COVID-19 Endangers 80 Million Children by Disrupting Vaccination Efforts
UN Agencies Call for a Joint Effort to Safely Deliver Routine Immunization
By Jaya Ramachandran
GENEVA | NEW YORK (IDN) – Ahead of the virtual Global Vaccine Summit on June 4 in London, the World Health Organization WHO), UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, have warned that COVID 19 is disrupting life-saving immunization services around the world. Consequently, millions of children – in rich and poor countries alike – are faced with the risk of diseases like diphtheria, measles and polio.
Data collected by the WHO, UNICEF, Gavi and the Sabin Vaccine Institute indicate that the provision of routine immunization services is substantially hindered in at least 68 countries, threatening to affect approximately 80 million children under the age of one living in these countries.
COVID-19: Fake, Shocking & Good News Stalks Africa
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – A new fact-checking industry had its hands full recently in Senegal when a fake news post on social media claimed that children were “dying on the spot” from vaccines against the coronavirus.
The post, titled “Scandal in Senegal”, was shared thousands of times on Facebook even as the fact-checkers insisted it was a hoax. HINDI | ITALIAN | JAPANESE | THAI
COVID-19: Should Economy Have Priority Over Migrant Workers’ Health?
Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) – Many critics have described labour migration as the 21st-century slave trade and Covid-19 crisis has exposed this stark reality. Eastern European migrant labour in Europe. Unpaid construction workers on the brink of starvation in the Middle East. Hundreds of South Asian dormitory locked down migrant labourers infected with Covid-19 in Singapore. Global economy’s lack of compassion for the migrant workers that drives its engines is very much in display today. GERMAN | JAPANESE | KOREAN |
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