• The Evolution of COVID-19 Dark Web Marketplaces Before the Vaccine

    In new research, data scientits highlight the importance of the continuous monitoring of dark web marketplaces (DWMs), especially in light of the current shortage and availability of COVID-19 vaccines.

  • Food Export Restrictions Could Skyrocket Global Food Crop Prices

    Recent events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, locust infestations, drought and labor shortages have disrupted food supply chains, endangering food security in the process. A recent study shows that trade restrictions and stockpiling of supplies by a few key countries could create global food price spikes and severe local food shortages during times of threat.

  • Experts Tout Delaying 2nd COVID Vaccine Dose as U.S. Deaths Mount

    Following record COVID-19 deaths in January, several U.S. experts extolled the benefits of vaccinating as many people as possible with one dose of COVID vaccine before ensuring people receive the recommended second dose. Such a dosing strategy has already been used in the United Kingdom and Israel, two countries further ahead in vaccinating their populations than the United States.

  • Europe's Populists Ready to Seize on COVID Vaccination Bungle

    Europe’s populists have seen their polling numbers dip since the coronavirus emerged on the continent, but as the economic impact of lockdowns and restrictions starts to be felt in earnest, widening income disparity, they could see a revival, some analysts forecast. 

  • Feds Unprepared to Meet First U.S. Evacuees from Wuhan Last Year

    Federal officials at a California military base last year who met with the first American evacuees from Wuhan, China, the place where the coronavirus emerged, were not prepared for their mission, according to a new report.

  • Bold Action Can End Era of Pandemic Threats By 2030

    The Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense has called on the federal government to urgently implement the recommendations specified in its new report, The Apollo Program for Biodefense: Winning the Race Against Biological Threats. The report details an ambitious program to develop and deploy the technologies needed to defend against all biological threats, empower public health, and prevent pandemics.

  • Pandemic Shows Need for Biological Readiness

    President Joe Biden’s inauguration comes during the worst stage of the deadliest biological event of our lifetimes. As bad as this pandemic is, imagine if instead it were caused by the deliberate release of a sophisticated biological weapon. About 2 percent of those infected have died of COVID-19, while a disease such as smallpox kills at a 30 percent rate. A bioengineered pathogen could be even more lethal. Our failed response to the pandemic in 2020 has exposed a gaping vulnerability to biological threats, ranging from natural outbreaks to deliberate biological weapons attacks.

  • Unifying U.S. Atmospheric Biology Research to Prevent Risks to National Security

    Global circulating winds can carry bacteria, fungal spores, viruses and pollen over long distances and across national borders, but the United States is ill-prepared to confront future disease outbreaks or food-supply threats caused by airborne organisms. In the United States, research and monitoring of airborne organisms is split between an array of federal agencies. The lack of coordination and information-sharing can effectively cripple the U.S. response to national security threats, such as pandemics.

  • 63,000 Extra Deaths and a Year Off Life Expectancy: COVID in 2020 in England and Wales

    An estimated 62,750 excess deaths resulted in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in England and Wales, according to demographic experts at Oxford’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science - who reveal life expectancy was cut for men and women by -1.3 and -1.0 years, respectively.

  • Biden Unveils National COVID-19 Strategy, Saying: “Help Is on the Way”

    “Help is on the way,” said President Joe Biden yesterday as he unveiled his 200-page national COVID-19 strategy and signed 10 executive actions aimed at tackling the pandemic, including ensuring the safe opening of schools, new guidance for foreign travel, and ensuring the National Guard in all 50 states is involved in the pandemic response.

  • Taking Proven Measures Now to Mitigate COVID-19 Pandemic

    The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response is urging all countries to ensure implementation of critical public health measures known to decrease virus transmission in order to curb the spread of COVID-19. It has also expressed grave concern at the prospect of inequitable vaccine rollout around the world.

  • Artificial Intelligence for Food Security

    With a global population of around 7.8 billion people in 2021, there are at least a billion people who suffer chronic hunger and malnutrition. This crisis is a result of inefficient food production and distribution systems. AI, or artificial intelligence, is attracting great attention across many industries, even food production, according to new research.

  • Hackers “Manipulated” Stolen COVID Vaccine Papers, Says EU Agency

    Documents and emails about the BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna jabs were taken in a cyberattack late last year. The EU’s drug regulator thinks hackers are trying to damage public trust in the COVID vaccines.

  • Global COVID Rise Continues; 50 Nations Report B117 Variant

    In its weekly snapshot of global COVID-19 trends, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday that after lower reporting over the 2-week holiday period, cases and deaths are on the rise again in all but one of its regions and that 50 countries have now detected the more transmissible B117 variant first detected in the United Kingdom.

  • Seeking to ‘Flush’ out COVID-19 in Wastewater

    Though it may seem a bit unsavory, studying human waste can tell us a lot about COVID-19 and give governments a leg up on containing the spread of the virus. Researchers can predict if the coronavirus might attack a community by checking sewers for viral fragments in the community’s poop.