ICYMI: catch up with health news that you may have missed – local, national and global

ICYMI – global directions, COVID booster approved, Voice and sovereignty, and toxic industries at work

Marie McInerney
Marie McInerney
Wednesday, February 8, 2023

COVID-19, ICYMI, Commercial determinants of health, Alcohol, Food and beverages, Tobacco, Donor-funded journalism – 2023, Indigenous health, Global health matters, Asylum seeker and refugee health, TGA, Healthcare, Public health, Human rights, Vaccination

As the shocking toll of the earthquake in #Türkiye and #Syria continues to mount, the United Nations and World Health Organization have swung into action, while also grappling with other global crises.

In his briefing this week to the General Assembly on Priorities for 2023, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that we have started 2023 “staring down the barrel of a confluence of challenges unlike any other in our lifetimes”. He said:

Wars grind on. The climate crisis burns on. Extreme wealth and extreme poverty rage on. The gulf between the haves and have nots is cleaving societies, countries and our wider world. Epic geopolitical divisions are undermining global solidarity and trust. This path is a dead end. We need a course correction.

This week’s column charts progress and setbacks globally, nationally, and locally on many pathways, mindful of Guterres’ call for nations to recommit to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (celebrating its 75th anniversary) — “putting human rights and dignity first, with prevention at the heart”.

Don’t miss his powerful speech.

Course corrections?

The Federal Government announced on Wednesday that it had accepted advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) that all adults who have not had a COVID-19 booster or a confirmed case in the past six months can now get another booster.

Health Minister Mark Butler’s admitted at a subsequent news conference that Australian governments had some lessons to learn from the most recent COVID wave that began in October 2022.