234.
Alexandre Afonso, Fabio Votta,
Electoral and Religious Correlates of COVID-19 Vaccination Rates in Dutch Municipalities, 2022.08.23,
https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckac112 .
Vaccination campaigns amid the COVID-19 pandemic have been extensively politicized in a number of countries. Controlling for a number of demographic, social and economic factors, we find a negative statistical relationship between the aggregate vote share of the populist right-wing Forum for Democracy (FvD) and the vaccination rate against COVID-19 across Dutch municipalities. We also find a negative relationship between the proportion of individuals with reformed Protestant and Muslim religious beliefs. These relationships can possibly be related to religious worldviews or mistrust towards authority. These results show that the politicization of health behaviours can have detrimental effects to public health campaigns.
233.
Andrea Perez Navarro, Victoria Pilkington, etc.,
Efficacy of Approved versus Unapproved Vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Randomised Blinded Clinical Trials, 2022.08.22,
https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofac408 .
Five SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are approved in North America and/or Europe, whileother vaccines have been developed but are not approved in high-income countries. This meta-analysis compared the efficacy of FDA/EMA approved and unapproved vaccines in randomised clinical trials (RCTs). This meta-analysis of 21 RCTs in 390,459 participants, showed no significant difference in efficacy between the FDA/EMA approved and unapproved vaccines for symptomatic or severe infection. Differences in study design, endpoint definitions, variants and infection prevalence may have influenced results. New patent-free vaccines could lower costs of worldwide SARS-CoV-2 vaccination campaigns significantly.
232.
Sarah Newey,
Major Covid report suggests virus could have leaked from a US lab, 2022.09.14,
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/backlash-major-covid-origins-report-suggests-virus-could-have/ .
The Lancet’s paper said it is “feasible” that Sars-Cov-2 emerged from a natural spillover or a lab incident, but elements provoke backlash. However, discussion around the origins of Sars-Cov-2 was only a small element of the report, and experts said the rest of the paper was based on robust research.
231.
Jeffrey D Sachs, Salim S Abdool Karim, etc.,
The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022.09.14,
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01585-9/fulltext .
The authors argue that when facing COVID-19, the world’s major powers have failed to collaborate to control the pandemic and point out the multiple failures of international cooperation. The final part of the report presents policy recommendations, particularly around multilateral cooperation centred at WHO to address global health crises, and around investments in preparedness for future health crises through strong national health systems and international financing and technology cooperation with the world's lower-income regions.
230.
Elliot Hannon, Layth Hanbali, etc.,
Why we still need a pandemic treaty, 2022.07.13,
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(22)00278-9/fulltext .
What we learned from COVID-19 is that data and evidence play too small a role in decision making, which means that we need to focus less on what states should do and focus more on what they did not do, including why they did not comply with the IHR during the pandemic. An important step to prepare for future disease outbreaks is committing to a treaty that keeps the issue elevated at the head of state-level; so that states are ready to live up to their commitments and work together in a coordinated response when the next pandemic hits.
229.
Donato Greco,
What Does the Monkeypox Outbreak Tell Us about Global Health Governance? Critical Remarks on the New WHO Declaration of Public Health Emergency of International Concern, 2022.08.10,
https://www.ejiltalk.org/what-does-the-monkeypox-outbreak-tell-us-about-global-health-governance-critical-remarks-on-the-new-who-declaration-of-public-health-emergency-of-international-concern/ .
On 23 July 2022, the Director-General of WHO declared that the outbreak of monkeypox constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. Against this backdrop, the present post is aimed at highlighting some critical issues related not only to the PHEIC declaration but, more generally, to global health governance, as designed by the IHRs and the WHO Constitution. If States will not effectively take into consideration these issues, both by amending the IHRs and strengthening the existing normative framework, one may wonder whether the WHO architecture can effectively address current public health challenges. Some authors took a rather sceptical view in this respect.
228.
Emily A Siegrist, Joseph Sassine,
Antivirals With Activity Against Monkeypox: A Clinically Oriented Review,2022.07.29,
https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciac622/6651596?searchresult=1 .
Monkeypox virus is an emergent human pathogen. While it is less lethal than smallpox, it can still cause significant morbidity and mortality. In this review, we explore 3 antiviral agents with activity against monkeypox and other orthopoxviruses: cidofovir, brincidofovir, and tecovirimat. Cidofovir, and its prodrug brincidofovir, are inhibitors of DNA replication with a broad spectrum of activity against multiple families of double-stranded DNA viruses. Tecovirimat has more specific activity against orthopoxviruses and inhibits the formation of the extracellular enveloped virus necessary for cell-to-cell transmission. For each agent, we review basic pharmacology, data from animal models, and reported experience in human patients.
227.
Kaiyuan Sun, Stefano Tempia, etc.,
SARS-CoV-2 transmission, persistence of immunity, and estimates of Omicron’s impact in South African population cohorts, 2022.05.31,
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abo7081 .
Understanding the build-up of immunity with successive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants and the epidemiological conditions that favor rapidly expanding epidemics will help facilitate future pandemic control. We analyzed high-resolution infection and serology data from two longitudinal household cohorts in South Africa to reveal high cumulative infection rates and durable cross-protective immunity conferred by prior infection in the pre-Omicron era. Building on the history of past exposures to different SARS-CoV-2 variants and vaccination in the cohort most representative of South Africa’s high urbanization rate, we used mathematical models to explore the fitness advantage of the Omicron variant and its epidemic trajectory. Modeling suggests that the Omicron wave likely infected a large fraction (44 to 81%) of the population, leaving a complex landscape of population immunity primed and boosted with antigenically distinct variants. We project that future SARS-CoV-2 resurgences are likely under a range of scenarios of viral characteristics, population contacts, and residual cross-protection.
226.
Allison Codi, Damon Luk, etc.,
Aggregating Human Judgment Probabilistic Predictions of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Transmission, Burden, and Preventive Measures, 2022.07.25,
https://academic.oup.com/ofid/article/9/8/ofac354/6649468?searchresult=1 .
Aggregated human judgment forecasts for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) targets of public health importance are accurate, often outperforming computational models. Our work shows that aggregated human judgment forecasts for infectious agents are timely, accurate, and adaptable, and can be used as a tool to aid public health decision making during outbreaks.
225.
Julia Smith, Alice Mũrage, etc.,
Integrating Gender-Based Analysis Plus into Policy Responses to COVID-19: Lived Experiences of Lockdown in British Columbia, Canada, 2022.08.31,
https://academic.oup.com/sp/advance-article/doi/10.1093/sp/jxac024/6654672?searchresult=1#367655310 .
Recognition of the differential effects of COVID-19 on women has led to calls for greater application of gender-based analysis within policy responses. Beyond pointing out where such policies are implemented, there is little analysis of the effects of efforts to integrate gender-based analysis into the COVID-19 response. Drawing on interviews informing a lived experienced approach to policy analysis, this article asks if, how, and to what effect gender-based analysis was implemented within social and economic policy responses during the initial lockdown, in British Columbia, Canada. It finds that, despite a rhetorical commitment to gender-based analysis, policies failed to address everyday inequalities.
Beijing Interest Group on Global Health and Global Governance
Contact: secretary@bigghgg.cn