• Israel Was a Leader in the COVID Vaccination Race. So Why Are Cases Spiraling There?

    By Michael Head

    Israel has been one of the focal points of the pandemic in 2021 owing to its rapid rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.Recently, however, Israel has reported significant outbreaks, with over 10,000 confirmed new cases being recorded each day in early September.

  • Vaccine Passport Missteps We Should Not Repeat

    By Alexis Hancock, Adam Schwartz, and Jon Callas

    As they roll out, we must protect users of vaccine passports and those who do not want to use—or cannot use—a digitally scannable means to prove vaccination. We cannot let the tools used to fight for public health be subverted into systems to perpetuate inequity or as cover for unrelated, unnecessary data collection.

  • A Third of Americans Already Had COVID-19 by the End of 2020

    New research estimates that 103 million Americans, or 31 percent of the U.S. population, had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 by the end of 2020. The researchers modeled the spread of the coronavirus, finding that fewer than one-quarter of infections (22 percent) were accounted for in cases confirmed through public health reports based on testing.

  • U.S. Intelligence: Origins of COVID-19 Unclear, but Virus “Probably” Not Genetically Engineered

    The U.S. intelligence community (IC) says that the results of its 3-months investigation into the origins of COVID-19 are “inconclusive,” but that COVID was “probably” not developed as a biological weapon or genetically engineered (that is, it was not created by a gain-of-function research).

  • Animal Origin or Lab-Leak Theory? What Sparked the COVID-19 Pandemic

    “We can’t rule out the possibility of a lab accident. It can’t be dismissed entirely, but there’s no evidence for it right now. The weight of evidence that we do have points to this pandemic emerging from markets in Wuhan that sold wildlife, probably illegally,” says University of Utah’s Stephen Goldsgtein. To support the lab-leak theory, “the key piece of evidence that we would want to see is that there is evidence that this virus was present in a lab before the pandemic. Right now, there’s no evidence that this virus was known to humanity before it was first identified in patient samples in Wuhan in December 2019.”

  • The National Stockpile: Modernizing for a Dynamic Response

    By Diane DiEuliis & Patrick Terrell

    Response to a spreading illness in many ways is not rocket science:  treat the sick, protect the vulnerable, and stop the spread – mainly accomplished via the tools and products of biotechnology.  Many are now asking, what could we have done better in the pandemic response? 

  • U.S. Intelligence Community's Report Inconclusive on COVID-19 Origins

    In May, the U.S. intelligence community (IC) was tasked by President Joe Biden to investigate the origins of CVID-19. On Tuesday, the IC delivered its assessment to the White House. The IC report is inconclusive, offering no definitive answer to the question of whether COVID-19 jumped to humans naturally, or was released from a lab.

  • Report: Lab-Leak Theory of COVID-19 Origins Lacking Evidence So Far

    A new scientific report says that the lab-leak theory of the origins of COVID-19 has, so far, no evidence to support it. “Preventing future pandemics requires the political will to cut off the routes by which these viruses enter the human population. Focusing on the wrong direction will preclude those efforts from occurring,” says the report’s lead author. Regarding the lab-leak theory, the researcher adds: “It can’t be dismissed entirely, but it is highly unlikely. There’s no evidence for it right now.”

  • What Scientists Do and Don’t Know about COVID-19 Origins | The Rise of the Coronavirus Lab-Leak Theory | The Lab Leak Theory Doesn’t Hold Up, and more

    Editor’s note: This is the first of a 2-part list of the best articles on the origins of COVID-19. Tomorrow we will publish the second part of the list.

    ·  The COVID Lab-Leak Hypothesis: What Scientists Do and Don’t Know

    ·  The Known Knowns, Known Unknowns, and Unknown Unknowns of COVID-19

    ·  The Lab Leak Theory Doesn’t Hold Up

    ·  How COVID-19’s Origins Were Obscured, by the East and the West

    ·  The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins

    ·  After the Lab-Leak Theory, U.S.-Chinese Relations Head Downhill

    ·  The Sudden Rise of the Coronavirus Lab-Leak Theory

    ·  China Is Pushing Its Own Coronavirus Lab Leak Theory in Latest Battle of Narratives

    ·  The Case against the Covid-19 Lab Leak Theory

    ·  Republican Report Says Coronavirus Leaked from China Lab; Scientists Still Probing Origins

    ·  The Right Way to Investigate the Origins of COVID-19

  • Large Pandemics Are More Likely Than We Thought

    The COVID-19 pandemic may be the deadliest viral outbreak the world has seen in more than a century. But statistically, such extreme events aren’t as rare as we may think. Most people are likely to experience an extreme pandemic like COVID-19 in their lifetime, a new study shows.

  • Data Mining Tools Tackle COVID-19 Misinformation, Identify Symptoms

    Computer scientists use Google Trends and a government dataset to track both COVID-19 symptoms and sift through misinformation about the disease on social media.

  • CDC Sets Up New Disease Forecasting Center

    The CDC announced a new center — the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics — designed to advance the use of forecasting and outbreak analytics in public health decision making. Among other missions, the new center will accelerate access to and use of data for public health decision-makers who need information to mitigate the effects of disease threats, such as social and economic disruption.

  • Investments in Nature Needed to Stop the Next Pandemic: Experts

    A group of leading scientific experts from the U.S., Latin America, Africa and South Asia released a report outlining the strong scientific foundations for taking actions to stop the next pandemic by preventing the spillover of pathogens from animals to people. Among other findings, the report notes that protecting forests and changing agricultural practices are essential, cost-effective actions to prevent pandemics.

  • Focusing on Zoonotic Diseases

    Experts warn that zoonotic diseases—diseases caused by germs that spread from animals to people—are a growing and increasingly dangerous threat to global public health. Veterinarian and PNNL data scientist Lauren Charles talks animal-borne diseases—and how biosurveillance can help combat them

  • Debate over Origins of COVID-19 Continues

    At the end of the month, the U.S. intelligence community (IC) will submit a report to President Joe Biden offering the IC’s conclusions regarding the origins of COVID-1. The report is not likely to put an end to the debate, especially since China is refusing access to key materials and personnel.