Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
WHO Assembles New Team Of Scientists To Dig Into Covid's Origins
The Wall Street Journal: WHO Seeks To Revive Stalled Inquiry Into Origins Of Covid-19 With New Team
The World Health Organization is reviving its stalled investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 virus as agency officials warn that time is running out to determine how the pandemic that has killed more than 4.7 million people world-wide began. A new team of about 20 scientists—including specialists in laboratory safety and biosecurity and geneticists and animal-disease experts versed in how viruses spill over from nature—is being assembled with a mandate to hunt for new evidence in China and elsewhere. (Hinshaw and McKay, 9/26)
In other global developments —
ABC News: Prince Harry, Meghan Call For COVID-19 Vaccine Equity At Star-Studded Global Citizen Live
Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan appeared at a star-studded concert Saturday to draw attention to making COVID-19 vaccines accessible to everyone around the world. Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, traveled from their home in California to New York City to join stars including Billie Eilish, Camila Cabello and Jennifer Lopez at Global Citizen Live, a 24-hour event at Central Park's Great Lawn. (Kindelan, 9/25)
The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Vaccine Gap Between Rich And Poor Nations Keeps Widening
The central African nation of Burundi has yet to administer a single Covid-19 vaccine. In Kinshasa, a megacity of 12 million in the Democratic Republic of Congo, healthcare workers have given out fewer than 40,000 Covid-19 shots. In Uganda, people line up for hours outside hospitals only to be turned away amid dwindling vaccine supplies. Nearly 10 months after the first Covid-19 vaccine became available to the public, the divide between nations that have shots and those that don’t is starker than ever. The U.S. and other rich countries such as Israel and the U.K. are doling out third shots, while in low-income countries—the vast majority of which are in Africa—just 2.2% of people have received even a single dose. (Bariyo and Steinhauser, 9/25)
AP: New Zealand To Allow Home Isolation To Travelers
New Zealand’s prime minister says the government will start a pilot program of home-isolation for overseas travelers, ahead of what she expects to be increasing vaccination levels. Currently New Zealanders have to quarantine in hotels for two weeks when they return home from abroad. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday a pilot program that will allow New Zealanders to quarantine at home will include 150 business travelers who arrive between Oct. 30 and Dec. 8. The program will involve monitoring and testing. (9/27)
Reuters: Fourth Member Of Brazil's Delegation To U.N. Tests Positive For COVID-19
Pedro Guimaraes, a member of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's delegation to the United Nations, has tested positive for COVID-19, the CEO of state lender Caixa Economica Federal said on his one of his social media accounts on Sunday. Guimaraes, who said he was fully vaccinated, is the fourth member of the delegation that was with Bolsonaro in New York for his address to the United Nations to test positive. ... Health minister Marcelo Queiroga, Bolsonaro's son Eduardo and one diplomat also tested positive for COVID-19. Queiroga, diagnosed during the visit, is still in isolation in a New York hotel. (9/26)
AP: Rowdy Celebrations Erupt In Norway As COVID Restrictions End
Police in Norway on Sunday reported dozens of disturbances and violent clashes including mass brawls in the Nordic country’s big cities after streets, bars, restaurants and nightclubs were filled with people celebrating the end of COVID-19 restrictions that lasted for more than a year. The Norwegian government abruptly announced Friday that most of the remaining coronavirus restrictions would be scrapped beginning Saturday and that life in the nation of 5.3 million would return to normal. (9/26)
In other news from around the world —
Politico: What The German Election Could Mean For EU Health Policy
The German political parties aiming to form a new government agree on one thing: Europe needs to be better prepared for the next pandemic. But they diverge, sometimes fundamentally, on approaches to the European Health Union, pharmaceutical companies, intellectual property rights, and a European Health Data Space. ... Germany has been a staunch opponent of a waiver on intellectual property rights for coronavirus products. But with a different coalition in power, that could change. The Greens and the Left both support the waiver. The Left states that “patents can be fatal” and in its manifesto, it describes the unequal distribution of vaccines under last year's German Council presidency as a “scandal.” (Furlong, 9/24)
Reuters: China Says It Will Reduce Abortions For 'Non-Medical Purposes'
China will reduce the number of abortions performed for "non-medical purposes", the country's cabinet said in new guidelines issued on Monday that it said were aimed at improving women's reproductive health. China has already enacted strict measures aimed at preventing sex-selective abortions, and health authorities also warned in 2018 that the use of abortion to end unwanted pregnancies was harmful to women's bodies and risks causing infertility. (9/27)
