KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report

In The News

WHO Records Highest Single-Day COVID-19 Total On Sunday, Warns Of 'New And Dangerous Phase,' Calls On World Leaders To Unite To Fight Pandemic

AP: WHO chief warns world leaders not to “politicize” pandemic
“World leaders must not politicize the coronavirus pandemic but unite to fight it, the head of the World Health Organization warned Monday, reminding all that the pandemic is still accelerating and producing record daily increases in infections. The comments by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has faced criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, comes as the number of reported infections soared in Brazil, Iraq, India, and southern and western U.S. states, straining local hospitals…” (Gambrell, 6/22).

Axios: WHO reports highest single-day increase in confirmed coronavirus cases
“The World Health Organization on Sunday reported the pandemic’s largest single-day increase of confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 183,000 cases reported in the last 24 hours, according to AP…” (Perano, 6/21).

U.N. News: COVID-19: U.N. health agency warns of ‘new and dangerous phase’ as cases mount
“The world is entering ‘a new and dangerous phase’ of the COVID-19 pandemic, as infection rates continue to climb, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. More than 150,000 new cases of the disease were reported on Thursday: the highest single daily total so far. Most were in the Americas, though ‘large numbers’ came from South Asia and the Middle East. ‘The world is in a new and dangerous phase. Many people are understandably fed up with being at home. Countries are understandably eager to open up their societies and economies,’ WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists. ‘But the virus is still spreading fast, it’s still deadly, and most people are still susceptible’…” (6/19).

Additional coverage of WHO’s comments is available from Axios, CNBC, CIDRAP News, The Guardian, The Hill (2), New York Times, and Reuters.

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Senate Foreign Relations Committee Discusses International COVID-19 Response; European Nations Working With U.S. To Propose WHO Reforms As Trump Administration To Require U.S. Diplomats Justify Engagement With U.N. Body

Devex: U.S. senators debate international COVID-19 response
“The international COVID-19 response, President Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. would withdraw from the World Health Organization, and how the U.S. should address global health security moving forward were the focus of an at-times heated Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Thursday…” (Saldinger, 6/19).

ProPublica: Inside the Trump Administration’s Decision to Leave the World Health Organization
“…ProPublica has interviewed senior officials at five federal agencies to understand the repercussions and the behind-the-scenes efforts to contain the damage of a decision in which they had little input. In the weeks after Trump’s Rose Garden declaration, the White House gave little direction on what to do next. Officials who deal with the WHO knew that withdrawal is a cumbersome process requiring a year’s notice, a multiagency review, and payment of unpaid dues. As a result, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar instructed his department to continue cooperating with the organization. … At a meeting at the White House [on June 15], a director with the National Security Council told diplomats and health officials that they must now justify any engagement with the WHO as being necessary for national security and public health safety, senior government officials told ProPublica. In addition, the State Department has begun preparing formal paperwork to declare the official withdrawal of the United States from the WHO, officials said…” (Rotella et al., 6/20).

Reuters: Exclusive: Europeans working with U.S. to restructure WHO, top official says
“European governments are working with the United States on plans to overhaul the World Health Organization, a top health official for a European country said, signaling that Europe shares some of the concerns that led Washington to say it would quit. The European health official, who spoke on condition of anonymity while discussing initiatives that are not public, said Britain, France, Germany, and Italy were discussing WHO reforms with the United States at the technical level. The aim, the official said, was to ensure WHO’s independence, an apparent reference to allegations that the body was too close to China during its initial response to the coronavirus crisis early this year…” (Guarascio et al., 6/19).

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Trump's Remarks On Slowing Down Coronavirus Testing In U.S. Draw Criticism From Democrats, Public Health Experts, Others

Washington Post: Democrats, public health experts decry Trump for saying he asked officials to slow down coronavirus testing
“President Trump’s Saturday night remark that he asked officials to ‘slow the [coronavirus] testing down’ sparked harsh rebukes from experts and frustration from his own staffers, who say it undercuts their efforts to reassure Americans as the disease surges around the country. The president’s comment, which came on the same day that eight states reported their highest-ever single-day case counts, drew a chorus of criticism from congressional Democrats and public health officials, who worry the president is more concerned with saving face than combating the pandemic…” (Abutaleb et al., 6/21).

Additional coverage of Trump’s remarks and reaction is available from The Guardian, The Hill, New York Times, and Washington Post.

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News Outlets Examine U.S. Domestic Response To COVID-19 Pandemic, Experts' Views Of Federal, State Guidance

POLITICO: How the U.S. and Italy traded places on coronavirus
“Three months ago, public health officials feared that America would be swamped by COVID-19 like Italy. Today, the U.S. would be lucky to swap its coronavirus crisis for theirs. … Global health officials seized on Italy — as the first country outside of China to be battered by the virus — as a disturbing case study for the rest of the world. In private meetings, White House officials worried that Italy was a preview of the storm about to hit the U.S. health system. But Italy announced just 264 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday — the same day that the United States reported nearly 32,000. The European nation opened its restaurants and stores a month ago, albeit under new, national safety measures, even as U.S. states wrestled with inconsistent, hasty reopening efforts that have been blamed for new virus spikes. And Italy’s outbreak has dramatically ebbed from its mid-March peak, while America’s new per capita cases remain on par with Italy’s worst day — and show signs of rising further, with record hospitalizations in states like Arizona, Florida, and Texas last week…” (Diamond/Wheaton, 6/22).

Washington Post: In countries keeping the coronavirus at bay, experts watch U.S. case numbers with alarm
“As coronavirus cases surge in the U.S. South and West, health experts in countries with falling case numbers are watching with a growing sense of alarm and disbelief, with many wondering why virus-stricken U.S. states continue to reopen and why the advice of scientists is often ignored. … Some European health experts fear that the rising U.S. caseloads are rooted in a White House response that has at times deviated from the conclusions of leading scientists. … Whereas the U.S. response to the crisis has at times appeared disconnected from American scientists’ publicly available findings, U.S. researchers’ conclusions informed the actions of foreign governments…” (Noack, 6/19).

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NIH Halts 2 Studies Of Hydroxychloroquine, Saying Drug Likely Ineffective As Treatment For Novel Coronavirus

New York Times: Federal Agency Halts Studies of Hydroxychloroquine, Drug Trump Promoted
“The National Institutes of Health said Saturday that it had stopped two clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug that President Trump promoted to treat and prevent the coronavirus, one because the drug was unlikely to be effective and the other because not enough patients signed up to participate…” (Thomas, 6/20).

Additional coverage NIH’s cessation of hydroxychloroquine clinical trials is available from CNBC, CNN, The Hill, NPR, and POLITICO.

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Media Outlets Examine Politicization Of Novel Coronavirus Vaccine R&D, Ongoing Efforts To Develop Successful Product

DW: Is the U.S.-China rivalry tangling a coronavirus vaccine with geopolitics? (Rahn, 6/22).

The Guardian: Fear mounts Trump may pressure FDA to rush Covid-19 vaccine by election (McCarthy, 6/22).

New York Times: The Race to Develop a Covid Vaccine (Brody, 6/22).

New York Times: Coronavirus Attacks the Lungs. A Federal Agency Just Halted Funding for New Lung Treatments (Thomas/Stolberg, 6/19).

Reuters: Chinese researchers launch phase-2 human test for possible coronavirus vaccine (Liu/Lee, 6/21).

USA TODAY: Vaccines are not all created equal: a variety of ways to stop the virus that causes COVID-19 (Weintraub/Padilla, 6/22).

Wall Street Journal: Efforts for Coronavirus Vaccine Focus on Vulnerable Group: Older Adults (Hopkins, 6/21).

Washington Post: From Oxford to an Italian lab, one race for coronavirus vaccine is gaining backers (Harlan/Pitrelli, 6/20).

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African Nations Move To Lower Coronavirus Test, PPE Costs; Europe Cautiously Opens; Brazil Passes 1M Cases, 50K Deaths; Pandemic Reaches Iraq; CDC Test Kits Likely Contaminated, Report Says

AFRICA

AP: Virus outbreak could spin ‘out of control’ in South Sudan (Ajak/Anna, 6/22).

AP: Zimbabwe’s health minister charged in COVID-19 graft case (Mutsaka, 6/20).

Global Press Journal: After Surviving Cyclone Idai, Displaced Zimbabweans Fend Off Coronavirus (Chenjerai, 6/21).

The Guardian: African countries unite to create ‘one stop shop’ to lower cost of Covid-19 tests and PPE (Du Plessis, 6/22).

The Guardian: ‘It would spread quickly in those cells’: Covid-19 imperils packed Egypt prison (Michaelson, 6/22).

Reuters: U.S. farming body and Zambian firm partner aim to boost crop yields (Mfula, 6/21).

Reuters: New Development Bank provides South Africa with $1 billion COVID-19 loan (Roelf, 6/20).

VOA News: Uganda, Strapped for Funds, Admits 4,000 Refugees From DRC (Athumani, 6/20).

Washington Post: ‘People still think it’s a death sentence. Well, for me, it almost was’ (Bearak, 6/21).

ASIA

AP: As virus spikes, Pakistan says there’s no choice but to open (Gannon/Tanvir, 6/22).

The Guardian: ‘A peek into the future’: how worst-case scenario coronavirus modeling saved Australia from catastrophe (Davey, 6/20).

New York Times: 8 Hospitals in 15 Hours: A Pregnant Woman’s Crisis in the Pandemic (Gettleman/Raj, 6/21).

NPR: COVID-19 Is Mucking Up Mumbai’s Plans To Prepare For Monsoon Season (Pathak, 6/21).

EUROPE

AP: Italy mulls new WHO guidelines on virus patient isolation (Winfield, 6/21).

Financial Times: France shows Europe can keep Covid-19 in check after reopening (Abboud, 6/22).

The Guardian: Spaniards urged not to lower their guard as coronavirus state of emergency ends (Jones, 6/20).

POLITICO: Coronavirus may change Nordic friendships forever (Duxbury, 6/18).

LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN

BBC: Coronavirus: Brazil becomes second country to pass 50,000 deaths (6/22).

U.N. News: Haiti needs a strong COVID-19 response to maintain national stability (6/19).

UPI: Brazil hits 1 million COVID-19 cases (Brokaw, 6/20).

MIDDLE EAST

AP: Long-dreaded virus increase hits Iraq as new cases soar (Kullab/Abdul-Zahra, 6/21).

NORTH AMERICA

The Economist: The pandemic is making America rethink its shunning of midwifery (6/20).

The Hill: Fauci and Birx advised Trump against holding Tulsa rally: report (Moreno, 6/19).

Reuters: Several U.S. states see coronavirus infection spikes, Wall Street unnerved (Gorman/Layne, 6/19).

Wall Street Journal: White House Preparing for Second Wave of Coronavirus, Trade Adviser Says (Leary et al., 6/21).

Washington Post: Mexico’s Central de Abasto: How coronavirus tore through Latin America’s largest market (Sheridan, 6/21).

Washington Post: CDC coronavirus test kits were likely contaminated, federal review confirms (Willman, 6/20).

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Destruction Of Natural World Increases Risk Of Zoonotic Diseases; COVID-19 Lockdowns Increase Poaching; WWF Recommends Closing 'High Risk' Meat Markets

AP: Coronavirus lockdowns increase poaching in Asia, Africa
“…In many parts of the developing world, coronavirus lockdowns have sparked concern about increased illegal hunting that’s fueled by food shortages and a decline in law enforcement in some wildlife protection areas. At the same time, border closures and travel restrictions slowed illegal trade in certain high-value species…” (Ghosal/Casey, 6/22).

NPR: The Worrisome Link Between Deforestation And Disease
“…Scientists have long warned that the reshaping of Earth’s landscapes will have broad ramifications for the climate and biodiversity. A growing body of evidence shows that forest loss and fragmentation can also increase the risk of animal-borne infectious disease, similar to the type that’s currently upending the world…” (Rott, 6/22).

SciDev.Net: Shut down ‘risky’ meat markets to stop disease: WWF
“All markets selling ‘high risk’ meat should be closed to stop future infectious disease outbreaks, a conservation organization says. In a report released [June 17], the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) says zoonotic diseases — those which jump from animals to humans — are emerging because of the trade and consumption of high-risk wildlife and deforestation for agriculture…” (Broom, 6/19).

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U.N. Human Rights Council To Investigate Systemic Racism, Discrimination; U.S. Secretary Of State Says Actions 'Mark A New Low' For Body, Confirms Trump Decision To Withdraw

AP: Top U.S. diplomat calls U.N. rights body ‘a haven for dictators’
“U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the decision by the U.N.’s top human rights body to commission a report on policing and race amid international protests spurred by George Floyd’s death ‘marks a new low’ and confirmed the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the Human Rights Council in 2018. The council agreed Friday in Geneva to commission a U.N. report on systemic racism and discrimination against Black people while stopping short of ordering a more intensive investigation singling out the United States…” (6/20).

U.N. News: Human Rights Council calls on top U.N. rights official to take action on racist violence
“The U.N.’s top rights official, Michelle Bachelet, is to spearhead efforts to address systemic racism against people of African descent by law enforcement agencies, the Human Rights Council decided on Friday. The resolution — decided unanimously without a vote — follows a rare Urgent Debate in the Council earlier in the week, requested by the African group of nations, following the death of George Floyd in the U.S. state of Minnesota…” (6/19).

Additional coverage of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s actions is available from Fox News, The Independent, and Reuters.

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U.S., Brazil Lodge Protests Over Thailand's Pesticide Ban That Could Affect Wheat, Soy Exports, Documents Show

Reuters: Exclusive: U.S., Brazil protest Thailand’s pesticide ban over impact on wheat, soy exports — documents
“The United States and Brazil lodged separate protests with Thailand over its ban on two farm chemicals earlier this month, documents reviewed by Reuters show, saying the ‘restrictive’ and ‘serious’ move could hurt key agricultural exports. Bangkok’s pesticide ban could hit U.S. and Brazilian exports of wheat and soy that are worth more than $1 billion a year, according to United Nations data, potentially setting up a diplomatic showdown with Thailand, a leading importer of the commodities from both countries. … Thailand added weedkiller paraquat and insecticide chlorpyrifos to its list of most hazardous substances on June 1, citing a need to protect human health. The move triggered another health regulation banning imported food products containing residues of prohibited chemicals…” (Tanakasempipat, 6/22).

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Recently Introduced Senate Bill Could Inhibit Academic Research, Some Science Advocates Say

Science: U.S. science groups wary of new Senate bills to curb foreign influences
“A bipartisan group of U.S. senators [last week] proposed sweeping — and controversial — changes in how the federal government manages academic research in the face of threats from other countries. The authors of the legislation, more than 1 year in the making, tout it as a way to stop China and other countries from stealing the fruits of federally funded research and using the information to damage U.S. economic and national security. But research advocates worry that if enacted, the bill could damage the U.S. academic research enterprise by restricting the flow of talent and ideas…” (Mervis, 6/18).

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News Outlets Examine U.K.'s Merger Of DFID With FCO, Colonial Attitudes' Impacts on Foreign Aid, Coronavirus Pandemic Research, Response

BBC: ‘Cashpoint aid’ and Africa: Who benefits?
“Across Africa the news that a former colonial power, the U.K., is to take a more strategic, political, hard-nosed approach to the way it spends its overseas aid budget, has been greeted with a mixture of frustration and cynicism. In announcing a merger between the Foreign Office (FCO) and the Department of International Development (DfID), Prime Minister Boris Johnson argued that the U.K. should be directing more attention and money towards countering Russian influence in nearby eastern Europe, and, by implication, spending less money in distant former colonies like Zambia and Tanzania where ‘for too long British overseas aid has been treated as some giant cashpoint in the sky’…” (Harding, 6/21).

Devex: ‘Long overdue’: The development voices in favor of a DFID merger
“Amid widespread condemnation of the U.K. government’s decision to merge the Department for International Development with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, some voices from the development sector have tentatively expressed support for the move. … [A] handful of experts told Devex the move was a fair decision or provided opportunities to improve development practice, even if the announcement’s timing was questionable…” (Worley, 6/19).

Devex: Is COVID-19 magnifying colonial attitudes in global health?
“A paper called ‘The Impact of COVID-19 and Strategies for Mitigation and Suppression in Low- and Middle-Income Countries’ was recently released in the journal Science. It lists 49 authors, from 5 prestigious universities in the U.K. and United States. Missing conspicuously was local representation from the countries that the paper talked about. … Colonizing in this sense refers to the idea that western researchers and practitioners impose solutions and decisions on countries that are under-resourced without involving people from those places. As countries around the world struggle to contain the coronavirus, inequalities brought about by existing imbalanced power structures are resurfacing, resulting in growing calls to decolonize global health…” (Byatnal, 6/19).

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Eastern DRC Ebola Outbreak Set To Be Declared Over This Week; New Humanitarian Investigates Corruption, Fraud In Response

New Humanitarian: How ‘Ebola business’ threatens aid operations in Congo
“Questionable practices in the Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including payments to security forces, renting vehicles at inflated prices, and job kickback schemes, may have jeopardized humanitarian operations and put lives at risk. A months-long investigation by the New Humanitarian into the so-called ‘Ebola business’ found such practices, which are also reported in a recent draft operational review commissioned by a group of U.N. agencies and NGOs looking at corruption and fraud across the wider aid sector in the country. Together, the reporting TNH began in mid-2019 and the work carried out by the review’s authors from January into April 2020 show how an ‘Ebola business’ evolved around the aid effort in Congo, raising concern for future emergencies, including a new Ebola outbreak in a northwestern region…” (Freudenthal, 6/18).

STAT: Second deadliest Ebola outbreak on record is days from being declared over
“…The North Kivu-Ituri epidemic, named after the two provinces in eastern DRC where it has raged, is the second longest and second deadliest in history. If, as fervently hoped, Congolese authorities announce that Ebola has been vanquished there on Wednesday or Thursday, the outbreak will have lasted nearly 23 months. At least 3,463 people have been infected, and 2,280 of them having died. Those numbers could still rise: 490 so-called suspect cases are still being investigated to see if they should be added to the tally, according to the Congolese health ministry…” (Branswell, 6/22).

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Lack Of Funding May Cause WFP To Suspend Global Emergency Delivery Service

AP: Global emergency aid delivery could end next month, U.N. warns
“A global emergency delivery service that has kept tons of humanitarian aid flowing despite coronavirus travel restrictions could shut down next month if funding can’t be found to keep it running, the World Food Programme warned Friday. The shortfall comes ‘just as demand for this service is reaching its peak,’ WFP said. Of the $965 million to keep the service going through the end of the year, $178 million has been confirmed. … Without these deliveries, many vulnerable countries will have to take some of the money they’re spending on badly needed personal protective equipment and medical supplies and pay for commercial transport…” (Anna, 6/19).

Additional coverage of the potential suspension of WFP’s emergency delivery service is available from The Telegraph, U.N. News, and VOA.

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Afghan Health Workers Subject To Deliberate Attacks, U.N. Special Report Concludes

AP: U.N. says Afghan health workers facing deliberate attacks
“The United Nations on Sunday released a special report expressing concerns over what it called recent ‘deliberate attacks’ against health care workers and facilities in Afghanistan during the coronavirus pandemic. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, said it had documented 12 deliberate acts of violence between March 11 to May 23, and that these attacks constitute war crimes. The report said eight of the attacks were carried out by Taliban insurgents, while three were attributed to Afghan security forces…” (Faiez, 6/21).

Additional coverage of the UNAMA report is available from BBC, U.N. News, and VOA News.

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More News in Global Health

AP: LGBT refugees find a haven in Kenya despite persecution (Odula, 6/20).

AP: Last batch of joint aid lands in Yemen amid U.N. funding cuts (Debre/Hyde, 6/19).

Devex: COVID-19 puts a spotlight on the Medicines Patent Pool (Worley, 6/22).

Devex: Q&A: U.N. envoy on building back a better food system (Welsh, 6/19).

New York Times: Scientists Take Aim at Another Coronavirus Study in a Major Journal (Mandavilli, 6/18).

New York Times: Tsunami or Ripple? The Pandemic’s Mental Toll Is an Open Question (Carey, 6/21).

Science: Drug recently shown to reduce coronavirus death risk could run out, experts warn (Cahan, 6/21).

U.N. News: Global ban needed on bogus ‘conversion therapy,’ argues U.N. rights expert (6/21).

Washington Post: Kirk R. Smith, scientist who warned of health hazards of open-fire cooking, dies at 73 (Shudel, 6/21).

Xinhua: WHO certifies South Sudan free of polio (6/20).

Xinhua: UNRWA official warns of COVID-19 risks in refugee camps (6/21).

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Editorials and Opinions

Opinion Pieces Discuss Various Aspects Of COVID-19 Pandemic, Response, Including Impacts On Cuba, China, India, Women, Role Of WHO

Al Jazeera: Cuba’s two pandemics: The coronavirus and the U.S. embargo
Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, Cuban ambassador to Canada (6/21).

Bloomberg: China Faces a Rice Bowl Dilemma After Covid
Clara Ferreira Marques, Bloomberg Opinion columnist (6/21).

Devex: ‘Silent discriminator’ — the women global data is leaving behind
Agnes Binagwaho, vice chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity, and Tsion Yohannes Waka, chair of the Center for Gender Equity for the University of Global Health Equity (6/19).

Foreign Affairs: Can Middle Powers Lead the World Out of the Pandemic?
Bruce Jones, director of the Project on International Order and Strategy and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (6/18).

New York Times: Letters from the Editor: Former CDC Officials: The WHO Is Our Best Bet
Former CDC directors and senior staff (6/19).

Scientific American: India’s Coronavirus Refugees Are Also Development Refugees
Gladson Dungdung, general secretary of the Jharkhand Human Rights Movement (6/20).

Wall Street Journal: Rules for Clinical Trials in a Pandemic
Scott Gottlieb, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration from 2017-2019, and Mark McClellan, director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University and FDA commissioner from 2002-2004 (6/21).

Washington Post: The whole world is watching America’s failure
Paul Waldman, opinion writer for the Plum Line blog (6/19).

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Opinion Pieces Discuss Genetically Modified Mosquitoes, Equity Across Development Sector, DFID Merger, U.S. Withdrawal From WHO

Boston Globe: Before genetically modified mosquitoes are released, we need a better EPA
Natalie Kofler, founder of Editing Nature and adviser for the Scientific Citizenship Initiative at Harvard Medical School, and Jennifer Kuzma, professor in the School of Public and International Affairs and co-director of the Genetic Engineering and Society Center at NC State University (6/22).

Devex: From rhetoric to action — an equity roadmap for the aid community
Roxanne Paisible, international development professional (6/22).

Financial Times: There is a way to make U.K. aid more effective — this merger is not it
Rory Stewart, former minister of state at DFID and the Foreign Office and former secretary of state for international development (6/19).

The Hill: America needs a national center for infectious disease intelligence
John M. Drake, professor and director of the Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases at the University of Georgia (6/21).

The Hill: Trump’s withdrawal from WHO will hurt African women and children
Bridget Kelly, director of research at the Population Institute (6/20).

Wall Street Journal: Cuba’s Shameful Trafficking of Its Doctors
Samuel J. Dubbin and Jonathan W. Cuneo, both lawyers representing Cuban doctors who have sued PAHO under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and RICO in Matos v. PAHO (6/21).

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From the Global Health Policy Community

Blog Posts, Releases Address COVID-19 In Africa, India, Europe, Other Issues Related To Pandemic

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Africa: In the fight against  COVID-19, an unsung  continent
Solomon Zewdu, deputy director for global development in Ethiopia and Africa COVID-19 workstream coordinator at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (6/15).

BMJ Opinion: What we all should know about PPE for healthcare workers
Jos Verbeek, occupational health physician and the coordinating editor of the Cochrane Work review group, and colleagues (6/18).

Brookings: Africa in the news: COVID-19, debt relief, and political updates
Payce Madden, research analyst, and Mary Treacy, research intern, both with the Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings (6/20).

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders: India: MSF opens 100-bed COVID-19 treatment center in Bihar (6/19).

Think Global Health: Commercial Determinants of Health in COVID-19
Adnan Hyder, senior associate dean for research and a professor of global health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, and colleagues (6/18).

Think Global Health: Shifting Front Lines in West Africa
Evaborhene Aghogho Nelson, global health and development postgraduate fellow at University College London (6/17).

WHO Regional Office for Europe: Tapping into WHO expertise allows Uzbekistan to increase COVID-19 testing (6/19).

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Blog Posts Discuss Locusts In East Africa, Cuban Medical Diplomacy, Other Global Health Issues

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Addressing the locust crisis in East Africa: A Q&A with Dr. Christina Owen
Christina Owen, senior program officer in the agricultural development group at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (6/18).

Center for Global Development: Women and Girls Are Leading the Way towards Universal Access to Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare: Will the Global Community Follow?
Julia Kaufman, program coordinator at CGD (6/18).

Think Global Health: Medical Diplomacy — Lessons From Cuba
Hannah Todd, medical student at Baylor College of Medicine (6/15).

Think Global Health: Pig Pandemics and Other “Epizootic” Threats
Ravensara S. Travillian, data scientist, teacher, and science writer in Seattle (6/16).

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From the U.S. Government

U.S. State Department Announces Additional Funding To Respond To Global COVID-19 Pandemic

U.S. Department of State: Sustaining U.S. Humanitarian Assistance Leadership in Response to COVID-19
In this press statement, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discusses U.S. foreign assistance in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, noting, “[W]e’re providing approximately $93 million in new humanitarian assistance to bolster our ongoing response efforts, helping the world’s most vulnerable overcome the devastation inflicted by this deadly virus. This new funding will help people across the world, including throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America” (6/19).

USAID: State Department: Update: The United States Continues to Lead the Global Response to COVID-19
This fact sheet provides an update on U.S. efforts to respond to COVID-19 globally (6/19).

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USAID Counselor Discusses U.S. International Response To COVID-19 Before Senate Foreign Relations Committee

USAID: Testimony of Chris Milligan, Counselor, U.S. Agency for International Development, Before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
In testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, USAID Counselor Chris Milligan discussed the U.S. international response to COVID-19 (6/18).

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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 June 22, 2020
Data on country government actions in response to COVID-19 are included in the tracker (6/22).

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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