Media/Policy Watch
This watch section is intended to alert readers to substantive news, analysis and opinion from the general media and selected think tanks and similar organizations 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.

 

The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/
Accessed 23 May 2020
[No new, unique, relevant content]

 

BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
Accessed 23 May 2020
[No new, unique, relevant content]

 

The Economist
http://www.economist.com/
Accessed 23 May 2020
Big pharma is having a good crisis
Drug innovation is back in fashion
Big pharma is no longer the villain
Leaders May 23rd 2020 edition

 

Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/home/uk
Accessed 23 May 2020
Analysis The Big Read
Scientists vs politicians: the reality check for ‘warp speed’ vaccine research
…When Donald Trump launched Operation Warp Speed last week, he borrowed language from Star Trek to describe the drive for a Covid-19 vaccine. “That means big and it means fast,” the US president said…
May 22, 2020

Special Report FT Wealth: May 2020
Why vaccine development relies on philanthropy
…With long time horizons, complex science and high failure rates, vaccine development is not for the faint-hearted philanthropist. But in a world gripped by coronavirus, many donors have put aside such…
May 22, 2020

Bottom of Form

 

Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/
Accessed 23 May 2020
May 20, 2020
More Than Stimulus Checks: How Covid-19 Relief Might Include Mandated Vaccines
Should a coronavirus vaccine be developed, students may hesitate to return to campus if their peers refuse to get vaccinated. But refusing a coronavirus vaccine may be illegal.
By Christopher Rim Senior Contributor

 

Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/
Accessed 23 May 2020
Snapshot May 19, 2020
Drugs and Vaccines Are Coming—But to Whom?
Successfully confronting a global pandemic demands more, not less, investment in multilateralism. During the COVID-19 crisis, the world must count on the WTO to keep…
Jennifer Hillman

 

Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/
Accessed 23 May 2020 |
Why the WHO Investigation Won’t Work
Beijing’s influence within the organization means the results of a review into the origins of the coronavirus are likely to be delayed—and compromised.
China Brief | May 20, 2020, 5:16 PM
James Palmer

 

The Guardian
http://www.guardiannews.com/
Accessed 23 May 2020
Member states back WHO after renewed Donald Trump attack
US president claimed WHO too willing to accept Chinese explanations over coronavirus outbreak
Patrick Wintour and Julian Borger
Tue 19 May 2020
Member states have backed a resolution strongly supportive of the World Health Organization, after Donald Trump issued a fresh broadside against the UN body, giving it 30 days to make unspecified reforms or lose out on US funding.
A resolution that backed the WHO’s leadership and said there needed to be an investigation into the global response to the coronavirus pandemic won endorsement at the WHO’s annual ministerial meeting on Tuesday.
The US president launched his attack late on Monday, sending a lengthy letter outlining America’s belief that the WHO had not been sufficiently independent of China, and had been too willing to accept its explanations for the origins of the coronavirus outbreak…

 

New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/
Accessed 23 May 2020
Annals of Technology
Immunity Passports and the Perils of Conferring Coronavirus Status
Smartphone apps that promise to verify whether a user has been infected with COVID-19 might be creating more problems than they solve.
By Sue Halpern
May 22, 2020

The New Yorker Radio Hour
To Test a Vaccine for COVID-19, Should Volunteers Risk their Lives?
Larissa MacFarquhar on a potentially lethal form of medical research. Plus, Jelani Cobb on the killing of Ahmaud Arbery; and a short story about a very boring Memorial Day.
By David Remnick
May 22, 2020

Daily Comment
Camus and the Political Tests of a Pandemic
In this political season of our own, it can be uncanny to encounter Camus’s seven-decade-old account of a dissembling leader, whose advisers cannot bear even to speak aloud the name of the disease that is rampaging through their city.
By Steve Coll
May 19, 2020

American Chronicles
May 25, 2020 Issue
Will the Coronavirus Make Us Rethink Mass Incarceration?
Community groups have pointed out the social costs of the prison system for decades. Now the pandemic has exposed its public-health risks.
By Sarah Stillman
May 18, 2020

 

New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Accessed 23 May 2020
Europe
Project Leader: Oxford’s COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Has 50% Chance of Success-Telegraph
The University of Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine trial has only a 50% chance of success as the coronavirus seems to be fading rapidly in Britain, the professor co-leading the development of the vaccine told the Telegraph newspaper https://bit.ly/2LQTNos.
By Reuters May 23, 2020

Asia Pacific
Thailand Begins Coronavirus Vaccine Trials on Monkeys
Thailand on Saturday began testing a vaccine against the coronavirus on monkeys after positive trials in mice, an official said.
By Reuters May 23, 2020

Business
How One Indian Company Could Be World’s Door to a COVID-19 Vaccine
If the world is to gain access to a vaccine for COVID-19, there’s a good chance it will pass through the doors of Serum Institute of India.
By Reuters May 22

U.S.
Disruption to Global Immunization System Could Delay COVID-19 Vaccinations
Massive disruptions to global immunisation programmes from the COVID-19 pandemic have health experts fearful that much of the developing world will not be able to get a vaccine for the new coronavirus, even once one is ready.
By Reuters May 22

 

Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/
Accessed 23 May 2020
Retropolis
This Montana farm boy became a scientific legend, developing vaccines to protect kids worldwide
Maurice Hilleman isn’t a household name, but he has saved untold millions of lives
Kathleen McLaughlin · · May 23, 2020