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A World Health Organization program for pharmaceutical companies to voluntarily share Covid-19 related knowledge, treatments and technology so they can be more widely distributed has attracted zero contributions in the eight months since it was established, the Guardian has learned. The Covid-19 technology access pool (C-Tap) was launched in May last year to facilitate the sharing of patent-protected information to fight the virus, including diagnostics, therapeutics and trial data. The “pooling” of treatments and data would allow qualified manufacturers from around the world to produce critical equipment, drugs or vaccines without fear of prosecution for breaching patents. (Safi, 1/22)

President Biden’s top adviser on COVID-19, Anthony Fauci, stressed the new administration’s support for the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday after former President Trump and his administration’s criticism. Fauci vowed during a virtual WHO executive board meeting to rejoin the effort to distribute vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics around the world and to restart funding and staff support for the organization. He also indicated the U.S. plans “to fulfill its financial obligations to the organization.” (Coleman, 1/21)

The scientific community applauded President Biden's decision to rejoin the World Health Organization and other global efforts designed to stop and prevent COVID-19."This is very good news for America, for WHO and the world," said Lawrence Gostin, director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University. "Obviously, I'm delighted," added Barry Bloom, an immunologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "If we want to retain leadership in global health in the world, we can't not play with the rest of the world." (Weintraub, 1/22)

As one of his first acts as president, Joe Biden Wednesday halted the U.S. departure from the World Health Organization and joined a multilateral vaccine distribution initiative, cementing U.S. involvement in the Geneva-based United Nations agency nine months after former president Donald Trump announced intentions to leave. ... The United States’ return was hailed by WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who tweeted, “We are all glad that the United States of America is staying in the family.” Here’s what you need to know about the WHO and what it does. (Mellen, 1/21)