Biden Taps California AG Xavier Becerra As HHS Secretary, Harvard Infectious Disease Specialist Rochelle Walensky To Lead CDC December 7, 2020 News Summary AP: Biden picks Calif. AG Becerra to lead HHS, pandemic response “President-elect Joe Biden has picked California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be his health secretary, putting a defender of the Affordable Care Act in a leading role to oversee his administration’s coronavirus response. Separately, Biden picked a Harvard infectious…
USAID Provides Assistance To Support Botswana’s COVID-19 Response December 7, 2020 News Summary USAID: Botswana’s Communities Stand Strong Against COVID-19 With USAID’s Assistance “In response to the urgent threat posed to the population of Botswana and its health care system by the spread of COVID-19, the United States Government (USG) through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) committed $1.5 million dollars…
KFF Provides Resources On Global, Domestic Aspects Of Pandemic December 7, 2020 News Summary KFF: COVID-19 Coronavirus Tracker — Updated as of December 7, 2020 Data on country government actions in response to COVID-19 are included in the tracker (12/7). A KFF-curated recap of pandemic-related news from last week is available here. Additional KFF COVID-19 resources on the global situation, as well as those focused…
Reports Highlight Missed Opportunities For World Bank’s COVID-19 Response, Economic Impacts On World’s Poorest December 4, 2020 News Summary The Guardian: World Bank ‘missed vital opportunities’ to support Covid response, says Oxfam “Millions of people in low-income countries have been forced to go without healthcare or have had to pay for it during the coronavirus pandemic, despite billions of pounds in emergency World Bank funding, research has found. The…
Ensuring Equitable Distribution Of Coronavirus Vaccines Worth Billions To Developed Nations, Report Shows; Public Trust Vital For Successful Programs, WHO Says December 4, 2020 News Summary The Guardian: Public trust vital for Covid-19 vaccine programs, says WHO “The WHO has urged European countries to prepare for vaccinations against Covid-19, stressing that community acceptance will be crucial to the success of the health programs. More than 200 Covid vaccines are under development, some of which have already…
U.K. Defends Pfizer-BioNTech Coronavirus Vaccine Authorization; Fauci Apologizes For Suggesting U.K. Regulators Acted In Haste December 4, 2020 News Summary AP: U.K. defends vaccine decision amid criticism it moved too fast “U.K. regulators went on the offensive Friday to beat back criticism that they rushed their authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine, saying they rigorously analyzed data on safety and effectiveness in the shortest time possible without compromising the thoroughness of…
Facebook To Remove COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation; Africa Alliance Launched To Counter Coronavirus ‘Infodemic’ December 4, 2020 News Summary New York Times: Facebook says it will remove coronavirus vaccine misinformation. “Facebook on Thursday said it would remove posts that contain claims about Covid-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts, as the social network acts more aggressively to bat down coronavirus misinformation while falsehoods run rampant. The…
U.N. Officials, Diplomats Hope Biden Team Can Restore Engagement With United Nations December 4, 2020 News Summary New York Times: Feeling Spurned by Trump, U.N. Sees Redemption in Biden and Team “After four years of disparagement and disengagement by the Trump administration, the United Nations is infused with expectations that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will restore much of what his predecessor dismantled. … The president-elect has…
KFF Provides Resources On Global, Domestic Aspects Of Pandemic December 4, 2020 News Summary KFF: COVID-19 Coronavirus Tracker — Updated as of December 4, 2020 Data on country government actions in response to COVID-19 are included in the tracker (12/4). 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.
Public Health Experts Urge Biden-Harris Administration To Include Officials With Medical Expertise In Cabinet; Biden Names Murthy As Surgeon General, Fauci As Chief Medical Adviser December 4, 2020 News Summary STAT: Public health experts are pressuring Biden to include health expertise in his Cabinet “Prominent public health experts are pressuring President-elect Biden and his team to include a doctor or experienced health professional in the Cabinet — and growing increasingly alarmed this week that their warnings will go unheeded. Several…