“If we could participate in the WHO and World Health Assembly (WHA), the warning messages we would give to the organisation would receive more weight, and this would probably result in better responsive actions.”  – Taiwan Health Minister Shih-Chung Chen Arguably, Taiwan has been repeating this statement  for decades. Yet when Chen’s mild words are […] Continue reading ->
JOHANNESBURG – South Africa received its first batch of 325,260 Pfizer vaccine doses late on Sunday night, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced. This follows lengthy negotiations between the South African government and Pfizer, during which the company made “difficult and sometimes unreasonable” terms including at one stage that the country put up sovereign assets as […] Continue reading ->
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 […] Continue reading ->
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 […] Continue reading ->
Several African countries struggling with vaccine rollout programs are forced to donate COVID-19 vaccine doses to other countries before the lifesaving drugs expire, the Africa CDC revealed on Thursday. Details of the “donations” are sketchy, but Africa CDC director John Nkengasong, during a media briefing, disclosed how one African country, the Democratic Republic of Congo […] Continue reading ->
A handful of five countries that forcefully acted to eliminate COVID-19 transmission fared better over the duration of the pandemic than others – experiencing far fewer deaths, faster economic recovery, and the preservation of a greater range of personal liberties, according to a sweeping review, published in The Lancet on Thursday.  The review of policies […] Continue reading ->
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – Pakistan and its three estranged neighbouring countries – India, Iran and Afghanistan – are all struggling to restrain their large populations from attending deeply rooted and centuries-old cultural, religious festivals – so as to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the region.  The cultural, political, and religious gatherings in all four developing […] Continue reading ->