New Delhi, India – COVID-19 has posed unique challenges for healthcare providers across the globe, as the world has been grappling with the pandemic with no approved treatments or vaccines for the disease. Researchers are searching everywhere for drugs that may help treat or prevent the spread of the deadly virus. This has led to […] Continue reading ->
Two of the largest vaccines companies in the world, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Sanofi, are teaming up to hasten vaccine development for COVID-19. “By combining our science and our technologies, we believe we can help accelerate the global effort to develop a vaccine to protect as many people as possible from COVID-19”, said Emma Walmsley, chief […] Continue reading ->
Although there have been suggestions that warmer weather might lead to the waning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Northern Hemisphere, a new study published by the United States National Academy of Sciences has dashed some cold water on that hypothesis, saying that available data on diease spread has so far failed to show strong […] Continue reading ->
Dutch Deputy Prime Minister Hugo de Jonge on Wednesday offered to support the World Health Organization to develop a pool of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 technologies, just days after WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced WHO’s public support for the initiative. “In principle, I am sympathetic to this initiative,” Minister de Jonge wrote […] Continue reading ->
While much of the public fanfare around new COVID-19 drugs has centered around the lupus drug, hydroxychloroquine, and a failed Ebola remedy, remdesivir, other researchers are keen to explore the potential of other time-worn remedies – although here, too, experts are urging extreme caution. Ivermectin, the antiparasitic drug that turned the tide in the […] Continue reading ->
People with COVID-19 are dying at significantly higher rates in communities in the United States with higher air pollution levels, according to a new Harvard University study – the first such study to systematically examine links between air pollution and higher COVID-19 mortality. For every 1 microgram/ cubic meter (µg/m3) increase in average annual levels […] Continue reading ->
WHO deferred any broad recommendation to the public on the use of face masks, even as more countries were recommending some kind of a face cover or protective mask to reduce COVID-19 transmission. World Health Organization Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that health workers need to remain the key priority for the use […] Continue reading ->
The European Medicines Agency on Friday issued new guidance supporting the use of Gilead Sciences’ antiviral remdesivir as a COVID-19 treatment under compassionate use programmes. The new EMA guidelines on remdesivir recommend its compassionate use in adult COVID-19 patients experiencing severe disease requiring invasive mechanical ventilation. Such compassionate use programmes are set up by individual […] Continue reading ->
As the global count of COVID-19 cases hit the sobering 1 million mark Thursday midnight, countries should not have to face the choice of protecting lives or protecting livelihoods, World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said at a Friday press briefing. More than half of […] Continue reading ->
The critical UN Climate Conference of Parties (COP26) that was scheduled to take place in Glasgow, in November, has been postponed until 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 emergency. “The COP26 UN climate change conference set to take place in Glasgow in November has been postponed due to COVID-19,” stated an official message by […] Continue reading ->