KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report

In The News

Global COVID-19 Cases See Record Increase On Sunday, Up By More Than 230K, WHO Says; Emergencies Chief Calls On Global Leaders To Improve Access To Health Care

Reuters: WHO reports record daily increase in global coronavirus cases, up over 230,000
“The World Health Organization reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Sunday, with the total rising by 230,370 in 24 hours. The biggest increases were from the United States, Brazil, India, and South Africa, according to a daily report…” (Shumaker, 7/12).

Reuters: WHO official cites AIDS as guide to addressing coronavirus pandemic
“Healthcare systems worldwide need to upgrade to control disease transmission and cope with large numbers of sick people during the coronavirus pandemic as well as future outbreaks, the head of the World Health Organization’s emergencies program warned on Friday. Dr. Michael Ryan of WHO, speaking during a video panel session organized by the International AIDS Society, said world leaders grappling with the current pandemic ‘need to take a leaf out of the HIV/AIDS activist book’ and make sure access to healthcare is equitable and evidence-based…” (Beasley, 7/10).

VOA News: WHO Official: Coronavirus Probably Can’t Be Eliminated Under Current Conditions
“The World Health Organization’s emergencies program chief said Friday that the new coronavirus probably could not be eliminated if current global conditions persisted. ‘In the current situation, it is unlikely we can eradicate the virus,’ Dr. Mike Ryan said at the WHO’s regular coronavirus briefing in Geneva. The world could ‘potentially avoid the worst of having second peaks and having to move backwards in terms of a lockdown’ if surges in infections could be extinguished, he added…” (7/10).

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Media Outlets Examine U.S. Withdrawal From WHO, Calls For Agency's Reform, Efforts To Investigate Novel Coronavirus Origins

Financial Times: WHO struggles to prove itself in the face of Covid-19
“…The Trump administration’s rejection of an institution to which it has been the biggest donor is a reflection of both anger at the body’s perceived closeness to Beijing and the president’s revolt against multilateralism. But it has also highlighted concerns about how a health guardian created from the devastation of war and disease has become hobbled by political power plays, battles over science, and unstable funding — all of them exacerbated by the urgency of the Covid-19 crisis…” (Peel et al., 7/12).

The Guardian: WHO’s Covid-19 inquiry is a shrewd move in a sea of disinformation
“…If Trump’s America First agenda has any organizing theme beyond self interest and chaos, it is, above all, a profound dislike of multilateral international institutions and agreements, not least the U.N., which has seen agencies defunded, agreements and treaties abandoned, and others threatened at the hands of Washington. Which is why, in the week in which the U.S. formally announced its intention to quit the WHO, the organization’s announcement of the two figures who will lead its review of the pandemic and its response feels significant. Given Trump’s record of denigrating female leaders, and of racist dog-whistles, it is striking that the review will be chaired by two highly regarded and independent-minded women leaders, one of them from Africa — Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel laureate and the former president of Liberia, and Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand…” (Beaumont, 7/10).

The Hill: Allies bite their tongues after Trump withdraws from WHO
“President Trump’s move to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization (WHO) has received only muted criticism from allied nations as they look to preserve American cooperation amid the global challenges posed by COVID-19. These allies are holding back despite widespread frustration with the president’s continued attack on global partnerships and the U.S. global actions on the pandemic, including imposing travel restrictions soon after its onset…” (Kelly, 7/11).

POLITICO: WHO’s The Boss
“…While few share Trump’s exact criticisms of WHO, calls for reform of the organization are growing, including from supportive governments and scientists who consider WHO slow and conservative in its policy responses. Germany and France — vocal supporters of WHO in public — are privately unhappy with what they see as a lack of transparency and accountability at the organization. The German and French health ministers met Tedros in Geneva in June and announced they would increase their donations to offset the U.S. funding halt…” (Paun/Heath, 7/10).

Science: A WHO-led mission may investigate the pandemic’s origin. Here are the key questions to ask
“The two-person team from the World Health Organization (WHO) traveling to China [on July 10] to address the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is unlikely to come home with answers. Rather, the duo — an epidemiologist and an animal health expert whose names have not been released — will discuss with Chinese officials the scope of a larger international mission later, according to a WHO statement. … So, assuming WHO’s team and the Chinese government work out a deal for an international mission to study the pandemic’s origins, where would it start? Here are some key questions that need answers…” (Cohen, 7/10).

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Trump Wears Mask In Public For First Time; FDA Rebuffs Chinese Claim Coronavirus Found In Food Shipments; Trump Administration Sidelines Fauci, CDC; GOP Lawmakers Question WHO Pandemic Timeline

AP: Trump wears mask in public for first time during pandemic
“President Donald Trump wore a mask during a visit to a military hospital on Saturday, the first time the president has been seen in public with the type of facial covering recommended by health officials as a precaution against spreading or becoming infected by the novel coronavirus. … Trump was wearing a mask in Walter Reed’s hallway as he began his visit. He was not wearing one when he stepped off the helicopter at the facility. … Trump … has declined to wear a mask at news conferences, coronavirus task force updates, rallies and other public events. People close to him have told the Associated Press that the president feared a mask would make him look weak and was concerned that it shifted focus to the public health crisis rather than the economic recovery. They spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private matters…” (Lemire, 7/12).

Bloomberg: U.S. Once Again Rebuffs China’s Attempt to Link Virus to Food
“China is making further moves to try to link the spread of coronavirus and food shipments. And yet again, U.S. officials are rebuffing the attempt, emphasizing what’s considered to be the established science on the matter — that no proof of that link exists. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a fresh statement on the matter after China said samples of imported shrimp tested positive for the virus. … China has been stirring the pot over whether the pathogen can spread through food or frozen products, drawing the connection against the advice of global health experts and authorities…” (Hirtzer/Dorning, 7/10).

The Hill: GOP lawmakers raise questions about WHO’s coronavirus timeline
“A group of House Republicans is raising questions about an apparent discrepancy between the World Health Organization’s (WHO) English- and Chinese-language websites, saying the global health body has been slow to provide updates for non-English speakers about early reports on the coronavirus. … The WHO updated the English version of its website with the information on June 29, but Voice of America first reported that the U.N. body’s official Chinese website did not reflect the changes…” (Brufke, 7/11).

STAT: The CDC has always been an apolitical island. That’s left it defenseless against Trump
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the country’s top public health agency, is being kicked around by the White House. And it doesn’t have much power to kick back. As President Trump spars with nearly all of the federal agencies that have a hand in his administration’s much-maligned response to the coronavirus pandemic, he’s been particularly successful at sidelining the CDC…” (Florko, 7/13).

Washington Post: Fauci is sidelined by the White House as he steps up blunt talk on pandemic
“For months, Anthony S. Fauci has played a lead role in America’s coronavirus pandemic, as a diminutive, Brooklyn-accented narrator who has assessed the risk and issued increasingly blunt warnings as the nation’s response has gone badly awry. But as the Trump administration has strayed from the advice of many of its scientists and public health experts, the White House has moved to sideline Fauci, scuttled some of his planned TV appearances and largely kept him out of the Oval Office for more than a month even as coronavirus infections surge in large swaths of the country. In recent days, the 79-year-old scientist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has found himself directly in the president’s crosshairs…” (Abutaleb et al., 7/11).

Additional coverage of the U.S. government response to the COVID-19 pandemic is available from CNN, New York Times, and Washington Post (2).

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News Outlets Examine Efforts To Research, Develop Novel Coronavirus Vaccines, Ensure Availability If Approved

AP: U.S. bets on untested company to deliver COVID-19 vaccine
“…As part of its strategy to administer the vaccine as quickly as possible, the Trump administration has agreed to invest more than half a billion in tax dollars in ApiJect Systems America, a young company. Its injector is not approved by federal health authorities and the company hasn’t yet set up a factory to manufacture the devices…” (Mendoza et al, 7/10).

USA TODAY: ‘No one is safe until everyone is safe’: Vaccine nationalism threatens global coronavirus effort
“…Rather than widespread collaboration, coordination and sharing, ‘me first’ vaccine nationalism pits nation against nation to get and keep enough doses for their citizens. Countries are focusing on their own vaccine development programs rather than collaborating to pool resources. Agreements are scarce to share vaccines when they’re available so front line health workers and those in COVID-19 hots spots internationally can have first access…” (Weise, 7/12).

Wall Street Journal: As Covid-19 Vaccine Development Pushes Ahead, Researchers Probe Safety
“In 2017, researchers found that some children who got a new vaccine against the tropical disease dengue later came down with a severe case of the illness, forcing production to temporarily stop. Now, researchers developing coronavirus vaccines aim to avoid a similar fate that could set back fast-moving efforts to curb the pandemic. The researchers say they have designed Covid-19 vaccines in ways that aim to make sure they fight off infections, rather than worsen them…” (Loftus/Hopkins, 7/12).

Xinhua: E.U. lawmakers adopt regulation to allow COVID-19 vaccines developed more quickly
“Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on Friday adopted a new regulation that will allow European vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 to be developed more quickly, said the European Parliament (EP)…” (7/11).

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Getting Coronavirus Treatments, Eventual Vaccine To Populations Most In Need Important To Stem Pandemic, Bill Gates Says At Virtual Conference

Reuters: Bill Gates calls for COVID-19 meds to go to people who need them, not ‘highest bidder’
“Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates called for COVID-19 drugs and an eventual vaccine to be made available to countries and people that need them most, not to the ‘highest bidder,’ saying relying on market forces would prolong the deadly pandemic. ‘If we just let drugs and vaccines go to the highest bidder, instead of to the people and the places where they are most needed, we’ll have a longer, more unjust, deadlier pandemic,’ Gates, a founder of Microsoft, said in a video released on Saturday during a virtual COVID-19 conference organized by the International AIDS Society…” (Miller, 7/11).

Additional coverage of Gates’s speech is available from CNBC and The Hill.

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COVID-19 Pandemic Hindering Access To Health Care For Women, Children Worldwide, Report Says; India Sees Increase In Unsafe Abortion Practices Amid Lockdown

Forbes: Covid-19 Is Making It Harder For Women And Children To Access Vital Health Care Services
“Mothers, newborns, young children, and adolescents are losing 20% of their health and social services because of the pandemic, according to a new report from a panel of senior global health experts. ‘Covid-19 is making a bad situation worse,’ said Joy Phumaphi, co-chair of the United Nations Independent Accountability Panel (IAP) and former WHO assistant director general. The report, published today, compiled data from various surveys and studies to estimate the impacts from Covid-19 pandemic on mothers, newborns, young children, and adolescents since January…” (Gajewski, 7/13).

The Guardian: ‘Women always take the brunt’: India sees surge in unsafe abortion
“…The coronavirus pandemic has put huge strain on India’s health system, and women’s reproductive rights have taken a particular hit. Travel restrictions, the diversion of public healthcare towards Covid-19, the closure of private clinics, and disruptions in medical supply chains have meant that women have been unable to receive timely care…” (Bagri, 7/13).

Additional coverage of abortion access in India is available from BBC.

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Pandemic-Related Restrictions Hindering Efforts To Prevent Seasonal Dengue Outbreaks In Asia, Latin America

AP: Dengue prevention efforts stifled by coronavirus pandemic
“…[T]he cascading effects of [COVID-19-related] restrictions also are hampering efforts to cope with seasonal outbreaks of dengue, an incurable, mosquito-borne disease that is also known as ‘breakbone fever’ for its severely painful symptoms. Southeast Asian countries like Singapore and Indonesia have dealt with concurrent outbreaks of dengue and coronavirus this year. In Brazil, where there are over 1.6 million COVID-19 infections, at least 1.1 million cases of dengue have been reported, with nearly 400 deaths, according to the Pan American Health Organization…” (Milko et al., 7/13).

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Mexico Passes Italy To Be 4th Globally In Number Of COVID-19 Deaths; Dubai, Abu Dhabi Confront Pandemic Differently; Outbreak In Kazakhstan Likely Novel Coronavirus; U.S. Death Rate Begins To Rise Again

AFRICA

The Economist: Which parts of Africa will be hit hardest by covid-19? (7/10).

ASIA

DW: Mystery pneumonia outbreak in Kazakhstan likely to be coronavirus: WHO (7/11).

U.N. News: COVID-19 lockdown in Myanmar exposes precarious position of LGBTQI population (7/11).

Wall Street Journal: Pandemic Crushes Garment Industry, the Developing World’s Path Out of Poverty (Mandhana et al., 7/11).

EUROPE

AP: Families of Italy’s virus dead seek answers, solace, justice (Winfield, 7/13).

CNN: Britain is the worst-hit country outside of the U.S. and Brazil. But it STILL won’t wear masks (Dean, 7/12).

LATIN AMERICA

BBC: Coronavirus: Why politics means success or failure in South America (Watson, 7/11).

Washington Post: Visual timeline shows Bolsonaro flouted health recommendations before contracting coronavirus — and after (Cahlan et al., 7/11).

MIDDLE EAST

Washington Post: Rivals Dubai and Abu Dhabi tackle coronavirus in very different ways (Schemm, 7/13).

NORTH AMERICA

AP: As U.S. grapples with virus, Florida hits record case increase (Lush/Gorondi, 7/12).

Bloomberg: Mexico Overtakes Italy to Have World’s Fourth-Most Virus Deaths (Quinn/Stillman, 7/12).

The Hill: COVID-19 surge pushes U.S. toward deadly cliff (Wilson, 7/12).

The Hill: Surgeon general says U.S. can reverse coronavirus surge in a few weeks ‘if everyone does their part’ (Klar, 7/12).

The Hill: Top White House coronavirus adviser says coronavirus mortality rate expected to rise amid resurgence of cases (Guzman, 7/10).

USA TODAY: How the South and Southwest became the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic (Stucka et al., 7/10).

Washington Post: After months of decline, America’s coronavirus death rate begins to rise (Achenbach et al., 7/10).

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SciDev.Net Spotlight Analyzes Future Pandemic Threats, Outbreak Preparedness, Food Systems' Roles

SciDev.Net: The next pandemic
“…In this Spotlight, ScDev.Net analyzes the threat of future pandemics, and considers what plans the world needs to put in place to stop — or mitigate — the next outbreak. Our food systems, urban landscapes, and vaccination programs all come under the microscope…” (Multiple authors, 7/13).

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In World Population Day Message, U.N. SG Calls For Empowerment, Protection Of Health, Rights Of Women, Girls

U.N. News: World Population Day: ‘No time to waste’ in empowering women
“The COVID-19 pandemic affects everyone, everywhere, ‘but it does not affect everyone equally,’ the U.N. chief said in his message for World Population Day, on Sunday. ‘It is deepening existing inequalities and vulnerabilities, particularly for women and girls,’ said Secretary-General António Guterres…” (7/10).

Xinhua: U.N. chief calls for efforts to protect health, rights of women, girls
“…According to the U.N. chief, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) projects that if lockdown measures continue for six months with major disruptions to health services, 47 million women in low- and middle-income countries may not be able to access modern contraceptives. ‘This would result in 7 million unintended pregnancies,’ he said. Moreover, some 31 million additional cases of gender-based violence can also be expected, the secretary general added…” (7/11).

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Devex Highlights News From AIDS 2020 Conference, Event With Global Fund Executive Director

Devex: Where does the HIV/AIDS movement go from here?
“COVID-19 has disrupted the HIV/AIDS response, as it has done for so many other global health priorities. But the HIV/AIDS community wasn’t on track to hit its targets for 2020 even before the pandemic hit. … At the AIDS 2020 conference, the U.N. AIDS agency shared updates on its plans and heard from activists, researchers, and policymakers about what steps the HIV/AIDS community must take in partnership with other sectors to turn gains into success…” (Cheney, 7/13).

Devex: Peter Sands breaks down the ‘huge amount at stake’ for HIV progress
“Fresh off a $14 billion replenishment in October, Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, thought 2020 would be the year to get the world back on track in reducing the rate of HIV infections. The funds raised were enough for the organization to increase allocations to countries by over 23%, which Sands hoped would accelerate the end of the epidemic. ‘And then, of course, COVID comes,’ Sands said, speaking Friday during a Devex event as the 23rd International AIDS Conference concluded…” (Welsh, 7/13).

Devex: Layered programs key to preventing HIV infections for adolescent girls
“Adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa are more than twice as likely to contract HIV than their male peers, and assessing efforts to address the challenge and chart a new way forward was a key focus of discussions at the International AIDS Conference…” (Saldinger, 7/13).

Devex: Q&A: Is COVID-19 helping or hindering progress toward an HIV vaccine?
“The COVID-19 health crisis has captured much of the world’s attention and resources. At this week’s 23rd International AIDS Conference, the pandemic has also highlighted gaps in investments and engagement in HIV vaccine development efforts…” (Ravelo, 7/13).

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New Hires At USAID Raise Concerns, Lower Morale Among Career Employees, News Reports Say

CNBC: U.S. foreign aid agency hit with low morale as White House works to appoint Trump loyalists
“President Donald Trump’s former body man entered the White House after he was chosen to lead the Presidential Personnel Office earlier this year with a message to a team of liaisons: sweep out anyone disloyal to the commander in chief. John McEntee, Trump’s new personnel head, reportedly called on the group in that meeting in February to find any so-called ‘Never Trump’ political appointees and bring their names back to him. … As a result of several controversial hires, morale has plummeted at the federal government’s agency for foreign aid, according to these people. The people who spoke to CNBC for this story declined to be named as these details had yet to be made public…” (Schwartz, 7/10).

POLITICO: A Bannon ally is the latest contentious hire at USAID
“…Tera Dahl, who briefly served as the deputy chief of staff at the White House-based National Security Council in 2017, is the latest in a string of hires that have alarmed career employees at USAID. She’s being given the title of senior adviser at USAID, an agency spokesperson confirmed. Like some other new political appointees at the aid agency, Dahl has a history of sharp commentary on Islam. She has disavowed efforts to delink the concept of terrorism from the religion, in ways that Muslim advocacy groups view as discriminatory…” (Toosi, 7/10).

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ONE Campaign Calls On U.K. Government To Cut £1.6B In Low-Standard Programs Amid Aid Reform

Devex: U.K. government urged to cut £1.6B of ‘phony aid’ first
“An anti-poverty campaign group has identified billions of pounds’ worth of ‘phony aid’ that it says should be the first to go in forthcoming U.K. aid cuts. A ONE Campaign analysis found £1.6 billion ($2 billion) worth of projects that were paid for with official development assistance in 2018 but that failed to meet high standards on poverty reduction, effectiveness, or transparency…” (Worley, 7/13).

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U.N. Security Council Authorizes One-Year Extension For Cross-Border Aid Between Turkey, Syria

U.N. News: Security Council extends for one year, lifesaving cross-border aid to Syria
“On its fourth attempt [last] week, the Security Council has on Saturday, authorized for one year, cross-border humanitarian aid from Turkey into northwest Syria…” (7/11).

Additional coverage of the authorization of cross-border aid into Syria is available from Reuters and Washington Post.

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More News In Global Health

The Atlantic: A New Understanding of Herd Immunity (Hamblin, 7/13).

Borgen Magazine: 5 Facts About Aboriginal Children Facing Obesity in Australia (Shusterman, 7/11).

Devex: One Health approach could be Australia’s contribution to the COVID-19 response (Cornish, 7/13).

New York Times: How Koalas With an STD Could Help Humanity (Gross, 7/13).

NPR: How 6 Problem-Solvers Tackled Pandemic Challenges In Their Neighborhoods (Bwire et al., 7/12).

Reuters: Pandemic exposes scientific rift over proving when germs are airborne (Steenhuysen et al., 7/10).

U.N. News: A taxing problem: how to ensure the poor and vulnerable don’t shoulder the cost of the COVID-19 crisis (7/12).

U.N. News: Waiting to declare famine ‘will be too late for Yemenis on brink of starvation’ (7/10).

U.N. News: Wildlife crime putting environment and health at risk: U.N. report (7/10).

Washington Post: Why do bats have so many viruses? (Ehrenberg, 7/12).

Xinhua: Novel coronavirus could have existed long before outbreak: WHO regional official (7/12).

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Editorials and Opinions

Editorial, Opinion Pieces Discuss Various Aspects Of COVID-19 Pandemic, Including Vaccine Access, Impact On Poverty, Global Education

CNN: How to decide who gets the Covid-19 vaccine first
Andrew Peterson, assistant professor and Greenwall faculty scholar at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at George Mason University (7/10).

Devex: COVID-19 calls for disrupting the way we communicate in a crisis
Andrew Bredenkamp, board chair of Translators without Borders (7/10).

Financial Times: Pharma can redeem itself through the pandemic
Editorial Board (7/12).

Forbes: As Cases Surge, Progress On Poverty Reverses
Michael Sheldrick, cofounder and chief policy and government relations officer at Global Citizen (7/13).

The Guardian: Covid-19 has revealed a pre-existing pandemic of poverty that benefits the rich
Philip Alston, outgoing U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights (7/11).

The Hill: Leaving World Health Organization marks major foreign policy blunder
Stephen Long, associate professor at the University of Richmond and advisory board member for United States Global Leadership Coalition (7/12).

International Business Times: The COVID-19 Pandemic Is Just Hitting Developing Countries. Here’s How to Respond
Hussain Jafri, founding director of World Patients Alliance, founder and secretary general of Alzheimer’s Pakistan, and vice chair of an advisory group for the World Health Organization’s Patients for Patient Safety program (PFPS)(7/12).

New York Times: Letter to the editor: It’s Time, Dr. Fauci
William D. Zabel, founding partner of the law firm Schulte Roth & Zabel (7/10).

Project Syndicate: Saving Generation COVID
Abiy Ahmed, prime minister of Ethiopia, and Gordon Brown, United Nations special envoy for global education, chair of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity, and chair of the Advisory Board for the Catalyst Foundation (7/13).

Project Syndicate: No Recovery Without Debt Relief
Mo Ibrahim, chair and founder of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation (7/10).

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From the Global Health Policy Community

Blogs, Releases Address Issues Related To COVID-19 Pandemic, Including Women's, Children's Health

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “The Optimist”: Fighting COVID-19 globally — and specifically
Mark Suzman, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (July 2020).

Chatham House: Is Evaluating COVID-19 About the WHO or Country Responses?
Charles Clift, senior consulting fellow with the Global Health Programme at Chatham House (7/11).

CSIS: Covid-19 and Young Women: Voices from Kenya
Janet Fleischman, senior associate (non-resident) with the Global Health Policy Center at CSIS (7/9).

CSIS: Advancing Research and Planning for the Equitable Distribution of a Covid-19 Vaccine
Katherine Bliss, senior fellow with the Global Health Policy Center at CSIS (7/9).

Global Citizen: To Defeat COVID-19, the United States Must Invest in Innovations for All
Jamie Bay Nishi, director of the Global Health Technologies Coalition (7/10).

Human Rights Watch: Covid-19 Reveals Global Need to Improve Education Systems
Elin Martínez, senior researcher with HRW’s Children’s Rights Division (7/13).

Independent Accountability Panel: Caught in the COVID-19 storm: women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health in the context of UHC and the SDGs (7/13).

International Federation of Gynecology & Obstetrics: Impact of COVID-19 on Unsafe Abortion
Ruth De Leon, Sociedad Panameña de Obstetricia y Ginecología (SPOG) (7/13).

IntraHealth International’s “Vital”: 5 Adaptations that Keep Family Planning Available During West Africa’s COVID Response
Molly Rossett, program manager, and Fatimata Sow, communications and program manager with the Challenge Initiative, both with IntraHealth International (7/9).

UNAIDS: UNAIDS and the wider United Nations system supporting the COVID-19 response in Nigeria (7/10).

UNFPA: Putting the brakes on COVID-19: Safeguarding the health and rights of women and girls (7/11).

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ONE U.K. Director Discusses Issues Facing U.K. Aid, Use Of ONE's Real Aid Index To Inform Decisionmaking

ONE: ONE’s Real Aid Index 2020: The foreign secretary must do more with less
Romilly Greenhill, director of the ONE Campaign U.K., discusses issues currently facing U.K. aid and ONE’s Real Aid Index. Greenhill writes, “U.K. aid will need to do more, with less money — due to a shrinking economy with looming cuts in government budgets, the Department for International Development (DFID) merger with the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO), and the need to tackle the increasing global challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. … In making these cuts, the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who will control 80% of the U.K. ODA budget when DFID is merged with the FCO, has some tough decisions to make. We must ensure Dominic Raab has the data he needs to make surgeon-like cuts, whilst improving the quality of aid spending across all government departments to ensure our aid delivers for the world’s poorest people and U.K. taxpayers. That’s where ONE’s Real Aid Index comes in…” (7/10).

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IAS Names First Asian President, Other Governing Council Members

International AIDS Society: Adeeba Kamarulzaman of Malaysia announced as the first Asian President of IAS — the International AIDS Society
“IAS has announced nine newly elected and three re-elected members to its Governing Council. Adeeba Kamarulzaman of Malaysia is the new IAS President and Sharon Lewin of Australia the President-Elect, with Jennifer Kates of the United States serving as Treasurer…” (7/10).

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COVID-19 Increases Socioeconomic Vulnerability Of LGBTI People, International Survey Shows

UNAIDS: Survey shows that the COVID-19 pandemic increases vulnerability of LGBTI people
“The opening session of the 2020 International AIDS Conference shared the findings of a rapid online survey demonstrating the increased socioeconomic vulnerability of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people due to COVID-19. UNAIDS, the LGBT+ Foundation, and researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other universities around the globe convened a COVID-19 disparities working group. It surveyed more than 20,000 LGBTI people in 138 countries in April and May and found that three quarters (74%) were fully or partially locked down, leading to economic consequences for many…” (7/10).

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From the U.S. Government

USAID Fact Sheet Provides Update On U.S. Global Response To COVID-19

USAID: COVID-19 Global Response: Fact Sheet #5 FY20
This fact sheet provides details on U.S. efforts to address COVID-19 globally, highlighting key developments in the U.S. response, the U.S. global response strategy, and regional summaries (7/10).

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From KFF

KFF Provides Resources On Global, Domestic Aspects Of COVID-19 Pandemic

KFF: COVID-19 Coronavirus Tracker — Updated as of July 13, 2020
Data on country government actions in response to COVID-19 are included in the tracker (7/13).

Additional KFF COVID-19 resources on the global situation, as well as those focused on the response and impact within the U.S., are available here. KFF’s blog series “Coronavirus Policy Watch” is available here.

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