Latest knowledge Observer Research Foundation
Chatham House
The efficacy of COVID19 vaccines is linked to good nutrition
Fiscal Policy and the Post-COVID-19 Recovery
01 March 2021
01 March 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought uncertainties and challenges to keep ourselves and our families protected and healthy, both physically and mentally. As the vaccine drive is being rolled out, policy makers should focus on initiatives that can improve the efficacy of the vaccine for the common man.
Although the massive wave of debt-financed spending undertaken by governments over the past year has raised legitimate questions about rising public debt and future inflationary pressures, the paper argues that the right course is to maintain support for economies until the recovery is entrenched. In particular, the withdrawal of emergency measures should be calibrated to the revival in private sector demand, with public investment used as a ‘platform’ for longterm economic modernization.
World Health Organization
COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP)
Scientific American
01 March 2021
The COVID Zoom Boom Is Reshaping Sign Language
WHO is issuing the COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) for 2021 and accompanying documents as a package aimed at guiding the coordinated action that we must take at national, regional, and global levels to overcome the ongoing challenges in the response to COVID-19, address inequities, and plot a course out of the pandemic. Over the past year, much has been achieved by national authorities and communities with the support of WHO, donors and partners, and an unprecedented effort by the scientific community and the private sector. The Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan 2021 (SPRP2021) builds on what we have learned about the virus and our collective response over the course of 2020, and translates that knowledge into strategic actions.
26 February 2021 People who use American Sign Language to communicate are no strangers to video chatting. The technology—which has been around since 1927, when AT&T experimented with the first rudimentary videophones —allows deaf people to converse with signs over the airwaves. After the coronavirus pandemic began confining people to their homes early last year, the use of platforms such as zoom, microsoft teams and google meet exploded. This increased reliance on videoconferencing has inevitably transformed the way deaf people communicate. One adaptation arises as a result of a video meeting’s limited frame size.
World Health Organization
Observer Research Foundation
Dr Tedros opening remarks: WHO-UN DESA Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Mortality Assessment
Addressing COVID19 and vaccinerelated misinformation 24 February 2021
01 March 2021 On 25 March 2020, India entered the world’s largest nationwide lockdown—thanks to COVID-19. Eleven months and almost 11 million cases later, India is now one of the largest global suppliers of COVID-19 vaccines. While India is earning praise for gifting indigenously manufactured vaccines to low and middle-income countries (LMIC), we still face an uphill task […].
The WHO - UN DESA Technical Advisory Group on COVID19 Mortality Assessment acts as an advisory body to both WHO and UNDESA on COVID-19 mortality assessment. The TAG will advise and support efforts to assist WHO and UN Member States to obtain accurate estimates of the number of deaths attributable to the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic. The TAG comprises a global network of experts from multidisciplinary backgrounds, including epidemiologists, data scientists and analysts, statisticians, demographers, national government officers, academics, and policy makers. The work of the TAG will contribute to future editions of the World Health Statistics and World Populations Prospects reports, as well as supporting vital global efforts towards strengthening health information systems.
15 AI + COVID-19 : Case Study in the Treatment of Future Pandemics Briefing, March 2021