WHO | Week Ahead for media | 8 May 2021

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Friday 05.07.21 | Issue 109

WHO / Andrew Quilty

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) updates

Virtual press briefings with simultaneous translation in all UN languages with the participation of the WHO Director-General are planned for this week. Media advisories with Zoom links/dial-in details will be emailed in advance. For the latest news from WHO on COVID-19 and other breaking health stories, read WHO's news updates.

Wednesday, 12 May

UN resolution 2286 5th Anniversary

This year marks the 5th anniversary of the UNSC Resolution 2286 addressing the protection of health care in armed conflict. To commemorate the 5th anniversary of its adoption, WHO’s Attacks on Health Care initiative, the Permanent Mission of Norway to the UN and co-sponsors will hold discussions Wednesday to reflect on the achievements of the past few years and discuss available tools to better prevent attacks on health care and protect health care from attacks.

Despite growing awareness of this issue, health care continues to be attacked. Between 2018 and 2020, WHO documented 2,149 reported attacks on health care across 17 countries and territories, causing 570 death and 1,821 injuries. An analysis of these reports has shown that contextual changes and shifts in patterns of attacks are highly interlinked and mainstreaming protection into emergency operations is necessary in preventing and protecting against attacks. More on Attacks on health care and see DG’s video message on the protection of health care in armed conflict.

Thursday, 13 May
Press conference on Health for All Film Festival

At a press conference on Thursday at 15:00 CEST, WHO's Director-General will announce the winners of the 2nd Health for All Film Festival from competition categories based on WHO's major global public health goals. Four members of the official jury will also attend. The festival's awards ceremony will be streamed online on Friday, 14 May, with winners and other jurors joining. Find out more.

COVID-19 Global Research and Innovation Forum

The COVID-19 Global Research and Innovation Forum will bring leading researchers together to review progress on research for COVID-19 and establish a revised COVID-19 Global Research and Innovation Roadmap with clear goals, priority actions and milestones.

The Forum's objectives call for controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and addressing its consequences necessitates a multi-disciplinary scientific approach to resolve the challenges associated with the development and fair and equitable access to medical countermeasures to all. Such an approach can only be successful if it is a part of a broad ranging effort to improve epidemic preparedness, promotes equal access to health interventions and incorporates a recognition of the vital contribution of communities to the design and implementation of control strategies.

Preparatory consultations with hundreds of experts on each of the various thematic areas, preceded this Forum. The outcomes of those preparatory consultations will be presented at the Forum, focusing on the research priorities for 2021 and 2022. The Forum will be livestreamed. More info here.

Friday, 14 May

Joint WHO/ILO estimates reveal long working hours lead to death from stroke and heart disease

New WHO/ILO estimates reveal deaths caused globally from heart disease and stroke attributable to long working hours are on the rise. A paper to be published in Environment International breaks new ground and systematically analyses and quantifies the disease burden of long working hours. The paper also highlights some key recommendations. A virtual press conference via Zoom will be held Friday at 9:15 am CEST. More details will be available next week.

Triple Billion Showcase 2021

In the run up to the World Health Assembly, WHO is convening a number of events, information sessions and discussions with Member States, partners and other stakeholders on various aspects of WHO’s work, progress towards the Triple Billion targets in WHO’s programme of work, and impact in countries. Find more information about the #TripleBillion and access to videos and other content here.

In case you missed it...

We heard some journalists may not have received some key updates this week from WHO. Please see below and be sure you are signed up for WHO's media distribution list.

· WHO lists additional COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use and issues interim policy recommendations

· Global experts of new WHO Council on the Economics of Health For All announced

· WHO Director-General commends United States decision to support temporary waiver on intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines

· Report by the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme

· Report by the Review Committee on the Functioning of the International Health Regulations (2005) during the COVID-19 Response

· New report sounds the alarm on global shortage of 900 000 midwives (who.int)

· WHO, Germany launch new global hub for pandemic and epidemic intelligence

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Check out the WHO series, Science in 5.

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