Login
China’s Struggles With Lab Safety Carry Danger of Another Pandemic
In the summer of 2019, a mysterious accident occurred inside a government-run biomedical complex in north-central China, a facility that handles a pathogen notorious for its ability to pass easily from animals to humans.
There were no alarms or flashing lights to alert workers to the defect in a sanitation system that was supposed to kill germs in the vaccine plant’s waste. When the system failed in late July that year, millions of airborne microbes began seeping invisibly from exhaust vents and drifting into nearby neighborhoods. Nearly a month passed before the problem was discovered and fixed, and four months before the public was informed. By then, at least 10,000 people had been exposed, with hundreds developing symptomatic illnesses, scientific studies later concluded.
The events occurred not in Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus pandemic began, but in another Chinese city, Lanzhou, 800 miles to the southeast. The leaking pathogens were bacterial spores that cause brucellosis, a common livestock disease that can lead to chronic illness or even death in humans if not treated.
As the pandemic enters its fourth year, new details about the little-known Lanzhou incident offer a revealing glimpse into a much larger — and largely hidden — struggle with biosafety across China in late 2019, at the precise moment when both the brucellosis incident and the coronavirus outbreak were coming to light.
Multiple probes into both events by U.S. and international scientists and lawmakers are spotlighting what experts describe as China’s vulnerability to serious lab accidents, exposing problems that allowed deadly pathogens to escape in the past and could well do so again, potentially triggering another pandemic.
Virus Sniffing Dogs Latest Weapon in Battle Against COVID
These COVID-sniffing dogs are becoming the next weapon in the war against the virus. It’s 9 a.m. and Scarlett, a two-year-old yellow Labrador, is already working her little tail off. Scarlett and her canine coworker Rizzo are part of a growing number of dogs across the globe who can detect COVID in humans simply by sniffing people’s socks.
Hired by the California Department of Public Health, Scarlett and Rizzo have been deployed to classrooms and nursing homes all over the Bay Area, essentially serving as walking COVID tests — no need for swabs or even a laboratory, inserted these “labs” come to you.
A dog’s sense of smell is estimated to be 10,000 to 100,000 times better than that of humans. Over the years, they’ve been used to sniff out everything from bombs to illegal drugs, and even cancer. But these days they’re being trained to sniff out an elusive virus that has upended the world over the last three years.
Carol Edwards, the executive director of Early Alert Canines, said the company has been training the dogs almost every day to keep them up to date on all the latest strains. She said not only are these dogs accurate, but they can also tell if someone has COVID even before it shows up in other tests. The cost to train each dog is about $50,000 and can take up to a year.
Babies Exposed to Mild COVID in Womb Show Normal Brain Development
The infants of mothers who had asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 infections during pregnancy showed no neurodevelopment delays compared to peers with no exposures, according to new work from Columbia University researchers. The research is published in JAMA Network Open.
The study builds on a previous assessment of babies born in New York City to mothers who were infected, conducted by the same research group. That small study also showed no significant brain delays in infants born to mothers who had COVID-19 during pregnancy.
The researchers found no significant differences in infants exposed to COVID-19 in utero and those with no exposure. Timing of exposure in any of the pregnancy trimesters also had no link to delays. Moreover, there were no differences among infants whose mothers had been infected with COVID shortly before pregnancy or those who had never been infected.
Quebec Medical College Says Not Its Role to Evaluate COVID Vaccination Safety Concerns
A group of Quebec doctors and scientists is disappointed with the response from the province’s medical college to its efforts to engage on the issue of the safety of COVID-19 vaccination.
After sending several letters and obtaining a meeting with the Collège des médecins du Québec (CMQ) to express its concerns, the organization Réinfo Québec received a response from the CMQ president in late March.
“We wish to remind you that the Collège des médecins du Québec is a professional order and not a scholarly society,” CMQ president Mauril Gaudreault wrote in a March 26 email obtained by The Epoch Times. “Therefore, it is not our responsibility to evaluate the many elements that you have raised during our meeting.”
Dr. René Lavigueur, a family physician and member of Réinfo, told The Epoch Times that even if the CMQ is not a scholarly society, he believes it has a duty to look into the matter as the ethical authority for the profession and as a defender of the public.
Exclusive: China Out of UN’s Wildlife Survey for Pandemic Controls
China is not participating in a United Nations project to survey Asian wet markets and other facilities at high risk of spreading infectious diseases from wild animals to humans, despite long-running talks with Beijing, a UN official told Reuters.
China’s hesitancy to join the UN project involving other Asian nations may compound frustration by global researchers who have been pressing Beijing to share information about the origins of COVID-19, as they seek to prevent future pandemics due to zoonotic, or animal-to-human, disease transmission.
Four Asian countries — China, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos — were initially selected for the survey by the scientific advisory committee of the project, called the Safety Across Asia For the Global Environment (SAFE), because they host multiple facilities presenting risks of animal-to-human disease transmission, the UN official said.
Novavax Cut $50 Million in Costs, Plans to Slash More, CEO Says
Novavax Inc. (NVAX.O) cut about $50 million in costs in the first quarter of 2023 and plans to slash more, Chief Executive John Jacobs said in an interview on Wednesday.
“We’re looking at everything from buildings, leases, land, headcount, and contractors, every aspect of our company and the way we work,” he told Reuters.
Jacobs also said the company is in regular talks with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over the potential design of its 2023 COVID-19 booster shot and believes Novavax will have a new shot ready in time for the fall.
Novavax, whose COVID-19 vaccine is its lone marketed product after 35 years in business, is relying on an updated COVID shot, cost cutting, and Phase 2 data on its COVID/influenza combination vaccine due in the coming weeks to stay afloat.
‘Arcturus,’ a Highly Transmissible COVID Variant Eyed by the WHO, Appears to Have a New Symptom. Here’s What You Need to Know
A new COVID variant the World Health Organization has its eye on seems to be causing a new symptom in children rarely caused by other Omicron spawn.
XBB.1.16, dubbed “Arcturus” by variant trackers, is fueling a new surge of cases in India, at a time when reported cases are down in much of the rest of the world. The country’s health ministry is holding mock drills to ensure that hospitals are prepared for rising COVID cases, the BBC reported Monday, noting that some states have again made mask-wearing in public mandatory.
Levels of the variant are also rising in the U.S., Singapore and Australia, among others.
The symptoms he’s now seeing among children: high fever, cough and “itchy” conjunctivitis — or pink eye — without pus, but with “sticky eyes.” The latter symptom hasn’t been seen in earlier COVID waves, he noted.
Free COVID Testing Will Fade With U.S. Health Emergency in May
When the COVID-19 public health emergency ends in the U.S. next month, you’ll still have access to a multitude of tests but with one big difference: Who pays for them.
For the first time, you may have to pick up some or all of the costs, depending on insurance coverage and whether the tests are done at home or in a doctor’s office.
