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Last week, U.S. Reps. Ami Bera (D-CA), M.D. and Don Young (R-AK) introduced a bill to reauthorize a national tuberculosis strategy, authorize grants for state health departments to focus on TB in high-risk populations, and promote interagency coordination in containing the disease.
Despite the... Read More »
The antiviral Molnupiravir became the first oral treatment for COVID-19 to receive authorization this week, winning approval from the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency for treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 cases in adults.
Specifically, users must have had at... Read More »
Republican U.S. senators took aim at the Biden administration’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 epidemic during a Thursday hearing, criticizing the new mandate on vaccinations and blaming federal policies for shortages of therapeutics, testing and other critical materials.
“Cases and... Read More »
A Q2 Solutions Co., Ltd. lab facility in Beijing, China, became the first East Asian lab to join the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations’ (CEPI) centralized COVID-19 lab network this week.
“I am delighted to today welcome Q2 Solutions’ facility in Beijing to this group of... Read More »
The failures, successes, and lessons learned from the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines should be incorporated immediately into future pandemic vaccine planning if the world hopes to avoid the delays and pitfalls of the modern ecosystem, according to a new report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health... Read More »
Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notified Moderna, Inc. that an assessment of an emergency use authorization request for its COVID-19 vaccine to be used on adolescents may not be completed before January 2022.
The delay was due to a stated necessity to evaluate recent... Read More »
The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator released a new strategic plan last week that seeks $23.4 billion from international investors by September 2022 to patch inequalities in access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, vaccines, and personal protective equipment.
This is particularly... Read More »
According to a new report from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), the world is broken in its inequality, division, and lack of accountability, making a health emergency ecosystem incapable of ending the COVID-19 pandemic or preventing another.
The opportunity for reform is... Read More »
With the investment of $26 million announced this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hopes to modernize the science of infectious disease prediction and analytics.
The first investments from CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CFA) -- which is expected... Read More »
Legislation from U.S. Reps. Lori Trahan (D-MA) and David B. McKinley (R-WV) will be considered in an upcoming hearing hosted by the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee, the legislators said Monday.
The Bolstering Infectious Outbreaks (BIO) Preparedness Workforce Act... Read More »
The Biden-Harris administration has reprioritized global health security at the top of America’s national security agenda in efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic and bolster health systems worldwide by improving preparation, prevention, detection, and response to the next public health... Read More »
In recent weeks, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has invested more than $562 million into U.S. companies to boost domestic manufacturing of COVID-19 tests and supplies.
These funds, pulled from the American Rescue Plan Act, have benefited supplies such as pipette tips,... Read More »
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) announced it had joined the international Human Vaccines Project (HVP) Thursday, bringing its expertise and computing resources to the project to aid the development of a universal coronavirus vaccine and to improve understanding of immune response.... Read More »
Recognizing the delays that have plagued low-income countries at nearly every aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced this week a pledge of up to $120 million to accelerate access to the antiviral drug molnupiravir among low-income nations.
Molnupiravir is... Read More »
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 397-22 to approve a bipartisan bill that aims to reform how the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) is administered and managed. The legislation now heads to the U.S. Senate for consideration.
The Strengthening America’s Strategic National... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, grilled Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus, President Joe Biden’s nominee for Commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), on the need for enhanced border security... Read More »
Fed up with the dangers of an unprepared and underfunded public health system, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) voiced support this week for a fiscal year 2022 bill that would increase Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funding by $1.85 billion.
The bill, released by the Labor, Health... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported last week that tuberculosis (TB) deaths rose for the first time in more than a decade as COVID-19 continues to impact the world.
According to WHO, approximately 1.5 million people died as a result of TB in 2020. The organization noted that fewer... Read More »
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced it would be joining several agencies in New York City to conduct above-ground and below-ground air sampling studies.
The studies will help urban areas prepare for and recover from... Read More »
The all-star team of government officials, scientists and industry executives who tackled COVID-19 made great strides in the development of an effective vaccine against the novel virus, but that is no guarantee that the United States will be ready for the next pandemic that rears its head, speakers... Read More »
Shortly after the terrorist events of Sept. 11, 2001, letters containing deadly anthrax spores arrived at locations across the country, killing five Americans and sickening 17 others. Twenty years after these incidents, considered the worst biological attacks in U.S. history, the federal government... Read More »
In a letter to high-ranking members of the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 response efforts, three Democratic senators and representatives this week urged a cautious review of the United States Health and Human Services (HHS) contract with Moderna, Inc. and called for efforts to expand global... Read More »
Through exercise of an option with Moderna, Inc., Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance will purchase another 176.5 million doses of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine in an effort to help low income countries over the course of the next year, through the COVAX Facility.
With this purchase, COVAX will have... Read More »
A group of United States senators last week reintroduced an effort to update the Volunteer Protection Act of 1997 and extend legal protections for medical volunteers working in federally-recognized disaster relief efforts.
Authored by U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and... Read More »
Following investigation by Border Patrol agents in Southern California -- El Centro Sector -- some 1,000 fentanyl pills were seized last week at a checkpoint and two United States citizens arrested for smuggling.
A pair of 33-year-old men were detained with what amounted to $6,500 worth of... Read More »
Two bipartisan bills from U.S. Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and Rob Portman (R-OH) on cybersecurity and infrastructure were approved by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee and now head to the full Senate for a vote.
The bills, which require critical infrastructure owners... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended the first vaccine to treat malaria in children, a mosquito-borne disease that kills more than 260,000 children under the age of five annually in sub-Saharan Africa, in what public health officials have called a historic development.
“The... Read More »
Ending speculation, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) this week officially submitted data to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to request emergency use authorization (EUA) for a booster version of its COVID-19 vaccine among patients at least 18 years old.
Recent data showed that the J&J... Read More »
In a new report issued this week, the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense warned that the United States needs to protect infrastructure, share and secure information, and maintain public works and services, or risk further devastation from biological threats like COVID-19.
The report was titled... Read More »
According to an announcement from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week, two upcoming meetings of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) will be held next week to address the newest COVID-19 vaccine data.
These meetings will be... Read More »
Results of an interim analysis for the Phase 3 trial of molnupiravir, an investigational oral antiviral for COVID-19 produced by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, showed the drug capable of cutting hospitalization or death risk approximately in half.
For the purposes of the trial, over the... Read More »
Nerve agent poisoning can result in a quick death, causing the central and peripheral nervous systems to shut down. For those fortunate enough to receive medical care and survive exposure, long-lasting side effects are probable, including seizures, extreme muscle spasms, and diminished mental... Read More »
Reckoning with the dangers of further viruses like SARS-CoV-2, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) this week awarded approximately $36.3 million to three academic institutions to help research into vaccines for coronaviruses and their variants.
The end goal is to... Read More »
In a letter dispatched to Congress this week, 24 stakeholder organizations urged Congressional leaders to back the $16 billion funding level for pandemic preparedness advanced by the House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this year.
That funding was attached as part of the Build Back Better... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) remains without permanent leadership during the nation’s ongoing battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It's of top concern that President Biden still has not nominated someone to serve as permanent FDA commissioner,” a House Energy and Commerce... Read More »
