Background image: A culture plate for cultivating Bacillus anthracis and other soil flora. Image credit: Dr. James Feely / CDC
News highlights on health and safety threats and countermeasures planned by Global Biodefense
This week’s selections include legal challenges for vaccine authorization; a case of monkeypox in the United States; a shortage of syringes worldwide (and shortages of health care workers); EUA applications for antiviral drugs for COVID-19; and several cases of bird flu in the European Union and Asia The country is on the rise.
The Federal Court of Appeals upheld President Biden’s vaccine or test authorization for companies with at least 100 employees. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said in a 22-page ruling on Friday that the authorization had "fatal flaws" and prohibited the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) from "waiting for full judicial review" of a motion. Perform authorization. Permanent injunction. Hill
Cures 2.0 has a lot of attention: this main legislation is divided into several parts, covering public health, patient care issues, FDA, CMS, and research. From the perspective of the AMR community, the big news is Sec. 105. The title is "Developing Antimicrobial Innovations", which includes the PASTEUR Act (Pioneer Antimicrobial Subscription to End the Surging of Resistance). The policy will establish a subscription model to pay for urgently needed new antimicrobials that are decoupled from the sale or use of these newly developed antibiotics, to ensure a predictable return on investment and improve the rational use of drugs. AMR solution
Republican Rep. Chris Stewart introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. Members of Congress said that the bill would prohibit federal funding for "functional acquisition" research in China. The proposed legislation is named after Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as the "Chinese Institutional Equity and Accountability Underwriting Act", which is the FAUCI Act. Dr. Anthony Fauci is the former President Donald Fauci. Trump and his supporters often become scapegoats for pandemics. Salt Lake Tribune
Today, the US nuclear posture positions nuclear weapons as the main means of deterring strategic-level biological weapons activities. As stated in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Assessment Report, the current role of U.S. nuclear forces includes acting as a “hedging potential rapid growth or emergence of nuclear and non-nuclear strategic threats, including chemical, biological, cyber, and large-scale conventional aggression.” Defense News
In the early days of the pandemic, the Sioux Falls factory in Smithfield was one of the nation's worst COVID-19 hotspots. As of June 16, 2020, four workers have died and nearly 1,300 people have tested positive for the virus. According to the agreement, Smithfield Foods, headquartered in Virginia, will develop a plan to prevent infectious diseases in meat processing plants nationwide and pay a fine of $13,500. The chairman of the local United Food and Commercial Workers Union, BJ Motley, mocked the settlement agreement and the $13,500 fine as "a slap in the face of Smithfield, and a deeply disturbing slap in the face of people who have already made such great sacrifices in this pandemic." Betrayal." The Associated Press
As a trained cardiologist, Califf served as an FDA commissioner at the end of the Obama administration for nearly a year-despite the opposition of a few Democratic senators, he still won the Senate's confirmation by a large margin. The White House is counting on Califf to gain broad bipartisan support in the divided House once again, shaping him as an experienced researcher and policy maker, long-term cooperation with both parties in the aisle. STAT, politics
The brig General Thomas Mancino was appointed by Governor Kevin Stitt (R) this week as the adjutant to the state’s 10,000 National Guard soldiers and pilots, and informed those under his command on Thursday that they do not need to be vaccinated The vaccine will not be punished if they refuse. This was an extraordinary rejection of the Pentagon’s policy by the general and followed Stitt’s written request to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to suspend the request for the state’s guards. Washington post
The vast majority of active duty pilots (over 96%) are at least partially vaccinated. However, despite the Pentagon’s authorization, as many as 12,000 Air Force personnel have rejected the federal order to fully vaccinate against the coronavirus. Officials said they did so too late by the deadline on Tuesday, which constituted a problem for military leaders. The first major test. The order was scorned by some troops. Washington post
Under the pressure of increasing the supply of coronavirus vaccines to poor countries, the White House plans to invest billions of dollars to expand the manufacturing capacity of the United States. The goal is to produce at least 1 billion doses of vaccine each year starting in the second half of 2022. York Times
This step was taken shortly after the company reported its pill called Paxlovid. In a large randomized study, the drug reduced the hospitalization rate of patients starting within three days of onset of symptoms by 89% and also prevented deaths. The disclosure was made after Merck announced that its own pills have reduced the number of hospitalizations by 50%. Pfizer pills are a five-day course of treatment that must be used in combination with a second drug called ritonavir produced by ABBV (ABBV). statistics
An advisory committee determined last week that people under the age of 30 in Germany should only receive the BioNTech/Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine because it causes less heart inflammation in young people than the Moderna vaccine. French public health authorities also recommend that people under the age of 30 get Pfizer vaccine when available, instead of Moderna vaccine. They joined the ranks of Finland and Sweden. Due to rare heart-related side effects, Finland and Sweden suspended the use of Moderna injections in young people in early November. Reuters
Sputnik V has been working hard to gain public recognition in Russia, not to mention selling it in other countries as an alternative to vaccines developed by Western and Chinese pharmaceutical companies. The unresolved issues surrounding the commercial prospects of vaccines are about their safety and effectiveness, as well as Moscow's ability to provide the number of doses promised and to navigate the complex global supply chain. Carnegie Foundation
The National Centre for Replacement, Improvement and Reduction of Research Animals (NC3Rs) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are collaborating on a project to review animal-based testing methods described in WHO manuals, guidelines, and biological recommendations. Determine which updates can lead to a more coordinated application of 3R principles in batch release testing requirements (ie, substitution, reduction, and improvement of animal testing). Biological product
"The specter of a mass casualty biological weapon attack—whether from the state or terrorists—is unrealistic. The United States should not overreact to the threat of biological weapons. Although the threat from biological weapons has not disappeared, it has actually been At one of the lowest points since the end of the Cold War. Biological weapons are primarily an assassination tool—mainly to ensure the security of regimes in authoritarian countries—and special forces operations. American policymakers should strengthen the efforts of the diplomatic and intelligence community to protect The American people are protected from this enduring but controllable threat." War on the Rocks
Since the beginning of the pandemic, about one in five health care workers has left drugs. Since COVID-19 first hit the United States, Americans have been told to flatten the curve to avoid overwhelming hospitals. But the hospital has been overwhelmed. The country avoided the most catastrophic situation, such as running out of tens of thousands of ventilators, but it continued to flood in repeatedly like sleepwalking, causing the capacity of many hospitals to be overwhelmed, causing more than 762,000 deaths and traumatizing countless medical staff . Atlantic Organization
If the ballast water containing Bacillus anthracis is deliberately discharged, hydrophobic or surface-active disinfectant can be used, and humic acid with trimethylammonium group can be used to concentrate in the water-air monolayer to degrade the seawater surface of the port. Dimensional disinfection. Alternate. It will prevent the formation and diffusion of deadly bioaerosols into the atmosphere after a bioterrorism attack occurs in the port. Development and progress in the field of national defense and security
Biological samples can be stored indefinitely for future long-term retrospective studies. The laboratory infrastructure may need to be reviewed to improve the efficiency of the COVID-19 biobank. The low efficiency of sample processing and storage, the information management system, the communication methods between the sample processing and storage units of the biobank, and the commercialization of the samples will reduce the efficiency of the biobank. African journal of laboratory medicine
The IDSA guidelines team agreed on eight recommendations, including two updated recommendations on the use of PPE in routine environmental and aerosol generation procedures. Clinical infectious disease
More than 6.8 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine are vaccinated globally each year, almost twice the number of routine vaccinations provided each year: "Unfortunately, the shortage of syringes is a real possibility, and there are more numbers here. Globally, there are approximately 60 per year. The manufacturing capacity of 100 million immunization syringes is obvious. If we continue business as usual, there may be a deficit of more than 1 billion by 2022." UN News
Japan today confirmed that during the third avian influenza outbreak in the country this winter, a poultry farm detected the highly pathogenic avian influenza subtype H5N8. In recent days, the World Organization for Animal Health has reported several severe avian influenza outbreaks in Europe and Asia to the World Organization for Animal Health, indicating that the virus is spreading rapidly again. Reuters
South Korea reported an outbreak in a farm in Chungcheongbuk-do with approximately 770,000 poultry. According to the World Organization for Animal Health, in Europe, Norway has reported an outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in the Rogaland area, with an outbreak of 7,000 bird groups. protector
Although influenza activity in the United States is still low, the number of tests has increased in recent weeks, mainly due to the H3N2 strain, and 90% of cases occur in people between 5 and 24 years of age. Most flu markers are still below the baseline, and the CDC noted that public health laboratories have reported H3N2 in 7 of the 10 regions in the United States in the past 3 weeks. CIDRAP
Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) infection is associated with acute flaccid myelitis because of a large-scale outbreak related to childhood respiratory and neurological symptoms in North America in 2014. Although Europe has reported regular EV-D68 surges since 2010, they have largely ceased during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. After the extensive COVID-19 mitigation measures were relaxed in 2021, the level of EV-D68 cases exceeded the level reported during the most recent EV-D68 climax in 2019. Eurosurveillance
One of these cases is fatal and is caused by bacteria of the genus Bacillus cereus, whose genes are usually related to the bacterium B. anthracis that causes anthrax. B. cereus group bacteria are gram-positive facultative anaerobes that usually produce toxins and naturally exist in soil and dust. Infectious Disease Special Edition
The Maryland State Department of Public Health stated that the unnamed resident recently returned from a trip to Nigeria with mild symptoms and is recovering in isolation and is not hospitalized. This is the first reported case of monkeypox in the United States since 47 cases were reported in five Midwestern states in 2003. WDEL
A large-scale outbreak on a farm with 15,000 mink was assessed, and antibodies against the virus were recorded. The mink was allowed to recover and showed antibodies against the virus. However, less than 3 months after the initial infection, they again found the virus in some dead minks and many live minks in the farm. The first round of mink infection is not enough to prevent re-infection. PLOS pathogen
The researchers analyzed the complete skeletal assembly of four mass graves in Lazaretto dell'Osservanza (n = 133 people), covered with layers of lime, which is a feature of epidemic mass death sites, and its history can be traced back to 1630- The outbreak of Imola in 1632. This paper describes the preservation of differential aDNA in a grave containing multiple layers of lime, which may be valuable information for designing sampling strategies for similar environments. Scientific report
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) issued a report on November 7, 1997, calling on the Department of Defense to initiate a $38.5 million program to fund cooperation between Russian scientists who had been involved in biological weapons research and American infectious disease experts . In the early 1990s, the Russian government drastically cut civilian and military research funding, causing many institutes to scramble to pay salaries and support the lowest level of science. For arms control experts, dwindling support is a double-edged sword: Although work on many weapons projects has ended, analysts worry that Russian scientists may be attracted to countries such as Iraq and Libya. science
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