Time Is Running Out to Stop an Ebola Epidemic (New York Times)Ebola is ravaging the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a country riven by violent conflict and neglected for decades by the international community. The World Health Organization has less than half of the $98 million it needs to confront the crisis. And the United States government has undermined its own experts with a slow-footed response and cumbersome aid restrictions.Go to article
WHO Flags Critical Funding Gap, Calls for Political Parties to Join Fight Against Ebola (WHO)The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will only end with bipartisan political cooperation and community ownership, according to the World Health Organization’s Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He was speaking to Member States in Geneva after returning from a visit to DRC, where he reviewed the health response and met with leaders from multiple sectors to galvanize their commitment. The organization is also facing a severe funding gap for the response.Go to article
UN Launches Emergency Response to Contain Pakistan HIV Epidemic(The New Humanitarian)The discovery of an HIV outbreak among hundreds of children in Pakistan has spurred an international response and put a spotlight on healthcare and treatment practices in a country already facing a fast-rising epidemic.Go to article
security in Northeast Asia and make progress toward the verifiable denuclearization of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).Go to report
Medicine & Public Health
Hospitals Aren’t Ready for a Mass Casualty Wildfire(Wired)OF ALL THE wildfires that ravaged California in 2018, the Camp Fire was the deadliest. It tore through the mountain town of Paradise and killed at least 85 people, destroying the local Feather River Hospital along the way—so just as emergency services were trying to evacuate and tend to the injured, they also had to transport admitted patients.Go to article
Meet the New York Couple Donating Millions to the Anti-Vax Move(Washington Post)A wealthy Manhattan couple has emerged as significant financiers of the anti-vaccine movement, contributing more than $3 million in recent years to groups that stoke fears about immunizations online and at live events — including two forums this year at the epicenter of measles outbreaks in New York’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.Go to article
(CDC Emerging Infectious Disease)This investigation identified 5 clinical cases of secondary monkeypox infection spread over 3 waves of intrafamilial infection, originating from an index case-patient with primary infection possibly attributable to contact with wild fauna. The prompt declaration and isolation of suspected cases, as well as possible naturally acquired immunity or persistence of vaccine-derived immunity within the community, likely contributed to the restricted extent of secondary transmission. Further studies are needed to clarify risk factors for primary and secondary monkeypox transmission.Go to article
Science & Technology
Engineering Biology: A Research Roadmap for the Next-Generation Bioeconomy (Engineering Biology Research Consortium)The EBRC Roadmap is a critical assessment of the current status and potential of engineering biology. It is intended to provide researchers and other stakeholders (including government funders) with a compelling set of technical challenges and opportunities in the near and long term.Go to article
What if AI in Health Care is the Next Asbestos?(STAT)Artificial intelligence is often hailed as a great catalyst of medical innovation, a way to find cures to diseases that have confounded doctors and make health care more efficient, personalized, and accessible.
But what if it turns out to be poison? Go to article
Genome Editing (Belfer Center)Genome Editing (also called “gene editing”) is defined as “a group of technologies that give scientists the ability to change an organism’s DNA. These technologies edit DNA through adding, altering, or removing genetic material at target places inside the human genome. Go to article
Other 21st Century Threats
AI Reading List (Medium)For newcomers to the field of artificial intelligence, prioritizing among endless AI resources can be an overwhelming challenge. This list attempts to do exactly that: it’s a carefully curated compilation of resources for getting up to speed quickly on key topics in artificial intelligence research and its long-term implications.Go to article
