Countermeasures
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials said aircrews, agents and officers are supporting local, state, and federal efforts for a safe and secure Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Fla.
“U.S. Customs and Border Protection is working diligently to help secure Super Bowl LV through air and maritime... Read More »
The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) has been meeting with subscribers in the Nashville area and some surrounding areas that experienced outages after a Nashville bombing.
The Dec. 25, 2020 bombing of a Nashville AT&T building did not impact FirstNet network infrastructure... Read More »
In its first-ever global assessment of country health information systems, released this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that while two-thirds of low-income countries have some form of system to report causes of death, there is a widespread need for improvement.
This has been... Read More »
Visby Medical, Inc. was awarded a Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) this week that will allow it to expand efforts surrounding the Visby Personal PCR Test, a COVID-19 test seeking to add the capability to distinguish between influenza cases.
The test is meant to be... Read More »
Members of the Democrat-controlled U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee argued Wednesday the Trump administration’s actions on COVID-19 were inadequate to bring the pandemic under control and only the massive expenditure being called for by President Joe Biden will be enough to defeat the... Read More »
U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) reintroduced legislation designed to fund better training for police officers.
Further, the Just and Unifying Solutions to Invigorate Communities Everywhere (JUSTICE) Act would increase the number of body cameras and provide grants to police departments to help... Read More »
The UK Government has ordered 40 million more doses of Valneva’s adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine candidate for supply in 2022.
This increases the total doses of the Valneva vaccine ordered by the UK Government to 100 million. Plus, the UK Government retains options for possibly a further 90... Read More »
Air Force officials said two firms have been selected to compete for task orders through the five-year Software Development Security Operations (DevSecOps) Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) contract.
The Air Force selected Northrop Grumman Corporation and Lockheed Martin for the endeavor. Northrop... Read More »
Avails Medical, a Menlo Park, California diagnostics company, has secured an award worth up to $2.5 million from CARB-X to develop an electronic antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) device.
The innovation would expedite healthcare providers’ ability to determine the most effective... Read More »
The United States Departments of Defense (DoD) and Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded $231.8 million to Ellume USA LLC this week to expand the domestic production capacity of its COVID-19 Home Test.
These funds will increase Ellume’s U.S. production capacity by 640,000 tests per day by... Read More »
With fears growing over mutated strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that have spread from the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil, Innova Medical Group, Inc. provided some relief this week with confirmation that its antigen test kits are capable of identifying all three.
"As these dangerous... Read More »
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced Thursday that it would be expanding its Operation Crystal Shield to include the cities of Chicago and San Francisco.
DEA Special Agent in Charge Robert J. Bell with the Chicago Field Division said the two cities have been designated... Read More »
A bill that seeks to help schools improve security measures was introduced in the U.S. Senate.
The Luke and Alex School Safety Act of 2021 would codify the Federal Clearinghouse on School Safety into law. The clearinghouse is available at SchoolSafety.gov and informs parents and educators on... Read More »
Novartis signed an agreement with Pfizer-BioNTech to leverage its manufacturing capacity and capabilities to support the production of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.
Through this agreement, Novartis will use its aseptic manufacturing facilities at its site in Stein, Switzerland. Through... Read More »
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officials said the agency would be collaborating with federal, state, and local law enforcement to provide public safety efforts for Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Florida.
“I am proud of the efforts of HSI Tampa, the National Intellectual Property Rights... Read More »
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a series of recommendations regarding the federal COVID-19 response via the CARES Act, focusing on critical gaps and plans to address the gaps.
The GAO indicated the agency's recommendation concerning the importance of clear and... Read More »
A new forecast from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington establishes the danger of two new variants of COVID-19, warning of the possibility of a surge of deaths later this year, even despite the vaccine rollout.
According to the report, B.1.351 -- the... Read More »
Those residents of the European Union 18 years or older will now be able to get AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to prevent COVID-19, following a conditional marketing authorization granted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The approval will allow AstraZeneca to begin working with the EU... Read More »
The New Jersey Senate has passed legislation that would require doctors to prescribe an opioid overdose antidote in conjunction with any opioids they prescribe for high-risk patients.
The bill, S-2323, aims to reduce the number of opioid deaths in that state.
“The opioid crisis continues... Read More »
A bipartisan bill was introduced in Congress to ensure that federal firefighters, law enforcement officials, Border Patrol officers, and other federal first responders qualify for full retirement benefits if they are injured on the job.
The First Responder Fair RETIRE Act addresses inequities... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, or CEPI, is awarding up to $140 million in funding to research institutions for clinical data on COVID-19 vaccines.
This initiative aims to fill in existing clinical research and development gaps to expand access to COVID-19 vaccines. The... Read More »
House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul (R-TX) reintroduced the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership (TSCTP) Act (H.R. 567), which authorizes an interagency program to strengthen counterterrorism operations and while improving the coordination of assistance to address... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently joined Cactus League officials and affiliates in an exercise designed to review pre-incident preparedness measures and response plans.
For the second consecutive year, the tabletop exercise... Read More »
Novavax, Inc. demonstrated a strong showing of its COVID-19 vaccine last week, posting an 89.3 percent efficacy in a United Kingdom-based phase three trial, conducted in partnership with the UK government’s Vaccines Taskforce.
Notably, this vaccine was also pitted against variants of the... Read More »
Even with the rollout of mass vaccination worldwide, COVID-19’s spread is nowhere near an immediate end.
So, it might seem perplexing when biosecurity researchers appear optimistic about a future without pandemics.
That reality is exactly what a new report has outlined. Released this week... Read More »
The results of the phase three ENSEMBLE clinical trial have shown that Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot Janssen COVID-19 vaccine candidate is 66 percent effective overall at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19 cases 28 days after vaccination.
The study also showed that the vaccine... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) Bulletin this week, citing a heightened threat environment across the United States that is likely to persist over the coming weeks.
The acting DHS secretary issued the bulletin after consultation with... Read More »
Combatting Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CARB-X) awarded $5.3 million to Lumen Bioscience to develop a new immunotherapy to prevent diarrheal diseases caused by two specific pathogens -- Campylobacter jejuni and enterotoxigenic E. coli.
Diarrheal diseases are intestinal infections caused by... Read More »
Colorado's congressional delegation is encouraging President Joe Biden to suspend the Trump administration's decision to move Space Command from Colorado Springs, Colo., to Huntsville, Ala., until a thorough review.
On Jan. 13, the Air Force announced Huntsville would serve as the Space Command... Read More »
Marine Corps officials said the branch's completion of defense-focused training engagement in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with UAE forces enhances collective crisis response capability in the region.
During the week-long initiative, two crisis response forces participated in live-fire... Read More »
The RTS,S/AS01E malaria vaccine is the focus of a new product transfer agreement between GSK, PATH, and Bharat Biotech (BBIL), which will see manufacturing, supply, and rights split between the three entities.
Under the arrangement, manufacturing of the RTS,S antigen and licensing rights to the... Read More »
A new agreement between Sanofi and BioNTech grants the latter access to Sanofi’s infrastructure to aid manufacturing of the COVID-19 vaccine BioNTech has co-developed with Pfizer, granting them the ability to make more than 125 million doses for Europe from summer on.
“Although vaccination... Read More »
The Biden administration’s plan to tackle COVID-19 includes delivering at least 100 million vaccines in 100 days to the American people. As of this week it was also announced that the federal government purchased 200 million additional doses from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, enough to vaccinate... Read More »
Specialty vaccine company Valneva and Instituto Butantan signed an agreement to develop Valneva’s single-shot chikungunya vaccine, VLA1553, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
As part of the collaboration, Valneva will transfer its chikungunya vaccine technology to Instituto Butantan,... Read More »
A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators introduced a bill that seeks to shut down international commercial wildlife markets.
The Preventing Future Pandemics Act would direct the State Department to work with international partners to shut down commercial wildlife markets and stop the associated... Read More »
