Devex CheckUp: What Nkengasong’s departure means for Africa CDC

U.S. President Joe Biden is reportedly nominating Dr. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, to head the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

• Nkengasong has been a tireless advocate for COVID-19 vaccine equity on the African continent, and many health experts there are sad to see him go. They’re also concerned his departure may leave a leadership gap at Africa CDC amid the pandemic. He is credited with elevating the prominence of the agency and skillfully managing the coordination of the continent’s COVID-19 response.

• But one person does not make an institution, according to Dr. Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija, a co-chair of the African Union’s African Vaccine Delivery Alliance. "It would be unfair to place the fate of Africa CDC on John’s shoulders. He has set the agency on course and brought the visibility and profile needed to show that Africa CAN,” she says.

• Nkengasong would be taking the helm at PEPFAR during a critical time. A report out this week states that “the world is sleepwalking towards a new AIDS emergency” and that “urgent action is needed to get the HIV response back on track."

Read: Nkengasong's bittersweet departure from Africa CDC

Watch: In March, Devex hosted a live conversation with Nkengasong. Here’s what he had to say about the challenges ahead for Africa’s largest vaccination drive.

Calling the shots

• At the much-awaited, U.S.-led COVID-19 summit Wednesday, Biden announced a donation of an additional 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine by mid-2022, bringing the total U.S. vaccine pledge to over 1 billion doses — a welcome move but that others said lacked urgency. To put into context: Only 160 million doses of the U.S. earlier pledge of 500 million doses have been delivered to date, Shabtai Gold reports. On the same day, Biden also announced a new multidisciplinary advisory council on science and technology.

• Prior to the summit, Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, deputy director at Africa CDC, suggested during an UNGA side event that failing to deliver on pledges is worse than not making pledges at all. “Pledges that are not delivered are not useful,” he said.

• Novavax Executive Vice President John Trizzino tells Jenny the company expects to submit regulatory filings for its COVID-19 vaccine within the year, but this raised frustrations among many on social media who've been waiting for it.

• Johnson & Johnson released real-world evidence in the U.S. this week showing its one-shot COVID-19 vaccine has 74% efficacy against severe or critical COVID-19 and 83% against COVID-19-related death. Another trial showed that 14 days after a booster shot, protection against severe or critical COVID-19 was upped to 100%.

• Clover Pharmaceuticals also released efficacy data from its Phase 2/3 trial showing its COVID-19 vaccine has 100% efficacy against severe COVID-19 and hospitalization. Its overall efficacy is 67% against any severity of COVID-19 caused by any variant in the study. The vaccine showed a 79% efficacy against any severity caused by the Delta variant.

Hunting vaccine-derived polio

The world is on the brink of eliminating wild poliovirus, believed to be in circulation for thousands of years but now only found in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Still, polio can spread in other ways. With vaccine-derived poliovirus, immunized people can excrete the virus and infect others in communities with poor sanitation.

Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a global surge in such cases as polio vaccination campaigns were halted. A new and more genetically stable vaccine was granted emergency use listing in November to manage the crisis. Seven countries have rolled it out — but because it's only manufactured at one Indonesian plant, nations are limited in how widely they can implement it.

Read: Can a new vaccine halt the rising tide of vaccine-derived polio? [Pro]

Outbreak preparedness

During the massive 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, about one-fifth of cases were in children under 15 years old. Although children under 5 are at a higher risk of death than adults, they are not currently included in vaccination campaigns.

But new clinical trials suggest Johnson & Johnson’s two-dose Ebola vaccine is safe and provides strong immunity to both adults and children. Paul Adepoju reports that the findings are expected to bring about policy changes around booster shots and to include children as young as 1 in vaccination drives.

Read: New studies propose policy changes for Ebola vaccination in Africa

One big number

After donor cuts, that’s the percentage of the health facilities still operating in Afghanistan under the Sehatmandi project, down from more than 2,300. The project serves as the “backbone” of the country’s health system, according to the World Health Organization. Jenny has the story.

What we’re reading

Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s regional director for Africa, writes that COVID-19 booster shots in high-income countries are a “scandalous injury to global solidarity.” [The New York Times]

Brazil’s health minister tests positive for COVID-19 while attending the U.N. General Assembly in New York. [CNN]

Dr. Anthony Fauci is starring in a new documentary tracking his work on AIDS and COVID-19. [National Geographic]