Author: Claudinne Miller
Finding the Origin of a Pandemic Is Difficult. Preventing One Shouldn’t Be.
NYT (Opinion) In 1999, the New York State Department of Health asked me to test brain samples from people in Queens experiencing encephalitis, or brain inflammation. Surprisingly, we found they were infected with West Nile virus, a mosquito-borne virus that had never been reported before in North America. How did a virus endemic in Africa […]
Apr 25, 2023
Ranking the Pain of Stinging Insects, From ‘Spicy’ to ‘Satanic’
AtlasObscura Remembering one passionate entomologist who poetically described and classified more than 70 species’ painful stings. Trekking along a mountain in Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica, entomologist Justin Schmidt came across a nest of the tropical wasp species Polybia simillima, better known as the fierce black polybia wasp. The agile, buzzing insect has a reputation for having a painful […]
Apr 25, 2023
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)
CDC Next ACIP Meeting April 19, 2023, 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. ACIP meetings are virtual. No registration is required to watch the webcasts. Agenda Webcast Link Federal Register
Apr 18, 2023
Pathogens in Pop Culture: Fungal Pathogens and The Last of Us
NETEC Could a fungus cause the next pandemic? If you’ve watched HBO’s hit series ‘The Last of Us’ or played the popular video game, then you may be familiar with the concept: a mass outbreak of an infectious fungus turns humans into zombies. But could the scenario played out in ‘The Last of Us’ actually […]
Apr 18, 2023
Covid Emerged as Chinese Lab Faced Biosafety Issues, Senate Republican Study Finds
WSJ Covid Emerged as Chinese Lab Faced Biosafety Issues, Senate Republican Study Finds. A Chinese laboratory conducting advanced coronavirus research faced a series of biosafety problems in November 2019 that drew the attention of top Beijing officials and coincided with the Covid pandemic’s emergence, according to a new report being released by Senate Republicans on […]
Apr 18, 2023
COVID during pregnancy may alter brain development in boys
NPR The nation’s COVID-19 tally includes more than 200,000 people who were pregnant when they got infected. Now scientists are reporting that boys from these pregnancies may be prone to subtle delays in brain development. Here’s NPR’s Jon Hamilton. JON HAMILTON, BYLINE: Before COVID-19 came along, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital were looking at lots […]
Apr 18, 2023
SARS-CoV-2 incubation period across variants of concern, individual factors, and circumstances of infection in France: a case series analysis from the ComCor study
The Lancet/Microbe The incubation period of SARS-CoV-2 has been estimated for the known variants of concern. However, differences in study designs and settings make comparing variants difficult. We aimed to estimate the incubation period for each variant of concern compared with the historical strain within a unique and large study to identify individual factors and […]
Apr 18, 2023
Marburg Update from the WHO
WHO Marburg Virus Disease in Equatorial Guinea where in the last week, two healthcare workers that had contracted the virus were discharged from a WHO supported treatment center. There has now been a total of 16 laboratory-confirmed MVD cases. Among these cases, 11 people have died. 23 probable cases of MVD have also been reported […]
Apr 18, 2023
HPAI H5N1 Update on Condors
Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest California Condor Flock – April 17, 2023 Free-flying California condors in Arizona continue to be confirmed with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). To be as transparent as possible to the public and stakeholders about the potential extent of this outbreak, until further notice, the Service will disclose and report all […]
Apr 18, 2023