Gavi will receive 500 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to help expand vaccine coverage around the world

Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, has secured half a billion doses of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine for the COVAX global vaccine facility in a landmark agreement that will deepen vaccination coverage in poor countries around the world, Gavi said on Monday.

Meanwhile, Sweden announced that it will donate one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the global COVAX facility to help fill an urgent shortfall of 20 million doses as the world’s vaccine powerhouse, the Serum Institute of India, has diverted most of its vaccine supply to fend off a devastating outbreak in the country. The announcement came as WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press conference that COVAX and related medicines access initiatives face an immediate funding gap of US$19 billion, along with “further needs” of US $35-$US40 billion over the coming year. 

“We will only solve the vaccine crisis with the leadership of G7 countries,” Tedros said, speaking at a WHO press conference that featured an appeal by former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to rich countries to immediately donate more excess vaccines.

Brown, now the UN Envoy for Global Eradication, also joined WHO in an appeal to G7 nations to dedicate some US$ 20 billion a year from their combined resources to a more robust pipeline of COVID vaccines and medicines – at an upcoming G7 meeting 11 June.

“Mass vaccination is not just an epidemiological and ethical imperative. It’s an economic imperative,” stressed Brown. “But if the cost of vaccines is in billions the overall savings is in trillions of additional economic output, made possible when trade resumes in a COVID free world.”

“In the next few months we do not expect the Serum Institute of India to be able to supply the kind of [vaccine] volumes that were originally predicted. And so it would be really helpful to get [additional] doses from other countries,” said WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan, speaking at the briefing.

Senior WHO advisor Bruce Aylward, meanwhile, said that the immediate donation of 20 million doses is needed to ensure that vulnerable populations who have already received their first dose would get a second jab as soon as possible.

Moderna Will Supply COVAX With 34 Million Doses In 2021 and 466 Million In 2022

Moderna’s latest agreement will allow COVAX to receive 34 million doses in the fourth quarter of 2021 and 466 million doses in 2022, with an option to access a vaccine jab that is adapted to emerging variants, said Gavi in its press release. 

The announcement comes a week after Moderna pledged to expand its production capacity to three billion doses by 2022 and received the WHO’s stamp of approval – making it the fifth vaccine to be approved by the global health body to date. 

“This is an important milestone as we work to ensure that people around the world have access to our COVID-19 vaccine,” said Moderna’s CEO Stéphane Bancel in a press release.

“We recognize that many countries have limited resources to access COVID-19 vaccines. We support COVAX’s mission to ensure broad, affordable and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and we remain committed to doing everything that we can to ending this ongoing pandemic with our mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.”

“Expanding and having a diverse portfolio has always been a core goal for COVAX, and to remain adaptable in the face of this continually evolving pandemic – including the rising threat posed by new variants,” added Gavi CEO Seth Berkley in a press release. “This agreement is a further step in that direction.”

Moderna’s latest agreement represents the largest commitment of mRNA vaccines to COVAX yet, given that Pfizer/BioNTech, another mRNA vaccine frontrunner, has committed a mere 40 million doses to the global vaccine facility. 

Unlike the vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech which needs to be stored at temperatures as cold as -60ºC, Moderna’s vaccine can be stored in a standard fridge at 2-8 °C for one month, and potentially for up to three months, said Moderna’s CEO last week; those looser storage requirements for Moderna’s vaccine are likely to ease its distribution to low- and middle-income countries that lack the cold-chain infrastructure to store vaccines at sub-zero temperatures. 

Sweden’s Vaccine Donation Hailed as ‘Superb’ Gesture by Tedros 
WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Per Olsson Fridh, Sweden’s Minister for Development Cooperation, met at WHO’s headquarters on Monday.

Meanwhile, WHO’s Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed Sweden’s donation of one million vaccine doses to COVAX as a “superb gesture” and urged the rest of the world to follow suit. So far, only a handful of countries have donated doses to COVAX, including New Zealand and France, which donated 13 million and 1.6 million doses to the global vaccine facility, respectively.

“Sweden’s announcement that it will share 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with COVAX is a superb gesture that must be replicated urgently, and repeatedly, by governments around the world to accelerate the equitable rollout of vaccines globally,” said Dr Tedros in a press release Monday, shortly after his meeting with Per Olsson Fridh, Sweden’s Minister for Development Cooperation.

“Such support will ensure that people in vulnerable countries, especially, in Africa, will be able to receive their second doses through the COVAX initiative,” he added.

Gordon Brown Makes US$30 Billion Year Pitch To G7 For COVID Medicines & Vaccine Finance
Gordon Brown UN Envoy for Eradication at WHO press briefing 3 May 2021

Meanwhile, in the leadup to the next G-7 meeting on 11 June, Brown said that he was joining WHO in an appeal to the Group of 7 most industrialized nations to finance some US$ 30 billion in mass vaccination, affordable tests and treatments for lower- and middle-income countries.

“The bill for mass vaccinating the world and ensuring access also to tests and treatments is affordable: a total of around US$30billions a year,” he asserted. “If spread across the richest countries – its just 25 cents a week per citizen – and it is money we cannot afford not to spend. ”

“In total over 2 years we need to raise an estimated US$60 billion, which is not only to cover vaccines, research, production and distribution to 92 lower income countries, but help pay for vital medical supplies including diagnostics and medical oxygen currently and shamefully in short supply in India and elsewhere.

“Based on ability to pay – a formula that takes into account national income, current wealth and benefits from the resumption of trade, America would pay 27% of the costs Europe 23%, the UK 5%, Japan 6%, Korea Canada and Australia 2% (each), he said,” noting that those G7 contributions alone would cover about 67% of the US$ 30 billion needed – or about US$ 20 billion.

” I say to the G7, the forum that on June 11, six weeks from now, brings together the world’s seven richest countries: you have the power and the ability to pay for nearly two thirds (of the total costs)  and secure a historic breakthrough by agreeing an equitable burden sharing formula for global health provision.”

He said the proposed measures would also include expansion of international finance for grants for low income countries, and creation of a guarantee-based finance facility for middle income countries.

“I say to the G20: with your leadership, we can cover over 80% of the costs, and you have the means to urgently donate vaccine doses to cover the gap in supply.

“I say to the richest 30 countries in the world: you can cover almost 90% of the costs. And the same burden-sharing formula can also be applied – so that instead of the familiar pandemic cycle of ‘panic now’ and neglect later, the world invests now now, when there is a shortfall, and for the future in pandemic preparedness…to ensure that even if future outbreaks happen pandemics become preventable.”

Image Credits: Gavi , WHO .

moderna

Moderna has announced new investments from Europe and the US to increase global vaccine supply, expecting to increase 2022 capacity to up to 3 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine. The announcement was followed by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) decision to list the Moderna vaccine for emergency use, making it the fifth vaccine to receive emergency validation from WHO. 

“As we follow the rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, we believe that there will continue to be significant need for our mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and our variant booster candidates into 2022 and  2023,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief  Executive Officer of Moderna.

The vaccine manufacturer highlighted studies that predicted waning immunity will impact vaccine efficacy within 12 months, compounding the need for variant boosters in the coming years. 

Though many agreed that variant boosters will be necessary in the future, governments were concerned about the ability to scale up production. “We are hearing from governments that there is no technology that provides the high efficacy of mRNA vaccines and the speed necessary to adapt to variants while allowing reliable scalability of manufacturing.”

But with these investments, Moderna now has the capability to scale up drug manufacturing at the company’s Switzerland and Spain-based facilities. There will also be a 50% increase of drug substances at Moderna’s facilities in the US. 

Increased Shelf-Life for Vaccines

Moderna also announced that ongoing development data related to its current COVID-19 vaccine formula could support a three-month refrigerated (2-8 degrees Celsius) shelf life in alternate formats that make it easier to distribute, such as the doctor’s office or other small settings. 

Current vaccine supply is approved for storage up to one month at refrigerated temperatures (2-8 degrees Celsius) and up to seven months in a standard freezer (-20 degrees Celsius). Moderna’s vaccine is the only authorized mRNA vaccine that does not require on-site dilution. 

The company is also working on new formulas of its COVID mRNA-1273 vaccine and a next generation of the vaccine that will extend refrigerated shelf life longer. 

Variant and Vaccine Booster Tests Underway

Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer, Moderna.

The company is raising its 2021 supply forecast to between 800 million to 1 billion doses, with production from investments expected to ramp up in later this year early 2022. 

Earlier this year it announced that it is already testing the SARS-CoV-2 variant vaccine and multivalent vaccine boosters in humans. 

Results from its ongoing variant clinical trials and develops its booster shot strategy will place Moderna in a position to better estimate the supply ranges for 2022, which will be based on product mix across single-dose boosters, primary (two-dose) vaccinations for adults, and primary (two-doses) shots for children, which may be at lower dose levels. 

The scaled-up production and manufacturing capabilities come after last week’s forum sponsored by the International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA).  

Bancel, at the press briefing, had said that the company is “in the final stretch to get an agreement with COVAX” for its vaccine. 

Pfizer CEO Announces COVID-19 Oral Drug Could Be Available at the End of 2021

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla

Pfizer’s experimental oral drug for treating COVID-19 could be available at the end of 2021,  CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC on Tuesday.  

“If clinical trials go well and the Food and Drug Administration approves it, the drug could be distributed across the U.S. by the end of the year,” Bourla told CNBC. 

Pfizer, which developed the first authorized COVID-19 vaccine in the US with German drugmaker BioNTech, began an early-stage clinical trial in March testing new antiviral therapy for coronavirus. In addition to the drug, Pfizer is testing its vaccine in 6-month to 11-year-old children. 

Earlier this month, the company asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expand its vaccine authorization to adolescents ages 12 to 15 after the shot was found to be 100% in a study, with no serious side effects. 

Bourla also told CNBC that the company is ‘comfortable’ in producing at least 2.5 billion vaccine doses for 2021, noting how Pfizer had overcome the original ‘forecasted losses’. 

“We made tremendous progress in improving processes, in building the infrastructure at the speed of light and in resolving issues with third-party supplies,” he added.

Bourla noted that the ‘horrible situation’ in India and the rest of the world, where the rate of vaccinations and availability of vaccines is lower, needed to be addressed, and saw this as an ‘ethically unacceptable issue’.

“If we are not able to provide services for India or Africa, they will become a pool where the virus will replicate and generate variants.” 

India is currently facing a catastrophic second wave that accounts for 38% of global cases reported in the past week, according to the WHO. 

 

Image Credits: Jernej Furman/Flickr, WEF, CNBC.

GHC Webinar – ‘What Lessons from COVID-19 For Advancing Antibiotic R&D?
Clockwise, moderator Suerie Moon, Manica Balasegaram (GARDP), Michelle Childs (DNDi)

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a “silent pandemic” of drug resistance to mutated bacteria, viruses and parasites is gaining ground and requires major government investments in antibiotic research and development (R&D), a group of experts has warned.

“People are dying across the world from drug-resistant infections. This is a problem of today, and it’s a problem that’s getting worse,” said Manica Balasegaram, Executive Director of the Global Antibiotic Research Development and Partnership (GARDP), during a webinar on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) hosted by the Geneva Graduate Institute Global Health Centre. 

The Geneva symposium, held on Thursday, highlighted key lessons learned from COVID-19 when looking towards the future of AMR and preparing for the next public health emergency. 

Increased Investment In AMR as a Global Health Priority 

amr pandemic
An antimicrobial is an agent that kills microorganisms or stops their growth. Antimicrobial medicines can be grouped according to the microorganism they act primarily against.

Advancing antibiotic R&D requires global health to invest in AMR as a public health issue in its own right, as antibiotics are going to be a critical tool in pandemic preparedness.

One of the benefits of AMR is that, due to its extensive R&D, researchers know the pathogens behind it, which makes it a global issue that can be prepared for, Balasegaram added. 

“We have to ensure access, particularly diagnostics, treatments, vaccines, and other tools – for infection, prevention, and control. We need to see this not just in terms of AMR but as a cornerstone for pandemic preparedness,” he added.

Although there has been a lot of progress in relation to vaccines, Michelle Childs, Director of Policy Advocacy at Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), spoke of the “acute need” to invest in COVID-19 effective treatments.

Childs addressed the need to have “well-powered, adaptive, clinical trials” to see if these treatments can be successful in repurposed and novel technologies, as well as a need to hone in on specific COVID-19 treatments, especially for those with mild to moderate symptoms of the virus.

“Potentially, those treatments could not just stop progression but could offer some hope for post-COVID symptoms,” she said. “We need to invest in virus-agnostic types of treatment in the early stages and discovery, not just for COVID but also for future pandemics.” 

Innovation in Global Health Needed, Shift Away from Traditional Sources 

The World Bank only releases funds to products qualified by the FDA

Global health actors also need to set their priorities towards innovation, as they reframe the way AMR is viewed, said Childs. She added that the level of innovation demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic should be applied to the future. 

“We need to ensure that when we’re looking for innovations, we don’t just look in the traditional sources in high-income countries.”

Childs also addressed the need to shift away from a “dependence on stringent regulatory agencies”, citing the negative effects on funding and access with the World Bank, for example, which only releases funds to buy products qualified by the FDA. 

“We need to strengthen further and respect the growing regulatory capacity worldwide. We have to move away from just a reliance solely on the EMA and the FDA,” said Childs, raising the African Vaccine Regulatory Forum as an example.  

Inequitable Global Response Prolongs the Pandemic

A health worker wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) carries a patient suffering from COVID-19 outside the casualty ward at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, in New Delhi, India.

Many of the lessons of COVID-19 are still ongoing, the most prominent being lessons on inequitable global response. The US was experiencing a drop in coronavirus cases with increasing vaccinations, while countries such as India are facing their worst outbreaks of COVID-19.

“We can’t really lift ourselves out of this situation unless we have a global response and that means global access. Inequitable access to medical countermeasures will have devastating consequences, and will prolong the pandemic,” said Balasegaram.

“If we don’t fix this now, then we’re going to face this again in AMR, and every other health issue that follows.” 

Intellectual Property Restrictions – Inequitable Access

IP

 

“We can’t really talk about lessons for COVID for the innovation system without addressing the real issues that we’re facing with COVID now,” said Childs. 

One of these issues concerns intellectual property, which comes days after nearly 400 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and national parliaments across the European Union issued a joint appeal calling for the European Commission to drop its opposition to a proposed WTO waiver on IP related to COVID-19 health technologies for the duration of the pandemic. 

“[Lifting the restrictions allows] the vaccine recipe to be shared for countries [so they are able] to support themselves, [sharing] the know-how of technologies using some of the processes that are already available. We can’t rely on business as usual, or just rely on private licensing deals, which are inadequate.”

Image Credits: Staicon Life/Flickr, GHC, Felton Davis/Flickr, Adnan Abidi/Flickr, Open Source/Flickr.

Sanitizing public areas in Itapevi, Brazil

While India’s COVID-19 pandemic continues to burn through that country’s health system, concerns are mounting that Latin America may become the next global pandemic flashpoint — issues that the World Health Organization (WHO) is rightly trying to highlight to its broad global constituency of policymakers, influencers, and the general public.

All the more reason why it was surprising that the WHO chose to underscore the dimensions of Latin America’s plight by featuring Brazil’s new, and controversial, health minister Marcelo Querioga at its biweekly media briefing. 

The move set off a storm of social media commentary over what appeared to effectively showcase an alliance with the government of President Jair Bolsonaro – who has personally denied the dangers of COVID-19 and chalked up one of the worst global records for managing the pandemic. 

Not only is the track record abysmal, but  Bolsonaro has consistently ignored or undermined basic WHO advice on measures such as mask-wearing in public.  He has advocated the use of drugs discredited by WHO, such as hydroxychloroquine, as well as the importance of vaccines – which Brazil only belatedly began to aggressively seek out and acquire – despite its scientific and economic means. 

The catastrophe has been such that it has given rise not only to a huge death toll – but also the rise of a new, and dangerous variant.  That, in turn, has cast a shadow over the rest of Latin America, as observed in a New York Times article: “living side-by-side with Brazil, a country of more than 200 million whose president has consistently dismissed the threat of the virus and denounced measures to control it, helping fuel a dangerous variant that is now stalking the continent.”

Querioga On Centre Stage

Brazilian health minister Marcelo Queiroga

Granted the WHO stage, Queiroga, the fourth health minister to have been appointed in the past year, was at pains to say that he is now trying to bolster his country’s vaccination drive since taking office on 23 April.

“First, I have committed myself to ensuring there is an acceleration in vaccination across the country and this has been done by increasing the access to doses of vaccines and ensuring that there is better efficacy in the distribution of the vaccines,” Queiroga told the WHO briefing.

He added that the country had procured 500 million vaccine doses and by Monday will have administered more than 60 million vaccine doses – although that amounts to only about 18 doses per 100 people – a record that  pales in comparison to that of Chile, which has administered 73 doses for every 100 people.

Indeed, Brazil’s Fiocruz Institute is providing fill-and-finish services for AstraZeneca vaccines, while its Butantan Institute is doing the same for the Chinese vaccine, Sinovac, said Queiroga. But outside experts say that that can be credited more to the long scientific record of Fiocruz and other Brazilian instiutes, than any recent government moves. 

Queiroga did, however, provide new support for “clear and objective” guidance on “non-pharmacological measures that need to be followed in the fight against COVID-19, such as using masks, hand hygiene, and respecting social distancing.” 

That was in stark contrast to Bolsonaro’s statements railing at mask-wearing as recently as late February during the height of the country’s second wave. And so it remains to be seen if the president also will heed the advice of his new health minister. 

MOH Still Plans to use discredited drug treatments  

Queiroga also did not mention at the briefing that his ministry is preparing a protocol for the use of Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19, treatments that are favoured by Bolsonaro – even though WHO has explicitly discouraged their use after large-scale studies found them ineffective.

Along with a social media storm, the appearance also sent ripples through WHO’s ranks – which has a significant constituency of Brazilian and Latin American technical staff posted not only in the region, but across the worldwide organization.  

As one senior WHO scientist told Health Policy Watch: “I am nauseated. What has been done right in this pandemic in Brazil has been done despite the national government.”

He added that there was a parliamentary inquiry into the role of the president in the pandemic, but “it looks like WHO is backing the government. Why? It only makes our work more difficult”. 

Meanwhile, Queiroga failed to answer most of the questions from the media and left the press briefing early.

Offers ‘Olive Branch’ on Vaccine Access 

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reported that “Brazil is scaling up the domestic production of COVID-19 vaccines and has joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) initiative to increase vaccine production through technology transfer.”

In terms of access to vaccines, still sorely lacking in most of lower-income Latin America, Queiroga appeared to offer an olive branch to critics, saying:

“We are looking at the discussions that are currently underway in the WTO on protecting intellectual property.  We defend that there should be access to vaccines and that they should be made available immediately because they should be considered a public good.” 

That statement was striking, insofar as Brazil has been one of the only developing countries to oppose the India-South Africa proposal for a WTO waiver on intellectual property for the duration of the pandemic. Brazil’s opposition to the waiver has also triggered widespread internal criticism. Brazilian parliamentarians  penned an open letter recently saying that the position flails in the face of Brazil long tradition of supporting public access to essential medicines.  

Quieroga did not reverse the country’s stance on that matter at his briefing, but rather appeared to be seeking a middle ground on the polarizing issue. He stressed that Brazil was in favour of “reaching a consensus” on the way forward, adding that existing flexibilities in IP and trade rules need to be used more effectively:

 “Brazil understands that the TRIPS agreement does have a number of flexibilities regarding innovation, which are included in the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and public health, and this includes the principle of what is in the public interest to fight health crises.”

He also called on pharmaceutical manufacturers to “ensure that agreements for licensing and technology transfer are facilitated as well as facilitation of expertise and know-how”. 

“We need to identify any commercial barrier to producing and distributing these products, including anything linked to intellectual property,” he added.

Cases In Many Latin American Countries Continue To Rise With Few Vaccines in Sight

Brazil has reported over 14,5 million cases of COVID-19 and over 420,000 deaths since the pandemic started. Its cases increased by 2% in the past week, and most ICU beds have been full during April. 

The P.1 variant first identified in Brazil is 2.5 times more contagious than the original wild type virus and became the dominant strain in the country in just seven weeks, sweeping through the 200 million strong population from early November. 

Brazil’s reluctance to impose restrictions on its citizens has exacerbated the spread of the variant, which is now believed to be driving case increases in the region.

Ciro Ugarte, director of health emergencies in the WHO region of the Americas and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), told the briefing that most countries in South America were starting to experience case increases. 

These range from a 54% increase in Ecuador, to 19% in Honduras, 13% in Bolivia and single-digit increases in Uruguay, Peru and  Colombia, according to Worldometer.

But even a modest weekly increase of 3% in Colombia has meant that “ICU beds are running out in major metropolitan cities like Bogota and Medellin”, said Ugarte.

“Several countries in our region are reporting increases in COVID-19 cases in their younger populations. These are linked to increased exposure and no vaccination in these groups, as most countries have few vaccines and are applying them to vulnerable older groups and health care workers.” 

COVAX has only been able to deliver 7.3 million doses of vaccines in Latin America and the Caribbean so far. 

“Many countries cannot afford large bilateral deals with producers and are relying on COVAX for vaccines, but the outlook is not optimistic for increased supplies soon,” added Urgarte.

Image Credits: Pedro Godoy/ExLibris/PMI.

The UK government has been slammed for cutting millions in aid for family planning which will also lead to several job losses

The UK government has been accused of “using tactics reminiscent of the Trump era” after cutting millions in aid for family planning.

Boris Johnson’s government is set to slash its commitment to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) by 85% – from an expected contribution of £154m to just £23m – in an enormous blow for women and girls in the poorest countries where health services have already been decimated by COVID-19.

News of the cuts, which were announced earlier this week, has left aid leaders seething. “By breaking its manifesto commitments with tactics reminiscent of the Trump era, the UK government will undo years of progress and investment,” Dr Alvaro Bermejo, the director general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), said. 

The IPPF said the loss of funding represents “one of the most significant funding losses for IPPF since 2017 when former US President Donald Trump reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy, also known as the Global Gag Rule”, a policy that blocked US federal funding for non-governmental organisations providing abortion advice, counselling or referrals. 

The IPPF, the UNPFA’s lead partner in providing family planning services, is set to lose out on £72m ($100m) as a result of the UK’s actions. Bermejo added this was “just another example of the UK government stepping back when it is needed most”.

Without additional funding, IPPF says it will be forced to close services in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Côte D’Ivoire, Cameroon, Uganda, Mozambique, Nepal and Lebanon, while services in an additional nine countries are under threat.

An internal memorandum sent to UNFPA, says that no staff cuts are expected yet – but insiders say this will be hard to avoid. However, agency partners contracted to deliver services will be less fortunate. IPPF will have to cut at least 480 staff over the next 90 days.

Manuelle Hurwitz, IPPF’s director of programme delivery and capacity, warned that “millions of the world’s most vulnerable women and girls in some of the poorest and most marginalized communities will pay the price” for the UK government’s decision.

“The fallout will force many girls out of school before they are even 16 and further contribute to an increase in unintended pregnancies, a rise in maternal deaths and an increase in unsafe abortions,” said Hurwitz.

The UK’s contribution would have prevented “around 250,000 maternal and child deaths, 14.6 million unintended pregnancies and 4.3 million unsafe abortions,” according to UNFPA director Natalia Kanem.

Kanem described the UK’s “retreat from agreed commitments” as “devastating for women and girls and their families across the world”.

Unnecessary Deaths

Rose Caldwell, CEO of Plan International UK, the global children’s charity described the decision as “shameful”, and would “result in the unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands more women and girls during pregnancy and childbirth”. 

“For decades, the UK has fought for the fundamental rights of women and girls to have control over their own bodies, and now is not the time to renege on our commitments,” said Caldwell.

“COVID-19 is fuelling a hidden pandemic of gender-based violence and we are likely to see a steep rise in early and unwanted pregnancies. This is already a leading cause of death for adolescent girls around the world, as well as one of the main reasons why girls drop out of school early.”

Urging the UK government to “come to its senses and reinstate funding for these vital services”, Caldwell added that “this is not the ‘Global Britain’ we want the world to see”.

Another programme set to lose out is WISH (Women’s Integrated Sexual Health), which delivers life-saving contraception and sexual and reproductive health services for women and girls in some of the world’s poorest and most marginalized communities.

Since its launch in October 2018, WISH has prevented an estimated 11.7 million unintended pregnancies, 4.3 million unsafe abortions and 34,000 maternal deaths, according to IPPF.

Luka Nkhoma, WISH programme project director in Zambia, said she is “scared for the futures” of the girls and women in the country who will no longer have access to contraception. By the age of 19, almost 60% of Zambian girls have fallen pregnant – mostly because of lack of health services in rural communities.

“When WISH came along, we helped expand much-needed contraception and sexual health services in [rural] areas, including services for youth with integrated HIV support, treatment for sexually transmitted infections and cervical cancer screening,” said Nkhoma. 

“For many women, it was their first time using contraception and the first time they’ve ever had complete control over their bodies and fertility. WISH also helps girls stay in school to finish their education, giving them control over their futures.”

When WISH closes, the community outreach in rural areas will end and the only way women will get contraception is by making long, costly trips to clinics.

“I don’t know what these women and girls will do. Just because there is a global pandemic, women’s needs don’t suddenly stop, and if they can’t access safe services, an unsafe abortion might be the only option,” said Nkhoma.

The UK is also cutting its contribution to UNAIDS, the UN’s HIV/AIDS programme by 80%, from  £15m to £2.5m this year.

“These cuts couldn’t have come at a worse time for the HIV pandemic. AIDS remains the number one killer of women of reproductive age and 1.7 million people acquired HIV in 2019,” said STOPAIDS, a UK network of agencies working to end HIV globally.

The cuts come days after the news that the UK had slashed aid to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative by 95%.

A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesperson said: “The seismic impact of the pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take tough but necessary decisions, including temporarily reducing the overall amount we spend on aid. 

“We will still spend more than £10bn this year to fight poverty, tackle climate change and improve global health. We are working with suppliers and partners on what this means for individual programmes.”

* Co-published with openDemocracy

Image Credits: United Nations Population Fund.

Pakistan health workers getting vaccinated with Sinopharm.

As India restricts COVID-19 vaccine exports to address its domestic surge, the World Health Organization (WHO) is poised to give the Chinese vaccine, Sinopharm, emergency use listing (EUL) this week – potentially catapulting China into becoming the biggest global supplier of COVID-19 vaccines for low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).

However, Sinopharm is reported to be one of the most expensive vaccines on the market, with the most recently reported price $36 a dose paid by Hungary – in comparison to $2.15 for AstraZeneca.

Global vaccine alliance Gavi, on behalf of the COVAX Facility, confirmed to Health Policy Watch on Thursday that it is “in dialogue with several manufacturers, including Sinopharm, to expand and diversify the portfolio further and secure access to additional doses for Facility participants. We will provide updates on any new deals in due course.”

After delivering over 49 million vaccines to 120 countries, the vast majority of which were AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), COVAX deliveries have ground to a halt because of domestic demand in India – causing panic in LMICs reliant on COVAX.

China joined COVAX late last year and announced in February that it would be donating 10 million vaccine doses to the facility – but this cannot happen until the WHO grants the vaccines EUL.

WHO Decision on Sinopharm This Week

A decision on Sinopharm is expected by the end of the week, but late last month Alejandro Cravioto, the chairperson of WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE), told a media briefing that both Chinese vaccines, Sinopharm and Sinovac, have presented efficacy data that meets WHO requirements. 

“The information that the companies shared publicly at the [SAGE] meeting last week clearly indicates that they have levels of efficacy that would be compatible with the requirements that WHO has asked for this vaccine,” Cravioto told the briefing.

The WHO has set 50% efficacy against the virus as the lowest bar for EUL, and its decision is based on a risk-benefit analysis. 

The decision on the other Chinese vaccine, Sinovac, is expected next week, but reports indicate that it has lower efficacy than Sinopharm. 

A decision on the Moderna vaccine is expected on Friday, but the WHO has already issued interim recommendations on the use of Moderna and no impediments are expected for it.

“We are on track to make a billion doses this year, and potentially to have up to 1.4 billion doses for 2022,” said Moderna CEO, Stephane Bancel told a press briefing last week, adding that the company is also “in the final stretch to get an agreement with COVAX,” for distribution of the mRNA vaccine.

However, Moderna, like the Pfizer vaccine, needs ultra-cold storage which precludes its use in many low income countries.

COVAX Searching for New Vaccine Suppliers

COVAX confirmed last week that 90 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses it had expected the Serum Institute to deliver in March and April have been kept for use in India, which is facing a massive surge in cases.

Seth Berkley, CEO, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

Seth Berkley, CEO of vaccine alliance Gavi, acknowledged last week that COVAX was trying to ”balance the acute needs for India, where there’s a very large population, with the needs of many other countries that rely on India as one of the main vaccine manufacturers for the world”. Gavi co-leads COVAX with the WHO and CEPI.

He confirmed that COVAX was “waiting for when supplies will resume [from India], and we’re looking at other options at the same time”.

Berkley also said that COVAX was “in early days on discussions on dose sharing”.

“We had an announcement last Friday from French President Macron that he would be sharing up to a half a million doses and we’ve also had an announcement from New Zealand, that they would be sharing 1.6 million doses and we’ve heard from the Spanish Prime Minister that they would be sharing doses, so we’re beginning to see engagement from many on dose sharing,” explained Berkley.

A Gavi spokesperson explained to Health Policy Watch that dose-sharing can happen “through the transfer of vaccine doses purchased by self-financing participants to the COVAX AMC economies, as pioneered by Norway and followed by New Zealand, or by donating own doses purchased for domestic consumption to COVAX AMC economies, in line with the recent French announcement”. 

“We welcome commitments of intention to share doses from other countries, including Spain, and continue to be in close dialogue with these countries who have expressed interest. We expect further announcements on this to take place over the coming weeks and months,” added the spokesperson.

Sinopharm To Produce One Billion Doses This Year

In contrast to the vaccine shortage in India, Sinopharm’s manufacturers claim that they have already sent 50 million vaccines to other countries, according to a report published last week.

By the end of February, China said that it had supplied 69 countries with vaccines – some as donations as some as sales. Recipients include Zimbabwe, Guinea, Egypt, Pakistan, Serbia, the Maldives, and the United Arab Emirates.

Meanwhile, Botswana announced this week that it had bought 200,000 Sinopharm doses to supplement a donation of the same amount.

Bangladesh also turned to China this week after being forced to suspend its vaccination programme when India told the country that it could not deliver its second batch of AstraZeneca vaccines to it any time soon. Six million Bangladeshis have already received one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

China has offered to give Bangladesh 600,000 doses as a donation and the country will buy the rest. However, the cost of Chinese vaccines could cripple LMICs. 

On Tuesday, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, hosted a virtual meeting of the foreign ministers of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at which the ministers “agreed to deepen cooperation as South Asian countries are facing a new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic”, according to the Chinese media agency.

According to Wang, China is willing to “promote vaccine cooperation” in South Asia through “flexible methods such as free aid, commercial procurement, and filling and production of vaccines”, to ensure “more diversified and stable vaccine supplies”.

India was invited but did not attend the meeting, but Wang said that “China is ready to provide support and assistance to the Indian people at any time according to the needs of India”.

Yu Qingming, chairman of Sinopharm Group, indicated last month that the state-owned pharmaceutical group expected to produce over one billion doses of its vaccine, according to Chinese state media.

Yu added that the annual output of the vaccines could reach three billion doses “in the future”.

The UAE and Serbia have also signed contracts with China to produce Sinopharm while Egypt has signed an agreement with China to produce Sinovac.

Yin Weidong, CEO of Sinovac’s producer, Biotech, said last week that his company was producing six millions doses a day, had sent at least 156 million doses to other countries, and could produce two billion doses this year.

In China itself, by Tuesday over 230 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered across China, according to Chinese health authorities. But the most populous country in the world estimates that it will be able to cover all 1,4 billion citizens by early next year.

Little Data About Chinese Vaccines

However, both Chinese vaccines are viewed with skepticism in many parts of the world because virtually no independent scientific information is available – only company information.

Sinopharm has claimed efficacy of 79.3% – 86% in multi-country trials, but these results are unpublished. 

Sinovac has also failed to publish peer reviewed results, but company announcements of Phase 3 results in four different countries have also yielded wildly varied efficacy scores ranging from 50.3% – 91.3%, according to Health Policy Watch research.

Researchers at Brazil’s independent Butantan biomedical centre said that Sinovac  displayed 50% efficacy in its clinical trial in Brazil.  

Interestingly, Serbia recently reported results in which it compared the antibodies of 10,000 citizens vaccinated with Pfizer, Sputnik and Sinopharm – all the vaccines currently in use in the country. 

With Pfizer and Sputnik, good antibody responses were noted after the first jab. But people vaccinated with Sinopharm only developed antibodies around two weeks after getting their second dose, and men over the age of 65 did not generate a strong antibodies response. The Sinopharm-vaccinated also showed a faster decline in antibodies than those vaccinated with the Pfizer and Sputnik vaccines.

US AstraZeneca Vaccine 

On Monday, the US announced that it would pass 60 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines on to countries in need “as they become available”, according to Andy Slavitt, White House Senior Advisor on COVID-19.

However, it is unclear when these vaccines will become available as they are supposed to be manufactured by Emergent BioSolutions, the company that recently had to destroy millions of contaminated AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

It is also unclear who will receive the doses or how they will be delivered. Gavi would not comment on whether COVAX would receive any of the 60 million US AstraZeneca vaccine doses. A Gavi spokesperson simply said: “We welcome the US Government decision to share surplus doses as a positive step towards addressing the pandemic on a global scale. We will not be safe anywhere until we are safe everywhere.”

Image Credits: 中国新闻网, Gavi/Tony Noel.

A South African protest, Tuesday 2 February 2021, calling on the US and EU to support a World Trade Organization ” TRIPS” waiver on patents and other IP related to all COVID-19 drugs, vaccines, diagnostics.

Nearly 400 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and of national parliaments from across the European Union issued a joint appeal Tuesday calling for the European Commission to drop its opposition to a proposed WTO waiver on IP related to COVID-19 health technologies for the duration of the pandemic, being co-sponsored by India and South Africa.

The proposed IP waiver is due to be debated once again Friday, 30 April, by the WTO’s TRIPS Council, which oversees the Trade Related Agreement on Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights that govern global IP rules.

Proponents are pushing for the Council to move to “text based” negotiations on the draft waiver proposal, as a means ot advancing the initiative through TRIPS Council approval, so that it could go before the entire WTO General Council later this year.

But those moves continue to be opposed by the Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States and other industrialized countries – along with pharma industry voices that have stressed that manufacturing capacity – and not IP – are the key barriers to faster vaccine scale up.

“We stand with the Director-General of the World Health Organization, over 100 national governments, hundreds of civil society organizations, and trade unions, and join them in urging the European Commission and EU member states to discuss at the highest levels and support the temporary waiver of certain obligations under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

“The waiver proposed by South Africa and India would facilitate the sharing of all intellectual property and know-how. It will lift IP monopolies, remove legal uncertainty, and provide the freedom to operate to enable collaboration to increase
and speed up the availability, accessibility and affordability of COVID-19 vaccines, tests, and treatments globally,” stated the letter by MEPs.

“Variants show how no one is safe until everybody is safe. We need more vaccines quickly. Lifting patents and transferring technology are absolutely key to ramping up vaccine production. Private profit should never stand in the way of public health,” said MEP Marc Botenga, of the European Parliament’s “Left group.”

MEP Call Among Spate of Recent Initiatives

The call by MEPs was just one among a number of recent initiatives, including one by a group of Brazilian parliamentarians, addressed to WTO’s new director general Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, and another by US civil society groups targeting US President Joe Biden.

In a closed-door WTO meeting involving pharma and global health leaders, convened by Iweala in mid April, the focus was also on tech transfer and supply chain strengthening as “third way” options out of the crisis.  However, in the meantime, India has all but halted its export of COVID vaccines to countries in Africa and elsewhere, in the face of a huge increase in COVID cases. And that has amplified civil society calls upon global leaders to act more assertively – calls that could also reverberate in the next round of TRIPS Council discussions.

In related moves, the United States appeal, issued by some by some 66 US health and development groups, called upon President Biden to jump start an “urgent manufacturing program to help provide billlions of additional COVID-19 vaccine doses to the world” including open sharing of mRNA vaccine technology that has been the basis for the most effective vaccines produced so far – currently by Pfizer and Moderna.

The letter to Ngozi by Brazilian parliamentarians, meanwhile, was written to protest the opposition of the rightist government of Brazilian President Jair Bolsanaro to the IP waiver – a policy stance that the parliamentarians said goes against Brazil long tradition of public health advocacy.

Image Credits: Peoples Health Movement.

NAIROBI – A new drug combination therapy to fight COVID-19, unveiled on Tuesday, will be tested in a multi-country clinical trial that is already ongoing in Africa. The drugs nitazoxanide and ciclesonide will be used in the ANTICOV clinical trials testing treatments for mild to moderate COVID cases across groups in 13 African countries.

A consortium of 26 organizations of African research institutions and international health organizations is conducting the trials, which is coordinated by the Geneva-based Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) – a non-profit research and development organization.

The ANTICOV clinical trials, launched in November 2020,  are the largest such trials in Africa testing remedies for people with mild COVID-19 disease. This new effort is particularly important, especially considering that access to vaccines across the continent remains very low, while the spread of new variants remains a big concern.

Dr John Nkengasong, the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in a press statement released by DNDi: “We need urgently to identify affordable and easy-to-administer treatments that can prevent the evolution to a severe form of the disease and slow the rate of infection.

“In many African countries our worst fears are being realised, as already-strained intensive care units are beginning to fill up with COVID-19 patients. Yet the number of vaccine doses that are reaching the African continent is too limited. The rapid spread of new variants also threatens to reduce the efficacy of existing vaccines, which is another cause for concern.”

The New Combination Therapy

The drugs to be used now in the trials are a known parasite drug (nitazoxanide) and a form of inhaled steroid (ciclesonide). Used in combination, these drugs can work synergistically and at different sages of infection, researchers believe.

Trials of the anti-parasitic and steroid combination will replace other antiretroverial and anti-malaria drugs that ANTICOV had originally tested or planned to test, but have since been discarded because of the lack of evidence of efficacy – in the open-ended trial design.  

The study will explore whether the antiparasitic drug can reduce the initial viral replication of SARS-COV-2 infection, while the steroid reduces inflammation that can begin a few days later. No treatment currently exists for early stage COVID-19, and identifying effective therapies could also help prevent advance of the disease to a more severe condition. 

“It has been more than a year since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, and while we have vaccines registered for use, there are still very few treatment options – especially for the early stage when we could prevent severe progression, potentially reduce transmission, and maybe prevent the risk of developing post-COVID condition,” Dr Nathalie Strub-Wourgraft, director of the COVID-19 Response for DNDi was quoted as saying. 

In addition to new treatments, there remains a need for simple, reliable, and more affordable SARS-CoV2 tests, according to Dr Monique Wasunna, director of DNDi’s Africa Regional Office.

These tests, maintains Dr Wasunna, could serve as the backbone of test-and-treat programmes led by African governments. The ANTICOV trials employs a flexible design platform, which allows for treatments to be added or removed as new evidence emerges. 

First participants in the clinical trial will be enrolled in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Guinea. This will be followed with others from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, and Equatorial Guinea. Participants from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali as well as Mozambique, Sudan and Uganda will also take part.

Image Credits: UCT.

The European Union is suing coronavirus vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca for delayed vaccine deliveries.

The European Union (EU) is suing coronavirus vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca over an alleged breach of its vaccine supply contract and for not having a “reliable” plan to ensure timely deliveries. 

The European Commission – the EU’s executive branch – said the legal action emanates from a longstanding dispute over shortfall in vaccine deliveries.

The 27 nations of the EU had ordered 300 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from the British-Swedish drug maker to be delivered by the end of June, with an option to purchase an additional 100 million. However, AstraZeneca has said that it will be able to deliver only a third of those doses – sparking the fight over the terms of the contract.

“This action is due to the continuous breach of the terms of the contract and to the lack of a reliable strategy by the company to ensure the timely supply of vaccines in the current circumstances,” Stefan De Keersmaecker, a spokesman for the European Commission, said during a televised appearance on Monday. 

Earlier this year, AstraZeneca said its supplies would be reduced because of production problems. Of the 80 million doses planned for delivery in the first quarter of 2021, only about 30 million were sent. However, Pascal Soriot, the company’s chief executive, has said that the contract with the EU is not absolute – requiring the pharma company make its “best efforts” to deliver the promised doses.

According to the European Commission, AstraZeneca has said it will provide the bloc with only 70 million doses in the second quarter of 2021 instead of the 180 million that were initially arranged.  Despite the AstraZeneca delays, the European Commission on Tuesday tweeted that there will be enough vaccine doses to immunise 70% of all EU adults by July. 

 

The EU originally planned to use AstraZeneca as the main vaccine in its roll-out, but following the supply issues, the bloc now relies mostly on the Pfizer-BioNTech jab. 

Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides on Monday tweeted that the commission’s priority was to “ensure Covid-19 vaccine deliveries take place to protect the health of the European Union”. “Every vaccine dose counts. Every vaccine dose saves lives,” she wrote.

AstraZeneca Will Contest Lawsuit 

AstraZeneca said the lawsuit was “without merit” and that it would “strongly defend itself in court”. In a statement responding to the announcement, AstraZeneca said it had “fully complied” with its agreement with the EU, and hoped to resolve the dispute as soon as possible.

“Following an unprecedented year of scientific discovery, very complex negotiations, and manufacturing challenges, our company is about to deliver almost 50m doses to European countries by the end of April, in line with our forecast,” the company said. “We are making progress addressing the technical challenges and our output is improving, but the production cycle of a vaccine is very long which means these improvements take time to result in increased finished vaccine doses,” the statement read.

“AstraZeneca has fully complied with the Advance Purchase Agreement with the European Commission and will strongly defend itself in court. We believe any litigation is without merit and we welcome this opportunity to resolve this dispute as soon as possible,” the statement read.

AstraZeneca had previously said that the contract obliged the company to make its “best effort” to meet EU demand, without compelling it to stick to a specific timetable.

Under the contract, any legal action would be heard by Belgian courts.

AstraZeneca’s Continuing Vaccine Headaches

The EU legal action is only the latest in a long series of mishaps that have plagued the roll-out of the vaccine that has been billed as the cheapest and most temperature stable option among those vaccines currently available. 

Shortly after the vaccine was registered in the United Kingdom and in the EU, AstraZeneca came under scrutiny in the United States over the way it had presented its clinical trial data with respect to efficacy in older adults. 

Some European countries also initially also advised against using the jabs among older adults, because of a lack of trial data in those age groups. of the continent.

While those questions were later resolved, reports of a rare but sometimes fatal blood clotting condition put a spotlight on the vaccine again. Those questions revolve mainly among use in younger adults, mostly women. Despite a European Medicines Agency review and assurances that the vaccine is safe for all age groups, some European countries, such as Germany, decided to recommend the vaccine only among older people. Other countries, such as Denmark, scrapped use of the vaccine altogether. 

Shortly after that, AstraZeneca’s Indian manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India, which was supposed to be the main pillar of vaccine deliveries to the WHO co-sponsored COVAX global vaccine initiative, halted shipments to COVAX – in order to redirect vaccines to the surging needs in India.  That has left many African countries, in particular, worried about receipt of their next vaccine supplies.  

Schoolchildren gather in the playground as they return to classes at Lepeltier Primary School in La Trinite, near Nice, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in France.

Some European Countries Ease COVID Restrictions

On a more positive note, the European Commission’s announcement of legal action on Monday came even as some EU countries began to ease COVID restrictions as new cases European vaccination campaigns began making small inroads into recent surges in COVID cases.  Around the continent about 20% of the total population have received at least one vaccine dose, rising to about 28% in Serbia.  

Millions of French children returned to the classroom, as primary schools and nurseries reopened following a three-week shutdown. In Italy, restaurants and bars in much of the country were allowed to serve customers outside, while hairdressers in Belgium reopened their doors. Even so, the mayor of the Spanish city of Pamplona announced that the annual Sanfermín fiesta in July – with its famous running of the bulls – would be cancelled for a second year.

Outside of the EU, Turkey announced a coronavirus lockdown until 17 May in a bid to curb a surge in coronavirus cases and deaths.

Kenya
Selena Ruto, a community health volunteer, visits the Kibet family in Narok County in Kenya to discuss the risk of anthrax.

Africa’s brutal experiences battling Ebola and a range of other deadly diseases helped prepare health systems to deal with COVID-19.  And by the time the SARS-CoV2 virus landed on the continent, its Centre for Disease Control (CDC) had already “established regional coordinating centres, increased lab capacity and unified surveillance networks”. 

The lessons in emergency response had been honed by countries facing dire threats not only from Ebola, but other little-known pathogens such as anthrax and monkeypox, according to Epidemics That Didn’t Happen, a report launched on Tuesday by Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies.

In 2014, Nigeria was able to contain Ebola through a “herculean public health effort” that involved “effective communication, coordinated response activities and dedicated leadership”, according to the report.

Meanwhile, in 2019 only one Ugandan family was infected with Ebola before the country contained the disease, which has a fatality rate of 66%.

Within days of an Ebola outbreak being declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in August 2018, Uganda had opened multiple Ebola treatment centres and rapid testing laboratories near its border with the DRC, screening all people entering the country. By that November, Uganda had vaccinated almost 5,000 health workers and response staff.

In June 2019, a family returning to Uganda from the DRC were diagnosed with Ebola at a routine border screening point. They were immediately placed in an Ebola treatment centre and almost 300 of their contacts were vaccinated. There were no further Ebola cases in the country.

Meanwhile, a sharp-witted Red Cross volunteer in the Kenyan town of Narok along the Great Rift Valley triggered a community-based surveillance system after encountering three people who became sick after eating meat from a dead cow. This helped to contain a potentially deadly anthrax outbreak in 2019.

‘Now or Never Moment to Invest in Public Health’

The report shows “how the trajectory of an outbreak can be altered when a country invests in and prioritises preparedness combined with swift strategic action”.

“This is our now or never moment to invest in public health, to prevent the next pandemic, and ensure that as a world, we are never again so underprepared,” said Resolve’s President, Dr Tom Frieden. 

“This report highlights great work of public health professions from around the world and shows that epidemics don’t have to spread uncontrollably and cause devastating loss of life. If we work together, we can make the world a much safer and healthier place,” he added.

According to Resolve, the COVID-19 pandemic could have been contained if there had been adequate global pandemic preparedness.

Interestingly, Africa fares well – precisely because the continent has faced a number of serious disease outbreaks and developed a wide range of responses.

In contrast, a complacent US defunded its pandemic preparedness efforts shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic. This is best illustrated by the Trump administration’s decision to disband the Global Health Security and Biodefense unit and Predict, a $200-million pandemic early-warning programme designed to work with scientists across the world including in China, to identify viruses that had the potential to cause epidemics. Predict was ditched three months before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared.

Unlike the US, Africa’s CDC, which coordinates the continent’s response to COVID-19, has been honing its response to disease outbreaks over the past decade. 

“To date, the entirety of Africa has seen just over 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, a fifth of the death toll of the United States, despite having more than three times the population,” the report notes. 

“While emerging variants in South Africa and elsewhere remain a threat, and Africa CDC warns against declaring victory too early, it is clear that the coordinated response spurred by Africa CDC has saved lives while better preparing the continent to address future outbreaks,” the report concludes.

 

Image Credits: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies / The Kenya Red Cross Society.