Epidemics and pandemics

GAIN OF FUNCTION RESEARCHGain-of-Function Research Is More Than Just Tweaking Risky Viruses – It’s a Routine and Essential Tool in All Biology Research
By Seema Lakdawala and Anice Lowen
Updates to current oversight are not unreasonable, but blanket bans or additional restrictions on gain-of-function research do not make society safer. Gain-of-function experiments are not inherently risky or the purview of mad scientists. In fact, gain-of-function approaches are a fundamental tool in biology. Misunderstanding the term “gain of function” as something nefarious comes at the cost of progress in human health.
- Read more
COVID ORIGINSNew Genetic Study Finds SARS-CoV-2 Originated in Wildlife Trade
There is no scientific consensus on the origins of COVID, but the Trump administration is treating the speculative lab leak theory as a given. The administration claims that the lab leak theory has been “confirmed,” even though it is no more than a mere conjecture. In fact, the most recent study, published Wednesday, lends support to the zoonotic spillover theory.
- Read more

PUBLIC HEALTHAs Measles Outbreaks Grow, Trump Cuts Hinder Vaccination Efforts
By Tim Henderson
935 cases have been reported across 29 states, including 3 deaths. DOGE-driven $11 billion in cuts of federal funding for states’ health efforts forced states to cancel vaccination clinics needed to combat this year’s measles outbreak.
- Read more
PUBLIC HEALTHAfter COVID, Texas Is Less Prepared for the Next Pandemic
By Eleanor Klibanoff
Five years after Texas’ first COVID death, the state spends less on public health, vaccination rates have dropped and a distrust of authority has taken hold.
- Read more

PUBLIC HEALTHAmid Growing Numbers of Measles Cases, Chaos Continues at HHS
While continuing to peddle alternative remedies to those suffering from measles, Secretary Kennedy also did an interview in which he implied that contracting measles is better than being vaccinated for it. Unfortunately for Kennedy – and those who have contracted the disease — vitamin A and cod liver oil are not going to cut it in responding to this expanding outbreak.
- Read more
VACCINESCOVID Vaccination Saved More Than 5,000 U.S. Lives in 7 Months in 2023-24, CDC Estimates
By Mary Van Beusekom
COVID-19 vaccination averted more than 5,000 US in-hospital deaths, 13,000 intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and 68,000 hospitalizations in 7 months in 2023-2024, researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated late last week.
- Read more

COVIDHouse Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Releases Final Report
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic recently published its final report. The more than 500-page document covers a variety of topics, including vaccines, use of pandemic relief funds, and public health guidance.
- Read more
EPIDEMICSMathematical Models Tackle Covid Infection Dynamics
Even years after the emergence of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the workings of SARS-CoV-2 infection inside the human body, including the early activity of the virus and the role of the body’s immune response, has proved difficult to precisely ascertain.
- Read more

COVID ORIGINSDid COVID Come from an Animal Market? Here’s What the New Evidence Really Tells Us
By Mark Woolhouse
I have studied the origins of human viruses for 25 years but, having examined the evidence, I still don’t know how the COVID pandemic began. I do know that the question is important and that debating it should be encouraged, not stifled.
- Read more
PANDEMICSPreparing for a Pandemic That Never Came Ended Up Setting Off Another − How an Accidental Virus Release Triggered 1977’s ‘Russian Flu’
By Donald S. Burke
Overreaction. Unintended consequences. Making matters worse. Self-fulfilling prophecy. There is a rich variety of terms to describe how the best intentions can go awry. Still reeling from COVID-19, the world now faces new threats from cross-species jumps of avian flu viruses, mpox viruses and others. It’s critical that we be quick to respond to these emerging threats to prevent yet another global disease conflagration. Quick, but not too quick, history suggests.
- Read more

BIODEFENSENational Bio and Agro-Defense Facility Comes Under Budget
DHS has commissioned the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kansas under budget, and has returned $10,082,355.80 in gift funds to the state of Kansas.
- Read more
EPIDEMICSStudies Find Little to No Immunity to H5N1 Avian Flu Virus in Americans
By Lisa Schnirring
The American population has little to no pre-existing immunity to the H5N1 avian flu virus circulating on dairy and poultry farms, according to preliminary findings from ongoing testing by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
- Read more

COVIDStudy Reveals Persistent Risk of Death, Symptoms in COVID Survivors at 3 Years
By Mary Van Beusekom
COVID-19 patients hospitalized with the wild-type virus in 2020 were at a 29% higher risk for death than their nonhospitalized counterparts 3 years later, and even those with mild illness still reported new-onset health consequences.
- Read more
COVID VACCINEGround-Breaking Study Reveals How COVID-19 Vaccines Prevent Severe Disease
A landmark study by scientists at the University of Oxford, has unveiled crucial insights into the way that COVID-19 vaccines mitigate severe illness in those who have been vaccinated.
- Read more
DISINFORMATIONX's Crowdsourced Tool to Counter COVID Untruths mainly accurate, credible: Researchers
By Mary Van Beusekom
Community Notes, a crowdsourced COVID-19 vaccine misinformation countermeasure on X (formerly Twitter), generally corrected false posts accurately and pointed readers to more credible sources, according to researchers who evaluated the posts.
- Read more

More headlines