New Coronavirus News from 13 May 2022

Omicron subvariants BA.4, BA.5 confirmed for 1st time in Japan at airport quarantine [The Mainichi, 13 May 2022]

TOKYO -- A total of three people infected with the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the coronavirus's omicron strain have been confirmed at airport quarantine in Japan, the health ministry announced on May 12, the first time their existence has been confirmed in the country.

These strains had previously been detected mainly in South Africa, Europe, and the United States, and are more likely to spread than the BA.2 subvariant that is currently the mainstream in Japan.

BA. 4 was detected in a man in his 50s who arrived from South Africa on April 22, and BA. 5 was found in two men in their 60s who arrived from Spain and Zambia, respectively, on April 29. All three were asymptomatic at the time of arrival.

As for the omicron variant, BA.1, which sparked the sixth wave of coronavirus infections, and BA.2, which is now the mainstream, have been confirmed in Japan.

Hiroshi Nishiura, a professor of theoretical epidemiology at Kyoto University, presented data on the "effective reproduction number," which indicates how many people one person can spread the infection to, at a Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare advisory board meeting on April 20.
According to this data, in South Africa, the effective reproduction number was found to be 1.49 times higher for BA.4 than for BA.1 and 1.4 times higher for BA.5 than for BA.1, and the spread of these subvariants is proceeding in that country.

(Japanese original by Sooryeon Kim, Lifestyle and Medical News Department)

Anthony Fauci at a Loss When Asked About Biden's COVID Vaccine Claim [Newsweek, 13 May 2022]

BY JAKE THOMAS

A nthony Fauci, the president's chief medical advisor, says he "just can't explain" a White House tweet stating the COVID-19 vaccine wasn't available when President Joe Biden took office.

Fauci made the remarks Friday to CNN's Jake Tapper, who asked him about the since corrected tweet that seemed to falsely give credit to Biden for the vaccine's development. The exchange comes as the Biden administration seeks to defend its record against withering criticism from political opponents.

During the segment, Tapper pointed to a Thursday tweet from the White House stating that "when President Biden took office, millions were unemployed and there was no vaccine available."

"But as you know, that's not true," said Tapper. "There was a vaccine available, it might not have been widely available, but it was available."

Tapper said that CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale found that more than 3 million Americans had been fully vaccinated and more than 18 million had at least one shot as of Biden's inauguration on January 20, 2021.

"Why is the White House politicizing the pandemic by tweeting out that there was no vaccine available until Joe Biden became president?" asked Tapper. "It's not true."

"So you're talking to the wrong person," deflected Fauci. "I wasn't involved in the tweet. I just can't explain it. Sorry."

Tapper responded by asking Fauci if he agreed it was important to have facts about the vaccine, "whether it's from the Trump White House or the Biden White House," and that the vaccine became available before Biden was sworn in.

Fauci agreed, adding, "I think from a pure accuracy, that's not a correct statement."

By Friday afternoon, the White House had corrected the tweet.

"We previously misstated that vaccines were unavailable in January 2021. We should have said that they were not widely available," the White House said in a follow-up tweet. "Vaccines became available shortly before the President came into office. Since then, he's responsible for fully vaccinating over 200 million people."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on December 11, 2020. Developing a vaccine was a priority for then-President Donald Trump.

The vaccine was initially only available to people particularly vulnerable to the virus because of a medical condition, their age or occupation.

Currently, 66.4 percent of the U.S. population, 220 million people, is fully vaccinated, according to numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Biden has seen sagging poll numbers going into the 2022 midterm elections amid high inflation and gas prices. Seeking to stem possible losses, the president and his allies have played up his administration's handling of the pandemic and how the U.S. has seen record-low unemployment numbers since he took office.

North Korea and Eritrea are the only two countries without vaccines [The Washington Post, 13 May 2022]

By Adam Taylor

North Korea admitted the inevitable this week — that covid-19 had finally reached its population. But for global health experts, there’s a particularly worrying detail: It is one of just two countries without any vaccines.

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North Korea and Eritrea — both poor and led by brutal governments — have refused to join global vaccine-sharing initiatives, leaving their populations vulnerable to fast-spreading variants of the virus.

In Pyongyang, authorities Thursday attributed the outbreak to the highly contagious BA.2 omicron subvariant. On Friday, state media reported that one person had died and some 350,000 people had shown symptoms of fever.

Many health experts were already skeptical that North Korea had yet to report a single coronavirus case — more than two years into the pandemic. For its part, Eritrea has admitted about 10,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 103 deaths, figures that are far lower than those of its neighbors.

North Korea admits to coronavirus outbreak for the first time
“North Korea, with a huge immunity gap — no protection acquired with vaccines or prior infections — is an open field for uncontrolled transmission, which maximizes the odds of new variants,” said J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

John P. Moore, professor of microbiology and immunology at Cornell University’s Weill Cornell Medicine, said in an email that unless North Korea was able to limit transmission through a lockdown, “a very high percentage of the population” would soon be infected.

“The carnage could be awful,” he said. “To the extent that it might affect the regime’s hold over the population.”

In both countries, rumors have swirled that the political elites are already vaccinated — and that their dismissal of foreign-made vaccines is just for show.

Eritrea, under longtime president and strongman Isaias Afwerki, has ignored requests by other African nations to join Covax, the global vaccination effort backed by the World Health Organization. Some activists say the country is rife with propaganda that paints Covax as a Western tool to destroy Africa.

In December, the head of the African Centers for Disease Control, John Nkengasong, said Eritrea was the only member of the African Union that had not “joined the family of 55 member states that are moving forward with vaccination, but we are not giving up.”

As world reopens, North Korea is one of two countries without vaccines
In North Korea, the government rejected doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine out of apparent concerns about potential side effects. It also turned down the delivery of nearly 3 million doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine, saying the shipments should go to other countries suffering more severe outbreaks.

Last month, a panel of experts convened by the Center for Strategic and International Studies recommended that North Korea be offered a high-volume donation of mRNA vaccines. But the vaccines previously allocated for North Korea under the Covax plan are no longer available.

Morrison said Covax and other donors had “grown weary” of North Korea’s nonresponsive nature during the pandemic. “That does not rule out revisiting the issues of what to do on a crash basis,” he added.

A spokesperson for Gavi, a nonprofit that helps coordinate Covax, said the initiative had “currently not committed any volume for” North Korea. But, the spokesperson said, if Pyongyang moves forward with a national vaccination program, Gavi could work with Covax to help North Korea catch up with immunization targets.

Pyongyang might not have a choice. Even in partially vaccinated places such as China or Hong Kong, omicron subvariants have spread incredibly fast among pockets of unvaccinated people — with deadly consequences similar in scale to the first wave of cases in other parts of the world.

China, North Korea’s most important ally, is battling a BA.2 outbreak and has imposed a severe lockdown on its commercial hub, Shanghai.

“China is itself struggling with the spread of the omicron variant, so I am not sure whether it has strong incentives to help North Korea battle covid,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

A model released as a preprint this week estimated that if China relaxed what it calls its “zero covid” policy, the virus could kill up to 1.5 million people.

In North Korea, it would be “far worse,” Moore said, “because of the minimal vaccine uptake there.”

COVID-19 Finally Slipped Through North Korea’s Borders. Here’s What to Know About the ‘Explosive’ Outbreak [TIME, 13 May 2022]

BY CHAD DE GUZMAN

North Korea on Friday went public with its first “explosive” COVID-19 outbreak, reporting six fatalities and raising concerns about the hermit state’s defenses against the coronavirus after two years of claiming to have warded off infections.

The state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) says that one of the six people who died had tested positive for the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron.

Up to 187,000 North Koreans are now reportedly being “isolated and treated” after some 18,000 developed a fever on Thursday. KCNA adds that a fever “whose cause couldn’t be identified explosively spread” since late April, appearing in some 350,000 people. It says that leader Kim Jong Un visited “the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters” on May 12 and “learned about the nationwide spread of COVID-19.”

The situation may be worse than what is reported, says Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “People desperately need coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics,” Easley tells TIME.

According to the Yonhap news agency, South Korea plans to donate COVID-19 vaccines to the North. “We will hold discussions with the North Korean side about details,” a spokesperson for President Yoon Suk-yeol told the agency.

Until today, North Korea was among a handful of countries, including Turkmenistan and Tuvalu, that have not reported a case of COVID-19. Its borders have been closed since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.

It is also believed that the country has not administered COVID-19 vaccines to its 25 million people, having refused COVID-19 vaccines from global vaccine sharing program COVAX. In February, the WHO-led program scaled back North Korea’s allotment after millions of doses were rejected last year.

“There is no evidence that North Korea has access to enough vaccines to protect its population from COVID-19. Yet it has rejected millions of doses of AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines offered by the WHO-led COVAX program, which requires transparent distribution and monitoring,” says Amnesty International’s East Asia researcher Boram Jang.

North Korea shares a border with ally China, which is trying to stamp out infections with a stringent zero-COVID policy. Beijing on Thursday said it was “ready to go all out” to assist Pyongyang in combating the outbreak.

How COVID-19 could break North Korea
A COVID-19 outbreak may prove disastrous for North Korea. The country has poor medical infrastructure; a 2021 index assessing the epidemic and pandemic preparedness of 195 countries ranked North Korea at 193rd. Its seeming lack of a vaccination program makes its people more vulnerable to severe infections and death.

Jang says that if North Korea continues to pursue an isolationist strategy, it “could cost many lives” and would be an “unconscionable dereliction” of its duty to citizens. “It is vital that the North Korean government acts now to protect the right to health of one of the world’s populations with lowest access to vaccines and one of the most fragile health systems.”

There is no evidence that North Korea has access to enough vaccines to protect its population from COVID-19

Acording to the KCNA, Kim has criticized the spread of the disease in the capital Pyongyang, highlighting a vulnerable point in the epidemic prevention system. He has also ordered a swift lockdown and isolation of infected cases, but added that residents should be “provided with every convenience” in their attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19, the agency says.

North Korea’s two-year border closure has battered its economy, on top of the U.S.-led sanctions over the nuclear-armed country’s ballistic missile tests.

But the hermit state may be welcoming more outside help now. Ahn Kyung-su of Seoul-based research center dprkhealth.org said North Korea’s announcement signals its need for international support and that it needs COVID-19 medication more than vaccines. “This is because drugs are much simpler in terms of transportation, distribution and management personnel than vaccines.”

But according to Easley, engagement with Pyongyang won’t be easy. Says the international studies professor: “Even international humanitarian assistance has to navigate Pyongyang’s political pathologies.”

North Korea: 'First' Covid cases prompt strict national lockdown [BBC News, 13 May 2022]

By Frances Mao

North Korea has ordered a strict national lockdown after confirming its first official Covid infections.

State media have reported an Omicron outbreak in the capital, Pyongyang, but did not state the number of cases.

North Korea has rejected any kind of vaccine programme, even when offered a supply by other countries.

Instead, it controlled Covid by sealing its borders - and had never recorded a case, despite experts believing the virus has long been present.

Outsiders say the nation's 25 million population is vulnerable due to the lack of a Covid-19 vaccine programme, even rejecting offers from the international community to supply millions of AstraZeneca and Chinese-made Sinovac jabs last year.

There have also been concerns about North Korea's impoverished healthcare system.

KCNA said leader Kim Jong-un had vowed to eradicate the outbreak, which it called a "severe national emergency" that had breached the country's "quarantine front".

At the meeting outlining the new Covid rules, Mr Kim was seen wearing a face mask on television for what is believed to be the first time. He soon removed it, while other officials present kept theirs on.

North Korea's strategy of sealing its foreign borders - one of the first countries to do so, in January 2020 - has also stopped essential supplies from entering the country, leading to food shortages and a faltering economy.

On Thursday, KCNA said Mr Kim had ordered "maximum emergency" virus controls, which appeared to include orders for localised lockdowns and gathering restrictions in workplaces.

The North Korean news outlet added that the first case of the Omicron variant had been reportedly detected in the capital four days ago.

Residents in some areas of Pyongyang had been subjected to lockdown for at least two days before the latest announcement, according to NK News, a Seoul-based monitoring site.
South Korea's government said it has renewed its offer of humanitarian assistance to the North in response to the news of the outbreak. Pyongyang has yet to respond.

For more than two years, North Korea has, rather dubiously, claimed not to have a single case of Covid-19. So why admit to it now?

Most likely it is because this outbreak is too serious and too difficult to hide.

North Korea has been consistent in its public commitment to fighting the virus. This is how it has justified closing its borders for so long. Now that Omicron has entered the country, the challenge is to limit its spread.

With no vaccines, poor healthcare and a limited capacity to test people, North Korea's options are very limited right now.

Authorities have clearly decided they have no choice but to put the country into lockdown. In order to do this, they simply have to tell people and the rest of the world.

It does not necessarily mean they will be any more willing to accept outside help.

Analysts initially said Pyongyang's disclosure of the Covid cases at this time was significant and could hamper the state's nuclear ambitions, which have been on show this year.

But hours after the Covid announcement on Thursday, North Korea fired three short-range ballistic missiles about 360km (224 miles) towards the Sea of Japan/ East Sea, South Korea's military said.

North Korea has claimed to have conducted more than a dozen banned missile tests, including one of an intercontinental ballistic missile, a weapon it hadn't tested in more than four years.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP that North Korea might shelve plans for a nuclear test to focus on battling the outbreak, though if public fears escalated, Mr Kim may go ahead with a test "to divert this fear to another place".

But Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University, said that North Koreans "may be less interested in nuclear or missile tests when the urgent threat involves coronavirus rather than a foreign military".

He added that he believed Pyongyang would "likely double down" on its lockdowns, given that it was entering a "period of uncertainty in managing its domestic challenges and international isolation".

Despite North Korea's claims that it had "shining success" in keeping out Covid, there have been signs throughout the pandemic of the virus' potential presence in the country. There were several unconfirmed reports of Covid cases previously.

In June last year, state media reported that Mr Kim had punished officials over a "grave incident" related to Covid, but did not specify details.

Then in September, the state held a military parade featuring lines of soldiers wearing hazmat suits and masks, which some analysts saw as a sign that a special force was created to help prevent the spread of Covid.

North Korea shares land borders with South Korea and China, which have battled outbreaks.
China is now struggling to contain an Omicron wave with lockdowns in its biggest cities.

California coronavirus updates: US may be vulnerable to COVID-19 come this fall and winter season [Capital Public Radio News, 13 May 2022]

Friday, May 13
11:23 a.m.: US may be vulnerable to COVID-19 come this fall and winter season
The new White House COVID-19 coordinator is issuing a dire warning.

Dr. Ashish Jha said in an Associated Press interview that the U.S. will be increasingly vulnerable to the coronavirus this fall and winter if Congress doesn’t swiftly approve new funding for more vaccines and treatments.

Jha said in the interview that America’s immune protection from the virus is waning, and with the virus adapting to be more contagious, booster doses will be necessary for most people.

He predicted that the next generation of vaccines, which are likely to be targeted at the currently prevailing omicron strain, “are going to provide a much, much higher degree of protection against the virus that we will encounter in the fall and winter.”

But he warned that the U.S. is at risk of losing its place in the global vaccination line to other countries if Congress doesn’t act in the next several weeks.

11:16 a.m.: This is what may be behind N. Korea’s COVID-19 admission
North Korea’s recent admission of its first domestic COVID-19 cases has surprised many outsiders and prompted speculation about how back the outbreak is and whether it could handle a major humanitarian crisis in a country where public medical infrastructure is terrible.

As reported by the Associated Press, some experts say North Korea may face one of the world’s worst per-capita fatality and infection rates if it doesn’t get outside aid shipments soon.
Others argue that North Korea may just want to use the outbreak to tighten public vigilance against the virus and boost its control of its people.

11:05 a.m.: N. Korea reports six deaths attributed to COVID-19
North Korea says six people have died and 350,000 have been treated for a fever that has spread explosively across the country.

According to the Associated Press, the announcement came a day after it acknowledged its first COVID-19 cases of the pandemic.

The hermitic country likely doesn’t have enough testing supplies and said the cause of the fevers was unclear. Experts have warned a COVID0-19 outbreak could be devastating in a country with a broken health care system and an unvaccinated, malnourished population.

Leader Kim Jong Un was shown on state TV at a pandemic response meeting, where he took off his face mask and smoked a cigarette while talking with officials.

Thursday, May 12
9:33 a.m.: Biden marks 1 million US COVID deaths in a global summit
President Joe Biden has appealed to world leaders for a renewed international commitment to attacking COVID-19 as he leads the U.S. in marketing the “tragic milestone” of 1 million deaths in America.

Biden told the second global coronavirus summit Thursday: “This pandemic isn’t over,” as reported by the Associated Press.

The virtual meeting comes as a lack of resolve at home reflects the global response. Biden ordered the U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff to honor the dead in America.

He used last year’s first summit to pledge to donate 1.2 billion vaccine doses worldwide.

There are a few official death totals floating around. According to figures complied by Johns Hopkins University, the coronavirus has killed more than 999,000 people in the U.S.

Other counts, including the American Hospital Association, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association, have the toll at 1 million.

9:26 a.m.: Creeping COVID-19 cases still result in very few mask mandates at school
U.S. coronavirus cases are up, leading a smattering of school districts, especially in the Northeast, to bring back mask recommendations and requirements.

As reported by the Associated Press, their return comes for the first time since the omicron winter surge ebbed and the United States approaches 1 million deaths from the virus.

Districts in Maine, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have brought masks back in schools, with a few in Massachusetts also recommending them.

The uptick in cases is a vast undercount because testing has dropped considerably and most tests are being taken at home and are not reported to health departments.

9:08 a.m.: North Korea confirms first COVID-19 outbreak, orders countrywide lockdown
North Korea has imposed a nationwide lockdown to control its first acknowledged COVID-19 outbreak of the pandemic, according to the Associated Press.

It had held for more than two years to a widely doubted claim of a perfect record keeping out the virus that has spread to nearly every place in the world.

The outbreak forced leader Kim Jong Un to wear a mask in public, likely for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

The size of the outbreak isn’t immediately known, but it could have serious consequences because the country has a poor health care system and its 26 million people are believed to be mostly unvaccinated.

Some experts say the North, by its rare admission of an outbreak, may be seeking outside aid such as vaccines and COVID-19 treatment pills.

Wednesday, May 11
10:05 a.m.: Los Angeles School District to postpone COVID-19 mandate
A COVID-19 vaccination mandate for students 12 and older in the Los Angeles Unified School District has been postponed from this fall to next year, as reported by the Associated Press.

The Board of Education voted Tuesday to delay the mandate to no sooner than July 1, 2023, aligning the district with the state.

Last year, California announced that it would require all schoolchildren to receive the coronavirus vaccine, and Gov. Gavin Newsom estimated it would take effect for the 2022-23 school year.

However, last month the Newsom administration put off the requirements to at least summer 2023 because school administrators worried they would not have enough time to implement the mandate.

9:53 a.m.: Pandemic infections are harder to track due to official testing plummeting
Testing for COVID-19 has plummeted globally, making it tougher for scientists to track the course of the pandemic and spot worrisome viral mutants as they emerge and spread.

Experts say testing has dropped by 70-90% worldwide from the first to the second quarter of this year, as reported by the Associated Press.

Rates are particularly low in low-income countries, however, that’s the opposite of what experts say should be happening with new omicron variants on the rise in places such as the U.S. and South Africa.

In the U.S., a shift toward home testing has also obscured efforts to track the virus.

9:43 a.m.: China defends their ‘zero-COVID’ approach
China on Wednesday defended sticking to its strict “zero-COVID” approach, calling critical remarks from the World Health Organization “irresponsible.”

According to the Associated Press, the response from the Foreign Ministry came after WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he had been discussing with Chinese experts the need for a different approach in light of new knowledge about the virus.

Tedros said the policy characterized by strict lockdowns, mass testing and compulsory quarantining for anyone who tests positive or has contact with someone infected was not sustainable and urged China to change strategies.

Earlier Wednesday, a Shanghai health official said that while China’s largest city has seen progress, any relaxation in anti-virus measures could allow the outbreak to rebound.

Tuesday, May 10
9:38 a.m.: In rare cases, some who took Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill have gotten infected again
A small number of COVID-19 patients are relapsing after taking Pfizer’s antiviral pill, raising questions about the drug at the center of the U.S.' response effort.

Paxlovid has become the go-to option against COVID-19 because of its at-home convenience and impressive results in heading off severe disease.

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. government has presented more than $10 billion to purchase enough pills for 20 million people.

However, doctors have begun reporting cases of patients who see their symptoms return several days after treatment — making it one of the several questions about how the drug is holding up against a changing virus.

Pfizer mainly studied the drug in unvaccinated patients during the delta variant wave, but most Americans now have had at least one shot as omicron variants dominate the outbreak.

8:56 a.m.: Here’s how COVID-19 pills work

COVID-19 patients have two treatment options that can be taken at home, but that convenience comes with a catch — the pills have to be taken as soon as possible once symptoms appear.

The challenge for patients is getting tested, getting a prescription and then starting the pills within five days of the start of symptoms, according to the Associated Press.

U.S. regulators authorized the pills from Pfizer and Merck late last year. Both were shown to reduce the chances of hospitalization or death from COVID-19 in high-risk patients.
The pills are intended for those with mild or moderate COVID-19 who are more likely to become seriously ill.

8:52 a.m.: Norway discards excess COVID-19 vaccines as demand declines in low-income countries

Norwegian health authorities say the country has a surplus of COVID-19 vaccines and has already discarded more than 137,000 doses because there is declining demand in low-income countries.

According to the Associated Press, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said that it plans a further disposal of doses if global demand does not change.

In Norway, there’s high vaccine coverage, while globally a demand for donations has fallen.
Earlier this month, health officials in neighboring Denmark said that 1.1 million excess COVID-19 vaccines would be discarded because their expiration date is near, and efforts to donate them to developing countries have failed.

Monday, May 9
10:16 a.m.: Employers added nearly 430,000 jobs last month despite inflation
America’s employers added 428,000 jobs in April, extending a streak of solid hiring that has defied punishing inflation, chronic supply shortages, the Russian war against Ukraine and much higher borrowing costs.

According to the Associated Press, last month’s hiring kept the unemployment rate at 3.6%, just above the lowest level in a half-century.

Employers have added at least 400,000 jobs for 12 straight months. Still, the job growth, along with steady wage gains, will help fuel consumer spending and likely keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise borrowing rates sharply to fight inflation.

That would lead to increasingly heavy borrowing costs for consumers and businesses. Higher loan rates could also weigh down corporate profits.

10:11 a.m.: New York City plans to continue some outdoor car-free areas set up during pandemic

As New York City forges ahead with its recovery, the pandemic is leaving lasting imprints, especially on city roadways — less room and for cars and more space for people, as reported by the Associated Press.

As the COVID-19 outbreak ravaged New York City two years ago, the bustling metropolis found itself transformed into grids of mostly deserted streets and sidewalks as businesses shuttered and virus-wary denizens shut themselves in.

Now the city is drafting new rules that would allow eateries to make outdoor dining permanent, although the policy is being challenged in court. The city is also announcing plans to close off even more streets to vehicles on Sundays, so pedestrians have more room to roam in warmer months.

9:44 a.m.: Italy and Greece welcome back tourists after relaxing pandemic restrictions
For travelers going to southern Europe, summer vacations just got a lot easier.

According to the Associated Press, Italy and Greece have relaxed some COVID-19 restrictions before Europe’s peak summer tourist season as life increasingly returns to normal after the pandemic.

Greece’s civil aviation authority announced Sunday it was lifting all COVID-19 rules for international and domestic flights except for wearing face masks during flights and at airports.

Air travelers were previously required to show proof of vaccination, a negative test, or a recent recovery. Italy did away with the health pass that had been required to enter restaurants, cinemas, gyms and other venues.

Visitors to Italy also no longer have to fill out the EU passenger locator form, a complicated ordeal.

Sunday, May 8
10:13 a.m.: FDA restricts J&J COVID-19 vaccine due to rare blood clotting risk
U.S. regulators strictly limit who can receive Johnson & Johnson’s OVID-19 vaccine due to a rare but serious risk of blood clots.

According to the Associated Press, the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday the shot should only be given to adults who cannot receive a different vaccine or specifically request J&J’s vaccine.

The decision is the latest restriction to hit the company’s vaccine, which has long been overshadowed in the U.S. by the more effective shots from Pfizer and Moderna.

In December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended using the Moderna and Pfizer shots over J&J’s because of its safety issues.

Saturday, May 7
10:59 a.m.: Nevada governor sets May 20 date to lift state of emergency
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak says that in two weeks, he’ll lift the state of emergency he declared during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic more than two years ago, according to the Associated Press.

In a statement on Friday, the Democrat who is running for a second term credited the declaration with giving the state flexibility to respond to challenges as they arose.

He put a May 20 end date to the statewide emergency he declared on March 12, 2020. Most measures, including business restrictions and mask mandates, have already been lifted.
As of the end of this week, state health officials have reported just over 665,000 known cases of COVID-10 and almost 10,800 deaths.

Friday, May 6
9:38 a.m.: Californian bill to allow preteens to get vaccinated without parental consent advances

A California measure that would allow children age 12 and up to be vaccinated without their parents’ consent, including against the coronavirus, has cleared its first legislative committee.

According to the Associated Press, if the proposal that advanced Thursday becomes law, California would allow the young people of any state to be vaccinated without parental permission.

Minors aged 12 to 17 in California currently cannot be vaccinated without permission from their parents or guardians unless the vaccine is to prevent a sexually transmitted disease.

Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener’s proposal is perhaps the most continuous measure remaining from lawmakers’ once-ambitious agenda after several other proposals lost momentum as the winter pandemic wave eased.

9:19 a.m.: A look at the nearly 1 million COVID-19 deaths in the US

The count of U.S. deaths from COVID-19 is nearly 1 million, and there’s a wealth of data that clarifies which groups have been hit the hardest.

According to the Associated Press, more than 700,000 people 65 and older died. Men died at higher rates than women, and white people made up most of the deaths overall.

Despite this, an unequal burden fell on Black, Hispanic and Native American people considering the younger average age of minority communities.

Racial gaps narrowed between surges and then widened again with each new wave. Most deaths happened in urban counties, but rural areas also paid a high price.

9:12 a.m.: China cancels the Asian Games due to omicron spreading
The Asian Games in China are being postponed because of concerns about the spreading omicron variant of COVID-19, as reported by the Associated Press.

The decision comes less than three months after the country hosted the Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

The World University Games have also been postponed. The Asian Games were to take place from Sept. 10-25 in the eastern city of Hangzhou and would involve more than 11,000 athletes — that’s more than the Summer Olympics.

The World University Games had been scheduled for June 26 - July 7 in the western city of Chengdu.

Thursday, May 5
10:13 a.m.: WHO estimates nearly 15 million excess deaths during with COVID-19 pandemic
The World Health Organization is estimating that nearly 15 million people were killed either by the coronavirus or by its impact on overwhelmed health systems in the first two years of the pandemic.

According to the Associated Press, that’s more than double the current official death toll.
In a report released on Thursday, the U.N. health agency said that most of the fatalities were in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Accurately counting COVID-19 deaths have been problematic as reports of confirmed cases represent only a fraction of the devastation wrought by the virus. This could be attributed to limited testing and global differences in how countries count COVID-19 deaths.

9:56 a.m.: Pfizer is trying to get their young children's vaccine approved by the FDA
Pfizer now hopes to tell U.S. regulators how well its COVID-19 vaccine works in children under 5 by early June, according to the Associated Press.

Currently, only children ages 5 or older can be vaccinated in the U.S. using Pfizer's vaccine.

Rival Moderna hopes to be the first to offer vaccinations to the youngest children and began filling its own data with the Food and Drug Administration last week.

The FDA has set tentative meetings in June to review data from one or both companies.
9:47 a.m.: COVID-19 health care coverage dries up despite US still being in the pandemic phase

For the first time, the U.S. came close to providing health care for alll for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic, but just for one condition — COVID-19.

Now, things are reverting to how they were as federal money for the uninsured dries up, as reported by the Associated Press.

Lack of an insurance card could become a barrier to timely care for COVID. A $20 billion government program that paid the pandemic bills of uninsured people has been shut down.

Special Medicaid COVID coverage likely faces its last months, even though the virus is not yet contained. To exacerbate matters, safety-net hospitals and clinics are seeing sharply higher operating costs. They fear they won’t be prepared if there’s another surge.

Wednesday, May 4
9:52 a.m.: Shasta County Board of Supervisors fires county health officer
The Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted to terminate county Health Officer Dr. Karen Ramstrom by a 3-2 vote during its closed session on Tuesday, and the announcement was made public soon after.

In a letter addressed to the community and published in A News Cafe on Friday, Ramstrom wrote that she believed the board would consider her termination during this week’s meeting but that she had been given no notice that her performance was unsatisfactory.

“My performance review did not mention anything suggesting that my job was in jeopardy, and I have no specific information from the Board that my job performance was unsatisfactory in any way,” she wrote.

Ramstrom has frequently come under fire by some members of the community during board meetings for upholding COVID-19 safety measures and mandates. In her letter, she wrote that she and her colleagues had been no more restrictive than the state required.

9:37 a.m.: CDC restates recommendation for masks on public transportation
Despite a court ruling last month that struck down a national mask mandate on public transportation, U.S. health officials are restarting their recommendation that Americans wear masks on planes, trains, and buses.

As reported by the Associated Press, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday issued a statement saying people age 2 and older should wear a well-fitting mask when traveling in public spaces, like buses.

Last month, a federal judge in Florida struck down a government requirement for masking in public transportation. The Justice Department is appealing the decision.

9:25 a.m.: Despite COVID-19 cases increasing, mask mandates still seem off the table
As mask mandates and vaccination rules kept falling across the U.S., infections from the latest COVID variants have quietly taken hold in some places, sparking concern among public health officials.

According to the Associated Press, more cities are now in a new high-risk category that is supposed to trigger indoor mask-wearing, but there’s been little appetite to do so.

Nationally, hospitalizations are up slightly but still as low as at any point in the pandemic.
Deaths have steadily decreased to nearly the lowest numbers in the last three months.
The muted response reflects the country's exhaustion after two years of restrictions and the new challenges that health leaders are facing at this phase of the pandemic.

An abundance of at-home virus test kits has led to a steep undercount of COVID-19 cases, which is an important benchmark.

Tuesday, May 3
9:39 a.m.: Kamala Harris tests negative for COVID-19 six days after testing positive
Vice President Kamala Harris tested negative on Monday for COVID-19, six days after she tested positive for the virus, according to the Associated Press.

She has been cleared to return to the White House on Tuesday. Harris press secretary Kirsten Allen said Harris, who was prescribed the antiviral treatment Paxlovid last week, was negative on a rapid antigen test.

Allen said Harris would continue to wear a “well-fitting mask while around others” in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines until her tenth day after her positive test.

9:31 a.m.: California’s population shrank second year in a row
Officials have announced that California’s population shrank in 2021 for the second year in a row, according to a new estimate from the California Department of Finance.

As reported by the Associated Press, state officials say California lost 117,552 people in 2021, giving it a population of just over 39 million residents.

California is still far ahead of Texas, which is No. 2 for population size in the U.S.

State officials blame the loss on a declining birth rate and more deaths because of the pandemic. Also, fewer people are moving from other states to California.

9:13 a.m.: Beijing shuts indoor dining during holiday to stem COVID-19 infections
Restaurants in Beijing have been ordered to close dine-in services over the May holidays as the Chinese capital grapples with a COVID-19 outbreak, according to the Associated Press.

Authorities said at a recent news conference that dining in restaurants has become an infection risk, cting virus transmissions between diners and staff.

Restaurants have been ordered to only provide takeout services from Sunday to Wednesday, during China’s Labor Day holidays.

Beijing began mass testing millions of residents earlier this week. Parks and entertainment venue are allowed to operate only at half capacity.

The stakes are high as the ruling Communist Party prepares for a major congress this fall at which President XI Jinping is seeking a third five-year term as the country’s leader.

Monday, May 2
9:22 a.m.: CDC says 60% of US adults have previously been infected with COVID-19
Most people in the U.S., including most children, have now been infected with COVID-19 during the omicron surge, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

NPR reports that at a briefing for reporters last Tuesday, the CDC’s Dr. Kristie Clarke said so many people caught omicron over the winter that almost 60% of everyone in the country now has antibodies to the virus in their blood.

That number is even higher for children — almost 75% of kids 11 and younger have antibodies to the virus.

Clarke said the finding means many people have at least some immunity to the virus but stresses that people should still get vaccinated since it still provides the strongest, broadest protection against getting seriously ill.

Immunity provided solely by a previous infection may or may not be as protective against severe disease.

9:18 a.m.: Here’s what to do if you test positive for COVID-19 while traveling
COVID-19 rules for travelers will vary depending on the destination, but testing positive for the virus could result in an unexpected change in plans, such as being required to stay isolated in a hotel.

As reported by the Associated Press, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that travelers going overseas should make contingency plans since they may have to stay longer than planned if they test positive.

Travel companies suggest getting insurance that covers the cost of recovery or isolation.

Those who do end up needing medical treatment are advised to check with their embassy for suggested health care providers.

8:55 a.m.: COVID-19 pandemic has changed office fashion
After working remotely in sweats and yoga pants for two years, many Americans are rethinking their wardrobes to balance comfort and professionalism as some offices reopen.

According to the Associated Press, they’re dropping structured suits, zip-front pants and pencil skirts worn before the pandemic and are experimenting with new looks.

Retailers and brands are rushing to meet workers’ fashion needs for the future of work with blazers in knit fabrics, pants with drawstrings or elastic bands, and casual twists on the button-down dress shirt.

The New York Times Explainer-How N.Korea's COVID-19 outbreak could ignite a major health crisis [Reuters, 13 May 2022]

By Soo-Hyang Choi and Josh Smith

SEOUL, May 13 (Reuters) - North Korea's admission that it is battling an "explosive" COVID-19 outbreak has raised concerns that the virus could devastate a country with an under-resourced health system, limited testing capabilities, and no vaccine programme.

The isolated North confirmed on Thursday its first COVID-19 infections since the pandemic emerged more than two years ago, shifting to the "maximum emergency epidemic prevention system" and imposing a national lockdown. On Friday it reported its first COVID-related death.

State media have not confirmed the total number of COVID-19 cases so far, but said that more than 350,000 people have shown fever symptoms since late April.

NO VACCINATION, LIMITED TESTING Along with Eritrea, North Korea is one of only two countries that have not started a vaccination campaign against COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The COVAX global COVID-19 vaccine-sharing programme cut the number of doses allocated for North Korea as the country has so far failed to arrange for any shipments, reportedly over international monitoring requirements.

Pyongyang also declined offers of vaccines from China.

The latest reported assessment of whether leader Kim Jong Un was vaccinated was from July 2021, when South Korea's spy agency said there were no signs he had received a shot.
North Korea said last year it had developed its own polymerase chain reaction (PCR) equipment to conduct coronavirus tests, and Russia has said it had delivered small numbers of test kits.

But North Korea is heavily sanctioned over its nuclear weapons programme, and since 2020 has maintained strict border lockdowns that have blocked many supplies.

Experts said that so far the pace of testing suggests North Korea cannot handle the number of symptomatic cases it has reported.

As of the end of March, only 64,207 of North Korea's 25 million people had been tested for COVID, and all the results were negative, the latest WHO data shows.

"North Korea has been testing around 1,400 people each week. Assuming they were at their peak capacity, then they can perform 400 tests per day max - not nearly enough to test 350,000 people with symptoms," said Harvard Medical School’s Kee Park, who has worked on health care projects in North Korea.

It's unclear whether North Korea has imposed any mask mandates since the pandemic began. Citizens were at times seen wearing masks, but also going mask-free at some major political events that mobilized tens of thousands of people.

Kim was shown for the first time wearing a mask at the COVID response meeting on Thursday.

MEDICAL SYSTEM LACKS SUPPLIES
North Korea ranks last in the world for its ability to rapidly respond to and mitigate the spread of an epidemic, according to the latest Global Health Security Index in December.

Although it has a high number of trained doctors and the ability to rapidly deploy and organise staff in the face of emergencies, North Korea's health care system is chronically under-resourced.

Every North Korean village has one or two clinics or hospitals, and most county hospitals are equipped with X-ray facilities, "though not necessarily functional ones," the WHO said in its 2014-2019 Country Cooperation Strategy report.

Kwon Young-se, South Korea's new nominee to be the unification minister, responsible for inter-Korean ties, said at his confirmation hearing on Thursday the North is believed to lack even the most basic medical supplies such as painkillers and disinfectants.

An independent U.N. human rights investigator reported in March that the North's COVID-19 restrictions, including the border closings, could have prevented massive outbreaks "though likely at considerable cost to the wider health situation."

"Chronic issues plague the country’s healthcare system, including under-investment in infrastructure, medical personnel, equipment and medicine, irregular power supplies and inadequate water and sanitation facilities," the report said.

POTENTIAL 'NIGHTMARE'
The outbreak could pose a political challenge for the North's authoritarian leader, North Koreans who had defected to the South said.

"Kim ordered the mobilization of reserve medical supplies, which means in North Korea they will now use war reserves and that general hospitals have ran out of medicines," said Thae Young-ho, a former North Korean diplomat who defected to the South in 2016 and is now a lawmaker.

Ji Seong-ho, another South Korean lawmaker who left the North in 2006, said the virus could spread rapidly, due partly to the lack of a working medical system.

"An enormous number of people died during the (1990s) famine after typhoid broke out. It was a nightmare for the North Korean regime, and for the North Korean people," Ji told a parliamentary session.

The New York Times Surge in Virus Cases Puts Most of New York State on High Alert [The New York Times, 13 May 2022]

By Lola Fadulu

How Long Covid Exhausts the Body

New coronavirus cases surged in most counties in New York State this week, putting them on “high” alert under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and triggering recommendations for indoor masking, including inside schools.

The state refrained from imposing an indoor mask mandate, but health officials on Friday afternoon did urge residents living in counties that have been placed on “medium” or “high” alert to wear masks in indoor spaces, regardless of vaccination status.

“These public health measures, as well as ensuring proper air ventilation when gathering, will help reduce Covid-19 transmission in communities and lower the risk of serious illness and hospitalization for individuals,” the state health commissioner, Dr. Mary T. Bassett, said in a statement.

As of Thursday, the average of new cases stood at more than 10,000 a day, according to a New York Times database. New cases have increased 47 percent over the past two weeks, and hospitalizations have increased 28 percent over that time period, to an average of more than 2,600 a day.

As of Thursday, the seven-day average of daily deaths stood at 20, up from 15 two weeks ago, according to the Times database.

How cases, hospitalizations and deaths are trending in New York

New York City was one of the few places in the state where transmission rates have not risen high enough to trigger a higher alert level, according to the C.D.C.’s data. But new virus cases have increased 82 percent in New York City over the past 14 days, with the daily average standing at over 4,300, according to the Times database. Hospitalizations have increased 30 percent in the city over the same time period, to a daily average of 835.

Mayor Adams, who has focused on rolling back a number of pandemic policies in an effort to reopen the city, called the rise a “slow uptick.”

“Our hospitals and deaths — those numbers are really at a solid place,” he said at a news conference on Friday. “We’re going to be prepared and not panicked.”

Case counts in New York City’s school system have moved steadily upward, too. The daily average of new cases reported last week in the public school system was 1,216, raising alarm among some parents.

“The health and safety of our students and staff is our top priority,” Jenna Lyle, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, said in a statement. “We will continue to follow the science and adjust if needed, putting the health and safety of our students and staff first.”

Known cases are far lower than they were during the winter, when the state was first struck by the highly contagious variant of the virus, Omicron, and cases in city schools reached around 14,000 in January.

However, Denis Nash, an epidemiologist at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health, noted that testing is much lower than it once was. And widely used home tests are not usually reported. Both factors mean that case numbers could be much higher than the official counts.

About 77 percent of people are fully vaccinated in the state, a figure that rises to 79 percent in New York City. Covid-19 treatments available to certain at-risk populations may also be reducing the number of serious cases and keeping hospitalization rates relatively low.
“We have very good vaccination coverage and, although booster coverage hasn’t been so great, it’s been stable for a while,” said Dr. Nash.

“I think that we don’t yet know if we could absorb a big surge in transmission without seeing a substantial increase in hospitalizations and deaths,” he added.

If hospitalizations and deaths begin to rise quickly, government officials should consider “some reinstatement of measures to protect New Yorkers,” Dr. Nash said.

North Korea COVID-19 Cases Surge To 350,000 From 1 In Single Day - Benzinga [Benzinga, 13 May 2022]

byNavdeep Yadav,
North Korea Reports COVID-19 Cases Surging To 350,000 From 1 In Single Day Ahead Of Biden Asia Visit

At least six people have died due to COVID-19, and more than 350,000 are infected in North Korea as an "explosive" coronavirus outbreak takes a toll on the isolated nation, the country's state media KCNA confirmed, according to CNN.

This comes a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un confirmed the first-ever COVID-19 case in the hermit kingdom.

What Happened: North Korea is reporting COVID-19 cases for the first time since the pandemic started in 2020.

Experts believe that given North Korea's limited testing capabilities, the numbers it is reporting represent a small fraction of the infections, Reuters reported.

They also reportedly predicted that this could lead to thousands of deaths in one of only two countries without a COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

Why It Matters: For more than two years, North Korea claimed to have kept the situation at bay by imposing a rigid COVID-19 blockade of its borders.

North Korea fired three short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea in the middle of this reported outbreak, according to the Associated Press. The Biden administration has said the country could be preparing for a nuclear test ahead of the U.S. president's Asia visit.

Joe Biden is expected to be in Japan and South Korea from May 20-24.

N.Korea reports first COVID-19 death after 350000 sickened with fever [Reuters.com, 13 May 2022]

By Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith

SEOUL, May 13 (Reuters) - At least one person confirmed to have COVID-19 has died in North Korea and hundreds of thousands have shown fever symptoms, state media said on Friday, offering hints at the potentially dire scale of country's first confirmed outbreak of the pandemic.

About 187,800 people are being treated in isolation after a fever of unidentified origin has "explosively spread nationwide" since late April, the official KCNA news agency reported.

Roughly 350,000 people have shown signs of that fever, including 18,000 who newly reported such symptoms on Thursday, KCNA said. About 162,200 have been treated, but it did not specify how many had tested positive for COVID-19.

At least six people who showed fever symptoms died, with one of those case confirmed to have contracted the Omicron variant of the virus, KCNA said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the anti-virus command centre on Thursday to check the situation and responses after declaring a "gravest state of emergency" and ordering a national lockdown on Thursday.

North Korea has said the outbreak began in the capital of Pyongyang in April. State media did not elaborate on the cause of the outbreak, but the city hosted several massive public events on April 15 and 25, including a military parade and large gatherings where most people did not wear masks.

Kim "criticised that the simultaneous spread of fever with the capital area as a centre shows that there is a vulnerable point in the epidemic prevention system we have already established," KCNA said.

Kim said actively isolating and treating people with fevers a top priority, while calling for scientific treatment methods and tactics "at a lightning tempo" and bolstering measures to supply medication.

In another dispatch, KCNA said health authorities were trying to organise testing and treatment systems and bolster disinfection work.

The rapid spread of the virus highlights the potential for a major crisis in a country that lacks medical resources, has refused international help with vaccinations and has kept its borders shut.

Analysts said the outbreak could threaten to deepen the isolated country's already tough food situation this year, as the lockdown would hamper its "all-out fight" against drought and the mobilisation of labour.

North Korea had declined vaccine supplies from the COVAX global sharing programme and China, possibly leaving the vast majority of people in a relatively young society at higher risk of infection.

Kwon Young-se, South Korea's new nominee to be the unification minister, responsible for inter-Korean ties, said at his confirmation hearing on Thursday that he was willing to push for humanitarian assistance for the North, including COVID treatment, syringes and other medical supplies.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said it had no plans to send vaccines to North Korea but supported international efforts to provide aid to vulnerable people there, urging Pyongyang to facilitate that work.

New Coronavirus News from 12 May 2022b

Full interview: Dr. Anthony Fauci shares what he’s learned throughout the COVID pandemic [WDIV ClickOnDetroit, 12 May 2022]

by Kayla Clarke

Local 4′s Dr. Frank McGeorge sat down with Fauci

Before Dr. Anthony Fauci delivered the commencement address to the University of Michigan class of 2020 and 2021, he sat down with Local 4′s Dr. Frank McGeorge.
Their conversation about the COVID pandemic was very candid. They had a wide-ranging discussion at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

They talked about what he felt was important to press on new graduations, to being accused of flip-flopping on his recommendations and a controversial comment he recently made.

How do we avoid public health and medicine being so heavily politicized in any future pandemic or public health emergency?

One of the ways to avoid that, if we possibly can, is to try and feed into the system as much correct information as we possibly can, because it’s very interesting that the people that tweet falsities seem to have more energy of tweeting falsities than the people who are talking about true things.

You’ve basically been accused of flip-flopping on your positions. Can you clarify why some of those nuanced opinions are really important?

Yeah, what I can say, it’s a good thing. I have flip-flopped and the reason is because science and the evolution of this outbreak changes.

If you are being true to the facts and true to the data, you’re going to have to change. That’s not flip-flopping, that’s getting moving along with the science the way this outbreak is moving along. And it’s understandable how the general public doesn’t fully understand that.

You recently said on PBS News, that we were out of the pandemic phase and then you essentially updated that to save the data out of the full-blown pandemic right now. You received a fair amount of pushback on that statement. It feels to me like there are many people that are reasonably afraid to be optimistic going forward. What are your thoughts on that?

Well, I was being quite realistic and I could still stand by what I said. I mean, I probably could’ve used the better wording so that it would not be misunderstood by some people.

So, what I meant, is that we’re not in . . . in that explosive phase of the pandemic, we’re at a phase where it’s much, much lower. And I hope we stay at that level and continue go down. I wasn’t saying the pandemic is over by no means is it over. Not in the United States and certainly not globally.
________________________________________
In his full interview (available above), Fauci gave many other interesting answers -- including his thoughts on why children may be less affected by COVID.

Eritrea: Announcement From the Ministry of Health [AllAfrica - Top Africa News, 12 May 2022]

Four patients have been diagnosed positive for COVID-19 in tests carried out today at Testing Stations in the Central Region.

Accordingly, the total number of confirmed cases in the country to date has risen to 9,744.

The total number of recovered patients stands at 9,632 while the number of deaths stands at 103.

Ministry of Health
Asmara

North Korea faces its first covid outbreak without any vaccines [The Washington Post, 12 May 2022]

By Adam Taylor

North Korea admitted the inevitable this week — that covid-19 had finally reached its population. But for global health experts, there’s a particularly worrying detail: It is one of just two countries without any vaccines.

North Korea and Eritrea — both poor and led by brutal governments — have refused to join global vaccine-sharing initiatives, leaving their populations vulnerable to fast-spreading variants of the virus.

In Pyongyang, authorities Thursday attributed the outbreak to the highly contagious BA.2 omicron subvariant. On Friday, state media reported that one person had died and some 350,000 people had shown symptoms of fever.

Many health experts were already skeptical that North Korea had yet to report a single coronavirus case — more than two years into the pandemic. For its part, Eritrea has admitted about 10,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 103 deaths, figures that are far lower than those of its neighbors.

North Korea admits to coronavirus outbreak for the first time
“North Korea, with a huge immunity gap — no protection acquired with vaccines or prior infections — is an open field for uncontrolled transmission, which maximizes the odds of new variants,” said J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

John P. Moore, professor of microbiology and immunology at Cornell University’s Weill Cornell Medicine, said in an email that unless North Korea was able to limit transmission through a lockdown, “a very high percentage of the population” would soon be infected.

“The carnage could be awful,” he said. “To the extent that it might affect the regime’s hold over the population.”

In both countries, rumors have swirled that the political elites are already vaccinated — and that their dismissal of foreign-made vaccines is just for show.

Eritrea, under longtime president and strongman Isaias Afwerki, has ignored requests by other African nations to join Covax, the global vaccination effort backed by the World Health Organization. Some activists say the country is rife with propaganda that paints Covax as a Western tool to destroy Africa.

In December, the head of the African Centers for Disease Control, John Nkengasong, said Eritrea was the only member of the African Union that had not “joined the family of 55 member states that are moving forward with vaccination, but we are not giving up.”

As world reopens, North Korea is one of two countries without vaccines In North Korea, the government rejected doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine out of apparent concerns about potential side effects. It also turned down the delivery of nearly 3 million doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine, saying the shipments should go to other countries suffering more severe outbreaks.

Last month, a panel of experts convened by the Center for Strategic and International Studies recommended that North Korea be offered a high-volume donation of mRNA vaccines. But the vaccines previously allocated for North Korea under the Covax plan are no longer available.

Morrison said Covax and other donors had “grown weary” of North Korea’s nonresponsive nature during the pandemic. “That does not rule out revisiting the issues of what to do on a crash basis,” he added.

A spokesperson for Gavi, a nonprofit that helps coordinate Covax, said the initiative had “currently not committed any volume for” North Korea. But, the spokesperson said, if Pyongyang moves forward with a national vaccination program, Gavi could work with Covax to help North Korea catch up with immunization targets.

Pyongyang might not have a choice. Even in partially vaccinated places such as China or Hong Kong, omicron subvariants have spread incredibly fast among pockets of unvaccinated people — with deadly consequences similar in scale to the first wave of cases in other parts of the world.

China, North Korea’s most important ally, is battling a BA.2 outbreak and has imposed a severe lockdown on its commercial hub, Shanghai.

“China is itself struggling with the spread of the omicron variant, so I am not sure whether it has strong incentives to help North Korea battle covid,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

A model released as a preprint this week estimated that if China relaxed what it calls its “zero covid” policy, the virus could kill up to 1.5 million people.

In North Korea, it would be “far worse,” Moore said, “because of the minimal vaccine uptake there.”

North Korea Did an Amazing Job of Keeping Covid Out. Or It Lied. [Bloomberg, 12 May 2022]

By Jon Herskovitz

Few health experts believe North Korea managed to keep out Covid-19 since early 2020. So when Kim Jong Un officially confirmed the nation’s first case on Thursday, the question was more: “Why now?”

Kim has long trumpeted his virus-control measures as evidence of his nation’s superiority, calling the efforts as a “shining success.” He sealed the border, crippling an already anemic economy, and banned athletes from two Olympics. To keep the disease out, his troops even shot, killed and burned the body of a South Korean government employee who drifted near a nautical border.

All along, outsiders speculated that Covid was already in North Korea, despite its isolation. The commander of US Forces Korea said as early as July 2020 the virus had almost certainly made its way into the country, and both China and Russia had reported outbreaks near their borders with North Korea.

Now, after 520 million cases have been reported around the world, North Korea has acknowledged that Covid indeed has arrived -- leaving Turkmenistan as the only nation still claiming to have zero cases. Kim, wearing a mask, ordered all cities to lock down Thursday after a hastily called Politburo meeting.

North Korea watchers said Kim likely disclosed the outbreak because it’s too big to hide, and it’s more important now to appear like he’s responding quickly. He has reason to worry that it could be devastating: North Korea has so far refused all foreign vaccines, leaving its 26 million people vulnerable to even mild strains in a nation where healthcare is already unreliable.

The decision to come clean about infections likely indicated that it would no longer “be plausible to continue with their zero-Covid claims,” Ankit Panda, a senior fellow in the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote on Twitter.

A widespread outbreak in the capital Pyongyang, where about one in 10 North Koreans live, would hit elite members of the regime who are relatively more informed about global affairs. A lockdown in the city this week led to panic buying in stores and long lines for public transport, specialist service NK News reported on Thursday, citing sources on the ground.

Still, Kim is likely confident the outbreak can be managed, according to Rachel Minyoung Lee, a non-resident fellow with the 38 North Program at the Stimson Center.

“The North Korean leadership likely felt that acknowledging an outbreak in a timely manner -- and showing the public that the leadership was responding quickly -- was necessary for effectively controlling the situation and seeking the people’s cooperation in the regime’s stepped-up quarantine efforts,” said Lee, who worked as an analyst for the CIA’s Open Source Enterprise for almost two decades.

There are plenty of places where the virus could’ve entered North Korea. While airports have largely been shut during the pandemic, the regime reopened a rail link with China in January and black-market traders frequently cross the border. A United Nations body has said satellite images show sea traffic at its main international port of Nampho, and illicit trade is conducted on open seas in violation of sanctions.

In the meantime, North Korea has held several large-scale gatherings, including a military parade last month that included tens of thousands of maskless soldiers, a maskless leader and maskless masses.

Kim Jong Un Puts ICBMs on Parade With Vow to Expand Nuke Program
Still, North Korea should be able to keep the public in order. It maintains one of the most repressive systems on the planet, with a slew of political prisons for those who fall out of line or dare to question the legitimacy of its leaders. The regime was able to weather a famine in the 1990s that some estimates said killed as many as 3.5 million people over a number of years.

‘Comrade, Neighbor and Friend’
Over the course of the pandemic, Kim’s regime has tried to show its people that it takes public health seriously, even going to extremes to make the point. In July 2020 it locked down the border city of Kaesong out of fear a person who defected from South Korea may have carried the virus. It investigated the military unit responsible for patrols and pledged to “administer a severe punishment” to those responsible, official media said.

China Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Thursday said Beijing could help Pyongyang in its fights against the virus.

“As the DPRK’s comrade, neighbor and friend, China is ready to provide all out effort for the DPRK’s fight against pandemic at any time,” Zhao told a regular briefing in Beijing, referring to North Korea by its formal name.

‘More Dangerous Enemy’
The latest in global politics

It’s unclear if that would include vaccines. North Korea’s official media has included commentary that vaccines may not prove effective against new virus variants -- potentially an attempt to paper over the country’s lack of doses. The propaganda apparatus has focused on showing Kim thoroughly engaged in halting infections, perhaps to deflect blame to lower ranking officials if the disease spreads.

KCNA echoed that line on Thursday.

Even as Kim expressed confidence that North Korea would beat the virus, he said the “more dangerous enemy” was “unscientific fear, lack of faith and weak will.”

Ukraine war, COVID: How German society is divided [DW (English), 12 May 2022]

by Marcel Fürstenau

How polarized is Germany? This question is controversially discussed at the European Police Congress. Result: It depends on who you ask.

At the European Police Congress in Berlin, the topic of debate is "divided society," and a politician, a psychologist, a police chief, and a digital expert sat down to discuss the issue. Four people, four opinions? Katrin Göring-Eckardt, a member of the Green Party and Vice President of the German Bundestag, kicks things off: "There's no reason to talk about the division in society."

Psychologist Ahmad Mansour disagrees: "We are a divided society."

Göring-Eckardt insists that "the vast majority in our country still stands behind democracy." But also acknowledges "very noisy groups" such as enemies of Ukraine, Putin-understanders, and COVID deniers have made their presence felt. The noise they make sometimes leads to "the talk of a divided society." So things aren't so bad? That's not how the politician wants to be understood: Enemies of democracy must be watched very closely and punished if they become criminals.

Everyone agrees on that, but Mansour sees another problem: The defamation of dissenters has become such a common problem that one has to say: "Our society needs a massive basic course in discourse culture." He believes there is a tolerance problem in how discussions are conducted. "That's a very big danger to democracy," he argues.

'We are always the buffer stop'
Britta Zur, police chief of Gelsenkirchen, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, agrees with Göring-Eckhardt: "The majority in our society remains civil and does not violate any laws," she says. But stresses that the police must be vigilant, which should include a transparent, open police force that makes it clear "that we have no place for extremists, either outside our organization or inside."

To live up to this claim as much as possible, the force that Britta Zur heads is very active on social media. But she has no illusions about the role of the police: "We are always the buffer for very, very many people who are insecure, who are dissatisfied, who have perhaps also started to radicalize." Speaking for instance about protests against COVID measures, she says, "My colleagues are the ones who are on the street and have to deal with contrarians."

The dispute over heavy weapons for Ukraine
Göring-Eckardt sees it similarly: COVID, the climate crisis, the war in Ukraine — all of these put people "under insane stress." But that's not why she would say society is divided. In her role as a politician, she often sees herself in a dilemma: The expectation of having to react to everything very quickly means that background information and motives don't play any role at first.

The discussion about military support for Ukraine is just such a case, especially from the Green Party's perspective. Göring-Eckardt is in favor of the delivery of heavy weapons, but: "This is not an easy decision, but a very difficult one." She says it was necessary to explain what arguments and facts had led to this decision.

'Two hours on Twitter, that's exhausting'
In this context, Göring-Eckardt is critical of communication via social media. "Two hours on Twitter, that's already very exhausting." What fake news can trigger, she said, is currently being experienced on a massive scale from the Russian side. "We are confronted with statements where "You can see at first glance that this is nonsense," she says. But people don't like to leave their bubbles.

Ahmad Mansour also advocates heavy weapons for Ukraine. "But I also have to put up with other people disagreeing with me." He finds this ability lacking among many. The willingness to engage in dialogue decreases when it comes to issues such as refugees, integration, COVID or Russia, he says. The digital revolution has not "led to us becoming smarter."

Why isn't media literacy a school subject?
Mansour emphasizes that his aim is not to demonize social media. He has long wondered why media literacy is still not a central subject in schools. Even seven- and eight-year-olds are on the move on smartphones in social media and YouTube "and yet they are not able to distinguish between fake news and truth." Britta Zur agrees, saying that young people need to be taught that there are many sources of information. "That's a big task for all of us."

Digitization expert and philosopher Nikolai Horn concludes that polarization is part of the "DNA of democracy," he says. He is skeptical, however, about the increasing emotionalization, "where many people refuse to be convinced by a good argument." But social media, he says, should not be made a scapegoat in the debate.

2nd Global COVID-19 Summit Commitments [The White House, 12 May 2022]

The second Global COVID-19 Summit, co-hosted by United States, Belize, Germany, Indonesia, and Senegal, convened over partners and organizations from around the world to accelerate collective efforts to get shots into arms, enhance access to tests and treatments, protect the health workforce, and finance and build health security for future pandemics and other health crises.

The Summit garnered new financial commitments totaling $3.2 billion, not yet announced, above and beyond pledges made to date in 2022. This includes nearly $2.5 billion for COVID-19 and related response activities and $712 million in new commitments toward a new pandemic preparedness and global health security fund at the World Bank. (Note: This builds on $250 million previously pledged for this fund.) We encourage partners to join, as much more is needed to control COVID-19 and build better health security.

Commitments[1] from Government, Other Partners, and Entities
Note: Country text is being validated with host governments and is not yet final.

• African Union: Will expand and continue its Saving Lives and Livelihoods Program to purchase COVID-19 vaccines for the African people, support the delivery of the vaccines, and support vaccination rollout programs at country level and increase vaccine manufacturing in Africa in partnership with Africa CDC and the Mastercard Foundation and other partners. Will also, through coordination by Africa CDC, strengthen public health institutions, increase local capacity for producing medical products, strengthen the health workforce, and establish action-oriented partnerships through its New Public Health Order Program.

• Australia: Pledged additional AUD $85 million in 2022 to COVAX and has delivered on the first half of its commitment made at the first Global COVID-19 Summit, to share 60 million vaccine doses by the end of 2022. Announced a AUD 375 million second phase for the Health Security Initiative for the Indo-Pacific region as well as committed AUD 100 million to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

• Austria: In 2022, committed to provide EUR 1.6 million annually to CEPI from 2022-2024 for a total of EUR 4.8 million. Delivering up to 14 million vaccine doses by mid-2022. Committed to remain active in donating vaccines and providing financial support and emergency assistance.

• Belgium: Will provide an additional EUR 15 million for COVID-19 vaccination efforts, including EUR 10 million for the ancillary costs needed for vaccine delivery and EUR 5 million for COVAX.

• Belize: Will accelerate efforts to vaccinate 70% of the population by September 2022 and promote boosters for at risk populations. Will support an extensive public education campaign to overcome vaccine hesitancy. Will construct a BZE1 6.8 million hospital to better serve community health needs and to expand and provide an additional BZE 3.2 million to the National Health Insurance Program.

• Brazil: The Government of Brazil reaffirmed its commitment to donate $86.7 million to COVAX AMC, adding to the 5.6 million doses it has already donated. It further underscored its success in vaccinating more than 77 percent of the Brazilian population against COVID and supplementing its national health system with an extra $20 billion.

• Belize: Will accelerate efforts to vaccinate 70% of the population by September 2022 and promote boosters for at risk populations. Will support an extensive public education campaign to overcome vaccine hesitancy. Will construct a $16.8 million hospital to better serve community health needs and to expand and provide an additional BZE 3.2 million to the National Health Insurance Program.

• Botswana: Commits to vaccinate at least 80 percent of its population according to the Country’s National Vaccine Deployment plan, implementing the second stage of Phase 4 (5–12-year-olds) by mid-2022 pending successful consultation. Commits to sharing lessons learned on its success with other countries to help them reach Botswana’s levels of vaccination success , the third highest vaccination rate in Africa. Will continue to focus on improving and accelerating vaccine uptake and coverage. Commits to setting policy to offer and avail free treatment to all people who are infected with COVID-19, have mild to moderate as well as severe illness, or are at risk for death due to risk factors, with treatment modalities are based on Botswana’s updated treatment guidelines. Commits to manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines to improve local and regional equitable vaccines supply chain by the end of 2022, drawing lessons from the global demand-supply mismatch and non-equitable distribution of vaccines.

• Canada: Will provide CAD 732 million in funding for the Access to COVID-19 Tools-Accelerator (ACT-A), enabling Canada to meet its fair share for the 2021-2022 ACT-A budget cycle, assessed at CAD 747 million. This funding includes a previous allocation of CAD 220 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), announced by the Prime Minister on April 8, 2022 at the Gavi COVAX AMC Summit, and builds on the CAD 15 million announced by the Prime Minister on October 30, 2021, in support of COVAX Manufacturing Task Force partners. Canada is contributing to the international pandemic response and will continue to work with partners to ensure that we strengthen our collective ability to prevent, prepare and respond to disease outbreaks going forward.

• Colombia: Will continue to vaccinate the nearly 2 million Venezuelan migrants in Colombia and other vulnerable populations. Will share lessons learned on linking joint efforts with the private sector. Will provide technical assistance for mass vaccination campaigns, to improve supply chain logistics, and for surveillance of possible adverse events related to vaccination. Will also contribute to the discussions within the WHO on ways to strengthen prevention, preparedness, and response to pandemics. Will make efforts to increase the number of migrants registered in the social security system from 400,000 to 700,000 in 2022.

• Côte D’Ivoire: Will increase vaccine demand creation and uptake, and accelerate vaccine coverage while immediately prioritizing fully vaccinating and providing boosters to key sub-populations such as teachers, healthcare workers, people with comorbidities, and adolescents. Will strengthen genomic sequencing to identify new variants. Will expand and sustain health system capacity and financing; increase domestic health budgets; and improve funds disbursement to enable timely salary, incentive, and other supportive payments for health care workers. Committed to continue promoting the One Health approach and strengthening the national One Health platform.

• Denmark: Will provide over USD 10 million for vaccine rollout via ACT-A (COVAX). Minister Møller Mortensen expressed support for strengthening WHO and support for WHO agreement on pandemic preparedness, prevention, and response.

• European Union: The European Union budget will provide 300 million euro for vaccination support. Will provide 100 million euro for other ACT-A pillars. Will provide $450 million USD for the pandemic preparedness and global health security financial intermediary fund at the World Bank.

• France: Will provide EUR 220 M: 100 million euros to COVAX, 50 million euros to ACT-A, and 70 million euros to strengthen vaccine production capacity in developing countries, including Rwanda, Senegal, and South Africa.

• Georgia: According to the National Vaccine Deployment Plan, intends to vaccinate at least 65% of population by mid-2022. Will use the Financial Incentives scheme to continue to motivate citizens over 50 years old. Pediatric doses of Covid-19 vaccine will be made available for 5-12 year old kids In order to provide access to novel drugs, will continue to procure antivirals the treatment of mild Covid-19 patients with the high risk of hospitalization in March 2022. Has extended its COVID-19 vaccination and treatment program for all Ukrainian citizens who entered the country after the war crisis. Is implementing an active information and communication campaign with support from USAID, WHO, European Commission and other international partners. Commits to a full program accelerating vaccine coverage while immediately prioritizing fully vaccinating and providing boosters to at-risk populations, accelerating vaccine coverage for vulnerable populations, saving lives with access to tests and treatments, supporting health and frontline workers, and expanding and sustaining health capacity and financing including support for the establishment of a global health security and pandemic preparedness fund.

• Germany: Will contribute EUR 50 million toward the establishment of a new global health security and pandemic preparedness fund housed at the World Bank. Committed EUR 1.1 billion to ACT-A’s 2021/2022 replenishment cycle earlier in 2022 and an additional EUR 224 million for bilateral projects to help increase vaccine uptake. Part of Germany’s overall contribution are EUR 850 million targeted support for vaccine logistics and strengthening of absorption capacities, especially in African countries (“LastMile Initiative”) bilaterally and multilaterally through ACT-A. All contributions are subject to parliamentary approval.

• India: Will continue to extend boosters coverage to eligible populations and expand vaccinations to those under age 18, and continue working towards complete vaccination coverage for India’s adult population. With the increased funding allocated for the 2022-2023 domestic health budget, will provide insurance coverage for healthcare workers, increase the number of health and wellness centers. Will increase the number of integrated public health and regional disease control laboratories, as well as bio-safety labs. Is increasing zoonotic surveillance, and will continue to supply vaccines and work on extending a SARS -CoV2 genomic consortium to neighboring countries.

• Indonesia: Will provide $5 million to CEPI for the period of 2022-2026, adding to the $1 million contribution made in 2020. Will continue accelerating vaccination efforts to achieve the WHO vaccination goal of the 70% population, including for the 189 million people of Indonesia by June 2022, while ensuring equitable access to vaccines across income and age groups, and those most at risk. Earmarked Rp122,54 trillion of the 2022 national budget to continue vaccination efforts, care for COVID-19 patients, provide health worker and tax incentives, and support local governments. As Co-Chair of COVAX AMC EG, commits to contribute to the global effort to ensure equitable access to vaccines and getting shots in arms, and to increase local and regional vaccine production capacity and research capability, including for vaccines beyond COVID-19 pandemic, including through the use of WHO mRNA technology hubs. In the framework of ACT-A, will continue to accelerate global equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and PPE through its roles as Co-Chair of the Tracking and Accelerating Progress Working Group and as Member of the Facilitation Council, the Financial and Resource Mobilization Working Group, and the Vaccine Manufacturing Working Group. As G20 President, supports the establishment of a new financing facility to ensure adequate and sustained financing for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, with a central coordinating role of the WHO, and supported by the World Bank and in close cooperation with international partners. Commits to strengthen the central role of WHO in coordinating global health actions through leadership in the Working Group on Strengthening WHO Preparedness and Response to Health Emergencies together with the United States. Through multilateral cooperation , seeks political and financial support for developing countries, including as Co-Host of COVAX AMC Summit and Second Global COVID-19 Summit, and ACT-A diplomatic outreach with likeminded partners.

• Italy: Will donate an additional 31 million doses through COVAX and pledge 200 million euros via the ACT-Accelerator and in order to strengthen global preparedness.

• Japan: Will contribute up to $500 million to COVAX and expand the scope of the Last One Mile Support of additional $30 million US dollars to 17 new Latin American and the Caribbean and African countries. Pledges to contribute $300 million to CEPI. Will provide assistance of up to $200 million USD through JICA to enhance local production capacity for pharmaceutical and medical products including vaccines in Africa. Total contributions increase from $3.9 billion USD announced at the first Summit to $5 billion USD.

• Liechtenstein: Provided CHF 300,000 to COVAX in 2022.

• Nepal: Will accelerate vaccine coverage and immediately prioritize fully vaccinating and providing boosters to at-risk populations. Will provide a detailed plan and targets at the national and sub-national level for getting shots into arms and overcoming key barriers for at-risk populations, and will track and report on full vaccination and booster rates by key subgroups. Will designate a “high-level leader” to coordinate with donors, multinational development banks, and the COVID-19 vaccine delivery partnership. Will also develop a national and community level strategy to expand access to testing and prompt treatment, focusing on those at highest risk and integrating COVID-19 testing /treatment with existing health systems, and will update relevant testing and treatment guidelines. Will improve and expand community access to testing and treatments and pharmacovigilance programs. Will support health and frontline workers by providing PPE and water, sanitation, and hygiene access, and training.

• New Zealand: Will provide NZD 2.25 million to UNICEF to fund COVID-19 diagnostics in Vietnam and to maintain essential health services in the Philippines, and NZD 8 million to the Global Fund’s COVID-19 Response Mechanism for lifesaving tests, treatments and personal protective equipment. Will continue its support in the Pacific region to enable access to and uptake of vaccines within comprehensive public health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as continuing its support for health security and health systems strengthening.

• Nigeria: Will support vaccination efforts for 112 million citizens above age 18 towards a vaccination goal of 70% of the population being vaccinated by December 2022. Will expand access to COVID 19 testing and treatment, focusing on those at highest risk, and will integrate testing/treatment into existing health systems while prioritizing COVID-19 for monthly reporting on the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Reporting system platform. Will train an additional 10,000 frontline healthcare workers by December 2022 on basic infection prevention and control measures, ensuring availability of oxygen, and eliminate stock-outs of PPE. Will strengthen laboratory capacity for genomic sequencing and specimen bio-banking for both diagnostics and surveillance activities, and will implement a national bio-bank policy. Will designate highest-level leadership to coordinate relevant government sectors to achieve these goals, in collaboration with the international community and its development partners, and will progressively increase domestic health budgets. Will promote businesses in Nigeria to integrate health security into organizational policies and business goals.

• Norway: Provided USD 222 million to the 2021/2022 budget cycle of ACT- A. Supports establishing a global health security and pandemic preparedness fund housed at the World Bank.

• Pakistan: Will accelerate vaccine coverage from 82 percent to 90 percent and provide boosters to eligible and at-risk populations, including school-aged children eligible for vaccines (age 12-18), by summer 2022. Plans to launch a second iteration of its robust national vaccination campaign in late May, striving to vaccinate hard-to-reach populations.

• Palau: Will maintain a proactive and robust response to the ongoing pandemic, maintain and enhance existing services and plans including non-COVID essential services, and will strengthen social protection programs for the vulnerable and affected population.

• Philippines: The Philippine government committed to measures to boost efforts for expanding health care capacity that adheres to global standards, to adopt systematic approaches for effectively implementing emergency programs, and to develop a Comprehensive Pandemic Response Framework that will safeguard the country from future pandemics.

• Republic of Korea: Will provide $300 million USD for ACT-A over 3 years, from 2023-2025. This builds on the $212 million USD committed to ACT-Accelerator since its launch. Support developing countries move toward vaccine self-sufficiency by establishing WHO Global Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Hub. Express political support for the pandemic preparedness and global health security fund at the World Bank.

• Rwanda: Will vaccinate five- to eleven-year-old children with at least one dose by the end of 2022 and will vaccinate at least seventy percent of the total population with the primary series (two shots) by June 2022. Will double booster coverage from thirty percent to sixty percent of those eligible, and will continue to expand the Government of Rwanda’s capacity to locally manufacture vaccine.

• Saudi Arabia: Provided $2.8 million to the WHO in 2022 to provide logistical support for vaccine delivery in order to vaccinate ten percent of Yemenis.

• Senegal: Commits, with Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD), to facilitating the new $200 million Madiba (Manufacturing in Africa for Disease Immunization and Building Autonomy ) biotechnology platform, which will include production of vaccines against COVID-19 and other diseases. In support of the project, Senegal has mobilized financing of $91 million, including an EIB loan of $79 million, and has made a 3.3 Hectares site available. The project also benefits from grants from IFC, DFC, EIB, EU, and AFD, amounting to $14 million.

• Spain: Will provide EUR 100 million to support new COVID-19-related bilateral projects. Will provide USD 200 million for the purchase of 30 million vaccines for donation through COVAX and bilaterally, as needs dictate. When combined with previous donations, Spain will have pledged to donate up to 100 million vaccines, remaining as one of the largest vaccine donor worldwide.

• South Africa: South Africa is committed to work with African leaders to achieve vaccine coverage through mass campaigns across the continent. We continue to advocate for a TRIPS waiver in the WTO to improve global access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.

Committed to getting more life-saving vaccines to those in need, South Africa is donating 5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 10 million doses of the J&J vaccine to other African countries. It has contributed $10 million to the Global Fund and plans to contribute financial support to the ACT-Accelerator. As an AU Champion will work towards a goal of 200 million tests administered by the end of 2022 by resourcing and supporting member states to implement Africa CDC’s Enhanced Surveillance Strategy, which includes community-based testing, wastewater testing, and sentinel surveillance. In the same capacity, we tabled at the AU Summit in February and got an endorsement for a common agenda for manufacturing vaccines, medicines, diagnostics, therapeutics, and health products on the continent. The continent’s largest COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing plant opened in South Africa last year, and mRNA hubs for tech transfer have been opened in South Africa, Egypt, Senegal, Tunisia, Kenya and Nigeria. Multilateral agencies and philanthropists need to be procured vaccines and boosters from African manufacturers to ensure the developing capabilities of the continent are retained. Finally, South Africa supports the formation of the Fund as a mechanism to finance global health security.

• Sweden: Committed its health experts to help improve international global health architecture and help advance policies on improved pandemic preparedness. Donated 10 million vaccine doses to COVAX.

• Taiwan: Pledges an additional contribution of $1.5 million to support the fight against COVID. Will continue to provide PPE and medical equipment to fight COVID worldwide, having contributed $70 million in this effort since April 2020.

• Tanzania: Will vaccinate 70% of eligible Tanzanians by fall 2022.

• Thailand: Will donate over 3.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, worth $14.5 million, in 2022. Will continue investing in the development of COVID-19 vaccines and cooperate with global partners on vaccine testing, research and development, and production. Will continue working actively on disease prevention and health emergency preparedness in neighboring countries to better address particularly communicable and emerging diseases. Supports in principle the initiative to establish the pandemic preparedness and global health security fund at the World Bank.

• United Arab Emirates: Will provide $10 million in financial contributions and $50 million in-kind assistance of equipment.

• United Kingdom: Since December, has committed £265 million [$327 million] to the global response to COVID-19 as part of the commitment to ending the acute phase of the pandemic in vulnerable countries and future pandemic preparedness, including £105 million to expand testing capacity globally and boost oxygen supplies, and £160m as part of the UK-hosted Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit to support CEPI to reduce the time to develop vaccines against new health threats – including new COVID variants – to just 100 days. The UK has spent over £2.1 billion since 2020 to help end the pandemic, address its social and economic impacts and to support global efforts to fund, and distribute vaccines fairly.

• United States: Committed an additional $200 million to the pandemic preparedness and global health security financial fund at the World Bank in 2022, bringing the U.S. total pledge to this fund to $450 million to date. In FY 2023, the President’s Budget calls for an additional $4.75 billion for this fund. Committed to share U.S. Government COVID-19 vaccine-related intellectual property and research tools for greater global access. Committed to rapid review of generic products for global COVID-19 response. Committed to pilot “test and treat” strategies for the most vulnerable populations in low and middle-income countries to help prevent hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19. Committed to additional vaccination support through Global VAX. Committed to expand investments in bilateral global health security programs. Committed to expand dose donations to include boosters and pediatric doses to accelerate global vaccine coverage. Committed to improving guidance for vaccine development to enhance protection. These commitments build on previous commitments announced in 2022, including support for a financing facility for COVID-19 vaccine purchases and delivery through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation and advancing COVID-19 vaccine research and development through the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

Commitments[2] from Non-Governmental Organizations, Private Sector, Philanthropies
In addition, we have received commitments from more than 50 organizations, including local and international non-governmental organizations, businesses, philanthropies, advocacy groups, faith-based organizations, and other members of civil society. To date, new commitments in 2022 outlined below exceed $700 million for vaccinating the world, saving lives now, and building better health security.

• Abbott: Abbott will make available to low and middle income countries (LMICs) a dedicated portion of its global manufacturing capacity for WHO EUL-approved antigen rapid diagnostic tests (Ag RDTs), amounting to a minimum of 20 million tests per month and a total of 240 million tests for an entire year, a commitment that amounts to nearly a quarter of the global goal of ensuring access to 1 billion tests in 2022 announced in September.

• Abt Associates: Commits to convening a global coalition to identify health system innovations that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic that can be adapted and scaled to transform future health systems and Build Better Health Security. As a trusted partner of the governments of the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, Abt Associates developed tools and innovations in our work and will share them broadly. We invite other countries and partners to engage in this collaboration.

• Access to Advanced Health Institute and Immunity Bio: commit to manufacturing next-generation T-Cell vaccines for pandemic preparedness that are stable at room temperature, rapidly modifiable to address current and emergent pathogens, and provide potent, broad and durable protection in sub-Saharan Africa at the billion dose scale by 2025. Commit to bringing the latest immune-stimulating cell therapy and vaccine technology through clinical trials and centers of excellence to develop licensed vaccines and breakthrough immunotherapies that address the pandemics of infectious disease and cancer around the Globe. Committed to expend $1 billion USD over the next 5 years to produce billions of doses of vaccines, fusion proteins, and natural killer cell therapy at our million square feet of 11 plants we currently own globally.

• Africa Frontline First (AFF): Commits to raising $15M by September 2022 in the first phase of its work to build better health security. AFF is a collaborative new financing initiative led by Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to professionalize 200,000 community health workers across 10 African countries by 2030. This workforce will expand critical surveillance, testing, and treatment for emerging disease threats, maintain life-saving care during emergencies, and provide quality jobs, particularly for women.

• Amref Health Africa, HQ: Commits to increase access to and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in thirty-one countries in Africa. The activities will be led across 11 projects with multiple partners to support the administration of over 4.5 million vaccine doses across 31 countries in East and Southern Africa, training over 15,000 community health workers, and facilitating access to vaccines in hard-to-reach areas. To ensure delivery of this commitment, $46,117,000 has been secured to date.

• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Commits up to $125 million to Build Better Health Security through vaccine research and development, enhanced integrated disease surveillance, workforce capacity development, and expanded access to pandemic tools in low- and middle-income countries. These new investments, which are an extension of the foundation’s longstanding commitment to health equity, are aimed at ending this pandemic and ensuring the world is prepared to prevent another pandemic.

• BlackRock Foundation: Commits $5 million to ensure immediate, equitable access to Covid-19 diagnostic tools across the world, in partnership with FIND – the global alliance for diagnostics – to keep people safe, halt new variants in their tracks and address urgent clinical needs. BlackRock will support FIND to deliver on the goal of increasing the number of daily Covid-19 tests taken in low-income countries from 7.3 per 100,000 individuals to 100 per 100,000 by the end of 2022.

• Catholic Relief Services – US Conference of Catholic Bishops (CRS): Commits to work with its in-country teams to increase vaccine coverage and uptake, directly supporting COVID-19 vaccinations in 22 countries and mobilizing at-risk populations in over 100 countries. CRS will engage local stakeholders to facilitate collaboration and connect local partners with donors to advance localized funding. CRS will mobilize American Catholics to advocate for an equitable global response and will engage with peer organizations through the INGO COVID-19 Vaccine Collaborative. Commits to leveraging its network of over 1500 partners to communicate essential information to reduce COVID-19 transmission, illness and death. CRS will serve as the Global Fund C19RM lead in Republic of Congo, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Sierra Leone, leading on procurement for tests and other commodities. CRS will address the secondary impacts of COVID-19, such as education disruption, the loss of primary caregivers, fraying social cohesion, and increasing hunger and malnutrition. Commits to using its available resources to identify, finance, and fill gaps in health systems in the countries in which it operates. CRS will continue implementing activities to address vaccine hesitancy, conducting primary research to inform vaccine strategies, supporting faith-based organizations, and financing critical health workforce trainings. Further, CRS will continue to work with Ministries of Health and other health service providers to strengthen the capacity of resilient health systems.

• Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI): Commits to ensuring affordable and effective antiviral COVID-19 treatment is available in low- and middle-income countries. CHAI has negotiated agreements with generic suppliers to make generic Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir/ritonavir – NIR/r) available at under $25 USD per treatment course for treatment of COVID-19. Equitable access to oral antiviral medications, especially for high-risk populations, will help save lives and limit the impact of future surges.

• Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI): Commits to helping fill the gaps in vaccine research and development that threaten to undermine progress against COVID-19, working in partnership with institutions in low- and middle-income countries. Such research, including clinical trials on “mix-and-match” and fractional dosing, will help to inform COVID-19 vaccination strategies globally. Commits to funding the development of broadly protective COVID-19 vaccines and working to enable equitable access to these globally. Will work to reduce global pandemic risk by delivering innovative R&D programs that help to develop safe, effective, globally accessible vaccines in 100 days. This includes advancing vaccines against known threats; producing a library of prototype vaccines against critical viral families; investing in vaccine manufacturing innovations; advancing enabling science programs critical to rapid vaccine development; and connecting stakeholders to enable rapid countermeasure development, effective response and equitable access.

• CORE Group: Will work with country partners to provide training on addressing vaccine misinformation through social behavioral change norms and provide evidence-based communication training and tools to increase demand and uptake for COVID-19 vaccine. CORE Group will conduct knowledge sharing events and sessions at the regional and global levels, to share innovative ideas of addressing vaccine hesitancy, share tested and translated resources, and convene civil society to improve COVID19 vaccine uptake. Will convene global stakeholders to ensure implementation strategies around health security with a One Health approach and advocate for greater representation of civil society, including people with disabilities, women and children, and under-served communities, to be included in the planning and discussions around their own health security. We commit ensuring evidence-based technical direction and collaboration around Covid-19, global health security, through an integrated multi-sectoral approach, at our October 2022 Global Health Practitioner Conference.

• COVID Collaborative: COVID-19 has now left a staggering 10.4 million children worldwide orphaned by the death of a parent or grandparent caregiver. Many of these children face abuse, violence, and institutionalization. That is why COVID Collaborative, in collaboration with Oxford University, and with support from The New York Life Foundation, commits to advocate for and catalyze country-level policies to incorporate family-based care for COVID-bereaved children into national COVID-19 response plans, focusing on high-burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (Deloitte): Commits up to US $3 million to make publicly available a playbook that outlines processes and protocols that enable society to provide and scale health-care support and resources, thereby helping to address COVID-19 variants and surges, in support of the goal to Build Better Health Security

• FIND: Commits to enhancing efforts for timely testing, including self-testing, in vulnerable groups, providing vital information to assess transmission in diverse populations and formulate strategies to prioritize those most at risk. These efforts will also help focus testing and treatment strategies. Commits to supporting LMIC governments in the development and roll-out of scaled up testing and test-and-treat programmes, focused on vulnerable populations and equitable global access, as well as maintaining the data gathering and reporting systems that will allow global, regional and national decision-making based on the best possible information about the state of the pandemic. Commits to identify and work with partners for the development and validation of multipathogen diagnosis and care pathways, which must include COVID-19. These new tools and diagnostic pathways will also be designed and tested to strengthen surveillance systems for both endemic and pandemic-prone pathogens, and link to the use of enhanced capacity for genomic sequencing.

• Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: Commits to partner with other organizations to lead advocacy for new investments in pandemic preparedness that are grounded in human rights, integrated with health systems, and include multiple stakeholders. The organization will help mobilize global advocacy to remind donors that the US is hosting the replenishment of the Global Fund, another effective tool in building health systems and preparing for the next pandemic alongside a new pandemic preparedness fund.

• Family Health International (FHI) 360: Commits to engaging in at least 20 LMICs with governments, local organizations, and communities to build their capacity to provide COVID-19 vaccine service delivery and generate demand for COVID-19 vaccines. FHI 360 commits to documenting and sharing innovative ideas and approaches to overcoming vaccine hesitancy globally. Commits to converting technical tools and resources to global goods and taking proactive efforts to make these tools available to LMICs and promote their use for strengthening COVID-19 response programs. FHI 360 commits to enhance health workers’ capacity to deliver oxygen to patients in clinical settings and improve oxygen ecosystems in at least 25 LMICs, to promote equitable access to the highest quality clinical services possible. Commits to support at least 15 LMICs to achieve their health security goals and achieving International Health Regulations (IHR) targets and achieve Sustainable Development Goals. FHI 360 commits to developing new tools and technologies to support these efforts.

• Global Health Council (GHC): Commits to continued advocacy with U.S. congressional leaders to accelerate financing for COVID-19 vaccination campaigns. Global COVID-19 supplemental funding is urgently needed to support these national and sub-national campaigns to make progress toward the 70% target, prioritizing groups like frontline health workers, the elderly, and the immunocompromised. GHC will continue to bolster commitments amongst stakeholders within multilateral organizations and ensure these bodies are sustainably-resourced and well-equipped to address the world’s most pressing health needs.

• Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC): Committed to amplify evidence of gaps in upstream vaccine research and development (R&D) for the COVID-19 response and work to ensure political support and additional resources to support R&D of next-generation vaccines designed to better reach the last mile and address emerging variants and for strengthening regional research and manufacturing capacities. This includes expanding multisector support for clinical research, strengthening regulatory pathways, and mobilizing sustainable financing for regional manufacturing hubs. Will hold public- and private-sector stakeholders accountable to unlocking funding and advancing research to expand the pipeline of affordable, easy-to-deploy diagnostics and therapeutics, particularly for use in low-resource settings. Will galvanize partners to push for more efficient regulatory pathways for novel COVID-19 technologies; bolstered testing, surveillance, genomic sequencing, and data sharing to better detect and monitor emerging variants; and strengthened regional manufacturing capacities. Supports the creation of a new pandemic preparedness fund and will leverage its network to highlight how the fund should be utilized to bolster country and regional pandemic research and development (R&D) capacities. GHTC is also supporting the Global Health Security Agenda R&D Task Force to develop a tool that enables countries to assess their R&D preparedness capabilities with the goal of aligning emerging financing with articulated R&D gaps.

• Google.org: Donating an additional $150 million in Search ads to the World Health Organization, Gavi, government agencies, and nonprofits to ensure users searching on COVID-19 related topics such as vaccines, testing, or economic recovery initiatives are connected with credible sources. This brings Google.org’s total in-kind global commitment to COVID-19 recovery to over $1 billion.

• HelpAge USA: Commits to promoting the dignity, wellbeing, and voice of older people. We are working with partners at global, regional, national, and local levels to develop and implement inclusive community engagement and advocacy strategies that effectively support COVID-19 vaccine access and uptake among older people and achieve global vaccine equity. Our organization’s goal aligns with the summit’s objective to vaccinate the world.

• Henry Schein, Inc.: Henry Schein commits to working in partnership with the WHO to develop platforms for supply chain data collection to strengthen the resilience of the global healthcare supply chain. This work represents an expansion of the Pandemic Supply Chain Network (PSCN), a public-private partnership founded in 2015. Henry Schein serves as private sector lead of the PSCN, with more than 60 companies participating together with the WHO and other multilaterals. Henry Schein is contributing its core competencies to support this effort, and a cash donation of $25,000.

• The Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition 2 (HBCC2): Will encourage vaccine uptake and combat vaccine hesitancy alongside continued hygiene messaging, using its hygiene and behaviour change platform to incorporate vaccine confidence messaging where vaccines are available. The coalition will reach millions through incorporating vaccine messages into public campaigns and programmes, and create digital tools that support people with information on COVID-19 vaccines, including where it is available and how to access it (where applicable). Will help millions of people by supporting measures to reduce transmission of COVID-19 in 18 countries across Africa and Asia by provision of critical WASH products and services as hygiene remains the first line of defence against the virus until vaccines reach all. The coalition will provide communities with hygiene advice and training, products, and handwashing facilities in institutions such as schools, health centres and public places. Will work with national governments and institutions to strengthen local capacity and build resilience of health systems and communities against new COVID-19 variants and future pandemics. The hygiene vulnerabilities and inequalities the pandemic has exposed must be eradicated if we are to defeat the virus and improve health security for all. HBCC2 will advocate for increased investment in hygiene and pandemic preparedness at national and global level.

• International Rescue Committee (IRC): Commits to extending the capacity of governments to deliver Covid-19 vaccines in humanitarian settings as soon as delivery funds and doses become available to us. Based on our current infrastructure and capacity, we can deliver 32 million doses, fully vaccinating 16 million people. With $160 million dollars and sufficient doses, we could reach nearly all eligible people in the fragile and conflict affected settings where we work across 30 countries.

• IPG Health/McCANN HEALTH: Committed to working with countries to develop more effective ways to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

• Living Goods: Commits to supporting community health workers (CHWs) to ensure high levels of uptake of COVID-19 vaccines and to combat COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Living Goods commits to supporting government operations for widespread COVID-19 vaccine rollout to the individuals in the rural communities served by Living Goods-supported CHWs.

Finally, Living Goods commits to encouraging uptake of COVID-19 vaccination among frontline health workers and other high-risk populations. Commits to working in partnership with governments to train all staff and community health workers (CHWs) we support in COVID-19 prevention, early case detection, reporting procedures, and personal safety measures. Living Goods commits to supporting CHWs to educate communities on prevention, testing and where to receive care. Living Goods commits to using digital tools to support CHWs to conduct COVID-19 case screenings and connect CHWs with disease surveillance networks. Commits to partnerships with the governments of Kenya, Uganda, Burkina Faso, and others to build resilient community health systems that can withstand shocks. This includes supporting governments to strengthen digital tools that enable the delivery of health services and ensure pandemic preparedness. Over the next five years, Living Goods commits to supporting 32,000 CHWs and their supervisors to reach 18 million people across five countries with quality care.

• Management Sciences for Health: Is costing vaccine delivery to the last mile so that countries, multilateral institutions, and donors can prepare to effectively deliver critical COVID-19 vaccines and achieve the goal of vaccinating the world. This work will help countries better allocate financial resources through evidence-based and sustainable strategies. To date, the organization has supported the vaccination of almost 17 million people across several countries. Management Sciences for Health is committed to Saving Lives Now by continuing to provide access to critical health services, medicines, and other therapeutics across countries, including in fragile and conflict-affected states. The organization continues to focus on strengthening pharmaceutical-sector governance, national public health institutions, regulatory and information systems, infection prevention and control measures, response coordination mechanisms, and emergency supply chains for COVID-19 commodities across governments, the private sector and civil society. Management Sciences for Health is announcing new investments in learning critical lessons from the COVID-19 response by convening a global workshop to examine critical gaps in health security and develop impactful, responsive, and essential recommendations for better pandemic preparedness. MSH is committed to working with country policymakers and government officials to ensure the necessary national policies are in place so that countries are better prepared for future threats through a multihazards approach to pandemic preparedness.

• MedAccess: Commits to provide a $100 million guarantee to accelerate access to COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX cost-sharing mechanism. The guarantee is part of a $200 million risk sharing facility, with the Open Society Foundations, that will help COVAX respond to country demand for additional doses to meet national vaccination targets.

• Mastercard Foundation: Mastercard Foundation is deploying USD $200 million in partnership with a collaborative of seven African higher education institutions to strengthen the resilience of public health systems in Africa and enabling them to contribute to economic development, and prosperity. To do so, this initiative will train 30,000 front-line health providers and policy shapers and is projected to create 20,000 health sectors jobs; and to enable 2,000 health ventures to improve and expand primary health services and products in the next 10 years.

• Merck & Co., Inc. (Merck): Committed to make two million patient courses of its investigational oral antiviral COVID-19 medicine, LAGEVRIO (molnupiravir), available to USAID at Merck’s best access price to increase access in lower-income countries. This builds on previous efforts, including an agreement with UNICEF to supply up to 3 million courses of LAGEVRIO and voluntary licenses to generic manufacturers and the Medicines Patent Pool facilitating access in over 100 low and middle income countries. Committed to provide $5 million annually in 2022-2024 to support efforts to understand how to build vaccine confidence and reach underserved populations through use of social media. This builds on Merck’s earlier funding to help establish The Vaccine Confidence Fund to support research exploring how online communications can influence offline health behavior and build vaccination confidence, and its related announcement with multi-sector stakeholders of the Alliance for Advancing Health Online.

• Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI): Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI): Commits to support the Financial Intermediary Fund by using the Global Health Security Index as a tool to inform pandemic preparedness needs—so resources can be allocated to countries most in need and to address the most significant gaps. NTI also commits to contribute $35,000 to the Fund once established—reflecting our view that catalytic funding is needed to guard against current and future biological threats.

• Nursing Now Challenge: Commits to engaging its network to build advocacy skillsets for early-career nurses and midwives to deepen their storytelling skills and to launch local, regional and global efforts to vaccinate the world. The NNC network of immunization advocacy champions will be led by early-career nurses and midwives. They will lead their own vaccine advocacy campaigns and will deliver their voices to at least three global policy forums and quarterly online events.

• Open Society Foundations: Open Society Foundation’s impact investment arm, the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF), commits to provide a $100 million procurement guarantee designed to strengthen COVAX’s capacity to increase the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to low- and middle-income countries. Together with an additional $100m guarantee from MedAccess, the guarantees would free up an additional $200m in donor funds, and position COVAX to deploy an additional 190 million vaccine dosages to low- and middle-income countries globally in 2022.

• Osprey Foundation: Committing $4,000,000 to faith-based organizations that can positively influence COVID-19 vaccine access and uptake in sub-Saharan Africa. Commits to increase vaccine demand in several sub-Saharan African countries by supporting faith leaders and their networks to overcome disinformation and address the root causes of vaccine hesitancy for their communities in both digital and non-digital realms. Concurrently, Osprey Foundation will fund faith-based interventions to improve the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines by strengthening the core of last-mile vaccine infrastructure, improving vaccine readiness, and supporting effective vaccine rollout initiatives.

• Pandemic Action Network: Commits to press governments, multilateral agencies, and donors to galvanize the necessary investments, coordination, and incentives to support delivery of accelerated, robust, and equitable global vaccination plans to achieve equitable global immunization levels. In support of this and all Summit goals, Pandemic Action Network commits to mobilize at least 100 new partners, and Network partners commit to invest at least US$175 million by the end of 2022. Commits to support efforts to drive forward a dynamic global test-to-treat strategy, increase transparency on pricing and supply of tools to fight COVID-19, and advocate to prioritize access to testing, timely reporting, and treatments. The Network also commits to and to create a steady drumbeat of advocacy, coordination, and civic engagement and hold partners accountable for their commitments. In 2022, commits to work with the World Bank, WHO, governments, and other stakeholders to design and launch a dedicated new global fund for pandemic preparedness; mobilize significant new political and financial commitments for the fund; promote cross-country, cross-regional cooperation, and sharing best practices and lessons learned to inform more effective and equitable preparedness and response plans and implementation, to be ready either for the next COVID surge or next potential pandemic.

• PATH: Commits to supporting COVID vaccination campaigns by providing training, mentorship and supervision to health workers tasked with vaccination and to deploying and scaling digital tools to track vaccination and generate demand through targeted social media campaigns. This includes a $5 million investment to reach an estimated 20 million vaccine-hesitant individuals in two years. Additionally, PATH will support the development of a new affordable COVID-19 vaccine that could be manufactured in Brazil, Thailand and Vietnam.

Commits to working with stakeholders to improve oxygen delivery in 10 countries. PATH will work with local partners to build their diagnostics capacities and support the advancement of more affordable and reliable COVID diagnostics in LMICs. PATH will stand up interoperable digital systems in four countries to provide the country governments with the information they need to identify and manage outbreaks vaccination coverage, manage vaccine supplies, and track vaccination records. Commits to leveraging our technical expertise to equip world leaders with the information they need to design a better architecture for global health security. PATH commits to advocating for the funding needed to establish the new global health security and pandemic preparedness fund and holding leaders accountable for other commitments made during the 2nd COVID-19 Summit.

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PAX sapiens: Will work with engaged civil society, philanthropic, government, and private sector actors to identify and promote sustainable funding sources for pandemic prevention, new approaches to information sharing, institutional design, and standards for data collection and sharing, and to encourage new donors to support pandemic prevention. PAX’s work will include grantmaking through the previously announced commitment of $200 million, convening and engagement with other organizations, and developing new information for effective prevention.

• PerkinElmer: Commits to saving lives now by making COVID-19 tests available to all low- and middle-income countries for under $5 per test based on volume commitment and supply chain feasibility. PerkinElmer knows that detecting COVID-19 is still a public health challenge in many places and believes this will enable critical access to diagnostics. PerkinElmer remains dedicated to continuing to develop accessible diagnostic solutions to address the global public health challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Pfizer Inc.: Will work to solve concrete challenges to vaccine distribution: working with partners, including UPS, to enable extended use of its shippers to deliver 9.3 million doses to regional vaccination centers in 36 states in Nigeria; expanding its partnership with drone delivery service Zipline to enable transportation of more 380,000 mRNA vaccines on 1,485 drone flights to remote areas; and completing studies to support the extension of transportation time to 48 hours at 2-8 degrees. Pfizer’s COVID-19 oral treatment could significantly change the COVID-19 treatment paradigm, potentially reducing illness severity, hospitalization rates and deaths among a broad population of patients, subject to regulatory authorization or approval. Working with partners such as UNICEF, Pfizer will supply nirmatrelvir [PF-07321332] tablets and ritonavir tablets to countries in need, including emerging economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and the Americas. This agreement is part of Pfizer’s comprehensive strategy to work toward worldwide equitable access.

• Platform for ACT-A Civil Society & Community Representatives (co-hosted by WACI Health, Global Fund Advocates Network (GFAN) and STOPAIDS): Will advocate for support of the TRIPS waiver and sharing of vaccine equipment and doses with COVAX and countries. Will advocate for and coordinate community CSO input on a test and treat strategy. Will mobilise support to fully fund ACT-A, advocating for robust health system perspectives, supporting greater community representation in ACT-A and future mechanisms.

• Private Sector Roundtable on Global Health Security (PSRT): The Private Sector Roundtable on Global Health Security (PSRT) – a cross-industry coalition of companies committed to leveraging private sector expertise to strengthen health security – commits to expand efforts to build regional/country capacity in pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. We will seek to partner with a regional institution and three low-middle-income countries in that region to provide a suite of tools, trainings and expert guidance over the next three years to Build Better Health Security.

• Rotary International: Commits to providing access to our public health infrastructure and network built to facilitate polio eradication and provide free health services to vaccinate the world. Rotary Family Health Days and National Immunization Day campaigns are available to accelerate vaccine coverage in multiple regions with at-risk populations in high-risk countries.

With Rotary’s 1.4 million members worldwide, and over 55,000 African members, our health infrastructure, and relationships with local and national government health departments remain active. Rotary can quickly mobilize, as strategy, structure, accountability, and funding become available.

• The Rockefeller Foundation: The Rockefeller Foundation’s Global Vaccination Initiative commits USD 55 million to support country-led efforts to fully vaccinate 90% of the most at-risk populations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Funding will support programs to increase vaccine demand – access, trust, and information – while leveraging data from trusted, credible sources to strengthen health systems to meet the needs of the most vulnerable.

• Sabin Vaccine Institute: Commits $9 million through its Global Immunization program in 2022 to better understand and address vaccine delivery, acceptance and demand barriers in LMICs; bolster collaboration among immunization professionals; foster action to address barriers in universal vaccination development; and better apply epidemiology to maximize vaccine rollout effectiveness. Sabin commits to fostering the action of 3,000+ close-to-community professionals delivering vaccinations in LMICs – including health workers, program managers, researchers and journalists.

• Seed Global Health: Research estimates that for every $1 allocated to vaccine production, $5 is needed for delivery, with majority cost being associated with health worker training, support, and protection. Establishing integrated health worker networks from the last mile to the facility is critical to enabling access to vaccinations. . Seed Global Health commits to partnering with governments to train and deploy the health workers required to put shots in arms while supporting counter-misinformation campaigns to reduce vaccine hesitancy. Health workers deliver every element of pandemic response and preparedness. Commits to scale our direct work in training and care to sustain essential services to an additional 3 million people; to protect education to strengthen the pipeline of health workers; to respond to emergencies on the frontlines, modeling new methodologies of diagnosis and care; and to align and mobilize the political commitment and resources to support health workers and save more lives. Health workers are the backbone of resilient health systems and pathway to economic recovery and global health security. Commits to mobilize a social contract for health workers, to galvanize action beyond applause. Centered on core principles that provide the evidence-based rationale, framework and accountability, this compact will mobilize and align investments, policies, and programming around long- term country-led planning, to scale-up and protect fit-for-purpose health workforces in service to the world.

• The Task Force for Global Health: Will partner with countries to strengthen immunization programs and field epidemiology training. Through Hepatitis, Polio and Neglected Tropical Diseases programs, we’ll support COVID-19 efforts for the most vulnerable. We’ll distribute medical supplies/equipment and support public health worker mental health and resilience.

We’ll convene thought leaders to envision building upon COVID-related investments for sustainable systems. We’ll advance the scientific understanding of rare adverse events after COVID-19 vaccinations, advancing evidence-based decision-making.

• Thermo Fisher Scientific: In partnership with Afrigen Biologics and Labotec, we are providing cutting-edge technology and personalized capacity building to enable production of the first locally designed and constructed COVID vaccine for Africa. Our support for this WHO-coordinated, end-to-end, sustainable mRNA vaccine production hub includes facility design and bacteria cultivation tools to support DNA plasmid creation, as well as investing in time and expertise to transfer technical knowledge and support so scientists and healthcare leaders can create their own future. As part of our Mission to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer, we have a responsibility to provide access to COVID-19 diagnostic solutions that reach every population, community and individual, regardless of geography or socioeconomic circumstance. We will continue to provide low price, high-quality diagnostic solutions to Governments, United Nations and other global partners because testing is the cornerstone of a continuum of care and treatment of COVID-19 globally. We recognize the importance of building upon lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to collaborate with Governments, the United Nations and other global partners to create resilient systems to better prevent, detect and respond to the next emerging pathogen. This includes helping to create federated, open pathogen surveillance systems, designing and funding knowledge transfer programs to enable the next generation of scientists in LMICs, and investing in local manufacturing models.

• United Nations Foundation: The United Nations Foundation supports Building Better Health Security through encouraging high ambition, sustained attention, and diverse coalitions to strengthen multilateral capacities for preparedness and response. This includes convening and engaging partners to support Geneva-based processes; supporting solutions for incremental financing, including a Financial Intermediary Fund housed at the World Bank; and engaging Member States in New York and capitals to diversify and broaden a high ambition coalition for this agenda.

• UPS Foundation: Commits to the pro-bono delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to countries below the average vaccination rate for Africa. In 2022, the UPS Foundation also plans to deliver 2 million doses to Cameroon, up to 3 million to Ethiopia, and up to 4 million to Zambia. The UPS Foundation commits to expanding upon its existing Ghana medical drone network in 2022 to provide the delivery of critically needed supplies and expand access to quality health care. In-country transportation has been committed for 1 million doses to new Zipline drone distribution centers in Nigeria and Kenya. In Malawi, the UPS Foundation is funding in-country drone delivery provided by Swoop Aero and Village Reach with plans to reach 3 million people. In partnership with UNICEF, the UPS Foundation is funding ‘Ultra Cold Vaccine Training’ in Malawi, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Kenya.

• UPS Healthcare: Commits to delivering 5.9 million vaccines to Nigeria in addition to the 9.3 million previously delivered. The shipment is funded through UNICEF and USAID, and coordinated with technical expertise from UPS and donated ultra-cold chain equipment. To date, UPS Healthcare has delivered more than 1.4 billion COVD-19 vaccine doses to over 110 countries.

• Wellcome Trust: As a founding partner of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations we committed $150M to CEPI this year, as part of Wellcome’s commitment to spend £16B over the next ten years on science to improve health. This includes funding for Infectious Disease and Pandemic Preparedness, to help buildnetworks to detect outbreaks before they escalate, to trainpublic health professionals and enhance capacity globally, and expand Research and Development of countermeasures. Wellcome also supports mobilising additional funds to prevent future pandemics, and is providing £10 million in seed funding toward establishing the pandemic preparedness and global health security Financial Intermediary Fund at the World Bank, signalling our early philanthropic commitment to working in partnership with others in the fund. We applaud this Summit which comes at a critical moment. We believe these collective commitments will contribute to ensuring equitable health security for all and the world has the knowledge and networks in place to prevent and respond to emerging threats whilst remaining committed to long standing endemic health issues of importance to communities.

• Women in Global Health: Commits to advocate for: Equal leadership representation in global health governance, including pandemic decision making and advisory bodies; a new social contract for women health workers with safe, decent and equally paid work. This includes protection from harm and personal protective equipment designed for women’s bodies; and addressing the gender dimensions and impacts of pandemic policies and programmes, using sex disaggregated data.
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[1] All commitments made in 2022 are counted toward the goals of the 2nd Global COVID-19 Summit. Of these, approximately $3.1 billion were raised in new funds, not yet announced.
[2] All commitments made in 2022 are counted toward the 2nd Global COVID-19 Summit. Of these, approximately $700 million was raised in new funds, not yet announced.