Day: December 10, 2022

The World Health Organization says the arrival of one of three trial Ebola vaccines in Uganda Thursday “marks a historical milestone in the global capacity to respond to outbreaks.”

The 1,200 doses of the Sudan ebolavirus vaccine arrived “just 79 days after the outbreak was declared on 20 September,” the WHO said.

“Uganda is showing that life-saving research can be promptly organized in the midst of an outbreak,” said Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Acero, Uganda’s minister of health.

In contrast, WHO said that “To start Phase 3 trials in Guinea during the West Africa Ebola outbreak in 2015, it was 7 months from declaration to arrival of vaccines. This was a great achievement and set historical records at the time.”

The vaccine for the Sudan ebolavirus is one of the three candidates recommended for the trial by an independent WHO expert panel. The other two will be added to the trial when the doses arrive.
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While China is beginning to loosen its COVID-19 restrictions, medical practitioners there are preparing for a possible onslaught of COVID cases, which analysts predict could be just weeks away.

China had one of the toughest anti-COVID policies in the world. Its zero-COVID campaign put anyone with COVID in a hospital or locked them up in their residences.

In a change announced Saturday, officials said truck drivers and ship crews transporting anti-virus goods domestically would no longer be stopped at checkpoints to confirm their COVID-negative status.

The move comes as people in China are stockpiling masks, food and medicine, fearing a next wave of COVID cases as restrictions are loosened.

Demonstrations across China in recent days, protested the government’s handling of the COVID crisis as people tired of lockdowns and constantly changing restrictions.

People watching the World Cup for example, have seen that most of the rest of the world is living with COVID and has avoided the harsh restrictions imposed on Chinese residents.
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Australian scientists have discovered a deep-ocean sharks’ graveyard containing the fossilized teeth of the ancient ancestor of the megalodon shark. They have also found a new species of shark.

The discoveries were made across two expeditions on the research vessel (RV) Investigator, which is operated by Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, or the CSIRO.

It has explored Australia’s newest marine sanctuaries; the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Marine Park in the remote Indian Ocean, and the Gascoyne Marine Park off the coast of Western Australia.

At depths of more than 5 kilometers, researchers have recovered remnants of ancient and modern sharks, including the teeth of a 12-meter-long shark that was the closest known relative to the mighty megalodon.

It’s considered to have been one of the most powerful predators ever, but it died out about 3.5 million years ago.

The voyage’s chief scientist, John Keesing, told VOA that significant discoveries have been made.

“From the greatest depths, so this is around 5,000 meters, we have trawled up recent and fossil sharks’ teeth,” he said. “So, the ones we have found on this trip are from great white sharks and mako sharks. Out of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands they found similar to that but in addition, fossil teeth from a relative of one of the largest-ever sharks, the megalodon. So, that is the ancestor of modern sharks.”

The search areas in the Indian Ocean are known to have some of the world’s most diverse marine life, but researchers believe much of what lies beneath the waves is a mystery.

A new type of small striped shark was also discovered in the Gascoyne Marine Park. Scientists have said it is “unique to Australia.” They have yet to formally describe it or give it a name. The CSIRO has said that about a third of the species of marine life collected on biodiversity survey voyages could well be new to science.

The RV Investigator has a crew of 54, 35 of whom are scientists. The research vessel is operational 24 hours a day.
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As the global program for distributing COVID-19 vaccinations to low and middle-income countries is set to be phased out after next year, experts are warning of a messy transition to ensure countries with the lowest inoculation rates are protected against the coronavirus and new variants are prevented.

The sunsetting of COVAX was agreed to earlier this week in a meeting of the board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization known as GAVI. The alliance is the driving force behind the international vaccine-sharing mechanism, along with the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

GAVI said COVAX has enough capacity to continue through 2024. At that point, it plans to phase out the program to 37 developing countries while continuing to provide COVID vaccine doses and the funds to deliver them to 54 of the world’s poorest countries who still want them up to 2025, alongside other vaccines it provides.

“While COVAX continues to have in place plans for worst-case scenarios, the board agreed, in principle, to explore integrating future COVID-19 vaccinations into GAVI’s core programming,” it said in a statement.

Experts say demand for COVID vaccines has significantly dropped worldwide and GAVI shifting focus away from broad COVID vaccination coverage makes sense. However, they warn of a messy transition from the global emergency coordination mechanisms that were set up quickly at the start of the pandemic toward a longer-term COVID management initiative.

“There will be major questions coming from the transition, including how many low- and middle-income countries will continue to receive the financing and logistics support they need, to the impact on GAVI’s other immunization programs of integrating COVID-19 vaccination,” said Dr. Krishna Udayakumar, founding director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center.

“There’s lack of consensus among the various operating entities and no one person or organization ‘in charge’ to drive the process,” he told VOA. In addition, routine immunizations usually target children while most COVID-19 vaccinations are for adults, so there isn’t a clear alignment.

Udayakumar said that the COVID-19 pandemic will continue for some time, and future efforts should support continued vaccination of high-risk populations and preparedness for new variants and future pandemic threats.

U.S. efforts

The U.S. remains the world’s largest vaccine donor with a pledge of more than 1.2 billion doses delivered by end of 2022. A significant portion has not been delivered, partly due to reduced demand.

“As of this week, have donated over 670 million doses to 116 countries and economies,” a senior administration official told VOA.

In February the administration adjusted its pandemic response strategy to address hurdles faced by lower-income countries to vaccinate their citizens through Global Vax, a program launched late last year by USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Global VAX is billed as a whole-of-government effort to turn vaccines in vials into vaccinations in arms around the world. It includes bolstering cold chain supply and logistics, service delivery, vaccine confidence and demand, human resources, data and analytics, local planning, and vaccine safety and effectiveness.

The official said the U.S. will continue its efforts. “We are not done fighting COVID. Not at home, and not across the globe. Every country and every organization need to continue their work to fight this virus everywhere.”

However, questions remain on funding for U.S. plans to continue its pandemic response including preventing future threats. The administration is calling on Congress, which has until December 16 to pass a critical government funding bill that includes $10 billion to fight COVID at home.

The $10 billion has been pared down from the original $22.5 billion request submitted earlier this year which included $5 billion for its international response that has gone unfulfilled.
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