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Debate Over COVID Origins Continues
Late last week, ProPublica published an article claiming to have unveiled new information from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) supporting the lab leak theory of COVID-19’s origin. Now, the piece some have described as a train wreck is being heavily criticized for having faulty translations, mis-matched dates, misrepresenting the sources of the documents discussed in it, not understanding how common VPN usage is in China-related research, and more.
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Senate Panel Minority Staff Report Argues for Lab-Leak Theory of COVID Origins
The Republican minority staff of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee earlier this week issued a 35-page report contending that “SARS-CoV-2 and the resulting COVID-19 global pandemic was, more likely than not, the result of a research-related incident associated with coronavirus research in Wuhan, China.” The report has failed to win over prominent supporters of the lab leak theory, including Rutgers University’s Dr. Richard Ebright, who said that “there was no information in the report that has not been publicly presented in the media and discussed in the media previously.”
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Coronavirus Origins: The Debate Flares Up, but the Evidence Remains Weak
A recent, not-yet-peer-reviewed, study claims to have identified possibly unusual sequence patterns in the SARS-CoV-2 genome which may indicate that the virus was genetically modified in a lab. The study has been poorly received by most experts in the field. The evidence reported in the study is neither conclusive nor final, and the findings may turn out to be a fluke, or generated by a flaw in the method, as the study’s authors concede. This study and its reception remind us that it would be unwise to suppress a discussion of the lab leak theory by arguing that such a discussion has fueled conspiracy theories. A confirmation of an accidental lab leak – if such a leak has indeed occurred – would be less damaging than a confirmation of a lab leak whose evidence has been aggressively suppressed.
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A One Health Approach to Preparedness and Prevention
COVID-19 is the latest zoonotic RNA virus epidemic of concern. Learning how it began and spread will help to determine how to reduce the risk of future events.
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Hurricane Ian Shows That Coastal Hospitals Aren’t Ready for Climate Change
As rapidly intensifying storms and rising sea levels threaten coastal cities from Texas to the tip of Maine, Hurricane Ian has just demonstrated what researchers have warned: Hundreds of hospitals in the U.S. are not ready for climate change.
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Extreme Heat Could Make Parts of Asia, Africa Uninhabitable
Extreme heat events foreshadow a less habitable world. In the coming decades, heatwaves are predicted to meet and exceed human physiological and social limits in regions such as the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and South and South-West Asia.
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As Ebola Spreads in Uganda, U.S. Imposes Traveler Screening
The Biden administration announced last week that all travelers entering the United States from Uganda will be redirected to airports where they can be screened for Ebola virus disease (EVD). Ebola detection is not straightforward, as symptoms can lay dormant for two to 21 days, and during that time, the disease wouldn’t show up on a blood test, let alone a thermometer.
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Traces of the Polio Virus found in Several New York State Counties
Polio was declared eradicated in the United States in 1979. In the summer, the first case of polio was discovered in New York, and an examination of the wastewater in several NY counties found traces of the virus which were genetically related to the virus which infected the polio patient in the summer.
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Hundreds of Hospitals on Atlantic and Gulf Coasts at Risk of Flooding from Hurricanes
Researchers identified 682 acute care hospitals in 78 metropolitan statistical areas located within 10 miles of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States, covering a population just under 85 million people, or about 1 in 4 Americans. They found that 25 of the 78 metro areas studied have half or more of their hospitals at risk of flooding from a Category 2 storm.
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China's Anti-COVID Policies in Tibet Trigger Resentment, Online Outcry
The harsh COVID-19 containment restrictions China is imposing across Tibet are leading to public resentment in the capital of Lhasa, where residents who have tested positive are being quarantined in empty stadiums, schools, warehouses and unfinished buildings.
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Lancet Commission on COVID-19 Response: “Massive Global Failure”
A stinging new Lancet Commission report on the international COVID-19 pandemic response calls it “a massive global failure on multiple levels” and spares no one the responsibility—including the public—for millions of preventable deaths and a backslide in progress made toward sustainable development goals in many countries.
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The WHO Has Advised Against the Use of Two Antibody Therapies Against COVID – Here’s What That Means
New guidance from WHO strongly advises against using the antibody therapies sotrovimab and casirivimab-imdevimab to treat patients with COVID-19. This means that, at least for the time being, there are no recommended antibody therapies to treat COVID. There are, however, still other treatment options.
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Current Vaccine Approach Is Not Enough to Eradicate Measles
Current vaccination strategies are unlikely to eliminate measles. Despite marked reductions in the number of new measles and rubella cases worldwide, gaps remain between current levels of transmission and disease elimination.
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9/11 Survivors’ Exposure to Toxic Dust and the Chronic Health Conditions That Followed Offer Lessons That Are Still Too Often Unheeded
After the 9/11 attack, more than 100,000 responders and recovery workers from every U.S. state – along with some 400,000 residents and other workers around ground zero – were exposed to a toxic cloud of dust that fell as a ghostly, thick layer of ash and then hung in the air for more than three months. The World Trade Center dust plume consisted of a dangerous mixture of cement dust and particles, asbestos and a class of chemicals called persistent organic pollutants. The dust also contained heavy metals that are known to be poisonous to the human body and brain, such as lead and mercury, and PCB.
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Can South Korea Help the World Beat the Next Pandemic?
As nations around the world emerge from the long and devastating COVID-19 pandemic and reflect on the losses and the way forward, nations around the world, including the United States, could look to South Korea’s near-perfect response as a model for dealing with future public health crises.
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More headlines
The long view
Mathematical 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.