The recent reports of Ebola resurfacing and becoming an epidemic are being brought to the public attention via the DRC Minister of Health, Dr Oly IIunga Kalenga.
Dr Kalenga is also involved with the Global Financing Facility, GFF which is an UN venture which began in 2015.The Ministry of Health is leading the response in affected health zones with the support of WHO and partners.
GFF is housed at the World Bank headquarters and coordinates all the multi-stakeholders involved in a countries health. It works with external financiers like USAID and International Development Association, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and is also recipient of funds from the Gates Foundation.
The GFF is a multidonor trust fund managed by the World Bank with financial commitments from bilateral donors and private foundations.The GFF is based on the existing Health Results Innovation Trust Fund (HRITF) managed by the World Bank and supported by Norway and the UK through commitments of $575m from 2007 to 2022.
The governance of the GFF gives substantial decision making authority to the bank and the donors. At the heart of this structure is an investors group, which mobilises financing, and within this group is the trust fund committee, that decides which countries and projects are funded.
Private funding turns UN agencies, funds and programmes into contractors for bilateral or public‐private projects.With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, governments have attributed a prominent role to the private sector in order to achieve the new goals.
By entering into partnerships with the UN, for instance through the Global Compact, companies are ‘blue washing’ their image, while often continuing business practices that violate basic labour, human rights and environmental standards (Berne Declaration et al., 2007).
Important decisions about the financial support of national health strategies are taken at the sole discretion of the GFF Trust Fund Committee (World Bank, 2014). But this committee is a self‐selected, exclusive body and not subject to intergovernmental oversight and mutual accountability mechanisms.
The investors group is chaired by the president of the global development programme of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and comprises one or two representatives from recipient and donor governments, international organisations (Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria), private organisations (Merck for Mothers, Grand Challenges Canada, and Philips), private foundation (Gates), civil society (African Health Budget Network, Plan International, Population Council, RESULTS, and World Vision), and multilateral organisations (Unicef, UNFPA, World Bank, and WHO).
The Gates Foundation exerts influence on the UN policy not only through their direct grant‐making but also through the placement of Foundation staff in decision‐making bodies of international organizations and global partnerships. Three top‐level secondments to the WHO have currently Gates Foundation connections. The Gates Foundation is a board member not only of Gavi, but also of the Global Fund, the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, the Medicines for Malaria Venture, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, the TB Alliance, the Stop TB Partnership, and many others.
It further uses matching funds, for instance for Gavi, to influence governments’ funding decisions. Funding selected research initiatives is another way of influencing policies at UN‐level and shaping the discourse. In February 2008, Arata Kochi, the former head of WHO’s malaria programme, complained in an internal memorandum to Margaret Chan, Director‐General of the WHO, that the Gates Foundation was dominating research in the area of malaria treatment and risked stifling the diverse views held by others in the scientific community (McNeil, 2008).
A report in the BMJ states that National capacity to manage outbreaks, including workforce development and training, was reiterated as a priority after the west Africa Ebola outbreak. As an important first step, by the end of May 2018, 77 countries had completed joint external evaluation, an assessment of country capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to public health risks.https://www.bmj.com/content/358/bmj.j3395
The same month that an Ebola outbreak is declared.
The first ever country that GFF chose to work with was DRC.
Of course,the latest reported ‘epidemic’ which has begun in DRC and is being relayed to the world by one of their supporters, Dr Kalenga, is mere coincidence.
{The very first paragraph highlights news that the expected population will double but population reduction is just a conspiracy right?}
A meeting, just a few months before the reported outbreak in May, took place in February at the World Economic Forum in Davos and had been attended by World Bank’s Global Financing Facility (GFF) focused on the power of mobilising private funding and expertise and had on its panel Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga, Minister of Health of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
https://3blmedia.com/News/Merck-Mothers-Blog-Note-Dr-Etiebet-Reflections-WEF-2018
What a coincidence then eh!
Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga has brought together the leaders of neighbourhoods and avenues in Mangina and later the customary chiefs in Beni to engage in the activities of the response to the reported ‘epidemic’.
And a new Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) will be built in Makeke, Mandima Health Zone, in Ituri province. (Have to make sure that everyone gets vaccinated.) https://www.digitalcongo.net/article-en/5b840ab4218124000402f503/
“This epidemic (in north Kivu) is going to bring a lot of surprises. It is not like the epidemic in the Equator that we have known already. This epidemic will bring with it a lot of surprises: the number of cases is going up and the number of infected zones is increasing so it will take a long time to control this epidemic and for the anti-virals which the companies will provide us, they are ready to increase the doses,”
States Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the INRB’s director-general.
Yes I bet they are ready to increase the doses!
Vaccinations begun just one week after the announcement of a second outbreak of Ebola this year in the country.
Meanwhile, another five treatments have been approved by the WHO including Zmapp, Regeneron, Remdesvir and Favipiravir
- A joint scientific committee has been established at the national level to evaluate existing experimental treatments for Ebola. This committee is composed of experts from the National Institute of Biomedical Research, the University of Kinshasa and partners such as WHO, MSF, UNICEF, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and UCLA. After validation of 5 treatments whose results were promising during the first phases of research, the scientific committee then submitted an application for approval to the ethics committee.
- On Friday, June 1, 2018, the National Ethics Committee gave a favorable opinion to the request made by the Scientific Committee.https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/africa/ebola-tracking-dem-republic-of-congo/793943-dr-congo-ebola-outbreak-confirmed-may-2018/page6
- In August 2014, the same month that the WHO declared Ebola to be a public health emergency, Canada’s federal government donated a vaccine for use in Africa that it had researched for biodefence purposes. The Public Health Agency of Canada licensed its manufacture to NewLink Genetics and eventually to Merck. This experimental vaccine, called rVSV-ZEBOV is now being used to vaccinate the public.
In 2015, the organisation, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, made a unique offer to all manufacturers that had a vaccine in Phase I clinical trials and beyond. They offered a pre-paid commitment to buy doses of licensed vaccines as and when the vaccine becomes available, confirming to the manufacturers that there was a guaranteed market for an effective Ebola vaccine.
In return they set three conditions: that the manufacturer submits an application for licensure by a set date; that they receive a special classification from the WHO that would allow it to be used in case of a public health emergency; and, most importantly, that they make a stockpile of investigational doses available in case of an outbreak while the vaccine is going through the licensing process.
https://europeansting.com/2018/06/01/we-finally-have-a-life-saving-vaccine-for-ebola/
This is a picture of Democratic Republic of the Congo Minister of Health Dr Oly Ilunga Kalenga reportedly receiving the Ebola vaccine
It appears that Who’s stockpile of 300,000 doses could, this time, be given without WHO declaring the new outbreak a health emergency of international concern, the “signal event” up to now for mass vaccination campaigns with unlicensed and risky jabs.
As of yesterday, 28th August, mass vaccinations were ongoing. http://www.africanews.com/2018/08/28/drc-ebola-epidemic-mass-vaccination-rolls-out-as-death-toll-rises//
A report in the BMJ states that National capacity to manage outbreaks, including workforce development and training, was reiterated as a priority after the west Africa Ebola outbreak. As an important first step, by the end of May 2018, 77 countries had completed joint external evaluation, an assessment of country capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to public health risks. (The same month of a reported Ebola outbreak!)https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3254
World Bank has created a new Pandemic Insurance policy in 2017. http://globalhealthgovernance.org/blog/2017/10/9/the-world-banks-new-pandemic-insurance-a-wise-use-of-donor-money
The World Bank put its new pandemic insurance policies and funding for pandemics into play in May.https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/world-bank-group-s-pandemic-emergency-financing-facility-pef-makes
The Executive Board of the World bank itself is accountable to no one. The Board of Governors, neither as a whole nor through the Development Committee, does not evaluate the performance of the Board as a corporate entity nor of the individual Executive Directors, nor of the Bank’s President.
Advance Purchase Commitment
Davos, 20 January 2016 – Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc. (known as MSD outside the U.S. and Canada) have signed an agreement to support the provision of a vaccine to protect against future deadly Ebola outbreaks. The agreement, announced today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, will help Merck take the vaccine through licensure and WHO prequalification.
Under the Advance Purchase Commitment, Gavi has provided US$ 5 million towards the development of Merck’s rVSV∆G-ZEBOV-GP live attenuated Ebola Zaire vaccine, on the understanding that it will be submitted for licensure by the end of 2017. If approved, it would become one of the world’s first licensed Ebola vaccines and Gavi would be able to begin purchasing the vaccine to create a stockpile for future outbreaks.
Additionally, Merck will ensure that 300,000 doses of the vaccine are available from May 2016 for use in expanded use clinical trials and/or for emergency use as needed while vaccine development continues. Merck has already submitted an application through WHO’s Emergency Use Assessment and Listing (EUAL) procedure. If the EUAL is approved, this will provide an opportunity for the investigational vaccine to be used if another public health emergency with Ebola occurs before the vaccine is licensed.https://www.gavi.org/library/news/press-releases/2016/ebola-vaccine-purchasing-commitment-from-gavi-to-prepare-for-future-outbreaks/
By announcing that an Ebola epidemic has occurred, the vaccine which has NOT been licensed or put through the proper safety tests can now be used.
Follow The Money : The new currency for smart commodity investors will be cobalt, which is poised to play a growing role in everyone’s life so, the rush is on for cobalt, a relatively rare metal that powers technologies like Tesla vehicles and iPhones. Smartphones use about eight grams of refined cobalt.
About 65% of the global supply comes from one of the world’s poorest countries, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC.
