Pandemic Watch News Brief: The news you need to know

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AVAC's weekly Pandemic Watch is a curated news digest on the latest pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPPR) news and resources.
"We're all vulnerable to what's happening in faraway places—the same with inequity in STEM, inequity in health care, inequity in economics. If we're doing well, but our neighbor is not, it's just a matter of time before we also suffer. It's the same thing with viral things happening in faraway places. We had better pay attention because it's a plane ride away from coming to us.”
-- Abba Gumel in Scientific American ([link removed])


** Table of Contents
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* If You Are in a Hurry (#If You Are in a Hurry)
* Call for A Global Health Threats Council (#Call for A Global Health Threats Council)
* Confidence in Vaccines Declined in Some African Countries (#Confidence in Vaccines Declined in Some African Countries)
* Dengue Emergency in Peru (#Dengue Emergency in Peru)
* Call to Build an Oxygen Ecosystem (#Call to Build an Oxygen Ecosystem)
* Rising COVID-19 and Oxygen Concerns in Kenya (#Rising COVID-19 and Oxygen Concerns in Kenya)
* US FDA Recommends Changes in COVID-19 Vaccine Formula (#US FDA Recommends Changes in COVID-19 Vaccine Formula)
* Long COVID and People Living with HIV (#Long COVID and People Living with HIV)
* The Mathematics of Pandemics (#The Mathematics of Pandemics)
* US NIH Changes Scrutiny of Foreign Grants (#US NIH Changes Scrutiny of Foreign Grants)
* UK COVID-19 Inquiry Spotlights Planning Problems (#UK COVID Inquiry Spotlights Planning Problems)
* Wastewater Monitoring Suggests Two Year COVID-19 Infection (#Wastewater Monitoring Suggests Two Year COVID-19 Infection)
* Vaccine Skeptics Messaging (#Vaccine Skeptics Messaging)
* COVID-19 Vaccine Safety in Children (#COVID-19 Vaccine Safety in Children)

As negotiations continue this week on the pandemic accord that would help guide the global response to the next pandemic, there is rising concern that the accord may be ineffective because of changes in language that have weakened the equity clauses. Health Policy Watch ([link removed]) (Switzerland) reports, “The African region of the World Health Organization (WHO) has condemned the weakening of equity clauses in latest draft ([link removed]) of the pandemic accord and called for this week’s negotiations to focus on principles and key areas of concern rather than the detailed text…. Africa wants legally binding commitments on the transfer of technologies, know-how and intellectual property rights; capacity-building for local manufacturing to address pandemics; technical and financial support, and the establishment of a ‘comprehensive access and benefit
sharing (ABS) mechanism’ for pandemic pathogens.” In a statement ([link removed]) MSF said, “While Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcomes the Bureau’s new text, we wish to reiterate the importance of ensuring: 1. unrestricted access for humanitarian and medical assistance; and 2. inclusion of binding norms on equitable and affordable access to medical products. Read WHO’s statement ([link removed](inb)-for-a-who-instrument-on-pandemic-prevention-preparedness-and-response-resumed) on the latest meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body.



** If You Are in a Hurry
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* Read Mauricio Cárdenas, Helen Clark, Joanne Liu, Michel Kazatchkine, David Miliband and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Think Global Health ([link removed]) on the need for a Global Health Threats Council.
* Read The Telegraph ([link removed]) on the dengue crisis in Peru that is being fueled by climate change.
* Read CBC ([link removed]) on early promising research on the potential of an existing diabetes drug to prevention long COVID in some people.
* Read aidsmap ([link removed]) on a preprint study that shows long COVID is more common among people living with HIV.
* Read Think Global Health ([link removed]) on the need for more attention to oxygen supplies in low-income countries.
* Read KFF News ([link removed]) on the mixed messages of vaccine skeptics.
* Read interim results of a large study assessing safety of mRNA vaccines in children in the journal Pediatrics ([link removed]) .




** Call for A Global Health Threats Council
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Mauricio Cárdenas, Helen Clark, Joanne Liu, Michel Kazatchkine, David Miliband and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, co-chairs and members of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response write in Think Global Health ([link removed]) (US) about their recommendation for the creation of a Global Health Threats Council. “The council’s purpose would essentially be to maintain political commitment and accountability for pandemic preparedness and response. Between crises, the council would sustain support for pandemic readiness, ensuring that it remained on the agenda of presidents and prime ministers, who in turn would ensure that every sector of society remained prepared. When crises arise, global coordination mechanisms would be in place, and the council would help identify and solve problems.”



** Confidence in Vaccines Declined in Some African Countries
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Science ([link removed]) (US) reports, “A survey of 17,000 people in eight African nations found that the share of respondents agreeing with the statement that ‘vaccines are important for children’ dropped by up to 20 percentage points from 2020 to 2022. The survey also revealed growing doubts about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and other immunizations in some nations and subnational regions. The trends represent ‘an early warning signal’ for efforts to widely vaccinate children and adults, says Charles Shey Wiysonge, who leads a vaccination program at the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Regional Office for Africa. But the data could also help health officials identify specific regions where they will need to undertake focused efforts to restore trust in vaccines, he and other specialists say.”



** Dengue Emergency in Peru
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The Telegraph ([link removed]) (UK) reports, “More than 200 people have died from dengue in Peru, with hospitals overwhelmed and struggling to treat patients, as the country battles its worst-ever outbreak of the disease. Roughly 130,000 people have caught the virus across the country so far this year, including 37,000 children…. In Peru, which expanded a dengue health emergency to cover 20 of the country’s 25 regions last month, health authorities have linked the outbreak to the El Niño weather pattern.”



** Call to Build an Oxygen Ecosystem
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Think Global Health ([link removed]) (US) reports, “Death rates among people hospitalized for COVID-19 in low-income countries were twice as high as in wealthy ones, and a lack of medical oxygen is a core reason for the disparity. The pandemic, though, merely put the need for oxygen on display. For decades, droves of children and adults with pneumonia or tuberculosis had died gasping for air because nurses could not deliver the oxygen they needed…. A degree of uncertainty and efficiency should be forgiven in crisis response, but now that the emergency phase of pandemic has passed, the oxygen boom deserves a more measured approach from donors, as well as from the governments of low- and middle-income countries that scrambled to procure oxygen as their hospitals overflowed and deaths mounted.”



** Rising COVID-19 and Oxygen Concerns in Kenya
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Angela Oketch reports in The Nation ([link removed]) (Kenya), “Kenya could be experiencing a silent surge in the number of patients requiring oxygen as the country faces a new wave of COVID-19…. ‘Just protect yourself. It may be difficult to know exactly what is causing the ongoing spike, just make sure you take precautions. Always wear masks,’ said Prof Shem Sam Otoi, the coordinator of the Lake Region Economic Bloc's COVID-19 Programme.”



** US FDA Recommends Changes in COVID-19 Vaccine Formula
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Politico ([link removed]) (US) reports, “The FDA’s expert panel on vaccines voted Thursday to recommend that anyone who gets a primary COVID-19 vaccine going forward will receive a bivalent shot instead of the original formula, signaling the start of the FDA’s pivot to a longer-term immunization strategy. It’s an important first step in a process that could result in millions of Americans getting an annual COVID-19 booster, similar to the flu vaccine. Any such changes still require more discussion and decisions, but the FDA appears to be shifting from responding to the acute phase of the pandemic to a longer-term norm.”



** Long COVID and People Living with HIV
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Aidsmap ([link removed]) (UK) reports, “People with HIV are more likely to experience ‘long COVID’ symptoms and to experience serious cardiovascular and metabolic disorders and cancers after being diagnosed with COVID-19, a large US study has found. Two US researchers involved in long COVID research say there is an urgent need to understand why people with HIV are more vulnerable to long COVID and to include them in clinical trials of potential long COVID treatments…. [The preprint study] looked at the incidence of severe post-COVID events and prolonged symptoms in 3,048,792 people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 at 69 health care organisations in the United States up to September 2022. One percent (28,904) were living with HIV. People with HIV were significantly more likely to have an underlying health condition associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19, as well as having a higher prevalence of elevated lipid
levels and statin use. The median CD4 count was high (573) and 29 percent were taking tenofovir, which has been shown to reduce the risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes in some studies.”



** The Mathematics of Pandemics
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In a Scientific American ([link removed]) (US) interview mathematician Abba Gumel says, “We're coming up with this bucket list of things to do to prevent, we hope, the next one but even if we do get hit—and we're going to get hit—to minimize the burden of the next one and to greatly suppress it before it becomes a problem. These are things we need to do to make sure the next one doesn't kill one million Americans…. We're all vulnerable to what's happening in faraway places—the same with inequity in STEM, inequity in health care, inequity in economics. If we're doing well, but our neighbor is not, it's just a matter of time before we also suffer. It's the same thing with viral things happening in faraway places. We had better pay attention because it's a plane ride away from coming to us.”



** US NIH Changes Scrutiny of Foreign Grants
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Nature ([link removed]) (UK) reports on a new policy from the US NIH to tighten scrutiny of “subawards” to foreign grant recipients. “Foreign collaborators will have to provide copies of all relevant laboratory notebooks, data and documentation to the primary recipient every few months. The NIH also reserves the right to request access to this supporting documentation as part of its oversight responsibilities. The new policy is in part to address concerns raised about research partnerships with Chinese researchers. “Researchers who spoke to Nature worry that the change to the NIH’s subawards policy will have a chilling effect on international collaborations; foreign researchers might forgo partnerships because of the requirements. They also say that scientists will have to spend an unreasonable amount of time on administrative tasks to comply with the policy.”



** Diabetes Drug May Help Prevent Long COVID
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CBC ([link removed]) (Canada) reports, “A well-known, inexpensive diabetes drug appears to cut the risk of developing long COVID, hopeful-but-early new research suggests. The study, published Thursday ([link removed](23)00299-2/fulltext?utm_campaign=trials23&utm_content=251849613&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&hss_channel=tw-27013292) in the peer-reviewed journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, found outpatient treatment with the drug metformin — a common treatment for Type 2 diabetes — reduced long COVID incidence among infected patients by 41 per cent.”



** UK COVID-19 Inquiry Spotlights Planning Problems
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Sky News ([link removed]) (UK) reports, “The government was more concerned about an influenza pandemic, rather than one originating from a coronavirus, so it "had not adequately foreseen and prepared" for what was required for a mass outbreak of a disease that was not flu, the inquiry was told on its first day…. Hugo Keith KC told the official inquiry that work around a possible no-deal exit from the European Union may have drained ‘the resources and capacity’ that were needed for pandemic planning.”



** Wastewater Monitoring Suggests Two Year COVID-19 Infection
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Medscape ([link removed]) (US) reports, “Scientists think that a person in Ohio who has been infected with COVID-19 for 2 years is shedding thousands of times more of the virus than normal, according to wastewater monitoring data. The strain of the virus appears to be unique, the researchers said…. [A researcher] believes the infected person lives in Columbus, works at a courthouse in a nearby county, and has gut health problems. The county where the person works has a population of just 15,000 people but had record COVID-19 wastewater levels in May, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The unique COVID-19 strain that Johnson is researching was the only COVID-19 strain found in Fayette County’s wastewater.”



** Vaccine Skeptics Messaging
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KFF News ([link removed]) (US) reports, “Polling is showing a substantial — and politically driven — level of vaccine skepticism that reaches beyond covid. A slim minority of the country is up to date on vaccinations against the coronavirus, including the bivalent booster. And the share of kindergartners receiving the usual round of required vaccines — the measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR, inoculation; tetanus; and chickenpox among them — dropped in the 2021-22 school year, according to [CDC]…. And vaccine skepticism is resonating beyond the halls of Congress. Some state governments are considering measures to roll back vaccine mandates for children. As part of a May 18 procedural opinion, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch cited two vaccination mandates — one in the workplace, and one for service members — and wrote that Americans “may have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in
the peacetime history of this country.” He made this assertion even though American military personnel have routinely been required to get shots for a host of diseases.”



** COVID-19 Vaccine Safety in Children
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A large study in the journal Pediatrics ([link removed]) (US) found in an interim analysis of children 5 years and younger, “safety surveillance of more than 245 000 COVID-19 mRNA vaccine doses over 9 months did not detect a safety signal for any outcome during the 21 days after vaccination. Importantly, no cases of myocarditis or pericarditis occurred after vaccination. This safety profile is consistent with results from phase 3 clinical trials and other vaccine safety monitoring systems…. These results can provide reassurance to clinicians, parents, and policymakers alike. Surveillance is ongoing.”
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