COVID-19 RELATED TIMELINE

2001

(June 22-23, 2001) Dark Winter Exercise
Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies, the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security,
and the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention Terrorism, hosted a senior-level war game
examining the national security, intergovernmental, and information challenges of a biological attack on the American homeland.
[link to www.centerforhealthsecurity.org (secure)]

(September 3, 2001)Top scientist warns Britain to be prepared for biological warfare
Sir William, president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, told fellow scientists:
"There are those who say the First World War was chemical, the Second World War was nuclear, and that the third world war God forbid will be biological.
[link to www.independent.co.uk (secure)]

(September 11, 2001) Dancing Israelis
A New York resident referred to by ABC only as "Maria" reports that on the morning of 9/11,
a neighbor called her shortly after the first plane hit the World Trade Center.
She watched the destruction unfolding in lower Manhattan through binoculars
and three young men kneeling on the roof of a white 2000 Chevrolet van
in the parking lot of her apartment building caught her attention since "they seemed to be taking a movie".
Particularly suspicious she found the expressions on the men's faces. "They were like happy, you know...
[link to wikispooks.com (secure)]

(September 18, 2001) One week afer the 9/11 attack
on the World Trade Center towers in New York City, letters containing
anthrax bacteria were mailed to several news media offices and two
U.S. Senators, ultimately killing five people and infecting 17 others.
[link to www.researchgate.net (secure)]

During their investigation, the FBI concluded that Bruce Edward Ivins,
a microbiologist for the United States Army, had mailed the deadly letters.
The FBI obtained some of the anthrax spores and analyzed them.
After analyzing the spores, the FBI traced the spores to a military
lab located at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
[link to en.wikipedia.org (secure)]
[link to en.wikipedia.org (secure)]

(October 26, 2001)The USA PATRIOT Act - is an Act of the United States Congress that was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush.
Those opposing the law have criticized its authorization of indefinite detentions
of immigrants; the permission given to law enforcement to search a home or business without the owner's or the occupant's consent or knowledge;
the expanded use of National Security Letters, which allows the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to search telephone, e-mail,
and financial records without a court order; and the expanded access of law enforcement agencies to business records, including library and financial records.
Since its passage, several legal challenges have been brought against the act, and federal courts have ruled that a number of provisions are unconstitutional.
Many of the act's provisions were to sunset beginning December 31, 2005, approximately four years after its passage. In the months preceding the sunset date, supporters of the act pushed to make its sun-setting provisions permanent, while critics sought to revise various sections to enhance civil liberty protections.
[link to en.wikipedia.org (secure)]



2002

(January 25, 2002) NIH Budget Reaches Doubling Point
President George W. Bush will propose a National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget of $27.3 billion,
a rise of almost 16% that represents a doubling since 1998. The sum is gratifying to biomedical lobbying groups,
which have pushed hard to double the NIH budget over 5 years.
But the victory isn't entirely sweet: The bulk of the new money in 2003 would go for bioterrorism,
which means most of NIH's 27 institutes will likely get smaller increases.
[link to www.sciencemag.org (secure)]

(February 19, 2002) Bush Will Not Name AIDS Researcher Anthony Fauci as NIH Director, Unnamed Official Says; Abortion Politics Cited
The AP/Post-Dispatch reports that HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson (Republican politician) has been "pushing" for Fauci
who has been the director of NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984
[link to khn.org (secure)]

(July 12, 2002) TRACES OF TERROR: THE SCIENCE; SCIENTISTS CREATE A LIVE POLIO VIRUS
Scientists reported yesterday that they had constructed a virus from scratch for the first time,
synthesizing a live polio virus from chemicals and publicly available genetic information.
The work, conducted by scientists at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, was financed by the Pentagon
as part of a program to develop biowarfare countermeasures. The scientists constructed the virus using its genome sequence,
which is available on the Internet, as their blueprint and genetic material from one of the many companies that sell made-to-order DNA.
[link to www.nytimes.com (secure)]

(November 16, 2002) First known case of atypical pneumonia(SARS) occurs in Foshan City, Guangdong Province, China,
but is not identified until much later
[link to www.who.int (secure)]



2003

(October 2003) Ageless Bodies (The President's (George W. Bush) Council on Bioethics, Washington, D.C.)
It may at first seem strange to suggest that we yearn for an "ageless body,"
not a term commonly heard and certainly not the conscious and explicit longing of very many people.
Still, when properly examined, something like a desire for an "ageless body" seems in fact to be commonplace and deeply held;
and should our capacities to retard the senescence of our bodies increase,
that desire may well become more explicit and strong.
In this sense, it is fundamentally the aging of the body we wish to stop.
But it is more than the dread of decline that motivates us to seek ageless bodies.
Different human societies have had very different conceptions of the divine,
but one attribute has almost universally been attached to the gods: immortality.
Our subjection to death-and our awareness of this fact-is central to what makes us human ("mortals") rather than divine,
and it makes us fearful and weak and constrained.

(November 27, 2003) Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 is a functional receptor for the SARS coronavirus
Recently, a distinct coronavirus has been identified as the aetiological agent of SARS, an acute pulmonary syndrome characterized by an atypical pneumonia
that results in progressive respiratory failure and death in close to 10% of cases. Analysis of the SARS-CoV genome suggests that this virus does not belong
to any of the three defined coronavirus groups, and that the SARS-CoV S protein is similarly distinct. Similar to the analogous human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
and influenza proteins, the S proteins of some coronaviruses—including MHV and the group III coronavirus infectious bronchitis virus—are cleaved into two subunits
(S1 and S2) by a cellular protease in virus-producing cells.
[link to www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (secure)]



2005

(2005) An effort to recreate the 1918 flu strain
(a subtype of avian strain H1N1) was a collaboration among the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology,
the USDA ARS Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory, and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.
The effort resulted in the announcement (on 5 October 2005) that the group had successfully determined the virus's genetic sequence,
using historic tissue samples recovered by pathologist Johan Hultin
from a female flu victim buried in the Alaskan permafrost and samples preserved from American soldiers.



2007

(May 20, 2007) Difference in Receptor Usage between Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Coronavirus and SARS-Like Coronavirus of Bat Origin
In this study, we investigated the receptor usage of the SL-CoV S by combining a human immunodeficiency virus-based pseudovirus system
with cell lines expressing the ACE2 molecules of human, civet, or horseshoe bat. In addition to full-length S of SL-CoV and SARS-CoV,
a series of S chimeras was constructed by inserting different sequences of the SARS-CoV S into the SL-CoV S backbone.
[link to jvi.asm.org (secure)]



2008

(December 16, 2008) Synthetic recombinant bat SARS-like coronavirus is infectious in cultured cells and in mice
Here, we report the design, synthesis, and recovery of the largest synthetic replicating life form, a 29.7-kb
bat severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-like coronavirus (Bat-SCoV), a likely progenitor to the SARS-CoV epidemic.
To test a possible route of emergence from the noncultivable Bat-SCoV to human SARS-CoV, we designed
a consensus Bat-SCoV genome and replaced the Bat-SCoV Spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) with the SARS-CoV RBD(Bat-SRBD).
Bat-SRBD was infectious in cell culture and in mice and was efficiently neutralized by antibodies specific for both bat and human CoV Spike proteins.
[link to www.pnas.org (secure)]

"It can be very hard to study where a virus originally came from," said Mark Denison. "If you start from where you think the virus was,
and let the virus tell you where it's going, then you learn a tremendous amount about viral evolution and movement."
Denison's team used the genetic sequence of bat SARS to build the virus. Bat SARS doesn't normally infect people,
but the researchers added a critical tweak: a gene present only in the human version of the virus. The new version
flourished in human cell cultures, suggesting that a mutation in the gene, known as
Bat-SRBD, was responsible for SARS' lethal spread.
[link to www.wired.com (secure)]

2011

(December 20, 2011) Seeing Terror Risk, U.S. Asks Journals to Cut Flu Study Facts
In the experiments, conducted in the United States(Yoshihiro Kawaoka) and the Netherlands(Ron Fouchier),
scientists created a highly transmissible form of a deadly flu virus
that does not normally spread from person to person.
[link to www.nytimes.com (secure)]



2012

(January 20, 2012) Fears of mutant virus escape halt bird flu study
Researchers studying a potentially more lethal, airborne version of the bird flu virus have suspended their studies
because of concerns the mutant virus they have created could be used as a devastating form of bioterrorism or accidentally escape the lab.

Nature reported last month that both experiments on mutant viruses were carried out in labs rated “biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) enhanced,
” which “require scientists to shower and change clothes when leaving the lab,
and include other safety features such as negative air pressure and passing
exhaust air through high-efficiency particulate air filters.”

But some virologists argue that the more stringent BSL-4 precautions are needed.
BSL-4, which is required for research on, among other microbes, the Ebola virus,
includes full-body positive air-pressure suits like astronauts use.
In the past, the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus has escaped from BSL-3, and possibly BSL-4, labs.
[link to anon.to (secure)]

(May 2, 2012) Mutant-flu paper published (by Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin–Madison)
Controversial study shows how dangerous forms of avian influenza could evolve in the wild.
[link to www.nature.com (secure)]

(June 21, 2012) Second mutant-flu paper published (by Ron Fouchier from the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam)
Just five mutations allow H5N1 to spread between ferrets.
[link to www.nature.com (secure)]



2013

(January 23, 2013) H5N1 Researchers Announce End of Research Moratorium
[link to www.sciencemag.org (secure)]



2014

(April 15, 2014) Vials of deadly SARS virus 'go missing' in France
[link to www.telegraph.co.uk (secure)]
[link to www.businessinsider.com.au (secure)]

(June 2014) Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has genetically manipulated the 2009 strain of pandemic flu
in order for it to “escape” the control of the immune system’s neutralising antibodies.
Lord May said he suspected the NIH supported the work because officials there were "incompetent"
and believed the justifications that scientists told them. "This is work that shouldn't be done. It's as simple as that," he said.

Institute for Influenza Virus Research in Madison which was built specifically to house Professor Kawaoka’s laboratory,
which has a level-3-agriculture category of biosafety: one below the top safety level for the most dangerous pathogens, such as Ebola virus.
However, this study was done at the lower level-2 biosafety.
[link to www.businessinsider.com (secure)]
[link to www.theguardian.com (secure)]

Marc Lipsitch, Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, said:
‘I am worried that this signals a growing trend to make “transmissible” novel viruses willy-nilly.
This is a risky activity, even in the safest labs.
‘Scientists should not take such risks without strong evidence that the work could save lives, which this paper does not provide.’

Other scientists used stronger language.
‘If society understood what was going on,’ thundered Professor Simon Wain-Hobson,
of the Virology Department at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, ‘they would say “What the F are you doing?”
[link to www.dailymail.co.uk (secure)]

(October 17, 2014) U.S. halts funding for new risky virus studies, calls for voluntary moratorium
[link to www.sciencemag.org (secure)]
[link to www.the-scientist.com (secure)]

That’s a lot of copy and paste bro...

2015

(November 16, 2015) Ralph S. Baric, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
last week (November 9) published a study on his team’s efforts to engineer a virus with the surface protein of the SHC014 coronavirus,
found in horseshoe bats in China, and the backbone of one that causes human-like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in mice.
The hybrid virus could infect human airway cells and caused disease in mice, according to the team’s results, which were published in Nature Medicine.

Baric’s study on the SHC014-chimeric coronavirus began before the (2014) moratorium was announced,
and the NIH allowed it to proceed during a review process, which eventually led to the conclusion
that the work did not fall under the new restrictions, Baric told Nature.
But some researchers, like Wain-Hobson, disagree with that decision.
[link to www.the-scientist.com (secure)]

“I don’t think it’s wise or appropriate for us to create large risks that don’t already exist,” says David Relman,
a microbiologist at Stanford University. He thinks the government was right to include SARS and MERS in this moratorium,
because they are so close to being pandemic viruses. “I’m quite delighted that great scientists like Ralph Baric are working on SARS
and doing the work they are doing,” says Relman. “But there still are specific experiments that I think should cause everyone pause
and potentially cause concern if conducted.” For SARS and MERS, he says, “the one thing that I would feel most concerned about doing
is to give them that one missing trait, their means of transmitting easily between humans.”

Baric says that kind of experiment is not happening in his lab. He’s not trying to change the way SARS or MERS gets transmitted.
In fact, he doesn’t know of any lab trying to do that.
Still, his group has recently been tweaking the genes of the MERS virus. So is he making it more dangerous?
“If you’re a mouse, the answer is probably yes, or at least I was trying to,” says Baric.
[link to www.npr.org (secure)]

(May 28, 2015) Since 2003, the CDC has referred 79 labs
for potential enforcement actions by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services'
Office of Inspector General. It has levied fines against 19 of them totaling more than $2.4 million, the CDC said in response to questions.
Some are repeat offenders. Five labs have had "multiple referrals" for enforcement actions, the CDC said.
Two labs have been kicked out of the program, and five labs have been suspended from doing any select agent research, the agency said.
Which labs repeatedly failed to address safety problems? The CDC won't name names — not even for the two labs kicked out of the select agent program.
The CDC and its regulatory partners at the USDA say the 2002 bioterrorism law requires keeping this information secret.
[link to www.usatoday.com (secure)]

(October 9, 2015) Antiviral compound effectively treated Ebola in monkeys (GS-5374 - later named Remdesivir)
A clinical trial of the compound, GS-5374, is currently being conducted by the company Gilead Sciences,
which worked with the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID, to develop it.
[link to www.upi.com (secure)]

2016

(March 15, 2016) UNC Epidemiology Study: New SARS-Like Virus May Be Nearly Ready to Infect Humans
A study led by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that a SARS-like virus
known as WIV1-CoV, which is found in horseshoe bats, could bind to the same receptors as SARS-CoV and replicate in human cells without the need for adaptation.
Thought to be a critical barrier, the results indicate that bat populations maintain SARS-like viruses poised to reemerge in humans.
The research team worked with both full length and chimeric versions of WIV1-CoV. The virus readily and efficiently replicated in cultured human airway tissues, suggesting and ability to potentially jump directly to humans.
While other adaptations may be required to produce an epidemic,
several viral strains circulating in bat populations have already overcome
the barrier of replication in human cells and suggest reemergence as a distinct possibility.
[link to global.unc.edu (secure)]

(May 2016) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the inaugural ID2020 summit brought together over 400 people to discuss how to provide digital identity to all,
a defined Sustainable Development Goal including to 1.5bn people living without any form of recognized identification.
Experts in blockchain and other cryptographic technology joined with representatives of technical standards bodies
to identify how technology and other private sector expertise could achieve the goal.
In 2019, ID2020 started a new digital identity program in collaboration with the government of Bangladesh and vaccine alliance Gavi.
Participants: Accenture, Microsoft, Avanade Inc, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Cisco Systems Inc have contributed their expertise to ID2020.
[link to en.wikipedia.org (secure)]

(August 2016) A Blueprint for Digital Identity
The Role of Financial Institutions in Building Digital Identity
An Industry Project of the Financial Services Community Prepared in collaboration with Deloitte
Members of the Steering Committee:
- Bob Contri, Vice Chairman - Deloitte & Touche LLP
- David Craig, President, Risk and Financial - Thomson Reuters
- John Flint, Chief Executive Officer, Retail Banking and Wealth Management - HSBC
- Kim Hammond, Chief Operating Officer - Deutsche Bank
- Jason Harris, Chief Executive Officer, International Property and Casualty - XL Group
- Michael Harte, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operations Officer - Barclays
- Axel Lehmann, Chief Operating Officer - UBS
- Anju Patwardhan, Chief Innovation Officer - Standard Chartered Bank
- David Puth, Chief Executive Officer - CLS Group
- William Sheedy, Global Executive, Corporate Strategy, M&A, Government Relations - Visa
- Dietter Wemmer, Chief Financial Officer - Allianz
Members of the Working Group:
- Tom Brown, Partner - Paul Hastings
- Lena Mass-Cresnik, PhD, Head of Innovation, Strategic Product Management - BlackRock
- Christof Edel, Global Head of Trading Strategy & Business Development - Thomson Reuters
- Rob Galaski, (Project Advisor) Head of Financial Services - Deloitte
- Dorothy Hillenius, Director of Corporate Strategy - ING
- Marc Lien, Director of Innovation and Digital Development - Lloyds Banking Group
- Matthew Levin, EVP and Head of Global Strategy - Aon
- Victor Matarranz, Director of Strategy & Chief of Staff to the CEO - Santander
- Neil Mumm, VP Corporate Strategy - Visa
- Max Neukirchen, Group Head of Strategy - JP Morgan Chase
- Christine O’Connell, Global Head of Strategy & Business Development - Thomson Reuters
- Robert Palatnick, Managing Director and Chief Technology Architect - DTCC
- Kosta Peric, Deputy Director Financial Services for the Poor - Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Justin Pinkham, SVP and Group Head, Payments Innovation - MasterCard
- Bob Reany, SVP and Group Head, Identity Solutions - MasterCard
- Peter Rutland, Senior Managing Director - CVC Capital Partners
- Nicolas de Skowronski, Chief of Staff - Bank Julius Baer
- Huw Van Steenis, Managing Director and Head of Financial Services Research - Morgan Stanley
- Colin Teichholtz, Partner & Co-Head of Fixed Income Trading - Pine River Capital
- Fabien Vandenreydt, Head of Markets Management, Innotribe & the SWIFT Institute - SWIFT

There is no one-size-fits-all for identity.
A global system for identity therefore initially requires the construction of discrete identity networks,
and then the creation of rails between them. Creating a global solution for identity is a two-step process: the key to building a global system for digital identity
is first building successful natural identity networks that address the unique needs and preferences of their user group and situation,
and then building connective tissue that creates interoperability between these systems.
1. Implementation: Configuring natural identity networks
- The configuration of natural identity networks will be guided by the decisions made against the primary and secondary dimensions of choice.
2. Interconnection: Building the rails for global identity
- Building the rails between natural identity systems will create global interconnection and interoperability.

Building identity as a two-step process enables identity systems to be built by narrowing the required stakeholders to groups that have
similar needs and concerns, and therefore have relatively aligned incentives. It also ensures that these systems are tailored to the specific needs
and wants of their user and stakeholder groups and will therefore gain the uptake that a top-down, one-size-fits-all systam would not attain.
However, these solutions should also be built following a common framework that will ensure interoperability by defining the features,
attributes and requirements of the identities that are exchanged in the system. This reinforces the need for individual identity systems to be built by entities
such as financial institutions that have experience working together to define standards, and then building individual systems within these standards.
Implementing discrete digital identity systems that suit the unique needs and cultural factors of users in their own jurisdictions,
and designing these systems around resilience, interoperability and interconnection, will allow a global blueprint for digital identity to emerge.
[link to www3.weforum.org]



2017

(Jannuary 4, 2017) CDC scientists apparently lost a box of deadly and highly-regulated influenza specimens
and experienced multiple potential exposures involving viruses and bacteria,
according to heavily-redacted laboratory incident reports obtained by USA TODAY
[link to www.usatoday.com (secure)]

(June 28, 2017) New drug holds potential to defeat coronaviruses
Scientists at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health have confirmed that an experimental antiviral treatment
prevents the development of SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) disease in mice. The drug, GS-5734(Remdesivir), also inhibits MERS-CoV
and multiple other coronaviruses (CoV), suggesting that the treatment may inhibit all CoV.

To date, there are no approved therapies to treat any kind of CoV infection.
GS-5734(Remdesivir) is being developed through a unique public-private partnership between
investigators at the University of North Carolina, Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine and Gilead Sciences, Inc.
[link to sph.unc.edu (secure)]

(July 10, 2017) The Pentagon Ponders the Threat of Synthetic Bioweapons
They point to 2014, when the federal government halted 18 studies on so-called “gain of function”
research that tinkered with viruses like MERS, SARS, and the flu to make them more likely to transmit in humans.
The White House is taking another look at that moratorium to determine whether it still makes sense.
Many scientists hope the ban is lifted—they argue understanding how viruses mutate is critical to stop them.
[link to www.wired.com (secure)]

(August 31, 2017) Gillings School researchers receive $6M+ grant to fight infectious diseases
The partnership grant awarded to Baric and Sheahan establishes a collaboration between the Gillings School and
Gilead Sciences Inc., Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the University of Texas Medical Branch.
The collaboration builds upon an earlier partnership between the Gillings School and Gilead Sciences Inc.,
and will focus specifically on GS-5734(Remdesivir), an experimental antiviral treatment.
[link to sph.unc.edu (secure)]

(October 4, 2017) Broad-spectrum Investigational Agent GS-5734(remdesivir) for the Treatment of Ebola,
MERS Coronavirus and Other Pathogenic Viral Infections with High Outbreak Potential
Antiviral activity of GS-5734 has been established in vitro against a wide range of pathogenic RNA virus families,
including filoviruses, coronaviruses, and paramyxoviruses
[link to www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (secure)]

(December 19, 2017) The US government is lifting a ban on engineering deadly viruses to make them more dangerous
[link to www.sciencemag.org (secure)]
[link to www.businessinsider.com (secure)]
[link to grants.nih.gov (secure)]

(December 6, 2017) This New Blockchain Project Gives Homeless New Yorkers A Digital Identity
Three thousand homeless people in New York
are about to receive a special holiday gift: a free smartphone
that allows them to manage their digital identity,
access shelters and food pantries,
and make use of financial services.
The initiative, which uses blockchain technology,
may be the first time a distributed computer ledger
has been employed to help a homeless population.
[link to www.fastcompany.com (secure)]

2018

(January 24, 2018) US-China biotech startup XtalPi lands $15M from Google, Tencent and Sequoia
Google continues to increase its presence in China after it joined Sequoia China and Tencent in a $15 million investment for XtalPi,
a U.S.-China biotech firm that uses artificial intelligence and computing to accelerate the development of new drugs.
The search giant remains blocked in China, but that hasn’t stopped it from making a series of moves in recent months.
It is opening an AI lab in the country and now it has made a second significant investment in recent months by backing XtalPi,
which was founded in 2014 by three Chinese MIT graduates.
The company has 60 staff across offices in Cambridge, Beijing and Shenzhen.
It uses a combination of AI, quantum physics algorithms and cloud computing to predict the structure
of drug molecules once they are crystalized, which it turn affects a drug’s stability and other characteristics
that determine its chances of making it to market.
Beyond its design focus — which makes the drug development process more efficient and accurate for pharma companies — XtalPi also works on drug discovery.
[link to techcrunch.com (secure)]

(January 24, 2018) Woman Working at NIH Killed in Parking Lot Crash
[link to www.nbcwashington.com (secure)]

(February 12, 2018) Timothy Jerrell Cunningham (C.D.C. Employee) was last seen leaving work
(December 21, 1982 - 2018) was a Harvard-educated (African American) doctor with the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention. As an epidemiologist, he was a team leader in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and was named in 2017 as part of the Atlanta Business Chronicle's 40 Under 40 list. He also was the co-author of 28 publications on topics about sleep deprivation, pulmonary disease and more. Cunningham graduated from Morehouse and earned his S.M and ScD. from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
[link to en.wikipedia.org (secure)]

The doctor, who went to Harvard as well as Morehouse, had worked on a study about the disparities in death rates among Blacks that was published last May.
The study was connected to a 1996 ban by the NRA against the CDC examining gun violence as a crisis, according to social media users who pointed out that
Cunningham’s bizarre disappearance happened after this controversial publication.

In addition, Internet rumors about Cunningham being a whistle-blower who had cautioned the public about the flu shot
being responsible for this year’s deadly flu season have been touted as a possible reason for his disappearance,
a claim that his father, Terrell Cunningham disputed as false to CNN.
[link to newsone.com (secure)]

(March 6, 2018) What if billionaires could live forever?
Several billionaires, most of them Californians, have been funding firms involved in developing life-extension technologies.
What if they succeed? What if billionaires alive today live indefinitely and get ever richer?
Diamandis and Hariri's new venture is the latest example of a well-established phenomenon in Silicon Valley:
Extremely wealthy techno-optimists have for years been funding biomedical R&D companies meant to achieve immortality for their funders.
Some of the more recognizable names who have been putting money into such efforts: Larry Ellison (founder of Oracle),
Larry Page and Sergey Brin (founders of Google), Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon), and Peter Thiel, cofounder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies.
Palantir, by the way, is a "big-data" company that uses algorithms to scan huge datasets for patterns.
It does a lot of work for US government intelligence agencies. Thiel is a radical corporate libertarian, and Silicon Valley's best-known Donald Trump supporter.
In late February, Diamandis wrote to subscribers of his email bulletin: "I asked the smartest people I know for their tech predictions for the next 20 years (2018 – 2038).
What are the breakthroughs we can expect on our countdown to the Singularity?" One of the predictions he listed was that by 2030, "humanity will have achieved Longevity Escape Velocity for the wealthiest."
[link to www.dw.com (secure)]

(April 10, 2018) HHS sponsors its largest exercise for moving patients with highly infectious diseases
The largest patient movement exercise in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ history began today to test
the nationwide ability to move patients with highly infectious diseases safely and securely to regional treatment centers.
[link to www.hhs.gov (secure)]

(April 13, 2018) Sanofi to Build $431M Vaccine Plant in Toronto
Sanofi plans to double its vaccine output by 2023 by building a €350 million ($431.5 million) vaccine manufacturing plant in Toronto.
The project underscores the company’s reliance on vaccines as an engine for future growth
despite more than $300 million in fourth-quarter charges tied to setbacks with two vaccines.
[link to www.genengnews.com (secure)]

(May 10, 2018) Top White House official in charge of pandemic response exits abruptly
The top White House official responsible for leading the U.S. response in the event
of a deadly pandemic has left the administration, and the global health security
team he oversaw has been disbanded under a reorganization by national security adviser John Bolton.
White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert, who had called for a comprehensive biodefense strategy against pandemics and biological attacks,
is out completely.
[link to www.washingtonpost.com (secure)]

(June 11, 2018) Sanofi Pasteur, Translate Bio Launch mRNA Vaccine Partnership
Sanofi’s global vaccines unit Sanofi Pasteur will partner with Translate Bio to develop mRNA vaccines
for up to five undisclosed infectious disease pathogens, through a collaboration
that the mRNA therapeutics developer said today could generate for it up to $805 million-plus.
[link to www.genengnews.com (secure)]

(July 8, 2018) Opposition to Breast-Feeding Resolution by U.S. Stuns World Health Officials
A resolution to encourage breast-feeding was expected to be approved quickly and easily by the hundreds of government delegates
who gathered this spring in Geneva for the United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembly.
Then the United States delegation, embracing the interests of infant formula manufacturers, upended the deliberations.
Ecuador, which had planned to introduce the measure, was the first to find itself in the cross hairs.
The Americans were blunt: If Ecuador refused to drop the resolution, Washington would unleash punishing trade measures
and withdraw crucial military aid. The Ecuadorean government quickly acquiesced.
[link to www.nytimes.com (secure)]

(August 3, 2018) China culls 900 pigs after reports of first African swine fever outbreak in country
China has reported its first case of African swine fever (ASF), a highly contagious disease of pigs,
in the northeastern city of Shenyang avnd culled more than 900 hogs to prevent the epidemic from spreading,
local media reported. This is also the first reported case in East Asia.
[link to www.scmp.com (secure)]

(September 29, 2018) Vaccitech licenses MERS rights to Oxford University
CEPI (the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) today announced a collaboration with The Jenner Institute
at the University of Oxford and Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V.—part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
—through which they will receive funding to advance the development and manufacture of a vaccine against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
Oxford has already initiated clinical development of the MERS-CoV vaccine,
with funding from the UK Department of Health and Social Care, and a phase 1 clinical trial of the vaccine is underway in the UK.
Under the terms of the Framework Partnering Agreement for the collaboration, Oxford and Janssen will receive $14.6 million from CEPI
to support manufacturing of a phase 2 batch and preparation for stockpiling of a MERS-CoV vaccine candidate.
Oxford will undertake phase 2 testing of the vaccine, in partnership with the King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre (KAIMRC) in Riyadh,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)-Wellcome Trust Research Programme at Kilifi, Kenya.
[link to www.vaccitech.co.uk (secure)]

(October 30, 2018) J&J unveils new vaccines facility in Leiden, Netherlands
Johnson & Johnson has unveiled a new vaccines facility in Leiden, the Netherlands,
to support the development and roll out of new vaccines on a mass scale for public use globally.
Built by Janssen Vaccines & Prevention, the centre contains new technological and manufacturing platforms
to aid large-scale manufacturing of Janssen vaccines for use in late-stage clinical trials.
Janssen is currently developing investigational vaccines for multiple infectious diseases
such as HIV, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, Ebola and Zika.
The vaccines launch facility can also support the company’s efforts for global pandemic preparedness,
including the development of a new Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) vaccine in alliance with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
[link to www.pharmaceutical-technology.com (secure)]

(December 6, 2018) Mastercard and Microsoft have a frightening plan to create universal “digital identities”
The companies are building a solution that would create a “universally-recognized digital identity.”
To the corporations, this is a brilliant solution! To everyone else, it may feel more than a bit dystopian.
What this announcement seems to be describing is a streamlined identification system: a not-too-far-off world where people are identified under a universal protocol
that checks in on them at various points during their lives–when they vote, when they get married, etc. It’s the kind of a citizen-check system a totalitarian regime could only dream of.
[link to www.fastcompany.com (secure)]

(February 27, 2019) CEPI, CureVac team up in $34M deal to advance RNA vaccine 'printer'
Since it formed two years ago, the global outbreak preparedness group CEPI has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in vaccine
candidates against infectious diseases. Now, it’s back at it with CureVac in a deal to help the biotech advance its mRNA vaccine "printer."
After preclinical work, the partners aim to advance two vaccine candidates against named diseases into phase 1 testing.
Along the way, CureVac will continue collaborating with its existing partners, including the University of Wisconsin.
CEPI’s grant to CureVac is one in a series of investments the global preparedness group has made.
Formed in 2017, the group initially focused on Lassa, MERS and Nipah viruses, but more recently
has sought partners to work on vaccine platforms against unknown pathogens,
plus Rift Valley fever virus and Chikungunya.
[link to www.fiercepharma.com (secure)]

(January - August 2019) Crmson. Contg. simulation
Crmson. Cntag. simulation was a simulation administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from January to August 2019
that tested the capacity of the U.S. federal government and twelve U.S. states to respond to a severe influenza pandemic originating in China.
The exercise involves a scenario in which tourists returning from China spread a respiratory virus in the United States, beginning in Chicago.
In less than two months the virus had infected 110 million Americans, killing more than half a million.
The report issued at the conclusion of the exercise outlines the government's limited capacity to respond to a pandemic,
with federal agencies lacking the funds, coordination, and resources to facilitate an effective response to the virus.

(March 1, 2019) Studies of Deadly Flu Virus, Once Banned, Are Set to Resume
[link to www.nytimes.com (secure)]

(May 22, 2019) AstraZeneca joins with BenevolentAI for drug discovery
Strategic partnership between AstraZeneca and BenevolentAI to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify new kidney and lung drugs.
Pharma giant AstraZeneca has announced a new long-term collaboration with artificial intelligence experts BenevolentAI.
The collaboration aims to combine AstraZeneca’s world-leading clinical data with BenevolentAI’s machine learning capabilities
and artificial intelligence to discover new drugs for chronic kidney disease (CKD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
As a recent study in Respiration shows, CKD and IPF are two of the most fatal and prevalent age-associated diseases.
[link to www.longevity.technology (secure)]

(May 23, 2019) How did six migrant children die on the US border?
Six children have died since September while in US custody.
Just this week, US authorities said a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant
had died on Monday and revealed that a 10-year-old girl from El Salvador died back in September.
Previously no migrant children had died in federal custody since 2010, according to US government officials.
[link to www.bbc.com (secure)]

(June 11, 2019) Tweets from Turkish psychic-insider close to authorities
"The U.S. sent an aircraft of biological weapons to China.
Epidemics may begin in China soon.
They should not forget that if there is a Turk on earth, there is hope."
[link to twitter.com (secure)]

(June 19, 2019) Sanofi, Google Launch “Innovation Lab” Aimed at Drug Discovery
Sanofi will apply Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing capabilities toward developing new drugs,
through a collaboration whose value was not disclosed. The companies said they have agreed to create a virtual
Innovation Lab to “radically” transform how future medicines and health services are developed and delivered.
[link to www.genengnews.com (secure)]

(July 17, 2019) Cause of Respiratory Illness Still Unknown After Dozens Sickened at Virginia Retirement Community
Fairfax County health officials said they don't yet have a cause of the respiratory illness that sicked more than 60 residents
at a Northern Virginia senior living community.
The outbreak at Greenspring Retirement Community in Springfield began June 30.
Sick residents had symptoms such as coughs, fevers and pneumonia.
[link to www.nbcwashington.com (secure)]

(July 17, 2019) Second Fairfax County retirement community suffers respiratory illness outbreak
The Fairfax County Health Department in a press conference included information regarding Greenspring Retirement
Community and another long-term care facility, Heatherwood, in Burke.
“Of the outbreaks that are not flu, there are somewhere we never identify [them],” Schwartz said.
“It’s just difficult to do the testing and to identify the cause in older adults.”
[link to wjla.com (secure)]

(July 17, 2019) Third person has died after respiratory illness outbreak at Greenspring Village, Fairfax officials say
A third person has died following an outbreak of respiratory illness at a Fairfax County assisted-living
facility that began more than two weeks ago, county health officials said Wednesday.
The outbreak at Greenspring Village in Springfield also spread to the unit’s staff, affecting 19 employees,
Fairfax County Health Department officials said.
At a news conference Wednesday at the agency’s headquarters, Benjamin Schwartz, director of epidemiology
and population health at the Fairfax County Health Department, said tests,
including those conducted on 17 samples by the federal Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, have failed to identify a likely cause. Tests for Legionnaires’ disease
have also come up negative. Officials tested for a range of common virus- or bacteria-borne respiratory illnesses.
[link to www.washingtonpost.com (secure)]

(July 2019) Fort Detrick lab shut down after failed safety inspection; all research halted indefinitely
[link to anon.to (secure)]

Premise:
Hon Lik (or Han Li) a Chinese native, born in Shenyang, China registered a patent for the modern e-cigarette design in 2003. The e-cigarette was first introduced to the Chinese domestic market in 2004., entered the European market and the US market in 2006 and 2007. In the UK, users have increased from 700,000 in 2012 to 2.6 million in 2015, and in 2015 around 10% of American adults were users. About 60% of UK users are smokers and about 40% are ex-smokers, while use among never-smokers in the UK is negligible.

(Jul 29, 2019) Eight Milwaukee-area teens hospitalized with severe lung damage that may have been caused by vaping
The teens were brought to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin with extreme cough, significant shortness of breath and fatigue.
Some had lost weight from vomiting and diarrhea, hospital officials said Thursday.
[link to eu.jsonline.com (secure)]

(August 17, 2019) Mystery lung illness linked to vaping. Health officials investigating nearly 100 possible cases.
In the past month, the teenagers presented symptoms that appeared manageable and consistent with viral-type infections or bacterial pneumonia —
shortness of breath, coughing, fever and abdominal discomfort, Chapman said. But they continued to deteriorate despite appropriate treatment,
including with antibiotics and oxygen support. Some suffered respiratory failure and had to be put on ventilators, she said.
[link to www.washingtonpost.com (secure)]

(August 22, 2019) Merck teams up with Themis to develop vaccines
Merck has struck a deal to work with Themis Bioscience on vaccine R&D.
The agreement sees Merck invest in Themis and commit up to $200 million (€180 million) in milestones to secure vaccines against an undisclosed target.
Using research funding from Merck, Themis will develop vaccine candidates against the target using its measles virus vector-based platform.
Themis licensed the measles vector from the Pasteur Institute
and has since worked to industrialize the production process,
giving it a platform it thinks can support an upcoming phase 3 trial
of its internal lead asset. The result is a setup Themis CEO Erich Tauber describes as a “true plug-and-play platform.”
The progress of Themis’ internal programs and its work with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)
have provided evidence of the company’s success in building on the licensed vector.
[link to www.fiercebiotech.com (secure)]

(September 9, 2019) Respiratory Disease Outbreak Summary
The initial findings from the investigation revealed that the respiratory illness cases were clustered in an Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing facility.
Cases diagnosed as pneumonia generally required hospitalization. Affected residents were very elderly with underlying medical conditions.
All testing at Inova Central Lab was negative for etiology, and no severe illness in Independent Living or among staff occurred.
Dr. Schwartz reviewed each step in the investigation, which included maps and floor plans of confirmed cases.
At the conclusion of the outbreak, there were 63 cases and 7 deaths. Among the fatalities, it is not clear how pneumonia
may have contributed to infection as most residents had other health conditions.
[link to www.fairfaxcounty.gov (secure)]

(September 12, 2019) Europe’s missing ‘vaping sickness’
Europe does not appear to be experiencing an outbreak of the “vaping sickness” gripping the U.S.
It’s not clear anyone would know if it was. U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday moved to finalize a ban
on flavored e-cigarettes in light of the country’s outbreak of a vaping-related illness that’s made 450 people sick and resulted in at least six deaths.

“We have not seen anything like what we’ve seen in the U.S. recently in Europe, to my knowledge as a scientist,
and I’m pretty aware of the field,” said Constantine Vardavas, the European Respiratory Society’s scientific relations director with the EU.
[link to www.politico.eu (secure)]

(September 27, 2019) Flu season threatens to complicate diagnoses of vaping-related illness
The issue, experts say, is that flu and other respiratory viruses can, in many ways, look strikingly similar
to a case of vaping-related illness: Symptoms include shortness of breath, night sweats, low oxygen levels,
and hazy spots on a lung X-ray.

“It’s going to be difficult to tease apart a bad flu case and a vaping case,” said Dr. Sean Callahan,
a University of Utah Health pulmonologist who has treated several cases of vaping-related illness.
The CDC, when asked, didn’t respond directly to the question of whether its definition might need to be revised.
[link to www.statnews.com (secure)]

(September 2019) Trump administration cut pandemic early warning program
The Trump administration decided to end a $200m early warning program designed to alert
it to potential pandemics just three months before it is believed Covid-19 began infecting people in China.

The project, called Predict, had been run by the US Agency for International Development since 2009.
It had identified more than 160 different coronaviruses that had the potential to develop into pandemics,
including a virus that is considered the closest known relative to Covid-19.
[link to www.theguardian.com (secure)]

(September 2019) Bill Gates made a Netflix video
which made an eerie imaginary scenario. The video, part of the “Explained” series, imagined a wet market in China
where live and dead animals are stacked and a highly deadly virus erupts that spreads globally.
Gates appears as an expert in the video to warn “If you think of anything that could come along
that would kill millions of people, a pandemic is our greatest risk” threatening if nothing was done
to better prepare for pandemics, the time would come when the world would look back and wish it had invested more into potential vaccines.
[link to www.netflix.com (secure)]

(October 4, 2019) US vaping illness deaths rise to 18 with 1,000 cases reported
At least 18 deaths and more than 1,000 cases of a mysterious lung illness
have been linked with vaping by US health authorities.
Doctors have been unable to establish what is causing the illness,
whose symptoms include chest pain, fatigue and shortness of breath.
[link to www.bbc.com (secure)]

(October 3, 2019) Conservative groups urge Trump to back off ban on flavored vaping products
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to issued guidance on the prohibition soon,
arguing the flavors are appealing to children and leading to rising youth vaping rates.
But conservatives say the ban, which doesn't apply to tobacco flavors,
would hurt small vape businesses and adults trying to quit cigarettes.
[link to thehill.com (secure)]

(October 18, 2019) Event 201 - global pandemic exercise
Event 201 was a large scale simulation of a global coronavirus pandemic.
The final presentation was held in front of an audience on 18 October 2019.
The "exercise players" were prominent individuals from global business, government,
and public health, including Avril Haines, who was Deputy Director of the CIA under Obama.
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in partnership with the World Economic Forum
and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hosted Event 201.
[link to wikispooks.com (secure)]
[link to www.centerforhealthsecurity.org (secure)]

(October 25, 2019) Scientists Were Hunting for the Next Ebola. Now the U.S. Has Cut Off Their Funding
In a move that worries many public health experts, the federal government is quietly shutting down a surveillance program
for dangerous animal viruses that someday may infect humans.
[link to www.nytimes.com (secure)]

Five foreign athletes from military world games in Wuhan infected with malaria, not COVID-19 in October 2019: hospital head
[link to www.globaltimes.cn (secure)]

(November 15, 2019) CDC begin hiring Quarantine Public Health Advisors
Location: Anchorage, Alaska, Los Angeles, California, San Diego, California, San Francisco, California,
Miami, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, Honolulu, Hawaii, Chicago, Illinois, Boston, Massachusetts, Detroit, Michigan,
Minneapolis, Minnesota, Newark, New Jersey, New York, New York, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dallas, Texas, El Paso, Texas, Houston, Texas, Seattle, Washington, San Juan
[link to jobs.cdc.gov (secure)]

(November 17, 2019) U.S. and South Korea postpone military drills in bid to save North Korea dialogue
The United States and South Korea have postponed joint air drills that were scheduled this month in an attempt
to save a faltering dialogue process with North Korea, officials announced Sunday.
[link to www.washingtonpost.com (secure)]

(November 23, 2019) CDC Approves Partial Resumption of USAMRIID Select Agent Research
[link to globalbiodefense.com (secure)]

(November 23, 2019) ‘Not enough pork in the world’ to deal with China’s demand for meat
With hundreds of millions of pigs dead from swine fever, exporters are scrambling to fill the gap. But prices are soaring.
The cost of living in China has outstripped the 3% government target for the first time in a decade,
and a big part of the problem is the soaring price of pork, which is being driven up by a widespread outbreak of African swine fever.
[link to www.theguardian.com (secure)]

(December 19, 2019) Quantum Dots Deliver Vaccines and Invisibly Encode Vaccination History in Skin
Researchers headed by a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created a microneedle platform
using fluorescent microparticles called quantum dots (QD), which can deliver vaccines and at the same time invisibly encode vaccination
history directly in the skin. The quantum dots are composed of nanocrystals, which emit near-infrared (NIR) light that can be detected
by a specially equipped smartphone.
[link to www.genengnews.com (secure)]

(December 12, 2019) Australia, Canada look to digital identity solutions to get rid of physical ID cards
Mastercard has rolled out a new digital identity pilot in Australia this week that can identify a person in both digital and physical environments,
the company announced. Mastercard is testing different ways of proving identity without having to rely on multiple physical documents or centralized identity databases.
The project is based on a distributed model that, when activated, uses information from the mobile device
which has been checked through additional reference points, such as the person’s bank or government agencies taking part in the pilot.
The pilot program is carried out in partnership with Australia Post which will use the existing digital ID solution to enable Australians
to identify themselves when using the services, and with Deakin University where student volunteers
will test an identity verification process for student registration and digital exams.
Canadian province Quebec is also looking into biometrics to confirm online identity and get rid of traditional physical government IDs by 2021, writes CBC.
The government is waiting to see if any companies in the private sector would be interested in taking over the project. Details about cost have not been revealed.
[link to www.biometricupdate.com (secure)]

Exclusive: U.S. Axed CDC Expert Job in China Months Before Virus Outbreak
[link to www.nytimes.com (secure)]

2020

(January 30, 2020) Johnson & Johnson to develop coronavirus vaccine
Johnson & Johnson announced that it has begun development of a vaccine
for the novel Coronavirus outbreak through its subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies.
“This latest outbreak of a novel pathogen once again reinforces the importance of investing in preparedness, surveillance
and response to ensure the world remains ahead of potential pandemic threats,” said Paul Stoffels,
M.D., Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Scientific Officer, Johnson & Johnson.
The vaccine program will leverage Janssen’s AdVac and PER.C6 technologies
that provide the ability to rapidly upscale production of the optimal vaccine candidate.
These are the same technologies that were used in the development and manufacturing of Janssen’s investigational Ebola vaccine,
which is currently deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.
They were also used to construct the Company’s Zika, RSV and HIV vaccine candidates.
[link to www.mlo-online.com (secure)]

The PER.C6 cell line is derived from human embryonic retinal cells, originally from the retinal tissue of an 18 week old fetus aborted in 1985
and further developed and prepared as cell line by transfection with defined E1 region of the adenovirus type 5 followed by selection for transfectants with an immortal phenotype.
[link to www.gmp-creativebiolabs.com (secure)]

(March 19, 2020) Trump administration ran pandemic simulation months before coronavirus hit
Former Air Force physician Robert Kadlec, who has studied biodefense issues for decades, led the exercise,
which imagined a contagious disease that originated in China and spread globally after nearly three dozen tourists
were infected and returned home. The hypothetical outbreak spread quickly through the U.S. after an infected person
attended a concert packed with thousands of others. The exercise, which took place from January to August of last
year, highlighted some of the problems that the federal government is struggling to handle now, such as insufficient
hospital space and medical supplies, as well as confusion between federal agencies and between states and the federal government.
[link to www.washingtonexaminer.com (secure)]

(March 24, 2020) Gilead’s potential coronavirus treatment gets FDA’s orphan drug label
Gilead Sciences’ experimental drug remdesivir, seen as one of the more promising potential treatments for the coronavirus,
on Monday received the orphan drug designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The orphan drug status provides a seven-year market exclusivity period, as well as tax and other incentives
for drug companies developing treatments for rare diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people.
[link to www.cnbc.com (secure)]

(May 1, 2020) UK government invited Google DeepMind exec to critical coronavirus meeting
The U.K. government invited DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis to attend a meeting of the scientific advisory group
for emergencies (Sage) on March 18, around the time officials were considering a lockdown.
His attendance, reported by The Guardian, has got people asking questions.
Namely, what was the leader of an American-owned AI firm doing at a top-secret government meeting on the coronavirus?
[link to www.cnbc.com (secure)]

(May 1, 2020) Vaccine Leader Signs Deal for 1 Billion Covid-19 Doses a Year
Moderna Inc., one of the leaders among U.S. companies developing experimental vaccines
against the coronavirus, entered a pact with Lonza Group AG aimed at manufacturing 1 billion doses a year.
The companies announced a global agreement under which the Swiss chemical and pharmaceutical company
will ramp up output of the proposed vaccine, which is based on a novel technology that relies on genetic material
called mRNA. They expect the first batches to be produced in the U.S. in July.
[link to www.bloomberg.com (secure)]

(May 5, 2020) 15 Children Are Hospitalized With Mysterious Illness Possibly Tied to Covid-19
Fifteen children, many of whom had the coronavirus, have recently been hospitalized in New York City
with a mysterious syndrome that doctors do not yet fully understand but that has also been reported
in several European countries, health officials announced on Monday night.
Many of the children, ages 2 to 15, have shown symptoms associated with toxic shock or Kawasaki disease,
a rare illness in children that involves inflammation of the blood vessels, including coronary arteries,
the city’s health department said.
[link to www.nytimes.com (secure)]

(May 5, 2020) Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Collaboration with Gates Foundation
to Develop a Blueprint to Reimagine Education in the New Normal
"One of the areas we can really learn from is education because the old model of our education system
where everyone sits in a classroom is not going to work in the new normal. When we do reopen our schools
let's reimagine them for the future, and to do that we are collaborating with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
and exploring smart, innovative education alternatives using all the new technology we have at our disposal."
[link to www.governor.ny.gov (secure)]

(May 6, 2020) New York Gov. Cuomo just tapped former Google CEO Eric Schmidt to help invent a more tech-focused future for the state post-pandemic
"The first priorities of what we're trying to do are focused on telehealth, remote learning and broadband,"
said Schmidt, who dialed in by video conference. "We can take this terrible disaster and accelerate
all of those in ways that will make things much, much better." Schmidt said the pandemic
has provided the state with an opportunity to update old and neglected systems and develop
new ways to do things, and stressed that the commission's "intent is to be very inclusive" in its approach.
Schmidt is the third billionaire Cuomo has tapped in recent weeks to advise New York on post-pandemic changes.
[link to www.businessinsider.com (secure)]

(May 6, 2020) Gilead Outlines Efforts to Expand Global Supply of Remdesivir for COVID-19
Gilead Sciences’ antiviral drug remdesivir is, to date, the only approved drug treatment for COVID-19.
Shortly after announcing positive results in two clinical trials on April 30, one a small trial run by the company,
the other a larger trial conducted by the National Institutes of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID),
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for COVID-19.
Gilead is in talks with chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing companies around the world to work out voluntary licenses
to produce remdesivir for Europe, Asia and the developing world through at least 2022.
[link to www.biospace.com (secure)]

(May 6, 2020) COVID RIDDLE Fears coronavirus arrived in Europe in OCTOBER ‘when French athletes at World Military Games in Wuhan brought it home’
Elodie Clouvel, a world champion modern pentathlete, was asked on local TV station Television Loire 7 on March 25
if she was worried about the prospect of potentially having to spend the summer in Japan for the Olympics.
She replied: "No because I think that with Velentin [Belaud, her partner, also a pentathlete] we have already had
the coronavirus, well the Covid-19."
[link to www.thesun.co.uk (secure)]

(May 7, 2020) Computational Biologist Bing Liu Dies in Suspected Murder
Bing Liu, a computational systems biologist at the University of Pittsburgh who was studying the virus that causes COVID-19,
was shot to death in his home on May 2. He was 37 years old.
Liu had been studying the infection mechanism of SARS-CoV-2. According to the department’s statement,
“Bing was on the verge of making very significant findings toward understanding the cellular mechanisms that underlie SARS-CoV-2 infection
and the cellular basis of the following complications.
[link to www.the-scientist.com (secure)]

(May 7, 2020) "In October in Wuhan we all got sick": the swordsman Tagliarol was in China at the military World Cup
At the Wuhan military world championship "we all got sick, 6 out of 6 in the apartment and a lot of other delegations.
So much so that the medical center had almost run out of medicine".
"I had a fever and cough for 3 weeks - says the blue swordsman - and the antibiotics did nothing;
then it was my son and my partner's turn. I'm not a doctor, but the symptoms seem to be those of covid-19.
[link to www.tellerreport.com (secure)]

(May 8, 2020) U.S. mayor suspects he caught coronavirus in November 2019
The mayor of a U.S. city in the state of New Jersey claims he recently tested positive for COVID-19
antibodies and suspects he was infected by the virus in November, about two months before the first confirmed case in the country.
However, amid the coronavirus virus pandemic, questions have been raised about the reliability of antibody tests and the ability to pinpoint
the exact time of infection. And it's not clear whether anyone else who had contact with the mayor contracted the virus.
[link to newsus.cgtn.com (secure)]

(May 08, 2020) Evidence mounts on the disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on ethnic minorities
As the cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continue to increase across the world, evidence
is continuing to emerge that the pandemic could be disproportionately affecting people from black,
Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) communities. In the UK, this trend first came to public attention
during media reports that showed the first 11 doctors who sadly lost their lives to COVID-19,
were all from BAME communities.
[link to www.thelancet.com (secure)]

(May 11, 2020) Novavax scores $384M deal, CEPI's largest ever, to fund coronavirus vaccine work
After winning a small grant for early vaccine work in March, Novavax just won the largest-ever investment from CEPI,
a global coalition aiding COVID-19 vaccine development. The grant of up to $384 million from the Coalition
for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations will fund Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine testing through phase 2, plus early work to scale-up manufacturing.
The funding follows a $4 million award back in March. The Maryland biotech will use the funds to conduct a phase 1/2 trial on its candidate, NVX-COV2373,
starting with the phase 1 portion in Australia this month.
Beyond testing, the company intends to use part of the funds to scale up production
to make up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020. The company aims to make more than 1 billion doses in 2021.
Novavax's COVID-19 candidate is a recombinant nanoparticle vaccine
combined with the company's Matrix-M adjuvant. The platform recently succeeded in a phase 3 trial for NanoFlu,
a quadrivalent influenza shot, in adults 65 and older.
[link to www.fiercepharma.com (secure)]

(May 14, 2020) Sanofi walks back after saying US would get vaccine first
French pharmaceutical group Sanofi ensured Thursday that it would make its COVID-19 vaccine,
when ready, available in all countries, hours after the the company's CEO said the United States will get first access.
Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson's comments prompted angry reaction from the French government.
Sanofi said its cooperation with U.S. agency BARDA allows the company “to initiate production as early as possible.”
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority has funded the development of the vaccine.
[link to www.businessinsider.com (secure)]

(May 15, 2020) Overnight Health Care: Trump touts accelerated push on vaccines
President Trump formally introduced the new head of his "Operation Warp Speed," a public-private partnership
to push for a vaccine to prevent COVID-19.There are a couple of new faces in the administration’s coronavirus
response efforts: Former pharmaceutical executive Moncef Slaoui and Army Gen. Gustave Perna are heading up
the Operation Warp Speed vaccine development effort.
Slaoui will serve as the project's chief scientist while Perna will serve as its chief operation officer.
Trump joined them in the White House Rose Garden on Friday to tout the effort.
[link to thehill.com (secure)]

(May 15, 2020) French patients were sick with Covid-19 in mid-November and before China - researchers
Doctors in the French Haut-Rhin region, hit hard by Covid-19, say they’ve detected several cases dating back to 16 November 2019
long before the disease is believed to have surfaced in France, and before it was even announced in China.
According to French daily Le Figaro, each of the scans was carefully
re-studied before being filed into three categories: “not Covid-compatible”, “Covid-compatible” and “typical Covid”.
Any scan falling into the last two categories needed the validation of a second or third doctor.
[link to www.rfi.fr]

(May 17, 2020) Government to invest £93m in UK vaccine manufacturing centre
The British government will invest up to £93m to bring forward construction of a new vaccine manufacturing centre,
the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said on Saturday.
The funding will ensure the new centre opens in summer 2021, a year ahead of schedule.
The Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC) is a key component of the government’s programme
to ensure that once a coronavirus vaccine is available, it can be rolled out quickly in mass quantities, the department said.
The not-for-profit facility on the Harwell science and innovation campus
in Oxfordshire will have the capacity to produce enough doses for the entire UK population in as little as six months.
[link to www.theguardian.com (secure)]

(May 20, 2020) Trump’s Vaccine Chief Has Vast Ties to Drug Industry, Posing Possible Conflicts
The scientist, Moncef Slaoui, is a venture capitalist and a former longtime executive at GlaxoSmithKline.
Most recently, he sat on the board of Moderna, a Cambridge, Mass., biotechnology firm
with a $30 billion valuation that is pursuing a coronavirus vaccine.
He still holds just under $10 million in GlaxoSmithKline stock and remains a partner in Medicxi,
a venture capital firm that specializes in investing in biotech concerns, with several companies engaged
in the global race to develop treatments or vaccines to stanch the coronavirus pandemic. GSK and Sanofi
have become partners in creating a vaccine candidate against the coronavirus.
[link to www.nytimes.com (secure)]

(May 20, 2020) This Startup's Covid-19 Test Would Give Results in 20 Minutes
San Francisco-based startup Mammoth Biosciences is developing an at-home test for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
The test can determine in 20 minutes whether someone is carrying the virus, thanks in part to the gene-editing technique known as Crispr,
according to Mammoth. Mammoth's test requires the user to take a nasal swab or spit into a vial;
a color indicator then reveals a positive or negative result.
The startup is partnering with London-based pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to bring the test to market.
Mammoth has $68 million in funding from investors including Mayfield Fund, Verily, NFX, and Brook Byers.
[link to www.inc.com (secure)]

(May 21, 2020) U.S. Raises Ante in Vaccine Race With $1.2 Billion for Astra
The U.S. threw its weight behind one of the fastest-moving experimental solutions
to the coronavirus pandemic, pledging as much as $1.2 billion to AstraZeneca Plc
to help make the University of Oxford’s Covid vaccine.
The U.K. drugmaker received the money from the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)
and said it has secured capacity to make 1 billion doses. Astra has identified supply chains in the U.S. and U.K., according to Soriot.
Soriot said Astra is working with groups including the World Health Organization,
the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations(CEPI) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance,
on making sure the vaccine is allocated fairly so that poorer countries have access.
The company has supply agreements for 400 million doses.
[link to www.bloomberg.com (secure)]

(May 22, 2020) Immunity Passports and the Perils of Conferring Coronavirus Status
Recently, Onfido submitted a proposal to members of the U.K. Parliament’s science and technology committee,
as they consider ways to lift stay-at-home orders, including the development of immunity passports.
COVI-Pass is an immunity passport that uses VCode—a proprietary cryptographic image, similar to a QR code
—that can be scanned at a distance of a hundred metres. It will reveal if a person has tested positive for antibodies,
flash green if a person has tested negative for the virus, and red if tests show that they have the virus or don’t have antibodies,
or if their test result has expired. (A yellow light shows when it’s time to be retested.) The app can “geo-fence” a point of entry, prohibiting visitors with a red light from entering a building or stadium or school.
“I believe that all governments will move toward a global health passport, which will be as common as carrying a driver’s license
or a passport, because this is not going to be the last pandemic we have,” Adam Palmer, the C.O.O. of COVI-Pass, said.
[link to www.newyorker.com (secure)]

(May 25, 2020) Swiss tracing app goes on trial
Switzerland is the first country in the world to use APIs from Google and Apple.
The app is being developed as part of the DP-3T project by ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne,
working together with international researchers. ETH scientists are actively involved in the design,
security assessment, data protection and performance of the SwissCovid app. Srdjan Capkun,
Professor for Systems and Network Security, one of the developers of the SwissCovid app,
stresses: "This is not 'only' a smartphone app, but a complex distributed contact tracing system.
[link to ethz.ch (secure)]

(May 26, 2020) Merck inks Themis buyout to join COVID-19 vaccine race
Merck has struck a deal to buy Themis to accelerate the development
of a COVID-19 vaccine. The takeover will see Merck, a latecomer to the response to SARS-CoV-2,
apply its vaccine capabilities to a candidate based on Themis’ measles vector platform
that is set to enter the clinic this year. Themis is developing a pipeline of vaccines
based on a measles virus vector platform it licensed from Institut Pasteur.
“Together with Institut Pasteur, we have worked on very closely related viruses
like SARS and MERS [and] demonstrated the platform is very useful in eliciting an immune response,”
Themis CEO Erich Tauber said. “We started [SARS-CoV-2] vector design in February.
We have started in vivo models ... and are now preparing for clinical trials.”
Merck is now set to apply its vaccine capabilities to the program.
The Big Pharma has a major human vaccine operation, which generated sales of $8.4 billion last year,
but it stayed on the sidelines in the early days of the pandemic as peers such as AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Sanofi placed bets on COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
[link to www.fiercebiotech.com (secure)]

(May 27, 2020) Novavax snares $167M buyout to rapidly scale up COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing
Novavax will fork over $167 million for Czech manufacturer Praha Vaccines and team up with vaccine giant Serum Institute of India
in moves that will add capacity for 1 billion-plus doses per year of a potential COVID-19 shot,
the drugmaker said Wednesday. As part of the acquisition, Maryland-based Novavax will pick up Praha's
150,000-square-foot, 150-employee facility in Bohumil, Czech Republic.
The "state-of-the-art " plant is undergoing renovation and is outfitted for vaccine and biologics manufacturing.
The Praha buyout, funded with a $384 million grant from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI),
will bring Novavax's vaccine manufacturing capacity above 1 billion doses by 2021.
[link to www.fiercepharma.com (secure)]

(May 28, 2020) AstraZeneca locks up COVID-19 vaccine supply with Oxford BioMedica production deal
AstraZeneca is on the hook for millions of doses of the University of Oxford's front-runner COVID-19 vaccine candidate,
assuming it proves effective. To fill those orders, the British drugmaker has agreed to a short-term manufacturing deal
that will help it bridge the gap. AstraZeneca and Oxford BioMedica inked a one-year deal covering "multiple batches" of the University of Oxford's adenovirus-based
COVID-19 vaccine candidate, AZD1222 (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19), as part of a consortium aimed at speeding production of the shot.
The vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute, contains the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
[link to www.fiercepharma.com (secure)]