Even while other parts of the world see upticks, or in the case of Asia, huge spikes in COVID-19 cases, an increasing number of African countries are scaling back COVID-19 surveillance and quarantine measures – a trend that the World Health Organization finds worrisome in the continent that still has the lowest rates of vaccination […] Continue reading ->
From patients lying in the parking lots of hospitals, in the back seats of cars suffocating as their family members searched frantically for oxygen in India during its second wave of COVID last year, to the inability to receive emergency care amidst constant bombing and shelling in current war-torn Ukraine, global health experts and leaders […] Continue reading ->
A month after a fourth dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines was administered to hundreds of people in an Israeli clinical trial, authors of the new study on the extra booster say it provides “little protection, if any, from infection by COVID-19 among vaccinated young and healthy individuals in comparison to those vaccinated with […] Continue reading ->
The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Director-Genera, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has “warmly welcomed” the breakthrough reached this week over a waiver on intellectual property for the production of COVID-19 vaccines. “This is a major step forward and this compromise is the result of many long and difficult hours of negotiations. But we are not there yet. […] Continue reading ->
With fewer than 1% of its 90 million citizens vaccinated against COVID-19, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has resorted to training teams of “rumour-busters” to tackle misinformation about the virus in order to encourage more people to get the vaccine. David Olela, communications lead for the DRC health ministry’s vaccination programme, admits that his […] Continue reading ->
COVID-19 cases reached their highest level in nearly two years in China on Sunday, with 1,437 cases on the mainland, according to China’s National Health Commission. Cases have more than doubled since 10 March when 588 cases were recorded. This surge in cases, driven by the Omicron variant, has prompted the country, which has a […] Continue reading ->
The mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines do not harm in vitro fertilization (IVF) success rates, according to a recent study, countering disinformation that vaccines could negatively affect fertility. In contrast, the SARS-CoV2 virus has been found to negatively affect the quality of embryos for couples who are undergoing IVF treatments and sperm. The peer-reviewed study, published in […] Continue reading ->
Two years after the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic on 11 March 2022, the developed world’s long-time fixation on the SARS-CoV2 virus, which has killed 6 million people, has suddenly shifted away from health to the war in Ukraine and sharply rising geopolitical tensions. Meanwhile high-income countries have dropped […] Continue reading ->
Moderna has committed to permanently waiving its COVID-19 patents in 92 low- and middle-income countries, and is pursuing vaccines for 15 diseases identified as the world’s biggest public health risk, including ebola, tuberculosis and malaria. The company has also offered outside researchers access to its mRNA technology to pursue research on emerging and neglected infectious […] Continue reading ->
Countries need to prevent more SARS-CoV2 infections in wildlife, as this could result in the establishment of animal reservoirs, according to a joint statement by the World Health Organisation, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). So far domestic animals, free-ranging, captive or farmed wild animals such as big […] Continue reading ->