Government
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) personnel said the agency is seeking global proposals addressing pandemic response, as well as current and future needs.
The Emerging Needs: Covid-19 Response & Future Mitigation topic call was introduced via the... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. signed an agreement with AstraZeneca to provide contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services for large-scale manufacturing of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
The $174 million deal runs through 2021. It follows an $87 million contract in June for... Read More »
A group of lawmakers are espousing the benefits of extending the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program for three years, noting the action secures chemical facilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI), James Lankford (R-OK), Tom Carper (D-DE) and other... Read More »
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials recently conducted its initial China Working Group session as a means of addressing response to evolving threats posed by China.
“The Chinese threat is intensifying at an alarming rate through CCP’s malign activity in the trade, cybersecurity,... Read More »
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued the Department of Defense (DoD) a recommendation regarding its annual Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) flight test plan.
The GAO said the DOD’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Director should ensure an independent assessment of the... Read More »
The United States Department of Defense (DoD) awarded a $4.9 million contact to the Pall Corp. last week for efforts to expand the domestic industrial base capacity for medical ventilator filters.
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare a critical need for ventilators in the U.S., but over the... Read More »
A group of lawmakers are espousing the benefits of the Senate’s recent passage of a FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) amendment designed to bolster cybersecurity.
Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Gary Peters (D-MI) said the amendment... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will lift its ban on the Trusted Traveler Program (TTP) for New York residents.
The ban, in place since February, was lifted after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature amended the law that prevents sharing of information to federal law... Read More »
California seeks to bolster its strategic stockpile of protective masks to guarantee the shortcomings exposed by the COVID-19 outbreak never happen again, and as part of that, the state has signed a new contract with BYD North America for 420 million masks.
That order includes 120 million N-95... Read More »
Scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published a framework in the New England Journal of Medicine this week for efforts to increase the number, quality and type of daily tests for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to 6 million by the end of 2020.
This has taken the... Read More »
The U.S. Senate’s 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes legislation that
would help the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warn the owners and operators of critical infrastructure computer systems that it is vulnerable to cyberattacks.
The bill gives... Read More »
The House of Representatives’ recent unanimous vote to extend the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards program (CFATS) has garnered plaudits from lawmakers and chemical industry organizations.
CFATS is the nation’s first regulatory program focusing specifically on security at high-risk... Read More »
A pair of lawmakers are espousing the benefits of the House of Representatives’ passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY21.
Reps. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) and Adam Smith (D-WA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, offered statements regarding the... Read More »
A new program -- the National Testing Implementation Forum -- announced by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week will gather input from private stakeholders across the U.S. to inform federal testing and diagnostics efforts for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes... Read More »
A federal grand jury in Spokane, Wash., indicted two hackers from the People’s Republic of China for alleged cyberattacks on hundreds of computer systems of companies, governments, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in the United States and abroad.
Officials alleged the global... Read More »
Up to 600 million doses of a vaccine candidate produced by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech could be acquired by the United States government under a deal penned this week.
All of this would be conditional on the vaccine’s successful manufacture and either Emergency Use Authorization or licensure... Read More »
U.S. Reps. Jim Langevin (D-RI) and Mike Gallagher (R-WI), commissioners of the Cyberspace Solarium, applauded the inclusion of budget amendments to the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that implement recommendations from the Solarium Commission’s report.
The Cyberspace Solarium... Read More »
Republican committee leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives are urging the Trump administration to impose consequences on China-linked hackers who have targeted U.S. institutions, including sanctions.
“We applaud your administration’s work to ramp up the investigation and prosecution... Read More »
Sens. Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) introduced Monday legislation targeting potentially harmful counterfeit medical products while also protecting patients from such dangers.
The Safeguarding Therapeutics Act would empower the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to seize and destroy... Read More »
Several biopharmaceutical companies are working in unprecedented fashion to develop, manufacture and deliver a safe and effective vaccine to combat COVID-19 as soon as is humanly possible.
Executives from five companies developing COVID-19 vaccine candidates — AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Johnson &... Read More »
The United States was just as dangerously unprepared to combat a coronavirus pandemic in 2020 as it was back in 2015, former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman noted in the opening remarks of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense’s virtual meeting on Tuesday, setting the tone for a critical examination of... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reissued an emergency use authorization (EUA) to Quest Diagnostics for its COVID-19 test.
The Quest test is the first COVID-19 diagnostic test to be authorized for use with pooled samples containing up to four individual swab specimens collected under... Read More »
A group of U.S. Senators recently called on Congress to provide at least $5.6 billion in federal funding to support the COVID-19 vaccine infrastructure.
The funding -- needed to boost the country’s vaccine supply and distribution system -- should be included in the next coronavirus relief... Read More »
Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) forwarded correspondence last week to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) personnel, urging efforts to bolster cybersecurity infrastructure against Russia and China threats.
Gardner maintains the advocacy... Read More »
A group of Florida lawmakers recently forwarded correspondence to the Department of Health and Human Services as a means of increasing the state’s COVID-19 drug allotment.
Reps. Donna Shalala (D-FL) and Charlie Crist (D-FL) joined Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rick Scott (R-FL) in leading the... Read More »
With news that appropriations bills aimed at addressing the COVID-19 pandemic had passed out of House committees this week, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) examined and declared the bills to provide critical resources, albeit with significant gaps and inadequate funding.
This... Read More »
The U.S. Army has awarded FLIR Systems a $21.8 million contract to deliver its Agentase C2 spray to detect G- and V-series nerve agents, which are highly toxic chemical warfare agents.
It is a full-rate production option worth $21.8 million on an indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity (IDIQ)... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is calling on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and implement a COVID-19 wastewater surveillance program.
Testing wastewater has been proven as a successful method to detect viruses and... Read More »
A trio of lawmakers have introduced a bill they said requires the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to conduct a trial program to check passenger temperatures before advancing through airport security.
Reps. Ralph Norman (R-SC), Ted Budd (R-NC) and John Larson (D-CT) said the TSA... Read More »
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), along with other infectious disease associations, are opposed to the Trump Administration’s decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The decision will weaken the nation’s ability to control the... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced a deal to work with Smiths Medical to expand the domestic manufacturing capacity for safety needles and syringes.
BARDA, along with the DoD’s Joint Program Executive Office for... Read More »
Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) officials said the organization has launched Finding Exploits to Thwart Tampering (FETT), its inaugural bug bounty program.
The endeavor, which officials said seeks to uncover potential weaknesses within new secure processors in development on the... Read More »
Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) has introduced a measure that ensures military firefighters exposed to toxic per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) chemicals receive Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) healthcare.
Currently, military firefighters exposed to firefighting foam containing PFAS are not... Read More »
The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee approved legislation on Wednesday to strengthen public health security by bolstering the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) and boosting the domestic manufacturing of medical supplies to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bipartisan Strengthening... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) is requesting more funding for potential COVID-19 vaccines in any new coronavirus relief package.
“As you continue your work on critical legislation to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, I write to you today to urge your support for robust funding that will help... Read More »
