Latest developments in global health policy, politics and practice — every week is a chance to save lives — The headline you might have missed New study finds that millions of lives could have been saved if Covid vaccines had been distributed more fairly, even without faster or more supply Nature, Estimating the impact of COVID-19 vaccine inequities: a modeling study This should have been in every major news outlet. Covid vaccination has saved millions…

We shouldn’t underestimate the potential of ticks to trigger the next health emergency — Summer beckons in the Northern Hemisphere. For many, that means holidays, cookouts and time outdoors. It also means tick season. Ticks are prolific carriers of disease. They’re most active during the warmer months of the year. Ticks jump from host to host, feeding off blood, and they can spread a…

A personal reflection on the remarkable legacy of a remarkable man — A chest surgeon, Dr. Colin McCord, known as Coke to everyone, was incisive: He cut to the heart of matters. I was privileged to work with him for more than three decades and he had a profound influence on me — and on the lives of millions of people, most…

As pandemic measures unwind, can regular boosters make us safer from a persistent virus? — Covid hasn’t gone away, but it also no longer poses the serious threat to most people today it did in the first months and years after its emergence. Vaccination has saved millions of lives and continues to shield people from the worst effects of the virus. Effective treatments are available…

How countries can speed up their ability to detect and respond to disease outbreaks — We discover a new microbial threat, on average, every year. And that’s in addition to the hundreds of viruses, bacteria, and fungi we already know about that can cause disease in humans, become increasingly resistant to antimicrobials, and spread to new areas or in new ways. Our world is increasingly…

Resolve to Save Lives 2023 annual letter — Covid caught the world off guard, and we continue to feel the repercussions of being unprepared. Economies are suffering, children are behind in school, and we are more divided than ever due to the politicization of science and the spread of misinformation. As disheartening as this may appear, there…

Getting public health implementation right is literally a matter of life-and-death — This article originally appeared in Think Global Health. In the last couple of weeks, the World Health Organization has confirmed a new outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in Equatorial Guinea, at least eighteen countries continue to struggle deadly cholera cases, and bird flu swept through Peru and Chile, killing…

We know more now than before, and it’s still alarming — Author Note: This piece is written largely based on and because of the extensive research conducted by Andrew Gall and the Prevent Epidemics team at Resolve to Save Lives. I raised the risks of long Covid back in July 2020, and in July 2022 highlighted the difficult battle many people…

Travel to India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Nigeria highlights the challenges — and great promise — of community-led public health — Covid mortality is ebbing, the toll of the climate crisis is growing, war in Ukraine is grinding on, and the global economy is sputtering. In many countries, security is increasingly compromised, media is becoming less free, and intolerance and social stress are increasing.