Category: Development

The opinion by the subcommittee of WHO’s Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) follows a review of latest information from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the United Kingdom’s regulatory body MHRA, and other countries.  The EMA concluded that unusual blood clots with low blood platelets should be listed as very rare side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine, while the… Read More

“While we have all undoubtedly been impacted by the pandemic, the poorest and most marginalized have been hit hardest – both in terms of lives and livelihoods lost,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, speaking in Geneva on Tuesday.  It’s #WorldHealthDay! For many people, health is the foundation to do the things in life they love;… Read More

More than 181 Member States voiced support for the text entitled “The Political Declaration on Equitable Global Access to COVID-19 Vaccines”, which was unveiled at an informal meeting of the Assembly on Friday. “We strongly believe that ‘no one can be safe, until everyone is safe’, and that equitable and affordable access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines must be… Read More

Dr Rogério  Pinto de Sá Gaspar, Director for Regulation and Prequalification, was responding to a journalist’s question regarding links between the vaccine and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, a rare blood clotting syndrome.  The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Tuesday denied that it had established any link, following reports that one of its experts stated there was a connection.   Expert… Read More

“At this stage, we would not like to see vaccination passports as a requirement for entry or exit because we are not sure at this stage that the vaccine prevents transmissions,” said WHO spokesperson Dr Margaret Harris, just ahead of World Health Day on 7 April 2021. Supply and demand Dr. Harris added that vaccine passports may not be an… Read More

Highlighting the inequalities and injustices that have been apparent throughout the pandemic, Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message for the day to be marked on Wednesday, that the vast majority of vaccine doses administered so far, have been confined to “a few wealthy countries” or those producing the shots cleared for distribution. “Within countries, illness and death from COVID-19 has… Read More

Vaccines are a key part of the solution to ending the COVID-19 pandemic and, since the early stages of the crisis, the World Health Organization (WHO) has argued that there needed to be coordinated attention given to ensuring that everyone, not just people living in rich countries, would receive adequate protection from the virus, as it spread rapidly across the… Read More

President Joseph Biden on Friday revoked a Trump-era executive order issued after the ICC announced it was investigating alleged war crimes committed by all sides in the war in Afghanistan, including the US. Executive Order 13928 of 11 June 2020 imposed economic sanctions against ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and the Head of the Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division, Phakiso Mochochoko. … Read More

“The crisis has created new obstacles and challenges. But efforts to reignite the global economy offer an opportunity to reimagine the workplace to make diversity, inclusion and equity a reality”, Secretary-General António Guterres said.  For people with autism, access to work on an equal basis requires creating an enabling environment & reasonable accommodation.#COVID19 recovery is an opportunity to rethink our… Read More

Although COVAX has already delivered 35 million doses to more than 78 countries, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said there was still “a serious challenge on vaccine equity and availability”.  “We’re not in a race against each other, we’re in a race against the virus & over the last year the @ACTAccelerator has been critical for ensuring… Read More