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LONDON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Leading scientists urged caution over fears of another pandemic on Thursday after the World Health Organization requested more information from China on a rise of respiratory illnesses and pneumonia clusters among children. It called for more information about "undiagnosed pneumonia - China (Beijing, Liaoning)". The standard wording of the alert echoed the first-ever notice about what would become COVID-19, sent on Dec. 30 2019: "Undiagnosed pneumonia - China (Hubei)." Both the WHO and China have faced questions over transparency during the early days of COVID. In China itself, there has been a lot of recent coverage of a rise in respiratory illnesses, including among children.

Persons: Marion Koopmans, COVID lockdowns, Brian McCloskey, Virologist Tom Peacock, Jennifer Rigby, Jo Mason, Christina Fincher Organizations: World Health Organization, WHO, COVID, International Society for Infectious, FTV News, Reuters, Imperial College London, Thomson Locations: China, Dutch, Beijing, Liaoning, Hubei, Taiwan

☆ Nipah virus outbreak in India renews calls to protect bat roosts
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Sreekanth Sivadasan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +15 min

Because spillover risk is concentrated in lower income countries in the tropical south, the cost of preventing another pandemic falls squarely on nations that can least afford it. To that end, federal and state officials say they are talking about ways to protect bat habitats in areas where spillover risk is high. Investigators still don’t know precisely how the virus jumped from bats to people in each of the four Kerala outbreaks dating back to 2018. BAT MAGNETS: Bananas and areca nuts grow on land that was home to the first patient who died in a recent Nipah outbreak in Kerala, India. The state would need to act to protect trees and bat roosts, they said.

Persons: Subrat Mohapatra, ” Mohapatra, coronaviruses, Bhupender Yadav, Veena George, ”, Nigel Sizer, Biden, Sizer, Pamela Hamamoto, Muhammad Ali, Pinarayi Vijayan, Sreehari Raman, “ I've, ” Raman, Kerala Agricultural University Dean P.O, Nameer, Sajith Kizhakkayil, “, ” Vijayan, Unni Vengeri, Francisco Pérez, Sreekanth Sivadasan, Rupam Jain, Deborah J, Nelson, Ryan McNeill, Allison Martell, Sam Hart, Simon Newman, Janet Roberts, Feilding Organizations: World Health Organization, Reuters, WHO, Bank, Fund, European, European Union, BAT, Kerala Agricultural University, Research, United, Coalition, European Commission Locations: INDIA, India’s Kerala, India’s, Asia, Kerala, Kozhikode, Geneva, U.S, European, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, United Nations, Maruthonkara, Changaroth, Kerala’s midland, Berlin

The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded Monday to two scientists whose work led to the mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. As countries prepared to roll out those shots, The Associated Press took a look at how the vaccines were developed so quickly. ___How could scientists race out COVID-19 vaccines so fast without cutting corners? A head start helped -- over a decade of behind-the-scenes research that had new vaccine technology poised for a challenge just as the coronavirus erupted. Both shots — one made by Pfizer and BioNTech, the other by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health — are so-called messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines, a brand-new technology.

Persons: Dr, Anthony Fauci, Buddy Creech, ” Creech, Tal Zaks, ”, Drew Weissman, Weissman, Katalin, Philip Dormitzer, Barney Graham’s, ” Fauci, Graham, Jason McLellan, hadn't, “, ” Graham, Germany’s, Pfizer’s Dormitzer, Ugur Sahin Organizations: Medicine, COVID, Associated Press, Vanderbilt University, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, National Institutes of Health, NIH, University of Pennsylvania, Penn, NIH’s Vaccine Research Center, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education, AP Locations: U.S, Massachusetts, BioNTech, New York, China

☆ Meet the Black students who were instrumental in developing the first Covid-19 shots
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Jacqueline Howard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Among about two dozen scientists in Graham’s lab were three young students: Olubukola Abiona, Geoffrey Hutchinson and Cynthia Ziwawo. What the world didn’t know at the time was that those three students — Abiona, Hutchinson and Ziwawo — were doing the foundational work for those vaccines to eventually save lives. Geoffrey Hutchinson served in the Peace Corps and taught chemistry to high school students in Mozambique. The fruits of Abiona, Hutchinson and Ziwawo’s labor were evident this week as the United States began to roll out updated versions of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines. Abiona, Hutchinson and Ziwawo all confirmed Wednesday that although they haven’t made their appointments yet, they plan to get the updated shots.

Persons: Barney Graham’s, Olubukola Abiona, Geoffrey Hutchinson, Cynthia Ziwawo, “, Graham, ‘, ’ ”, Hutchinson, ”, ” Ziwawo, Anthony Fauci, — Abiona, Ziwawo —, Ziwawo, Kizzmekia Corbett, ” Corbett, David Satcher, he’s, Valerie Montgomery Rice, “ They’re, Abiona, Hannah Montana, Austin Steele, CNN Abiona, BioNTech, “ It’s, Dr, Sanjay Gupta Organizations: CNN, Vaccine Research, National Institutes of Health, University of Washington, “, Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy, Diseases, Moderna, Morehouse School of Medicine, David Satcher Global Health Equity Institute, Association of American Medical Colleges, NIH, Disney, David Satcher Global Health Equity Summit, KPMG LLP, Indiana University School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Peace Corps, United States, Pfizer, CNN Health, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, US Centers for Disease Control Locations: China, Bethesda , Maryland, Ziwawo, United States, Atlanta, Graham’s, Nigeria, Mozambique, Abiona, United

☆ ICON to partner with US govt agency to test COVID vaccine candidates
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Vials labelled "VACCINE Coronavirus COVID-19" and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed U.S. flag in this illustration taken December 11, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies Icon Plc FollowBioNTech SE FollowModerna Inc Follow Show more companiesSept 13 (Reuters) - Contract research firm ICON Plc (ICLR.O) said on Wednesday it is partnering with the U.S. government for a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of next generation COVID-19 vaccine candidates. As part of the collaboration with Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, ICON will conduct a mid-stage trial of 10,000 participants to assess the efficacy of a next generation COVID-19 vaccine relative to currently available shots. The U.S. agency will select the vaccine candidate for the trial. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday authorized updated COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer (PFE.N)/BioNTech (22UAy.DE) and Moderna (MRNA.O) that target the XBB.1.5 subvariant of the virus.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Pratik Jain, Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Shounak Organizations: REUTERS, U.S, Research, Development Authority, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, Pfizer, Moderna, Thomson Locations: U.S, Bengaluru

☆ Australia: Doctors remove 3-inch parasitic worm from woman's brain in world first
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Kathleen Magramo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The finding unleashed a mad scramble to find out what exactly the parasite was, Canberra Hospital infectious disease expert Sanjaya Senanayake told CNN. “We were able to send the live wiggling worm to him, and he was able to look at it and immediately identify it,” Senanayake said. In this case, the patient was likely an accidental host of the worm, Senanayake said. “There’s more opportunities for humans, domestic animals and wild animals to interact with each other and the vegetation that’s out there. And of those emerging infections, about 75% were zoonotic, meaning there has been transmission from the animal world to the human world – including coronaviruses.

Persons: Dr, Hari Priya Bandi, ” Bandi, Sanjaya Senanayake, “, ” Senanayake, ”, Senanayake, Hossain M, Kennedy KJ, Wilson HL Senanayake Organizations: CNN, Australian National University, Canberra Hospital, Wilson, US Centers for Disease Control, Prevention Locations: Canberra, New South Wales, Australia

☆ The Covid Lab-Leak Deception
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Matt Ridley | Alina Chan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Review and Outlook: Progressives want Donald Trump to win the GOP nomination so they're distorting Florida’s superior Covid-19 handling, in an effort to weaken Ron DeSantis's 2024 campaign. Images: Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyThe controversy over the origins of Covid-19 refuses to die, despite efforts early in the pandemic to kill it. It was natural to doubt it was a coincidence that an outbreak caused by a SARS-like coronavirus from bats began in Wuhan, China, the only city where risky experiments were being done on diverse and novel SARS-like coronaviruses from bats. The Chinese Communist Party did its utmost to dismiss such suspicions, but so did a group of influential Western scientists.

Persons: Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis's, Mark Kelly Organizations: GOP, Chinese Communist Party Locations: Wuhan, China

☆ The Ongoing Mystery of Covid’s Origin
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( David Quammen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

But as the researchers describe it, these apparent contradictions were simply a reflection of their fast-evolving views. It showed that such an RBD had evolved in the wild and might well have gotten into SARS-CoV-2 by recombination, the natural gene-swapping process. The genome was 96.2 percent identical to the SARS-CoV-2 genome as sampled from people during the early days of the pandemic. RaTG13 has attained renown, not just because it constituted strong evidence of SARS-CoV-2’s ancestry in bat viruses but also because the Mojiang mine figures in some of the more lurid scenarios for a lab-leak origin. The inference is that Shi’s team, a year after the mine workers died, may have taken the virus back to Wuhan.

Persons: Andersen, ”, Slack, Matt Wong, ” Andersen, Zhengli Shi, Shi, RaTG13 Organizations: Twitter, Nature, Wuhan Institute of Virology Locations: Houston, Yunnan Province, Wuhan, Tongguan, Mojiang, Yunnan

☆ No direct evidence COVID started in Wuhan lab - US intelligence report
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( Dan Whitcomb | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

June 23 (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence agencies found no direct evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic stemmed from an incident at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, a report declassified on Friday said. "The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency remain unable to determine the precise origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, as both (natural and lab) hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting," the ODNI report said. The report said that while "extensive work" had been conducted on coronaviruses at the Wuhan institute (WIV), the agencies had not found evidence of a specific incident that could have caused the outbreak. U.S. President Joe Biden in March signed a bill declassifying information related to the origins of the pandemic. As of March 20, four other U.S. agencies still judged that COVID-19 was likely the result of natural transmission, while two were undecided.

Persons: WIV, Joe Biden, Biden, Christopher Wray, Dan Whitcomb, Rosalba O'Brien, Jacqueline Wong Organizations: Wuhan, of Virology, National Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, coronaviruses, Wall, U.S . Energy Department, Thomson Locations: U.S, Wuhan, United States, Beijing, China

☆ Opinion | The Government Must Say What It Knows About Covid’s Origins
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

One of those named researchers, Ben Hu, is a leading scientist who has worked on bat coronaviruses related to SARS. In September 2021, DRASTIC also obtained a funding proposal that the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s U.S. collaborator, EcoHealth Alliance, submitted to the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The proposal called for using genetic engineering to perform experiments with bat SARS-like coronaviruses and modify them by inserting features that can increase their ability to infect humans. The feature could also have evolved naturally, and many scientists dismissed its significance as evidence that research set off the pandemic origins. (Some of the scientists have said they later changed their minds).

Persons: Ben Hu, Yu Ping Organizations: U.S, U.S ., Waste, Wuhan Institute of Virology’s, EcoHealth Alliance, Pentagon’s Defense, Research Projects Agency, Wuhan Institute, Virology Locations: Wuhan, U.S, coronaviruses

☆ Deep in the Amazon, scientists race to find unknown bat viruses
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Some scientific studies have found that deforestation causes stress in bats, and stressed bats carry more viruses and shed more germs in their saliva, urine and feces. It spiked following the highway’s construction, making the Amazon in the early 1980s a rallying cry for the global environmental movement. When examining spillover risk, scientists use the number of bat species in a given area as a key variable. When humans encroach on their habitat, and bat species commingle, the viral cocktail intensifies. “Odds of it being documented are very slim,” said Caio Graco Zeppelini, an ecologist and bat researcher at the Federal University of Bahia.

☆ China, birthplace of COVID, lays tracks for a new global health crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

Bat viruses have been the source of multiple health crises besides those related to coronaviruses, including recent outbreaks of Ebola, Nipah, and Marburg. Partners in risk The total area at high risk for bat viruses to infect humans more than doubled in size in Laos between 2002 and 2020. The animals, known to be susceptible to bat viruses, included raccoon dogs, bamboo rats and porcupines. As China boomed in recent decades, global demand for rubber also skyrocketed, leading to further development and deforestation here. Already, scientists have found local bats bearing viruses closely related to those responsible for the 2003 SARS and COVID-19 pandemics.

These areas, which we've dubbed " jump zones ," span the globe, covering 6% of Earth's land mass. That's 57% more people living in jump zones than two decades earlier, increasing the odds that a deadly bat virus could spill over. The world's jump zones have lost 21% percent of their tree cover in almost two decades' time, double the worldwide rate. Almost one-third of that expansion would be in existing jump zones, where spillover risk is already high. Though those countries require mining companies to assess potential environmental harms that new concessions might cause, none require companies to evaluate spillover risk.

☆ How Reuters pinpointed bat-virus risk zones worldwide
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +12 min

Areas where conditions are similar are more prone to spillover, scientists say. The Reuters analysis, which assessed spillover risk through 2020, has proven to have some predictive power. Similar statistical models are used widely to analyze data in ecology, and researchers use them to understand spillover risk. More than one of every five people on the planet is living in areas where the risk is highest for spillover. Using epidemic modeling software called GLEAMviz, the news agency simulated a worldwide pandemic originating from the spillover of a theoretical novel virus.

☆ Bat lands worldwide are besieged, seeding risk of a new pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +16 min

This collision – bats and humans competing for resources on territory long the domain of the bats – could trigger the next pandemic. As people destroy bat habitats worldwide, they are unwittingly helping bat-borne viruses mutate, multiply, and infect other species, including homo sapiens. For millennia, bat viruses lurked across the forests of West Africa and in other undisturbed parts of the world but posed little threat to humanity. They’re potent proliferators: Some roost tightly together and in close quarters with other bat species. Each of the bat viruses analyzed by Reuters has epidemic potential, according to the World Health Organization.

☆ Face masks are still a good idea at the doctor’s office, study says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Jen Christensen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

But they remain in many medical offices, and a study published Monday says they might still be a good idea. The study, published in the journal the Annals of Internal Medicine, also found that there wasn’t a significant difference in protection between surgical masks and N95 respirators in a health care setting. Because gold standard evidence about their protectiveness is not available, they say, masks for patients and health care personnel should be considered a good safety measure. Lab studies show that surgical masks and respirators are good at limiting the spread of aerosols and droplets from people who are sick with the flu, coronaviruses and other respiratory viruses. “We all realize the importance and utility of a mask,” Madad said.

☆ U.S. spending $5 billion to speed up development of new COVID vaccines
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationWASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. government is spending over $5 billion on an effort to speed up the development of new COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson and a Biden administration official said on Monday. "While our vaccines are still very effective at preventing serious illness and death, they are less capable of reducing infections and transmission over time," the HHS spokesperson said. "Project NextGen will accelerate and streamline the rapid development of the next generation of vaccines and treatments through public-private collaborations," said the administration official. The project, set to be based at HHS, will coordinate across the government and with the private sector on advancing a pipeline of new vaccines and treatments, the HHS spokesperson said. The project also seeks to speed up the development of vaccines that produce mucosal immunity and can be administered through the nose, in hopes they can dramatically reduce infection and transmission rates.

☆ WHO still working to identify the origins of COVID-19
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

GENEVA, March 3 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) is still working to identify the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, its director general said on Friday, after a U.S. agency was reported to have assessed the pandemic had likely been caused by a Chinese laboratory leak. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the U.S. Energy Department had concluded the pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak, an assessment Beijing denies. "I wish to be very clear that WHO has not abandoned any plans to identify the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic," Tedros said. Four other U.S. agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still think COVID-19 was likely the result of natural transmission, while two are undecided, the Journal reported. On Friday, she urged countries, institutions and research groups that might have any information on the origins of the pandemic to share it with the international community.

☆ China spent years angrily trying to shut down the theory that COVID-19 came from its labs. It failed.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

China has pushed another theory, suggesting the COVID-19 may have jumped to humans from frozen food shipped from elsewhere in the world. Lab leak theory initially dismissedThe suspicion that COVID-19 may have leaked from a Wuhan lab has circulated since the earliest days of the pandemic. Trump sought to use the pandemic to discredit China, using the xenophobic term "China virus" to describe the disease. A group of scientists criticised the WHO for dismissing the lab leak thesis too hastily, and pointed to gaps in the report's evidence. Yet the lab leak theory has continued to gain credibility, despite China's efforts, and scientists who once dismissed it now think it's a credible explanation.

☆ House GOP asks Fauci and dozens of health officials to testify in investigation into Covid origins
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

House Republicans have asked former White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony to testify before Congress as they launch a new investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. "If there are oversight hearings I absolutely will cooperate fully and testify before the Congress," Fauci told reporters during his final briefing at the White House. He stepped down from his posts at the White House and at the helm of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in December. EcoHealth Alliance provided funding, which originated at NIH, to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study coronaviruses. About $600,000 of that money went directly to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study the threat posed by bat coronaviruses.

☆ Top pharma CEO says Covid likely to become endemic, urges investment in pandemic preparedness
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Novartis said in August that it plans to spin off its generics unit Sandoz to sharpen its focus on its patented prescription medicines. The chief executive of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis on Thursday warned the coronavirus pandemic will likely settle into an endemic phase and renewed calls for policymakers to sufficiently finance pandemic preparedness. "If you look over the last two years, we have populations that have built up immunity, you have a virus that's continuing to make shifts, but I think what we're going to settle into is more of an endemic environment with respect to coronaviruses and the Covid virus specifically," Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, told CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Narasimhan, who has previously warned that future pandemics are bound to happen, made clear that world leaders must learn from the coronavirus crisis to be in a better place for future pandemics. "I think what is really important now is we turn our attention to pandemic preparedness for the future," Narasimhan said.

☆ Fact Check-Coronavirus does not translate to ‘heart attack virus’ in Latin
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Despite the Google translation for “cor ona virus” from Latin to English showing up as “heart attack virus,” language experts consulted by Reuters said this is not an accurate translation of the three words (cor, ona, and virus). While entering these words with this spacing into Google Translate does result in the words “heart attack virus” (bit.ly/3QF10bC), experts told Reuters this is not an accurate translation into Latin. The Latin word “corona,” however, is “actually a borrowing from Greek and has nothing to do with Latin cor, cordis ‘heart’,” he added. Experts told Reuters that “coronavirus” in Latin does not translate to “heart attack virus,” despite a Google Translate query shared on social media. The term is formed by two Latin words, “corona” and “virus” and the etymology stems from the virus’s physical appearance.

☆ Spending more time with your kids, grandkids—and their germs—may lower risk of a severe outcome from Covid-19, recent studies show
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Renée Onque | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

That's according to two studies that were published in August and November of this year, which researched how exposure to younger kids and common colds may impact outcomes for adults after contracting Covid-19. Exposure to kids may lower your risk of hospitalization from Covid-19The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in August, discovered an association between people who were exposed to young children and lower risk of severe illness from Covid-19. And researchers compared the severity of outcomes from Covid-19 for people without children and people with children in three different age ranges: 0-5, 6-11 and 12-18. The findings showed that chances of Veteran Affairs patients contracting Covid-19 decreased by 80% to 90% if they tested positive for any of the common coronaviruses between February 2020 and February 2021. This means developing a common cold may shield people from Covid-19 infection, even if for a short period time.

☆ Pfizer rejects Moderna claim it copied Covid vaccine, accuses rival of rewriting history
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Vials with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine labels are seen in this illustration picture taken March 19, 2021. Pfizer has rejected allegations made by rival Moderna that its Covid-19 vaccine is a copy, accusing the Boston biotech company of rewriting history to lay claim to technology developed by a field of scientists over many years. Pfizer asked a federal court in Massachusetts on Monday to dismiss Moderna's lawsuit seeking monetary damages for alleged patent violations related to the Boston company's Covid vaccine. "The Moderna inventions that Pfizer and BioNTech chose to copy were foundational for the success of their vaccine," the company claimed. Pfizer and BioNTech did not copy Moderna's technology," Pfizer said in its response.

☆ Surge of viruses leaves children’s hospitals scrambling to free up beds and find room for patients
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Aria Bendix | Aria Bendix Is The Breaking Health Reporter For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Every inpatient bed at Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago has been full for more than six weeks. Many of the patients at Comer Children’s have RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, which can cause lung infections. Some hospitals are sending ICU patients directly home once their cases are no longer acute, rather than to another floor. Dr. Kevin Messacar, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, said his hospital is accepting patients from five nearby states. But suctioning can be tricky for parents, according to Dr. Elizabeth Schlaudecker, an infectious disease specialist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

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