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US Genomics wins Phase III biodefense contract
$8.6 million deal will assist the company complete prototype development
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Hopkins students devise rotavirus vaccine on a dissolvable strip
Similar to Listerine PocketPaks, vaccine goes down easy for fussy children; unlike liquid vaccines, this one does not require refrigeration
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NASA tests space-bound rapid bacteria assay
Trips to Mars may expose astronauts and their equipment to dangerous bacteria and fungi
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Temple researchers smell success with biosensor project
Genetic engineering crosses a yeast with the olfactory chemical receptors of a rat
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Emory researchers control E. coli movement
By reprogramming the bacteria’s chemo-navigational system, researchers turn a nasty bug into a powerful pharmocological and disaster relief tool
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FDA considers testing regime for E. coli vaccines
Canada’s Bioniche Life Sciences has a running start in Canada, but questions remain about who will pay the bill
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FDA rejects notion of food oversight consolidation
David Acheson says no to the idea of creating a new agency or consolidating operations at USDA
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Missouri researcher develops advanced juice-testing technique
Rapid test for Alicyclobacillus should improve exports to Japan; DNA sequencing is coupled with mid-infrared spectroscopy
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Researchers use Google Earth to track bird flu
“Supermap” brings together known epidemiological research with an easy-to-use mapping system
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Florida researchers discover how anthrax shuts down immune system
A lethal toxin immobilizes the white blood cells by preventing actin assembly
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Llama blood used in ebola assay
Unique protein antibodies can withstand high temperatures, a major challenge for health officials in the Third World
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A test for our readers
A new smallpox vaccine awaits clinical trials, and 215 hardy Americans are needed; Uncle Sam needs you
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Sandia Labs announces new electrochemical sensor
Unlike current methods, this one tests multiple biomolecules simultaneously; “diazonium-based surface chemistry”
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Virginia prepares for Food Security Summit
Speakers will include experts on sustainability, food-borne microbes, food distribution, hunger policy, and government regulations
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Public health labs oppose field WMD testing
Without national performance standards and field validation, Association of Public Health Laboratories says the risks of false positives and false negatives are too high
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The long view
Vaccine Myths That Won't Die and How to Counter Them—Part 1
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, has spent decades promoting vaccine skepticism. He has replaced scientists at different HHS such as CDC and NIH with vaccine skeptics and anti-vaccine activists. They have polluted the information environment with, and base their policy changes on, myths about the supposed risks of vaccines. Each of these myths has been studied extensively. Each has been refuted. And yet each persists, because misinformation travels faster than correction and because these myths tap into fears that are genuinely human.
Vaccine Myths That Won’t Die and How to Counter Them—Part 2
This article and its Part 1 catalogue the debunked myths driving the vaccine skeptics who now run HHS. These myths share four fundamental errors: First, the conflation of temporal association with causation. Second, the confusion of regulatory paperwork with the totality of scientific evidence. Third, the demand for impossible standards. Fourth, the selective citation of evidence. The current political moment has given unprecedented platforms to vaccine skepticism. But politics cannot change biology.