After COVID, WHO defines disease spread “through air”
London, UK Reuters The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives. The Geneva-based UN health agency released a technical […]
Healthcare under pressure: WHO sees “incredibly low” COVID, flu vaccination rates as cases surge
JENNIFER RIGBY and JULIE STEENHUYSEN, of Reuters, report…
Scientists see risk of lost opportunity for long COVID research in China
Shanghai, ChinaReuters With more than a full year past since China eased restrictions and let COVID-19 sweep its households, scientists are worried a unique opportunity may be slipping away to study long COVID from possibly hundreds of millions of infections in that country. Global disease experts say little is known about China’s experience with long-term […]
UK PM Sunak reportedly said “just let people die”, COVID inquiry hears
London, UKReuters Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was quoted as saying the government should “just let people die” during the COVID-19 pandemic rather than impose a second national lockdown, the inquiry into how Britain handled the crisis heard on Monday. Patrick Vallance, who was the government’s chief scientific adviser during COVID, made a note in his […]
Essay: Vaccine hesitancy is one of the greatest threats to global health – and the pandemic has made it worse
In an article first published on The Conversation, SIMON NICHOLAS WILLIAMS, a lecturer in psychology at Swansea University, looks at the growing problem of vaccine hesitancy…
COVID aftermath: Orphans face grief and poverty as world moves on
LIN TAYLOR, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports that while the global health emergency is over but the crisis has left behind millions of orphaned children, many in urgent need of help…
Essay: COVID has highlighted the connection between spirituality and vaccine scepticism
In an article first published on The Conversation, TAMAS LESTAR, of the University of Winchester, looks at the “strong correlation” between spirituality and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy…
Virtual worshippers often satisfied, but more Americans choose in-person services
United StatesReligion News Service At the height of the pandemic, many Americans who attended in-person worship services turned to their computers and their couches instead for virtual viewing. Now, the Pew Research Center finds a third of Americans regularly attend in-person worship services while a bit more than a quarter regularly watch religious services on […]
WHO “overstretched” in response to increasing health emergencies
London, UKReuters A growing number of health emergencies around the world, from COVID-19 to cholera, have left the World Health Organization’s response “overstretched”, a senior advisor said on Tuesday. Speaking at the UN agency’s annual meeting, Professor Walid Ammar, chair of a committee reviewing the WHO’s emergency response, said funding and staffing gaps were widening […]
Fewer US evangelicals support public school childhood vaccine requirements, survey shows
United StatesRNS In what could be a sign of COVID-19’s influence, some sectors of US society – specifically white evangelicals and Republicans – are showing a growing aversion to the requirement that schoolchildren be vaccinated for illnesses like mumps and measles. Overall, about 70 per cent of Americans say healthy children should be mandated to […]