New York Times: They Crossed Oceans to Lift Their Families Out of Poverty. Now, They Need Help.
“…Around the globe, the pandemic has jeopardized a vital artery of finance supporting hundreds of millions of families — so-called remittances sent home from wealthy countries by migrant workers. As the coronavirus has sent economies into lockdown, sowing joblessness, people accustomed to taking care of relatives at home have lost their paychecks, forcing some to depend on those who have depended on them…” (Goodman, 7/27).

Reuters: WHO says travel bans cannot be indefinite; countries must fight virus
“Bans on international travel cannot stay in place indefinitely, and countries are going to have to do more to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus within their borders, the World Health Organization said on Monday. … Only with strict adherence to health measures, from wearing masks to avoiding crowds, would the world manage to beat the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at a virtual news briefing in Geneva…” (Shields/Nebehay, 7/27).

Washington Post: WHO chief calls coronavirus ‘the most severe’ health emergency the agency has ever declared
“Six months after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern, Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday it was ‘easily the most severe’ such emergency ever declared by the organization. … Tedros warned that ‘the pandemic continues to accelerate.’ He noted that ‘in the past six weeks, the total number of cases has roughly doubled,’ now reaching more than 16 million coronavirus cases and over 640,000 deaths worldwide. He cited New Zealand, Thailand, China, Germany, and other countries for their exemplary approach to confronting the virus…” (Noack/Schemm, 7/27).

Additional coverage is available from Wall Street Journal.

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POLITICO: How the coronavirus can prepare us for bioterrorism
“…Bioterrorism experts now worry the West is even less prepared for a biological attack. Worse, the devastation caused by Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, could motivate rogue states or terrorist groups to use a similar pathogen against their enemies, said Andy Weber, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Council on Strategic Risks…” (Paun/Heath, 7/24).

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POLITICO: Trump administration invests $472M more in Moderna vaccine candidate
“The Trump administration is going to pump another $472 million into expanding Moderna’s clinical trial to test the safety and efficacy of its coronavirus vaccine candidate…” (Roubein, 7/26).

Reuters: Moderna gets further $472 million U.S. award for coronavirus vaccine development
“…The U.S.-based drug maker said the additional funding will support its late-stage clinical development including the expanded Phase 3 study of Moderna’s vaccine candidate. … BARDA’s total funding for the experimental vaccine of Moderna, the first in the United States to begin human trials of a coronavirus vaccine, is now about $955 million…” (Ponnezhath, 7/26).

The Atlantic: A Vaccine Reality Check (Zhang, 7/24).

CNN: The world’s hopes for a coronavirus vaccine may run in these health care workers’ veins (Walsh et al., 7/27).

New Yorker: The Long Game of Coronavirus Research (Groopman, 7/23).

VICE: It’s OK If Countries Hack Each Other’s Vaccines (Bender, 7/27).

Wall Street Journal: A Big Unknown in Covid-19 Vaccine Development: How Long Will Protection Last? (Hopkins et al., 7/26).

Washington Post: A trial for coronavirus vaccine researchers: Making sure black and Hispanic communities are included in studies (Johnson, 7/26).

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Science: ‘Trump owes us an apology.’ Chinese scientist at the center of COVID-19 origin theories speaks out
“The coronavirus pandemic has thrust virologist Shi Zhengli into a fierce spotlight. Shi, who’s been nicknamed ‘Bat Woman,’ heads a group that studies bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), in the city in China where the pandemic began, and many have speculated that the virus that causes COVID-19 accidentally escaped from her lab — a theory promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump. Some have even suggested it could have been engineered there. China has forcefully rejected such claims, but Shi (pronounced SHIH) herself has said very little publicly. Now, Shi has broken her silence about the details of her work. On 15 July, she emailed Science answers to a series of written questions about the virus’ origin and the research at her institute…” (Cohen, 7/24).

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AFRICA

Al Jazeera: Malaria deaths surge in Africa amid fight against COVID-19 (Adow, 7/26).

AP: South Africa warns COVID-19 corruption puts ‘lives at risk’ (Magome, 7/26).

AP: Pregnant women at risk of death in Kenya’s COVID-19 curfew (Adula, 7/25).

The Guardian: ‘I can’t give in’: The Togolese nun caring for AIDS patients amid Covid-19 (Girardot, 7/27).

The Guardian: ‘It’s over, I am going to die’: how Uganda’s coronavirus curfew is claiming lives (Okereke, 7/27).

New Humanitarian: ‘Ebola business’ concerns resurface as new Congo outbreak spreads (Kleinfeld/Masango, 7/27).

U.N. News: Zimbabwe: COVID-19 must not be used to stifle freedoms, says U.N. rights office (7/24).

Wall Street Journal: After Early Success, South Africa Buckles Under Coronavirus Surge (Steinhauser/Patel, 7/26).

ASIA

ABC RN Breakfast: PNG calls on World Health Organization and military for help to deal with coronavirus (Kelly, 7/27).

BBC News: Coronavirus: Why won’t India admit how Covid-19 is spreading? (Pandey, 7/26).

New Humanitarian: COVID-19 fuels tensions between Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi hosts (Anas, 7/27).

NPR: North Korea Reports 1st Suspected Case Of Coronavirus (McCallister, 7/26).

U.N. News: COVID-19 means development setbacks for Mongolia: a U.N. Resident Coordinator’s blog (7/25).

VICE: Indonesia’s COVID-19 Pandemic is Killing Medical Professionals at an Alarming Rate (Maulana/Vit, 7/27).

Wall Street Journal: North Korea Reports Its First Apparent Covid-19 Case (Martin/Jeong, 7/26).

Washington Post: North Korea locks down border city as first possible coronavirus case is announced (Kim, 7/26).

EUROPE

AP: European tourism faces turbulence only weeks after restart (Moulson/Kurtenbach, 7/27).

The Hill: Spain tightens COVID-19 restrictions after new outbreaks (Deese, 7/24).

The Hill: France to require coronavirus tests for those entering the country from U.S. (Moreno, 7/24).

POLITICO: Sweden split on coronavirus immunity (Duxbury, 7/24).

LATIN AMERICA

Financial Times: A plague on all your houses? Pandemic politics in Latin America (Stott, 7/27).

New York Times: The Amazon, Giver of Life, Unleashes the Pandemic (Hicks et al., 7/25).

Washington Post: Colombian guerrillas are using coronavirus curfews to expand their control. Violators have been killed (Janetsky/Faiola, 7/26).

MIDDLE EAST

AP: Pilgrims arrive in Mecca for downsized hajj amid pandemic (Batrawy, 7/27).

Wall Street Journal: Saudi Arabia’s Latest Challenge: Containing Covid-19 During the Hajj (Abdulaziz/Kalin, 7/25).

NORTH AMERICA

The Hill: CDC releases updated guidelines in favor of reopening schools (Moreno, 7/24).

New York Times: CDC Calls on Schools to Reopen, Downplaying Health Risks (Goodnough, 7/24).

Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Cases Soar in the U.S., Top 16 Million Globally (Calfas/Wen, 7/26).

Washington Post: America’s global standing is at a low point. The pandemic made it worse (Balz, 7/26).

Washington Post: CDC director concedes schools in ‘hot spots’ face tougher call on reopening (Meckler/Weiner, 7/24).

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Quartz Africa: Africa is tackling its supply chain deficit with a U.S.-backed research center in Ghana
“Supply chains across industries are going through an unprecedented global disruption in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic which has shuttered airports, seaports, and hampered the movement of goods and people around the world. … This month the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a $15 million award to support a training center in supply chain management in Ghana to meet some of these challenges. The new Center for Applied Research and Innovation in Supply Chain-Africa (CARISCA) will be established at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partnership with Arizona State University…” (Adegoke, 7/27).

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Devex: Did the U.K.’s 0.7% aid spending commitment backfire?
“The U.K.’s commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income on aid protected the budget during the austerity years — but it also attracted criticism…” (Worley, 7/27).

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Devex: Q&A: Tackling the global NCD burden (7/27).

Devex: Q&A: Taking on NGO leadership in the COVID crisis (Cornish, 7/27).

Devex: How to empower health workers: Lessons learned from ‘On the Frontlines’ (Donback, 7/24).

Global Press Journal: Cervical Cancer Claims Lives as Hospital Backlog Grows in Zambia (Phiri, 7/26).

Global Press Journal: In Mexico, Women’s Rights Activists Fight to End Violence During Childbirth (Suárez del Real, 7/26).

Ms. Magazine/Pass Blue: Does the New U.S. Envoy for Women’s Rights Have Anything to Do? (Shukri, 7/13).

National Geographic: Women are on the frontlines in the fight against COVID-19 (Jones, 7/24).

PRI: ‘The mother of all injustices is climate change,’ says former diplomat and climate change leader (Kusmer, 7/24).

Reuters: Taliban push to control private companies, aid agencies in Afghanistan (Sediqi/Farooq, 7/27).

The Telegraph: ‘We will live with this for years’: virus expert on debilitating after-effects of Covid-19 (Gulland, 7/26).

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Financial Times: Africa needs more help with its pandemic response
Editorial Board (7/27).

Forbes: Five Environmental Lessons Coronavirus Could Teach Humanity, If Humanity Would Listen
Jeff McMahon, senior contributor at Forbes (7/26).

Foreign Affairs: The Tragedy of Vaccine Nationalism
Thomas J. Bollyky, director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Chad P. Bown, Reginald Jones senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (7/27).

New York Times: Italy Is Slowly Waking From the Nightmare
Beppe Severgnini, editorial writer and editor at Corriere della Sera (7/27).

Wall Street Journal: Covid Shows the Need for a Diagnostic Stockpile
Scott Gottlieb, resident fellow at AEI and partner at New Enterprise Associates, and Mark McClellan, director of the Robert J. Margolis Center for Health Policy and Margolis professor of business, medicine and health policy at Duke University (7/26).

Washington Post: Sputnik set off the Space Age. This virus can spark the Health Age
Regina E. Dugan, chief executive of Wellcome Leap (7/26).

Washington Post: Kenya’s government is abandoning its citizens in the face of disaster
Patrick Gathara, Global Opinions contributing columnist at the Washington Post (7/25).

Washington Post: A covid-19 vaccine can ensure better outcomes for communities of color. Let’s work to earn their trust
Bisola O. Ojikutu, infectious disease physician at Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals and director of the community-engaged research program at Harvard’s Center for AIDS Research; Julie H. Levison, infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-director of the community research program at its Chelsea HealthCare Center; and Kathryn E. Stephenson, infectious disease physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and director of the clinical trials unit in the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research (7/26).

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London School of Economics and Political Science: COVID-19 gender study gets funding boost (7/27).

Oxfam: “From Poverty to Power”: What does COVID tell us about responding to the Climate Crisis?
Paul Knox-Clarke, co-founder of the Climate and Humanitarian Crisis Initiative (7/24).

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Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program’s “New Security Beat”: USAID’s New Center for Water Security Signals Progress, But More is Needed
Stephanie Cappa, deputy director of policy and government affairs, and Sarah Davidson, director for water policy, both with the World Wildlife Fund, discuss USAID’s new Center for Water Security. They write, “As the COVID-19 crisis grew this spring, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) revamped its Water Office, renamed it as the Center for Water Security, Sanitation, and Hygiene, and added it to the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, home to the Feed the Future Initiative. … USAID has elevated water security to better respond to challenges today, while helping communities and nature thrive for the long term. The new Center for Water Security, Sanitation, and Hygiene can lead the way” (7/27).

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USAID: COVID-19 Global Response — Fact Sheet #6 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 (7/24).

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