After ‘Pandemic Treaty’ Fails, WHO Assembly Eyes Future Preparedness

AP: World Health Assembly Hopes To Reinforce Pandemic Preparedness After Bold Treaty Project Stalls
Member countries kicked off the World Health Organization’s annual assembly on Monday with hopes of improving global readiness for deadly outbreaks like COVID-19, after an ambitious “pandemic treaty” ran aground last week. Health officials are racing to get the world to agree to new ways to prepare for and fight an inevitable future pandemic. COVID-19 is fading into history as elections and crises like climate change and war compete for the public’s attention. (Keaten, 5/27)

The New York Times: Countries Fail To Agree On Treaty To Prepare The World For The Next Pandemic 
Countries around the globe have failed to reach consensus on the terms of a treaty that would unify the world in a strategy against the inevitable next pandemic, trumping the nationalist ethos that emerged during Covid-19. The deliberations, which were scheduled to be a central item at the weeklong meeting of the World Health Assembly beginning Monday in Geneva, aimed to correct the inequities in access to vaccines and treatments between wealthier nations and poorer ones that became glaringly apparent during the Covid pandemic. (Mandavilli, 5/24)

More on the spread of covid —

The Washington Post: Covid Wave Shapes Up For Summer But Is Unlikely To Spark Concern
By now, it’s as familiar as sunscreen hitting the shelves: Americans are headed into another summer with new coronavirus variants and a likely uptick in cases. This is shaping up to be the first covid wave with barely any federal pressure to limit transmission and little data to even declare a surge. People are no longer advised to isolate for five days after testing positive. Free tests are hard to come by. Soon, uninsured people will no longer be able to get coronavirus vaccines free. (Nirappil and Malhi, 5/26)

Los Angeles Times: COVID Rise In California: How To Protect Yourself From FLiRT 
There are growing signs of an uptick in COVID-19 in California thanks to the new FLiRT subvariants. It’s far too early to know if FLiRT will be a major change in the COVID picture, and so far the impacts have been small. But health officials are taking note and are urging Californians — especially those at risk — to be prepared. (Lin II, 5/28)

Reuters: Novavax Awaits FDA Decision On Whether Its Next COVID Shot Can Be Offered In US
Novavax will only be able to offer a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States this autumn if regulators accept the shot it has started manufacturing that targets a variant that was dominant earlier this year, the company said. Novavax's updated vaccine targets a variant called JN.1, which is in line with European recommendations. The European Union's regulator told vaccine makers last month to update their vaccines for that variant because they would likely be effective against its descendant lineages. (Erman, 5/24)

Also —

CIDRAP: WHO: COVID-19 Pandemic Reversed Decade Of Life Expectancy Gains
The World Health Organization (WHO) published a new report suggesting the COVID-19 pandemic undid a decade of life expectancy at birth and healthy life expectancy gains (HALE), with global expectancy levels now matching those last seen in 2012. "Not only has the pandemic set back healthy longevity worldwide by years, it also reversed the previous trends of shifting disease burden to noncommunicable diseases," the report said. (Soucheray, 5/24)

The Washington Post: Long-Covid Patients Of Color Are Tired Of Being Sick And Neglected 
A mild covid infection at the start of the pandemic has thrown Jeanine Hays’s immune system out of whack, she said, as her husband ticked off ailments the way drug commercials list side effects. Chronic hives. Hair loss. Tinnitus. Severe nerve pain. Extreme fluctuations in blood pressure. Allergic reactions to synthetic fabrics and processed foods. (Johnson, 5/28)

Reuters: Mayo Clinic Must Face Religious Bias Claims Over COVID Vaccine Policy, Court Rules 
A U.S. appeals court on Friday revived a lawsuit accusing the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota of illegally firing five employees who refused on religious grounds to receive the COVID-19 vaccine or be regularly tested for the virus. A unanimous three-judge panel of the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the judge who tossed out the consolidated lawsuits last year wrongly ruled that the workers had not connected their objections to Mayo's COVID-19 policies with sincere Christian religious beliefs. (Wiessner, 5/24)