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FluMist found to reduce childhood infections by 55 percent
Report comes soon after FDA approves Medimmune’s refrigerated vaccine; heightened asthma risks for infants cited; company looks poised to run away with the novel flu vaccine market, especially if deal with Iomai goes through
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Air Force deploys mobile bioweapons detection labs
Equipped with $100,000 in equipment, the trailer can quickly identify fourteen biological agents; McConnell Air Force Base plays host; mobile testing marches on
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DHS to consolidate Centers of Excellence program
Three centers focussing on biological and chemical weapons will merge; four new centers to come on line; decision prompted by congressional criticism and threatened budget cuts
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Arkansas researchers develop new avian flu sensor
Swab samples from birds’ throats are exposed to micofluidic biochips; resulting complex is measured with a microelectrode array; researchers currently looking for funding
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Universal Detection receives Army anthrax detection order
Early warning BSM-2000 anthrax kits will be tested at the Dugway Proving Ground; the British government has already purchased two, but deal is the first with DoD; systems “pops” spores to measure the release of dipicolinic acid
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Nunn-Lugar appropriations come under fire
Senator Lugar slams the administration for cutting the overall budget by 7 percent and shortchanging efforts to secure biological weapons in the former Soviet Union; projects in Ukraine and Armenia to be delayed under proposd budget; Lugar will attempt to reinstate funding
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Polonium poisoning creates a market need for treatment
Few treatments exists for curing alpha particle damage; Litvinenko’s death sends companies scrambling; Ovation Pharmaceuticals, Biolabs Protectan, and Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals all make claims
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Washington U. researchers discover plague's weakness
The scourge of the Middle Ages continues to plague Africa; terrorism another major fear; researchers disable Yersinia pestis by removing a clot-inhibiting protein
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Iomai wins $128 million HHS contract for patch-based flu vaccine
Innoculation method could be mailed to patients; adjuvant stimulants allow the company to stretch out the nation’s vaccine supply; company looks for distribution partners, but many already see MedImmune as the most promising candidate
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Massachusetts researchers add nanotransmitters to microfluidic arrays
Technique used to quickly identify pathogens such as anthrax; cuts down on the size of handheld and static detection devices; waveguide and nanoantennas focus light to a spot size smaller than half its wavelength
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Biophotonics market to emerge in 2011
Experts predict a $2 billion industry in a few years; intrinisc and extrinsic sensors try to prove themselves in the drug industry but with limited success; breakthroughs needed in microarrays before major homeland security applications will be possible
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Raman spectroscopy used to identify counterfeit drugs
Breakthrough approach can identify fakes while inside their packaging; researchers at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory adjust the collection point a few millimeters in front of the laser signal; tests on paracetamol and ibuprofen prove the concept
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Weather found to be a good predictor of epidemics
NASA climatologists provide Kenyan authorities a four month warning about a Rift Valley Fever outbreak; heat and moisture are strong indicators of a pathogen’s virulence; for countries unable to afford large-scale epidemiological surveys, weather provides a cheaper indicator
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Affymetrix licenses its microarray technology to Tessarae
Tessarae will use the arrays to improve its epidemic monitoring products; authorities believe test will help identify influenza mutations in their infancy; approach relies on multiplexed genotypic signatures rather than phenotypes to identify strains
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British Home Office imposes strict new pathogen controls
Private and university laboratories will now have to inventory their stocks of 100 named viruses and bacteria; government order reports of all employees with access to such stores
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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.