Public Health
U.S. Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-NY) has introduced the Northern Border Reopening Act, which urges the Biden administration to end COVID-19 mandates for Canadians crossing the U.S. northern border.
“Vaccine mandates being imposed upon our truckers, workers in other essential industries, families, and... Read More »
The beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic were a fraught time for the medical supply chain, but a new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) notes that significant gains were made by the United States health supply chain and industrial base over the last year.
“The... Read More »
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted breakthrough therapy designation to a Bavarian Nordic A/S vaccine candidate known as MVA-BN RSV this week, setting the preventative for RSV up for a hastened review and development cycle.
The vaccine’s focus, known as respiratory... Read More »
In a letter to President Joe Biden, 116 Republican members of Congress, led by U.S. Rep. Bran Steil (WI), pressed the administration to immediately crack down on fentanyl distribution and list the drug as a permanent Schedule 1 substance.
Drug overdoses have been on the rise for years, though... Read More »
The U.S. Air Force has awarded a five-year, $17 million contract to Battelle to conduct research that advances health protection for the warfighter in present and near-future operational environments, the company announced Wednesday.
Awarded under the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Airman... Read More »
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) launched a new initiative this week to combat drug-related violent crime and overdose deaths in 34 major cities across 23 states.
Known as Operation Overdrive, this initiative intends to attack the criminal drug supply chain and associated violence as a... Read More »
With the introduction of the Tracking Pathogens Act (S. 3534) this week, U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) proposed the institution of national genomic sequence-based surveillance as a means of charting circulating pathogens, transmission patterns, and... Read More »
Trying to bolster U.S. public health and medical preparedness and response systems after COVID-19 exposed their flaws, U.S. Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Richard Burr (R-NC) have released a discussion draft of a new bill calling for overhaul across the board.
Known as the Prepare for and Respond... Read More »
Building on the nearly $9 billion in funding already granted to the Provider Relief Fund (PRF) and healthcare providers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced plans to make more than $2 billion of additional relief... Read More »
Formerly only used for patients hospitalized with COVID-19, the Gilead Sciences Inc. drug veklury – also known as remdesivir – was expanded by order of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week to include treatment for mild to moderate cases as well.
Both non-hospitalized adults... Read More »
U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Tim Burchett (R-TN), Tom Tiffany (R-WI), and Michael Guest (R-MS) recently introduced a measure they said would ensure fentanyl smuggler accountability for their role in the nation's opioid epidemic.
The Fentanyl Trafficker Elimination Act seeks to increase... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Tina Smith (D-MN), Susan Collins (R-ME), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced legislation Friday that would reinforce and expand the U.S. public health workforce in light of current shortages.
The legislation, Strengthening the Public Health Workforce Act, would... Read More »
In the latest effort to get ahead of future medical equipment shortages, U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) announced plans for the Medical and Health Stockpile Accountability Act last week, proposing a new tracking system and data sharing guidelines, and more.
While building greater resilience... Read More »
A group of lawmakers recently forwarded correspondence to Congressional leadership, noting the effort seeks prioritization of efforts to stop fentanyl trafficking.
U.S. Reps. Chris Pappas (D-NH) and Vern Buchanan (R-FL) led 36 of their colleagues in advocating action to permanently classify... Read More »
A bipartisan proposal from U.S. Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and Susan Collins (R-ME) seeks increased transparency through stronger requirements on foreign manufacturers of medical products utilized in the U.S., increasing those needing to register with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“Our... Read More »
In a letter to President Joe Biden this week, a collection of more than 40 sitting members of Congress led by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) urged administration action to expand access for and increase the supply of COVID-19 rapid tests.
Demanding more... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at eight South Texas ports of entry seized significantly more cocaine and fentanyl in 2021, officials said Wednesday.
According to CBP, officers have seized 1,066 percent more fentanyl and 98 percent more cocaine in fiscal year 2021, than in... Read More »
In a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, U.S. Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) requested explanations for the nation’s COVID-19 testing shortages amid rising omicron variant infection cases.
Specifically, they blasted the Biden... Read More »
Through an amendment (H.R. 4350) to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed last week, U.S. Sens. Tina Smith (D-MN), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) guaranteed a new federal study for the logistics of distributing COVID-19 doses abroad and ensuring vaccine... Read More »
In an effort to boost the number of EMTs available to New York during any winter surges of COVID-19, a new training partnership began last week between the New York State Department of Health and the New York National Guard.
While Gov. Kathy Hochul had already deployed 60 National Guard medical... Read More »
Following an accelerated review process, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week approved two new over-the-counter COVID-19 tests in a two-month turnaround time, opening the market to millions of new Roche and Siemens tests.
"Increasing Americans' access to easy-to-use, reliable... Read More »
The $770 billion Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA; S. 1605) was signed into law last week, and among its many provisions were funding for addressing both Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) contamination throughout the United States.
This will take the form of new... Read More »
MilliporeSigma, based in Sheboygan, Wis., has secured a Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) pact to establish domestic nitrocellulose membrane production capacity.
The $136.7 million contract would enable MilliporeSigma to expand its industrial base to... Read More »
The Independent Allocation of Vaccines Group (IAVG), a manager of needs-based allocations for the global COVAX initiative, criticized rich nations last week for hoarding COVID-19 vaccines and issued steps to achieve a new goal of 70 percent immunization coverage by mid-2022.
“As the overall... Read More »
As the number of Omicron variant cases of COVID-19 grows, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued updated guidance for healthcare workers regarding their isolation and quarantine times after being infected.
Additionally, the CDC updated its guidance for contingency and... Read More »
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) bestowed emergency use authorization (EUA) to Roche’s COVID-19 at-home test last week, expanding over-the-counter options for those concerned about SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.
As a result, the test will now be available for self-use by... Read More »
The United States authorized the first two pill-based treatments for COVID-19 last week, with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granting emergency use authorization to both Pfizer Inc.’s paxlovid and Merck & Co. Inc.’s molnupiravir.
Taking the honor of first approval was paxlovid.... Read More »
The Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness will award up to $50 million in expanded support to SK bioscience as the company pursues a variant-proof vaccine candidate for sarbecoviruses, a group of viruses from which SARS-CoV-2 emerged.
“The rapid spread of the Omicron variant serves as a stark... Read More »
In preliminary showings, a third dose of Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine increased antibody levels against the Omicron variant currently sweeping the world, painting the company’s strategy forward even as a years-long pandemic continues to evolve.
The report followed news that omicron, which... Read More »
Worried by rising COVID-19 variants and the threats of future pandemics, a collection of United States lawmakers last week dispatched a letter to the Senate and House Appropriations Committees asking for further funding in the Fiscal Year 2022 appropriations bill to support global... Read More »
The fight against COVID-19 earned another contender last week with the granting of an emergency use listing from the World Health Organization (WHO) to NVX-CoV2373, a vaccine created by Novavax and the first protein-based COVID-19 vaccine to earn that listing.
Better known as COVOVAX, as... Read More »
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has revealed that criminal drug networks based in Mexico are mass-producing fentanyl and fentanyl-laced products for sale in the United States.
Fentanyl has been one of the major drivers of overdose deaths in recent years. Today, the DEA claims that... Read More »
A new report released by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security this week determined that the failure to incorporate primary care providers into the frontline response to COVID-19 and the larger public health system could have improved care, testing, and vaccination acceptance.
In... Read More »
Results came in this week from a Phase 2/3 trial of Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 oral antiviral treatment, and the data showed a drug capable of cutting risks of hospitalization or death by 89 percent among high-risk adults, when given within a few days of their first symptoms.
The final data from... Read More »
Seeking broader protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants and other betacoronaviruses, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced this week that it would invest up to $4.5 million into development of a vaccine candidate based on Affinivax, Inc.’s Multiple Antigen Presenting... Read More »
