Tag: Hurdles

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Covid-Sniffing Canines Are Correct, However Extensive Use Faces Hurdles

Covid-Sniffing Dogs Are Accurate, But Wide Use Faces Hurdles

Dog noses are great Covid-19 detectors, according to numerous laboratory studies, and Covid detection dogs have already started working at airports in other countries and at some events in the US, like a Miami Heat basketball game.

However, some public health and sniffer dog training experts say more information and planning is needed to ensure they are accurate in real-life situations.

“There are no national standards” for scented dogs, said Cynthia M. Otto, director of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and one of the authors of a new article on the use of scented dogs in Covid detection.

And while private groups certify drug sniffing and bomb and rescue dogs, there are no similar medical detection programs in place in the journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, according to the new paper.

Lois Privor-Dumm, a public health researcher at Johns Hopkins University and lead author of the article, said there is no question that dogs have great potential in medical fields. But she wants to investigate how they could be used on a large scale, for example by the government.

“What are all the ethical considerations? What are the regulatory considerations? How practical is that? ”She asked. Not only the quality of detection, but logistics and cost would be central to any widespread application, as with any public health intervention.

Quality control is a first step and a big one. Medical odor detection is more complicated than detecting drugs or bombs, said Dr. Otto. A dog working to detect drugs or explosives in an airport has a consistent context and a fairly simple target odor. With Covid detection, researchers know that dogs can differentiate between sweat and urine from an infected person. But they don’t know what chemicals the dog is identifying.

Because human smells vary, medical sniffer dogs must be trained on many different people. “We have all races and ages and diets and all these things that make people smell,” said Dr. Otto.

The symptoms of many illnesses are similar to those of Covid, and dogs smelling odors related to fever or pneumonia would be ineffective. Therefore, according to Dr. Otto “include many people who are negative but might have a cough or a fever or other things”. Obviously, if the dogs mistake flu for Covid, that would be a critical mistake.

Dogs can also be trained on sweat, saliva, or urine. In the United Arab Emirates, the dogs worked with urine samples. In Miami they just walked past a number of people.

Any positive cases of Covid infection that the dogs detect are usually confirmed using today’s gold standard to confirm the presence of the coronavirus, a PCR test. However, a review of the research published last week concluded that dogs fared better than the test.

But these are experimental results. Dogs are good at remotely detecting explosives and other substances, but so far, Dr. Otto that she is not aware of any published research showing the accuracy of dogs who sniff people in a line instead of urine or sweat.

If the government were to officially conduct or approve dogs for Covid detection, some standards would need to be set for how dogs should be trained and their performance assessed. Dr. Otto is on a committee of the National Institute of Standards and Technology that is now meeting to develop standards for scent detection dogs in a variety of situations, including detecting Covid.

She said even if the standards were clearly set, finding enough dogs to do widespread odor detection was another hurdle. Trained dogs are not easy to come by. “We have a shortage of bomb detection dogs in this country. We’ve been dealing with it for years, ”she said.

Dogs can be retrained from one smell to another, but that can be tricky. “Some countries take their bomb trained dogs and train them on Covid. But you know, all you have to do is think of an airport, if you have a dog that sniffs both covid and bombs and it alerts you, then what do you have? “

Well-trained dogs are also costly and require paid, well-trained human handlers. According to the report, dogs can cost $ 10,000 and odor training can cost $ 16,000 per dog. For example, the Transportation Security Administration has a $ 12 million explosive detection dog and handler training facility in San Antonio and estimates the cost of training dogs and handlers at $ 33,000 for explosives detection and $ 46,000 for passenger control.

All of these questions will determine how dogs will be used in the future. Your ability is there. “I think they absolutely can,” said Dr. Otto. “This is how we implement them.”

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Health

With Extra Vaccines Secured, Biden Warns of Hurdles to Come

With More Vaccines Secured, Biden Warns of Hurdles to Come

WASHINGTON – The Biden government said Thursday it had received an additional 200 million doses of coronavirus vaccines, enough to vaccinate every American adult, but President Biden warned logistical hurdles would most likely mean many Americans would still be around by the end of the year will not be vaccinated summer.

The extra doses add up to a 50 percent increase in the vaccine and give administration the number of doses Mr Biden said last month would serve 300 million people by the end of summer. But getting those shots into people’s arms will still be difficult. Both vaccines are two doses three to four weeks apart. Mr. Biden lamented the “gigantic” logistical challenge he faced while performing at the National Institutes of Health. He also openly expressed frustration with the previous administration.

“It’s one thing to have the vaccine,” said Mr Biden. “It’s another thing to have vaccines.”

The Department of Health and Human Services said Pfizer and Moderna would each provide 300 million doses in “regular increments” by the end of July.

The administration aims for a gradual process. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s leading infectious disease expert, predicted Thursday morning that any American could look for a vaccine as early as April in an “open season” that would expand availability beyond priority categories.

“Until we get to April, I’ll call it, to put it better, the ‘open season’,” said Dr. Fauci in an interview with NBC’s “Today”. “Namely, virtually anyone and everyone in any category could start getting vaccinated.”

But the problem could be giving doses to people who aren’t readily looking for them.

Mr Biden has carefully avoided his White House being consumed by criticism of his predecessor, but on Thursday he targeted Donald J. Trump directly for saying he failed to put in place a procedure for mass vaccination. The president, who said he had promised to speak openly with Americans about the challenges of the pandemic, accused Mr Trump of creating a significant one by not overseeing the creation of an optimized vaccine distribution program. “The vaccination program was in much, much worse shape than my team and I expected,” said Biden.

“While scientists have done their job discovering vaccines in record time, my predecessor – I will be very frank about this – did not do his job to prepare for the massive challenge of vaccinating hundreds of millions,” added Biden.

“It was a big mess,” he said. “It will take time to mend to be blunt with you.”

Health officials in the Trump administration have pushed these proposals back, referring to hundreds of briefings that Department of Health and Human Services officials have offered to the incoming health team, including vaccine assignment and distribution.

The highly decentralized vaccine distribution and administration plans that give state and local health authorities authority after the doses have been dispensed were worked out with staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Defense.

Officials involved in the last government’s distribution plans said late last year that outside of the first few weeks, when they carefully checked the flow of reserves for the second dose, they always planned to ship cans as soon as they were available, and that they never intended to store these doses.

The agreement for an additional 200 million doses of coronavirus vaccine helps fulfill a promise made by Mr Biden in January to increase the supply to cover a larger segment of the population. He said at the time that the government made this deal with the two manufacturers as part of its larger promise that around 300 million Americans would get a dose of the vaccine by the end of summer or early fall.

Updated

Apr. 11, 2021 at 9:51 am ET

On Thursday, Mr Biden said his government had “now bought enough vaccine to vaccinate all Americans”.

Dr. Nicole Lurie, who was the assistant health secretary for preparedness and response under President Barack Obama, said the hesitation of the vaccine could affect how fast some Americans who want to be vaccinated could get their shot, but that more care, more work would mean to get vaccines people.

“We’re going to reach more and more people, and more people need to make extra efforts to reach them,” she said. “One has to hope that given the growing supply, the public will still have great demand for vaccines. This is really the unknown. “

The government had already received 400 million doses of the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, the two companies approved for emergency distribution – doses expected by the end of June. Mr Biden said Thursday that companies would now ship them by the end of May.

A third manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson, has asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve its single-dose emergency vaccine. That decision could be made by the end of the month and allow the vaccine to be distributed in the first week of March. However, the company is still trying to show that it can manufacture the vaccine on a large scale at its Baltimore facility.

Federal officials have so far refused to say how much of this vaccine will be ready for distribution once it clears regulatory hurdles, but they caution to expect a spate of new doses from Johnson & Johnson soon.

“We haven’t found that the level of manufacturing allows us to have as much vaccine as we think is necessary,” Andy Slavitt, a senior White House pandemic advisor, said recently.

To date, only about 10 percent of Americans have received at least one dose of vaccine. On Thursday, the CDC announced that about 34.7 million people had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, including about 11.2 million people who were fully vaccinated.

The speed of vaccinations has accelerated steadily over the past few weeks. The number of daily recordings now averages 1.5 million compared to 1.1 million two weeks ago. At this rate, Mr Biden will easily fulfill his promise to vaccinate 100 million Americans in his first 100 days in office.

According to state and federal health officials, the main barrier to vaccinating more people at this time is the lack of care. The administration has been looking for a way to speed up production, including a possible breakthrough where Moderna would fill its vials with more cans and potentially get out millions more cans earlier.

However, Mr. Biden faces a variety of long-standing manufacturing constraints, including limited free space around the world to manufacture more vaccines and the delicate and complex nature of vaccine manufacturing.

White House officials have indicated that their work increases weekly vaccine supplies by 28 percent. However, these doses are due to an expected increase in manufacturing.

Unlike the previous administration, the White House pandemic team has been briefing governors on planned care in three-week increments so state health officials will better know how to plan ahead.

And they took a much more aggressive approach by using federal resources to shoot guns. The White House announced this week that it is building five new vaccination centers, including three in Texas and two in New York, specifically designed to vaccinate people of color. The government also said it plans to deliver 1 million doses of vaccine to 250 government-supported community health centers in underserved neighborhoods. A new vaccination program for federal pharmacies began this week.

And on Friday, the government announced that it would send over 1,000 active troops to Covid-19 vaccination centers across the country operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA, part of the Department of Homeland Security, has announced that it will set up around 100 vaccination sites nationwide this month and spend $ 1 billion on vaccination measures, including community vaccination sites.

Sharon LaFraniere and Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed to the coverage.

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Health

AstraZeneca and Sinopharm clear regulatory hurdles in per week of vaccine milestones.

AstraZeneca and Sinopharm clear regulatory hurdles in a week of vaccine milestones.

With the spread of the coronavirus vaccines developed by Moderna, as well as Pfizer and BioNTech, the world reached several more pandemic milestones this week. the advancement of attempts to examine other experimental recordings; and the approval or approval of coronavirus vaccines in several countries. The welcome news comes as the number of known infections climbs to 83 million worldwide.

  • The UK announced on Wednesday that it was the Oxford-AstraZeneca Vaccine. The vaccine is cheaper than others – $ 3-4 per dose – and unlike some of its freeze-bound counterparts, it can be kept in a regular refrigerator, making it easier to carry and administer. The vaccine should be given in two doses four weeks apart. However, the UK plans to wait up to 12 weeks for the second shot to release more doses for the first injections. Some early evidence suggests the delay might improve the vaccine’s ability to protect people from Covid-19, although experts have repeatedly suggested that more data is needed.

  • The state-owned Chinese company Sinopharm announced that one of its experimental vaccines, developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, had an efficacy rate of 79 percent based on an interim analysis of the Phase 3 trials, prompting the Chinese government to give the shot full approval To give. The vaccine was also approved in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The company has not yet released the detailed results of its late-stage clinical trials.

  • NovavaxThe Maryland-based company announced Monday the start of a late-stage clinical trial that will enroll approximately 30,000 people in the United States and Mexico. Two-thirds of the volunteers in the study will receive the company’s vaccine. The other 10,000 will receive a saline intake as a placebo. Like many other vaccines, Novavax’s vaccine requires two doses. The vaccine can be kept stable in a normal refrigerator.

  • The World Health Organization gave the Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Thursday an emergency seal of approval that was the first to be awarded to a Covid-19 vaccine. Adding it to the organization’s emergency list allows the vaccine to move faster through regulatory approval in countries around the world. The move also enables the vaccine to be distributed through Unicef ​​and the Pan American Health Organization.

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Business

China and E.U. Leaders Strike Funding Deal, however Political Hurdles Await

China and E.U. Leaders Strike Investment Deal, but Political Hurdles Await

The heads of state and government of China and the European Union reached an agreement on Wednesday It’s easier for companies to operate on each other’s territory. This is a major geopolitical victory for China at a time when criticism of its human rights record and handling of the pandemic have increasingly isolated it.

The landmark pact, however, faces political opposition in Europe and Washington that could ultimately fail it, highlighting the difficulty of dealing with an authoritarian pact Superpower that is both an economic rival and a lucrative market.

A large group in the European Parliament, which must ratify the agreement before it can enter into force, rejects the agreement on the grounds that it is not doing enough to stop human rights abuses in China. In addition, a top advisor to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has signaled that the new administration is not happy with the deal.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has made the agreement a priority because of its importance for German automobile manufacturers and other manufacturers with major activities in China.

The pact relaxes many of the restrictions placed on European companies in China, including the requirement that they operate through joint ventures with Chinese partners and share sensitive technology.

The deal also opens China to European banks and contains provisions to cut secret government subsidies. Foreign companies often complain that the Chinese government is secretly subsidizing domestic companies to give them a competitive advantage.

The agreement will “significantly improve the competitive environment for European companies in China,” said Hildegard Müller, President of the German Association of the Auto Industry, in a statement before the announcement. “It will give new impetus to a global, rules-based framework for trade and investment.”

China’s leader Xi Jinping also made reaching the deal a priority and empowered negotiators to make enough concessions to persuade Europeans to move on.

Wednesday’s announcement was preceded by a video call attended by Mr Xi and the President of the European Commission, Ursula van der Leyen, to seek an in-principle deal.

European officials said a breakthrough came in mid-December when China made a major concession to increase its commitment to international standards on forced labor. China also agreed to step up its efforts to combat climate change.

Valdis Dombrovskis, the European trade commissioner, said the deal was the “most ambitious” pact of its kind that China has ever agreed to.

“The value of the deal goes beyond euros and cents as it also anchors our value-based trade agenda with one of our largest trading partners,” Dombrovskis said in a statement on Wednesday.

The conclusion of the pact is a diplomatic victory for China, whose international standing has been damaged in terms of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and crackdown in Hong Kong and the predominantly Muslim province of Xinjiang.

These issues – and the caution of China’s pledges to genuinely open up to foreign investment – became the focus of opposition to the deal as the final details were clarified. For the Chinese, the agreement has shown that the country is not exposed to any diplomatic isolation worth mentioning when it comes to dealing with human rights.

Economy & Economy

Updated

Dec. Dec. 23, 2020 at 8:59 p.m. ET

China also appeared keen to reach an agreement before Mr Biden took office in January. He reckoned that closer economic ties with the Europeans could prevent the new government from trying to develop an allied strategy to challenge China’s trade practices and other policies.

Speaking on Monday, Mr. Biden said the United States is “stronger and more effective on all issues that matter to US-China relations when we are flanked by nations who share our vision for the future of the world Share the world. ”

Right now, he said, there is “an enormous vacuum” in American leadership. “We need to regain the trust and confidence of a world that has begun to find ways to work around us or without us.”

The White House also opposed the deal, but had little leverage among Europeans to block it. The Trump administration has been trying to isolate China and its businesses for months. She announced new restrictions this week on those tied to the People’s Liberation Army, only to be rejected by countries that are still ready to engage the Chinese.

The decision by the Europeans to overlook objections from Camp Biden was an indication that relations with the United States will not automatically fall back on the relative bonhomie that prevailed during the Obama administration.

President Trump’s fondness for burning bridges with long-standing allies inspired Europe to largely ignore the United States in pursuing trade deals with countries like Japan, Vietnam and Australia. European diplomats said this week that while they hope for a more cooperative relationship with the Biden administration, they could not subordinate their interests to the US election cycle.

Members of the European Green Party, among others, say the deal is not enough to open up China’s markets, honor previous commitments on trade and the environment, or tackle human rights abuses, including forced labor and mass internment of Uyghurs and other Muslims in far west Xinjiang.

Opponents may be able to collect enough votes to block ratification in the European Parliament.

The negotiators for China and the European Union have been working on an agreement for nearly seven years, but progress suddenly accelerated after Mr Biden defeated Mr Trump in the elections.

Unlike Mr Trump, who has often been hostile to Europe, Mr Biden is expected to try to work with the European Union to curb Chinese ambitions. However, it could take many months for these efforts to materialize.

United States law prohibits members of the new administration from dealing directly with foreign officials until Mr Biden takes office on January 20. In an interview in early December, Mr Biden said he planned a full review of trade relations with China and consulted allies in Asia and Europe to develop a coherent strategy before making changes to US trade terms.

“I will not take any immediate steps,” he said.

In the meantime, Mr Biden’s advisers have used public statements to warn European officials against rushing to act and to convince them of the benefits of waiting for coordination with the new American administration.

The decision of Mr. Biden to serve as National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, wrote on Twitter this month that the new administration would “welcome early consultations with our European partners about our shared concerns about China’s economic practices.”

Chinese officials have been pushing to keep the deal on track in recent weeks, especially after the opposition became public in Europe.

When talks stalled last week, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that the deal “would be of great importance to the recovery of the world economy.” It was said that both sides had to be ready to meet “halfway”, but that China would protect “its own security and development interests”.

Despite the provisions of the treaty on forced labor, Chinese officials have repeatedly denied that the country is practicing in Xinjiang or elsewhere, despite evidence to the contrary. The vehemence of these rejections raises questions about how China can be expected to comply with obligations to protect workers’ rights.

“The so-called forced labor in Xinjiang is an outright lie,” said a Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin recently. “Those responsible for such despicable slander should be convicted and brought to justice.”

Ana Swanson reported from Washington, Keith Bradsher from Beijing and Monika Pronczuk from Brussels.