Member countries will have an idea of how many COVID vaccine doses they will receive via the World Health Organization’s COVAX Facility and when they will arrive within the next day, WHO special advisor Dr Bruce Alyward has said. These “indicative allocations” would depend on when the WHO’s regulatory review of the specific vaccines that […] Continue reading ->
Failure to align the global recovery from COVID-19 with an equally powerful climate response could threaten the worldwide effort to limit the average global temperature increase, public health experts have said. In a convention in 2015 now known as the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established its aim to […] Continue reading ->
IBADAN – Five African countries have now confirmed cases of the SARS-CoV-2 501Y.V2 variant, which first appeared in South Africa, and there is concern that the variant is circulating undetected elsewhere on the continent. The Gambia and Nigeria have seen cases of the variant B.1.1.7, first identified in the United Kingdom, said WHO’s African Regional […] Continue reading ->
While very low-income countries have experienced relatively low mortality rates from COVID-19, they can expect higher mortality caused by the knock-on effects of the pandemic on their fragile health systems, according to the Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. Since the pandemic first overwhelmed health systems in early 2020, […] Continue reading ->
The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is safe for most people including those with a wide range of underlying medical conditions, according to the World Health Organization’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunizations. However, the vaccine is not recommended for pregnant women or children as it has not been tested on these groups, according to […] Continue reading ->
Michael Osterholm – a leading member of the United States President’s coronavirus transition team – has said he is “convinced” by data indicating the UK COVID-19 variant is more deadly, even as United Kingdom officials downplay the limited and “uncertain” evidence. Meanwhile, Moderna announced today that it will “test an additional booster dose of its […] Continue reading ->
WHO needs to focus more work on limiting gender-based violence, increase its programmatic emphasis on healthy diets and lifestyles, and contribute to renewed momentum on climate action, said WHO member states at Friday’s Executive Board session. The member states were reviewing the WHO Director General’s report on “social determinants of health” – in light of […] Continue reading ->
Five people have died in a major fire at the Serum Institute’s manufacturing facility, charged with producing India’s supply of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine – just days after the country’s national vaccine campaign got underway. Serum Institute Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla was quick to say that the fire at its main complex in Pune, would not […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – Scientists are concerned that antibodies that could detect SARS-CoV-2 in South Africa’s first wave will be less effective against a virus variant that first emerged here and is known as 501Y.V2. What’s worse, they still don’t know if brand new COVID-19 vaccines will work against the variant – which is deemed to […] Continue reading ->
JERUSALEM – As the countries around the globe watch Israel’s massive COVID-19 vaccine rollout to see if it can really beat back the virus, once soaring hopes that vaccines, on their own, could offer an easy way out of the pandemic are now coming back down to ground. On the positive side, the vaccine itself […] Continue reading ->