News highlights on health security threats and countermeasures curated by Global Biodefense
This week’s selections include the Biological Weapons Convention Meeting of States Parties; Cuba’s Covid vaccine success; CDC’s new pandemic ‘weather service’; and calls for greater transparency in high containment labs.
POLICY + INITIATIVES
Nearer the Bench Than the Beltway: An Appeal for Thoughtful Regulation of Infectious Disease Research
Experts in a range of disciplines including political science, arms control, and biology have called for tighter regulation of the enterprise, with some calling for an end to certain areas—like “gain of function” investigations—altogether. In a commentary published in mBio, a pair of researchers with decades of experience in high-containment laboratories argue that any approach to new regulation should draw on existing practices, past experiences, and careful consideration of both the human and financial costs. American Society for Microbiology
CDC Expert Panel Endorses Pfizer, Moderna Boosters for All Adults
Within hours of the FDA authorizing booster doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for all adults, in an 11 to 0 vote, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended that people 18 years and over will be permitted to receive either a Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 booster vaccine six months after a primary series, based on their individual benefit and risk. Individuals may also “mix and match” boosters from any vaccine maker, provided enough time has passed from their primary series, the panel said. FDA News
Remarks to the 2021 Biological Weapons Convention Meeting of States Parties
For the past two decades, efforts to strengthen the Convention have been treading water. Useful discussions here have led to some small steps and actions at the national level. However, States Parties have been unable to agree to more significant action. Proposed changes include further operationalizing assistance under Article VII; establishing a voluntary fund for technical cooperation; creating a mechanism to review advances in science and technology; deepening collaborations on biosafety and biosecurity; and establish a new expert working group to examine possible measures to strengthen implementation of the Convention, increase transparency, and enhance assurance of compliance. U.S. Department of State, BioWeapons Prevention Project Meeting Reports
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES
GAO Vaccines Technology Assessment
Some promising technologies face issues and challenges such as inherent technical limitations and high cost. For example, organ chips may facilitate testing, but they are not yet able to replicate many of the complex functions of the human immune system. Similarly, single-use systems may increase the flexibility of vaccine manufacturing facilities, but may require extensive testing to ensure that they do not negatively affect the resulting vaccine. Government Accountability Office
Cuba’s Bet on Home-Grown COVID Vaccines is Paying Off
Preprint data show that a three-dose combo of Soberana jabs has 92.4% efficacy in clinical trials. As of 18 November, 89% of Cuba’s population — including children as young as 2 — has received at least one dose of Soberana 02 or another Cuban vaccine called Abdala, which is produced at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) in Havana. The centre reported in July that Abdala, a three-dose vaccine, was more than 92% effective in phase III trials that included more than 48,000 participants. Nature
A Novel Mechanism for the Loss of mRNA Activity in Lipid Nanoparticle Delivery Systems
RP-IP HPLC (reversed-phase ion pair high performance liquid chromatography) was used to identify a class of impurity formed through lipid:mRNA reactions; such reactions are typically undetectable by traditional mRNA purity analytical techniques. The identified modifications render the mRNA untranslatable, leading to loss of protein expression. Specifically, electrophilic impurities derived from the ionizable cationic lipid component are shown to be responsible. Mechanisms implicated in the formation of reactive species include oxidation and subsequent hydrolysis of the tertiary amine. It thus remains critical to ensure robust analytical methods and stringent manufacturing control to ensure mRNA stability and high activity in LNP delivery systems. Nature Communications
How to Get a Job in Vaccine Development
“New vaccine technologies, particularly those based on RNA, are driving a renaissance in interest and investment…I’ve been very excited about technology for producing what are known as self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) vaccines. Our candidate saRNA COVID-19 vaccine delivers the genetic instructions to cells to make both the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and an enzyme that copies those instructions. The aim is to achieve longer-lasting immunity with less vaccine.” Nature
New Guidance for Treating Antimicrobial-Resistant Infections Released
New guidance from the Infectious Diseases Society of America for treating three of the most common drug-resistant pathogens was published today on the IDSA website. Developed by a panel of clinical and scientific experts, the guidance focuses on: AmpC b-lactamase producing Enterobacterales (AmpC-E); Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB); and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. IDSA
BIOSECURITY + BIOPREPAREDNESS
Rethinking Health Security After Covid-19
Decouple public health from bioterrorism, which requires a different institutional approach and risks diverting scarce resources away from improving health systems. Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict .pdf
Preparing for the Next Plague
The speed with which the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines were developed was not an accident but can be traced back to work funded and directed by both DARPA and NIAID. Yet the success of the present vaccines was also somewhat serendipitous, as coronaviruses have a particularly easy target in their spike protein, not to mention having been the subject of more than a decade of research after the SARS-CoV-1 outbreak in 2002 and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2015. In the next pandemic, the world may not be so lucky. Nature Biotechnology
Lab Leak: Covid Might Not Have Come Out of a Medical Research Lab, But It Raises Some Urgent Questions About How Those Facilities Operate
Told through the lens of a visit to the NEIDL, a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory in Boston. The most concerning aspect about the increasing number of high-containment biolabs around the globe is that, considered as a collective, they may only be as safe as the worst lab among them. New York Times
Inside the C.D.C.’s Pandemic ‘Weather Service’
The agency has created an ambitious $200 million center to predict future outbreaks — but diseases are a lot harder to model than storms. If even a fraction of the new center’s vision is realized, when the next pandemic strikes, scientists and decision makers will have more robust data sets and a trove of pandemic-forecasting research to draw from. And they may, at last, be equipped to talk to one another — and to the public — about what they’re doing and why it matters. New York Times
Lessons Learned from the Development and Demonstration of a PPE Inventory Monitoring System for US Hospitals
An international system should be established to support personal protective equipment inventory monitoring. Here researchers discuss the development and 15-week deployment of a proof-of-concept prototype that included the use of a Healthcare Trust Data Platform to secure and transmit PPE-related data. Seventy-eight hospitals participated, including 66 large hospital systems and 11 medium-sized hospital systems. Health Security
EcoHealth Alliance’s Peter Daszak is Fighting Accusations That His Pandemic Prevention Work Helped Spark COVID-19
Daszak sees it as particularly unfair that, after warning about the risk of a coronavirus pandemic for more than 15 years, he is being vilified. But some scientists, even those dismayed by the attacks, say Daszak is in part a victim of his own making. They argue he failed to reveal important information that later surfaced through embarrassing FOIA requests and leaks, and some accuse him of making false statements. Science
K-State Researcher Continues Efforts to Halt Spread of African Swine Fever
Megan Niederwerder, assistant professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University, will lead a new $513,000 research project to characterize African swine fever virus survival and transmission after introduction onto a farm. She will serve as the principal investigator on the two-year grant award from the National Pork Board and the state of Kansas National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility Fund. Pork Business
SELECT AGENTS + CBRNE THREATS
Publication of Interim Final Rule – Addition of SARS-CoV/SARS-CoV-2 Chimeric Viruses to Select Agents and Toxins List
The CDC’s Division of Select Agents and Toxins published an Interim Final Rule adding SARS-CoV/SARS-CoV-2 chimeric viruses resulting from any deliberate manipulation of SARS-CoV-2 to incorporate nucleic acids coding for SARS-CoV virulence factors to the list of HHS select agents and toxins. In addition, the work to create this chimeric virus is a ‘restricted experiment’ and requires prior approval from CDC before performing the experiment. The regulation was published in the Federal Register and CDC will accept public comments on the addition of the agent for the next 60 days. Federal Select Agents Program
C.D.C. Says ‘Smallpox’ Vials Found in Lab Did Not Contain Disease-Causing Virus
After an investigation into vials labeled “smallpox” found in a freezer at a Merck vaccine research laboratory in Pennsylvania, the CDC determined the contents were actually vaccinia, the virus used in the smallpox vaccine. New York Times, ABC Philadelphia
Development of a Protective Inactivated Vaccine Against Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Infection
The study evaluated cell-culture-derived inactivated vaccine (CCVax) formulations in comparison with those of mouse-brain-derived vaccine (MBVax) formulations. The CCVax formulations induced higher IgG and neutralizing Ab titers at all the measured time points. Heliyon
Radiation Medical Countermeasures and Use of EPR Biodosimetry to Facilitate Effectiveness of Applied Clinical Procedures
Advances over the last several decades in IR-associated biodosimetric technologies have resulted in both improved basic triage procedures as well as effectiveness of clinical management protocols that necessarily follow radiological/nuclear IR exposure events. Applied Magnetic Resonance
OPCW Assists Russian Speaking Member States in Strengthening Protection Against Chemical Weapons and Toxic Industrial Chemicals
The new online training aids Russian-speaking first responders in developing their knowledge of reconnaissance and rescue operations in a chemical contamination zone, timely detection of hazardous chemicals in the air, water and soil, as well as the main chemical contamination neutralization methods and sampling procedures in a highly contaminated area. Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
PUBLIC HEALTH
Measles Progress in Set Back a Decade as 22 Million Miss Vaccines
Measles is one of the world’s most contagious human viruses, killing more than 60,000 people in 2020, but is almost entirely preventable. Missed vaccinations, combined with declines in measles surveillance and reporting, have created “dangerous conditions for outbreaks to occur”. SciDev.Net
Long-term Sequelae Highly Prevalent One Year After Hospitalization for Severe COVID-19
Prospective cohort study on 238 patients previously hospitalized for Covid-19 pneumonia in 2020. In the time elapsed from 4 to 12 months after hospital discharge, motor function improves, while respiratory function does not, being accompanied by evidence of lung structural damage. Symptoms remain highly prevalent one year after acute illness. Scientific Reports
Do Vaccines Protect Against Long COVID? What The Data Say
Vaccines reduce the risk of post-acute sequelae of a SARS-CoV-2 infection by lowering the chances of contracting COVID-19 in the first place. But for those who do experience a breakthrough infection, studies suggest that vaccination might only halve the risk of long COVID — or have no effect on it at all. Understanding the prevalence of “long COVID” among vaccinated people has urgent public-health implications as restrictions that limited viral spread are eased in some countries. Many people with mild or asymptomatic infections might not even be tested for COVID-19. Nature
SURVEILLANCE + DETECTION
Predicting the Zoonotic Capacity of Mammals to Transmit SARS-Cov-2
Better targeting surveillance and laboratory experiments to validate zoonotic potential requires predicting high-risk host species. A major bottleneck to this effort is the few species with available sequences for angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor, a key receptor required for viral cell entry. We overcome this bottleneck by combining species’ ecological and biological traits with three-dimensional modelling of host-virus protein–protein interactions using machine learning. This approach enables predictions about the zoonotic capacity of SARS-CoV-2 for greater than 5000 mammals. Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Saliva is Superior Over Nasopharyngeal Swab for Detecting SARS-Cov2
Pandemic testing challenges include shortages of sample collection swabs and transport medium. Saliva has been recommended as a simple, low-cost, non-invasive option. This comparison of viral load from 72 NPS-saliva pair samples showed saliva contains significantly higher viral load and prolonged period of viral shedding in saliva. Limitations of the study: not aimed at early onset of disease and asymptomatic detection. Scientific Reports
Incrimination of Shrews as a Reservoir for Powassan Virus
Powassan virus lineage 2 (deer tick virus) is an emergent threat to American public health, causing severe neurologic disease. Shrews had not previously been suggested as reservoir hosts for Powassan/DTV, but they appear to be competent reservoirs for the related tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus in Eurasia. Communications Biology
SARS-Cov-2 Genomics as a Springboard for Future Disease Mitigation in LMICs
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has been pivotal in the expansion of real-time genomic epidemiology globally. Interest and investment in genomic sequencing for public health in LMICs may decline despite the continuing impact of disease. Maintenance of sequencing and analytical capacity will be pivotal in shifting resources post-pandemic towards diseases that represent local challenges, such as diarrhoeal disease, and endemic viruses such as dengue or chikungunya. Nature Reviews Microbiology
How the Rapid Diagnostic Test Became a Game Changer for Malaria Case Management and Improved Disease Reporting
In 2010, the World Health Organization changed its guidance on malaria case management, recommending parasitological confirmation of all suspected cases before treatment with an antimalarial. This recommendation was in large part as a result of the availability of quality assured malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) that made it possible for malaria diagnosis to be performed by laboratory staff in all health facilities irrespective of the facility’s place in the tiered health system. ASTMH
National Surveillance for Acute Flaccid Myelitis — United States, 2018–2020
The number of AFM cases in 2019 and in 2020 was consistent with previous nonpeak years. Compared with 2018, cases reported during 2019–2020 were more likely to have lower limb involvement and less likely to have prodromal illness, upper limb involvement, cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis, or detection of enterovirus D68. The absence of an increase in cases in 2020 reflects a deviation from the previously observed biennial pattern, and it is unclear when the next increase in AFM should be expected. Clinicians should continue to maintain vigilance and suspect AFM in any child with acute flaccid limb weakness, particularly in the setting of recent febrile or respiratory illness. MMWR
SPECIAL INTEREST
Winners of 2021 Next Generation for Biosecurity Competition Announced
NTI | bio, in partnership with the Next Generation Global Health Security Network, this week announced the winners of the fifth annual Next Generation for Biosecurity Competition: Kenza Samlali, a PhD candidate in electrical and computer engineering at Concordia University, Center for Applied Synthetic Biology, Canada; Julie Stern, a master’s candidate in biodefense at George Mason University, Schar School of Policy and Government and mechanical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, United States; and Elicana Nduhuura, a medical student at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda. NTI
IFBA Spotlights Women Champions of Biosafety and Biosecurity
The International Federation of Biosafety Equity-Focused Coordinating Committee (IFBA-ECC) has produced a video spotlighting the achievements of five women champions of biosafety and biosecurity. Health Security Partners
IN MEMORIAM
Sherif Zaki, A Legendary Disease Detective at CDC, Dies at 65
A man with a unique ability to solve medical mysteries by studying tissues for the signatures of the infectious agent at play. “He really was kind of the secret weapon for a lot of what was done at CDC on emerging diseases.” Among many accomplishments, Zaki and his team pinpointed Zika virus in the brain tissues of miscarried fetuses, found the hantavirus later named Sin Nombre in the first known hantavirus outbreak in the United States, and confirmed that anthrax was responsible for early deaths in what would become a spate of attacks that petrified the country in the autumn of 2001. STAT