Statement on COVID-19 Immunization and Equitable Access to Vaccines

Immunization is one of the most successful public health measures of modern times. Annually immunization prevents an estimated 2.5 million deaths globally and reduces disease-specific treatment costs (World Health Organization 2018).

For all the devastation caused by COVID-19, an important lesson is that the balance needs to shift from treating disease to preventing it. Immunization has an important role to play in prevention not only for infants but throughout life as a key component of healthy ageing. Further, it has positive long-term impact, contributing to make communities healthier and promote social and economic development.

Specific to COVID-19, almost everyone is at risk and may require vaccination if given the opportunity. Hence, it is likely that demand will surpass supply. The concern of the WFPHA International Immunization Policy Task Force is the tendency for the rich to acquire and pay for the limited supply of available efficacious vaccines to the detriment of the populations genuinely at-risk, particularly in low-income settings.

Not surprisingly, the race to produce a safe and efficacious vaccine for COVID-19 has been on-going and there are indications that success may not be too far away.

An important lesson from previous immunisation programs is that, even when effective and safe vaccines are available, vulnerable persons in low-income settings usually do not have access to these vaccines for some time, if at all. There is a myriad of reasons for this state of affairs. These include (among others) high cost of vaccination programmes for countries, health systems, families and individual, individual’s poor geographical access to vaccination centres, and inadequate supply of available vaccines due to competition. Therefore, the WFPHA International Immunization Policy Task Force provides Statement on COVID-19 Immunization and Equitable Access to Vaccines.

How Are You Going?

A Study of the Economic, Health and Well Being Consequences of COVID-19, conducted by the University of Melbourne

https://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/how-are-you-going/

• We invite people, all over the world to complete the questionnaire on this site.
• We want to find out how you are doing, and what effect the COVID-19 crisis has had on you and your family.
• First, we ask you for some basic facts about you and your household, such as where you live, how old you are, and your living circumstances. We will not ask for your name or address and the responses you choose to provide will be delinked from any
• identifying information that can be tracked to you.
• Then we ask some questions about your views about life, and how you’re feeling. There are no right or wrong answers – we just want to know how you’re doing.
• You can return to this survey as often as you like, to give us an update on how you’re doing.
• You can track how you’re doing over time and see how that compares to others in your country and around the world

How will we use the information you provide?

• To find out how people are doing in different countries
• To find out how different sorts of people are coping during and after COVID-19
• We will never use your information to identify you personally or to tell others your personal views.
• We will never share your identity with others

https://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/how-are-you-going/

TASFA-EDSI / MGU - Foundations of Information Technology Free Online Training 

October 11 - December 27, 2020 

Teach and Serve for Africa - Ethiopian Diaspora Service Initiative (TASFA-EDSI) and Maryland Global University Inc. (MGU) have developed a free 11-week "Foundations of Information Technology” online course hosted on the Digital Africa Learning Management platform. The course covers the fundamentals of different IT disciplines and will serve as a springboard for participants to expand their knowledge and specialize in any specific area they may be interested in. 

Date - October 11 - December 27,  2020

Target Group - Public sector IT professionals seeking to understand the full breadth of the IT landscape and non-IT professionals who would like to be introduced to the field.  

Registration Deadline - October 8, 2020

Click here to register.