News Flash 444: Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

News Flash Links, as part of the research project PEAH (Policies for Equitable Access to Health), aim to focus on the latest challenges by trade and governments rules to equitable access to health in resource-limited settings

News Flash 444

Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

 

International Digital Health & AI Research Collaborative (I-DAIR): Call for Expressions of Interest (EOI)

Meeting Registration: Conectando movimientos por los servicios públicos: hacia una estrategia y narrativa global // Conectando movimentos para serviços públicos: em prol de uma estratégia e narrativa global Aug 31, 2021 11:00 AM in Sao Paulo

REGISTRATION: Decolonising Peacebuilding Practice October 5th –6th 2021

Innovation Strategy and Economic Development

Clinical Trials In Crisis: Building On COVID-19’s Lessons Toward A Better Future

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Weekly Update

EMA: monthly safety update for COVID-19 vaccines

Increase in vaccine manufacturing capacity for COVID-19 vaccines from BioNTech / Pfizer and Moderna

Final US FDA Approval of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID Vaccine – Likely to Drive More Voluntary Jabs & Mandates

Following full FDA approval, Pfizer and BioNTech must urgently share COVID-19 vaccine know-how to increase global production and supply

Vaccine equity: where are the voices of those with no access?

WHO Africa Chief Warns that COVID-19 Booster Shots Threaten Continent’s Ability to Fight the Pandemic

COVID Booster Vaccines Gain Traction with New US Campaign – Despite WHO Appeals for Moratorium

The Case for Covid-19 Boosters Is as Shaky as Ever

ANALYSIS- Here’s why there may be no need for boosters for everyone just yet

Breastfeeding and COVID-19 Vaccines

Delayed Wuhan Report Adds Crucial Detail to Covid Origin Puzzle

Ethical considerations of phone-based interviews from three studies of COVID-19 impact in Bihar, India

Lessons on COVID-19 from Indigenous and remote communities of the Arctic

KFF Dashboard: Progress Toward Global HIV Targets in PEPFAR Countries

Control of visceral leishmaniasis in East Africa: fragile progress, new threats

EU tightens limits on cancer-causing cadmium, lead levels in food

Smartphone App Helps Fijians to Grow and Eat Healthier Food

PHM: Resistance_to_privatisation

Earthquake relief. Mexico. 2051. A glimpse into tomorrow’s humanitarian world

On World Humanitarian Day: Invest in Climate Adaptation to Reduce Future Humanitarian Need

Environmental Racism and Climate Change — Missed Diagnoses

A billion children at ‘extreme risk’ from climate impacts – Unicef

Climate change’s impact on health

AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2022

The plastic waste fuelling fungal diseases

Evidence-informed policy for tackling adverse climate change effects on health: Linking regional and global assessments of science to catalyse action

 

 

 

News Flash 443: Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

News Flash Links, as part of the research project PEAH (Policies for Equitable Access to Health), aim to focus on the latest challenges by trade and governments rules to equitable access to health in resource-limited settings

News Flash 443

Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

 

The World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific is hosting the Health Futures Forum: Shaping the Future of Health, 24-26th August 2021

Webinar registration: What actions should be taken to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes in Europe?  Thu, Sep 9, 2021 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM CEST

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Weekly Update

Covid-19 Cases Surging Across Africa

Soaring cases and little vaccination: A COVID-19 Middle East snapshot

India COVID vaccinations near record, new cases at five-month low

Southeast Asia is an emerging hotspot for COVID-19

EMA starts evaluating use of RoActemra in hospitalised adults with severe COVID-19

Joint Statement from Unitaid and the World Health Organization (on behalf of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator) regarding availability of tocilizumab

WHO Issues Urgent Appeal For US $11.5 Billion For COVID Tests, Treatments, and Vaccines

Effectiveness of Covid-19 Vaccines against the B.1.617.2 (Delta) Variant

Gordon Brown hits out at EU’s ‘neocolonial approach’ to Covid vaccine supplies

Patent Protection and Access to Covid-19 Medical Products in Developing Countries Ω

Three Key Gaps in the Health Economics Research on COVID-19, and Why It Matters

COVID-19, Mask Mandates, And The Case For Physician Political Engagement

COVID-19 and palliative care capacity, African Region

Kenya Mandates COVID-19 Vaccines for Civil Servants as Africa’s Vaccine Rollout Gathers Speed

Côte d’Ivoire declares Ebola outbreak after traveler arrives from Guinea

Cote d’Ivoire starts Ebola vaccination of frontline workers

Malaria mosquito thriving in cities

World’s largest catalogue of tuberculosis samples identifies 17,000 mutations

As the Taliban Returns, 20 Years of Progress for Women Looks Set to Disappear Overnight

In Afghanistan, aid groups wrestle with the new reality of Taliban control

Girls’ Education: A Casualty of the Disastrous Withdrawal from Afghanistan?

Equity and expertise in the UN Food Systems Summit

Feeding the future

Toward Planet and Species’ Sustainability: ‘A Road Not Taken’?

What Might Help Save Our Planet? Different Approaches to Desertification

Can Greater Health Focus at Glasgow Climate Conference Motivate Tougher Action on Global Warming?

The UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on 31 October – 12 November 2021

The role of central banks in tackling climate change

 

 

 

 

 

News Flash 442: Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

News Flash Links, as part of the research project PEAH (Policies for Equitable Access to Health), aim to focus on the latest challenges by trade and governments rules to equitable access to health in resource-limited settings

News Flash 442

Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

 

WEMOS: TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR CONSULTANCY WORK: RWANDA COUNTRY CASE STUDY. The deadline for submitting the proposal and CV is August 29th, 2021.

Biomimetics provides lessons from nature for contemporary ways to improve human health

WHO: Public health round-up

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Weekly Update

DNDi: COVID-19 Policy Report. Another triumph of science, but defeat for access?

What is COVID-19 Revealing to Us? by Angelo Stefanini

LAC Countries are Struggling to Deliver COVID-19 Vaccinations—Six Actions Are Needed to Turn the Tide 

Bangladesh begins COVID vaccination drive for Rohingya refugees

‘WHO call on emergency nod for Covaxin in September’

WHO’s Solidarity clinical trial enters a new phase with three new candidate drugs

COVID-19 and palliative care capacity, African Region

A Political Economy Analysis of the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Health Workers

A Short Reflection on Access to Rabies Vaccination in Times of (COVID-19) Vaccine Inequity by Raffaella Ravinetto 

30 YEARS POLIO-FREE: HOW THE AMERICAS’ GLOBAL HEALTH MILESTONE CAN HELP END POLIO FOR GOOD

Amal Saif Al-Maani: tackling drug-resistant pathogens

Progress towards antibiotic use targets in eight high-income countries

An integrated surveillance network for antimicrobial resistance, India

Water, sanitation and hygiene in national action plans for antimicrobial resistance 

Palestinian health NGO leader detained

Ghana LGBT+ bill would threaten fight on HIV/AIDS, says UNAIDS

Hungary anti-LGBTQ law to apply around churches

Social health protection to improve access to health care for people with disabilities

Narrowing the mobile gender gap

Addressing The Maternal Health Crisis Through Improved Data Infrastructure: Guiding Principles For Progress

How major economies are funding ‘carbon lock-in’ abroad

Climate change: Curbing methane emissions will ‘buy us time’

Climate Scientists Issue ‘Red Alert’ for Humanity – and Health

IPCC climate report: Earth is warmer than it’s been in 125,000 years

Code Red for Humanity and the Planet

World shudders at ‘terrifying’ UN climate report

IPCC report: No further proof needed of our planetary emergency

Australia rejects climate targets despite damning UN report

Glasgow Summit is the ‘Last Chance to Get Runaway Climate Change Under Control’

C20 POLICY PACK 2021 Building a sustainable future for all

 

 

 

 

 

A Short Reflection on Access to Rabies Vaccination in Times of (COVID-19) Vaccine Inequity

Everyone has the right to access essential, lifesaving vaccines. Rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is available to most international travellers to endemic regions, but not to those who are born there. This gap in access is morally questionable, even more now that simplified PrEP schedules and new modes of administration can lower costs and increase feasibility in LMICs

By Raffaella Ravinetto

Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium

A Short Reflection on Access to Rabies Vaccination in Times of (COVID-19) Vaccine Inequity

 

Rabies is a Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD)[1] which, despite being fully preventable, still causes at least 59.000 deaths per year in over 150 countries – particularly in rural Africa and Asia, where over 40% of individuals bitten by a suspect rabid animal are children[2]. In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for action to achieve zero dog-mediated rabies deaths in humans by 2030[3]. To do so, we need to enhance prevention, diagnosis, control and treatment – and human vaccination obviously plays a key role here.

Rabies vaccination include pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). PEP is life-saving, if given as soon as possible after exposure; but “priming” with PrEP allows to simplify the PEP vaccination schedule, and it increases the likelihood of survival, particularly in case of severe exposure or of delayed PEP[4]. Given the life-saving potential of the prime-and-boost approach, it may be surprising that the rabies PrEP is not included in expanded immunization programmes (EPI) in endemic countries. Traditionally, this was at least partly explained by doubts about cost-effectiveness, but new elements such as the availability of schedules shorter than the traditional one (three shots over one month), new modes of administration, and focus on specific risk groups could change the equation.

First, since 2018 the WHO recommends a simplified two-visit schedule for PrEP; and new research suggests that further simplified regimens can improve feasibility and adherence in endemic low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), thanks to longer time-intervals in the schedule or by making it fit in the EPI schedule[5]. These are promising developments, and more research is needed to evaluate single-visit schedules, particularly in vulnerable groups like children in endemic settings. Second, PrEP would be cheaper if vials and needles were manufactured for administration with ID devices, which allow reducing the volumes of vaccine used[6] – while in the longer term, needle-free injection devices could be trialled. Third, an explicit demand from endemic countries could trigger manufacturers’ interest to increase production (in exchange for a secured market), leading in turn to economies of scale and -hopefully- preferential prices to LMICs. Forth, there are promising vaccines in the pipeline[7] that could further improve the thermostability, shelf-life and packaging volume. Last not least, ongoing plans to build or strengthen vaccine manufacturing capacity in some LMICs as part of the COVID19 response, could hopefully be further expanded, to improve the national and regional capacity to scale up access to other vaccines.

Sensitization and education of those at risk, caregivers and communities, will obviously remain critical to ensure awareness of how to avoid exposure, and of how to access health services after exposure. Also, dog vaccination campaigns remain critical, and they could be linked to PrEP vaccination campaigns for humans.

Everyone has the right to access essential, lifesaving vaccines[8]. Rabies PrEP is available to most international travellers to endemic regions, but not to those who are born there. This gap in access is morally questionable, even more now that simplified PrEP schedules and new modes of administration can lower costs and increase feasibility in LMICs. Our group contend that low-cost ID PrEP (followed by ID PEP in case of exposure) should be offered to all infants and children in high endemic countries, either as part of the EPI or through mass campaigns, as part of the collective moral obligation to promote and support universal health coverage.

 

References

[1] World Health Organization. Neglected Tropical Diseases. https://www.who.int/teams/control-of-neglected-tropical-diseases/overview, accessed 6/8/2021

[2] World Health Organization. Fact-sheet Rabies. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/rabies, accessed 6/8/2021

[3] World Health Organization. Zero by 30: the global strategic plan to end human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030. WHO | Zero by 30: the global strategic plan to end human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030, accessed 6/8/2021

[6] Van Mulder T, Verwulgen S, Beyers K, Scheelen L, Elseviers M, Van Damme P, Vankerckhoven V. Assessment of acceptability and usability of new delivery prototype device for intradermal vaccination in healthy subjects. Hum Vaccin Immunother 2014; 10(12): 3746-53.

[7] Fooks AR, Banyard AC, Ertl HCJ. New human rabies vaccines in the pipeline. Vaccine. 2019 Oct 3;37 Suppl 1:A140-A145.

[8] WHO. Universal Health Coverage Factsheets. https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/universal-health-coverage-(uhc), accessed 5/8/2021

 

What is COVID-19 Revealing to Us?

It is not enough for public health professionals and those fighting for the right to health to help contain COVID-19 epidemic and respond to the needs of those affected by the virus. It is equally essential, in fact, to analyse how the pandemic plunges its roots in a global political and economic system characterized by inequality, disease and poverty, thus identifying the opportunities that the crisis presents to change it for the better. This need for transparency and collaboration requires us to answer a fundamental question: what is COVID-19 revealing to us?

 This way of re-contextualizing the pandemic is very important because the solution to COVID-19 will not emerge from a laboratory, but from the vision of how we protect people in our society

By Angelo Stefanini* MD, MPH

Retired Faculty at University of Bologna, Italy

WHAT IS COVID-19 REVEALING TO US?

"The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the 'state of emergency' in which we live is not the exception but the rule." 

Walter Benjamin 

 

We have sunk into a tragedy whose numbers can only give us arid accounting, certainly at fault. To define it, it is not enough to count the deaths or infected cases. As “not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted” (attributed to Albert Einstein), the numbers mask an unbearable amount of pain, disease and suffering that cannot be measured with the quantitative indicators available to us. For this it is necessary to probe deeply the paradoxes that this historical moment presents to us.

To this end, it is not enough for public health professionals and those fighting for the right to health to help contain the epidemic and respond to the needs of those affected by the virus. It is equally essential, in fact, to analyse how the pandemic plunges its roots in a global political and economic system characterized by inequality, disease and poverty, thus identifying the opportunities that the crisis presents to change it for the better.

An obstacle to this type of analysis, in my opinion, is represented by the military language that the speech on the pandemic introduces using military metaphors that describe the epidemic crisis as “a war that must be won”, “fighting in the trenches against the virus”, honouring “the doctors who fell at the front”.  Uncritically accepting the lexicon of the “war on the virus”, on the one hand makes you lose sight of the overall picture by hiding its complexity, on the other hand it entails the risk of militarizing society, plastering it up, and thus ending up starting over as before.

In reality the issue is not whether winning or losing a war but about renegotiating our relationship with a disturbing and still largely unknown host known as SARS-CoV-2 virus. To this end, it is necessary to interpret the current crisis as a political, social and cultural challenge as well as a health one, in a climate of collaboration and mutual protection to be consolidated, with choices that are difficult to share with citizens who have the right to know and to be protected and cared for adequately.

This need for transparency and collaboration requires us to answer a fundamental question: what is COVID-19 revealing to us?

WHAT IS COVID-19 REVEALING TO US?

1 – It is revealing to us the total unpreparedness of the regional health “system”. It is not just a matter of individual oversights or incompetence in the face of an event that still continues to elude us in its complexity, but of a “systemic error”, the result of decades of dismantling the public service and which reached its apotheosis in Lombardy with the “Maroni reform” (LR 23/2015).

The effects of chronic de-financing of the public service, of hospital-centrism, of the absence of territorial medicine and general practitioners, of the introduction of corporate privatization logic in the health sector are manifested throughout the country. In short, we are experiencing first-hand the importance of public health, primary care, community participation, the role of the state.

2 – It is revealing to us how our society is profoundly fragile, of a fragility that the philosopher Luigi Alici describes as “a constitutive and not just an occasional condition of humanity”. At a time when we were convinced that frailty was only the marginal and episodic dysfunction of the unfortunate few in a global context dominated by power and efficiency, we are realizing that it is not only the individual who can get sick but also the whole.

As Pope Francis said, “We thought we would always remain healthy in a sick world.” It is not true that fragility is an accidental and transitory state that science will eventually be able to bring under control. Fragility is an essential constitution of each of us and of the world we inhabit.

3 – It is revealing to us that the body is a bio-political reality. According to the French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984), with the birth of capitalism in the eighteenth century, the body was understood as a instrument of economic production, of workforce, thus becoming an object of significant political interest. Medicine and public health were legitimized as tools of social control so that people were fit for work, thus transforming health from a right to be guaranteed into a tool to protect the economy. Health as a political problem, therefore, which requires political control.

Similarly, the medical doctor and academic Giulio A. Maccacaro (1924-1977) stated that “medicine, like science, is a mode of power”, in the sense that, within the social clash between capital and labour, ” medicine is entrusted with the task of resolving, within scientific rationality, this contradiction of the capitalist mode of production, which on the one hand consumes and extinguishes the workforce but on the other hand needs it to continue to feed itself. ”

The growing importance of health for industrial societies has led to the enhancement of doctors and the growth of medical science, forming a powerful alliance between medicine and the state.

4 – It is revealing to us how a health and social crisis can influence in a sinister way the ability to judge a situation with balance and reasonableness. It is now deemed acceptable to argue, as Governor Toti did, that senior citizens at risk of COVID-19 are somehow less valuable to society than young people. The Italian debate evidently reflects ancient conflicts in the distribution of power within society (central government against local government, young people against the elderly, rich against poor, Italians against foreigners) and in the scientific world itself, with scientists taking two opposite sides.

On the one hand, there are those who propose a return to normal life, albeit with greater risks, for young people, but with selective protection of the most fragile population, as the only way to protect the economy and individual freedom (Great Barrington Declaration). On the other hand, those who propose maximum protection and total closure to get to the suppression of the virus (John Snow Memorandum). Between these opposing positions, sometimes truly ferocious controversies have erupted, revealing how what began as a fair scientific confrontation has turned into a political duel with sides that reflect the traditional positions of a liberal right and a pro-solidarity left.

5 – It is revealing to us that there is always a trade-off, a give-and-take exchange between my personal good and the collective good. My security, in fact, is always the result of a compromise that I have to reach with the rights I intend to claim. This contrast (which is basically between public health and freedom of choice) reflects different philosophies and a misunderstood concept of freedom: “I do what I want” or “responsibility towards others”?

Governments have taken extraordinary measures, invoking a state of emergency, to limit our behaviour by confronting us with the choice between freedom and security. We followed the case of the philosopher Giorgio Agamben who, beyond not so hidden denialism allusions, accused the Italian government of using the pandemic to normalize the “state of exception” through the instrument of the DPCM (Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers).

What we are witnessing, in fact, is the ‘securitization’ of health. Securitization is what happens when an actor (the state), claiming to be facing an existential threat, demands urgent and extraordinary countermeasures to be taken and persuades the population that such action is necessary. Securitization legitimizes the circumvention of the normal rules of the political game such as public debate and the normal democratic process. In this way, the epidemic, from a health problem and therefore regulated by authorities and health professionals, becomes a security problem, and therefore regulated by political authorities, the public force, the judiciary.

6 – It is revealing to us that this crisis is not simply caused by an infectious disease. All our efforts are focusing on blocking viral transmission and the “science” that is guiding public opinion through the televised debates is mainly composed of infectious disease specialists, indeed virologists, the real media stars of the COVID-19 era. Basically, a collective and social pathology, as is an epidemic, is publicly narrated by those who spend their professional life on the microscope: virtually a modern metaphor of the prevailing bio-medical hegemony.

However, what we are discovering is another story, and not that simple. This is not a ‘trivial’ pandemic but a much more complex phenomenon than a virus that simply affects people. In reality, it is the synthesis of two epidemics: one (a biological type) transmitted by a virus and one (a social type) carried by the vulnerability of that part of the population suffering from underlying conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and / or those who live in the shadow of inequalities: minorities without rights, poor not only beggars but with a job that does not allow mere survival.

This synthesis of biological and social is what the medical anthropologist Merryl Singer in the 90s proposed to call ‘syndemia’, a crasis of the words synergy and epidemic, a synergistic interaction between disease and social circumstances. Once these dynamics are understood, it is clear that emergency management based only on safety and epidemic curves cannot achieve the goal of protecting health and preventing deaths.

COVID-19 is neither the black plague nor a level: it is a disease that usually kills disadvantaged people, because they have low incomes and are socially excluded and / or suffer from chronic diseases. During the peak of the epidemic, in the nine provinces of Emilia-Romagna Region the risk of death, both in absolute and relative terms, was consistently higher among those living in the most disadvantaged census sections.

Without recognizing the causes and without intervening on the conditions in which the virus becomes lethal, no measure will be effective. Not even a vaccine. This way of re-contextualizing the pandemic is very important because the solution to COVID-19 will not emerge from a laboratory, but from the vision of how we protect people in our society.

7 – It is revealing to us that before the arrival of COVID-19 we were already sick in different ways with a social pathology called individualism, one of the guiding principles of neo-liberalism that has been predominant for at least forty years, almost a sovereignty of the Ego that is added to nationalistic souverainisms. “There is no society, there are only individuals” proclaimed British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher boldly. On the contrary, we are discovering that in order to survive, both individually and collectively, inter-dependence is necessary.

From this consideration the relevance of the “global health paradigm” is emerging; a new approach, heretical for the bio-medical establishment, which studies health as the result of processes not only biological but also economic, social, political, cultural and environmental, overcoming individual nations’ standpoint. This perspective helps to understand the need for an authoritative World Health Organization (WHO) with the required resources to take charge of global health governance.

The attacks to which it has been subject in recent months must ask us the question “who benefits from a weak WHO?”. In the past, WHO has championed fundamental agreements for the right to health in the world such as the List of Essential Medicines (1977), the International Code on the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes (1981), the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) (2005) and other various initiatives to contain the pathogenic power of multinationals (e.g. recommended limits on the consumption of free sugars, air pollution standards and drinking water, …).

Seen under these guises of veritable ‘political dynamite’, it is not difficult to imagine who would rather favour a fragile and under-funded WHO. Yet the lack of international collaboration and the abandonment of the WHO by some member states embodied an unprecedented fact that limited WHO’s capacity for global coordination and its leadership through the sharing of information and resources. In reality, each of the 194 countries decided, each on its own, how to set up its own response and strategy.

8 – Finally, it is revealing to us that the global economic system in which we live, considered by many to be the best and only possible, called capitalism, is at the root of the rapid spread of COVID-19 around the world. From 2011 to 2018, the WHO monitored 1483 epidemic events in 172 countries, declaring an international public health emergency six times since 2007, five since 2014, four of which due to viruses of zoonotic origin.

Today we know that the main factors that trigger zoonotic epidemics are the increase in human demand for animal proteins, the intensification of unsustainable agriculture, urbanization, the increase in travel and transport, climate change, human invasion of natural habitats, and changes in land use and extractive industries. Global travel has more than quadrupled since 1990, from one billion people traveling by air to 4.2 billion in 2018.

The spread of COVID-19 is also facilitated by privatization and austerity policies that diminish the capacity of health and social systems to respond effectively. Rising precariousness and low wages leave many workers without protections or liveable wages, while deregulation reduces the ability of governments to respond forcefully and effectively. The growing domination of multinationals at all levels over our political system, culture and media gives them a veto power over any policy that threatens their interests.

In conclusion, COVID-19 is opening our eyes to vital challenges of great complexity that require a multidisciplinary and integrated approach between different fields of knowledge. Understanding these complex relationships is an urgent task both for public health professionals seeking to mitigate the negative consequences of the epidemic and for activists aiming to promote social justice, equity and human and planetary health.

As Luigi Alici still urges us, the discovery of our vulnerability could be the stimulus to find the glue to overcome this crucial moment together by learning to reconcile autonomy and responsibility. Only in this way will it be possible to bring the individual closer to the community, giving birth to a new idea of ​​coexistence on the ashes of individualism that the pandemic is blowing up.

Before we were very close in the streets, in bars, in public places but spiritually distant. Now we are re-learning the value of spiritual proximity even if physically distant: you can live next to each other without being physically close. In the current emergency, “Philosophers, not scientists, might be of more use to us if we are seeking informed contemplation. And a few are now thinking the pandemic.”

 

———————————————–

This paper is the English translation of a post published March 5, 2021 on saluteinternazionale.info  https://www.saluteinternazionale.info/2021/03/cosa-ci-sta-svelando-covid-19/

News Flash 441: Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

News Flash Links, as part of the research project PEAH (Policies for Equitable Access to Health), aim to focus on the latest challenges by trade and governments rules to equitable access to health in resource-limited settings

News Flash 441

Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

 

Event registration: Activist Assembly: End Vaccine Apartheid Sat, 4 September 2021 13:30 – 16:30 BST

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Weekly Update

COVID-19 Coronavirus Tracker – Updated as of August 4

COVID’s Aftershocks: Africa’s record COVID-19 death rate and an impending ‘orphan crisis’

US Donation Enables New Nigerian Rollout Where Only 0,6% Are Vaccinated Against COVID

IMF, World Bank Group, World Health Organization, World Trade Organization: Task Force on COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics

ECDC and EMA update on COVID-19

COVID Vaccine Boosters in Immuno-compromised People – Could They Also Help Curb Development of New Variants?

Boosters: Laboratory Evidence Needs to be Balanced with Field-based Data

Covid-19 Breakthrough Infections in Vaccinated Health Care Workers

Delta Variant is ‘More Transmissible Than Ebola’, and Vaccinated People May also be Highly Contagious

Delta Variant Warning for Unvaccinated Pregnant Women

Better Together: Exploring the Role of Pooled Procurement in Improving Access to Medicines amid COVID-19

Venomous COVID-19: Ripping the Country of its Valuable Young Generation by Gertrude Masembe 

COVID-19 has exposed South Africa’s glaring and enduring inequalities

TB REACH Wave 9 funds over USD 6 million to strengthen the fight against drug-resistant TB

Global Health: prescription for a fairer world

Childhood obesity beyond COVID-19

Gender in the MDB Social Protection Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Six-month countdown to go-live for the Clinical Trials Information System (CTIS)

2020 DNDi Financial and Performance Report

Strengthening youth livelihoods and enterprise innovation in Africa’s digital era

UN creates permanent body to address challenges of racism

Language Is Not A Barrier—It Is An Opportunity To Improve Health Equity Through Education

Meeting registration: HW4All Coalition – Civil Society Briefing – 4th Round of Reporting WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel Aug 11, 2021 04:00 PM in Amsterdam

Jeffrey Sachs’ speech at the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit (full speech)

Despite clearing hurdle public can’t sample GM rice yet

Millions in 23 Hunger Hotspots Face Famine, Death – Report

Syria’s ‘bread crisis’ in graphs

Suburban Living the Worst for Carbon Emissions – New Research