandemic response, and undermines the public’s trust in institutions”.

Rachael Crockett from the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) stressed the need to co-ordinate R&D as a substantive element of the new instrument. DNDi wants R&D priority setting, and “globally agreed norms and binding rules that govern the R&D process, including transparency and open sharing of research, data, knowledge, technology, and equitable allocation of health tools”.

Sharing pathogens

IFPMA’s Grega Kumer

Grega Kumer from the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) said “any system should be built on what worked well during the COVID pandemic, in particular, immediate sharing of pathogens and a robust response from the IP based private sector”. 

The IFPMA presented eight core principles, including that the negotiation process should be “inclusive and transparent, involving the private sector and all critical contributors to pandemic preparedness efforts”.

“Any system should allow for immediate access of pathogens and genetic sequence data and correct the negative effects of access and benefit-sharing legislation,” said Kumer.

The IFPMA also supports more equitable access to tests, treatments and vaccines “based on medical need, thus enhancing solidarity and facilitating emergency financing to institutions procuring for developing countries”, and the protection of supply chains ”from arbitrary export restrictions and other trade barriers”. 

“While the public sector might play a larger role in pandemic setting, the system should build on the private sector strengths for R&D, manufacturing and distribution,” he concluded.

One Health is key

The need for any pandemic instrument to adopt a One Health approach also emerged as a key theme.

Dame Sally Davies, speaking for the UN Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), said that they wanted AMR to be integrated alongside a primary focus on pandemics. 

“The next pandemic could be drug-resistant, or could depend on antimicrobials to mitigate it,” said Davies, saying that one health surveillance needed to be at the heart of any pandemic treaty to enable “rapid, transparent and responsive protection”. 

Governance principles

The Panel for a Global Health Convention believes the instrument must be governed by four non-negotiable principles, according to Dame Barbara Stocking.

“Solidarity, because we’re all in this together, and solidarity is in our own self-interest,” explained Stocking. “Equity: there must be equal access to vaccines and treatments, but also an equal voice in decision-making. Transparency in reporting data and samples. Accountability, as the lack of accountability of countries is the fundamental reason that we are in disarray.”

The hearings continue at 8am CET on Wednesday and can be followed live.

Image Credits: WHO African Region.

Ukraine operating theatre destroyed

The World Health Organization (WHO) has verified 108 attacks on health care in Ukraine as of Monday in which 73 people have died and 51 have been injured. That is 19 more attacks on health facilities than the already deadly toll of 91 attacks that had been verified by WHO as of early Friday afternoon, and as reported at a press conference by WHO’s Regional Director Hans Kluge in Lviv. 

Meanwhile, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has recorded 1,793 civilian deaths and 2,439 injuries since the start of the Russian invasion on 24 February and Sunday.

Most of the civilian casualties have been caused by “explosive weapons with a wide impact area”, including shelling from heavy artillery and rocket, missile and air strikes.

https://data.humdata.org/visualization/ukraine-humanitarian-operations/

“OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration,” according to a statement from the office.

“This concerns, for example, Mariupol (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), Popasna (Luhansk region), and Borodianka (Kyiv region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties. These figures are being further corroborated and are not included in the above statistics.”

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, 176 children had been killed and at least 336 injured as of Sunday.

Image Credits: WHO.

pfizer
Paxlovid

Pfizer has so far refused an invitation from the Geneva-based Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) to cooperate on a study exploring whether the treatment window of its successful antiviral drug, Paxlovid, could be extended from 5-7 days using another drug compound in addition, Dr Nathalie Strub-Wourgaft, Director of DNDi’s COVID-19 Response, told Health Policy Watch. 

DNDi wants to test if the key active ingredient of Paxlovid, nirmatrelvir, could be offered in combination with an inhaled corticosteroid, budesonide, in order to extend the treatment window of the life-saving COVID treatment by two more days, Strub-Wourgaft said in an interview. 

Extending the treatment window is critical for patients in low-income countries because the currently-approved formulation of Paxlovid must be commenced within 3-5 days of COVID symptoms. 

Meanwhile ANTICOV, a major DNDi-sponsored trial of COVID treatments underway in ten African countries, has revealed that one-half of COVID patients present for treatment after the five day cut-off date.  

ANTICOV clinical trial.

That makes the current Paxlovid combination less than suitable for low- and middle-income country (LMIC) conditions, said Strub-Wourgaft. She is one of the coordinators of the ANTICOV Consortium, a group of 26 African and global research organizations engaged in the clinical trial research on novel COVID drugs for LMICs.  

On 15 March, DNDi issued a  public statement expressing its concern that “efforts to conduct urgently needed studies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) utilizing the novel oral antiviral, nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid), are being blocked by Pfizer, which developed the drug.

Paxlovid, which uses the common HIV drug ritonavir in combination with nirmatrelvir, has been found to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by a stunning 89% in patients at high risk of severe COVID-19 disease. But the treatment needs to be taken within three to five days of patients developing symptoms.

According to DNDi, “an interim analysis done in the context of the ongoing ANTICOV clinical trial conducted in 10 African countries showed that of the 1180 patients enrolled, more than half present for care after day 5.

“To overcome this challenge, it is necessary to explore whether using Paxlovid with other drugs could widen the ‘treatment window’ to at least seven days,” DNDi said in its statement.

DNDi also wants to investigate if the drug could be “beneficial for immune-suppressed patients who are the most vulnerable to disease progression but were excluded from phase 3 trials.” 

DNDi, a Geneva-based not-for-profit research and development organisation, works to deliver new treatments on neglected diseases and serving neglected groups in low- and middle-income countries.

Still looking for ways to access nirmatrelvir

DNDi drug development.

Strub, in her comments to Health Policy Watch, suggested that DNDi, which has a good track record of building cooperation with the pharma industry, was still trying to obtain the drug somehow – or even persuade Pfizer to collaborate. 

“We would like to test nirmatrelvir/ritonavir in combination, as well, with inhaled budesonide or maybe fluoxetine (brand name Prozac),” said Strub-Wourgaft. 

“We issued a statement to say that we had asked Pfizer to get access to nirmatrelvir, to work with us on this trial. They denied. We’re continuing to try to get access to this drug.”

“We think this [combination] would extend the window of treatment to seven days of symptoms. In the study that they [Pfizer] have done, which is a great study showing really fantastic results, they looked at patients who had five days of symptoms before they were enrolled. 

“And we have seen for now, in our study in Africa, that half of the patients come after five days of symptoms,” she said. 

Such delays are typical because COVID diagnosis and treatment services are less widely available and it thus takes people longer to get diagnosed, even if they are symptomatically ill.  

“There are critically important public health research questions that must be answered quickly – particularly in low- and middle-income countries where access to vaccines remains low,” added Strub-Wourgaft, in the DNDi statement. 

“It is difficult to understand any rationale for refusing to cooperate in the midst of a global pandemic, and this sets a dangerous precedent since there are many other promising antivirals in the pipeline and these novel treatments will also require follow-on research to determine their optimal use in resource-limited settings.”

MPP deal with Pfizer – not enough 

Pfizer recently signed a deal  with another Geneva-based group, the non-profit Medicines Patent Pool, that will allow  35 new manufacturers to produce and supply generic versions of Paxlovid to some 95 low- and middle income countries – in what the company has said is a move to lower the drug’s cost and expand access in low-income countries. 

But that deal has also been criticised for failing to cover dozens of other middle-income and upper-middle income countries that will have to purchase patented versions of the drug.  

Although Pfizer had also said that it would create a tiered pricing system for Paxlovid, drug price advocates say that the price remains too high in many settings. In the United States, the government pays Pfizer about $530 for a five day course, although the pills also are in short supply in some US communities.   

In addition, most  of Pfizer’s Paxlovid supply for the first half of 2022 has already been bought up by rich countries, meaning that LMICs will only be able to get about 10 million doses of the drug in the near term.   

Pfizer’s Paxlovid Goes Generic in 95 Countries – Too Little, Too Late, say Access Advocates

 

However, even considering the MPP deal and other preferential pricing mechanisms, the fact remains that the version of Paxlovid currently being produced is not an optimal fit for many LMICs, Strub-Wourgaft said.  

“So  for now, if we were to be able to give them Paxlovid, under the current conditions, half of them would not even have access,” she told Health Policy Watch.

MPP deals with generic manufacturers may not enable supplies to ANTICOV 

DNDi is also concerned about the potential difficulty of obtaining generic versions of Paxlovid  to conduct the new ANTICOV combination studies, the company has said. 

“The terms of the Pfizer/Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) licensing agreement to the new generics manufacturers could be interpreted to mean that sub-licensees cannot provide nirmatrelvir/ritonavir for use in the sorts of combination studies that DNDi and others wish to conduct, unless they have explicit written approval from Pfizer.

“Some generic manufacturers are also encountering difficulties obtaining Paxlovid as a ‘reference drug’ so that they can conduct the necessary bioequivalence studies to show regulators that their generic version has the same effect in the body, effectively blocking availability of generics for both research and clinical use”, DNDi added in its statement. It has therefore asked Pfizer to not only provide access to nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid) for the DNDi-coordinated ANTICOV trial and other relevant clinical trials, but also to:

  • Remove any ambiguities or restrictions in the Pfizer-MPP licensing agreement that could prevent sub-licensees from supplying such research studies (or publicly clarify that no such restrictions exist);
  • Provide access to Pfizer’s originator product as a ‘reference drug’ so that any interested generic manufacturer can conduct the necessary bioequivalence studies for regulatory approval; and
  • Allocate sufficient quantities of Paxlovid specifically for LMICs and remove all barriers to access to generic nirmatrelvir/ritonavir to enable scale up for care and treatment in LMICs.

“Every effort should be made to ensure that clinical studies for COVID-19 treatment are conducted in low- and middle-income countries, and that any products developed reach vulnerable populations,” said Dr John Amuasi, head of the Global Health and Infectious Diseases Research Grou at Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine in Ghana and a principal investigator for ANTICOV. 

“We must not arrive at a situation where research priorities are determined by the actions or inactions of any company.”

Pfizer response – committed to well-controlled trials

In response to a request from Health Policy Watch, a Pfizer spokesperson did not provide any clarification of the reasons behind the company’s refusal to participate in the DNDi trial – aimed a making the treatment more suitable to low-income settings.

“Pfizer appreciates the importance of gathering additional data and information for governments to help maximize the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the spokesperson, adding that the company is committed to “well-controlled, hypothesis-driven clinical studies that can provide data that will be accepted by global regulatory agencies.

“Additional studies of PAXLOVID are underway or are being explored, and we will continue to share information as we have it,” the spokesperson added.

In addition, “Right now, we are focusing our efforts and resources in a way that maximizes availability of our overall supply, to help ensure access to patients as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said, noting that the company remains “confident” in the clinical trial results, which showed an 88-89% efficacy rate for the drug, when it was administered to non-hospitalized, high-risk patients within 3-5 days of symptom onset.

-Updated 9 April with correction on the price of Paxlovid paid by the US government for patients in the USA and on 11 April with details of Pfizer response.

Image Credits: Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon, DNDI/Twitter, DNDi.

AI
Machine learning is playing an increasingly important role in computing and artificial intelligence.

TEL AVIV – Ninety percent of drug candidates fail in clinical trials because of unexpected safety issues or lack of efficacy in human subjects, according to Noga Yerushalmi, Investment Director at M Ventures, the strategic, corporate venture capital arm of Merck.

There have been dramatic improvements in omics technologies – that is the collective technologies used to explore molecular behaviour, such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics and transcriptomics.  And this is enabling scientists to analyze potential drug targets more efficiently in terms of their potential impact on a pathogen or disease. 

But there is no automated solution that harnesses all preclinical data in a way that allows for a reliable assessment of the clinical trial readiness of a new drug candidate.

Now, some pharma and research initiatives are hoping to change that, among them AION Labs.  Together with its German partner BioMed X, the Israeli-based research alliance, hosted 15 teams of computational biologists, AI researchers and biomedical scientists for a ‘boot camp’ that aims to speed up the drug discovery process and lower costs – harnessing AI technologies in novel ways. 

Mission: identify critical safety issues before expensive clinical trial stage 

The latest boot camp cohort

The teams were charged with making a proposal for the development of a versatile, next-generation computational platform that can identify hidden safety liability and lack of efficacy, and close identified gaps in the drug candidate pre-clinical data package. 

“The big problem in drug discovery and development is that after a lot of experiments have been done and we have a new drug candidate, many of these candidates fail in very expensive clinical trials in humans,” Dr. Christian Tidona, founder and managing director of the

BioMed X Institute told Health Policy Watch. “That’s because humans are different from mice or a dish in the lab.”

The challenge is that pharma companies usually only discover that a drug candidate either is not safe or will not work after years of effort and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment. Companies can invest $5 billion and 12-years’ time, on average, Tidona said, to create the next  “blockbuster drug.” 

“When one thinks about these numbers, he can imagine why some of these drugs are so expensive. Could an AI platform predict if a drug is really ready for the clinic and, if not, tell us what was missed before we go to trial?” Tidona asked. “This is the question.

“If drugs can be made more efficiently, medicines can become cheaper and more people in all parts of the world could afford them,” he said. 

Solving therapeutic challenges

Kahina Lang, head of Strategic Innovation at Merck Group, addresses the candidates at the AION Labs boot camp.

Based in Rehovot, not far from the the famed Weizmann Institute, AION brings together some of the biggest names in pharma, including AstraZeneca, Merck, Pfizer, and Teva, with young biotech inventors and entrepreneurs, to crack biomedical research challenges together and in a novel way. 

“We work with each of our pharma partners separately and then together to identify the top research challenges that solving would be majorly impactful for the industry at large,” AION CEO Mati Gill told Health Policy Watch. Then, AION looks for innovators and scientists to develop solutions for them.

For last week’s boot camp, 15 applicants from around the world were selected to come to Israel and participate. 

“The winner receives a $2 million investment, mentorship and access to a wealth of data for model training from these four big pharma companies,” Tidona said. “It is more or less paradise for anyone who wants to start a company.”

The concept is based on a model Tidona first developed on the campus of the University of Heidelberg in Germany, with a world-wide network of partner locations. 

If the company succeeds, the technology belongs to it but will be made available for purchase by the pharma partners. 

‘Bringing the promise of AI to fruition’

Guy Spigelman of AWS addresses candidates at the AION Labs bootcamp.

Merck’s Yerushalmi said that there have been “all kinds of efforts to make the drug development model more efficient – to expedite it,” but until now it has not worked. When computational approaches to research were first introduced, “it brought a lot of promise, but until now it has not brought as much fruit as we hoped. Now, with AI tools and the amount of data pharma and other companies can generate, we do hope we may be able to bring this promise to fruition.”

AI is one of the most sophisticated computational tools. AI analysis has brought “ingenious” solutions to other fields, like the automotive industry, she pointed out. 

“AI tools and big data have proven themselves in so many other cases, I think it will probably work for our industry too,” Yerushalmi said. “Want to make [drug development] more affordable and shorter, so we can bring drugs to the market faster and cheaper for the benefit of humanity.”

Finding the most effective antibodies 

AION will be looking for the next therapeutic antibodies.

This most recent boot camp was AION’s second one so far. Earlier this year, it invited computational biologists and biomedical scientists to propose ideas for discovering therapeutic antibodies.

“Advances in protein structure prediction, artificial intelligence algorithms, and increased availability of experimentally determined antigen-antibody structures present a unique opportunity for AI-driven antibody discovery,” AION said in a release. 

In the coming months, it will hold a third boot camp at which computational biologists, bioinformatics and cheminformatics scientists and AI researchers will propose ideas for the development of a next-generation computational platform to optimize antibodies for targeted therapies with enhanced properties, including developability or manufacturability, stability, aggregation, immunogenicity, pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution. 

“The ultimate solution is an AI platform that receives sequences of binders and generates novel variants with optimized IgG sequences, biophysical and targeting properties,” a background briefing explained. “The goal of the AI algorithm is to make an existing antibody a better drug while reducing design iterations, optimization of cycle times and lowering attrition rates.”

CEPI launches AI-based quest for beta-coronavirus vaccine candidate 

The AION initiative, while pioneering in the use of AI for drug discovery, is not the only one. 

On Thursday, the Oslo-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) announced that it would provide seed funding of up to US $4.8 million to a consortium to support the AI-based development of betacoronavirus vaccine candidates – the new holy grail for coronavirus vaccines. 

The research consortium, led by a Norway-based subsidiary of the Japanese NEC Group, which specializes in AI technologies, also includes the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI) and Oslo University Hospital. 

It aims to establish preclinical proof of concept for an mRNA-based vaccine that protects against a broad range of beta coronaviruses – rather than SARS-CoV2 alone, said CEPI in a press release.

NEC will apply its experience in the AI design of immunogens to identify novel vaccine antigens with broad reactivity against beta-coronaviruses. The lead antigens will be selected iteratively and validated in preclinical studies against known beta coronaviruses that already pose a significant epidemic or pandemic risk, such as SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV.

 If the approach is successful, it may also be applicable for developing vaccines against other pathogens in the CEPI portfolio, including ‘Disease X’ – unknown pathogens with pandemic potential that have yet to emerge.

What the future holds

What the future of AI holds.

Tidona, for his part, hopes that AION will spin off 20 new start-ups in the next four to six years. 

“We are building an innovation ecosystem,” he said, noting that it is attractive to host countries as it provides a draw for youthful talent, which in turn spurs economic development. 

He added that if the model works well, BioMed X plans to export it to other countries as well.

“The focus now is on Israel as our first partner outside Germany,” Tidona said. “But in the future, we hope to have sites” in other places, too.

Image Credits: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikemacmarketing/42271822770/, AION Labs, Elad Malka, Twitter: @WHO, https://www.flickr.com/photos/158301585@N08/43267970922/.

WHO argues that climate-smart initiatives are good for health. But the health sector receives  less than 1% of international climate finance, said Prof. Guéladio Cissé, Coordinating Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Global health leaders have repeatedly called for stepped up investments  to  both slow down climate change and recognize the health co-benefits of more climate action.  

But political leaders, including those in low and middle-income countries, still need to do more, Prof. Guéladio Cissé, Coordinating Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) told Health Policy Watch in a briefing on Thursday, World Health Day. 

Meanwhile, WHO’s Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, enjoined African governments to “prioritize human wellbeing in every strategy and decision,” including halting fossil fuel expansion that ultimately will boomerang on the countries concerned.  

“I’d like to take this opportunity to call on an African governments to prioritize human wellbeing in every strategy and decision to halt new fossil fuel exploration and subsidies, institute taxes for polluting firms and to implement the WHO air quality guidelines for example,” said Moeti, speaking on this year’s World Health Day theme, ‘Our Planet, Our Health.’

Added Cissé, countries that harness more of their own national and local policies, innovations and resources can make a difference. 

“Countries can go for some financial incentive policy at a national scale that includes taxes and subsidies; they can also have some innovative policies regarding insurance. They can also give some small scale financial products to low income and other households,” Cissé said.

Support to health sector less than 1% of international climate finance  

Experts are increasingly aware of the multi-faced impacts of the climate crisis on health – as well and the increased precarity of health in the face of deforestation and biodiversity loss as well as  unhealthy foods production – which are also driving climate change. 

So far, however, support to the health sector for climate action still comprises less than 1% of international climate finance investments, Cissé said, speaking at a WHO African Region World Health Day briefing. 

Health co-benefits of climate mitigation strategies – for instance fewer air pollution-related deaths from cleaner energy investments, also go uncounted in climate strategies. 

This, despite health being mentioned as a priority in 54% of countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are the main instruments now being used for global climate pledges to reduce harmful emissions, under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.   

Cissé who works with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute at the University of Basel in Switzerland, noted that this reflects the low priority still being given to climate change in the context of health.

World Health Day at a time of heightened conflict and fragility

Joint press conference in Washington DC with US Secretary of Health and Human Services Anthony Becerra (center) and WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (right)

This year’s World Health Day, which marks the April 7, 1948 date of WHO’s founding, comes at a time of both heightened political conflict and greater ecosystem fragility, noted WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He was speaking at a joint press conference in Washington DC with US Secretary of Health and Human Services Anthony Becerra.  

“The pandemic has highlighted the intimate links between the health of humans, animals and the environment. And yet, we’re rapidly making the planet on which all life depends and inhabitable… 

“The climate crisis is a health crisis,” Tedros said at the Thursday briefing, which concluded a series of face-to-face meetings this week with US Administration officials – the first since President Joe Biden’s inauguration last year.  

”Air pollution kills 7 million people every year. And 99% of the world’s population breathes unhealthy air mainly as a result of burning fossil fuels,” Tedros added. (see related story)

“Our warming world is facilitating the spread of mosquitoes and diseases they carry. Extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, land degradation, and water scarcity are displacing people and damaging their health,” Tedros said. 

“Systems that produce highly processed, unhealthy foods are driving a wave of obesity, increasing cancer and heart disease, and generating one-third of greenhouse gas emissions.

“As the world recovers from the pandemic we have a choice: we can go back to the way things were or we can change course. We can create societies, economies and products that nurture health and well being, and stop subsidizing those that destroy – because we cannot afford to pump carbon into the atmosphere at the same rate, and still breathe clean air.

“We cannot afford the same patterns of consumption and expect less diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and cancer. We must choose.  We cannot afford ever-deepening inequalities and expect continued prosperity. We must choose.” 

Half new fossil fuel exploration and subsidies, prioritize health, says WHO Regional Director

Water shortage in Ethiopia. Population exposure to heat is increasing due to climate change. Globally, extreme temperature events are observed to be increasing in their frequency, duration, and magnitude.

In Africa, one of the regions of the world that is worst affected by climate change, extreme weather events are having ever greater impacts on food security, water access, and related to that, nutrition and disease transmission. 

Of the more than 2000 public health events recorded in the African region between 2019 and 2020, more than half were climate-related, said Moeti, speaking from WHO’s Regional Office in Brazzaville. This, she said, represented a 25% increase compared with the previous decade.

“In Africa, diarrhoeal diseases are the third leading cause of death and illness in children younger than five, which could be preventable with safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and hygiene, and installation,” Moeti said. “Our analysis showed that waterborne diseases, mainly due to cholera outbreaks, accounted for 40% of climate-related health emergencies in the past 20 years.”

In urging African governments to adopt cleaner, healthier policies, she said the main motive is really self-preservation. 

“Älthough Africa contributes the least to global warming, the continent bears a disproportionate burden of the consequences,” said Moeti. “It’s up to every one of us to promote and support multi-sectoral interventions that address the threat of climate change, while helping to better prepare for future health shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Image Credits: Oxfam East Africa.

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WHO Regional Director Hans Kluge, speaking from Lviv, Ukraine

In a highly symbolic visit to Lviv, Ukraine, World Health Organization Regional Director Hans Kluge reaffirmed WHO’s commitment to rebuilding the country’s war-torn health system.  

Speaking in a press briefing staged directly from Lviv, Kluge said, “We are committed to work through a decentralized footprint [in Ukraine], both during the current humanitarian response but also to be there with local and national authorities to rebuild the war-torn health system.”

Kluge’s presence in Western Ukrainian city for the briefing demonstrates an important sign of moral and even political support from WHO, for the country which was invaded by Russia on 25 February, and has endured massive bombing of cities, health facilities, as well as the direct targeting of civilians in a range of incidents that some western politicians say amount to war crimes. 

“Health requires peace. Well-being requires hope, and healing requires time. I speak on behalf of the entire WHO family when I say that it is my deepest wish that this war comes to an end swiftly without further loss of life,” said Kluge.

The European Regional Director said hw was using the visit to the city, on the border with Poland, that has served as a comparative refuge for Ukranians fleeing areas under intense bombardment, in order to speak with frontline health workers, patients, local and national authorities in order to gather insight on both the immediate and longer-term health needs of Ukraine.  

“The life-saving medicine Ukraine needs right now is peace,” Kluge emphasized. 

Almost 100 attacks on health care across Ukraine 

In Kharkiv, there are more than 200 pregnant women left in the underground maternity hospital.

Forty-three days into the Russian invasion, coinciding with World Health Day, the country has seen devastation across its health system, with WHO verifying 91 attacks on health. 

Kluge referred to this as a “clear breach of international humanitarian law.” 

“A health facility has to be a safe place.” 

Additionally, half of all Ukrainian pharmacies are presumed closed, and 1000 health facilities are in proximity to conflict areas or in changed areas of control. 

Routine immunization coverage for measles and polio is below the threshold for population immunity.

Frontline health workers are also impacted by the conflict, with members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) released by Russian forces Tuesday after trying to enter the besieged coastal city of Mariupol. 

“We have to prepare for different eventualities, anticipating that health challenges will get worse before they get better,” said Kluge, reiterating WHO’s commitment to be in Ukraine for the long and short-term to address immediate health challenges and future reconstruction.

WHO working to support Ukrainians in and out of country 

Jarno Habicht, WHO Reprsentative in Ukraine

WHO is currently working to keep health services operational in the country, working closely with national and local authorities, and more than 80 partners to maintain services. 

Over 185 tons of medical supplies have already been delivered to the hardest hit areas of the country, reaching half of a million people with materials to support trauma, surgery, and primary health care. 

“From the health perspective, it is very important that we ensure access to health care in the same way we are asking for humanitarian convoys,” said Jarno Habicht, WHO Representative in Ukraine.

Essential supplies to the northeastern city of Sumy, besieged by Russian troops, have been delivered last week, with an additional 125 tons of medical supplies also on their way. 

Assistive products, including wheelchairs, mobility aids, communication aids for the blind, are also in transit and will be distributed across Ukraine soon. 

WHO is also coordinating with the European Union and national authorities of other countries to extend health services to an estimated 4.2 million people who have fled Ukraine since 24 February.

This includes offering routine childhood immunization, and equipment and supplies needed to manage COVID-19 and other communicable diseases such as measles and polio. 

Working to ‘Not Lose the Momentum’ Against TB and HIV

Prior to the invasion, Ukraine had seen excellent progress in its fight against tuberculosis and HIV, with Kluge praising Ukraine’s model TB programme.

“Ukraine was a beacon of best practice in Europe, with TB incidence falling by almost half in the past 15 years.”

The country had significantly reduced its TB cases from over 127 cases per 100 000 people in 2005 to just 42.2 cases per 100 000 people in 2020. 

Despite the war, WHO is determined to support Ukraine and not lose the momentum against TB, with WHO teams prepared to redeploy throughout the country as access and security improves. 

WHO will also be working together with the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and Ukrainian authorities and other partners to ensure the supply of antiretroviral drugs to cover the needs of an estimated 260 000 people in Ukraine will be met for the next 12 months. 

A delivery of 209 000, 90-day supplies of antiretroviral medicines has arrived in Lviv, Ukraine ready to be distributed, UNAIDS said on Wednesday. However, distribution within Ukraine is set to be a challenge, particularly in conflict areas.

Image Credits: UNICEF, Hanna Liubakova/Twitter.

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Dr Matshidiso Moeti: Africa’s decision to prioritize testing symptomatic individuals meant that most asymptomatic individuals infected were not detected.

Nearly two-thirds of Africans have already been infected with SARS-CoV-2 — the virus responsible for COVID-19, WHO said, announcing the release of a new assessment of virus seroprevalence on the continent.  The analysis, a systematic review of some 150 studies, was published on the pre-print server, medRXiv.org.

Addressing a press briefing on Thursday, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa said the WHO study demonstrates that there had been some 800 million infections as of September 2021 – nearly 100 times greater than the 8.2 million cases reported at the time.   

To arrive at the estimate, WHO synthesized the results of 151 studies published on virus seroprevalence in Africa between January 2020 and December 2021. It found that blood samples with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies skyrocketed from about 3% in June of 2020 to 65% by September of 2021. Exposure to the virus rose sharply following the emergence of the Beta and the Delta variants, she said. And that data doesn’t even consider the big Omicron wave of infections that hit countries in southern Africa in early December and continued into early 2022. 

The study is the first systematic review of disease incidence in the region that has consistently shown the lowest COVID infection rates – but is also plagued by an overall lack of reporting of health data generally on major diseases as well as deaths. 

The study was carried out by a team of scientists from WHO’s African Regional Office, WHO Headquarters in Geneva, and a group of Canadian scholars from McGill University, University of Calgary and elsewhere. 

It’s unusually broad in scope, covering data from some 22 of the continent’s 54 WHO member states (the African Union counts the disputed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in Western Sahara as its 55th member). More significantly, the studies cover countries that include some 71% of the continent’s roughly 1 billion inhabitants. And it includes data from all of Africa’s major geographical regions – all of which had very different experiences with COVID response.   

The Ghana experience

One of the West African studies considered in the report was carried out in Ghana, by a research team including Dr Irene Owusu Donkor, a postdoctoral fellow at Ghana’s Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.

Appearing at the briefing, Donkor noted that her team conducted the study between February and December 2021 to measure seroprevalence of COVID-19 among 6,000 individuals spread across Ghana’s rural and major urban areas. The results yielded a 68% rate of seropositivity, which means that 68% of the people tested had been exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. 

“We also saw that males and females have the same levels of exposure. However, we saw that people aged between 15 to 19 years were the most exposed,” Donkor told journalists.

Testing policy responsible for significant underreporting

Moeti attributed the significant underreporting in Africa to the prioritization of symptomatic individuals for testing, due in part to the shortage of COVID tests and challenges in rolling out COVID tests very widely at key stages of the pandemic. She said this meant that Africa’s reported cases are not true reflection of infections considering not every infected person shows symptoms.

“In Africa, the focus was very much on testing people who were symptomatic when there were challenges in having access to testing supplies. We are under-representing the true number of people who have been exposed and infected by the virus,” she told journalists. 

She however noted that this is not peculiar to Africa as experts presume that there has been significant underreporting of COVID infections in countries.  For instance, while there have been about 495 million reported COVID infections worldwide, to date, the latest WHO estimates, are that some 45.2% of the world’s 7.9 billion people were likely infected by the virus as of September 2021, she said.

“We do know, however, that fewer studies are conducted in Africa than elsewhere. The production of accurate data in Africa is further complicated, because 67% of people with COVID-19 on the continent have no symptoms,” Moeti added. 

Donkor called for more seroprevalence studies and to continue with routine surveillance to ensure that cases are quickly detected while also using the waves that have been seen so far with the various variants to put the pandemic in check.

Moeti told Health Policy Watch that the implication of this finding is the need for the expansion of surveillance for COVID-19 on an ongoing basis in African countries.

“It’s very important for governments and partners and even populations to know the actual situation — to know something that is closer to the true situation because it is this that’s going to guide the preparedness and the adjustment of prevention measures as the situation continues to evolve,” she told Health Policy Watch.

WHO publication of global estimate of COVID cases, still pending 

WHO is supposed to be preparing for the publication of a formal global estimate of actual COVID cases, which highlights the worldwide problems with COVID under-reporting at the end of this month, sources told Health Policy Watch.  Originally that publication was to have been issued at the end of March, but it has been delayed, the sources said.  

As with the publication of any WHO data, political issues involving member state agreement can lead to the delay, and even censorship, of what are supposed to be professional WHO assessments. 

 

COVID-19 testing in Shanghai

China’s COVID-19 situation is getting worse, and strategies to control the spread of the Omicron variant are getting stricter as the country registered 20,472 daily cases on Wednesday – the highest-ever infection rate.

The epicentre of the outbreak is Shanghai, which recorded 17,007 cases on Wednesday and municipal authorities are conducting mass testing in the city populated by 26 million in an attempt to identify infected people and place them under quarantine.

Shanghai authorities have also been separating SARS-COV2 positive young children under the age of seven from their parents. According to reports, and videos on the Chinese microblogging application Weibo, children have been separated from their COVID-19 positive parents in Shanghai’s Jinshan district. 

The incidents of separation of young children from their parents were reported to be from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre. This separation is a part of China’s strict zero-COVID strategy, a policy that has now been questioned for being overly regimented. 

Even as Shanghai health authorities continue to defend the policy of separating COVID-19 positive children from their parents, they clarified on Monday that if parents of COVID-19 positive children also test positive, they can isolate together and will not be separated. 

Wu Qianyu, an official from the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission said that according to the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases and the requirements for prevention and control work, infected people should be isolated from non-infected persons.

“In accordance with the principle of classified treatment, we have made it clear that if the parent of the child is also a positive infected person, they can live in the children’s area to accompany and care for them and receive observation and treatment together.” 

Zero-COVID policy under scrutiny

China is under scrutiny for sticking to its zero-COVID policy which includes strict isolation for those with COVID-19, contact tracing, and long lockdowns with very little movement allowed in cities with perceived outbreaks. If your area has been identified for mass-testing, you  cannot leave the home for any reason. 

Professor Antoine Flahault, Director of the Institute of Global Health at the Univerity of Geneva’s Faculty of Medicine, said that China’s “zero-COVID approach seems to continue to be effective up to date, at least in terms of reported numbers of contaminations and deaths which remain very low in comparison to other countries”.

According to Flahault, China fears a “Hong Kong scenario” since they share the same weakness in their vaccine coverage, with low uptake among the elderly population. Currently, only 50% of the population over the age of 80 is vaccinated in Hong Kong. 

Hong Kong has experienced a huge Omicron wave with one of the highest death tolls in the world that has overwhelmed health care system after the region gave up its zero-COVID strategy. 

“Continental China’s authorities believe they have no other choice today than maintaining their zero COVID strategy to avoid similar health disaster,” said Flahault.

China is one of the few countries where the zero-COVID strategy is still in action. Australia, Singapore, New Zealand also tried this approach but have abandoned it, Dr Flahault said. 

Weaker vaccines

“Hong Kong followed them in the midst of their crisis, but China and to a lesser extent Taiwan decided to keep it [zero-COVID strategy]. China probably hesitated and was expected to switch to suppression strategy after the Olympic Games,” he said. “Even as the strategy to suppress was less stringent than an elimination strategy, the Omicron variant changed the rules of the game.”

One of the disadvantages China faces is that immunity gained from two doses of its vaccines, Sinopharm and Coronavac, is only about 56% on average, while the mRNA vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, have over 95% protection, said Sayantan Bose, Principal Scientist of Virology at Autonomous Therapeutics in the US.

Bose added that China is extremely capable of carrying out mass vaccinations and the regime could very effectively vaccinate the whole population with a third dose which would boost the immunity to a “large extent.”

“Ultimately, the virus has infiltrated the human population to such an extent that it will not completely disappear ever. We just have to figure out the best way to deal with it.”

According to the state media CCTV, China’s zero-COVID approach has “proved effective and necessary” in curbing the spread of the virus despite the recent flare-ups of the epidemic in multiple places across the country. 

Isolated in Shanghai

Shanghai is turning an exhibition centre into a COVID-19 hospital

Currently in Shanghai, all those who test positive for the disease – irrespective of whether they are symptomatic or asymptomatic – have to be isolated at a facility. This has brought fresh fears to people who will be separated from their young dependent children. Isolation is not limited to adults but also to children who test positive but whose family members do not. 

In its crackdown over the dominant omicron variant of SARS-COV-2 that has taken over the major financial hub, Shanghai has converted multiple hospitals, gymnasiums, apartment blocks and other venues into central quarantine sites. Further, according to media reports, Individuals who refuse to be tested for COVID for no justifiable reason will face administrative or criminal punishment. 

Shanghai’s lockdown was supposed to end this week, but it has been extended and military personnel have been deployed to Shanghai to assist in the mandatory screening. 

The images from the Shanghai health centre showed several young children crammed together in rooms with cribs and beds. The health centre, according to media reports, verified the images and said they were real and did not deny the separation of parents from their children. However, after gaining traction and attention of many shocked citizens, the post showing the reality of the children’s separation in Shanghai was deleted. 

According to a report in Reuters, children as young as three months old are being separated from their breastfeeding mothers. In a video shared by a popular Chinese science writer, children can be seen separated and crying in the health centre:

Booster doses are ‘a must’

Last week, China’s National Health Commission published new guidelines that narrowed down the geographic scope of mass testing and said that local governments must aim to complete testing of each designated area within 24 hours.

Such changes in protocols come after Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to achieve “maximum prevention and control” while minimising damage to China’s economic and social development earlier last month. 

According to Flahault, China seems determined to continue its zero-COVID strategy and make it a success, whatever social and economic costs.  

“It was a policy which was waiting for the vaccines, but vaccines never allowed for substantially contributing to elimination. By stubbornly continuing with the elimination strategy, Chinese authorities have no other choices now but to implement very tough measures which may become highly unpopular, and even strongly rejected by the population,” said Flahault.

However, Bose says that “it does seem like the zero-Covid policy is outdated as it is impossible to completely stop the virus from spreading in the population, even if you manage to vaccinate every single person in China”.

He said that, according to recent reports, immunity from these vaccines is waning quickly in China and a third dose is a must. 

“So overall, it appears that at this point in the pandemic, the Zero-Covid policy seems like more of a burden to the suffering population. It is unlikely to yield further success and in the end could just add to the suffering of the people and their lives could be further pushed into poverty,” said Bose.

Complex and difficult path out

Jeremy Farrar, Director of the  Wellcome Trust

Meanwhile, Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, gave credit to China for having succeeded in controlling its COVID-19 pandemic with “minimal loss to life and impact on their broader health systems”.

“China have managed to control the pandemic to the point that there is no natural immunity.  Effectively they’ve had no real waves of this epidemic,” Farrar told a media briefing called by the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday.

However, he added that the vaccines China was using were “not quite as effective as some of the vaccines available in other parts of the world” and it had struggled to vaccinate “their most vulnerable populations, particularly people over the ages of 70”. 

“China has a very complex and difficult path out of this pandemic. What I hope that they do is to use the current programme of trying to reduce transmission whilst having a very active and inclusive ability to get vaccines out to everybody, particularly those who are most vulnerable. If they can buy time, like New Zealand did like Australia did, to get their vaccine programme out to as many people as possible including booster doses, I think that gives them the best strategy of trying to exit from the pandemic,” said Farrar.

Image Credits: CGTN, Wellcome Trust.