Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy shared new tools to find vaccines near you! You can text ZIP code to 438829 (GETVAX) or 822862 (VACUNA). You can also visit vaccines.gov or vacunas.gov. The shot emoji gets a makeover. WHO and Germany launch the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence.
The ‘Vaccine’ Emoji Gets a New Look This Week
This month, the most popular emoji on Twitter was the one with its mouth agape and tears streaming down, depicting the pandemic mood of being overwhelmed with either anguish or relief as the vaccines roll out. The microbe emoji has also surged in use over the last year to describe SARS-CoV-2. The face mask and shot emojis are also quite popular, promoting these countermeasures. To better represent vaccines, the vaccine emoji has been redesigned from syringe with a bright red barrel and a drop of blood coming out from the needle to a syringe with a blue-gray hue without the blood droplet.
COVID-19 Vaccine Nationalism Will Cost Lives Worldwide
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, called the hoarding of COVID-19 vaccines by wealthy nations as a “catastrophic moral failure.” By mid-March, 14% of the global population had access to more than half of the vaccines in the world, and modeling suggests that this hoarding will lead to nearly twice as many deaths as would happen if vaccines were shared across the globe. “Vaccine nationalists” advocate for vaccinating the people in their own country by any means necessary, whereas “globalists” seek more equitable approaches for vaccine allocation that are based on need rather than payment. The US possesses an excess of the AstraZeneca vaccine that it anticipated would gain emergency authorization. After much pressure, the Biden administration decided to donate that stockpile, some 60 million doses, to nations in need. “Vaccines don’t save lives, vaccination does.” Equitable vaccination should be the default policy and action, not requiring pressure. In order to protect or strengthen the public health of a nation, we need to protect and strengthen the public health of all nations.
WHO, Germany Launch New Global Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Federal Republic of Germany will establish a new global hub for pandemic and epidemic intelligence, data, surveillance and analytics innovation. The WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence will be a global platform for pandemic and epidemic intelligence, creating shared and networked access to vital multi-sectoral data, driving innovations in data analytics and building the communities of practice needed to predict, prevent, detect, prepare for, and respond to worldwide health threats. The Hub, based in Berlin and working with partners around the world, will lead innovations in data analytics across the largest network of global data to predict, prevent, detect prepare for and respond to pandemic and epidemic risks worldwide. It will be a new global collaboration of countries and partners worldwide, driving innovations to increase availability and linkage of diverse data; develop tools and predictive models for risk analysis; and to monitor disease control measures and infodemics.
Mitigating Future Respiratory Virus Pandemics: New Threats and Approaches to Consider
Despite many recent efforts to predict and control emerging infectious disease threats to humans, we failed to anticipate the zoonotic viruses which led to pandemics in 2009 and 2020. The morbidity, mortality, and economic costs of these pandemics have been staggering. We desperately need a more targeted, cost-efficient, and sustainable strategy to detect and mitigate future zoonotic respiratory virus threats. Evidence suggests that the transition from an animal virus to a human pathogen is incremental and requires a considerable number of spillover events and considerable time before a pandemic variant emerges. A new article in Viruses view argues for the refocusing of public health resources on novel respiratory virus surveillance at human–animal interfaces in geographical hotspots for emerging infectious diseases. Where human–animal interface surveillance is not possible, a secondary high-yield, cost-efficient strategy is to conduct novel respiratory virus surveillance among pneumonia patients in these same hotspots. When novel pathogens are discovered, they must be quickly assessed for their human risk and, if indicated, mitigation strategies initiated. In this review, the authors discuss the most common respiratory virus threats, current efforts at early emerging pathogen detection, and propose and defend new molecular pathogen discovery strategies with the goal of preempting future pandemics. Read the article here.
Insider Q&A: Ex-Biodefense Chief on Stopping the Next COVID
Dr. Rick Bright is a former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a government office tasked with procuring and developing medical countermeasures for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats along with emerging diseases. One year ago, Bright submitted a whistleblower complaint regarding the improper use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, to treat COVID-19; the medication was later considered ineffective and too risky. In retaliation, Bright was demoted and he ultimately resigned from his position. Bright is now the Senior Vice President of Pandemic Prevention and Response at the Rockefeller Foundation. In a conversation with AP News, Bright explains that, in the early days of the pandemic, he wishes there had been a “reliable, nonpolitical, early warning signal.” The lack of a strong signal, transparency, and information sharing needs to change before the next biological event. He also points out there is not necessarily a lack of data or information, rather there is a need to be able to “aggregate all that information in a trusted source that’s not beholden to politics or money.”
Event – The Global Health Security Index: A Tool for Decision Makers in Latin America
The Global Health Security Index – developed by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHU), and The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) – is the first comprehensive assessment and benchmarking of health security and related capabilities across 195 countries. On 12 May, NTI and the Cayetano Heredia Peruvian University are hosting an event, “The Global Health Security Index: A Tool for Decision Makers in Latin America.” Panelists include Javier Rodriguez Zulato, Director of the Initiative for Global Security (IGS); Luciana Vazquez, Biosecurity and Biosafety Program Coordinator at IGS; Dr. Ricardo Teijeiro, IGS Biosafety and Biosecurity Program Argentine Society of Infectology (SADI); Luis Carrerra Fox, North America Liaison IGS/PandemichTech; Jessica Bell, Senior Program Officer at NTI; and Ernesto Gozzer, Professor at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heridia. Register here for the virtual webinar on 12 May at 2 PM EST.
Superspreaders of Malign and Subversive Information on COVID-19: Russian and Chinese Efforts Targeting the United States
The RAND Corporation released a report as part of its Countering Truth Decay initiative that examines the Russian and Chinese efforts to target the US through information manipulation. Activities to spread COVID-19-related malign and subversive information have been underway throughout the pandemic, but the report assesses evidence from the January to July 2020 period. Two types of sources were used: those formally linked to Russia and China and those shown to have indirect links to Russian or Chinese governments or networks. Using exploratory qualitative analysis, several trends were found, including: both countries falsely accused the United States of developing and intentionally spreading the virus; both countries modified their COVID-19-related messaging over time, focusing on conspiracy theories about the virus’s origins and impacts; Russia deployed wide-ranging media and targeted a variety of audiences, while China’s approach was ideologically uniform and appeared to target audiences that were less varied. Read the report here.
Virologist Angela Rasmussen on the Controversy Surrounding Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 Vaccine
Dr. Angela Rasmussen is a virologist and research scientist with the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security and VIDO-InterVac at the University of Saskatchewan. STAT had a conversation with Rasmussen about the controversy surrounding Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, which is based on technology similar to that of the Johnson and Johnson as well as AstraZeneca vaccines. According to a study published in The Lancet, the Sputnik vaccine showed 91.6% efficacy, ranking it as one of the most effective in the world. When asked why Brazil rejected the Sputnik vaccine, Rasmussen explained that with the adenovirus component, the virus could potentially replicate and cause downstream complications. Another issue is the worry about quality control of Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine, specifically, there may be “discrepancies in the manufacturing process.” In terms of soft power diplomacy, the concerns regarding the Sputnik vaccine may be dealing a blow to Russia’s attempt to assume a leadership role in the global vaccine efforts.
Listen to the full conversation here.
Event – Reinforcing the Norm Against Chemical Weapons: The April 20-22 Conference of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention
At the second session of the 25th Conference of States Parties held in The Hague last month, the member states took several important steps to reinforce the norm against chemical weapons use and to hold Chemical Weapons Convention violators accountable. Foremost among these was the decision to suspend the rights and privileges of Syria under the Convention. The Chemical Weapons Convention Coalition, in cooperation with the Arms Control Association, will host a briefing to review the results and implications of the 25th Conference of States Parties for the work of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the CWC regime. Panelists include Amb. Lisa Helfand, Permanent Representative of Canada to the OPCW (confirmed); Amb. Gudrun Lingner, Permanent Representative of Germany to the OPCW; Dr. Jean Pascal Zanders, independent disarmament and security researcher at The Trench; and Dr. Paul Walker, moderator, Coordinator, Chemical Weapons Convention Coalition. Opening remarks will be given by H.E. Fernando Arias, Director-General of the OPCW. The panel will be held on 10 May 2021 at 10 AM EST. Register here.
Cheminformatics at the Stimson Center
As recent international incidents amply demonstrate, chemical weapons remain an enduring and very real challenge to international peace and security. However, frontline officers for border security and trade controls, as well as chemical industry employees, struggle to identify whether a chemical can be utilized as a chemical warfare agent and precursor. This challenge stems from at least three sources: (1) lists of controlled chemicals identify chemicals of concern through names and registry numbers – however, the lists may not cover the specific chemical in question, given that chemicals have a multitude of synonymous names and different variants of the same chemical; (2) some lists of controlled chemicals do not identify individual chemicals only chemical families, which can make the lists difficult to interpret by non-chemists; and (3) lists of controlled chemicals are subject to change and must be kept current. The Stimson Center is developing a tool to help overcome these challenges.
The Cheminformatics tool is composed of an up-to-date database of relevant lists of controlled chemicals to help address problems inherent to the way in which the identification of such chemicals is currently conducted by converting any entered chemical name or registry number into a chemical structure, and automatically checking whether that structure matches any entry of the database. Through September 2021, the Cheminformatics team will work to lay the groundwork for the development of a database tool that will allow frontline officers for border security and trade controls as well as chemical industry employees to easily assess if a given chemical falls within the scope of a national or international control list of chemical warfare agents and precursors. A demonstration of the prototype was given in late February to showcase its ability to query a database of controlled chemicals and verify if a specific chemical is included on a control list.
A Revolution Is Sweeping the Science of Ancient Diseases
Dr. Johannes Krause, director of the archaeogenetics department at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, co-authored the book A Short History of Humanity, which synthesizes twenty years of work with ancient DNA from humans and pathogens. In the past decade, ancient DNA have been used to study diseases – the plague, syphilis, hepatitis B, and a mysterious “cocoliztli” epidemic – using techniques based on decoding the genome of the Neanderthal. This has enabled a “boom” in ancient pathogen DNA examination and revealed information of forgotten or extinct diseases. Krause explains that the teeth from ancient remains are used to collect blood samples; this is because the pathogens of interest are blood-borne. In the DNA of Yersinia pestis, the causal agent for plague, scientists found that the “Black Death is literally the common ancestor, the mother of 80% of the strains that circulate in the world today.” Krause and his colleagues have found evidence of bacteria that look like Yersinia pestis from teeth in Europe that date back almost 5,000 years. Though Krause cannot specifically identify the disease, he does describe it as likely lethal, but not transmissible via fleas. Read the full interview here.
The Pandora Report 