News Flash 485: 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 485

Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

 

All Life Protection and Our Collective Future

Quality of Life for Billions of People is at Stake

Achievements. Impact. Sustainability. TDR’s Joint Coordinating Board concludes its 45th meeting

Commission unveils new approach to trade agreements to promote green and just growth

WTO Agrees on Limited IP Waiver for COVID-19 Vaccines and Package to Reduce Harmful Fishing Subsidies

Trade Won, Health Did Not. A Sliver of a Waiver at the WTO

Inability of WTO members to agree on original TRIPS waiver is a devastating failure for people’s health worldwide

The Battle for Covid-19 Vaccines: the Rich Prevail Over the Poor

WTO Covid-19 TRIPS Decision: Some observations

The June 17, 2022 WTO Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreement

Global regulators work towards strengthening collaboration on observational research beyond COVID-19 pandemic

WHO: Interim statement on the composition of current COVID-19 vaccines

10 Reasons To Vaccinate Your 5 & Under Child for COVID-19 as Soon as Possible

Evaluation of Acute Adverse Events after Covid-19 Vaccination during Pregnancy

Audio Interview: Viral Evolution and the Future of Monoclonal Antibodies

Medicines Patent Pool welcomes agreement by Afrigen and Univercells to support the development of first African COVID-19 vaccine

How Scientists in Botswana Discovered Omicron: A Look at Diagnostics in LMICs

MSF warns that reduced funding for Neglected Tropical Diseases could be devastating

Chagas: The Most Neglected of Neglected Tropical Diseases

Human Rights Reader 634: TODAY, LEFT AND RIGHT POLITICS ARE HOPELESSLY MIXED UP, AND THOSE WITHOUT AN IDEOLOGICAL EDUCATION NO LONGER KNOW WHAT IS WHAT. (A NICHE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS?)

Decolonization, LGBTQI+ and shifting the power – but it is getting hot

Take the Pledge to Welcome Refugee and Migrant Children!

Ten stories on drought and disaster risk reduction

Ethiopia: Drought drives deadly child hunger

United Nations: ACT NOW

Heatwaves are getting deadlier – here’s how to combat them

INTERVIEW: EndPandemics Alliance by Daniele Dionisio 

Plastic Pollution Will Kill All of Us!

Biodiversity summit moved to Canada as China struggles to contain Covid-19

Who Should Be the Next UN Climate Change Head?

The Green Transition Needs More Skilled Workers. Here’s How Europe Could Use Migration to Meet the Demand

Fossil-Fuel Pollution and Climate Change — A New NEJM Group Series

Climate Change, Fossil-Fuel Pollution, and Children’s Health

Mapping carbon reserves to fight climate change

France ahead of targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions

Worst monsoon rains in over a century submerge most of northeast Bangladesh and devastate the lives of over 4 million people

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTERVIEW: EndPandemics Alliance

Founded in March of 2020, EndPandemics is a dynamic, global alliance of worldwide organizations — representing conservation, climate, health, finance, security, agroforestry, business, technology, and communications — that has launched a global coordinated campaign to reduce the risks of pandemics by addressing the root causes of all zoonotic outbreaks—rampant wildlife trade and the destruction of wild habitat.

PEAH had the pleasure to interview Steven Galster, Andrey Kushlin, Niall McCann, Ceci Fischer, Jenny Desmond, Pei Su, Daniel Swid, and William Wait as members of the EndPandemics Coordination Unit

 

By Daniele Dionisio

PEAH – Policies for Equitable Access to Health

INTERVIEW

EndPandemics Alliance

 

 

PEAHEndPandemics works on the interface of illegal wildlife trade and habitat destruction and the related emergence of zoonotic diseases. As declared on the Alliance’s website “Nature protection is integral to international security and human welfare”. This ties to EndPandemics’ One Health approach to protect earth and prevent pandemics by ending the commercial trade in wild animals, expanding wild habitat, and safeguarding livelihoods. Would you like to elaborate on that? What is EndPandemics’ philosophy and approach?

EP: For many years, we have already seen – and suffered from – the consequences of our overexploitation of nature and the impacts that the anthropogenic destruction of our ecosystems has on biodiversity and human well-being. However, the human health aspect has often been considered a detached element from our interactions with wildlife and the environment. At the latest with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we should have understood that human health and the natural environment are closely interconnected and cannot be separated, and that it is not only our health that is at stake. Many have considerably underestimated the economic (recession and inflation), political (radicalization and nationalism), and security (civil unrest and limited movement of law enforcers) impacts our thoughtless actions, such as the on-going destruction of natural habitats and illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade, can have. Infectious diseases born from wildlife have affected us before, but were mostly geographically more contained, which further contributed to our laissez-faire attitude. COVID-19 was different – and we were unprepared. What should be at the forefront of our thoughts and actions now is to think about – how can we prevent the next pandemic? Even though reactive approaches, such as effective vaccinations, are important, proactive approaches should be even more in demand. This requires a change in mindset, which is slowly emerging at different levels of governance around the world, but needs to be strengthened further so we will not have to go through a similar scenario, again, and we respect the limits the natural environment has shown us. This is what we advocate for and why we launched a global coordinated campaign: to reduce the risks of pandemics by addressing the root causes of all zoonotic outbreaks.

PEAH: How many member organizations are currently part of EndPandemics?

EP: EndPandemics is a global alliance to protect and regenerate Nature that is led by a committee of wildlife conservationists, and supported by several sponsors, such as B. Grimm, 81 Partner organizations, and 153 individual members, representing conservation, climate, health, finance, security, agroforestry, business, technology, and communications.

PEAH: When it comes to action, EndPandemics highlights the following pillars as key to pandemic prevention: 1) PROTECT NATURE, 2) STOP TRAFFICKING; 3) REDUCE DEMAND, and 4) REFORM FARMING. Could you tell me more about these pillars?

EP: In order to prevent pandemics, we need to identify the most relevant entry points and drivers, allowing us to effectively address these issues and thus achieve the highest possible benefits for nature and human well-being. These four pillars are crucial elements that, once business-as-usual practices are challenged and changed, could lead to a substantial mitigation of risk factors otherwise promoting the emergence and spread of (new) zoonotic diseases. This is why we also use this 4-pillar approach to structure the solutions we collect from frontline organizations, contributing to more reflective and safer human-wildlife interactions.

PEAH: How important are frontline activities to your cause?

EP: Almost all of our members are ‘frontline’ organizations. The frontline might be on the African savannah or in the forests of Southeast Asia, where wildlife is being plundered to feed our desire for animal products; in the halls of power around the world, where decisions about our exploitation of nature are made; or in the classrooms, where children develop and hone their values and their perspective of the world. The key to being a frontline organization is that you are actually there, at the coalface, interfacing with the people, the communities and the landscapes that protect nature and help shield us from emerging infectious diseases.

The communities on the ground are the first and last barrier in preventing the overexploitation of natural resources and habitat degradation, which is why it is absolutely necessary to channel their voices to reach a broader audience and to support the initiatives in the field.

Also very importantly, investments in effective, experienced frontline organizations have a MUCH higher rate of return than investments through large development companies. In some cases, the ROI (Return On Investment)  is a matter of 10-100 times higher.

PEAH: What are EndPandemics’ achievements so far?

EP:

  1. Waking up people in power about the links between COVID-19 and wildlife. Specifically, we have helped lawmakers and senior officials at the regional level in ASEAN, and at the national level in Thailand and Vietnam, develop new policies to prevent pandemics by controlling wildlife trafficking and protecting nature.
  2. Waking up the public about the same. We launched a 1-minute message on CNN that “it’s time to stop the wildlife trade and change our relationship with nature”, which reached over 100 million people across the world. Our media stories reached millions more, including an Australia 60-minute exposé that reached over 16 million people alone.
  3. Reaching other people and institutions of influence with specific guidance on how to prevent the next pandemic. Specifically, we joined forces with the Vatican’s COVID-19 Commission, the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, the Asian Development Bank, the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, the US Agency for International Development, and more to hold webinars and create briefs for decision makers, including world leaders. Those briefs are in many languages, and we hope are being used now to craft new strategies to prevent the next outbreak.

Generally: EndPandemics has come far since its launch in early 2020: the Alliance has launched several campaign spots, e.g. on CNN International, very recently launched a public service announcement with Jane Seymour to raise awareness for the plight of Mother Nature, and was featured, among others, in the “Disease Hunters” TV series. EndPandemics has advocated for its cause and raised awareness in several high-profile settings, such as in the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly. EndPandemics members contributed to a joint call of WC20 (twenty leading conservation organizations) to the G20 summit “to invest in nature or face biodiversity collapse and further pandemics” and “to deliver solutions on the ground”. The Alliance launched “A Roadmap to End Pandemics: Building It Together” and organized a roundtable to recommend urgent and practical steps world leaders can take to prevent new pandemics by addressing their root causes. This was hosted by EndPandemics and United for Regeneration, which was founded in partnership with the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Promoting Integral Human Development and its COVID-19 Commission. The Alliance also regularly organizes a film festival, showing gripping documentaries related to the four action pillars and human health.

PEAH: What else would you like to say to our readers?

EP:

  1. There is no greater cause in our lifetime than to prevent the next, and probably more disastrous, pandemic, and in the process, make our world a safer, happier, healthier place for all living beings. We do not need to compete with other priorities, like climate change. The drivers of pandemics, climate change, biodiversity loss are largely the same. We need to collapse our energy and plans into one joint movement.
  1. We all need to play our part in preventing the next pandemic, but we are stronger together. Come join our Alliance, share your solutions, and be part of this extraordinary and much-needed movement. Thank you.

PEAH: Thank you, EndPandemics, for taking the time and sharing your important insights with us.

News Flash 484: 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 484

Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

 

Gender and Development: CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: Volume 31, Issue 1: Women human rights defenders. Send your detailed abstract of 250 words in an email attachment to genderanddevelopment.south@gmail.com  latest by 15 July 2022

Call for input “Promotion and protection of human rights in the context of mitigation, adaptation, and financial actions to address climate change, with particular emphasis on loss and damage” ISSUED BY Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change DEADLINE 23 June 2022

Webinar: From gender-responsive to gender-transformative public services. Public services as a tool to promote gender equality Jun 23, 2022 01:30 PM in Universal Time UTC

Webinar: Localisation of Health Aid: Decolonization or not? Jun 22, 2022 01:30 PM in Nairobi

Webinar: Women in Global Health Switzerland Inaugural Event Jun 27, 2022 04:30 PM in Zurich

The WTO, with its ‘market knows best’ ideology, has failed. It’s time to bury it

Draft decision text at WTO not even close to the real TRIPS Waiver

People’s Health Dispatch Bulletin #27: WTO and WHA: The Struggle Continues

Compulsory licensing for expensive medicines

MC12 Opening Session: Opening remarks by the Director-General

New WHO Report Affirms Need to Study SARS-CoV2 Lab Leak Theory – Alongside Spillover Narrative

From US to South Korea, COVID-19 Travel Restrictions Are Eased Globally

What You Need to Know About the Novavax Protein-Based Vaccine

Start of rolling review for adapted Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine

Improve antibiotics access to beat ‘silent pandemic’

Superbug Develops Fast Resistance to “Last Resort” Antibiotic

DNDi eNews: June 2022

Africa leads global monkeypox research

Protecting Children: 10 Years of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention

Big Data strategy for veterinary medicines in the EU

[Commentary] 100 years of “saving” India’s soil: What needs to change?

The European Commission’s €600M food crisis plan

The Micronutrient Forum’s 2022-2025 Strategic Plan

Seafood Affordability Influences Consumption of More Nutritious Species

Implementing Professional Midwife-Led Maternity Care in India for Healthy Pregnant Women: A Community Case Study

Moving medicine in Iraq: The political economy of the pharmaceutical trade

Disabled people being ‘systematically ignored’ on climate crisis, says study

Human Rights Reader 633: DOES HUMAN RIGHTS INFORMATION APPEAL PRIMARILY TO THOSE WHO ARE ALREADY INTERESTED?

Brazil: Inequality Sharpened, Social Policies Dismantled, More Millions Pushed into Hunger

Niger: Thousands of migrants expelled from Algeria and Libya each month and stranded in Sahel desert

EXCLUSIVE Global investors write to U.N. to urge global plan on farming emissions

Footing the bill: fair finance for loss and damage in an era of escalating climate impacts

EU and Egypt step up cooperation on climate, energy and the green transition

$33bn funding gap for climate ‘loss and damage’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

News Flash 483: 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 483

Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

 

The cost of living: an avoidable public health crisis

EU budget 2023: Empowering Europe to continue shaping a changing world

WHO Live Stream Intergovernmental Negotiating Body06-08 June 2022

MSF to governments negotiating at WTO: get it right and adopt the real TRIPS Waiver

Covid-19 Cases in Africa

COVID-19 vaccine patent deal on a knife-edge

EMA adopts first list of critical medicines for COVID-19

Updated WHO interim recommendations for the use of the Janssen Ad26.COV2.S (COVID-19) vaccine

Pfizer’s Antiviral Drug May Have Potential as Long COVID Treatment

COVID amid food insecurity: A perfect storm is brewing in N Korea

‘Monkeypox Begins – and Must be Resolved in – Endemic Countries

WHO Experts Emphasize ‘Window of Opportunity’ to Control Monkeypox Spread as Cases Outside Africa Double Again

Reaching the full preventive potential of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis

Quality and composition of Albendazole, Mebendazole and Praziquantel available in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Tanzania

Long-Term Study Finds Cigarette Smoking Doubled Risk of Developing Heart Failure

Improving Behavioral Health Care For Older Americans: If Not Now, When?

Human Rights Reader 632: “TO CHANGE THE WORLD, MY DEAR FRIEND SANCHO, IS NEITHER MADNESS NOR UTOPIA; IT IS JUSTICE”

German minister presents plans for mandatory animal welfare label

Most aid funds go to just a few disasters. What about the rest?

Passport And Visa Privileges In Global Health

Localisation of Health Aid: Decolonization or not? Jun 22, 2022 01:30 PM in Nairobi

Children bear brunt of health crisis in Horn of Africa drought

Horn of Africa braces for ‘explosion of child deaths’ as hunger crisis deepens

The World’s Worst Food Crisis for Decades – and What to do About It

Hunger hotspots: UN warns current food insecurity worse than Arab Spring

Nearly half of planet’s land in need of ‘conservation attention’ to halt biodiversity crisis

Industries dump chemicals into fields, pollute Ajnar river in Madhya Pradesh

Chemicals conference in Geneva: what’s on the agenda?

As Heat Kills in India, Action Plans Save Lives

Let Them Eat Carbon

Where Emissions Are High, Reduce Emissions. Where Poverty Is High, Reduce Poverty

Climate action must not be delayed by global crises, UN talks told

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

News Flash 482: 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 482

Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

 

Sex, War, Sustainability and the World Health Assembly – Last Week in Review

Seventy-fifth World Health Assembly – Daily update: 28 May 2022

Seventy-fifth World Health Assembly – Daily update: 27 May 2022

WHA Approves Strategy on HIV, Hepatitis B and STIs – After Prolonged Debate Over Sexual Health Terminology

Assembly Approves Process to Update International Health Regulations on Pandemic Response

Bulletin #26: The World Health Assembly back in session by People’s Health Dispatch

A Proposed Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Hosted by the World Bank WHITE PAPER May 17 th, 2022

Even with a TRIPS waiver, outcomes are still uncertain

Africa: Over 11.7 Million Confirmed Cases of Covid-19 Across Continent

COVID State of Affairs: May 31

German government must push BioNTech to urgently transfer mRNA vaccine technology

Report: COVID-19 Slows Progress Towards Universal Energy Access

AI drives quest for new antivirals to fight outbreaks

Scientists Might Never Determine Cause for Mysterious Acute Hepatitis Cases

Medicines Patent Pool, ViiV Healthcare enter negotiations over voluntary licensing of cabotegravir Long-Acting for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis

Why Leprosy Persists in India

An Overview of AMR: Facilitating a One Health approach to this global health threat

The European Commission should not let the guard down against AMR

The European Commission is failing to preserve vital antibiotics for human health

A systems shift in animal farming is essential to stop antimicrobial resistance

World No Tobacco Day

Improving health workforce governance: the role of multi-stakeholder coordination mechanisms and human resources for health units in ministries of health

A critical examination of research narratives ‘rumours’ and passive community resistance in medical research

Declaration of Digital Rights and Principles: A reality check

Human Rights Reader 631: A NATION’S HUMAN RIGHTS OBLIGATIONS GIVE US A REASON TO INTERROGATE DECISIONS ABOUT HOW FISCAL RESOURCES ARE COLLECTED AND ALLOCATED

Profiting from pain: The urgency of taxing the rich amid a surge in billionaire wealth and a global cost-of-living crisis

Food Banks are Early Warning Systems for Emerging Food Crises, but also a Key Solution

Egypt says climate finance must be top of agenda at Cop27 talks

Cities aim to reduce car use in bid to eradicate air pollution

Seychelles to Recycle Fishing Gear #AfricaClimateCrisis