As more high income countries adopt COVID-19 passes for entry to venues like sporting and cultural events, restaurants and even workplaces, public opposition to the use of the public health tool is also growing – despite the fact that these same countries enjoy very widespread access to vaccines and rapid COVID tests.  However, countries like […] Continue reading ->
  A billion COVID-19 vaccine doses should be reallocated from high-income countries to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by September, and of another billion by mid-next year, former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark, told United Nations member states on Wednesday. The pair, who co-chaired the […] Continue reading ->
Vaccine access advocates issued increasingly desperate, last minute calls upon the World Trade Organization to take action over a stalled initiative to impose a temporary waiver on intellectual property for COVID medicines, tests and vaccines – even as the initiative appeared doomed to a stalemate for the rest of the summer.  Ahead of the opening […] Continue reading ->
Chinese officials have rejected WHO’s proposal for a more rigorous Phase II investigation of the origins of the SARS-CoV2 virus, including renewed consideration that the virus may have escaped from a laboratory, describing the new plan as “impossible” at a press conference.    “We will not accept such an origin-tracing plan as it, in some aspects, […] Continue reading ->
Without urgent action to boost supply and ensure equitable access to vaccines across every country, COVID-19 vaccine inequity will profoundly impact and impede socio-economic recovery in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This is according to the Global Dashboard for COVID-19 Vaccine Equity, a joint initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health […] Continue reading ->
Biodiversity sits at the heart of the simultaneous fight against both COVID-19 and the climate crisis, said experts during a Wednesday event hosted by the Society for International Development (SID).  At the event, ‘The Vaccine for Biodiversity’, panelists discussed re-focusing attention on the current health and climate crisis, and how new pandemics should and can […] Continue reading ->
In a milestone deal for Africa, Pfizer/BioNTech announced Wednesday that it would partner with the Cape Town-based pharma firm Biovac to produce over 100 million doses annually of it’s cutting edge mRNA vaccine – for distribution within the African Union.   The deal was quickly hailed as a major breakthrough on a continent that is desperately […] Continue reading ->