COVID-19: global vaccine promises ring hollow

“Fragmented and preferential access to the COVID-19 vaccine suggests human life is not the same across the world,” said Joachim Osur, technical director at Amref Health Africa and dean of the School of Medical Sciences at Amref International University in Nairobi. Both for humanitarian reasons and in our own interest. Because it will not be enough to control the spread of the disease only within Europe. According to the Mali authorities, this quantity will vaccinate 4.2 million people with two doses each — just 20 per cent of the country’s 20 million inhabitants. For Belén Herrero, a researcher at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) in Buenos Aires and lead author of the analysis, false promises arise when countries overestimate their possibilities to obtain the vaccines, and refuse to admit their limited resources and capacity for negotiations.

Women sidelined in agri-tech revolution

Mike Michener, USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security The interactive virtual event was held to explore ways of leveraging information technology to build resilient agricultural and food systems in low- and middle-income countries. According to a joint report by the Alliance for Affordable Internet and the World Wide Web Foundation in October last year, 32 low- and middle-income countries missed out on US$1trillion in GDP in the last decade as a result of women’s exclusion in the digital world. The challenge for everyone involved in agricultural development is to ensure that the benefits of the so-called “fourth agricultural revolution” is not limited by lack of access to resources, said Mike Michener, deputy assistant administrator at USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, at a fire-side session during the close of the event.

‘Time to invest in genomics’ in poorer countries – WHO

Speed read Genomics has been crucial in COVID-19 response, driving research But many poor countries lack access to the technology First WHO Science Council report makes recommendations to address barriers The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued an urgent call to accelerate access to genomics, especially in resource-poor countries, in a report that examines technology gaps and opportunities. Genomics is the branch of science that uses methods from biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology to understand and use biological information in DNA and RNA to benefit medicine and public health — but the technology can also be used in agricultural research. While genomics technology is driving some of the most ground-breaking research in medical science, including COVID-19 vaccine research and development, its full potential is yet to be realised globally, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), according to the WHO Science Council’s inaugural report.

COVID-19 vaccine uptake ‘a matter of words’

Speed read Language choice has significant impact on vaccine uptake, researchers say Scientists say study shows power of language choice in health campaigns Trust in a particular language may vary from place to place A simple language intervention has the potential to boost COVID-19 vaccination rates, by strengthening trust in the vaccines, researchers say. Janet Geipel, assistant professor, University of Exeter Business School, UK Psychologist Janet Geipel, assistant professor at the University of Exeter Business School, UK, and lead author of the study, said: “Our ultimate goal with this study was to find a low-cost intervention, which might have potential to increase trust associated with the COVID-19 vaccine and through this reduce vaccine hesitancy.” According to the researchers, the context in which two different languages are used, and the associations people have with those languages, vary from place to place.

COVID-19 vaccine patent deal on a knife-edge

Speed read Talks to enable developing countries to produce COVID vaccines hit a new snag Civil society groups decry revised text as ‘obscene’ Critics press for ‘people before politics’ ahead of world trade meeting Proposals under discussion at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to temporarily waive intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines are hanging in the balance as vaccine equity campaigners call for the draft document to be torn up. The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver was intended to allow COVID-19 vaccines to be manufactured in developing countries without infringing patents held by big pharmaceutical companies, mostly in the global North. George Williams, a frontline health worker and general secretary of the National Health Workers Union of Liberia, said he experienced first hand the consequences of a broken pharmaceutical system when Ebola virus nearly decimated his country, and urged global leaders to work to salvage the TRIPS agreement.

COVID-19 could derail SDGs for next five years – report

The SDGs were adopted by the United Nations in September 2015, and call for governments and organisations to achieve goals such as ending poverty, eradicating hunger and ensuring everyone has access to clean, affordable energy by 2030. [...]the economic fallout on the SDGs from COVID-19 was clear in 2020 when at least 255 million full-time jobs were lost, triggering a hunger crisis, especially in the global South, according to the report Unprecedented and Unfinished: COVID-19 and Implications for National and Global Policy published by the International Science Council (ISC). Low-income countries will also face growing food insecurity and mental health, according to the analysis, compiled by a panel of 20 experts in fields including public health, virology, economics, behavioural science, ethics, and sociology.

UN summit calls for climate-friendly food systems

Speed read ‘Nature-based solutions’ to farming challenges urged at UN Food Systems Summit Food systems ‘must be climate neutral’ says summit’s science chief Critics say groups most affected were not represented The United Nations has urged the world to urgently review its food production and consumption patterns in order to save the planet, at a landmark summit beset by controversy and boycotts. In a keynote speech at the historic UN Food Systems Summit held online on Thursday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world must adopt natural alternatives to industrial agricultural practises that protect the planet as it battles rising hunger, malnutrition and obesity. Joachim von Braun, chair of the summit’s scientific group, said that “food systems can and must be climate neutral”, adding: “Most food systems are not sustainable. [...]science must not only address production and consumption or the value chain, but the whole food system.”

Science key to food system overhaul, UN summit hears

Speed read UN pre-summit on food systems pledges to put science behind ‘transformation’ Talks come as UN report reveals stark rise in global hunger Experts call for innovative approaches to tackle disaster and climate risks Science and innovation must be at the centre of global food system transformation to drive sustainable agricultural productivity and ensure food security and better nutrition for all, a UN meeting has heard. Commenting from the sidelines of the summit on Wednesday, Claudia Sadoff, managing director of research delivery and impact at global research organisation CGIAR, said food systems must not only produce enough to feed a growing population, but also address rising levels of malnutrition with increasingly scarce natural resources. Peter Vadas, national program leader at the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, says more innovative ways to sustainably produce livestock and livestock products were increasingly being deployed.

Measles progress in reverse as 22 mln miss vaccines

Kevin Cain, CDC’s global immunisation director, said the combination of vaccine gaps, measles outbreaks, and declines in detection and diagnostics, increases the likelihood of measles-related deaths and serious complications in children. “Countries and global health partners must prioritise finding and vaccinating children against measles to reduce the risk of explosive outbreaks and preventable deaths from this disease,” he urged. Peter Ofware, Kenya country director at health and human rights organisation HealthRight International, said countries in Sub-Saharan Africa which are disproportionately affected by the disease must adopt a multi-sectoral approach to get vaccination campaigns back on track.

From Delta to Omicron: 2021 in review

World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus revealed in January that just 25 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in one of the world’s poorest countries, warning of “a catastrophic moral failure”. An investigation by SciDev.Net in February laid bare this global vaccine gap — and hollow promises by governments to address it — as health specialists warned that the shortage of vaccines in developing countries could threaten progress against COVID-19 in the global North. Ahead of the talks, a report released by UK-based think-tank Chatham House had warned that climatic hazards such as extreme heat, droughts and storms could trigger “cascading impacts” that may be felt around the world within the next decade.

Experts, electricity ‘not needed’ for health innovations

Speed read WHO compendium of innovations aims to help low-resource settings respond to COVID-19 Collection of tools doesn’t require specialists or electricity, says WHO Grassroots capacity building crucial for scale-up — expert Easy-to-use equipment including portable respiratory monitoring systems and ventilators with extended battery life are among a collection of new health innovations identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) to help manage COVID-19 in low-resource settings. Jeremiah Owiti, executive director, Centre for Independent Research, Nairobi Adriana Velazquez Berumen, WHO senior advisor for medical devices, said: “WHO has been collecting innovative technologies that can be impactful at places where there is unstable electricity and a lack of specialised health workforce.” According to Anuraj Shankar, lead researcher at the Eijkman-Oxford Clinical Research Unit in Jakarta, Indonesia, enabling anyone to asses blood pressure accurately with an already available device such as a smartphone opens the door to personal monitoring of many acute and chronic medical conditions.

COVID healthcare costs ‘catastrophic’ for poorest

Speed read Health care costs push more than half a billion people into extreme poverty COVID-19 adds to the burden, halting progress towards universal health coverage Health policies must protect poor from financial hardship, say World Bank, WHO Two decades of progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is likely to be halted by COVID-19, as “catastrophic” health care bills force increasing numbers of people into extreme poverty, UN institutions have warned. Ajay Tandon, lead economist, World Bank Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for the bulk of the populations incurring “catastrophic” health spending, which according to the report includes households that spend more than 10 per cent of their income on health. [...]the poorest groups and those living in rural areas are the least able to obtain health services and the least likely to be able to cope with the consequences for paying for them,” they added.