Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Africa To Get Moderna Vaccine Factory
Moderna Inc. plans to spend up to $500 million to build a new manufacturing plant in Africa to supply doses of its Covid-19 vaccine and potential additional vaccines to a continent that has grappled with a shortage. The Cambridge, Mass., drug company said Thursday it will build a state-of-the-art facility that could produce up to 500 million doses annually of vaccines, using its gene-based technology, known as messenger RNA. (Loftus, 10/7)
Last week, Cuba began exporting its own COVID-19 vaccines. The problem is that while Cuba insists its vaccines are safe and effective, the World Health Organization has not approved them. And that could become a big controversy in Latin America and the Caribbean, where Venezuela is the first customer for Cuban vaccines 鈥 and where many doctors argue they shouldn't be administering those shots without the WHO green light. (Padgett and Hernandez, 10/6)
The World Health Organization is working to ship COVID-19 medical supplies into North Korea, a possible sign that the North is easing one of the world鈥檚 strictest pandemic border closures to receive outside help. WHO said in a weekly monitoring report that it has started the shipment of essential COVID-19 medical supplies through the Chinese port of Dalian for 鈥渟trategic stockpiling and further dispatch鈥 to North Korea. WHO officials on Thursday didn鈥檛 immediately respond to requests for more details, including what those supplies were and whether they had yet reached North Korea. (Tong-Hyung, 10/7)
The COVID-19 vaccination rate is less than 4% in South Africa, where Oscar-winner Charlize Theron was born. Her organization, "The Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project", is stepping up to help fight vaccine misinformation and inequality that is found in poorer countries like South Africa. The program has been fighting to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among South Africa's adolescent population since 2007. She said her organization has been speaking to South African residents who have been hesitant to get the shot because of vaccine misinformation. (10/6)
