Category Archives: World Health Organization

Pandemics result from destruction of nature, say UN and WHO

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Experts call for legislation and trade deals worldwide to encourage green recovery

Pandemics such as coronavirus are the result of humanity’s destruction of nature, according to leaders at the UN, WHO and WWF International, and the world has been ignoring this stark reality for decades.

The illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade as well as the devastation of forests and other wild places were still the driving forces behind the increasing number of diseases leaping from wildlife to humans, the leaders told the Guardian.

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WHO cautions against further lifting of lockdown in England

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Exclusive: senior official says contact tracing should be more effective before measures eased

England’s coronavirus lockdown should not be further lifted until the government’s contact-tracing system has proven to be “robust and effective”, the World Health Organization has said after widespread criticism of the first results of the new tracking operation.

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Scientists report flaws in WHO-funded study on 2-metre distancing

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Mistakes mean findings should not be used as evidence for relaxing rule, say professors

Senior scientists have reported flaws in an influential World Health Organization-commissioned study into the risks of coronavirus infection and say it should not be used as evidence for relaxing the UK’s 2-metre physical distancing rule.

Critics of the distancing advice, which states that people should keep at least 2 metres apart, believe it is too cautious. They seized on the research commissioned by the WHO, which suggested a reduction from 2 metres to 1 would raise infection risk only marginally, from 1.3% to 2.6%.

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Global report: India reports surge in Covid-19 cases as lockdown eased

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Almost 10,000 new cases in India on Thursday as WHO warns situation outside Europe deteriorating

India reported almost 10,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, with hospitals swamped in the worst-hit cities of Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai, and predictions that the infection rate will not peak before the end of next month.

The country of 1.3bn people now has the fifth highest number of confirmed cases in the world, at 286,579. Over the last 24 hours 357 people have died from the virus, bringing the official toll to 8,102.

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Global report: EU nations continue steady exits from lockdown

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Infections keep falling in EU but reports suggest Russian death toll much higher than official figures

France is to lift its state of emergency on 10 July, Denmark said opening its bars, restaurants and malls had not led to a rise in infections, and Austria will reopen its border with Italy next week as EU nations pursue their steady exits from lockdown.

However, Germany extended its coronavirus travel warnings for more than 160 countries outside Europe until the end of August and reports suggested that Moscow’s death toll may be twice as high as Russia’s official figures.

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Global report: WHO urges Pakistan to return to lockdown as hospitals struggle

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Brazil restores Covid-19 data online; Argentina passes 1,000 daily cases for first time; Fauci says ‘we’re still at the beginning’ of pandemic

The World Health Organization has taken the unusual step of urging Pakistan to return to lockdown, suggesting the country implement restrictions in a cycle of two weeks on, two weeks off.

While Pakistan has relatively low testing rates, one in four people who are tested return a positive result, the WHO said in a letter to Punjab’s provincial health minister, Yasmin Rashid. Prime Minister Imran Khan has resisted a national lockdown, arguing the country cannot afford it, and provinces have instead introduced patchwork lockdowns. Last week Khan said these would be lifted. 

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Fauci: coronavirus pandemic that ‘took over the planet’ is far from over

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US’s top infectious disease expert calls virus his ‘worst nightmare’ as 7 million people have been infected and 400,000 have died

The US’s top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci warned on Tuesday that the coronavirus pandemic was far from over, calling Covid-19 his “worst nightmare”.

“In a period of four months, it has devastated the whole world,” Fauci said, speaking to executives at a conference of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. “And it isn’t over yet.”

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Coronavirus live news: claim that asymptomatic transmission ‘very rare’ was ‘misleading’, says WHO official

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WHO expert backtracks after saying asymptomatic transmission ‘very rare’

Here are the latest developments in the world coronavirus outbreak so far on Tuesday:

Germany plans to extend its travel warnings for non-European countries until 31 August, government sources have told the Reuters news agency, adding that Berlin was also strongly advising against any cruises due to the special risks related to the pandemic.

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WHO advises public to wear face masks when unable to distance

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Over-60s should use medical-grade masks and all others three-layer fabric ones, health body says

People over 60 or with health issues should wear a medical-grade mask when they are out and cannot socially distance, according to new guidance from the World Health Organization, while all others should wear a three-layer fabric mask.

The announcement on Friday marks a significant change of stance by the WHO, which until now has been reluctant to advocate the wearing of masks by the public because of limited evidence that they offer protection.

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WHO to resume hydroxychloroquine trial after earlier halt over safety concerns

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Questions raised over study claiming drug linked to higher rate of mortality and heart problems in Covid-19 patients

The World Health Organization will resume clinical trials of an anti-malaria drug researchers hope may treat Covid-19, after a study of the drug published in May by a major medical journal prompted them to halt trials due to safety concerns.

The paper, published in the Lancet, said hydroxychloroquine was associated with higher mortality rates and higher rates of heart problems in Covid-19 patients in hospitals around the world. The finding prompted the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to announce the hydroxychloroquine arm of its Solidarity global clinical trial would pause while the study and other findings were reviewed.

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How were medical journals and WHO caught out over hydroxychloroquine?

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Studies under microscope after Guardian investigation reveals flaws with data from US company Surgisphere

Some scientific papers stop the world in its tracks. In the middle of a raging pandemic, a study in the world’s leading global health journal that seemed to prove President Trump wrong to laud the drug hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 was always going to have a massive impact. It did. When the paper flagged a higher risk of death on the drug, trials were stopped all over the world, including one by the World Health Organization.

Now it’s in danger of unravelling.

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Governments and WHO changed Covid-19 policy based on suspect data from tiny US company

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Surgisphere, whose employees appear to include a sci-fi writer and adult content model, provided database behind Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine hydroxychloroquine studies

The World Health Organization and a number of national governments have changed their Covid-19 policies and treatments on the basis of flawed data from a little-known US healthcare analytics company, also calling into question the integrity of key studies published in some of the world’s most prestigious medical journals.

A Guardian investigation can reveal the US-based company Surgisphere, whose handful of employees appear to include a science fiction writer and an adult-content model, has provided data for multiple studies on Covid-19 co-authored by its chief executive, but has so far failed to adequately explain its data or methodology.

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China withheld data on coronavirus from WHO, recordings reveal

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Complaints by officials at odds with body’s public praise of Beijing’s response to outbreak

The World Health Organization struggled to get needed information from China during critical early days of the coronavirus pandemic, according to recordings of internal meetings that contradict the organisation’s public praise of Beijing’s response to the outbreak.

The recordings, obtained by the Associated Press (AP), show officials complaining in meetings during the week of 6 January that Beijing was not sharing data needed to evaluate the risk of the virus to the rest of the world. It was not until 20 January that China confirmed coronavirus was contagious and 30 January that the WHO declared a global emergency.

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WHO warns overuse of antibiotics for Covid-19 will cause more deaths

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Director general says “worrying number” of bacteria are becoming resistant to medicines

The increased use of antibiotics to combat the Covid-19 pandemic will strengthen bacterial resistance and ultimately lead to more deaths during the crisis and beyond, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday that a “worrying number” of bacterial infections were becoming increasingly resistant to the medicines traditionally used to treat them.

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Global report: new clues about role of pangolins in Covid-19 as US severs ties with WHO

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Experts condemn Trump’s actions; India records worst daily rise in infections; surges in Russia and Brazil; Australia tests sewage water

Scientists claim to have found more clues about how the new coronavirus could have spread from bats through pangolins and into humans, as India reported its worst single-day rise in new cases, and the number of Covid-19 infections worldwide neared 6 million.

Writing in the journal Covid-19 Science Advances, researchers said an examination of the closest relative of the virus found that it was circulating in bats but lacked the protein needed to bind to human cells. They said this ability could have been acquired from a virus found in pangolins – a scaly mammal that is one of the most illegally trafficked animals in the world.

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Donald Trump announces US plans to sever all ties with WHO – video

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Trump has announced that the US will terminate its relationship with the World Health Organization and will redirect the funds to 'other bodies'.

The US president criticised the WHO, claiming it was 'controlled' by China. Trump also announced the US would begin a process to eliminate policy exemptions that give Hong Kong 'special treatment' due to new security laws imposed on the region by China

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WHO halts hydroxychloroquine trial for coronavirus amid safety fears

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Malaria drug taken by Trump could raise risk of death and heart problems, study shows

The World Health Organization has said it will temporarily drop hydroxychloroquine — the malaria drug Donald Trump said he is taking as a precaution — from its global study into experimental coronavirus treatments after safety concerns.

The WHO’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in light of a paper published last week in the Lancet that showed people taking hydroxychloroquine were at higher risk of death and heart problems than those who were not, it would pause the hydroxychloroquine arm of its solidarity global clinical trial.

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Global report: Muslims face curfews ahead of Eid amid Covid-19 crisis

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Pandemic subdues Ramadan festivities as Taliban declares ceasefire; Spain and Greece to welcome tourists

Muslims worldwide prepared to celebrate Eid under lockdown, with the strictest governments bringing in 24-hour curfews for the holiday – but across the world the slow march is continuing out of coronavirus quarantine.

For the first time since the beginning of the outbreak, China said it had recorded no new cases of the virus; Spain joined Greece in saying it would be reopening to foreign tourists from July, and also said its football league would start again next month.

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President calls negative hydroxychloroquine study ‘a Trump enemy statement’ – as it happened

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Patrick Wintour and Julian Borger report:

Member states have backed a resolution strongly supportive of the World Health Organization, after Donald Trump issued a fresh broadside against the UN body, giving it 30 days to make unspecified reforms or lose out on US funding.

Related: Member states back WHO after renewed Donald Trump attack

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Xi Jinping defends China’s handling of coronavirus and backs review of global response – video

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The Chinese president is backing calls for an independent review of the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic, but only after the virus is under control.

Xi voiced his support in a video message to a virtual meeting of the World Health Organization's decision-making body, the World Health Assembly. He defended China's handling of the pandemic and pledged $2bn (£1.64bn) over two years to help with the response.

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