Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
WHO Urges Greater Preparation For Next Pandemic
The head of the World Health Organization on Monday urged countries to carry out the reforms needed to prepare for the next pandemic and honor a previous commitment to boost financing for the U.N. health agency. Speaking at the WHO's annual health assembly weeks after ending the global emergency status for the COVID-19 pandemic, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was time to advance negotiations on preventing the next one. (5/22)
The World Health Organization is starting a global network to help protect people from the threats of infectious disease through pathogen genomics. The International Pathogen Surveillance Network, based on technology used to map out the genetic code of disease-causing organisms, will connect countries and regions, while improving systems for collecting and analyzing samples, the WHO said in a statement Saturday. (Maedler, 5/20)
Governments should consider vaccinating poultry against bird flu, which has killed hundreds of millions of birds and infected mammals worldwide, to prevent the virus from turning into a new pandemic, the head of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said. The severity of the current outbreak of avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, and the economic and personal damage it has caused, has led governments to reconsider vaccinating poultry. However, some, like the United States, remain reluctant mainly because of the trade curbs this would entail. (De La Hamaide, 5/21)
Wild birds and poultry flocks alike continue to drop dead from the highly pathogenic bird flu that began spreading globally in 2020. Almost 59 million commercial birds have already been culled in the United States. It’s the broadest outbreak of this type of avian flu, known as H5N1, since it was first identified in China in 1996. (Bendix, 5/21)
In news about covid —
Among 136 US survey respondents who reported receiving an incentive to get vaccinated against COVID-19, 64% said they would have done so anyway, according to a study published today in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 5/19)
Hospitals and clinics across the U.S.—some of the last bastions requiring masks and Covid-19 tests—are ending the mandates. ... The changes have sparked pushback from some doctors and infectious-disease specialists, who say keeping the precautions would protect elderly patients with chronic conditions, people with weakened immune systems and others who are vulnerable to infection, especially if new variants emerge. (Evans, 5/21)
