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Sep
23
2021
By The African Mirror
Developing nations’ plea to world’s wealthy at U.N.: stop vaccine hoarding

Developing nations’ plea to world’s wealthy at U.N.: stop vaccine hoarding

COVID-19
DAPHNE PSALEDAKIS LEADERS from developing nations warned the U.N. General Assembly this week that COVID-19 vaccine hoarding by wealthy countries left the door open for the emergence of new coronavirus variants even as infections already increase in many places. The Philippines warned of a "man-made drought" of vaccines in poor countries, Peru said international solidarity had failed and Ghana lamented vaccine nationalism. The United Nations chief described the inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines as an "obscenity." "Rich countries hoard life-saving vaccines, while poor nations wait for trickles," Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte told the high-level gathering on Tuesday. "They now talk…
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Dec
09
2020
By The African Mirror
OPINION: Why coronavirus vaccine tourism would be a disaster for equality

OPINION: Why coronavirus vaccine tourism would be a disaster for equality

COVID-19
IT'S happening. Highly sought-after vaccines making their way on to the private market. Doses of the coronavirus jab developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca could be available for purchase in India as soon as March, according to comments made by the CEO of the Serum Institute in India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. Why does the future availability of vaccines for sale privately in countries such as India matter? Because it means a secondary market emerges for vaccines where wealthy foreign visitors could pay for a vaccination if not eligible to be immunised under their own government’s scheme. In…
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Sep
23
2021
By The African Mirror
Uganda loosens anti-coronavirus restrictions as pandemic ebbs

Uganda loosens anti-coronavirus restrictions as pandemic ebbs

COVID-19
UGANDA’S President Yoweri Museveni has eased anti-coronavirus restrictions, including allowing resumption of education for universities and other post-secondary institutions, citing a decline in infections in the country. The east African country started experiencing a second wave of the pandemic around May, shortly after authorities announced detection of the highly transmissible Delta variant. In response Museveni put the country of 45 million under a sweeping lockdown that included shuttering of nearly all businesses, closure of schools and halting of traffic. Some of the restrictions were lifted at the end of July after cases started to drop. In a televised speech late…
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Dec
09
2020
By The African Mirror
In COVID-19 milestone for West, Britain starts mass vaccination

In COVID-19 milestone for West, Britain starts mass vaccination

COVID-19
ALISTAIR SMOUT A 90-year-old grandmother became the world's first person to receive a fully-tested COVID-19 shot on Tuesday, as Britain began mass-vaccinating its people in a global drive that poses one of the biggest logistical challenges in peacetime history. Health workers started inoculating the most vulnerable with the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, with the country a test case for the world as it contends with distributing a compound that must be stored at -70C (-94F). Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 in a week, was the first to receive the shot, at a hospital in Coventry, central England. "It's…
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Dec
09
2020
By The African Mirror
Morocco says Covid-19 vaccine will be free to all citizens

Morocco says Covid-19 vaccine will be free to all citizens

COVID-19
MOROCCO’S King Mohammed VI ordered that all Moroccans should receive a coronavirus vaccine for free, the Royal palace has announced. Morocco plans to roll out China's Sinopharm vaccine in the coming weeks as soon as its phase three trials are over, Prime Minister Saad Dine El Otmani told Reuters last month. The country has also ordered doses from AstraZeneca and is in talks with other vaccine developers, he said. As of Tuesday, Morocco, with a population of about 36 million, had seen 384,088 confirmed cases and 6,370 deaths. It has around 40,000 active cases. - Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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Dec
08
2020
By The African Mirror
Misinformation on social media fuels vaccine hesitancy: a global study shows the link

Misinformation on social media fuels vaccine hesitancy: a global study shows the link

HEALTH
VACCINE hesitancy is a severe threat to global health, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The term refers to the delay in acceptance or the refusal of vaccines, despite the availability of vaccination services. It’s a serious risk to the people who aren’t getting vaccinated as well as the wider community. STEVEN LLOYD WILSON, Assistant Professor of Politics, Brandeis University CHARLES SHEY WIYSONGE, Director, Cochrane South Africa, South African Medical Research Council Vaccine hesitancy is not new. There have been some sceptics ever since vaccination began. Soon after Dr Edward Jenner invented the smallpox vaccine in 1796, rumours started…
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Sep
22
2021
By The African Mirror
U.N. chief grades world on vaccine rollout: ‘F in Ethics’

U.N. chief grades world on vaccine rollout: ‘F in Ethics’

COVID-19
MICHELLE NICHOLS  UNITED Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reprimanded the world on Tuesday for the inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, describing it as an "obscenity" and giving the globe an "F in Ethics." Addressing the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders in New York, Guterres said images from some parts of the world of expired and unused vaccines in the garbage told "the tale of our times" - with the majority of the wealthier world immunised while more than 90% of Africa has not even received one dose. "This is a moral indictment of the state of our world. It is…
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Dec
08
2020
By The African Mirror
In Kenya, COVID-19’s rural spread strains creaky healthcare

In Kenya, COVID-19’s rural spread strains creaky healthcare

COVID-19
JOSEPH AKWIRI and MAGGIE FICK THE recent deaths from COVID-19 in Kenya of a refugee, a member of parliament and a retired civil servant all happened for the same reason: emergency help was hours away. Nearly three quarters of Kenya's intensive care unit (ICU) beds are in the two largest cities, Nairobi and Mombasa. Yet the new coronavirus is spreading into rural areas where the public health system is creaking and scarce ICU units are full and turning patients away, medics round the nation told Reuters. Christmas travel may worsen the problem - and not just in Kenya. "That is…
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Dec
08
2020
By The African Mirror
WHO does not envisage COVID-19 vaccines being made mandatory

WHO does not envisage COVID-19 vaccines being made mandatory

COVID-19
THE World Health Organization does not foresee mandatory vaccinations being introduced around the world to stem the spread of the coronavirus, officials have said. Information campaigns and making vaccines available to priority groups such as hospital workers and the elderly would be more effective, the WHO said, as the global death toll has topped 1.5 million, according to Reuters calculations. Britain begins its vaccine programme this week and others are likely to follow soon, so authorities are seeking to reassure people of vaccines' safety and efficacy in order to get a critical mass to take them in the face of…
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