Funders grapple with underrepresentation in COVID-19 trials →

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The novel coronavirus has taken a disproportionate toll on underserved communities. Imbalances between ethnic groups gained the most attention, but the disparities extended to older adults and communities grappling with job and food insecurity, as well as poverty. At the same time, those groups already dying disproportionately from COVID-19, in part because of their earlier exclusion from health research, were underrepresented in clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. Read more.

A new research experiment in Kenya raises questions about ethics →

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A randomized controlled trial conducted among some of the poorest residents in Nairobi included threatening the disconnection of water and sanitation services if landlords didn’t pay outstanding debts.

The study aimed to understand how to enforce payment for water and sanitation services and resulted in 97 of the 299 compounds selected for the enforcement intervention seeing their water and sewage services cut off — some for up to nine months. This sparked a Twitter-fueled backlash over concerns that marginalized communities lost access to water for the sake of research.

As the authors scrambled to clarify that their study did not increase anyone’s risk of disconnection, the debate resurrected concerns about how to ethically conduct and present research on vulnerable communities, particularly when it involves access to essential services.

Read more.

In Germany, voluntary monitoring of supply chain abuses 'has failed' →

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In Germany, businesses are supposed to monitor their foreign subsidiaries and contractors for human rights violations on a voluntary basis. But preliminary results of a survey of larger companies conducted by the Federal Foreign Office found only 22% actually do. The ministers of labor and of economic cooperation and development have a plan to dramatically increase that total. Read more.

#SmartDevelopmentHack: Germany searches for COVID-19 solutions →

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Marcel Heyne knew he was sitting on a solution to a problem that emerged early in the COVID-19 pandemic: How to get information about the virus to people in rural communities with high levels of poverty, where literacy is low. For several years, Heyne has been building Audiopedia, a stockpile of audio information on critical subjects that are particularly relevant during a pandemic, including health promotion and disease prevention. The problem was that the scale of the coronavirus crisis exceeded Audiopedia’s capacity . Enter Germany’s #SmartDevelopmentHack.

Read more.

Countries race to strengthen compulsory licensing legislation →

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With potential vaccines racing through the development pipeline at dizzying speeds and existing drugs showing promise as possible treatments for COVID-19, pressure is mounting to ensure all countries have affordable access to any therapeutics or vaccines that eventually emerge.

That is far from guaranteed, but governments of lower- and middle-income countries also have tools they can use to secure affordable access for their citizens, particularly under international trade agreements that allow them to override pharmaceutical patents. Read more.

Has Germany failed to live up to its global health ambitions? →

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While Germany spent much of the past decade advancing its global health leadership, it did not coalesce around a cohesive, government-wide strategy. As a result, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, individual arms were able to endorse specific efforts and the chancellory could preach multilateralism, but Germany was not prepared or positioned to help shape a comprehensive strategy for responding to the crisis. Read more.

Maternal health services take a hit during global lockdown →

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As governments rushed to get measures in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus, considerations about the broader ramifications of those restrictions were often overlooked — including how they would affect pregnant women. Now activists are trying to understand the impact lockdowns had on maternal health, even as they attempt to prevent any additional damage. Read more.