Media/Policy Watch
This section is intended to alert readers to substantive news, analysis and opinion from the general media on vaccines, immunization, global; public health and related themes. Media Watch is not intended to be exhaustive, but indicative of themes and issues CVEP is actively tracking. This section will grow from an initial base of newspapers, magazines and blog sources, and is segregated from Journal Watch above which scans the peer-reviewed journal ecology.

We acknowledge the Western/Northern bias in this initial selection of titles and invite suggestions for expanded coverage. We are conservative in our outlook in adding news sources which largely report on primary content we are already covering above. Many electronic media sources have tiered, fee-based subscription models for access. We will provide full-text where content is published without restriction, but most publications require registration and some subscription level.

.

Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/
Accessed 4 June 2016
Preemies Get Boost in Pertussis Protection From Mom’s Vaccination
Preemies can also benefit from a pertussis vaccine in pregnancy.
Tara Haelle, Contributor Jun 02, 2016 [No new, unique, relevant content]

.

Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/
Accessed 4 June 2016
1 June 2016
Pakistan’s Quiet Revolution Against Polio
While Pakistan’s path to eradication hasn’t been easy, there is now reason for optimism.
…Unfortunately, violent attacks — which have, at times, affected health workers and those who protect them — have overshadowed this remarkable progress.

These incidents are tragic, although not entirely unexpected. The polio virus has, historically, thrived in regions experiencing political turmoil and conflict. In fact, many of the places where polio still has a strong hold are insecure areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. So health workers like Naseeba, who go bravely and tirelessly door-to-door, are working in some of the most challenging environments on Earth.

Even in the face of this violence, the dedication to stopping polio in Pakistan extends to all levels of society. In order to reach all of Pakistan’s 35 million children, nearly a quarter of a million clinicians, mothers, religious leaders, security personnel, community members, and government officials have come together to support eradication efforts…

.

Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/
Accessed 4 June 2016
27 May 2016
Laurie Garrett: WHO’s Fairy Dust Financing
…The organization responsible for international public health is increasing its budget by millions of dollars — but its plan for coming up with the cash to help battle epidemics like Zika isn’t grounded in reality.… That kind of preparedness begins with leadership and mutual trust between the institutions of public health, political leaders, and the populations they are supposed to serve. This is a feat that WHO has not, by any measure, accomplished…

.

New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Accessed 4 June 2016
The Opinion Pages | Editorial
Hustling Dollars for Public Health
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
JUNE 2, 2016
On Tuesday, a woman infected with the Zika virus gave birth to a girl with microcephaly, a malformed head, in New Jersey. Federal officials say there are more than 300 pregnant women possibly infected with Zika around the country. Yet every time an emergency like this happens, public health officials must go begging bowl in hand to Congress for the funds to deal with it. And as the current squabble between Republicans and President Obama over money for the Zika virus shows, there’s no guarantee of significant or even timely relief.

The obvious answer is to establish a permanent pool of money that federal health authorities can tap into quickly, much like the disaster relief fund that enables the Federal Emergency Management Agency to respond quickly to hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Such a fund would allow agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to mobilize their resources to contain emerging threats like Zika and Ebola before they become large-scale problems. The money would be used for research, for vaccine development and to prevent the spread of the disease in the United States and overseas.

Zika is just such a threat. It is primarily transmitted by mosquitoes, can cause birth defects and has been linked to neurological disorders in adults. A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine last week estimated that the risk of microcephaly in newborns ranged from 1 percent to 13 percent for women infected with Zika in the first trimester.

A bill introduced by Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, would put $5 billion into an existing public health emergency fund that was created in 1983 but has been largely dormant. The fund currently has a balance of just $57,000. In the Senate, Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and a doctor, has said he plans to introduce a bill that would provide emergency funds, though he has offered few details.

Some Republicans are likely to oppose setting aside the money. Many in the House have been reluctant to spend money on Zika; last month they passed a bill to provide $622 million to fight the disease, which is a lot less than the $1.1 billion the Senate approved and the $1.9 billion Mr. Obama has asked for.

Despite the concerns of fiscal conservatives, the health emergency fund could save lives and money. Consider Ebola. Had the American government moved quickly to help Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone fight that virus early in 2014, the disease might not have killed more than 11,000 people or caused a global panic. But the United States was slow to react, approving $5.4 billion for the disease in December 2014, months after it had caused or was suspected to have caused nearly 7,000 deaths and after Ebola cases had been confirmed in the United States.

That money was used to send doctors and nurses to West Africa, to help strengthen health systems in the affected countries, and for research. Some Ebola projects are still active, including vaccine development and testing. In public health, “the sooner you can get there the more effective you can be,” said Dr. Thomas Frieden, the C.D.C. director. “You can change the trajectory of an epidemic in a way that is very, very important.”

Giving public health officials a blank check would be unwise. But creating a system that is at once generous and disciplined by strong internal controls should be possible. Money in the present health emergency fund, for instance, can be used only when the secretary of health and human services declares an emergency. The secretary has to notify Congress of that decision and report how the money was spent within 90 days of the end of the fiscal year.
Without a less restricted fund, health officials fighting Zika have had to move money and scientists away from programs focused on other diseases, like Ebola, malaria and dengue. Robbing existing programs is sure to hurt public health the longer it goes on.

.

Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/home-page?_wsjregion=na,us&_homepage=/home/us
Accessed 4 June 2016
Zika Draws U.S. Researchers Into a Race for Understanding
By Jo Craven McGinty
June 3, 2016 10:13 am ET

.

Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Accessed 4 June 2016
Health officials now confirm 11 cases of measles in Arizona
An outbreak of measles that began with an inmate at a federal detention center for immigrants in central Arizona has now grown to 11 confirmed cases, officials said Monday.
Associated Press | National | May 30, 2016

.

Think Tanks et al
.

Center for Global Development
http://www.cgdev.org/
Accessed 4 June 2016
Innovation for Development: Why Are We not Getting to Scale?
Event
6/13/16
Development depends on innovation. New ideas, new funding mechanisms and new technologies save and improve lives, from vaccines to solar lamps to Development Impact Bonds. But even if innovations reach a million people, they still fall short of the billion who live in poverty.

.

Council on Foreign Relations
http://www.cfr.org/
Accessed 4 June 2016
Expert Brief
| 31 May 2016
Back to the Future of Global Health Security
Authors: Thomas J. Bollyky, Senior Fellow for Global Health, Economics, and Development, and Steve Davis, President and CEO of PATH
…To improve pandemic preparedness we must embrace the hard-won lessons of the past decade in global health, not ignore them. This is true in deploying people and resources to prepare for the inevitability of future outbreaks, but even more so when it comes to accelerating the development of the medical tools to diagnose, treat, and prevent those infectious disease outbreaks from turning into epidemics, or even pandemics…