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China says food safety progressing
Criticized for lax safety standards and lack of enforcement, China’s agricultural authorities intensify campaign to monitor food safety; a system of barcodes to track catfish implemented
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U.S. drug makers buy ingredients from unregulated Chinese companies
Chinese drug companies are supervised — whatever that means in China — by China’s regulators; there are 80,000 chemical companies in China, but they do not come under the jurisdiction of China’s drug regulators; trouble is, these unregulated, uncertified companies sell ingredients of uncertain quality to U.S. drug makers
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U.S. faces water shortage crisis
Government projects at least 36 states will face shortages within five years; “The last century was the century of water engineering. The next century is going to have to be the century of water efficiency,” one experts says
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The public health lessons of 9/11, anthrax letters
A new book examines the responses by different government authorities to the public health aspects of 9/11 and anthrax letters; conclusion: In a crisis the available public health infrastructure makes all the difference in the quality of the local and federal response
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Troops, key health workers to be first to receive U.S. bird flu shots
Government unveils plan which creates four categories of people to be vaccinated in case of pandemic outbreak; the top tier of each category will be vaccinated first
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Palm Beach County prepares for bioterror attack
New foot soldiers in the war against bioterror attack in a Florida county: Country clubs and condo board presidents, who will help distribute antibiotics to the county’s 1.3 million people in 48 hours
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New alliance aims to offer pathogen-free food
VeriPrime alliance — it is an alliance of livestock and poultry producers, packing companies, and retail and food service vendors — says it can market meat that is 99.9999998% free of deadly pathogens
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$20 million contract to develop inhaled therapy for plague, tularemia
Florida-based Nanotherapeutics to develop gentamicin, an injectable broad-spectrum antibiotic used for pneumonic plague and tularemia; U.S. wants an inhaled version for easier application in the aftermath of bioterror attack
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Miniscule solar cells would enable ultramicroscopic technology
Harvard team develops solar cells 200 hundred times thinner than a human hair; source of power for ultramicroscopic technology now available; team leaders says one of the first application would be in monitoring bioterrorism
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Food importers to guarantee their imports meet safety, health standards
A proposal for screening imported foods would require American companies to certify that their foreign suppliers meet U.S. standards and would reward suppliers who undertake quality-monitoring programs
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U.S. government to intensify fight against industrial espionage
U.S. government launches a broad campaign to thwart foreign government and terrorist organizations from stealing sensitive U.S. technology; chief culprits: China, Iran
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Centralization of food production makes nation vulnerable
CDC says centralization of foor production and processing is the major cause of outbreaks of food-borne illness; centralization offers an inviting opportunity for terrorists to do harm
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More intensive, collaborative effort needed to prepare for bioterrorism
Medical countermeasures to combat biological weaponry will rely on the ability of scientists to develop potent vaccines and therapeutics that have broad activity and to do so rapidly
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Two major food safety laws are ineffective
Of the many food safety laws proposed, two were passed — Bioterrorism Act of 2002 and the facility registration database; trouble is, neither is very effective
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Morphotek in $2.7 million contract to develop monoclonal antibodies
Pennsylvania company to work with the Army’s research institute to develop therapeutic monoclonal antibodies against potential biological warfare threats
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The long view
What We’ve Learned from Survivors of the Atomic Bombs
Q&A with Dr. Preetha Rajaraman, New Vice Chair for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Combatting the Measles Threat Means Examining the Reasons for Declining Vaccination Rates
Measles was supposedly eradicated in Canada more than a quarter century ago. But today, measles is surging. The cause of this resurgence is declining vaccination rates.
Social Networks Are Not Effective at Mobilizing Vaccination Uptake
The persuasive power of social networks is immense, but not limitless. Vaccine preferences, based on the COVID experience in the United States, proved quite insensitive to persuasion, even through friendship networks.
Vaccine Integrity Project Says New FDA Rules on COVID-19 Vaccines Show Lack of Consensus, Clarity
Sidestepping both the FDA’s own Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), two Trump-appointed FDA leaders penned an opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine to announce new, more restrictive, COVID-19 vaccine recommendations. Critics say that not seeking broad input into the new policy, which would help FDA to understand its implications, feasibility, and the potential for unintended consequences, amounts to policy by proclamation.
Are We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?
Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”
“Tulsi Gabbard as US Intelligence Chief Would Undermine Efforts Against the Spread of Chemical and Biological Weapons”: Expert
The Senate, along party lines, last week confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National intelligence. One expert on biological and chemical weapons says that Gabbard’s “longstanding history of parroting Russian propaganda talking points, unfounded claims about Syria’s use of chemical weapons, and conspiracy theories all in efforts to undermine the quality of the community she now leads” make her confirmation a “national security malpractice.”