PAHO invites Cuba to publish data on the Abdala vaccine and submit it for evaluation
The Pan American Health Organization invites Cuba to publish data on the efficacy of its vaccines in scientific journals and to submit them to the evaluation of the World Health Organization.
Deputy Director Jarbas Barbosa said that the efforts of Cuba and other countries are “very important” in a region that depends on the export of medicines. Clarified that PAHO “does not authorize or endorse vaccines.” However, they can only purchase those that have been included in the WHO emergency use list.
“Vaccines without this authorization they cannot be part of the COVAX mechanism. It would be very important that Abdala producers could, if they finished all the studies, first publish data in scientific journals so that the scientific community can evaluate and know these data in a public way; and second, if you are interested in bidding for COVAX, and all vaccines are always very welcome, you have to request authorization for emergency use from the WHO ”, he explained.
To obtain it, you need a factory inspection and data review of the trials. According to the Cuban government, the vaccine candidate Abdalá has shown 92.28% efficacy in three doses.
Both Cuba and other countries can start using the vaccine, but PAHO believes that transparency of the data helps build public confidence in the vaccine.
“The country has the sovereign decision to use whatever it wants, but in order not to have prejudices or rejection of any vaccine, we always recommend that regulatory authorities of the countries provide in a very transparent way for their population, what they evaluated, how was the evaluation process. It is very important to ensure that communities know what is happening ”, he explained.
Galapagos Governing Council
80% of the inhabitants of the Galapagos Islands depend on tourism to survive.
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The fall in international tourism due to the pandemic could cause losses of more than 4 trillion dollars in global GDP during the years 2020 and 2021. Latin America is one of the regions most affected by the drop in visits.
According to a report by the UN agencies for trade and tourism, the effect of COVID-19 in the sector caused an estimated loss of $ 2.4 trillion in 2020 and will lose again between 1.7 and 2.4 trillion in 2021, that is, between 1.9 and 2.7% of world GDP,
The asymmetric deployment of vaccines magnifies the economic impact on developing countries, as these could account for up to 60% of losses. Central America it could fall by 11.9% of its GDP in the most pessimistic scenario and the Caribbean by 2.5%. The lower arrival of visitors can mean drops of up to 9% of GDP in Ecuador, 2.4% in Argentina and 2.3% in Colombia. The decrease would be less for Mexico (1.6%) and Brazil (0.6%).
According to the report, the tourism sector is expected to recover more quickly in countries with high vaccination rates, such as France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, but experts do not expect to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023 or even later.
UN Rapporteur calls for a social protection fund for future crises
UNICEF/Alajandra Pocaterra
Food distribution in Venezuela during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Countries must prepare for future crises by creating a Global Fund for Social Protection, according to a new report presented today by Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on Poverty, to the Human Rights Council.
“More than two years ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization said governments had to” fix the roof before the rain came. “And yet the countries it still caught them off guard in 2020 ”, recalled de Schutter.
According to International Labor Organization (ILO), the majority of the world’s population – 55 percent, or 4 billion people – lack any form of social protection.
“The big picture is clear: In the past, too little was invested in healthcare, unemployment, retirement pensions, or child and disability benefits,” De Schutter said. “Y the poor are now paying the high cost of this mistake ”. Adequate investments would have largely prevented 88 to 115 million people from being pushed into extreme poverty in 2020 and an additional 23 to 35 million expected by 2021.
“Establishing a Global Fund for Social Protection is feasible and affordable, but requires political will,” said De Schutter. The ILO estimates that less than $ 78 billion would be needed to cover 711 million people in developing countries. It is less than half of what rich countries already contribute in development aid.
UN Women / Pornvit Visitor
A Vietnamese migrant worker cultivates during the rice harvest in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand.
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The number of international migrant workers amounted to 169 million, an increase of the 3% since 2017, according to the latest estimates from the International Labor Organization.
Of these, 63.8 million (37.7%) live in Europe and Central Asia. Another 43.3 million (25.6%) live in the Americas
The percentage of young people among international migrant workers has gone from 8.3% in 2017 to 10% in 2019. This increase is probably related to the high rates of youth unemployment in developing countries. He said that the efforts of Cuba and other countries are “very important” in a region that depends on the export of medicines.
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