AP: U.N. chief renews call for global cease-fire to tackle virus
“The United Nations secretary general is again urging all parties to conflicts to respond to his call for a global cease-fire to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, pointing to the more than 20,000 civilians killed or injured in attacks in 10 countries last year and millions more forced from their homes…” (Lederer, 5/22).

Additional coverage on the global impacts of violence and COVID-19 on safety and development is available from Reuters, SciDev.Net, and U.N. News.

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AP: U.N. seeks millions of people to counter virus misinformation
“The United Nations launched a new initiative Thursday to sign up millions of ‘digital first responders’ around the world to counter misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic and spread fact-based information and advice to their networks of family, friends, and followers. … It is asking interested people around the world to sign up to become ‘information volunteers’ … at https://www.shareverified.com and to share a daily U.N. feed of verified information that counters misinformation or fills an information void…” (Lederer, 5/22).

U.N. News: U.N. launches new initiative to fight COVID-19 misinformation through ‘digital first responders’
“…U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday launched Verified, which will create a cadre of ‘digital first responders’ to increase the volume and reach of trusted, accurate information surrounding the crisis. ‘We cannot cede our virtual spaces to those who traffic in lies, fear, and hate,’ the U.N. chief said…” (5/21).

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POLITICO: How coronavirus is changing access to abortion
“As the coronavirus steamrolls the global order, reproductive health care practitioners and advocates are struggling to maintain access to contraception and abortions. Lockdowns and disrupted supply chains have prompted a flurry of action in the sector as governments, practitioners, and advocates react to a crisis that has highlighted the often tenuous access to sexual health care products and services…” (Webber, 5/21).

Reuters: U.N. rejects U.S. claim it is using coronavirus to promote abortion
“The United Nations rejected on Thursday an accusation by the United States that the world body was using the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to promote access to abortion through its humanitarian response to the deadly global outbreak. … ‘Any suggestion that we are using the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to promote abortion is not correct,’ U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said…” (Nichols, 5/21).

The Telegraph: U.S. under fire after claiming U.N. is using the pandemic as an opportunity to ‘advance abortion’
“The United States has accused the United Nations of using the pandemic to promote abortion as an essential service, prompting outrage from activists who say the move is designed to curb women’s rights. In a letter addressed to António Guterres, secretary general of the U.N., on Monday, John Barsa, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), called on the U.N. to drop references to sexual and reproductive health in its Covid-19 humanitarian response plan (HRP). … The U.N.’s global HRP makes 14 references to ‘sexual and reproductive health,’ predominantly calling for services and supply chains to be maintained in order ‘to protect and promote the rights and safety of women and girls’…” (Newey, 5/21).

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Devex: How to build a global health security movement
“Supporters of a stronger U.S. role in global health security have long warned that if politicians did not choose to listen to them, they would someday be forced to. As the coronavirus pandemic has brought the world economy to a screeching halt, these same advocates say the time might finally have arrived to escape what experts call the ‘cycle of crisis and complacency’ in pandemic preparedness. … Despite what many consider a disappointing international response to COVID-19 so far, there are some signs that the U.S. government might try to breathe new life into global health security efforts. If that happens, it will not be the first time advocates have sought to turn an immediate threat into a long-term, sustainable plan for preparedness…” (Igoe, 5/22).

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New York Times: Prominent Scientists Denounce End to Coronavirus Grant
“A group of 77 Nobel laureates has asked for an investigation into the cancellation of a federal grant to EcoHealth Alliance, a group that researches bat coronaviruses in China. The pre-eminent scientists characterized the explanation for the decision by the National Institutes of Health as ‘preposterous.’ The agency said the investigation into the sources of pandemics did not fit ‘with program goals and agency priorities’…” (Gorman, 5/21).

Science: Nobel laureates and science groups demand NIH review decision to kill coronavirus grant
“…Thirty-one scientific societies have also written to Collins, calling on NIH ‘to be transparent about their decision-making process on this matter… The action taken by the NIH must be immediately reconsidered’…” (5/21).

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CNN: CDC’s Redfield in the hot seat as White House looks for someone to blame (Holmes, 5/20).

The Economist: How the world’s premier public-health agency was handcuffed (5/23).

The Hill: CDC acknowledges mixing up coronavirus testing data (Johnson, 5/21).

The Hill: Fauci says media will be ‘seeing more’ of him, coronavirus task force after press hiatus (Moreno, 5/21).

Newsweek: Fauci Does First TV Interview for Two Weeks While Trump Allies Recruit Doctors to Campaign for Reopening Economy (Jarvis, 5/22).

NPR: Scientists Warn CDC Testing Data Could Create Misleading Picture Of Pandemic (Stein, 5/21).

POLITICO: CDC chief says he isn’t being muzzled (Ehley, 5/21).

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AP: Trump lashes out at scientists whose findings contradict him
“…As President Donald Trump pushes to reopen the country despite warnings from doctors about the consequences of moving too quickly during the coronavirus crisis, he has been lashing out at scientists whose conclusions he doesn’t like. Twice this week, Trump has not only dismissed the findings of studies but suggested — without evidence — that their authors were motivated by politics and out to undermine his efforts to roll back coronavirus restrictions…” (Colvin, 5/22).

AP: WHO: Drug Trump taking to fight COVID-19 best left to tests
“The World Health Organization, which has come under repeated fire from U.S. President Donald Trump, says the science is still unclear on an old malaria drug he’s taking to try to defend against the novel coronavirus. It says it recommends the drug’s use for COVID-19 only in controlled clinical trials for now…” (Keaten, 5/21).

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Biden slams Trump’s use of hydroxychloroquine
“Former Vice President Joe Biden slammed President Donald Trump for using hydroxychloroquine as a preventive against the coronavirus. ‘Look, this is absolutely irresponsible,’ Biden, the presumptive Democratic White House candidate, said Tuesday during a Yahoo News virtual town hall. ‘There’s no serious medical personnel out there saying to use that drug, it’s counterproductive, it’s not going to help’…” (Darnell, 5/20).

Bloomberg Law: Trump Ratchets Up Wooing Base With WHO Threat, Unproven Drug
“President Donald Trump delivered a pair of personal and political gestures this week that seized on his core voters’ mistrust of international institutions and skepticism of science, heightened amid the coronavirus pandemic…” (Sink, 5/20).

New York Times: Trump’s Inaccurate Claims on Hydroxychloroquine
“As President Trump has promoted hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus and claimed to be taking it himself, he has continued to make inaccurate or incomplete statements about the drug. Here is a fact check of his recent claims…” (Qiu, 5/21).

Washington Post: Antimalarial drug touted by President Trump is linked to increased risk of death in coronavirus patients, study says
“A study of 96,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients on six continents found that those who received an antimalarial drug promoted by President Trump as a ‘game changer’ in the fight against the virus had a significantly higher risk of death compared with those who did not. … The study, published Friday in the medical journal The Lancet, is the largest analysis to date of the risks and benefits of treating covid-19 patients with antimalarial drugs. It is based on a retrospective analysis of medical records … But the sheer size of the study was convincing to some scientists…” (Cha et al., 5/22).

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STAT: The world needs Covid-19 vaccines. It may also be overestimating their power
“With a little luck and a lot of science, the world might in the not-too-distant future get vaccines against Covid-19. But those vaccines won’t necessarily prevent all or even most infections. In the public imagination, vaccines are often seen effectively as cure-alls, like inoculations against measles. Rather than those vaccines, however, the Covid-19 vaccines in development may be more like those that protect against influenza — reducing the risk of contracting the disease, and of experiencing severe symptoms should infection occur, a number of experts told STAT…” (Branswell, 5/22).

The Atlantic: Listen: Is There a Vaccine Shortcut? (5/21).

The Guardian: AstraZeneca could supply potential coronavirus vaccine from September (5/21).

New York Times: $1.2 Billion From U.S. to Drugmaker to Pursue Coronavirus Vaccine (Kirkpatrick, 5/21).

NPR: What People Can Learn From The Discovery Of A Polio Vaccine (Palca, 5/21).

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Devex: COVID-19 demands speed, long-term thinking from private foundations
“The COVID-19 pandemic is pushing many philanthropic foundations to give more money more quickly, with fewer strings attached to support responses, according to Kathleen Enright, CEO at the nonprofit Council on Foundations. The sudden increase in funding for COVID-19 could become a more routine part of foundations’ standard giving portfolios. But it will take some time for the funding data on giving to catch up with anecdotal evidence…” (Lieberman, 5/22).

Financial Times: Philanthropists play a crucial role in developing vaccines
“With long time horizons, complex science and high failure rates, vaccine development is not for the faint-hearted philanthropist. But in a world gripped by coronavirus, many donors have put aside such concerns and are writing large cheques in the hope of contributing to the end of the pandemic…” (Murray, 5/21).

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Scientific American: Coronavirus Pandemic Threatens to Derail Polio Eradication — but There’s a Silver Lining
“…The worldwide polio eradication effort was suspended in late March, bringing campaigning to a near halt. … But in spite of these setbacks, the global polio program’s adaptability may actually have a silver lining for the current pandemic. Many countries have been quick to realize the usefulness of the polio network — the largest immunization program of its kind in the world — in fighting the pandemic. Much of the network has been redeployed accordingly…” (Schwartzstein, 5/22).

WIRED: Polio Is Nearly Wiped Out. Covid-19 Could Halt That Progress
“…At the WHO, [Michel Zaffran, WHO’s director of polio eradication,] estimates that some vaccinations might resume by June, probably in response to new outbreaks; the big preventive campaigns won’t restart before July. But though the immunization campaign halted everywhere at once, it probably won’t resume that way. … The longer the pause goes on, the more catch-up the campaign will have to do — in an environment in which national health budgets will already have been drained by the Covid-19 response, and international donors’ fund may be spent down as well. It is hard to imagine that the pandemic could do yet more damage…” (McKenna, 5/21).

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AFRICA

AP: Tanzania says virus defeated through prayer, but fears grow (Odula/Anna, 5/22).

VOA: COVID-19 Disrupts South Sudan Health Services (Mayar, 5/21).

Washington Post: Living through a pandemic when your access to water is difficult (Emezi/Paquette, 5/21).

ASIA

AP: India struggles with twin challenges of cyclone and pandemic (Ghosal et al., 5/22).

The Guardian: Manila lockdown diary: ‘I went into labor but had to walk to the clinic to give birth’ (Fonbuena, 5/22).

Reuters: China-backed AIIB approves $250 million loan for Bangladesh’s COVID-19 response (Crossley, 5/20).

Reuters: Malaysia confirms more coronavirus cases at migrant detention center (Sipalan, 5/21).

U.N. News: Asia-Pacific nations commit the whole region to ‘defeat’ COVID-19 (5/21).

EUROPE

AP: U.K.’s COVID-19 study aims to vaccinate more than 10,000 (Cheng/Neergaard, 5/22).

The Atlantic: The Faucis of the World (Mctague, 5/22).

CNN: Sweden is still nowhere near ‘herd immunity,’ even though it didn’t go into lockdown (Kennedy, 5/21).

Financial Times: U.K. plans to track spread of coronavirus in sewage (Cookson, 5/22).

IPS: HIV Services Take a Backseat to COVID-19 in Russia (Holt, 5/19).

LATIN AMERICA

BBC: Coronavirus: Is Latin America the next epicenter? (Horton, 5/22).

Axios: Latin America surpasses U.S. and Europe in new daily coronavirus cases (Falconer, 5/21).

MIDDLE EAST

Devex: In Yemen, aid groups fear COVID-19 cases are going undetected (Ravelo, 5/22).

Reuters: Yemen’s health system ‘has in effect collapsed’ as COVID spreads: U.N. (Nebehay, 5/22).

Reuters: Coronavirus catastrophe unfolding in south Yemen: medical charity MSF (Nebehay et al., 5/21).

Wall Street Journal: U.N. Worker Dies of Coronavirus in War-Torn Yemen as Cases Surge (Rasmussen, 5/21).

Washington Post: Pakistan’s coronavirus cases quadruple during the holy month of Ramadan — and show no signs of slowing (George et al., 5/21).

NORTH AMERICA

The Guardian: ‘Planes spray the city at night’: Covid-19 conspiracy theories in Mexico’s motor town (5/22).

The Lancet: Mexican President López Obrador draws doctors’ ire (Agren, 5/23).

Reuters: U.S. returns migrant children despite risks worsened by coronavirus: UNICEF (Nichols, 5/21).

U.N. News: Danger awaits migrant children returned to Mexico and Central America during pandemic (5/21).

U.S. News: Americans Say South Korea, Germany Have Managed Pandemic Better Than U.S. (Drew, 5/21).

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Devex: Advocates propose blueprint for U.S. feminist foreign policy
“A group of more than 50 foreign policy, humanitarian, and gender equality advocates and organizations unveiled a blueprint for a U.S. feminist foreign policy Thursday. … The policy makes several bold recommendations — including that 20% of official development assistance be dedicated to programs focused on gender equality and that feminist foreign policy have White House-level leadership. Analysis and planning throughout every agency would be required, addressing everything from development to defense to trade. The feminist foreign policy paper is the result of a lengthy process of discussions, research, and consultations with more than 100 feminist activists in more than 40 countries, which began in August 2019. Advocates said that it is time for the United States to step up, and in some cases go further than other countries that have adopted their own feminist foreign or international assistance policies, such as Sweden, Canada, and Mexico…” (Saldinger, 5/22).

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CIDRAP News: Review finds test antibiotics unreliable for diagnosing TB (Dall, 5/20).

Devex: Locust swarms prompt fresh FAO appeal, $500M from World Bank (Welsh, 5/22).

The Economist: Latin America ponders how to fight ‘obstetric violence’ (5/21).

The Economist: Thoughts that the young are not much affected by SARS-CoV-2 look wrong (5/23).

The Guardian: ‘The issue now is surviving’: countries react with shock to Oxfam withdrawal (Ahmed et al., 5/21).

IPS: Biological Diversity is Fundamental to Human Health (Sadeque, 5/22).

New York Times: Cyclone Amphan’s Death Toll Rises to 80 in India and Bangladesh (Gettleman/Yasir, 5/21).

Science: Long-acting drug acts like a short-term AIDS vaccine (Cohen, 5/22).

Science: Case clustering emerges as key pandemic puzzle (Kupferschmidt, 5/22).

Scientific American: Malaria Mosquitoes Biting Before Bednet Time (Goldman, 5/21).

Thomson Reuters Foundation: No medicine, no food: Coronavirus restrictions amplify health risks to LGBT+ people with HIV (Bhalla/Lopez, 5/20).

TIME: ‘They Came to Kill the Mothers.’ After a Devastating Attack on a Kabul Maternity Ward, Afghan Women Face Increased Dangers (Jones, 5/19).

TIME: How Remdesivir Moved From Back Shelf to Best Hope for Treating COVID-19 (Park, 5/21).

Xinhua: China, Russia to strengthen cooperation in medical fields: spokesperson (5/21).

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BMJ: Ethical road map through the covid-19 pandemic
Zoe Fritz, Wellcome fellow in society and ethics, and colleagues (5/21).

CNN: Is China the new leader on the world health stage?
Michael Bociurkiw, global affairs analyst and host of the Global Impact podcast (5/20).

The Conversation: The World Health Organization must answer these hard questions in its coronavirus inquiry
Lai-Ha Chan, senior lecturer in international relations at the University of Technology Sydney, and Pak K. Lee, senior lecturer in Chinese politics and international relations at the University of Kent (5/20).

Financial Times: Covid-19 has brought on a case of corporate good citizenship at AstraZeneca
Cat Rutter Pooley, writer for the Financial Times’s Lombard column (5/21).

The Hill: Global reproductive rights were already in crisis — COVID-19 will make it worse
Seema Jalan, executive director of the Universal Access Project (5/20).

The Lancet: Lockdown fears for key populations
Editorial Board (5/21).

The Lancet: The plight of essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
Editorial Board (5/23).

The Lancet Global Health: Food insecurity will be the sting in the tail of COVID-19
Editorial Board (June 2020).

The Lancet Infectious Diseases: A future vaccination campaign against COVID-19 at risk of vaccine hesitancy and politicization
The COCONEL Group (5/20).

NBC News: Women leaders successfully fighting coronavirus show why we need a feminist foreign policy
Lyric Thompson, senior director of policy and advocacy at the International Center for Research on Women and member of the faculty of the George Washington University, and Gawain Kripke, policy director at Oxfam America (5/21).

New York Times: Britain’s Ethnic Minorities Are Being Left for Dead
Sonia Faleiro, journalist and author (5/22).

New York Times: Can Europe Stay Back From the Brink?
Sylvie Kauffmann, editorial director of Le Monde (5/22).

New York Times: No One Knows What’s Going to Happen
Mark Lilla, professor of humanities at Columbia University (5/22).

Project Syndicate: Winning the War Against Maternal and Child Deaths
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO; Henrietta H. Fore, executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); Natalia Kanem, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund; and Kevin Watkins, CEO of Save the Children U.K. (5/21).

Project Syndicate: Modi’s Performance and the Tragedy of India’s Poor
Pranab Bardhan, professor at the University of California, Berkeley (5/21).

Project Syndicate: Learning the Lessons of the Pandemic
Javier Solana, president of the Esade Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics and distinguished fellow at Brookings (5/21).

Project Syndicate: Toward a Sustainable Recovery
Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and professor at Sciences Po, Paris, and Emmanuel Guerin, executive director of international affairs at the European Climate Foundation (5/22).

St. Louis Today: Trump’s WHO war is just an attempt to divert attention from his own failures
Editorial Board (5/20).

TIME: We Need to Take Action to Address the Mental Health Crisis in this Pandemic
António Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations (5/21).

Washington Post: The CDC has gone silent. Its voice must be restored
Editorial Board (5/21).

Washington Post: Covid-19 has brought Trump’s warring China factions together
Josh Rogin, columnist for the Global Opinions section of the Washington Post and political analyst for CNN (5/21).

Washington Post: Defunding or quitting the World Health Organization won’t fix it — or solve covid-19
Thomas Zimmer, assistant professor of contemporary history at Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Germany (5/20).

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Atlantic Council’s “New Atlanticist”: Will COVID-19 exacerbate or defuse conflicts in the Middle East?
Masoud Mostajabi, assistant director at the Atlantic Council (5/21).

Brookings: Americans want global engagement on fighting COVID-19
George Ingram, senior fellow for global economy and development at Brookings (5/21).

Center for Global Development: The Race for a COVID-19 Vaccine: An Overview of Current Proposals and Our Contribution in Bringing in the Missing Middle
Rachel Silverman, policy fellow at CGD, and colleagues (5/21).

ONE: Why countries should be looking outwards as they tackle coronavirus
Dame Minouche Shafik, director of the London School of Economics (5/22).

Pew Research Center: Americans Give Higher Ratings to South Korea and Germany Than U.S. for Dealing With Coronavirus (5/21).

Think Global Health: Feminist Foreign Policy and COVID-19
Priti Patnaik, Geneva-based independent journalist and researcher reporting on global health and international trade (5/20).

Think Global Health: World Health Assembly and Gender: Three Steps Forward, Many More to Go
Roopa Dhatt, co-founder of Women in Global Health (5/20).

Think Global Health: Estimating the Latin Wave of Coronavirus
Rafael Lozano, professor of health metrics sciences and director of health systems at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) (5/18).

Treatment Action Group: Appeal to UAE Authorities to Release Prisoners with HIV Vulnerable to COVID-19 (5/18).

UNAIDS: UNAIDS brings together Chinese and African health practitioners to share COVID-19 experiences (5/21).

UNAIDS: UNAIDS and civil society helping stranded people living with HIV (5/22).

UNICEF: As migrants return to Ethiopia, social workers show they’re essential to COVID-19 response
Demissew Bizuwerk, senior communications assistance at UNICEF (5/21).

World Economic Forum: ‘Millions facing starvation’ — Global political and business leaders on the economic impact of COVID-19
Christopher Alessi, digital editor, and Alice Hazelton, program lead for science and society, both with the World Economic Forum (5/20).

World Economic Forum: 10 lessons from the COVID-19 frontline for a more gender-equal world
Katja Iversen, president and chief executive officer of Women Deliver (5/22).

WHO: WHO and UNHCR join forces to improve health services for refugees, displaced and stateless people (5/21).

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USAID/Medium: USAID Provides Food Assistance to Help Mitigate COVID-19 Impacts
This post discusses U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement this week of an additional $162 million in assistance to address the COVID-19 pandemic, including food assistance. The post notes, “The new funding will expand our focus to include an essential resource for staying healthy: food. In addition, it will support case management and keep essential health services operating, provide safe water and hygiene items, and support COVID-19 risk communication and community engagement programs…” (5/20).

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CDC’s “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report”: Surveillance to Track Progress Toward Polio Eradication — Worldwide, 2018-2019
Jacquelyn S. Lickness, technical coordinator at the Polio Eradication Branch at the CDC, and colleagues (5/22).

CDC’s “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report”: Update on Extensively Drug-Resistant Salmonella Serotype Typhi Infections Among Travelers to or from Pakistan and Report of Ceftriaxone-Resistant Salmonella Serotype Typhi Infections Among Travelers to Iraq — United States, 2018-2019
Louise K. François Watkins of the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases at the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the CDC and colleagues (5/22).

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KFF: COVID-19 Coronavirus Tracker — Updated as of May 22, 2020 (5/22).
Data on country government actions in response to COVID-19 have been added to the tracker.

KFF: COVID-19 & PEPFAR: Implications for the Future
The potential for the COVID-19 pandemic to significantly affect the health and development of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, has serious implications for PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This issue brief examines the steps PEPFAR has taken to respond to the outbreak and the issues at stake (Carbaugh/Kates/Oum, 5/20).

KFF: Sweden’s Coronavirus Strategy Should Not Be the World’s — But Aspects of It Are Worthy of Consideration
In an article for Foreign Affairs, KFF Associate Director for Global Health Policy Josh Michaud discusses Sweden’s response to novel coronavirus (5/20).

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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