Guterres urges more countries to step up and fund global COVID-19 vaccine effort
University of Oxford/John Cairns Samples are tested by scientists at Oxford University’s Jenner Institute as the development of a vaccine against the coronavirus continues. The UN Secretary-General on Wednesday called for all nations to provide further urgently needed funds – the equivalent of the total spent on cigarettes worldwide every two weeks – on behalf […]
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Shortsighted and ‘stupid mistake’ not to support affordable COVID vaccine for all, says Guterres
UN News/Ben Dotsei Malor – UN News’ May Yaacoub interviews UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The march of COVID-19 which has “put us on our knees”, should be a lesson in humility for world leaders, and a lack of solidarity on the part of some richer nations towards developing countries, means we will all pay a heavy […]
Investments in public health, an investment in safer future, urges Tedros
ILO/Alin Sirisaksopit Nurses at a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, exchange documents through acrylic shields that have been setup to ensure physical distancing. The world must be ready when the next pandemic comes, the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) has said, urging countries to invest more in public health as part of their […]
Uncomfortable bedfellows: balancing health and economics in a global crisis
COVID-19 threatens the health and wellbeing of millions of people the world over, through malnutrition, preventable disease, delayed diagnoses and psychological hardship. All these threats co-exist with the threat of the virus itself, and are consequences of economic and social ‘lockdowns’ imposed by governments to curb the spread of COVID-19. Understanding the intimate link between […]
Defeat COVID-19 and put an end to hate and discrimination: UN chief
OCHA/Yaye Nabo Sène “No to hate”. A group of people advocate against discrimination based on ethnicity and religion in the Central African Republic (file) In a message published on the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Violence Based on Religious Belief, which falls on 22 August, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned of a rise in racism […]
COVID-19 upends ‘entire generation’ of 600 million South Asian children
© UNICEF/Parvez Ahmad Twelve-year-old boy in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, sorts through hazardous plastic waste without any protection, working to support his family amidst the lockdown. Without urgent action, COVID-19 will continue to unravel decades of progress across South Asia, destroying the “hopes and futures of an entire generation”, warns a new report released on Tuesday by […]