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AstraZeneca reiterated on Wednesday that its Covid-19 vaccine was very effective at preventing the disease, based on more recent data than was included when the company announced the interim results of its U.S. clinical trial on Monday.

The company said in a news release that its vaccine was 76 percent effective at preventing Covid-19. That is slightly lower than the efficacy number that the company announced earlier this week.

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WHO: How COVID-19 pandemic has affected TB detection and mortality

Wed, 2021-03-24 20:07 — mike kraft

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on TB detection and mortality in 2020

Provisional data compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) from 84 countries indicates that an estimated 1.4 million fewer people received care for tuberculosis (TB) in 2020 than in 2019 - a reduction of 21% from 2019.

In the group of 10 high-burden countries with the largest reported shortfalls compared with 2019, the overall shortfall was 28%. With many people with TB unable to access care, WHO estimates that half a million more people may have died from TB in 2020 alone. TB remains one of the world’s top infectious killers.

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U.N. Human Rights Council calls for fair, affordable access to COVID-19 vaccines

Wed, 2021-03-24 19:26 — mike kraft

Top U.N. rights body calls for fair, affordable access to COVID-19 vaccines The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Tuesday calling for equitable, affordable access to COVID-19 vaccines and fair pricing. Stephanie Nebehay U.S.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Tuesday calling for equitable, affordable access to COVID-19 vaccines and fair pricing.

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Some poorer nations could wait years to get vaccinations--Kenya example

Tue, 2021-03-23 11:21 — mike kraft

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It was three months after rich countries began vaccinating health workers, but Kenyans like the nurse, Stella Githaiga, had been left behind: Employed in the country’s largest public hospital, she caught the coronavirus on an outreach trip to remote communities in February, she believes, sidelining her even as Kenya struggles with a vicious third surge of infections.

Ms. Githaiga and her colleagues are victims of one of the most galling inequities in a pandemic that has exposed so many: Across the global south, health workers are being sickened and killed by a virus from which doctors and nurses in many rich countries are now largely protected.

That is just the most visible cost of a rich-poor divide that has deepened in the second year of the pandemic. Of the vaccine doses given globally, roughly three-quarters have gone to only 10 countries. At least 30 countries have not yet injected a single person.

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