Africa

After a day that many hoped would add clarity to the rollout of Johnson & Johnson’s troubled Covid-19 vaccine, the picture on Thursday is as muddy as ever in the United States.

The “pause” that U.S. health officials put in place on the use of the vaccine might now stay in place for seven to 10 days. It’s a decision with potentially painful consequences that could ripple worldwide.

After considering whether to reinstate the vaccine, a panel of expert advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined on Wednesday that it needed more time to assess a possible link to a rare but serious blood-clotting disorder.

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Gayle Smith, who had experience dealing with Ebola, will run Biden’s vaccine diplomacy. Blinkin, Yellen speak on helping other countries

Tue, 2021-04-06 11:03 — mike kraft

An ardent advocate of protecting some of the world’s poorest countries from Covid-19 has been selected to lead the Biden administration’s vaccine diplomacy in an effort to corral wealthier nations into distributing immunizations more evenly around the globe.

Gayle Smith, a former U.S. Agency for International Development administrator and chief executive of the ONE Campaign to eradicate poverty and preventable disease, will step into the role, a new post at the State Department.

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Some poor countries can’t cover the cost of administering the coronavirus vaccines when they finally receive them

Fri, 2021-04-02 09:36 — mike kraft

Coronavirus vaccines are finally reaching poor countries, but some can’t cover the cost of administering them Public health experts told The Post that many low-income countries are on track to face acute shortages of trained and salaried health-care workers in a few months, when Covax shipments increase. Miriam Berger Washington Post

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ANALYSIS: How richer countries got their vaccine supplies first

Thu, 2021-04-01 12:16 — mike kraft

See How Rich Countries Got to the Front of the Vaccine Line Many low-income nations lacked the means to preorder doses, and their residents have received just 0.1 percent of vaccine shots given worldwide. The New York Times

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Global Hunger: Over 30 million people 'one step away from starvation', UN warns

Thu, 2021-03-25 20:31 — mike kraft

Over 30 million people 'one step away from starvation', UN warns The pandemic, climate crisis and conflict combining to drive ‘alarming’ levels of global hunger, says report Karen McVeigh the Guardian

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Vaccine deliveries will be delayed from Serum Institute of India and AstraZeneca

Thu, 2021-03-25 17:40 — mike kraft

COVAX announces vaccine delivery delays from Serum Institute of India and AstraZeneca Deliveries of Covid-19 vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) to countries participating in the COVAX program will be delayed during March and April, Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, announced in a news release on Thursday. By <a href="/profiles/julia-hollingsworth">Julia Hollingsworth</a> and <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/profiles/eliza-mackintosh" target="_blank">Eliza Mackintosh</a>, CNN CNN

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WHO: How COVID-19 pandemic has affected TB detection and mortality

Wed, 2021-03-24 20:07 — mike kraft

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on TB detection and mortality in 2020

Provisional data compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) from 84 countries indicates that an estimated 1.4 million fewer people received care for tuberculosis (TB) in 2020 than in 2019 - a reduction of 21% from 2019.

In the group of 10 high-burden countries with the largest reported shortfalls compared with 2019, the overall shortfall was 28%. With many people with TB unable to access care, WHO estimates that half a million more people may have died from TB in 2020 alone. TB remains one of the world’s top infectious killers.

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Some poorer nations could wait years to get vaccinations--Kenya example

Tue, 2021-03-23 11:21 — mike kraft

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It was three months after rich countries began vaccinating health workers, but Kenyans like the nurse, Stella Githaiga, had been left behind: Employed in the country’s largest public hospital, she caught the coronavirus on an outreach trip to remote communities in February, she believes, sidelining her even as Kenya struggles with a vicious third surge of infections.

Ms. Githaiga and her colleagues are victims of one of the most galling inequities in a pandemic that has exposed so many: Across the global south, health workers are being sickened and killed by a virus from which doctors and nurses in many rich countries are now largely protected.

That is just the most visible cost of a rich-poor divide that has deepened in the second year of the pandemic. Of the vaccine doses given globally, roughly three-quarters have gone to only 10 countries. At least 30 countries have not yet injected a single person.

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