The COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University offers similar levels of protection against the new, more contagious variant first discovered in the UK when compared to previous variants, Oxford researchers said in a paper released on Friday. The new variant of SARS-CoV-2, B.1.1.7, emerged as the dominant cause of COVID-19 infection in the […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – The South African police have arrested six people in the past two weeks for trying to smuggle large quantities of the anti-parasitic medicine, ivermectin, into the country from India as demand for the drug as a treatment for COVID-19 surges internationally. Ivermectin is only registered to treat parasitic infections in animals in […] Continue reading ->
COVAX aims to start shipping nearly 90 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to the continent this month – in what will be Africa’s largest ever mass vaccination campaign, said WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti at a press briefing Thursday. COVAX has notified countries in Africa of the estimated dose allocation for the first phase of […] Continue reading ->
News of the successful trial results of the Russian Sputnik vaccine, published on Wednesday by The Lancet has shored up the prospects of quick vaccine access for dozens of countries that have pinned their hopes on Russian or Chinese vaccine alternatives – as rich countries buy up the bulk of supplies of high-tech vaccines and […] Continue reading ->
KAMPALA, UGANDA – Responding to a swell of global criticism, a senior Ugandan health official told Health Policy Watch that Uganda’s government is not paying unreasonably higher prices for it’s AstraZeneca vaccines, in comparison to other African countries – or Europe. “You cannot compare prices directly between countries because there are many factors to consider. […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – Despite battling against a more infectious variant, South Africa seems to have ridden out its second and deadliest wave of COVID-19 infections. And with new case counts declining, the government relaxed its most recent set of lockdown restrictions on Tuesday – reopening beaches, and easing night-time curfews and a ban on alcohol […] Continue reading ->
Fulfilling the legacy of its pioneering name, the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, was over 91% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 cases and 100% effective in preventing severe COVID, according to results published Tuesday in The Lancet. Globally, that means that the Sputnik vaccine joins the club with just two other coronavirus vaccines that have demonstrated […] Continue reading ->
AstraZeneca has agreed to increase its COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to the European Union by 30% after a week of feuding over a shortfall in vaccine deliveries, announced by the pharma company after its manufacturing plants hit a number of snags. By April or June, a series of manufacturing foul-ups reported by Pfizer as well as […] Continue reading ->
“A strange virus is circulating in Wuhan, China,” said my grad school intern, Grace Ren, just back from a visit to her mother in Shanghai in early January, 2020. Somewhere in between the brief respite of New Year’s and a hurried fondue alongside frigid Lake Leman in early February during WHO’s first and last in-person […] Continue reading ->
Novavax has become the first COVID-19 vaccine to show clinical efficacy against two major new SARS-CoV-2 virus variants now circulating worldwide – although the vaccine’s highest efficacy of 95.6% was against the COVID strain that had been predominant up until the end of 2020. The results of a UK-based Phase 3 clinical trial, which enrolled […] Continue reading ->