Good morning, this is Elaine bringing you Geneva Solutions’ Global Health news coverage, produced in collaboration with Health Policy Watch.

Today, we’re looking at how the promising results from Covid vaccine trials are feeding anxiety about which countries will be first in line for immunisation. We’re also exploring how climate change could be a “multiplier” of future health and pandemic threats. We’re listening to what the WHO is recommending on holiday travel, and we’re feeling hopeful about milestone research underway in Africa to find treatments for people with mild Covid.

26.11.2020

Today’s reason for hope

A man has his temperature checked in a shop Harare, Zimbabwe, October 2020. Credit: EPA / Aaron Ufumeli

New trials launched across Africa to test treatments for Covid-19. The trials across 13 countries are a milestone for African research, and also respond to an unmet need to find better treatments for mild cases of Covid-19, reducing the potential burden on fragile health systems.

Geneva Solutions (EN)

Global Health News

Recent Covid vaccine breakthroughs, and potential US approval of the first vaccines by mid-December, are sharpening the debate over which countries and groups will get their shots first and when.

Geneva Solutions (EN)

World Health Organization advice against holiday travel gets a mixed reaction from countries and international travellers eager to reunite with families.

Geneva Solutions (EN)

Climate change is acting as a “multiplier” of global health threats and future pandemic risks, warn a growing number of health and political leaders ahead of the 2020 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change report.

Health Policy Watch (EN)

Here’s what else is happening

Report clears WWF of complicity in violent abuses by conservation rangers.
The Guardian (EN)
UN Watch launches campaign to urge countries to stop voting against Israel.
UN Watch (EN)
Warnings over growing use of lethal cluster munitions, despite stockpile reductions.
UN News (EN)
Gender inequality persists in Switzerland, both in businesses and society.
Swissinfo.ch (EN)
Gavi and IOM join forces to improve immunisation coverage for migrants.
IOM (EN)
Geneva to reopen non-essential shops from this Saturday.
Heidi.news (FR)
African Health Ministers urge greater vigilance in Covid-19 fight.
WHO (EN)
Ethiopian refugee numbers in Sudan cross the 40,000 mark.
UNHCR (EN)
Afghanistan, Nigeria and Burkina Faso the countries worst affected by terrorism.
Statista (EN)
Women’s rights must not be compromised in Afghanistan peace process, Amnesty warns.
Amnesty (EN)

Image of the day

Credit: EPA / Olivier Hoslet

Pro-choice supporters of polish women demonstrated on Wednesday in front of the European Parliament in Brussels, where MEPs debated abortion rights in Poland. In October, Poland became the only European Union country to remove a right to legal abortion from its citizens when the country’s top court ruled that it was unconstitutional to abort a foetus if it had congenital defects.

Next on the agenda

26 November | Online: Launch of World AIDS Day Report. Ahead of World AIDS Day on 1 December, this annual report will reflect on the challenges and successes achieved and unveil new global targets for 2025.

UNAIDS (EN)

26 November | Online: Addressing violence against women in the context of Covid-19. WHO estimates nearly a third of women worldwide have experienced physical and/or sexual violence. This event will explore how Covid-19 has increased this threat.

WHO (EN)

26 November | Online: 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. This webinar will launch the new WHO 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour.

WHO (EN)

3 December | Online: The Global Launch of the 2020 Lancet Countdown Report. Experts come together to discuss the launch of the report, which looks at the links between health and climate change.

The Lancet (EN)

For more content from Health Policy Watch, visit healthpolicy-watch.news

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Have a good day!

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