237.
Daniel Béland, Alex Jingwei He, M Ramesh,
COVID-19, crisis responses, and public policies: from the persistence of inequalities to the importance of policy design, 2022.05.18,
https://doi.org/10.1093/polsoc/puac021 .
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has once again highlighted the importance of social inequalities during major crises, a reality that has clear implications for public policy. This introductory article on COVID-19, inequalities, and public policies provides an overview of the nexus between crisis and inequality before exploring its importance for the study of policy stability and change, with a particular focus on policy design. It stresses the persistence of inequalities during major crises before exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to focus on these inequalities when the time comes to design policies in response to such crises.
236.
Cong Wang, Jimin Wang,
Ethnolinguistic diversity and the spread of communicable diseases: a cross-country study on the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022.08.24,
https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daac082 .
Motivated by the varying effectiveness of government intervention policies to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, and the potential positive relationship between ethnolinguistic diversity and social distance, this paper aims to provide empirical evidence on the relationship between ethnolinguistic diversity and the spread of COVID-19. The thesis has found a significant negative effect of ethnolinguistic diversity on the spread of the virus. The result is robust to alternative measures of ethnolinguistic diversity and estimator that addresses endogeneity. Moreover, the thesis also shows that the impact of ethnolinguistic diversity on the spread of COVID-19 differs in economies characterized by different levels of democracy, policy stringency on addressing COVID-19 and health expenditure.
235.
Alessia VerduriMD, Roxanna Short, etc.,
Comparison between first and second wave of COVID-19 outbreak in older people. The COPE multicentre European observational cohort study, 2022.08.23,
https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckac108 .
Effective shielding measures and virus mutations have progressively modified the disease between the waves, likewise health care systems have adapted to the outbreak. The thesis compares clinical outcomes for older people with COVID-19 in Wave 1 (W1) and 2 (W2). The thesis concludes that COVID-19 older adults in W2 were less likely to die than during W1. Patients presented to hospital during W2 were less frail and with lower disease severity and less likely to have renal decline.
234.
Alexandre Afonso, Fabio Votta,
Electoral and Religious Correlates of COVID-19 Vaccination Rates in Dutch Municipalities, 2022.08.23,
https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckac112 .
Vaccination campaigns amid the COVID-19 pandemic have been extensively politicized in a number of countries. Controlling for a number of demographic, social and economic factors, we find a negative statistical relationship between the aggregate vote share of the populist right-wing Forum for Democracy (FvD) and the vaccination rate against COVID-19 across Dutch municipalities. We also find a negative relationship between the proportion of individuals with reformed Protestant and Muslim religious beliefs. These relationships can possibly be related to religious worldviews or mistrust towards authority. These results show that the politicization of health behaviours can have detrimental effects to public health campaigns.
233.
Andrea Perez Navarro, Victoria Pilkington, etc.,
Efficacy of Approved versus Unapproved Vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Randomised Blinded Clinical Trials, 2022.08.22,
https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofac408 .
Five SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are approved in North America and/or Europe, whileother vaccines have been developed but are not approved in high-income countries. This meta-analysis compared the efficacy of FDA/EMA approved and unapproved vaccines in randomised clinical trials (RCTs). This meta-analysis of 21 RCTs in 390,459 participants, showed no significant difference in efficacy between the FDA/EMA approved and unapproved vaccines for symptomatic or severe infection. Differences in study design, endpoint definitions, variants and infection prevalence may have influenced results. New patent-free vaccines could lower costs of worldwide SARS-CoV-2 vaccination campaigns significantly.
232.
Sarah Newey,
Major Covid report suggests virus could have leaked from a US lab, 2022.09.14,
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/backlash-major-covid-origins-report-suggests-virus-could-have/ .
The Lancet’s paper said it is “feasible” that Sars-Cov-2 emerged from a natural spillover or a lab incident, but elements provoke backlash. However, discussion around the origins of Sars-Cov-2 was only a small element of the report, and experts said the rest of the paper was based on robust research.
231.
Jeffrey D Sachs, Salim S Abdool Karim, etc.,
The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022.09.14,
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01585-9/fulltext .
The authors argue that when facing COVID-19, the world’s major powers have failed to collaborate to control the pandemic and point out the multiple failures of international cooperation. The final part of the report presents policy recommendations, particularly around multilateral cooperation centred at WHO to address global health crises, and around investments in preparedness for future health crises through strong national health systems and international financing and technology cooperation with the world's lower-income regions.
230.
Elliot Hannon, Layth Hanbali, etc.,
Why we still need a pandemic treaty, 2022.07.13,
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(22)00278-9/fulltext .
What we learned from COVID-19 is that data and evidence play too small a role in decision making, which means that we need to focus less on what states should do and focus more on what they did not do, including why they did not comply with the IHR during the pandemic. An important step to prepare for future disease outbreaks is committing to a treaty that keeps the issue elevated at the head of state-level; so that states are ready to live up to their commitments and work together in a coordinated response when the next pandemic hits.
229.
Donato Greco,
What Does the Monkeypox Outbreak Tell Us about Global Health Governance? Critical Remarks on the New WHO Declaration of Public Health Emergency of International Concern, 2022.08.10,
https://www.ejiltalk.org/what-does-the-monkeypox-outbreak-tell-us-about-global-health-governance-critical-remarks-on-the-new-who-declaration-of-public-health-emergency-of-international-concern/ .
On 23 July 2022, the Director-General of WHO declared that the outbreak of monkeypox constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. Against this backdrop, the present post is aimed at highlighting some critical issues related not only to the PHEIC declaration but, more generally, to global health governance, as designed by the IHRs and the WHO Constitution. If States will not effectively take into consideration these issues, both by amending the IHRs and strengthening the existing normative framework, one may wonder whether the WHO architecture can effectively address current public health challenges. Some authors took a rather sceptical view in this respect.
228.
Emily A Siegrist, Joseph Sassine,
Antivirals With Activity Against Monkeypox: A Clinically Oriented Review,2022.07.29,
https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciac622/6651596?searchresult=1 .
Monkeypox virus is an emergent human pathogen. While it is less lethal than smallpox, it can still cause significant morbidity and mortality. In this review, we explore 3 antiviral agents with activity against monkeypox and other orthopoxviruses: cidofovir, brincidofovir, and tecovirimat. Cidofovir, and its prodrug brincidofovir, are inhibitors of DNA replication with a broad spectrum of activity against multiple families of double-stranded DNA viruses. Tecovirimat has more specific activity against orthopoxviruses and inhibits the formation of the extracellular enveloped virus necessary for cell-to-cell transmission. For each agent, we review basic pharmacology, data from animal models, and reported experience in human patients.
Chinese Society of International Law, in association with Chinese Institute of International Law at China Foreign Affairs University, and National Center for Foreign-related Rule of Law Research at China Foreign Affairs University
Contact: secretary@bigghgg.cn