CIDRAP News: WHO reconvenes COVID-19 panel; Africa’s outbreaks intensify
“The World Health Organization (WHO) director general said today that the COVID-19 emergency committee will meet [today] to review pandemic developments, as cases surge in some African nations and as many past-peak countries take tentative steps to relax their distancing measures. The global total today rose to 3,179,494 cases reported form 185 countries, and at least 226,173 people have died from their infections, according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard…” (Schnirring, 4/29).

Axios: WHO leader: Malaria deaths in Africa could double due to coronavirus (Rummler, 4/29).

Reuters: COVID-19 complication seen in children is ‘rare,’ WHO says (Nebehay/Farge, 4/29).

U.N. News: World health experts will meet Thursday to assess COVID-19 pandemic (4/29).

VOA: WHO Chief Warns of Malaria Spike in Africa (4/29).

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AP: America First meets global pandemic, testing Trump worldview
“…America First has been a ready applause line for Trump, but now it is also a philosophy being put to a life-or-death test, with much of the world still looking to the U.S. for leadership and assistance…” (Tackett/Lemire, 4/29).

Devex: ‘A scattered mess’: Global coronavirus response lacks leadership, experts say
“…The inward focus shown by the U.S. and other governments might not be surprising, given that even wealthy nations have been overwhelmed by the coronavirus and its economic fallout. But this risks allowing the virus to gain traction in other parts of the world, only to return and cause additional waves of infection later on, [leading U.S. health and development experts] warned…” (Igoe, 4/30).

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ABC: White House orders intel agencies to investigate China, World Health Organization
“The White House has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to review intercepted communications and other data to see whether China and possibly the World Health Organization concealed information early on about the novel coronavirus, two administration officials told ABC News. The investigation is a sign of President Donald Trump’s new hard line on China amid questions about his own response to the pandemic. After initially praising Xi Jinping and his government’s ‘transparency,’ the president has now even suggested his administration would seek compensation from Beijing…” (Finnegan/Phelps, 4/29).

Foreign Policy: WHO Becomes Battleground as Trump Chooses Pandemic Confrontation Over Cooperation
“…The United States and Japan are asking key like-minded nations, including Australia, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, to co-sign a draft letter to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of WHO, requesting he invite the Taiwanese delegation to the World Health Assembly, the United Nations health agency’s key decision-making body, which is expected to meet virtually in mid-May…” (Lynch, 4/29).

The Guardian: U.S. gives G7 countries a list of reforms it wants WHO to undertake
“The U.S. has presented its G7 partners with a list of reforms Washington would like carried out at the World Health Organization in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The proposals, which were shared on Friday by the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department with health ministries in the six other member states, suggested organizational changes intended to reinforce the WHO’s independence and transparency. However, G7 diplomats said they had not been informed of whether the HHS proposals represented a comprehensive list of U.S. conditions to resume funding of the global health organization…” (Borger, 4/30).

New Humanitarian: U.S. adds restriction on foreign aid funding for COVID-19 supplies
“Hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. international aid funding for COVID-19 may no longer be used to buy medical masks and gloves without specific approval, according to a new directive from President Donald Trump’s administration, the New Humanitarian has learned. Using a new clause in its grant agreements, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will require aid agencies to get prior approval to buy key items of personal protective equipment (PPE) or ventilators. Unless extensive exemptions are granted, NGO officials said, the effectiveness of USAID’s COVID-19 funding has been thrown into question. Supplies, which protect health and other frontline workers, for other operations — including Ebola control — could also be disrupted…” (Parker, 4/29).

The Hill: Pompeo renews calls for China to provide U.S. access to Wuhan labs (Kelly, 4/29).

NBC: Trump administration asks intelligence agencies to find out whether China, WHO hid info on coronavirus pandemic (Dilanian et al., 4/29).

NBC: Senior Chinese official challenges Trump over coronavirus response, says U.S. wasted weeks (Frayer/Suliman, 4/29).

NPR: Why The U.S. Government Stopped Funding A Research Project On Bats And Coronaviruses (Aizenman, 4/29).

Reuters: U.K. envoy in Washington backs probe into origins of pandemic, WHO reforms (Holton/Shalal, 4/29).

VOA: U.S. Defunding of WHO Could Lead to Increase in Disabilities, Experts Say (Strother, 4/30).

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Reuters: WHO changes to U.N. Syria memo risk stoking Trump-fueled criticism
“Aid groups working with the United Nations want the Security Council to urgently allow an Iraq border crossing into Syria to be used again for deliveries to help combat the coronavirus pandemic, according to a draft World Health Organization memo seen by the 15-member U.N. Security Council. But an updated version of the memo, dated Tuesday, removed the direct appeal for the Al Yarubiyah crossing to be reopened nearly four months after its use for U.N. operations was shut down by opposition from Russia and China. The WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The move risks further stoking criticism — which has been led by U.S. President Donald Trump — that the Geneva-based U.N. agency allows itself to be influenced by some countries…” (Nichols, 4/29).

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Bloomberg: Trump’s ‘Operation Warp Speed’ Aims to Rush Coronavirus Vaccine
“The Trump administration is organizing a Manhattan Project-style effort to drastically cut the time needed to develop a coronavirus vaccine, with a goal of making enough doses for most Americans by year’s end. Called ‘Operation Warp Speed,’ the program will pull together private pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, and the military to try to cut the development time for a vaccine by as much as eight months, according to two people familiar with the matter…” (Jacobs/Armstrong, 4/29).

STAT: NIH announces $1.5 billion, ‘Shark Tank’-like initiative to accelerate Covid-19 testing
“The National Institutes of Health on Wednesday announced a new $1.5 billion initiative to rapidly develop coronavirus diagnostics, an effort it says will result in the deployment of ‘millions of tests per week’ by late summer or fall of this year. The agency said the effort relies on a ‘national Covid-19 testing challenge’ in which scientists and inventors developing coronavirus tests across the country will compete for a share of a $500 million pool earmarked for diagnostic development. Successful entrants will eventually be paired with manufacturers and business experts who can help to quickly scale up production of any tests developed during the project…” (Facher, 4/29).

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Financial Times: Flagship U.S. medical academy backs E.U. efforts for global virus response
“The head of a flagship U.S. medical academy has turned to an old friend in Europe to help raise billions of dollars for the international fight against coronavirus, as the Trump administration takes a back seat in the global response to the pandemic. Victor Dzau, National Academy of Medicine president, appealed to Ursula von der Leyen, his European Commission counterpart, whom he first met at Stanford University in the 1990s, to boost global development and equitable distribution of fast and affordable testing, treatment, and vaccines for Covid-19. The effort by the senior U.S. medic — whose organization operates under congressional charter — was critical to the formation of a G20-endorsed fundraiser that is set to be hosted in Brussels on Monday, with the aim of raising an initial €7.5bn…” (Peel/Manson, 4/30).

France 24: Covid-19: How scientists are keeping politics out of the global race for a vaccine
“As the world races to combat the coronavirus, one nation is notably absent from multinational efforts: the United States. But scientists say that for now, the international research community is working together to do all it can. … On April 24, the World Health Organization (WHO) held a virtual conference to launch an international collaboration to accelerate the development and production of the health technologies necessary to do so. … Next Monday, May 4, the European Commission will respond to that call by hosting a global virtual conference to raise money from countries and business foundations to fund the development of tests, treatments and a vaccine for the coronavirus…” (El-Faizy, 4/29).

Roll Call: U.S., China absent from international vaccine effort
“…If the global race over the past few weeks and months to procure coronavirus-related medical equipment is anything to go by — the one that has seen national, state, and local governments, the private sector, and multilateral institutions compete with one another to outbid, scoop up, and hoard scant quantities of diagnostic tests, personal protective equipment, and ventilators — then the competition to acquire precious quantities of a new vaccine will be something the likes of which the world has never seen. Unnerved by that possibility, some European powers, including France and Germany, are now attempting to build a broad international coalition that will jointly finance, develop, and share in any vaccine. However, it is not clear how successful their efforts will be, absent buy-in from the United States and China, which are both using their considerable economic and scientific resources to go all-in on the hunt for a vaccine…” (Oswald, 4/29).

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Devex: U.K. pledges £1.65B to Gavi for the next 5 years
“The United Kingdom has pledged to donate the equivalent of £330 million ($410 million) a year to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, for the next five years. The government said it will be the largest supporter of Gavi, which works to immunize children against infectious diseases such as measles and polio, as well as supporting the COVID-19 response…” (Worley, 4/29).

Reuters: TikTok, Gates pledge $20 million to help Africa tackle COVID-19
“The social media platform TikTok and the philanthropic Gates Foundation donated $10 million each on Wednesday to the vaccine alliance GAVI to help fund efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. GAVI said the funds would be used to distribute and deploy any new vaccines against COVID-19 once they are developed, trialled, and licensed…” (Kelland/Nebehay, 4/29).

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New York Times: Remdesivir Shows Modest Benefits in Coronavirus Trial
“Modest results from a federal trial of an experimental drug helped send the stock market soaring on Wednesday, another sign of the desperation for a viable treatment against the coronavirus. … [I]n a briefing at the White House, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the trial had shown that treatment with the drug could modestly speed recovery in patients infected with the coronavirus. The improvement in recovery times ‘doesn’t seem like a knockout 100 percent,’ Dr. Fauci conceded, but ‘it is a very important proof of concept, because what it has proven is that a drug can block this virus’…” (Kolata et al., 4/29).

Reuters: WHO declines comment on remdesivir in COVID-19, hopes for best
“A top World Health Organization official declined comment on Wednesday on reports that Gilead Science’s remdesivir could help treat COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, but said that further data was needed…” (Nebehay/Farge, 4/29).

STAT: Critical study of Gilead’s Covid-19 drug shows patients are responding to treatment, NIH says
“…In a statement on Wednesday, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is conducting the study, said preliminary data show patients who received remdesivir recovered faster than similar patients who received placebo. The finding — although difficult to fully characterize without full, detailed data for the study — would represent the first treatment shown to improve outcomes in patients infected with the virus that put the global economy in a standstill and killed at least 218,000 people worldwide. … As previously reported by STAT, an early peek at Gilead’s study in severe Covid-19 patients, based on data from a trial at a Chicago hospital, suggested patients were doing better than expected on remdesivir. Days later, a summary of results from a study in China showed that patients on the drug did not improve more than those in a control group. Full results from the China study were also released Wednesday. But the NIAID study, which was not expected to be released so soon, was by far the most important and rigorously designed test of remdesivir in Covid-19…” (Herper/Feuerstein, 4/29).

Wall Street Journal: U.S. Explores Emergency-Use Approval for Gilead Drug After Study Found It Helped Recovery From Covid-19
“Federal health regulators are exploring whether to greenlight the emergency use of a Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD 5.68% drug in serious Covid-19 patients, after U.S. government researchers reported the therapy helped the patients recover faster. President Trump said he was pushing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to grant the emergency-use authorization to the Gilead drug remdesivir…” (Walker/Sebastian, 4/29).

Additional coverage of clinical research into remdesivir to treat COVID-19 is available from Financial Times, The Guardian, The Hill, NPR, POLITICO, Reuters (2), Washington Post, and Yahoo News UK.

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POLITICO: Chinese diplomacy ramps up social media offensive in Covid-19 info war
“…As the world grapples with the coronavirus crisis, China’s diplomats are waging an online information war. A POLITICO review of social media messages by more than 100 Chinese officials showed a sizable increase in the number of posts since the Covid-19 crisis began in early 2020. Alongside more mundane content, some of Beijing’s diplomats have promoted content harshly critical of both United States and the European Union, dismissed criticism of how China handled the global outbreak, and amplified skewed content from Russian state-backed outlets with track records of widespread misinformation…” (Scott, 4/29).

Washington Post: Under the cover of coronavirus, governments punish adversaries and reward friends
“…[Amid the global pandemic, there is a] disturbing trend in which governments around the world have punished opponents, rewarded friends, and stifled dissent … The overwhelming nature of the fight against the disease combined with physical restrictions on citizens has meant that such actions incite less opposition at home and abroad than in the past. … While emergency measures may be necessary to combat the spread of the virus, some governments ‘appear to be using COVID-19 as a cover for human rights violations, further restricting fundamental freedoms and civic space, and undermining the rule of law,’ Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement this week. She called such cases ‘deeply worrying’…” (Slater et al., 4/30).

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AFRICA

AP: U.N.: New polio outbreak in Niger after vaccination suspended (Cheng, 4/29).

CNN: South African health official: We can’t repeat HIV failures (McKenzie, 4/29).

Devex: Low coronavirus testing in Africa leads to blind spots: Africa CDC chief (Ravelo, 4/30).

The Guardian: Covid-19 could mark a deadly turn in Ghana’s fight against fake drugs (Knott, 4/30).

NPR: Commuting In A Pandemic: These Health Workers Are Trekking And Canoeing (Landman/Okereke, 4/29).

Reuters: ‘Test and trace’ has worked for us, Ghana’s president says (Felix, 4/29).

U.N. News: U.N. prepares for potentially devastating COVID-19 outbreak in conflict-ravaged northeast Nigeria (4/30).

Washington Post: Field hospitals meant for combat injuries converted for use in the battle against coronavirus (Morello, 4/30).

ASIA

NPR: Taiwan’s Coronavirus Moment — And Delicate Balancing Act (Ruwitch, 4/29).

Reuters: India’s Serum Institute to make millions of potential coronavirus vaccine doses (Siddiqui/Kelland, 4/28).

Reuters: Japan preparing to extend coronavirus emergency for about a month: sources (Takemoto, 4/29).

EUROPE

AP: U.K. now has world’s third-highest virus-related death toll (Pylas/Lawless, 4/29).

Fox News: WHO: Sweden, which avoided mass coronavirus lockdowns, should be ‘model’ for the world (Givas, 4/29).

The Guardian: Third of U.K. Covid-19 patients taken to hospital die, study finds (Devlin, 4/29).

Reuters: Spain’s virus death tally lowest in weeks, but economy tanks (Luelmo et al., 4/30).

LATIN AMERICA

AP: As virus cases surge, Brazil starts to worry its neighbors (Calatrava et al., 4/30).

AP: Brazil leaves its many poor hanging amid coronavirus surge (Savarese et al., 4/29).

Reuters: Exclusive: Venezuela asks Bank of England to sell its gold to U.N. for coronavirus relief — sources (Pons et al., 4/29).

MIDDLE EAST

AP: U.N. warns that ‘tragedy beckons’ in Syria from virus (Lederer, 4/30).

New York Times: As Fighting Surges, Yemen Is Hit With 1st Cluster of Covid-19 Infections (Walsh, 4/29).

Reuters: Yemen records multiple coronavirus cases for first time; U.N. fears more (Mukhashaf et al., 4/29).

VOA: Humanitarian Group Warns Yemen Fighting Threatens COVID-19 Containment (4/29).

NORTH AMERICA

POLITICO: As death toll passes 60,000, Trump’s team searches for an exit strategy (Cancryn, 4/29).

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The Atlantic: Why the Coronavirus Is So Confusing (Yong, 4/29).

CBS: Former Obama Ebola adviser calls for stronger global response to pandemics (Brennan/Micklas, 4/28)

Devex: How to support displaced populations’ mental health during lockdown (Smith, 4/30).

Devex: Around the world, migrants and refugees are stranded between closed borders (Root, 4/29).

The Economist: The pieces of the puzzle of covid-19’s origin are coming to light (4/29).

HuffPost: Obama ‘Ebola Czar’ Names Donald Trump Traits That Are Deadly Combination Amid Pandemic (Moran, 4/30).

Thomson Reuters Foundation: Activist Thunberg helps launch effort protecting children from COVID-19 (Lavietes/Rowling, 4/30).

The Telegraph: No case of a child passing coronavirus to an adult exists, evidence review shows (Dixon, 4/29).

Quartz Africa: African economies are spending up to five times their health budgets on debt repayments (Adegoke, 4/29).

U.N. News: COVID-19: Act now to avert ‘hunger catastrophe’ for millions missing out on school meals (4/29).

Xinhua: Myanmar to accelerate preventive measures against Dengue fever this year (4/29).

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CNN: The world is celebrating the valor of health workers. But in Syria, they’re still being killed
Kelly Razzouk, director of policy and advocacy, and Amanda Catanzo, senior director for international programs policy and advocacy, both at the International Rescue Committee (4/29).

Devex: Opinion: Why tackling the silent crisis of drug-resistant infections matters more than ever
Manica Balasegaram, British medical doctor and executive director of the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (4/29).

EURACTIV: Increase tax collection fairly: How poor countries can tackle the coronavirus crisis
Chiara Putaturo, E.U. inequality and tax policy adviser at Oxfam, and Lis Cunha, E.U. policy officer at ActionAid International (4/30).

Financial Times: Africa’s Covid-19 response is a glimpse of how things could be different
David Pilling, Africa editor at the Financial Times (4/29).

Foreign Policy: It’s Time to Help Africa Fight the Virus
Charles Holmes, professor of medicine at Georgetown University; Anthony Lake, former U.S. national security advisor and executive director of UNICEF; and Witney Schneidman, senior advisor for Africa at Covington & Burling LLP (4/29).

Global Health NOW: Vaccine Hesitancy Post-COVID-19: Will Our Memory Fade or Last?
Alex Hartlage, MD candidate at the Ohio State University College of Medicine and member of Vaccine Ambassadors (4/28).

The Guardian: The TB epidemic teaches us the battle against Covid-19 won’t be won in hospitals alone
Salmaan Keshavjee, director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health Delivery; Aaron Shakow, research associate in global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School; and Tom Nicholson, research associate at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy (4/30).

The Hill: Pandemic sheds light on crucial need for access to clean water services
Adam Krantz, CEO of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (4/29).

The Hill: The unintended consequences of a proposed cure for COVID-19
Samantha McBirney, engineer at RAND Corporation; Sangita Baxi, assistant policy analyst at RAND; Krishna B. Kumar, director of the Pardee Initiative for Global Human Progress at the Pardee RAND Graduate School; and Todd Richmond, director at the Technology and Narrative Lab (4/29).

New York Times: Why the Global Debt of Poor Nations Must Be Canceled
Abiy Ahmed, prime minister of Ethiopia (4/30).

New York Times: At Least 89 Vaccines Are Being Developed. It May Not Matter
Seth Berkley, chief executive of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (4/29).

Scientific American: If You Think Preparedness Is Expensive, the Pandemic Puts Things in Perspective
Claire Pomeroy, president of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation (4/30).

Washington Post: The fight against AIDS has shaped how potential covid-19 drugs will reach patients
Marie-Amélie George, legal historian and assistant professor at Wake Forest University School of Law (4/29).

Washington Post: Nikki Haley: China’s coronavirus actions are just one of many threats it poses
Nikki Haley, U.S. representative to the United Nations in 2017 and 2018 (4/29).

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Amnesty International: The devastating effects of COVID-19 on maternal health in Zimbabwe
Vongai Chikwanda, Amnesty International campaigner for Southern Africa (4/29).

Atlantic Council: U.S.-E.U. tensions set to escalate over Iran’s coronavirus crisis
Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf State Analytics, and Maysam Behravesh, political analyst at Gulf State Analytics (4/29).

Atlantic Council: Coronavirus has exposed the United States’ own political virus
John Raidt, nonresident senior fellow in the Middle East Security Initiative of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security (4/29).

Atlantic Council: Africa still sees a massive pandemic in its future, but partnerships may lessen blow
Katherine Walla, editorial assistant at the Atlantic Council (4/29).

BMJ Opinion: Covid-19 affects everything — more than a disease control plan, we need a manifesto
David McCoy, professor of global public health at Queen Mary University London (4/29).

Brookings: How the Sustainable Development Goals can help cities focus COVID-19 recovery on inclusion, equity, and sustainability
Anthony F. Pipa, senior fellow, and Max Bouchet, research analyst, both with the Global Economy and Development Program at Brookings (4/29).

Carnegie Endowment: The Pandemic Is Making Transatlantic Relations More Toxic
Erik Brattberg, director of the Europe Program and a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington (4/29).

Center for Global Development: Maintaining Essential Services in the Time of COVID-19: Vaccination Delivery in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Sharif Ismail, honorary clinical research fellow in public health medicine at Imperial College London, and colleagues (4/29).

Common Dreams: After U.S. Suspension of Funding, WHO Expected to Cut 80% of Humanitarian Aid to War-Torn Yemen
Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams (4/28).

UNAIDS: “We must ensure that HIV treatment adherence is not compromised” — keeping people in Pakistan on HIV treatment (4/29).

UNDP: COVID-19: New UNDP data dashboards reveal huge disparities among countries in ability to cope and recover (4/29).

UNICEF: Over 5 million children face threat of cholera and acute water diarrhea in the midst of COVID-19 as Yemen gets heavy rains (4/29).

UNICEF: Mitigating the Impacts of COVID-19 on Menstrual Health and Hygiene (April 2020).

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Aidspan: Global Fund Observer
Aidspan, an independent watchdog of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, has published Issue 379 of the ‘Global Fund Observer.’ The newsletter features articles on the Global Fund’s new COVID-19 response funding mechanism and how to access it, the Global Fund board’s approval of $57.9 million in funding for portfolio optimization for grants in five countries, and the recognition of World Malaria Day amid the COVID-19 pandemic (4/29).

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NIH Fogarty International Center: FIC Global Health Matters
The most recent issue of the Fogarty International Center’s newsletter contains various articles addressing global health topics, including the NIH’s efforts to develop diagnostics, study potential treatments, and produce an effective vaccine for COVID-19; the importance of sharing global health research especially amidst the COVID-19 pandemic; and a review of pain relief research priorities and treatments in low-resource settings (March/April 2020).

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U.S. Government Accountability Office: Antibiotic Resistance: Additional Federal Actions Needed to Better Determine Magnitude and Reduce Impact
This GAO report discusses federal efforts on and challenges to addressing antibiotic resistance, including challenges related to surveillance, the development and use of diagnostic testing, the development of treatments, and the appropriate use of antibiotics (4/29).

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KFF: COVID-19 Coronavirus Tracker — Updated as of April 30, 2020 (4/30).

Additional KFF COVID-19 resources, including those focused on the response and impact within the U.S., are available here. KFF’s new blog series “Coronavirus Policy Watch” is available here.

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