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At a World Health Organization (WHO) briefing today, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said COVID-19 deaths for 2022 alone passed 1 million this week, as he pressed countries to do more to vaccinate all healthcare workers, older people, and others at highest risk. Since the pandemic began in early 2020, 6,472,848 deaths have been reported, according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard. Tedros said countries in Africa with the lowest rates are making progress with vaccine coverage, and many countries are making good strides in targeting high-priority groups. He said, however, that one third of the world is still unvaccinated, including two thirds of health workers and three quarters of older adults in low-income countries. (8/25)

“We cannot say we are learning to live with COVID-19 when one million people have died with COVID-19 this year alone, when we are two-and-a-half years into the pandemic and have all the tools necessary to prevent these deaths,” said Tedros, speaking during his regular briefing from Geneva. (8/25)

Twice as many deaths involving Covid occurred this summer compared with last summer, according to analysis of new data – though rates have fallen in recent weeks as the latest wave decreases in severity in the UK. (Garcia and Duncan, 8/23)

White House Chief Medical Adviser Anthony Fauci expected the US would have moved past the Covid-19 pandemic after the first year of the Biden administration, but the disruption from the virus has lingered longer than the infectious disease expert anticipated. (Baumann and Tozzi, 8/25)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: The Future Of Public Health, 2022 Edition 

It’s been nearly a year since KHN’s “What the Health?” podcast took a deep dive into public health, and much has changed. Covid, in various versions, is still infecting people around the world, along with other communicable diseases including monkeypox and even polio. Yet public health remains a divisive issue, with politicians and the public alike arguing over how best to protect the community without trampling on individuals’ rights. Earlier this summer, the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a National Public Health System called for a major overhaul of the way the U.S. organizes, funds, and communicates about public health. The report includes specific recommendations for the Biden administration, Congress, state and local public health agencies, and medical and public health professionals. (8/25)