UNICEF COVID-19 Vaccine Market Dashboard :: Agreements Table Accessed 26 Feb 2022
An overview of information collected from publicly announced bilateral and multilateral supply agreements [no new agreements since 10/22/2021 reported]
COVID-19 Global Targets and Progress Tracker – IMF
The COVID-19 Global Targets and Progress Tracker presents a consolidated view of the progress towards global COVID-19 targets, barriers in access to COVID-19 tools, and delivery of donor pledges. The global targets presented in the Tracker are based on an alignment of the targets identified in the IMF Pandemic Proposal, ACT-A Strategic Plan & Budget, and the US-hosted Global C19 Summit, and as such have been reaffirmed by multilateral institutions and global leaders. We will continue to enhance the tracker as we improve our data collection efforts.
Global COVID-19 Access Tracker
https://www.covid19globaltracker.org/
Global Dashboard on COVID-19 Vaccine Equity
The Dashboard is a joint initiative of UNDP, WHO and the University of Oxford with cooperation across the UN system, anchored in the SDG 3 Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All.
Dashboard on Vaccine Equity [accessed 26 Feb 2022]: https://data.undp.org/vaccine-equity/
See also visualization on Vaccine Access and Vaccine Affordability
Duke – Launch and Scale Speedometer
The Race for Global COVID-19 Vaccine Equity
A flurry of nearly 200 COVID-19 vaccine candidates are moving forward through the development and clinical trials processes at unprecedented speed; more than ten candidates are already in Phase 3 large-scale trials and several have received emergency or limited authorization. Our team has aggregated and analyzed publicly available data to track the flow of procurement and manufacturing and better understand global equity challenges. We developed a data framework of relevant variables and conducted desk research of publicly available information to identify COVID vaccine candidates and status, deals and ongoing negotiations for procurement and manufacturing, COVID burden by country, and allocation and distribution plans. We have also conducted interviews with public officials in key countries to better understand the context and challenges facing vaccine allocation and distribution
[accessed 24 July 2021]
See our COVID Vaccine Purchases research
See our COVID Vaccine Manufacturing research
See our COVID Vaccine Donations & Exports research
COVID Vaccines – OCHA:: HDX
COVID-19 Data Explorer: Global Humanitarian Operations
COVID-19 Vaccine Roll-out
26 Feb 2022 | COVAX (WHO,GAVI,CEPI), UNDESA, Press Reports | DATA
Global COVID-19 Figures: 430M total confirmed cases; 5.9M total confirmed deaths
Global vaccines administered: 10.6B
Number of Countries: 28
COVAX Allocations Round 4-9 (Number of Doses): 170M
COVAX Delivered (Number of Doses): 260M
Other Delivered (Number of Doses): 250M
Total Delivered (Number of Doses): 510M
Total Administered (Number of Doses): 310M
Multilateral Leaders Task Force on COVID-19 [IMF, World Bank Group, WHO, WTO]
https://data.covid19taskforce.com/data
A global effort to help developing countries access and deliver COVID-19 vaccines, testing, and therapeutics, as they work to end the pandemic and boost economic recovery.
The International Monetary Fund, World Bank Group, World Health Organization and World Trade Organization have joined forces to accelerate access to COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics by leveraging multilateral finance and trade solutions, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
Website accessed 26 Feb 2022: https://data.covid19taskforce.com/data The global view below is complemented by country-specific dashboards here.
Our World in Data
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccinations [Accessed 26 Feb 2022]
62.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
10.68 billion doses have been administered globally, and 29.51 million are now administered each day.
Only 12.3% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.
U.S.: COVID-19 Vaccines – Announcements/Regulatory Actions/Deployment
HHS
News
Readout of Secretary Becerra’s Virtual Roundtable on Increasing Routine Vaccinations
February 24, 2022 | News Release
BARDA – U.S. Department of HHS [to 26 Feb 2022]
https://aspr.hhs.gov/newsroom/Pages/NewsRoomHome.aspx
News
No new digest content identified.
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FDA
Press Announcements
No new digest content identified.
Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee– FDA
https://www.fda.gov/advisory-committees/blood-vaccines-and-other-biologics/vaccines-and-related-biological-products-advisory-committee
Calendar
Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee March 3, 2022 Meeting Announcement – 03/03/2022
… The Committee will meet in open session to discuss and make recommendations on the selection of strains to be included in the influenza virus vaccines for the 2022 – 2023 influenza season…
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White House [U.S.] [to 26 Feb 2022]
Briefing Room – Selected Major COVID Announcements
FACT SHEET: Administration Announces New Actions to Address the Needs of People with Disabilities and Older Adults in Response to and Recovery from COVID-19
February 24, 2022 • Statements and Releases
U.S. Department of State [to 26 Feb 2022]
https://www.state.gov/coronavirus/releases/
Media Notes
No new digest content identified.
USAID [to 26 Feb 2022]
https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/2021
Selected Press Releases, Statements, Announcements
News
New General License 20 Authorizing Certain Afghanistan Transactions
February 25, 2022
USAID welcomes the announcement by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) that it is expanding authorizations for commercial and financial transactions in Afghanistan, including with its governing institutions. The issuance of General License (GL) 20 aims to ensure that U.S. sanctions do not prevent or inhibit the transactions and activities needed to support the basic human needs of the people of Afghanistan, and underscores the United States’ commitment to working with the private sector, international partners and allies, and international organizations to support the people of Afghanistan.
On Russia’s Unprovoked and Unjustified Attack on Ukraine
February 25, 2022
After months of relentless diplomacy in which the United States, Ukraine and our allies engaged with Russia in good faith to avoid further conflict, President Putin has shown he is not interested in peace, but only in power—in invading a neighbor in a premeditated and unprovoked attack, carving up sovereign territory by force, and denying the Ukrainian people the right to live in peace and and determine their own future. He has gone so far as to suggest Ukraine has no ability to exist as a nation separate from Russia, and baselessly and debasingly invoked claims of genocide to create a pretext for this war of choice—a war for which Russia is entirely responsible.
USAID Providing Humanitarian Assistance in Response to Devastating Floods in Petrópolis, Brazil
February 24, 2022
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is providing $100,000 in immediate humanitarian assistance to support people affected by severe flooding and landslides following an intense storm in Brazil’s Petrópolis city, Rio de Janeiro State. The devastating storm generated more rain in a single afternoon than the historical average for the entire month. The fatal floods have affected thousands of people across the city, displacing at least 3,000 people, and destroying homes.
Europe: COVID-19 Vaccines – Announcements/Regulatory Actions/Deployment
European Medicines Agency
News & Press Releases
News: Meeting highlights from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) 21-24 February 2022 (new)
CHMP, Last updated: 25/02/2022
News: EMA recommends authorisation of booster doses of Comirnaty from 12 years of age (new)
CHMP, Last updated: 24/02/2022
News: EMA recommends approval of Spikevax for children aged 6 to 11 (new)
CHMP, PDCO, Last updated: 24/02/2022
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European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en
Latest Updates [Selected]
No new digest content identified.
::::::
Accessed 26 Feb 2022
https://vaccinetracker.ecdc.europa.eu/public/extensions/COVID-19/vaccine-tracker.html#uptake-tab
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European Commission
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/home/en
Statement 25 February 2022
World Rare Disease Day: Statement by Commissioner Stella Kyriakides
Today, more than 6,000 rare diseases are affecting up to 36 million people in the EU. For those living with rare diseases – many of them children – quality of life is strongly affected, as they often cause chronic pain and suffering, and some can be life-threatening.
Africa: COVID-19 – Announcements/Regulatory Actions/Deployment
Accessed 26 Feb 2022. Full scale, interactive dashboard available at:
https://africacdc.org/covid-19-vaccination/
Russia: COVID-19 Vaccines – Announcements/Regulatory Actions/Deployment
Russia: Sputnik V – “the first registered COVID-19 vaccine”
https://sputnikvaccine.com/newsroom/pressreleases/
Press Releases
Kazakhstan becomes the first country outside Russia to authorize Sputnik M vaccine for adolescents
Press release, 22.02.2022
Sputnik Light can become a major booster for those vaccinated with inactivated Chinese COVID vaccines globally after China has officially recommended mix & match approach with adenoviral vector-based vaccines as boosters
Press release, 21.02.2022
India: COVID-19 Vaccines – Announcements/Regulatory Actions/Deployment
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
Government of India – Press Information Bureau
Latest Press Releases
COVID – 19 Vaccination Update – Day 407
:: India’s cumulative vaccination coverage over 177.40Crore
:: More than 21 lakh Vaccine doses administered today till 7 pm
Posted On: 26 FEB 2022 8:06PM by PIB Delhi
Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR)
https://www.icmr.gov.in/media.html
Press Releases
No new digest content identified.
China: COVID-19 Vaccines – Announcements/Regulatory Actions/Deployment
National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://en.nhc.gov.cn/
News
Feb 26: Daily briefing on novel coronavirus cases in China
On Feb 25, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland reported 249 new cases of confirmed infections.
China widens choices for COVID-19 booster shots
Updated: 2022-02-21 | CHINA DAILY
China began delivering COVID-19 booster shots over the weekend based on technologies different from those used in initial inoculations in the country, in an effort to reinforce herd immunity against the disease.
The method, known as sequential immunization, targets people over 18 years old who are fully vaccinated with one of the three inactivated vaccines produced by Sinopharm and Sinovac Biotech, according to the National Health Commission. Two shots are required for full vaccination.
Instead of receiving an additional shot developed with the same technology, which has been standard practice in the country since October, people eligible for a booster now have wider choices. They can get a protein subunit COVID-19 vaccine made by Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical or a viral vector vaccine from CanSino Biologics.
Protein subunit vaccines use a subunit of virus antigen to trigger an immune response, and viral vector vaccines use a modified version of a different virus to instruct our cells to fight the virus, according to Chinese researchers.
“Research has shown that boosters of both the same and different technologies are effective at further improving protection against the disease,” Wu Liangyou, deputy director of the commission’s Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control, said at a briefing on Saturday. “The public only needs to select one of them.”…
Second medical team from mainland arrives in Hong Kong in fighting latest COVID-19 outbreak
2022-02-21
HONG KONG – The second team of mainland health experts and workers arrived in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) via the Shenzhen Bay Port on Saturday to work with the HKSAR government in fighting the latest COVID-19 outbreak.
The team is comprised of 114 members, including four critical care medical specialists, four administrative staff members, and 106 sampling workers.
The four critical care specialists will discuss with clinical medical experts in Hong Kong on the treatment of severe and critical COVID-19 cases, and share the treatment experience of COVID-19 patients in the mainland.
Also on Saturday, the construction of two community isolation and treatment facilities built with assistance from the mainland began at Penny’s Bay and Kai Tak Pier in Hong Kong, respectively.
Designed and constructed by China State Construction International Holdings Ltd, the two isolation facilities are expected to provide about 9,500 quarantine units when fully operational…
Emergencies
POLIO
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)
https://polioeradication.org/polio-today/polio-now/this-week/
Polio this week as of 23 February 2022
:: After the safe and successful rollout of nationwide polio campaigns since November 2021, we have received tragic news that 8 health workers at the forefront have been killed this morning in a series of shootings in Takhar and Kunduz in northeast Afghanistan. The vaccination campaign has been suspended in both provinces. A statement has been issued by the Regional Director of WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region, Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, as well as by the United Nations in the country, condemning these attacks, expressing condolences to the families and underscoring that the provision of health and the safety of health workers at the forefront are paramount, and must be kept neutral to any geo-political situation anywhere. Our thoughts and prayers are both with the families and our teams on the ground at this time.
:: Last week, Malawi reported a WPV1 case in a 3-year-old girl in the capital, Lilongwe. Analysis shows that the virus is genetically linked to WPV1 that was detected in Pakistan’s Sindh province in October 2019. This is the first WPV1 case from the continent of Africa in over five years. Read more…
Summary of new WPV and cVDPV viruses this week (AFP cases and ES positives):
– DR Congo: two cVDPV2 cases
– Madagascar: two cVDPV1 cases and six cVDPV1 positive environmental samples
– Malawi: one WPV1 case
– Nigeria: three cVDPV2 cases and eight positive environmental samples
– Yemen: three cVDPV2 cases
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Disease Outbreak News (DONs)
:: Lassa Fever – United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
21 February 2022
On 9 February 2022, WHO was notified by the United Kingdom health authorities of two laboratory confirmed cases and one probable case of Lassa fever. As of 18 February, three cases have been confirmed and one death has been reported. These are the first reported Lassa fever cases in the United Kingdom since 2009, and represents the second known case of secondary transmission of Lassa fever in Europe.
The first case travelled to Mali in late 2021, where Lassa fever is endemic. After returning to the United Kingdom, the individual developed symptoms of fever, fatigue and loose stool, and was subsequently hospitalized. The first case has now recovered. The second and third cases were family members of the first case and did not travel to Mali. Both were admitted to the hospital and the third case has sadly died…
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WHO/OCHA Emergencies
Health emergencies list – WHO
“The health emergencies list details the disease outbreaks, disasters and humanitarian crises where WHO plays an essential role in supporting countries to respond to and recover from emergencies with public health consequences.”
Afghanistan crisis [Last apparent update: 17 Jan 2022]
Crisis in Northern Ethiopia [Last apparent update: 1 June 2021]
Ebola outbreak, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2021 [Last apparent update: 17 Aug 2021]
Ebola outbreak outbreak, N’Zerekore, Guinea, 2021 [Last apparent update: 17 Aug 2021]
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic [See COVID above]
Ebola outbreak, Equateur Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2020
[Last apparent update: 17 Aug 2021]
Ebola outbreak, North Kivu, Ituri, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2018 – 2020
[Last apparent update: 17 Aug 2021]
Ebola outbreak, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2018 [Last apparent update: 24 July 2018]
Yemen crisis [Last apparent update: 12 February 2021]
Syria crisis [Last apparent update: 18 June 2021]
Somalia crisis [Last apparent update: 24 March 2018]
Nigeria crisis [Last apparent update: 1 Oct 2021]
Ebola outbreak, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2017 [Last apparent update: 17 Aug 2021]
Zika virus disease outbreak, 2015-2016 [Last apparent update: 24 Jan 2020]
Ebola outbreak: West Africa, 2014-2016 [Last apparent update: 17 Aug 2021]
Iraq crisis [Last apparent update: 9 Jan 2008]
South Sudan crisis [Last apparent update: 23 Sep 2020]
Avian influenza A (H7N9) virus outbreak [Last apparent update: 13 September 2021]
Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) outbreak [Last apparent update: 8 July 2019]
Influenza A (H1N1) virus, 2009-2010 pandemic [Last apparent update: 10 Aug 2010]
::::::
UN OCHA – Current Emergencies
Current Corporate Emergencies
Afghanistan
No new updates identified.
Northern Ethiopia
Ethiopia – Northern Ethiopia Humanitarian Update Situation Report, 24 February 2022
HIGHLIGHTS
Regional authorities estimate few hundred thousand people displaced in Zone 2 in Afar, while displacement is still ongoing, significantly increasing the needs in the region.
More than 6.8 million people reached with of food assistance in Amhara under the current food distribution cycle launched two months ago.
About 4 MT of seeds distributed to more than 11,000 farming households in Tigray since the start of the year.
More than 1,500 children, including more than 630 girls, in 13 schools in Dubti and Awash Fentale woredas in Afar enrolled in informal learning programs.
Humanitarian partners continue to reduce their operations in Tigray due to lack of supplies, fuel, and cash.
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WHO & Regional Offices [to 26 Feb 2022]
https://www.who.int/
News [Selected]
25 February 2022
News release
Recommendations announced for influenza vaccine composition for the 2022-2023 northern hemisphere influenza season
24 February 2022
Statement
WHO Director-General: Deeply concerned over escalating health crisis in Ukraine
24 February 2022
Departmental news
WHO and NAM encourage digital platforms to apply global principles for identifying credible sources of health information
[See Perspectives above for detail]
23 February 2022
Departmental news
ILO-WHO step up collaboration to address health emergencies and promote healthier and safer working populations
23 February 2022
News release
Moving forward on goal to boost local pharmaceutical production, WHO establishes global biomanufacturing training hub in Republic of Korea
22 February 2022
Statement
Statement on Omicron sublineage BA.2
[See COVID above for detail]
22 February 2022
Departmental news
WHO launches new guideline for the control and elimination of human schistosomiasis
21 February 2022
Departmental news
The Vaccine Manufacturing Workshop for South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions ended
21 February 2022
Joint News Release
New WHO/ILO guide urges greater safeguards to protect health workers
21 February 2022
Departmental news
WHO validates Saudi Arabia for eliminating trachoma as a public health problem
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WHO Regional Offices
Selected Press Releases, Announcements
WHO African Region
:: New push to drive up Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination
24 February 2022 Brazzaville – One year since the COVAX Facility delivered the first COVID-19 vaccines to Africa, around 400 million doses have been administered – the region’s largest ever vaccine rollout in a single year. However, vaccination rates in the continent are the lowest in the world. To help bolster uptake, World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and partners are supporting mass vaccination campaigns in 10 priority countries to reach 100 million people by the end of April 2022.
:: Mauritius’ strong COVID-19 vaccination drive reaches 76% of population 25 February 2022
:: Ramping up COVID-19 vaccination among Kenya’s hard-to-reach communities 22 February 2022
WHO Region of the Americas PAHO
:: PAHO Urges Increased Polio Vaccination of Children in the Americas
23 Feb 2022 Only 82% of children received a third dose of polio vaccine in 2020, the lowest rate since 1994 Washington, DC, February 23, 2022 (PAHO)- The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is calling on the countries of the Americas to redouble efforts to vaccinate children against polio. The vaccination rate with all three doses of the polio…
:: Low vaccination rates in the Caribbean must be urgently addressed to stop the spread of COVID-19 says PAHO Director
23 Feb 2022 10 out of 13 countries and territories in the Americas yet to reach 40% coverage are in the Caribbean but the tide can still be turned with targeted interventions Washington D.C. 23 February 2022 (PAHO) – Low vaccination coverage in many countries of the Caribbean must be urgently addressed to stop the spread of COVID-19 and protect the most…
WHO South-East Asia Region SEARO
No new digest content identified
WHO European Region EURO
:: WHO/Europe Statement on Ukraine (24 February 2022) 24-02-2022
WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region EMRO
:: COVID-19 triggers critical care and ICU capacity-building by WHO in fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable countries 24 February 2022
:: WHO and IsDB in Yemen: ensuring treatment for children with genetic blood disorders 23 February 2022
:: Somalia hosts first ever health research conference in Garowe 20 February 2022
WHO Western Pacific Region
No new digest content identified
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WHO Events
https://www.who.int/news-room/events/2
[Selected]
9th ACT-Accelerator Facilitation Council meeting
28 February 2022 12:30 – 15:00 CET
Primary Objectives
:: To take stock of progress to meet global COVID-19 targets for vaccines, tests, treatments and PPE
:: Share country experience, lessons learnt and progress in meeting global COVID-19 targets
:: Reinforce Facilitation Council commitment and political support for the ACT-Accelerator campaign
Expanding our understanding of post COVID-19 condition web series: Neurology and Mental Health
1 March 2022 13:30 – 15:30 CET
Global Evidence Review on Health and Migration: Strengthening information about health services related to NCDs for refugees and migrants to support evidence-based policy making on migration and health
1 March 2022 14:00 – 15:00 CET
Malaria vaccine R&D and immunization: lessons learned and considerations for global health impact
3 March 2022 09:00 – 12:00 ET
Immunization and vaccines related implementation research advisory committee (IVIR-AC) – March 2022
7 – 11 March 2022
::::::
New WHO Publications
https://www.who.int/publications/i
Selected Titles
25 February 2022
Shaping the global innovation and access landscape for better paediatric medicines
Overview
The lack of appropriate paediatric medicines and formulations is hindering the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and universal health coverage and is putting children’s lives at risk.
The Global Accelerator for Paediatric Formulations Strategy (GAP-f) 2022–2024 strategy builds from the work undertaken to date by the network of leading partners, both individually and collectively, through GAP-f. With this new strategy, we are excited to increase our footprint into a broader set of diseases to bring us closer to our vision of all children having equitable access to the medicines they need.
23 February 2022
Annexes to the recommendations for use of the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine against COVID-19
23 February 2022
Interim recommendations for use of the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine against COVID-19
22 February 2022
WHO Pharmaceuticals Newsletter – N°1, 2022
21 February 2022
Global vaccine safety blueprint 2.0 (GVSB2.0) 2021-2023
Overview
The lack of appropriate paediatric medicines and formulations is hindering the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and universal health coverage and is putting children’s lives at risk.
The Global Accelerator for Paediatric Formulations Strategy (GAP-f) 2022–2024 strategy builds from the work undertaken to date by the network of leading partners, both individually and collectively, through GAP-f. With this new strategy, we are excited to increase our footprint into a broader set of diseases to bring us closer to our vision of all children having equitable access to the medicines they need.
CDC/ACIP [U.S.] [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://www.cdc.gov/media/index.html
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/index.html
Latest News Releases, Announcements [Selected]
No new digest content identified.
ACIP Meetings
Next meeting scheduled for February 23-24, 2022
Draft Agenda – February 23-24, 2022
Presentations
MMWR Weekly: Current Volume (71)
February 25, 2022 / No. 8 PDF of this issue
Interim Guidance: 4-Month Rifapentine-Moxifloxacin Regimen for the Treatment of Drug-Susceptible Pulmonary Tuberculosis — United States, 2022
Use of Ebola Vaccine: Expansion of Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices To Include Two Additional Populations — United States, 2021
Antigen Test Positivity After COVID-19 Isolation — Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Region, Alaska, January–February 2022
Results from a Test-to-Release from Isolation Strategy Among Fully Vaccinated National Football League Players and Staff Members with COVID-19 — United States, December 14–19, 2021
Pediatric Emergency Department Visits Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic— United States, January 2019–January 2022
Pediatric Emergency Department Visits Associated with Mental Health Conditions Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, January 2019–January 2022
Erratum: Vol. 71, No. 3
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)– CDC
Approximately 25 announcements/reports/data summaries.
2/25/22Transcript for CDC Media Telebriefing: Update on COVID-19
2/25/22Cases in the U.S.
2/25/22EARLY RELEASE: SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 (Omicron) Variant Transmission Within Households — Four U.S. Jurisdictions, November 2021–February 2022
2/25/22CDC Media Telebriefing: Update on COVID-19
2/25/22Overall US COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution and Administration Update as of Fri, 25 Feb 2022 06:00:00 EST
Africa CDC [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://www.africacdc.org/
News
Tropical Storm Ana Hits hard five countries in the Southern Africa Region
28 January 2022
Africa CDC News
Capacity building for South Sudan health emergency responders on the Incident Management System
26 January 2022
Press Releases
Parsyl partners with Africa CDC to distribute 10,000 vaccine monitoring devices in support of continent’s COVID-19 response
China CDC http://www.chinacdc.cn/en/
National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://en.nhc.gov.cn/
News
Feb 26: Daily briefing on novel coronavirus cases in China
On Feb 25, 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland reported 249 new cases of confirmed infections.
China widens choices for COVID-19 booster shots
Updated: 2022-02-21 | CHINA DAILY
Second medical team from mainland arrives in Hong Kong in fighting latest COVID-19 outbreak
2022-02-21
National Medical Products Administration – PRC [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://english.nmpa.gov.cn/
News
Over 3.1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses administered on Chinese mainland
2022-02-25
The number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered on the Chinese mainland had reached over 3.1 billion by Wednesday, data from the National Health Commission showed.
CCDC Weekly Reports: Current Volume (4)
2022-02-25 / No. 8 PARASITIC DISEASE ISSUE
View PDF of this issue
Preplanned Studies: A Knowledge Survey on Health Education of Echinococcosis Among Students — Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China, 2020
Preplanned Studies: Intestinal Protozoan Infections in Patients with Diarrhea — Shanghai Municipality, Zhenjiang City, and Danyang City, China, 2011–2015 and 2019–2021
Preplanned Studies: Transmission Risks of Mountain-Type Zoonotic Visceral Leishmaniasis — Six Endemic Provincial-Level Administrative Divisions, China, 2015–2020
Commentary: Ending the “Neglect” to End Neglected Tropical Diseases
Editor’s Note:
Careful readers will note that the number and range of organizations now monitored in our Announcements section below has grown as the impacts of the pandemic have spread across global economies, supply chains and programmatic activity of multilateral agencies and INGOs.
Airfinity [to 26 Feb 2022]
https://www.airfinity.com/insi ghts
INSIGHTS & COMPANY NEWS
No new digest content identified.
Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group [to 26 Feb 2022]
News
No new digest content identified.
BMGF – Gates Foundation [to 26 Feb 2022]
Press Releases and Statements
No new digest content identified.
Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute [to 26 Feb 2022]
The Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute is a non-profit biotech organization. Our mission is to develop products to fight malaria, tuberculosis, and diarrheal diseases—three major causes of mortality, poverty, and inequality in developing countries. The world has unprecedented scientific tools at its disposal; now is the time to use them to save the lives of the world’s poorest people
No new digest content identified.
News
No new digest content identified.
Center for Vaccine Ethics and Policy – GE2P2 Global Foundation [to 26 Feb 2022]
https://centerforvaccineethicsandpolicy.net/
:: Informed Consent: A Monthly Review – February 2022is now posted here
:: Past weekly editions and posting of all segments of Vaccines and Global Health: The Week in Review are available here.
CEPI – Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations [to 26 Feb 2022]
Japan pledges US$300 million to CEPI’s pandemic preparedness plan
UK pledges £160 million to CEPI to boost global vaccine development
New global vaccine trial launched to evaluate fractional COVID-19 booster shots
CEPI, THSTI and Panacea Biotec partner to develop broadly protective Betacoronavirus vaccines
21 Feb 2022
DARPA – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency [U.S.] [to 26 Feb 2022
News
No new digest content identified.
Duke Global Health Innovation Center [to 26 Feb 2022]
No new digest content identified.
The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) aims to accelerate the development of new or improved drugs, vaccines, microbicides and diagnostics against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as well as other poverty-related and neglected infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on phase II and III clinical trials
News
25 February 2022
Emory Vaccine Center [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://www.vaccines.emory.edu/
Vaccine Center News
No new digest content identified.
European Vaccine Initiative [to 26 Feb 2022]
Latest News, Events
No new digest content identified.
Evidence Aid [to 26 Feb 2022]
Evidence Aid aims to save lives and livelihoods in disasters by providing decision-makers with the best available evidence and by championing its use.
Promotional communications for influenza vaccination programmes Added February 25, 2022
Fondation Merieux [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://www.fondation-merieux.org/
Announcement
Passing of Professor François Gros
February 20, 2022 – Lyon, France
The Mérieux Foundation was deeply moved to learn of the death of Professor François Gros, President of Honor of its Board of Directors, on February 18, 2022.
A French biologist, he was internationally recognized for his contribution to the discovery of messenger RNA and for his career as a researcher and teacher dedicated to the study of genes and their role in the regulation of cellular functions.
Head of the Pasteur Institute from 1976 to 1982, advisor to Prime Ministers Pierre Mauroy and Laurent Fabius, he was also Permanent Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences and member of the Institut de France…
News Releases
No new digest content identified.
https://www.ghitfund.org/newsroom/press
No new digest content identified.
https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/news/
News & Stories
23 February 2022
Global Fund Applauds UK Contribution to the COVID-19 Response Mechanism
25 February 2022
GENEVA – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria applauds the decision by the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office to contribute GBP 60 million to the Global Fund’s COVID-19 Response Mechanism…
Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness [GloPID-R] [to 26 Feb 2022]
https://www.glopid-r.org/news/
News
No new digest content identified.
Hilleman Laboratories [to 26 Feb 2022]
News & Insights
22 February 2022
Hilleman Laboratories breaks ground on pilot cGMP facility for vaccine development
New facility is part of SGD80 million vaccine development and manufacturing hub in Singapore
HHMI – Howard Hughes Medical Institute [to 26 Feb 2022]
Press Room
Research Feb 23 2022
How Some Gut Microbes Awaken Zombie Viruses in Their Neighbors
Gut bacteria brew all sorts of chemicals, but we don’t know what most of them do. A new study suggests that one such compound, previously linked to cancer, may serve as a bizarre weapon in microbial skirmishes.
Human Vaccines Project [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://www.humanvaccinesproject.org/
News
Feb 18, 2022
Kristen Jill Abboud: How Many Doses of COVID-19 Vaccines Are Enough?
IAVI [to 26 Feb 2022]
No new digest content identified
International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities [ICMRA]
http://www.icmra.info/drupal/en/news
Selected Statements, Press Releases, Research
No new digest content identified.
IFFIm
Press Releases/Announcements
No new digest content identified.
IFRC [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/news/press-releases/
Selected Press Releases, Announcements
Afghanistan: Global support critical as COVID runs r…
Madagascar: Red Cross teams rush to avert a tragedy
Institut Pasteur [to 26 Feb 2022]
https://www.pasteur.fr/en/press-area
Press release
21.02.2022
Transplantation chemotherapy eliminates regenerative capacity of brain’s innate immune cells
Annually over 50,000 bone marrow transplantations occur worldwide as a therapy for multiple cancerous and non-cancerous…
Press release
21.02.2022
Death of Professor François Gros, on February 18, 2022
IOM / International Organization for Migration [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://www.iom.int/press-room/press-releases
News – Selected
News
24 Feb 2022
Statement on the Situation in Ukraine: IOM Director General António Vitorino
ISC / International Science Council [to 26 Feb 2022]
https://council.science/current/
ISC is a non-governmental organization with a unique global membership that brings together 40 international scientific Unions and Associations and over 140 national and regional scientific organizations including Academies and Research Councils.
Heide Hackmann to step down as CEO of International Science Council
The International Science Council (ISC) today announces that Heide Hackmann will step down as Chief Executive Officer. Mathieu Denis, Science Director, will become Acting CEO, and a recruitment process for a new CEO of the ISC is underway.
Heide Hackmann has served as Chief Executive Officer of the International Science Council (ISC) since its creation in 2018, and as Executive Director of the ISC’s two predecessor organizations: the International Social Science Council (ISSC), from 2006 to 2015, and the International Council for Science (ICSU), from 2015 to 2018…
IVAC [to 26 Feb 2022]
No new digest content identified.
IVI [to 26 Feb 2022]
No new digest content identified.
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security [to 26 Feb 2022]
https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/news/center-news/
Center News
Health Security Releases Special Feature on US Gene Drive Governance
February 24, 2022
MSF/Médecins Sans Frontières [to 26 Feb 2022]
Latest [Selected Announcements]
War and conflict
MSF assesses response as Ukraine conflict escalates
Statement 25 Feb 2022
Nigeria
Tackling deadly and difficult-to-diagnose Lassa fever
Project Update 25 Feb 2022
Niger
Airstrike kills 12 people including children in south Niger
Press Release 21 Feb 2022
National Academy of Sciences – USA [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://www.nasonline.org/news-and-multimedia/
News
No new digest content identified.
National Vaccine Program Office – U.S. HHS [to 26 Feb 2022]
https://www.hhs.gov/vaccines/about/index.html
Upcoming Meetings/Latest Updates
No new digest content identified.
http://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases
People from racial, ethnic, and other groups report frequent COVID-19–related discrimination
February 24, 2022 — Study highlights the need for public health messaging strategies that address biases against all population groups that have been marginalized.
OECD [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/publicationsdocuments/bydate/
Newsroom
Following on from yesterday’s statement condemning the large scale aggression by Russia against Ukraine in the strongest possible terms and as part of its urgent reconsideration of all cooperation with Russia, the OECD Council has taken a number of initial decisions today.
25 Feb 2022
Plastic pollution is growing relentlessly as waste management and recycling fall short, says OECD
The world is producing twice as much plastic waste as two decades ago, with the bulk of it ending up in landfill, incinerated or leaking into the environment, and only 9% successfully recycled, according to a new OECD report.
22 Feb 2022
EU countries fall short of their promises to stop tax havens
24 February 2022
Today, European ministers updated the EU’s list of tax havens. The update added no countries to the blacklist and 10 countries to the greylist.
New EU proposal on sustainable business needs fixing to work for people and the planet
23 February 2022
Today, the European Commission put forward a proposal for a law to clean up supply chains worldwide and make business sustainable. This new law will introduce important reforms only applying to a small group of very large companies selling goods and services on the EU market. Contrary to the Commission’s initial ambitions, it does not include significant reforms to directors’ duties.
PATH [to 26 Feb 2022]
https://www.path.org/media-center/
Press Releases
No new digest content identified.
Sabin Vaccine Institute [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://www.sabin.org/updates/pressreleases
Statements and Press Releases
No new digest content identified.
UNAIDS [to 26 Feb 2022]
Selected Press Releases/Reports/Statements
23 February 2022
“They [the transgender community] don’t have to be products. They can be producers too”
22 February 2022
What’s the impact of the new HIV variant on the HIV response?
21 February 2022
Four years of the Fast-Track cities project—what have we achieved and learned, and what is next?
21 February 2022
Many key populations avoid health services
UNHCR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/media-centre.htmlS
Selected News Releases, Announcements
No new digest content identified.
https://www.unicef.org/media/press-releases
Press Releases, News Notes, Statements [Selected]
No new digest content identified.
Unitaid [to 26 Feb 2022]
Featured News
23 February 2022
The ACT-A Oxygen Emergency Taskforce…one year on
21 February 2022
…As co-founder and chief strategist of PIH, his influence was integral to the delivery of several successful joint projects with Unitaid, including one of Unitaid’s flagship TB investments, which aimed at improving treatment for multidrug-resistant TB around the world…
21 February 2022
Unitaid appoints Tenu Avafia Deputy Executive Director
Geneva – Unitaid is pleased to welcome Tenu Avafia as its Deputy Executive Director. Tenu brings over 20 years of professional and managerial experience in public health, human rights inclusive development and trade-related matters across country, regional and global settings…
Vaccine Equity Cooperative [nee Initiative] [to 26 Feb 2022]
News
No new digest content identified.
Vaccination Acceptance & Demand Initiative [Sabin) [to 26 Feb 2022]
https://www.vaccineacceptance.org/
Announcements
No new digest content identified.
Vaccine Confidence Project [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://www.vaccineconfidence.org/
News, Research and Reports
No new digest content identified.
Vaccine Education Center – Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-education-center
February 2022
Announcements: Register for the March webinar; find out about new and updated videos
On March 16, 2022, at noon ET, Dr. Offit will discuss: “Approving COVID-19 Vaccines for Children: When Do We Know Enough?”
Registration open!
Wellcome Trust [to 26 Feb 2022]
News. Opinion, Reports
Opinion
Author: Raphael Sonabend
Standardising health and climate metrics to drive urgent action
22 February 2022
The Wistar Institute [to 26 Feb 2022]
No new digest content identified.
WFPHA: World Federation of Public Health Associations [to 26 Feb 2022]
Latest News – Blog
No new digest content identified.
World Bank [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/all
KATHMANDU, February 25, 2022 – The Government of Nepal and the World Bank today signed an agreement for a second additional concessional loan financing of $18 million (Rs. 2.14 billion) for COVID-19…
Date: February 25, 2022 Type: Press Release
COVID-19 Trade Policy Database: Food and Medical Products
Many governments are using trade policy measures to increase the availability of medical and food products during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tracking them is important for assessing their incidence, effectiveness…
Date: February 25, 2022 Type: Brief
World Customs Organization – WCO [to 26 Feb 2022]
Latest News – Selected Items
21 February 2022
WCO Secretary General addresses data, e-commerce and illicit trade at the Munich Security Conference
…The WCO-coordinated enforcement operations demonstrated that e-commerce has become one of the major conduits for illicit trade. Therefore, it has become essential to obtain access to good quality data for risk management purposes, using digital technology in a paperless trade environment. Like in the case of traditional containerized trade, where there is an established data flow from the trade community to Customs, there is also a need for Customs to enhance cooperation with the e-commerce operators, including e-commerce platforms…
World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) [to 26 Feb 2022]
Press Releases, Statements
No new digest content identified.
WTO – World Trade Organisation [to 26 Feb 2022]
http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news_e.htm
WTO members agree on mid-June dates for reconvening MC12
23 February 2022
WTO members agreed on 23 February that the postponed 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) will now take place during the week of 13 June in Geneva. The decision at a meeting of the organization’s General Council was taken following the easing of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in the host country Switzerland.
MC12 was due to take place from 30 November to 3 December 2021 but was postponed due to the outbreak of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, which led to the imposition of travel restrictions and quarantine requirements in Switzerland and many other European countries.
Ambassador Dacio Castillo of Honduras, the chair of the General Council, noted that fixing the dates for the eagerly awaited meeting should provide impetus to the WTO’s work and focus for the discussion on ministerial outcomes. The exact dates of the meeting will be defined later, he noted.
“Let us work together, with the primary objective in mind, that the Conference will provide the WTO, and us here in Geneva, with an opportunity to demonstrate that the WTO can deliver,” Ambassador Castillo declared. “Let us make this count.”
The pandemic has twice forced the postponement of MC12. The meeting was originally scheduled to take place in June 2020 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
::::::
Editor’s Note:
This WTA announcement does not happen to note that resolution of TRIPS intellectual property issues around COVID vaccines has been confounded by recurring MC12 scheduling delays, as well as WTA decisions taken such resolution could not be achieved from meaningful work outside of the MC12 meeting format.
::::::
ARM [Alliance for Regenerative Medicine] [to 26 Feb 2022]
Selected Press Releases
No new digest content identified.
BIO [to 26 Feb 2022]
Press Releases, Letters, Testimony, Comments [Selected]
No new digest content identified.
DCVMN – Developing Country Vaccine Manufacturers Network [to 26 Feb 2022]
No new digest content identified.
ICBA – International Council of Biotechnology Associations [to 26 Feb 2022]
News
Website still in “maintenance mode”
http://www.ifpma.org/resources/news-releases/
Selected Press Releases, Statements, Publications
Three priorities to urgently increase access to COVID-19 vaccines
25 February 2022
[See COVID above for detail]
Position paper – In-country testing of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products
25 February 2022
This paper discusses specifics of ATMPs, where traditional in-country testing is challenging, outlining existing control strategies to detect potential issues, with recommendations to waive in-country testing without compromising product safety, quality and efficacy and in compliance with requirements, i.e., by recognition of certificates from countries with mature National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs).*
* Mature NRAs refers to Stringent Regulatory Authorities, SRAs [1-3]. A list of SRAs has been published by the WHO here. Once the WHO listed authority (WLA) system is fully implemented the term WLA will replace the term SRA.
International Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association [IGBA]
News
No new digest content identified.
International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations – IAPO [to 26 Feb 2022]
https://www.iapo.org.uk/news/topic/6
Press and media [Selected]
Invitation to participate in our Global Health Technology Assessment Survey
Tuesday, 22 February 2022
Patient involvement in Global Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is still in its infancy, although several efforts continue to be initiated in recent years.
In response, IAPO and DUKE NUS are conducting a global survey to assess patients’ awareness, involvement and learning needs in HTA in order to develop training materials that meet the learning needs of patient organizations to support them to be meaningfully involved in HTA processes….
Take the survey in: English Spanish Chinese or Thai
PhRMA [to 26 Feb 2022]
Latest News [Selected]
No new digest content identified.
Journal Watch
Vaccines and Global Health: The Week in Review continues its weekly scanning of key peer-reviewed journals to identify and cite articles, commentary and editorials, books reviews and other content supporting our focu-s on vaccine ethics and policy. Journal Watch is not intended to be exhaustive, but indicative of themes and issues the Center is actively tracking. We selectively provide full text of some editorial and comment articles that are specifically relevant to our work. Successful access to some of the links provided may require subscription or other access arrangement unique to the publisher.
If you would like to suggest other journal titles to include in this service, please contact David Curry at: david.r.curry@centerforvaccineethicsandpolicy.org
AMA Journal of Ethics
Volume 24, Number 2: E107-163 Feb 2022
https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/issue/tactical-health-and-law-enforcement
Tactical Health and Law Enforcement
Tactical health involves providing field-based clinical support to law enforcement operations during frontline crisis interventions and prehospital emergency care. Health professional skill can inform individual officers’ occupational health maintenance and help agents of the state navigate primary and secondary trauma and posttrauma experiences in field- and clinic-based settings. Tactical health expertise can also inform department- and agency-level policies, decisions, and responses to community health and safety threats. Ethical questions considered in this issue focus on the nature and scope of health professionals’ collaborations with law enforcement personnel during and following critical event preparation and responses.
BMC Infectious Diseases
http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcinfectdis/content
(Accessed 26 Feb 2022)
Pneumococcal meningitis and COVID-19: dangerous coexistence. A case report
SARS-CoV-2 is the major cause of infections in humans since December 2019 and is top of the global health concern currently. Streptococcus pneumoniae is one of the leading pathogens of invasive bacterial diseases…
Authors: Katarzyna Guziejko, Piotr Czupryna, Ewa Katarzyna Zielenkiewicz-Madejska and Anna Moniuszko-Malinowska
Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:182
Content type: Case report
Published on: 23 February 2022
BMC Infectious Diseases
http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcinfectdis/content
(Accessed 26 Feb 2022)
Pneumococcal meningitis and COVID-19: dangerous coexistence. A case report
SARS-CoV-2 is the major cause of infections in humans since December 2019 and is top of the global health concern currently. Streptococcus pneumoniae is one of the leading pathogens of invasive bacterial diseases…
Authors: Katarzyna Guziejko, Piotr Czupryna, Ewa Katarzyna Zielenkiewicz-Madejska and Anna Moniuszko-Malinowska
Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:182
Content type: Case report
Published on: 23 February 2022
BMC Medical Ethics
http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmedethics/content
(Accessed 26 Feb 2022)
Development and validation of an instrument to measure pediatric nurses’ adherence to ethical codes
Authors: Raziyeh Beykmirza, Lida Nikfarid, Reza Negarandeh, Naeimeh Sarkhani and Mahboube Moradi Cherati
Content type: Research
25 February 2022
BMC Medicine
http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmed/content
(Accessed 26 Feb 2022)
Determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2: a population-based longitudinal study (COVIDENCE UK)
Prospective population-based studies investigating multiple determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 are lacking.
Authors: Mohammad Talaei, Sian Faustini, Hayley Holt, David A. Jolliffe, Giulia Vivaldi, Matthew Greenig, Natalia Perdek, Sheena Maltby, Carola M. Bigogno, Jane Symons, Gwyneth A. Davies, Ronan A. Lyons, Christopher J. Griffiths, Frank Kee, Aziz Sheikh, Alex G. Richter…
Citation: BMC Medicine 2022 20:87
Content type: Research article
Published on: 22 February 2022
BMC Public Health
http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles
(Accessed 26 Feb 2022)
Association between risk perception and influenza vaccine hesitancy for children among reproductive women in China during the COVID-19 pandemic: a national online survey
In China, the national prevalence of parental influenza vaccine hesitancy (IVH) during the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and the association between risk perception and parental IVH are stil…
Authors: Min Du, Liyuan Tao and Jue Liu
Citation: BMC Public Health 2022 22:385
Content type: Research
Published on: 23 February 2022
BMC Public Health
http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles
(Accessed 26 Feb 2022)
Association between social media use and the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination among the general population in Saudi Arabia – a cross-sectional study
The Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a worldwide global public health threat. Although acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination will be a critical step in combating the pandemic, achieving high upt…
Authors: Sahar S. Othman, Abeer Alsuwaidi, Rafal Aseel, Reema Alotaibi, Reem Bablgoom, Ghadeer alsulami, Razan Alharbi and Ranya Ghamri
Citation: BMC Public Health 2022 22:375
Content type: Research
Published on: 21 February 2022
The CRISPR Journal
Volume 5, Issue 1 / February 2022
https://www.liebertpub.com/toc/crispr/5/1
Editorial
CRISPR Rewrites the Future of Medicine
Rodolphe Barrangou
Published Online:22 February 2022
…As always, the CRISPR collaborative network relies on teamwork, encompassing leaders in academia, clinical settings, and regulatory agencies enabling industry pioneers to develop CRISPR drugs. Critical translational endeavors by genome-editing companies and their pharmaceutical partners are translating progress into actual therapies that patients need, barely 2 years after the initial dosing of SCD patient Victoria Gray.
Several ongoing studies are anticipated to corroborate the safety and efficacy of CRISPR medicines, with about 50 studies currently registered on clinicaltrials.gov. Active studies in the aforementioned disorders and immunotherapies will be joined by trials on lymphoma (CB010A), myeloma (CTX-120), leukemia (NTLA-5001), carcinoma (CTX-130), Leber congenital amaurosis (EDIT-101), angioedema (NTLA-2002) and others, with more than two dozen studies actively recruiting. Most activity is centered in the United States and China, with trials also taking place in the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Sweden, and New Zealand, illustrating the global enthusiasm for CRISPR-based therapies.
CRISPR’s path to the clinic is reaching a critical point where clinical-stage development requires translational efforts by biotech pioneers joining forces with pharmaceutical companies to scale up these programs. Publicly disclosed partnerships include Intellia Therapeutics with Regeneron and Novartis; Editas Medicine with Bristol Myers Squibb and AskBio; CRISPR Therapeutics with Vertex and Bayer; Beam Therapeutics with Pfizer; and Caribou Biosciences with Abbvie. This trend has inspired additional partnerships and investments in up-and-coming players such as Mammoth Biosciences and Metagenomi, as well as fueling next-generation CRISPR startups such as Prime Medicine, Graphite Bio, LifeEDIT, Scribe Therapeutics, Tessera Therapeutics, Tome Biosciences, and Tune Therapeutics.
We thank our special issue guest editors, Annarita Miccio (Institut Imagine, Paris) and Matthew Porteus (Stanford University), for helping to shepherd this issue to completion. The articles in this issue illustrate how quickly translational efforts are progressing, how far into the clinic we already are, and set the stage for the expanded and accelerated deployment of CRISPR therapeutic payloads. We look forward to following this path in future issues of The CRISPR Journal.
The CRISPR Journal
Volume 5, Issue 1 / February 2022
https://www.liebertpub.com/toc/crispr/5/1
Guest Editorial
CRISPR’s Path to the Clinic
Annarita Miccio
Pages:2–3
Published Online:22 February 2022
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness
Volume 15 – Issue 6 – December 2021
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/disaster-medicine-and-public-health-preparedness/latest-issue
Commentary
The Importance of Developing Rigorous Social Science Methods for Community Engagement and Behavior Change During Outbreak Response
Henry C. Ashworth, Sara Dada, Conor Buggy, Shelley Lees
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 July 2020, pp. 685-690
Abstract
Despite growing international attention, the anthropological and socio-behavioral elements of epidemics continue to be understudied and under resourced and lag behind the traditional outbreak response infrastructure. As seen in the current 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the importance of socio-behavioral elements in understanding transmission and facilitating control of many outbreak-prone pathogens, this is problematic. Beyond the recent strengthening of global outbreak response capacities and global health security measures, a greater focus on the socio-behavioral components of outbreak response is required. We add to the current discussion by briefly highlighting the importance of socio-behavior in the Ebola virus disease (EVD) response, and describe vital areas of future development, including methods for community engagement and validated frameworks for behavioral modeling and change in outbreak settings.
Ethics & International Affairs
Winter 2021 (35.4) | December 2021
https://www.ethicsandinternationalaffairs.org/2021/winter-2021-35-4/
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FEATURE
On the Ethics of Vaccine Nationalism: The Case for the Fair Priority for Residents Framework
Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Allen Buchanan, Shuk Ying Chan, Cécile Fabre, Daniel Halliday, R. J. Leland, Florencia Luna, Matthew S. McCoy, Ole F. Norheim, G. Owen Schaefer, Kok-Chor Tan, Christopher Heath Wellman
Abstract
COVID-19 vaccines are likely to be scarce for years to come. Many countries, from India to the U.K., have demonstrated vaccine nationalism. What are the ethical limits to this vaccine nationalism? Neither extreme nationalism nor extreme cosmopolitanism is ethically justifiable. Instead, we propose the fair priority for residents (FPR) framework, in which governments can retain COVID-19 vaccine doses for their residents only to the extent that they are needed to maintain a noncrisis level of mortality while they are implementing reasonable public health interventions. Practically, a noncrisis level of mortality is that experienced during a bad influenza season, which society considers an acceptable background risk. Governments take action to limit mortality from influenza, but there is no emergency that includes severe lockdowns. This “flu-risk standard” is a nonarbitrary and generally accepted heuristic. Mortality above the flu-risk standard justifies greater governmental interventions, including retaining vaccines for a country’s own citizens over global need. The precise level of vaccination needed to meet the flu-risk standard will depend upon empirical factors related to the pandemic. This links the ethical principles to the scientific data emerging from the emergency. Thus, the FPR framework recognizes that governments should prioritize procuring vaccines for their country when doing so is necessary to reduce mortality to noncrisis flu-like levels. But after that, a government is obligated to do its part to share vaccines to reduce risks of mortality for people in other countries. We consider and reject objections to the FPR framework based on a country: (1) having developed a vaccine, (2) raising taxes to pay for vaccine research and purchase, (3) wanting to eliminate economic and social burdens, and (4) being ineffective in combating COVID-19 through public health interventions.
Global Public Health
Volume 17, Issue 3 (2022)
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rgph20/current
Article
Health equity and health system strengthening – Time for a WHO re-think
N. Jensen, A. H. Kelly & M. Avendano
Pages: 377-390
Published online: 10 Jan 2021
ABSTRACT
The pursuit of health equity is foundational to the global health enterprise. But while moral concerns over health inequities can galvanise political commitment, how such concerns can or should translate into practice remains less clear. This paper reviews evolving ways that equity goals have featured in key World Health Organization (WHO)-related policy documents, before discussing the heuristic value and empirical traction that the concept of equity can bring to the health system strengthening (HSS) agenda. We argue that while health equity is often presented as the overarching goal of HSS, in practice this is typically circumscribed to the provision of healthcare services. Although healthcare equity is important, we suggest that this narrow focus risks losing sight of the structural political, social and economic drivers of health and health inequities, as well as the broader contexts of care and complex socio-political mechanisms through which health systems are strengthened. Drawing on new lines of empirical inquiry, we propose that broadening the equity lens for HSS offers exciting opportunities to put health systems at the heart of a more ambitious equity agenda in global health.
Globalization and Health
http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/
[Accessed 26 Feb 2022]
How are global health policies transferred to sub-Saharan Africa countries? A systematic critical review of literature
Most sub-Saharan Africa countries adopt global health policies. However, mechanisms with which policy transfers occur have largely been studied amongst developed countries and much less in low- and middle- inc…
Authors: Walter Denis Odoch, Flavia Senkubuge, Ann Bosibori Masese and Charles Hongoro
Citation: Globalization and Health 2022 18:25
Content type: Research
Published on: 23 February 2022
Globalization and Health
http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/
[Accessed 26 Feb 2022]
Redressing COVID-19 vaccine inequity amidst booster doses: charting a bold path for global health solidarity, together
With large swathes of the world’s population—majority clustered in low- and middle-income countries—still yet to receive the minimum of two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine; The need to address the failures of in…
Authors: Sudhan Rackimuthu, Kapil Narain, Arush Lal, Faisal A. Nawaz, Parvathy Mohanan, Mohammad Yasir Essar and Henry Charles Ashworth
Citation: Globalization and Health 2022 18:23
Content type: Commentary
Published on: 22 February 2022
Health Economics, Policy and Law
Volume 17 – Special Issue 1 – January 2022
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/health-economics-policy-and-law/latest-issue
SPECIAL ISSUE: Country Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Articles analyzing country responses in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, U.S., Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, France, Italy
JAMA
February 22, 2022, Vol 327, No. 8, Pages 703-790
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/currentissue
Original Investigation
Association of SARS-CoV-2 Infection With Serious Maternal Morbidity and Mortality From Obstetric Complications
Torri D. Metz, MD, MS; Rebecca G. Clifton, PhD; Brenna L. Hughes, MD, MS; et al.
free access has active quiz has multimedia has audio
JAMA. 2022;327(8):748-759. doi:10.1001/jama.2022.1190
This cohort study evaluates the association of SARS-CoV-2 infection with serious maternal morbidity or mortality related to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, postpartum hemorrhage, or infection other than SARS-CoV-2.
JAMA
February 22, 2022, Vol 327, No. 8, Pages 703-790
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/currentissue
Viewpoint
The US Supreme Court’s Rulings on Large Business and Health Care Worker Vaccine Mandates – Ramifications for the COVID-19 Response and the Future of Federal Public Health Protection
Lawrence O. Gostin, JD; Wendy E. Parmet, JD; Sara Rosenbaum, JD
JAMA. 2022;327(8):713-714. doi:10.1001/jama.2022.0852
This Viewpoint examines the recent US Supreme Court rulings on government mandates for COVID-19 vaccination and how these decisions might affect the ongoing pandemic response as well as the future of public health.
JAMA
February 22, 2022, Vol 327, No. 8, Pages 703-790
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/currentissue
JAMA Patient Page
COVID-19 and Pregnancy
Kristin Walter, MD, MS
free access has multimedia has audio
JAMA. 2022;327(8):790. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.22679
This JAMA Patient Page describes characteristics of COVID-19 among pregnant people and vaccination recommendations for people who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
JAMA Network
COVID-19 Update February 26, 2022
These articles on COVID-19 were published across the JAMA Network in the last week.
Journal of Public Health Policy
Volume 43, issue 1, March 2022
https://link.springer.com/journal/41271/volumes-and-issues/43-1
COVID-19 lockdown implementation in Ghana: lessons learned and hurdles to overcome
Authors – Abraham Assan, Hawawu Hussein, David N. K. Agyeman-Duah
Content type: Viewpoint
Open Access
Published: 04 January 2022
Journal of Public Health Policy
Volume 43, issue 1, March 2022
https://link.springer.com/journal/41271/volumes-and-issues/43-1
A public health framework for the equitable global allocation of vaccines: COVID-NEEDS
Authors – Vageesh Jain, Paula Lorgelly
Content type: Viewpoint
Published: 13 January 2022
Journal of Public Health Policy
Volume 43, issue 1, March 2022
https://link.springer.com/journal/41271/volumes-and-issues/43-1
Vaccine distribution exacerbates the social divide
Authors – Marta Lomazzi, Meru Sheel, Asha Singh
Content type: Federation Page
Published: 19 January 2022
The Lancet
Feb 26, 2022 Volume 399 Number 10327 p769-884, e7-e10
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current
Comment
Waning effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines
Hiam Chemaitelly, Laith J Abu-Raddad
In The Lancet, Peter Nordström and colleagues1 report the effectiveness of several COVID-19 vaccines and different vaccine schedules against any documented SARS-CoV-2 infection and against severe COVID-19, for up to 9 months of follow-up. Data for 842 974 matched pairs of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals in this retrospective cohort study were retrieved from the Swedish national registers. These registers track health outcomes for all registered individuals nationwide. Both cohorts had a median age of 52·7 years (IQR 37·0–67·5) and included mostly women (500 297 [59·3%] in each cohort) and individuals born in Sweden (703 666 [83·5%] in the vaccinated cohort vs 578 647 [68·6%] in the unvaccinated cohort). Follow-up started 14 days after the second dose for each person vaccinated with BNT162b2 (Pfizer–BioNTech), mRNA-1273 (Moderna), ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (Oxford–AstraZeneca), or mixed ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and an mRNA vaccine and their unvaccinated matches. Effectiveness estimates were adjusted for date of second dose, age, sex, domestic support (proxy for disability), education, place of birth, and comorbidities. The study was completed on Oct 4, 2021, before the advent of the omicron (B.1.1.529) variant…
The Lancet
Feb 26, 2022 Volume 399 Number 10327 p769-884, e7-e10
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current
Articles
Risk of infection, hospitalisation, and death up to 9 months after a second dose of COVID-19 vaccine: a retrospective, total population cohort study in Sweden
Peter Nordström, Marcel Ballin, Anna Nordström
Nature
Volume 602 Issue 7898, 24 February 2022
https://www.nature.com/nature/volumes/602/issues/7898
Editorial | 22 February 2022
Female scientists in Africa are changing the face of their continent
Why international researchers should be lining up to collaborate with women working in science across Africa.
Nature
Volume 602 Issue 7898, 24 February 2022
https://www.nature.com/nature/volumes/602/issues/7898
World View | 22 February 2022
Commit to transparent COVID data until the WHO declares the pandemic is over
Governments and organizations responsible for crucial COVID data must do more not less.
Edouard Mathieu
vaccines and global health :: ethics and policy 