WATCH this 2 minute video: highlights the changing vaccine headlines, features Faucian prose with a perfect classical music accompaniment (Grieg?)

Funny that I was only able to find one US news source (a Texas TV station) that carried this AP story. From the Canadian Press: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday that his government won’t buy vaccines for swine flu that have not been properly tested or from producers who won’t take responsibility for…

What is going on? How can increased levels of Omicron virus replication be associated with reduced disease?  How did so many mutations in the receptor binding domain of Omicron arise, apparently spontaneously?  Why do the evolutionary tree plots show that Omicron represents a separate branch from currently circulating viruses?  How could so many mutations which confer…

 From the Times: Leaders and citizens in Germany, one of America’s closest allies, simmered with barely contained fury on Thursday over reports that American intelligence had tapped into Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone… Ms. Merkel herself angrily demanded assurances from President Obama that her cellphone was not the target of an American intelligence tap as soon…

CDC just published new guidelines for treatment of anthrax exposure and anthrax disease in pregnancy and the postpartum period.  It is said the guidelines are based on meetings  “of national subject matter experts to review key clinical elements of anthrax prevention and treatment for pregnant, postpartum, and lactating (P/PP/L) women.” A lot of effort was made…

Amazing how much they all knew back then.  And then denied.   Especially notable with respect to treatment, Baric points out the need for early diagnosis and antiviral treatment during the first five days of illness.   They knew it was too late for it to work, when remdesivir was given late during a hospitalization. Americans’ bodies…

From  USA Today, August 17, 2014: More than 1,100 laboratory incidents involving bacteria, viruses and toxins that pose significant or bioterror risks to people and agriculture were reported to federal regulators during 2008 through 2012, government reports obtained by USA TODAY show. More than half these incidents were serious enough that lab workers received medical…