Speaking after Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Colombia received their first round of AstraZeneca(AZ)/Oxford jabs, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the distribution of vaccines “has not been as equitable as we would have liked, but it has certainly been more equitable than it would have been otherwise”. Challenges on the ground The COVAX collective planned… Read More

1) What is COVAX? COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access) is the vaccines element of the ACT-Accelerator programme, led by the WHO and international partners, to develop a set of tools to fight the virus. WHO says that the programme has supported the fastest, most coordinated, and successful global effort in history to fight a disease. The aim is to distribute… Read More

 After speaking to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors, Director General Rafael Grossi told a press conference that while the agency had opened a window of opportunity for diplomacy in Iran, it should not be put in the middle of negotiations between Iran, the United States and other nations over the deal.   On 15 February,… Read More

Four of the agency’s six regions reported a rise in numbers, with Africa and the Western Pacific excluded.  “This is disappointing, but not surprising”, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking during his biweekly press briefing from Geneva.  “Some of it appears to be due to relaxing of public health measures, continued circulation of variants, and people letting down their… Read More

Last week, the West African nations each received more than half a million doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford shots, branded as COVISHIELD by their Indian manufacturer, which was cleared for Emergency Use Listing (EUL) by the UN health agency on February 15. The deliveries signify the launch of the largest, most rapid and complex global vaccine rollout in history, said WHO. Meanwhile, 11… Read More

The Secretary-Generally has repeatedly called for the vaccines to be “a global public good”, accessible to all people, everywhere. All UN staffers at UN Headquarters are waiting their turn for the vaccine based on the local rollout plan, and Mr. Guterres is among the first in the Big Apple-based UN family to receive a jab, based on his eligibility – he’s… Read More

While welcoming the historic resolution and upholding the importance of vaccine equity, he said that “concrete steps should be taken” to waive intellectual property rights to increase vaccine production “and get rid of this virus as soon as possible”.  “The virus has taken the whole world hostage”, Tedros said. “The UN Security Council can do it, if there is political… Read More