Devex: Unlocking HIV/AIDS financing during COVID-19
“The coronavirus pandemic is straining donor countries’ budgets and affecting other sources of revenue for low- and middle-income countries, raising questions on how programs for HIV/AIDS can be sustained. A number of high-income countries’ economies have been hit hard by the pandemic. Even if they maintain aid levels at 0.7% of their gross domestic product, total aid volume could be smaller as donors’ own revenue collection is reduced, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said last week during an AIDS 2020 preconference session. This can have a huge impact on low-income countries heavily reliant on foreign aid for their HIV response…” (Ravelo, 7/6).

Healio: Virtual AIDS 2020 meeting will highlight new data on HIV treatment, prevention
“[This] week’s AIDS 2020 conference will be held virtually because of safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. … The conference, which will be held from July 6 to July 10, will feature more than 600 virtual sessions and events. The International AIDS Society also will host a virtual COVID-19 conference featuring breaking research related to the pandemic…” (Dreisbach, 7/4).

San Francisco Chronicle: International AIDS Conference returns to SF, overshadowed by a new pandemic
“This week was to be a momentous occasion in Bay Area public health. The International AIDS Conference, the most important global gathering of AIDS scientists, doctors, activists and people living with HIV, was returning to San Francisco for the first time in 30 years. But in the shadow of a new pandemic, the conference will be a virtual affair. More than 20,000 attendees had been expected to descend upon the Bay Area for the five-day event, which will now be held online only, with one day devoted entirely to COVID-19 news and research…” (Allday, 7/5).

Science: The global AIDS meeting, the Woodstock of science gatherings, goes virtual amid COVID-19
“…Many talks will report on the intersection of HIV/AIDS and COVID-19. The last day of the meeting will morph into a conference devoted to the newer pandemic, opening with a talk from the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and closing with Bill Gates, whose foundation has long helped in the fight against infectious diseases. [Anton Pozniak, head of the International AIDS Society (IAS), which runs the mega-biannual meeting,] responded to questions about the reimagined conference from his London living room, which is where he will ‘attend’ from…” (Cohen, 7/2).

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New York Times: 239 Experts With One Big Claim: The Coronavirus Is Airborne
“…The World Health Organization has long held that the coronavirus is spread primarily by large respiratory droplets that, once expelled by infected people in coughs and sneezes, fall quickly to the floor. But in an open letter to the WHO, 239 scientists in 32 countries have outlined the evidence showing that smaller particles can infect people, and are calling for the agency to revise its recommendations. The researchers plan to publish their letter in a scientific journal [this] week…” (Mandavilli, 7/4).

Washington Post: Scientists urge WHO to address airborne spread of coronavirus
“…In a forthcoming paper titled ‘It is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of Covid-19,’ 239 signatories attempt to raise awareness about what they say is growing evidence that the virus can spread indoors through aerosols that linger in the air and can be infectious even in smaller quantities than previously thought. Until recently, most public health guidelines have focused on social distancing measures, regular hand-washing, and precautions to avoid droplets. But the signatories to the paper say the potential of the virus to spread via airborne transmission has not been fully appreciated even by public health institutions such as the WHO…” (McAuley/Rauhala, 7/5).

Additional coverage of the letter is available from Axios, The Guardian, The Hill, Los Angeles Times, and Reuters.

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The Hill: WHO records new single-day high in global coronavirus cases
“The World Health Organization (WHO) reported more than 210,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus around the world on Saturday, marking a new high in infections over a 24-hour period. Data from the agency showed that 211,411 cases of the virus were confirmed worldwide, representing a 20 percent increase from the previous day. The previous high in single-day infections was reported on June 28, when roughly 190,000 cases of the virus were confirmed globally…” (Wise, 7/5).

New York Times: The Pandemic’s Big Mystery: How Deadly Is the Coronavirus?
“More than six months into the pandemic, the coronavirus has infected more than 11 million people worldwide, killing more than 525,000. But despite the increasing toll, scientists still do not have a definitive answer to one of the most fundamental questions about the virus: How deadly is it? … The figure, usually called the infection fatality rate, could tell health officials what to expect as the pandemic spreads to densely populated nations like Brazil, Nigeria and India. … On Thursday, after the World Health Organization held a two-day online meeting of 1,300 scientists from around the world, the agency’s chief scientist, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, said the consensus for now was that the I.F.R. is about 0.6 percent — which means that the risk of death is less than 1 percent…” (McNeil, 7/4).

Washington Post: Coronavirus will undermine trust in government, ‘scarring body and mind’ for decades, research finds
“Two new working papers present complementary data showing that the coronavirus pandemic will leave a deep psychological scar on the nation for years to come. The first, led by Julian Kozlowski of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, finds that the experience of the coronavirus and ensuing recession could make people and businesses less likely to resume their previous spending and investment patterns, which would have an extended stunting effect on economic growth. The second, led by Cevat Giray Aksoy of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, finds that people who endure a pandemic in young adulthood tend to be more distrustful of government institutions for the rest of their lives, an outcome that makes it more difficult for governments to effectively respond to future pandemics…” (Ingraham, 7/5).

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Devex: No proven treatment: The dilemmas doctors face on the COVID-19 frontline
“…As coronavirus cases [passed] 10 million [last] week, with the death toll of over half a million people, and no drug found to be effective, doctors on the frontline around the world are making hard choices — whether to resort to standard care management or subscribe to strict protocols in administering investigational therapies, while carefully weighing the benefits and risks of these drugs…” (Ravelo/Byatnal, 7/3).

Reuters: WHO sees first results from COVID drug trials within two weeks
“The World Health Organization (WHO) should soon get results from clinical trials it is conducting of drugs that might be effective in treating COVID-19 patients, its Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday. … The Solidarity Trial started out in five parts looking at possible treatment approaches to COVID-19: standard care; remdesivir; the anti-malaria drug touted by U.S. President Donald Trump, hydroxychloroquine; the HIV drugs lopinavir/ritonavir; and lopanivir/ritonavir combined with interferon…” (Nebehay/Mason, 7/3).

STAT: Data show panic and disorganization dominate the study of Covid-19 drugs
“In a gigantic feat of scientific ambition, researchers have designed a staggering 1,200 clinical trials aimed at testing treatment and prevention strategies against Covid-19 since the start of January. But a new STAT analysis shows the effort has been marked by disorder and disorganization, with huge financial resources wasted. The analysis, conducted in partnership with Applied XL, a Newlab Venture Studio company, found that one in every six trials was designed to study the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, which have been shown to have no benefit in hospitalized patients…” (Herper/Riglin, 7/6).

Additional coverage of research into treatments for COVID-19 is available from CNBC, The Hill (2), Reuters, and UPI.

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Bloomberg: Glaxo and Sanofi Are Discussing $620 Million U.K. Vaccine Deal (Paton, 7/5).

NPR: The Ethics Of Coronavirus Vaccine Trials In Developing Countries (Pfeiffer, 7/4).

NPR: How Much Would Coronavirus Vaccine Cost? (Garcia/Hirsch, 7/3).

Reuters: Britain nears $625 million Sanofi/GSK COVID-19 vaccine deal: report (Smout et al., 7/5).

Science: The line starts to form for a coronavirus vaccine (Cohen, 7/3).

VOA News: Health Authorities Aim to Build Alternative to COVID-19 Nationalism (Baragona, 7/5).

Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Researchers Compete to Enroll Subjects for Vaccine Tests (Hopkins/Loftus, 7/5).

Washington Post: Elegant but unproven, RNA experiments leap to the front in coronavirus vaccine race. Will they work? (Booth/Johnson, 7/5).

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Financial Times: World Bank ditches second round of pandemic bonds
“The World Bank has shelved plans for a second sale of pandemic bonds after the first drew criticism for being too slow to pay out aid to poor nations suffering from the coronavirus outbreak. … A second iteration of the ‘pandemic emergency financing facility,’ or PEF, was expected to be launched this year, after the World Bank said in early 2019 that it was making tweaks to the structure before marketing the new product in or around May 2020. But a spokesperson has told the FT that there are now ‘no plans for a PEF 2.0’…” (Hodgson, 7/6).

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The Telegraph: China says investigations into origins of Covid-19 should look beyond its borders
“Chinese officials and experts have insisted that any investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic should not be confined to China, pointing to Spain as an alternative source. The statements appear to be an attempt to dampen expectations ahead of a World Health Organization ‘scoping mission’ to the country next week, which aims to establish a platform to trace the emergence of Sars-Cov-2…” (Newey, 7/3).

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AFRICA

AP: Sex workers lack food for taking HIV drugs during COVID-19 (Ssuuna, 7/4).

CNN: South Africa battles coronavirus and tuberculosis (McKenzie, 7/4).

The Guardian (Nigeria): COVID-19: Nigeria may record spike in malaria, TB deaths, Global Fund warns (Onyedika-Ugoeze, 7/4).

Thomson Reuters Foundation: Powerless in a pandemic: Solar energy prescribed for off-grid healthcare (Rowling, 7/3).

Xinhua: WHO donates 160 oxygen concentrators to boost fight against COVID-19 in South Sudan (7/3).

ASIA

Bloomberg Law: India’s First Covid-19 Vaccine Races to Meet Mid-August Target (Shrivastava/Pradhan, 7/4).

Pakistan Today: U.S. donates 100 ventilators to support Pakistan’s Covid-19 response (7/3).

Reuters: Kim Jong Un says North Korea prevented coronavirus from making inroads (Cha, 7/2).

EUROPE

Devex: Europe’s COVID-19 funding muddle (Chadwick, 7/3).

POLITICO: Government divisions add to corona-ravaged Sweden’s woes (Duxbury, 7/5).

LATIN AMERICA

Reuters: Coronavirus surges on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, doctors warn deaths underreported (Griffin/Acosta, 7/5).

Reuters: El Salvador delays next steps in reopening economy as COVID-19 cases rise (Rentaria, 7/5).

Reuters: Bolivia digs mass graves as cemeteries fill with coronavirus victims (Ramos/Sherwood, 7/3).

MIDDLE EAST

The Hill: Iran orders mask usage as coronavirus cases spike (Budryk, 7/6).

Washington Post: The pandemic stranded Palestinians abroad. Politics kept them there (Berger, 7/1).

NORTH AMERICA

The Hill: Public health expert: ‘Mixed messaging’ on masks, social distancing contributed to ‘perilous moment’ for U.S. (Budryk, 7/5).

NBC News: ‘We need to live with it’: White House readies new message for the nation on coronavirus (Lee et al., 7/3).

New York Times: The Fullest Look Yet at the Racial Inequity of Coronavirus (Oppel et al., 7/5).

VOA News: New Concern in U.S. South About Rising Coronavirus Spread (Bredemeier, 7/6).

Wall Street Journal: Some Hospitals in Southern, Western U.S. States Near Capacity Amid Coronavirus Outbreaks (O’Brien et al., 7/5).

Wall Street Journal: Some Hospitals in Southern, Western U.S. States Near Capacity Amid Coronavirus Outbreaks (Maher, 7/4).

Wall Street Journal: Mexico’s Covid-19 Death Toll Could Be Twice as High as Official Tally (Luhnow/Montes, 7/3).

Xinhua: Premature reopenings, unclear messaging on restriction measures lead to spike in U.S. COVID-19 cases: expert (7/6).

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AP: Trump’s ‘strong wall’ to block COVID-19 from China had holes (Braun et al., 7/4).

Bloomberg: Building Trust in a Vaccine (Edney, 7/5).

The Hill: FDA commissioner says he can’t predict when vaccine will be ready after Trump’s timeline claims (Wise, 7/5).

New York Times: Trump Falsely Claims ’99 Percent’ of Virus Cases Are ‘Totally Harmless’ (Rabin/Cameron, 7/5).

Washington Post: Lessons unlearned: Four years before the CDC fumbled coronavirus testing, the agency made some of the same mistakes with Zika (Willman/Crites, 7/4).

Washington Times: FDA chief pressed on Trump claim that 99% of COVID cases are ‘harmless’ (Howell, 7/5).

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Bloomberg Law: Democrats Rebuff Trump on WHO, Seek International Spending Boost
“House Democrats’ fiscal 2021 State and Foreign Operations spending bill would boost overall funding, set aside $10 billion for the coronavirus response, and require President Donald Trump’s administration to send funds to the World Health Organization. … The House Appropriations State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee is scheduled to consider the legislation on Monday at 4 p.m. The U.S. would be required to send $200 million to the World Health Organization within 60 days of enactment of the legislation, despite Trump’s decision to cut off funding for the group…” (Fitzpatrick, 7/5).

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Devex: Lagging statistics raise questions ahead of annual U.N. SDGs review
“The upcoming annual High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development at the United Nations will be a virtual affair. The format will present new opportunities for inclusivity, but also heightened challenges of accurately assessing countries’ development progress, civil society observers say. Forty-seven countries will present updates on their work — known as voluntary national reviews — toward achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals during the meetings, which run from July 7-16. The impact of COVID-19 is expected to feature in some country reports, but is unlikely to prompt a recalibration of their SDGs advancement, as many governments began their voluntary national review process before the pandemic hit in early 2020…” (Lieberman, 7/6).

U.N. News: ‘Stay the course together to emerge stronger’ from COVID-19 crisis: U.N. chief’s message to major sustainability forum
“As a major United Nations forum prepares to assess progress towards a fairer future for people and the planet, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that each of the Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), which formally begins on Tuesday, is an annual stock-take of the world’s progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)…” (7/5).

U.N. News: Business sector still far from reaching sustainability goals, U.N. report shows, 20 years on from landmark summit
“A new U.N. report on the private sector, released by U.N. Global Compact, shows that progress on bringing about a sustainable future for people and the planet is patchy, and the majority of companies involved in the Compact are not doing enough to help bring about the U.N.’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development…” (7/4).

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Bloomberg: The Swine Flu Virus in China That Has People Worried (7/3).

Devex: ‘Where’s God?’: The role of faith in psychosocial support (Welsh, 7/6).

Devex: Women and people with disabilities missing out on critical eye care (Root, 7/3).

Financial Times: FT Series: Companies prospering in the pandemic (Multiple authors, June/July 2020).

Global Press Journal: Food Shortage Looms as DRC Border Remains Closed (Nyirabihogo, 7/5).

New York Times: Bubonic Plague Found in a Herder in Inner Mongolia, China Says (Ramzy, 7/6).

New York Times: DNA Inherited From Neanderthals May Increase Risk of Covid-19 (Zimmer, 7/4).

Reuters: Almost a third of COVID-19 samples show mutation, but not worse disease — WHO (Nebehay/Shields, 7/3).

Wall Street Journal: Red Flags Raised Over Chinese Research Published in Global Journals (Xiao/Xiao, 7/5).

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allAfrica: Africa: Using the Demographic Dividend as Anchor to Fight COVID-19
Mabingue Ngom, regional director of the UNFPA-West and Central African Regional Office (7/2).

Forbes: Covid-19 Coronavirus Won’t Be Last Or Worst Pandemic, How To Stop Panic-Neglect Cycle
Bruce Y. Lee, senior contributor at Forbes (7/4).

The Guardian (Nigeria): Nigeria’s COVID-19 response: Critical lessons from the HIV/AIDS epidemic
Eloho Ese Basikoro, research, academic, and international development consultant (7/6).

The Hill: Flattening the malaria and COVID-19 curves
Josh Blumenfeld, managing director of global policy and advocacy at Malaria No More, and Margaret Reilly McDonnell, executive director of the U.N. Foundation Nothing But Nets campaign (6/30).

New York Times: How a Covid-19 Vaccine Could Cost Americans Dearly
Elisabeth Rosenthal, editor in chief of Kaiser Health News (7/6).

New York Times: Borders Won’t Protect Your Country From Coronavirus
Robert E. Rubin, secretary of the Treasury from 1995 to 1999, and David Miliband, chief executive officer of the International Rescue Committee (7/6).

The Telegraph: We need a cholera-style investigation to fully understand spread of Covid-19
Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, and director of studies for the Evidence-Based Health Care Programme, and Tom Jefferson, senior associate tutor and honorary research fellow at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, both at University of Oxford (7/5).

Wall Street Journal: Antibodies Can Be the Bridge to a Vaccine
Luciana Borio, vice president at In-Q-Tel, and Scott Gottlieb, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and board member of Pfizer and Illumina (7/5).

Washington Post: No wonder the Trump administration doesn’t want Anthony Fauci on TV
James Downie, digital opinions editor at the Washington Post (7/5).

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Devex: Come hell or piped water
Anirudha Nagar, human rights lawyer and communities co-director for Accountability Counsel (7/2).

Financial Times: Immunity sampling can alert the world to emerging diseases
Anjana Ahuja, science commentator at the Financial Times (7/6).

Washington Post: Everyone will be affected by the U.S.’s withdrawal from the WHO
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (7/1).

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UNAIDS: UNAIDS report on the global AIDS epidemic shows that 2020 targets will not be met because of deeply unequal success; COVID-19 risks blowing HIV progress way off course
“A new report by UNAIDS shows remarkable, but highly unequal, progress, notably in expanding access to antiretroviral therapy. Because the achievements have not been shared equally within and between countries, the global HIV targets set for 2020 will not be reached. The report, Seizing the moment, warns that even the gains made could be lost and progress further stalled if we fail to act. It highlights just how urgent it is for countries to double down and act with greater urgency to reach the millions still left behind…” (7/6).

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BMJ Opinion: We cannot afford to lose more time in the fight against covid-19 in the U.S.
Ingrid T. Katz, associate faculty director at the Harvard Global Health Institute and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, and Andrew R. Iliff, senior writer at the Harvard Global Health Institute (7/3).

BMJ Opinion: Covid-19 highlights the gender imbalance in leadership and the imperative to address it
Nada Al-Hadithy, Oxford University Hospital, and colleagues (7/3).

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières: Haiti: Between denial and fears about COVID-19, health promotion on the front line (7/6).

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières: Women and girls face greater dangers during COVID-19 pandemic (7/2).

Global Citizen: This WHO-UNICEF Initiative Is Fighting so Everyone Can Wash Their Hands Against COVID-19
Lerato Mogoatlhe, content writer & editor at Global Citizen South Africa (7/2).

Health GAP: Will the U.S. Congress Rise to the Moment and Save Lives? Or Will They Let COVID-19 Roll Back Years of Fragile Gains Against HIV, Tuberculosis, and Malaria?
Jessica Bassett, director of communications at Health GAP (6/29).

Think Global Health: All Bets Are Off for Measuring Pandemic Preparedness
Sawyer Crosby, data analyst on the resource tracking team at the University of Washington’s Institute for Heath Metrics and Evaluations (IHME), and colleagues (6/30).

UNICEF: UNICEF Executive Board: Strategic Plan midterm review and COVID-19 response reimagine a world fit for every child (7/2).

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CSIS: The Pandemic Paradox — HIV on the Edge
“The CSIS Global Health Policy Center (GHPC) presents The Pandemic Paradox — HIV on the Edge, a five-episode docuseries and feature film on the risk of a resurgent HIV/AIDS epidemic four decades after the first case was reported and a few months into the coronavirus pandemic. The documentary project features many of the world’s most prominent and impactful voices on HIV/AIDS, such as National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci and former UNAIDS chief Peter Piot, and includes original footage and interviews of those living with the threat of HIV/AIDS in Kwazulu-Natal and Gauteng, South Africa; Odessa and Kiev, Ukraine; and diverse communities in the American South and West…” (July 2020).

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U.S. House Committee on Appropriations: Appropriations Committee Releases Fiscal Year 2021 State and Foreign Operations Funding Bill
“The House Appropriations Committee today released the draft fiscal year 2021 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs funding bill, which will be considered in subcommittee [July 6]. The legislation funds the Department of State, the United States Agency for International Development, and other international programs and activities. In total, the bill provides $65.87 billion in funding, an increase of $8.467 billion above the FY 2020 enacted level and $21.158 billion above the request. This includes $10.018 billion in emergency funding for coronavirus preparedness, response, and relief globally…” (7/5).

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U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative: PMI 15th Anniversary
According to this post, “June 30th, 2020 marks the 15th anniversary of the launch of the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative and the beginning of a year-long celebration of PMI’s leadership in the fight against malaria.” The page provides links to a USAID blog post, titled “15 Things about PMI on the 15th Anniversary of its Launch,” video messages from the leadership at USAID and PMI, and other resources (6/30).

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KFF: KFF/UNAIDS Analysis Finds Donor Governments Spent US$7.8 Billion for HIV in 2019, Down Almost $200 Million From the Previous Year
“A new report from KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) finds donor government disbursements to combat HIV in low- and middle-income countries totaled US$7.8 billion in 2019, a reduction from the US$8 billion in 2018 and nearly the same as the funding levels of a decade ago. Half of the 14 donor governments analyzed in the study decreased their spending on global HIV efforts from 2018 to 2019; six increased; and one held steady. Donor government funding supports HIV care and treatment, prevention, and other services in low- and middle-income countries…” (7/6).

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KFF: The U.S. Government and International Family Planning & Reproductive Health: Statutory Requirements and Policies
This fact sheet summarizes the major statutory requirements and policies pertaining to U.S. global family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH) efforts over time and identifies those currently in effect, including the Mexico City policy and the Kemp-Kasten amendment (6/30).

KFF: The Mexico City Policy: An Explainer
This updated explainer provides an overview of the Mexico City policy, which requires foreign NGOs to certify that they will not “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning” using funds from any source (including non-U.S. funds) as a condition for receiving most U.S. government global health assistance (6/29).

KFF: UNFPA Funding & Kemp-Kasten: An Explainer
On June 16, the Trump administration invoked the Kemp-Kasten amendment in order to withhold FY 2020 funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA, the lead U.N. agency focused on global population and reproductive health), the fourth year it has made this determination. This updated explainer provides an overview of the history of Kemp-Kasten and its current application (7/1).

KFF: The U.S. Government and Global Maternal & Child Health Efforts
This updated fact sheet examines global maternal and child health efforts and the U.S. government’s history of support for these efforts, including funding (7/1).

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KFF: COVID-19 Coronavirus Tracker — Updated as of July 6, 2020
Data on country government actions in response to COVID-19 are included in the tracker (7/6).

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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