AstraZeneca, the pharma firm developing a COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with researchers at Oxford University, announced that its Phase 3 clinical trials had resulted in a 90% efficacy rate for one dosing regime, in interim results released on Monday. The AstraZeneca breakthrough is significant because the vaccine, based on a known vaccine delivery technology, is […] Continue reading ->
The tobacco industry has been exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting health sector resource shortages to gain a stronger foothold in the policy corridors of many national governments – making huge donations of PPE and other desperately needed goods, new research has shown. The Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2020, released by STOP (Stopping Tobacco […] Continue reading ->
COVID-19 and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are combining as a “syndemic” that reinforce each other and disproportionately impact the most vulnerable communities in every country during the pandemic period, said experts at a NCD Alliance panel on Thursday.  However, primary health care workers, particularly nurses, who are the backbone of routine NCD responses have been particularly […] Continue reading ->
  Nearly 100 World Trade Organization member countries and entities could potentially swing behind a proposal by India and South Africa to enact a wide-ranging waiver of complex World Trade Organization requirements on the use of patented products, trade secrets and copyrights on health products during the pandemic, asserted the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Access […] Continue reading ->
Climate change poses an even greater threat to public health than the COVID-19 pandemic – and needs to be treated with equal urgency, Jagan Chapagain, Secretary-General of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), told a virtual news conference on Tuesday. He was speaking at Tuesday’s launch of the IFRC’s […] Continue reading ->
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the first COVID-19 diagnostic test for self-testing at home and that provides rapid results. The Lucira COVID-19 All-In-One Test Kit is a molecular-based single use test that is intended to detect the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19. “While COVID-19 diagnostic […] Continue reading ->
Moderna’s mRNA vaccine candidate has had a vaccine efficacy of 94.5%, the company announced today. unveiling the stunning, initial analysis of Phase 3 clinical trial results by an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board, appointed by the US National Institutes of Health.  And news that the vaccine can be stored at 2° to 8°C (36° to […] Continue reading ->