Sunday, May 10, 2020

Covid Timeline

1918-1919
The world suffered the "Spanish" flu of 1918-1919, which killed at least 50 million people; 

1957 
The world suffered "Asian" flu of 1957 

1968
The world suffered "Hong Kong" flu of 1968

USA President 39th Jimmy Carter Ga. Democratic 1977–81

Bayh–Dole Act
1980-12-12
A key change made by Bayh–Dole was in the procedures by which federal contractors that acquired ownership of inventions made with federal funding could retain that ownership. Before the Bayh–Dole Act, the Federal Procurement Regulation required the use of a patent rights clause that in some cases required federal contractors or their inventors to assign inventions made under contract to the federal government unless the funding agency determined that the public interest was better served by allowing the contractor or inventor to retain principal or exclusive rights.
A second key change with Bayh-Dole was to authorize federal agencies to grant exclusive licenses to inventions owned by the federal government.
One of Congress's efforts was focused on how best to manage inventions that were created with the more than $75 billion a year invested in government sponsored R&D.
Prior to the enactment of Bayh-Dole, the U.S. government had accumulated 28,000 patents, but fewer than 5% of those patents were commercially licensed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayh%E2%80%93Dole_Act

USA President 40th Ronald Reagan Ill. Republican 1981–89

1982 Sep-Oct
"Retroviruses are RNA viruses that reverse-transcribe their RNA into proviral DNA. These viruses are associated with a wide variety of cancers in chickens mice, cats, and monkeys. Some retroviruses cause a specific type of cancer soon after infection in a high proportion of animals, whereas others cause various cancers late after infection in a lower proportion of animals. Highly oncogenic retroviruses are recombinants of viral and host genes. The cancers induced by these viruses are determined by the transduced host gene. Retroviruses that cause cancer at a low incidence do not contain inserted host information. Rather, they appear to cause cancer via mutation of the expression of potentially oncogenic host genes. During their normal life cycle, retroviruses integrate proviral DNA into the chromosomal DNA of their host. Integrations occur at many different sites. Most integrations are benign, but some result in cancer. Retroviral research has identified 12 potentially oncogenic host genes. Each is associated with a characteristic cancer or spectrum of cancer. Several appear to code for protein kinases that phosphorylate tyrosine residues."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6755614

1983 (began his WHO career)
Dr LEE Jong-wook a national of the Republic of Korea
Medical Doctor (MD) degree from Seoul National University Medical School of Medicine, and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Hawaii, School of Public Health
Prior to joining WHO, Dr Lee worked for two years at the LBJ Tropical Medical Centre in American Samoa. 
Dr Lee probably knew WHO better than most, having worked for more than 20 years in technical, managerial and policy positions at all levels in the Organization – country, region and headquarters. 
WHO Director-General 21 May 2003 for a five-year term.
Dr Lee rapidly built what is internationally recognized as one of the most successful and dynamic global public-private partnerships for health; the Global Partnership to Stop TB. 
In 1994, Dr Lee moved to WHO headquarters in Geneva as Director of the WHO Global Programme for Vaccines and Immunization (GPV) and Executive Secretary of the Children’s Vaccine Initiative – a global campaign to catalyze development of new and improved vaccines for children. 
Dubbed as WHO’s ‘Vaccine Czar’ by the Scientific American magazine in 1997, he was responsible for a series of strategic developments in GPV. 
These included an open approach to working with industry, a review of the short-, mid- and long-term mission of GPV, an increase in funding from $15 million to nearly $70 million between 1994 and 1998, and management reforms to assure the highest technical competence of staff and increase the proportion of women in professional posts.
In 1998, having joined the newly formed cabinet as Senior Policy Adviser to the Director-General of WHO, he was closely involved in the WHO reform process, and maintained a strong commitment to supporting Members States by strengthening the regional and country structure of the Organization. 
As Special Representative of the Director-General, he was responsible for several crucial WHO initiatives, including those in the Horn of Africa and East Timor.
He began his WHO career in 1983 as a leprosy consultant in the South Pacific, and a year later was appointed team leader for leprosy control in the South Pacific. 
In 1986 he moved to the Western Pacific Regional Office in Manila, initially in the Regional Leprosy Control Programme and later as Regional Adviser on Chronic Diseases.
Since Dr Lee took office as Director-General, the Organization has achieved some notable milestones in public health; ratifying the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (the first public health treaty negotiated by WHO); adopting a revised set of International Health Regulations; and leading the health response to avian influenza, the Asian tsunami, and the Pakistan earthquake.
The Director-General released several landmark publications with the aim of prompting a substantial response to some of the greatest health challenges facing the world, most notably the annual World Health Reports, which have focused on the AIDS treatment gap (2004); the appalling burden of suffering and death faced by pregnant women and children, with a call to 'make every mother and child count' (2005); and a commitment to address the health workforce crisis facing most developing countries (2006). The Report for 2007 takes the theme of health and security, emphasizing the central relationship between health, peace and human security.

1984
Anthony Stephen Fauci is an American physician and immunologist who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Fauci

1984
As early as 1984, shocked at the price of the Blumberg-Merck vaccine, Alfred Prince, an expert in blood transfusion at the New York Blood Center, developed an alternative flash-heat method of purifying the surface antigen from plasma. Prince's method was simpler, faster and more resource-efficient than either Merck's or the Institut Pasteur's methods, producing larger quantities of vaccine from the same amount of plasma. Patenting his method but waiving royalties, Prince made it available to anyone who wished to produce a vaccine (Prince and Kwang, 1987, Muraskin, 1995, pp. 21–26, 60). In the absence of patent protection and faced with public anxiety about the safety of plasma vaccines, manufacturers in the USA and Europe were uninterested in marketing Prince's vaccine. In Asia, however, with support from an international task force of public health advocates, by the early 1990s a growing number of manufacturers were producing and distributing the plasma vaccine, prices had fallen below $1 per dose, and universal childhood immunisation against hepatitis B had become a realisable goal, at least for better-off Asian countries (Muraskin, 1995, passim; Maynard, Kane, & Hadler, 1989).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5541201/

1986 Dr LEE Jong-wook moved to the Western Pacific Regional Office in Manila, initially in the Regional Leprosy Control Programme and later as Regional Adviser on Chronic Diseases.
https://www.who.int/dg/who-headquarters-leadership-team/former-directors-general

1986
American Medical Association (AMA)
AMA passes resolution opposing acts of discrimination against AIDS patients and any legislation that would lead to such categorical discrimination or that would affect patient-physician confidentiality.

1986-11-14
Part 1—National Vaccine Program (§§ 300aa–1 – 300aa–6)
The Secretary shall establish in the Department of Health and Human Services a National Vaccine Program to achieve optimal prevention of human infectious diseases through immunization and to achieve optimal prevention against adverse reactions to vaccines.
Part 2—National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (§§ 300aa–10 – 300aa–34)
There is established the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program to be administered by the Secretary under which compensation may be paid for a vaccine-related injury or death.

1987-12-22
42 U.S. Code § 300aa–27.Mandate for safer childhood vaccines
the Secretary shall—
(1)promote the development of childhood vaccines that result in fewer and less serious adverse reactions than those vaccines on the market on December 22, 1987, and promote the refinement of such vaccines, and
(2)make or assure improvements in, and otherwise use the authorities of the Secretary with respect to, the licensing, manufacturing, processing, testing, labeling, warning, use instructions, distribution, storage, administration, field surveillance, adverse reaction reporting, and recall of reactogenic lots or batches, of vaccines, and research on vaccines, in order to reduce the risks of adverse reactions to vaccines.
(b)Task force
(1)The Secretary shall establish a task force on safer childhood vaccines which shall consist of the Director of the National Institutes of Health, the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and the Director of the Centers for Disease Control.
(2)The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall serve as chairman of the task force.
(3)In consultation with the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines, the task force shall prepare recommendations to the Secretary concerning implementation of the requirements of subsection (a).
(c)Report
Within 2 years after December 22, 1987, and periodically thereafter, the Secretary shall prepare and transmit to the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Labor and Human Resources of the Senate a report describing the actions taken pursuant to subsection (a) during the preceding 2-year period.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/300aa-27

1988
Dr Hiroshi Nakajima Chiba City, Japan
Tokyo Medical College obtaining his MD degree in 1955 and a PhD in medical science in 1960
WHO’s fourth Director-General from 1988 to 1998.

USA President 41th George Bush Mass. Republican 1989–93

1989
NIH’s Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) was created by NIH in 1989 to evaluate, protect, license and manage both NIH and FDA discoveries, inventions and other intellectual property
https://www.ott.nih.gov/nih-and-its-role-technology-transfer

1991‐1993
HPV vaccine patents
The Creating of an HPV Industry
Given the uncertainty surrounding the ownership of enabling vaccine technologies and the possibility
of mutually blocking exclusive rights (that is, neither firm could be sure its products would not
infringe on patent rights held by the other), Merck and GSK cross‐licensed their respective IP
holdings in 2005 to ensure unfettered access to these technologies.
As a consequence, they secured their market position in the United States, Europe and other OECD
nations such as Canada and Japan. As part of the financial settlement of the patent interference, the
nonexclusive licenses awarded by NCI, NIH (National Institutes of Health) to MedImmune and Merck
were converted to co‐exclusive licenses, thus allowing both GSK and Merck access to this IP.
https://sanevax.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Creating-an-HPV-Industry.pdf

USA President 42th Bill Clinton Ark. Democratic 1993–2001

1993 to 1996
From 1993 to 1996 Dr. Paul F Reid was employed by the United States Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Maryland, under a grant from the National Research Council in Washington, D.C. Under the grant he was responsible for the expression and purification of a variety of neuroactive components from snake venom in bacterial and yeast systems and purification of expressed material with expansion to large-scale vaccine production.

1994
Dr LEE Jong-wook moved to WHO headquarters in Geneva as Director of the WHO Global Programme for Vaccines and Immunization (GPV) and Executive Secretary of the Children’s Vaccine Initiative – a global campaign to catalyze development of new and improved vaccines for children. 

1994
Dr LEE Jong-wook
These included an open approach to working with industry, a review of the short-, mid- and long-term mission of GPV, an increase in funding from $15 million to nearly $70 million between 1994 and 1998, and management reforms to assure the highest technical competence of staff and increase the proportion of women in professional posts.
https://www.who.int/dg/who-headquarters-leadership-team/former-directors-general

1995
Restructuring of Melville Biologics, formerly a division of NYBC (New York Blood Center), into a separate for-profit subsidiary which becomes publicly traded company in 1977 called V.I.Technologies (VITEX).
https://nybloodcenter.org/about-us/nybc-overview/nybc-history/history-overview/fourth-decade/

1995-02-07
according to findings reported by Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. His team found that intermittent injections of a cytokine known as interleukin-2, or IL-2, when combined with an anti-H.I.V. drug, can produce a striking and persistent rise in the CD-4 count.
Dr. Fauci said that although such results have not been seen with anti-H.I.V. drugs, his team's research was too preliminary to necessarily mean that the therapy would improve the health of the recipients.
In a study involving 11 patients, scientists at Stanford University reported finding that the amount of H.I.V. in the blood of infected people rises sharply after active infection from oral and genital sores caused by herpes simplex virus. The Stanford team, led by Dr. Mark Holodniy, said it was the first direct clinical evidence linking the two viruses.
https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/07/science/protein-in-saliva-found-to-block-aids-virus-in-test-tube-study.html

1995-05
Book Published:
The search for an AIDS vaccine : ethical issues in the development and testing of a preventive HIV vaccine
by Grady, Christine (wife of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci)

1996
NYBC (New York Blood Center)
Revenues surpass the $200 million dollar level with close to $50 million coming from Testing and Special Services and $25 million from royalties and contributions.
https://nybloodcenter.org/about-us/nybc-overview/nybc-history/history-overview/fourth-decade/

1997
Dr LEE Jong-wook
Dubbed as WHO’s ‘Vaccine Czar’ by the Scientific American magazine in 1997, he was responsible for a series of strategic developments in GPV (Global Programme for Vaccines and Immunization). 
https://www.who.int/dg/who-headquarters-leadership-team/former-directors-general

1998
In 1998, the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched a pilot project for knowledge innovation. Wuhan Institute of Virology had been centering on the institute reform, setting its strategy in the virus, microbe application research and biological high-tech innovation, and developing a comprehensive supporting reform implementation plans.
http://english.whiov.cas.cn/About_Us2016/Brief_Introduction2016/

1998, having joined the newly formed cabinet as Senior Policy Adviser to the Director-General of WHO, Dr LEE Jong-wook was closely involved in the WHO reform process, and maintained a strong commitment to supporting Members States by strengthening the regional and country structure of the Organization. 

1998-01
Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland born in Oslo, Norway
A medical doctor and Master of Public Health (MPH), Gro Harlem Brundtland spent 10 years as a physician and scientist in the Norwegian public health system
Dr Brundtland was nominated as Director-General of the World Health Organization by the Executive Board of WHO in January 1998. The World Health Assembly elected her for the position on 13 May 1998.

1999
In 1999, it successfully passed the classification and positioning of Chinese Academy of Sciences, was included in the high-tech research and development base-type research institute.
http://english.whiov.cas.cn/About_Us2016/Brief_Introduction2016/

1999
The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization was established by the Director-General of the World Health Organization in 1999 to provide guidance on the work of WHO. SAGE is the principal advisory group to WHO for vaccines and immunization. It is charged with advising WHO on overall global policies and strategies, ranging from vaccines and technology, research and development, to delivery of immunization and its linkages with other health interventions. SAGE is concerned not just with childhood vaccines and immunization, but all vaccine-preventable diseases.

1999
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $750 million to set up Gavi in 1999.
The Foundation is a key Gavi partner in vaccine market shaping.
 vaccines have become the Gates Foundation's biggest investment.
additional pledges have brought the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's total commitment to Gavi to date to over $4 billion.
By supporting Gavi, the The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation– which has a permanent seat on the Gavi Board – aims to accelerate access of developing countries to vaccines and support research into health solutions for these countries that are effective, affordable and sustainable.

2000
Creation of Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi)
"Gavi’s impact draws on the strengths of its core partners, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and plays a critical role in strengthening primary health care (PHC), bringing us closer to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), ensuring that no one is left behind.
Gavi also works with donors, including sovereign governments, private sector foundations and corporate partners; NGOs, advocacy groups, professional and community associations, faith-based organizations and academia; vaccine manufacturers, including those in emerging markets; research and technical health institutes; and implementing country governments."
"In 2000, that breakthrough idea became the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization – today Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance."
1999 Nov-Dec
"Viruses are etiologically linked to approximately 20% of all malignancies worldwide. Retroviruses account for approximately 8%-10% of the total. For human T-cell leukemia virus 1 (HTLV-I), the viral regulatory tax gene product is responsible for enhanced transcription of viral and cellular genes that promote cell growth by stimulating various growth factors and through dysregulation of cellular regulatory suppressor genes, such as p53. After a long latent period, adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) occurs in 1 per 1000 carriers per year, resulting in 2500-3000 cases per year worldwide and over half of the adult lymphoid malignancies in endemic areas. Human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) accounts for a significant cancer burden, and its transactivating regulatory protein Tat enhances direct and indirect cytokine and immunological dysregulation to cause diverse cancers. Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a very rare tumor except after HIV-1 infection, when its incidence is greatly amplified reaching seventy thousand-fold in HIV-infected homosexual men. Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), which is also known as Kaposi's sarcoma-associated virus (KSHV), is a necessary but not sufficient etiological factor in KS. The dramatic decline of KS since the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) could be due to suppression of HIV-1 tat. B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma occurs as their first acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-defining diagnosis in 3%-4% of HIV-infected patients. Hodgkin's lymphoma is also associated with HIV infection but at a lower risk. Human papillomaviruses are linked to invasive cervical cancer and anogenital cancers among HIV-infected patients. Human retroviruses cause malignancy via direct effects as well as through interactions with other oncogenic herpesviruses and other viruses."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10591085

USA President 43th George W. Bush Conn. Republican 2001–09

2001-05-08
"Raymond Gilmartin, chairman and chief executive of pharmaceutical giant Merck, is joining Microsoft's board of directors."
"Gilmartin has run Merck since June 1994."

WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Silvia Bino Institute of Public Health, Albania Jun. 2002 - Apr. 2009

2002
Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)
Since 2002, by joining the CAS Knowledge Innovation Program, WIV has extended its research areas from agriculture and environment-related fields to medicine-related fields in order to meet the national strategic demand of public health, national security, and sustainable agriculture development. From then on, WIV has undergone major reorganization by means of retaining researches into major disciplines, recruiting and training innovative talents in new disciplines and developing appropriate research platforms. Pathogenic study of emerging infectious diseases has become one of the major research fields. Great achievements have been made in animal origin studies of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-Cov) and avian influenza viruses.
http://english.whiov.cas.cn/About_Us2016/History2016/
In 2002, it was formally approved into the institute knowledge innovation project pilot sequence, the work of the entire institute had entered into a new stage.
http://english.whiov.cas.cn/About_Us2016/Brief_Introduction2016/

2002-2003 winter
SARS killed 349 people in mainland China and 299 in Hong Kong over the winter of 2002-2003.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/wuhan-outbreak-01092020133656.html

2003
Created: U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief 
"Since its inception in 2003, PEPFAR has invested over $100 billion in the global HIV/AIDS response, saving 25 million lives, preventing millions of HIV infections, and supporting several countries to achieve HIV epidemic control – all while significantly strengthening global health security."

President Bush has made a historic commitment to the fight against global HIV/AIDS. In his 2003 State of the Union Address, President Bush announced the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to combat global HIV/AIDS. Later that year, President Bush signed the initial 5-year, $15 billion authorizing legislation that had been approved with strong bipartisan support. This President views this commitment as a central part of our foreign policy to help alleviate the despair that allows extremism to take hold.
PEPFAR is the largest international health initiative in history to fight a single disease. 

2003-2010
Grand Challenges is a family of initiatives fostering innovation to solve key global health and development problems.
Launched in 2003 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as Grand Challenges in Global Health, this initiative initially focused on 14 major scientific challenges that, if solved, could lead to key advances in preventing, treating, and curing diseases of the developing world.  It was relaunched in 2014 as Grand Challenges, its new name reflecting its expanded scope encompassing challenges in global development. 
Scientific Board
Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Member, Scientific Board
Director
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
National Institutes of Health

2003
In 2003, SARS virus broke out in our country, the state and the Chinese Academy of Sciences promoted the prevention and control of newly emerging diseases to a new strategic height, Wuhan Institute of Virology adjusted the discipline layout in a timely manner, on the one hand it was to have the advantage integration for the traditional preponderant disciplines such as insect virology, aquatic animal virology, biological control, analysis of biotechnology etc.; on the other hand, through the training and the introduction of talents, it was to lay out a series of medical virus-related discipline groups, engaged in the researches of HIV, influenza virus, hepatitis virus, tumor virus and zoonotic virus and virus replication and antiviral drugs etc.
http://english.whiov.cas.cn/About_Us2016/Brief_Introduction2016/

2003
NYBC (New York Blood Center)
NYBC licenses research of Dr. Shibo Jiang of the Laboratory of Viral Immunology to Trimeris, Inc as an anti-HIV drug targeting HIV fusion proteins.
https://nybloodcenter.org/about-us/nybc-overview/nybc-history/history-overview/fourth-decade/


2003-05-21
Dr LEE Jong-wook
WHO Director-General 21 May 2003 for a five-year term.

WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Mariano Esteban Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain Jul. 2003 - Apr. 2007
WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Supamit Chunsuttiwat Ministry of Public Health, Thailand Jul. 2003 - Apr. 2010
WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. David Salisbury Department of Health, United Kingdom Jul. 2003 - (Chair: Nov. 2005 - Apr. 2010) Apr. 2010

2003-11-04
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, claims ownership of the virus and its entire genetic content. Rather than trying to profit if such a patent were awarded, the CDC says its application is to prevent others from monopolizing the field.
“The whole purpose of the patent is to prevent folks from controlling the technology,” said CDC spokesman Llelwyn Grant. “This is being done to give the industry and other researchers reasonable access to the samples.”
Regardless of motive, the race to patent the SARS virus has revived the debate about the ethics of a pivotal U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1980 that cleared the way for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to award patents for living things, most notably individual human genes.
Entire humans can’t be patented, but genes or parts of genes can if they prove to be new, useful and isolated by somebody using sophisticated scientific techniques.

2003-12-1
Public opponents of vaccination: a case study.
Leask J1, McIntyre P.
Author information
National Centre for Immunisation Research & Surveillance, Children's Hospital at Westmead, University of Sydney, Locked Bag 4001, Westmead 2145, Australia. juliel3@chw.edu.au
Abstract
Opposition to mass childhood vaccination is a world-wide phenomenon, particularly in industrialised countries. Unfounded claims about vaccination are perpetuated by parental lobby groups and individual spokespeople, some of whom have a medical or scientific background. This article focuses on one such spokesperson who has achieved particular notoriety. Dr. Viera Scheibner is a retired micropalaeontologist, without any formal training in health-related sciences, who tours the world claiming that vaccines are ineffective and dangerous and lead to a host of ills such as cancer and asthma. Professionals in public health or the clinical arena are from time to time called upon to publicly respond to her, or similar, claims disseminated during tours of Europe, North America or Australasia and in books and articles. Health professionals have expressed at how such spokespersons misrepresent the evidence on vaccine safety, resulting in the potential to undermine public confidence in immunisation. Media coverage, or proposed coverage, particularly of her more extreme claims, often makes health professionals engaged in immunisation feel obliged to respond. This paper describes Viera Scheibner's approach, which follows a repetitious path and is representative of that taken by other public opponents of immunisation. We conclude by suggesting how health professionals might respond in the public arena.

2004
In 2004, the Chinese and French governments signed a cooperation agreement on fighting and preventing new diseases, stressing the active cooperation between China and France in the construction of high-level biosafety laboratories and the system construction of biosafety laws and regulations etc.
http://english.whiov.cas.cn/About_Us2016/Brief_Introduction2016/

2004-04-12
Patent No: US 7,220,852 B1
Date of Patent: May 22, 2007 
CORONAVIRUS ISOLATED FROM HUMANS
Inventor: Paul A. RotaLarry J. AndersonWilliam J. BelliniCara Carthel BurnsRaymond CampagnoliQi ChenJames A. ComerShannon L. EmeryDean D. ErdmanCynthia S. GoldsmithCharles D. HumphreyJoseph P. IcenogleThomas G. KsiazekStephan S. MonroeWilliam Allan NixM. Steven ObersteTeresa C. T. PeretPierre E. RollinMark A. PallanschAnthony SanchezSuxiang TongSherif R. Zaki
Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Washington, DC (US) 
Abstract: Disclosed herein is a newly isolated human coronavirus (SARS-CoV), the causative agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Also provided are the nucleic acid sequence of the SARS-CoV genome and the amino acid sequences of the SARS-CoV open reading frames, as well as
methods of using these molecules to detect a SARS-CoV and detect infections therewith. 
STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
This invention was made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency of the United States Government. Therefore, the U.S. Government has certain rights in this invention. 

2004-04-28
Patent No: US 7,151,163 B2
Date of Patent: Dec. 19, 2006
Filed: Apr. 28, 2004
ANTIVIRAL AGENTS FOR THE TREATMENT,CONTROL AND PREVENTION OF INFECTIONS BY CORONAVIRUSES 
Inventors: John W. Erickson, Potomac, MD (US); Abelardo Silva, Ellicott City, MD (US) 
Assignee: Sequoia Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD (US) 
ABSTRACT
The invention provides compositions and methods that are useful for preventing and treating a  coronavirus infection in a subject. More specifically, the invention provides peptides and conjugates and pharmaceutical compositions containing those peptides and conjugates that block fusion of a coronavirus, such as the SARS virus, to a target cell. This blocking mechanism prevents or treats a coronavirus infection, Such as a SARS infection, in a Subject, such as a human subject. 

2004-05
The WHO declared China free of the SARS virus in May 2004, although it criticized the Chinese government's initial attempt to cover up the crisis.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/wuhan-outbreak-01092020133656.html

2004-07-21
Project BioShield
Act of 2004
in consultation with the Director of the National Institutes of Health, as part of the program under section 446, if the activities concern qualified countermeasures
SEC.319F-2.(a)(1)The Secretary, in coordination with the Secretary of Homeland Security (referred to in this section as the ‘Homeland Security Secretary’), shall maintain a stockpile or stockpiles of drugs, vaccines and other biological products, medical devices, and other supplies in such numbers,
types, and amounts as are determined by the Secretary to be appropriate and practicable, taking into account other available sources, to provide for the emergency health security of the United States, including the emergency health security of children and other vulnerable populations, in the event of
a bioterrorist attack or other public health emergency.
(b) SMALLPOX VACCINE DEVELOPMENT.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall award contracts, enter into cooperative agreements, or carry out such other activities as may reasonably be required in order to ensure that the stockpile under subsection (a) includes an amount of vaccine against smallpox as determined by such Secretary
to be sufficient to meet the health security needs of the United States.
(2) SMALLPOX VACCINE DEVELOPMENT.—For the purpose
of carrying out subsection (b), there are authorized to be appropriated $509,000,000 for fiscal year 2002, and such sums as may be necessary for each of fiscal years 2003 through 2006.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-108publ276/pdf/PLAW-108publ276.pdf

WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Hyam Bashour Damascus University, Syria Oct. 2004 - (Vice-Chair: Apr. 2005 - Apr. 2011) Apr. 2011


2005
In order to implement the spirit of Sino-French agreement, in 2005, Wuhan Institute of Virology undertook the task of building a national biosafety laboratory of Wuhan, Chinese Academy of Sciences. With nearly 10 years of unremitting efforts, the laboratory completed the physical facilities in January 2015.
http://english.whiov.cas.cn/About_Us2016/Brief_Introduction2016/

2005
NYBC (New York Blood Center)
First stem cell bill (Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005) is facilitated by NYBC efforts on Capitol Hill and signed into law by President George W. Bush. The Act provides subsidies to NYBC and other public cord blood banks.
https://nybloodcenter.org/about-us/nybc-overview/nybc-history/history-overview/fifth-decade/

2005
Strengthening health security by implementing the International Health Regulations (2005)
The International Health Regulations, or IHR (2005), represent an agreement between 196 countries including all WHO Member States to work together for global health security.
Through IHR, countries have agreed to build their capacities to detect, assess and report public health events. WHO plays the coordinating role in IHR and, together with its partners, helps countries to build capacities.
IHR also includes specific measures at ports, airports and ground crossings to limit the spread of health risks to neighboring countries, and to prevent unwarranted travel and trade restrictions so that traffic and trade disruption is kept to a minimum.
The members of an IHR Committee are drawn from the IHR Expert Roster established under Article 47, which includes experts in all relevant fields of expertise, and from the members of WHO Expert Advisory Panels.
The Director-General of WHO appoints the members of IHR Expert Roster in accordance with WHO Regulations for Expert Advisory Panels and Committees except as otherwise stated in the IHR.
https://www.who.int/ihr/procedures/ihr_committees/en/

WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Francisco Songane Ministry of Health, Mozambique Nov. 2005 - Nov. 2005
WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Yu Jingjin Ministry of Health, China Nov. 2005 - Apr. 2007
WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Mary Ann Lansang University of the Philippines, Philippines Nov. 2005 - Apr. 2008
WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Salah Al Awaidy Ministry of Health, Oman Nov. 2005 - Nov. 2008
WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Lalitha Mendis University of Colombo, Sri Lanka Nov. 2005 - Nov. 2008
WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Georges Peter Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, United States of America Nov. 2005 - Nov. 2008
WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. José Ignacio Santos Hospital Infantil de Mexico, Mexico Nov. 2005 - Nov. 2008
WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Jane Soepardi Ministry of Health, Indonesia Nov. 2005 - Oct. 2009
WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Arthur Lawrence Reingold University of California, USA Nov. 2005 - Apr. 2012
WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Helen Rees University of Witwatersrand, South Africa Nov. 2005 - (Chair: Nov. 2010 - Apr. 2013) Apri. 2013

WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Jean-Michel Ndiaye Retired 1 December 2005 as Country Representative, UNICEF Congo, Senegal Nov. 2006 - Nov. 2008

2006
Sars Coronavirus Vaccine Development
Author information: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina USA
Coronavirus infections are associated with severe diseases of the lower respiratory and gastrointestinal tract in humans and animals, yet little is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms governing virulence and pathogenesis. Among the human coronaviruses, the etiologic agent of SARS, the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is an attractive model to study the molecular basis for pathogenesis, given its robust in vitro growth characteristics, the availability of a reverse genetic system, animal models, wealth of clinical data, and several solved replicase and accessory protein structures. SARS CoV
infection afflicted about 8,000 humans and resulted in about 800 deaths, worldwide.
Disease severity has been linked to age, with approximate mortality rates of <1% under
24 years of age, 6% for ages 15–44, 15% for ages 45–64, and >50% over 65. Many
survivors have suffered long-lasting lung and cardiac complications.5

2006
Amelioration of acute and relapsing stages of the experimental allergic encephalomyelitis by cobra toxins
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16817641/
It is possible that a safe cobra toxin can be developed with therapeutic efficacy for treatment of MS or vaccine development.
Adel Mohamed, Paul F Reid, Larry Raymond, Tarek Dufan
Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Saskatchewan, SK, Canada
 

2006-05-22
Dr LEE Jong-wook, WHO Director-General, died on the morning of 22 May 2006 following a sudden illness.

2006-05-23
Dr Anders Nordström 
WHO Acting Director-General 23 May 2006 - 3 January 2007. 
He was appointed to this post by the WHO Executive Board following the sudden death of Dr LEE Jong-wook, Director-General, on 22 May 2006. 
Prior to that he had been WHO Assistant Director-General for General Management since July 2003.
A medical doctor from the Karolinska Institut, Sweden, Dr Nordström 
His first international assignments were with the Swedish Red Cross in Cambodia and the International Committee of the Red Cross in Iran. 
He worked for the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) for 12 years, including three years as Regional Advisor in Zambia and four years as head of the Health Division in Stockholm. 
During 2002 Dr Nordström was the Interim Executive Director for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. 
Dr Nordström took office as Assistant Director-General for General Management in July 2003 with a mandate to support the implementation of former Director-General Dr LEE Jong-wook's vision of a more effective and efficient organization that is equipped to "do the right things, in the right place". 

2006-06-13
US Patent Application Publication
Pub No: US 2010/0150923 A1 
PCT Filed: Jun. 13, 2006 
Pub Date: Jun. 17, 2010 
FUSION PROTEINS OF RECOMBINANT SARS CORONAVIRUS STRUCTURAL PROTEINS, THEIR PRODUCTION AND USES 
Assignee: Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Beijing (CN) 

2006-08-04
Rewiring the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) transcription circuit: engineering a recombination-resistant genome

2006-11-09
Dr Margaret Chan, from the People's Republic of China
WHO Director-General 9 November 2006 - 30 June 2017
medical degree from the University of Western Ontario in Canada 
Hong Kong Department of Health in 1978
In 1994, Dr Chan was appointed Director of Health of Hong Kong. 
In 2003, Dr Chan joined WHO as Director of the Department for Protection of the Human Environment. 
In June 2005, she was appointed Director, Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Response as well as Representative of the Director-General for Pandemic Influenza. 
In September 2005, she was named Assistant Director-General for Communicable Diseases.
Dr Chan was elected to the post of Director-General on 9 November 2006. 
The Assembly appointed Dr Chan for a second five-year term at its sixty-fifth session in May 2012. 
Dr Chan's last term began on 1 July 2012 and ended on 30 June 2017.

2006-12
Vaccine Efficacy in Senescent Mice Challenged with Recombinant SARS-CoV Bearing Epidemic and Zoonotic Spike Variants
Author information:
1 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
2 Carolina Vaccine Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
3 Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
4 Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
5 Department of Pathobiology and Diagnostic Investigation, College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America
6 United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland, United States of America
The University of Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
Background
In 2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) was identified as the etiological agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome, a disease characterized by severe pneumonia that sometimes results in death. SARS-CoV is a zoonotic virus that crossed the species barrier, most likely originating from bats or from other species including civets, raccoon dogs, domestic cats, swine, and rodents. A SARS-CoV vaccine should confer long-term protection, especially in vulnerable senescent populations, against both the 2003 epidemic strains and zoonotic strains that may yet emerge from animal reservoirs. We report the comprehensive investigation of SARS vaccine efficacy in young and senescent mice following homologous and heterologous challenge.


2006-12
Review of Bats and SARS
Wuhan Institute of Virology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China
Coronaviruses detected in different species of bats
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/12/12/06-0401-t2

WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Elizabeth Miller Health Protection Agency, United Kingdom Nov. 2007 - Nov. 2013

2007-03-15
On March 15, 2007, FDA learned that certain pet foods were sickening and killing cats and dogs. FDA found contaminants in vegetable proteins imported into the United States from China and used as ingredients in pet food.

A portion of the tainted pet food was used to produce farm animal feed and fish feed. FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture discovered that some animals that ate the tainted feed had been processed into human food. Government scientists have determined that there is very low risk to human health from consuming food from animals that ate tainted feed. All tainted pet food, animal and fish feed, and vegetable proteins continue to be recalled and destroyed.

As a result of FDA and USDA's comprehensive investigation, on February 6, 2008, FDA announced that two Chinese nationals and the businesses they operate, along with a U.S. company and its president and chief executive officer, were indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in a scheme to import products purported to be wheat gluten into the United States that were contaminated with melamine.

2007-05-14
Patent No: US 7,776,521 B1
Date of Patent: Aug. 17, 2010
CORONAVIRUS ISOLATED FROM HUMANS 
Inventor: Paul A. Rota Larry J. Anderson William J. Bellini Michael D. Bowen Cara Carthel Burns Raymond Campagnoli Qi Chen James A. Comer Byron T. Cook Shannon L. Emery Dean D. Erdman Cynthia S. Goldsmith Jeanette Guarner Charles D. Humphrey Joseph P. Icenogle Thomas G. Ksiazek Richard F. Meyer Stephan S. Monroe William Allan Nix M. Steven Oberste Christopher D. Paddock Teresa C. T. Peret Pierre E. Rollin Mark A. Pallansch Anthony Sanchez Wun-Ju Shieh Suxiang Tong Sherif R. Zaki
Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Washington, DC (US) 
Abstract: Disclosed herein is a newly isolated human coronavirus the causative agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Also provided are the nucleic acid sequence of the SARS-CoV genome and the amino acid sequences of the SARS-CoV open reading frames, as well as methods of using these molecules to detect a SARS-CoV and detect infections therewith. 
STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
This invention was made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency of the United States Government. Therefore, the U.S. Government has certain rights in this invention.  

2007-10-09
METHODS FOR PRODUCING RECOMBINANT CORONAVIRUS
Inventors: Kristopher M. Curtis, Chapel Hill, NC (US); Boyd Yount, Hillsborough, NC (US); Ralph S. Baric, Haw River, NC (US)
Assignee: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC (US) 
Patent No: US 7,279,327 B2
Date of Patent: Oct. 9, 2007
This invention was made possible with government support under grant numbers AI23946 and GM63228 from the National Institutes of Health. The United States government has certain rights to this invention. 

2008-02-11
ChemNutra and its owners face federal charges related to importing wheat gluten products contaminated with melamine, FDA says Feb. 6. Las Vegas-based ChemNutra, which buys ingredients from China to sell to U.S. companies, and owners Sally Qing Miller and Stephen S. Miller were charged in a 27-count indictment. Starting in March 2007, melamine was found in wheat gluten and rice protein concentrates that were linked to the deaths of pets and led to the recall of pet food products (1"The Tan Sheet" Sept. 10, 2007, p. 5). Also charged in a separate but related, 26-count indictment are Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co., LTD., and the owner, Mao Linzhun; and Suzhou Textiles, Silk, Light Industrial Products, Arts and Crafts I/E Co., LTD., and its president, Chen Zhen Hao. Under the indictments, all defendants face charges including conspiracy to defraud customers and the introduction of a misbranded food into interstate commerce, FDA says. In a same-day statement, the Millers deny the allegations and while they acknowledge one felony count alleges they sought to defraud customers, they stress the government does not allege they "had any knowledge of the presence of melamine or any other erroneous substance"
https://invivo.pharmaintelligence.informa.com/PS101342/Federal-melamine-indictments

WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Xiaofeng Liang Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China Apr. 2008 - Apr. 2014

2008-07-30
American Medical Association (AMA)
Ronald M. Davis, MD, then the AMA's immediate past president, apologized for more than a century of AMA policies that excluded African-Americans from the AMA, in addition to policies that also barred them from some state and local medical societies.

USA President 44th Barack Obama Hawaii Democratic 2009–1-7

2009
Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), a nonprofit based in Seattle, in 2009 launched a $3.6 million HPV trial, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in 24,777 adolescent girls in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat states. PATH conducted what it calls similar “post licensure demonstration projects” in Uganda, Peru, and Vietnam. But several months into the Indian trial, the government pulled the plug after news outlets reported the deaths of seven girls.
The fact that Merck, which makes Gardasil, and GlaxoSmithKline, maker of Cervarix, donated almost $6 million worth of their vaccines to the PATH trial “was not philanthropy,” asserts Chandra M. Gulhati, editor of the Monthly Index of Medical Specialities, an influential journal in India. “It is shocking to see how an American organization used surreptitious methods to establish itself in India,” he charges. “This is an obvious case where Indians were being used as guinea pigs,” contends Samiran Nundy, a gastrointestinal expert at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi and editor emeritus of the National Medical Journal of India.

PATH is a key partner and implementer working with the world’s leading foundations. From our origin with the support of a small grant from the Ford Foundation, through our long and multifaceted partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to our current broad portfolio of foundation partners, we are to accelerate the impact of pioneering philanthropic organizations across the world.

2009
In 2009, governments throughout the world mounted large and costly responses to the H1N1 influenza outbreak. These efforts were largely justified on the premise that H1N1 influenza and seasonal influenza required different management, a premise reinforced by the decision on the part of the World Health Organization (WHO) to label the H1N1 influenza outbreak a “pandemic”. However, the outbreak had far less serious consequences than experts had predicted, a fact that led many to wonder if the public health responses to H1N1 had not been disproportionately aggressive.1–3 In addition, concern over ties between WHO advisers and industry fuelled suspicion about the independence and appropriateness of the decisions made at the national and international levels.4

WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. David Durrheim Hunter New England Area Health Service, Australia Apr. 2009 - Apr. 2012
WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Zulfiqar Bhuttar The Aga Khan University Medical Center, Pakistan Apr. 2009 - Apr. 2015
WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Peter Figueroa Ministry of Health, Jamaica Apr. 2009 - Apr. 2015
WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Oyewale Tomori Redeemer's University, Nigeria Apr. 2009 - Apr. 2015
WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Jon Abramson (Chair) Wake Forest University School of Medicine, United States of America Apr. 2009 - (Chair: Nov. 2013-Oct 2016) Oct. 2016

2009-09-15
FDA approves four companies' H1N1 vaccines
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2009/09/fda-approves-four-companies-h1n1-vaccines

WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Malik Peiris University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Oct. 2009 - Nov. 2010
WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Juhani Eskola National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland Oct. 2009 - Oct. 2015

2010-01
Bill and Melinda Gates Pledge $10 Billion in Call for Decade of Vaccines 
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
DAVOS, Switzerland 
"Bill and Melinda Gates announced today that their foundation will commit $10 billion over the next 10 years to help research, develop and deliver vaccines for the world’s poorest countries.
The Gates said that increased investment in vaccines by governments and the private sector could help developing countries dramatically reduce child mortality by the end of the decade, and they called for others to help fill critical financing gaps in both research funding and childhood immunization programs.
“We must make this the decade of vaccines,” said Bill Gates. “Vaccines already save and improve millions of lives in developing countries. Innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before.”
Bill and Melinda Gates made their announcement at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting, where they were joined by Julian Lob-Levyt, CEO of the GAVI Alliance."

2010-01-14
Dr KEIJI FUKUDA
The first question that I will talk about is whether this is a real pandemic, the second one is, did
WHO change its definition of the pandemic, the third topic is, did WHO overplay the pandemic
and the fourth issue is, was WHO unduly influenced by industry.
So let's go to the first question: is this a real pandemic.
Here the answer is very clear: yes.
The allegation by some, that the H1N1 pandemic is a fake is both scientifically wrong and
historically inaccurate.
The allegation that this is
not a pandemic is scientifically wrong and is historically inaccurate. I also want to note in passing
that it is somewhat disrespectful, for the many people who were affected by the serious illnesses
caused and for the deaths that were caused by this influenza virus, as well as to the very large
number of people in all countries who have been working around the clock to protect others from
this pandemic. 
Now let me move on to the second issue. Did WHO change its definition if a pandemic? The
answer is no, WHO did not change its definition. 
Now let me go to the third issue: did WHO overplay the pandemic? The answer here is no, it did
not.
Now, I would like to go to the fourth issue: was WHO inappropriately influenced by the
pharmaceutical industry? And the answer here is no.  
When WHO responded to the pandemic, one of
the things we did as soon as possible was to reach out to a wide variety of experts and sectors
around the world including industries. We had discussions with them on a variety of topics, and
with the industry representatives, we talked both about vaccines and vaccines viruses and what
could be done to expedite the production of vaccines as quickly as possible. 
Now the question is not really whether we had contact with the industry, but whether we had any
undue influence exerted upon us by commercial interest. And the answer is no. WHO has long
recognized that in reaching out to such a broad group of experts and interest groups, that there is
a risk for potential conflicts or interests in the advice which is provided to the organization. So to
protect the integrity of the advice which was given to WHO, to remain free from any undue
influence, WHO has had in place routine safeguards against potential conflicts of interest in the
advice given to WHO. This is really a longstanding practice and is true at all times, and certainly
well before this pandemic, but also during this particular pandemic. 
Now WHO requires the experts, who provide advice to the organization, to declare all their
professional and financial interests including funding, which is received from pharmaceutical
companies, or consultancies, or other forms of professional involvement with these commercial
interests. This information is then shared with other members, shared within the institution to look
at them for appropriateness, and then if the person is part of an advisory group, it is shared with
other members of the advisory group and it is taken into account by WHO in determining whether
the experts concerned should continue to provide advice to the organization. 
Finally here I'd like to note that any allegations of undeclared conflicts of interest are taken very
seriously by WHO and we respond immediately and appropriately to them. 
In the first place I want to emphasize the world is going through a real pandemic. The description
of it as fake, is both wrong and is irresponsible.
The second point is that WHO has been balanced and truthful in the information it provided to the
public. It has not underplayed and it has not overplayed the risks of the pandemic.
The third point is that WHO has reached out to all parties who could help to reduce harm from the
pandemic but we did take very great care to make sure that the advice received was not unduly
influenced by commercial or non-public health interests. 
WHO is still emphasizing that vaccination is a very important part of addressing the pandemic. 
Now some months ago, in fact, one of the most important things that the DG did in concert with
the Secretary General of the United Nations was to make a call for global solidarity, that is, for
the countries that had vaccines, for the richer countries to help out other countries that did not
have access to the vaccine

2010-02-17
"Oncogenic retroviruses are a particular family of viruses that can cause some types of cancer. Thierry Heidmann and his colleagues in the CNRS-Institut Gustave Roussy-Université Paris Sud 11 "Rétrovirus endogènes et éléments rétroïdes des eucaryotes supérieurs" Laboratory have studied these viruses. They have identified a "virulence factor" that inhibits the host immune response and allows the virus to spread throughout the body. This factor is a sequence of amino acids that is located in the envelope protein of the virus.
These scientists have also shown that once mutated to lose its immunosuppressive capability, this envelope protein could serve as a basis for the development of vaccines."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100215130341.htm

WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Narendra Arora International Clinical Epidemiology Network, India Apr. 2010 - (Vice-Chair: Oct.2011- April 2016) Apr. 2016

2010-05-15
Receptor recognition and cell entry of coronaviruses
Grant R01AI089728
University Of Minnesota
Li, Fang
Grand Total $5,041,935
http://www.rdatlas.com/portal/portal.cfm?page=grants&applicationid=8458050


2010-07-20
us patent number 7758894
Inventor: Paul F. Reid
Inventor: Laurence N. Raymond
Detoxified cobra venom has the potential application to act as a method to protect individuals from contagious infectious agents as a substitute for anti-viral vaccines.

WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Claire-Anne Siegrist University of Geneva, Switzerland Nov. 2010 - Oct. 2016

WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Piyanit Tharmaphornpilas Manager, National Immunization Program, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand Nov. 2010 - Oct. 2016

2010-12-02
The World Health Organization (WHO), 
UNICEF, 
the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) 
and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have announced a collaboration to increase coordination across the international vaccine community and create a Global Vaccine Action Plan. 
The collaboration follows the January 2010 call by Bill and Melinda Gates for the next ten years to be the Decade of Vaccines.

The Leadership Council is comprised of:
Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of WHO;
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Director of NIAID, part of the National Institutes of Health;
Mr. Anthony Lake, Executive Director for UNICEF;
Ms. Joy Phumaphi, Chair of the International Advisory Committee and Executive Secretary, African Leaders Malaria Alliance;
Dr. Tachi Yamada, President of Global Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation;

The Steering Committee includes globally recognized experts in vaccine delivery, advocacy, research and development, and access:
Dr. Nicole Bates, Senior Program Officer, Global Health Policy and Advocacy, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Dr. Seth Berkley, President & CEO, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI)
Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta, Founding Chair, Division of Women and Child Health, Aga Khan University
Dr. Lola Dare, CEO, Center for Health Sciences Training, Research and Development International
Ms. Helen Evans, Acting CEO, GAVI Alliance
Dr. Lee Hall, Chief, Parasitology and International Programs Branch, Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, NIAID
Dr. T. Jacob John, Professor and Head, Departments of Clinical Microbiology and Virology, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India (Retired)
Dr. Orin Levine, Executive Director, International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC)
Dr. Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, Director, WHO Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals
Dr. Ciro de Quadros, Executive Vice President, Sabin Vaccine Institute
Dr. David Salisbury, Director of Immunization, UK Department of Health
Dr. Anne Schuchat, Director, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, CDC
Dr. Peter A. Singer, Director, McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, University of Toronto and University Health Network
Dr. Lucky Slamet, Deputy for Therapeutic Products, Narcotic, Psychotropic and Addictive Substance Control, National Agency of Drug and Food Control, Indonesia
Dr. Gina Tambini, Area Manager, Family and Community Health, PAHO/WHO
Dr. Jos Vandelaer, Chief, Immunization, Programme Division, UNICEF
Ms. Sandy Wrobel, CEO and Managing Director, Applied Strategies

2011
NYBC (New York Blood Center)
NYBC receives the first approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market HEMACORD®(HPC,cord blood) the first FDA licensed cellular therapy product to treat patients with disorders affecting the hematopoietic system.
https://nybloodcenter.org/about-us/nybc-overview/nybc-history/history-overview/fifth-decade/

2011
Stanford v. Roche, was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States that held that title in a patented invention vests first in the inventor, even if the inventor is a researcher at a federally funded lab subject to the Bayh–Dole Act. The judges affirmed the common understanding of US Constitutional law that inventors automatically own their inventions, and contractual obligations to assign those rights to third parties are secondary
The case arose from a dispute over patents covering diagnostic tests for HIV infection (U.S. Patent Nos. 5,968,730,[3] 6,503,705,[4] and 7,129,041[5]), originally owned by Stanford University, and HIV diagnostic tests sold by Roche.
When Stanford sued Roche for infringing the patents in 2005, Roche countered by claiming that it jointly owned the patents, due to an agreement that a Stanford faculty member, Dr. Mark Holodniy, signed in the late 1980s when he did research at Cetus, the biotechnology company that invented PCR and that was later acquired by Roche.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University_v._Roche_Molecular_Systems,_Inc.

WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr El Tayeb Ahmed El Sayed Federal Ministry of Health, Sudan Nov. 2011 - Apr. 2012
WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Paba Palihawadana Ministry of Health and Nutrition, Sri Lanka Nov. 2011 - Oct. 2014

2011-05-04
"The US childhood immunization schedule specifies 26 vaccine doses for infants aged less than 1 year, the most in the world, yet 33 nations have lower IMRs." (Infant Mortality Rate)

2011-11-22
https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-xpm-2011-11-22-ct-nw-chronic-fatigue-scientist-arrest-20111122-story.html

"In 2011, she made the discovery that destroyed her career. She found that at least 30% of our vaccines are contaminated with gammaretroviruses. Not only is this contamination associated with autism and chronic fatigue syndrome, it is also associated with Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and Alzheimer’s."
"Retroviruses are not her only concern. She talks about the effects of aluminum, mercury, formaldehyde, and polysorbate 80. She believes these neurotoxins play a definite part, along with retrovirus contamination, in the rise of several diseases in this country."
https://www.organiclifestylemagazine.com/vaccines-retroviruses-dna-and-the-discovery-that-destroyed-judy-mikovits-career


2012-03
Evidence for a Common Evolutionary Origin of Coronavirus Spike Protein Receptor-Binding Subunits Department of Pharmacology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA CoVs, a family of enveloped positive-stranded RNA viruses, can be divided into three major genera or groups, the alpha-CoVs (group 1), the beta-CoVs (group 2), and the gamma-CoVs (group 3)
Surprisingly, despite their different primary, secondary, and tertiary structures, SARS-CoV and NL63-CoV C-domains share related structural topologies (i.e., connectivity of secondary structural elements)
This work was supported by NIH grant R01AI089728 and by a University of Minnesota AHC Faculty Research Development grant.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3302248/

2012-10-01
"While the majority of these vaccines are well tolerated, in Australia, an increased risk of febrile convulsions following immunization with an inactivated, split-virion, unadjuvanted vaccine, Fluvax, led to the suspension of seasonal influenza immunization of healthy children in April 2010."
"A similar vaccine was utilized in the UK, until the Department of Health advised against its use in younger children and enhanced surveillance for febrile convulsions."
"This suggests that the longevity of protection is poor and that repeat vaccination boosted protective immune responses, reinforcing the recommendation for annual re-immunization"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3224079/

WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Yagob Al-Mazrou Health Services Council, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Nov. 2012 - Oct. 2019
WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Terence Nolan University of Melbourne, Australia Nov. 2012 - Oct. 2019
WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Katherine O'Brien Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, United States of America Nov. 2012 - Oct. 2019


2013
SARS etiology origin: The live SARS-like coronavirus SL-CoV-WIV1 has been isolated for the first time from the bat droppings; and such virus has been confirmed to invade the host cells through the ACE2 of human beings, civets and Rhinolophus sinicus. The research result has so far provided the most convincing evidence to the view that Rhinolophus sinicus is the natural host of SARS-CoV (Nature, 2013).
http://english.whiov.cas.cn/About_Us2016/Address_from_the_Director2016/

2013
NYBC (New York Blood Center)
NYBC’s Sara Lustigman, PhD from the Laboratory of Molecular Parasitology receives NIH grant for development of an Antigen-sparing Adjuvant for Vaccines to fight new influenza strains, HIV, SARS, West Nile and the increased threat of bioterrorism.
https://nybloodcenter.org/about-us/nybc-overview/nybc-history/history-overview/fifth-decade/

2013
NYBC (New York Blood Center)
The Laboratory of Social and Behavioral Sciences, headed by Victoria Frye, MPH, DrPH, receives funding to develop and pilot-test a community-level anti-HIV stigma and homophobia intervention.
https://nybloodcenter.org/about-us/nybc-overview/nybc-history/history-overview/fifth-decade/

2013
NYBC (New York Blood Center)
NYBC Laboratory of Viral Immunology acknowledged by Nature Medicine for leadership in developing vaccine against MERS, (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) a severe acute respiratory illness. Research Lab Heads Shibo Jiang, MD, PhD and Lanying Du, PhD are among pioneers in developing this vaccine.
https://nybloodcenter.org/about-us/nybc-overview/nybc-history/history-overview/fifth-decade/

2013
NYBC (New York Blood Center)
The Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention, under the leadership of Beryl A. Koblin, PhD, receives funding to address low HIV testing rates in young African Americans and to evaluate a brief online HIV testing intervention for mobile devices.
https://nybloodcenter.org/about-us/nybc-overview/nybc-history/history-overview/fifth-decade/


2013-07-19
"The contentious debate reached an apex in the spring of 2010, when one group of government scientists at the FDA found evidence to support Mikovits’s CFS discovery, and another group at the CDC seemed to discredit her findings by failing to reproduce them." "In the end, the NIH’s AIDS czar, Anthony Fauci, asked his friend Ian Lipkin, a neurologist and virus hunter at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, to settle the impasse. Last September Lipkin announced the results of his analysis at a tightly controlled press conference: XMRV was not actually a human pathogen, he said, confirming an earlier report, but a man-made contaminant unwittingly manufactured in a lab in the 1990s." "The 2009 meeting in Bethesda marked the beginning of a change in the CFS cosmos, with a slew of prestigious scientists entering the field and government officials taking a more serious view of this formerly neglected disease. Moreover, the XMRV saga opened a rare window into the way scientists and government officials respond to findings that not only challenge the status quo but have profound implications for public health." "Also in the audience in Barcelona that day was Annette Whittemore, a rich, politically well-connected Nevada native. Her adult daughter had suffered from CFS since childhood and had been under Peterson’s care for many years. Whittemore and her husband, Harvey — a Reno attorney, real estate magnate, and former lobbyist whom local reporters called “the most powerful man in Nevada” — had been holding fund-raisers at their summer vacation mansion overlooking Lake Tahoe for some years to support research into their daughter’s illness.
They also had been lobbying the state legislature and U.S. Senator Harry Reid, a longtime friend, for government money to fund an institution at the University of Nevada in Reno dedicated to the study of CFS. In 2005 the state legislature approved a bill committing $12 million to get the $77 million construction project off the ground. (A variety of other sources, including the Whittemores themselves, would fund the rest.) "Obviously, if XMRV had been inadvertently manufactured as the result of lab experiments in the mid-1990s, it could not be causing disease in CFS or prostate cancer patients who had fallen ill in the 1980s or early 1990s. XMRV was “dead,” Coffin announced in April 2011. He advised CFS researchers to “move on.”
By early summer 2011, Silverman was ready to accept Coffin’s analysis and had become increasingly uneasy about his contributions to the 2009 data in the Science paper about CFS. Two years earlier, by amplifying the virus in tissue samples, Silverman had sequenced XMRV in seven of 11 CFS patient samples sent to him in March of 2009 by Mikovits. But when he reexamined those original samples again in the summer of 2011, Silverman discovered that all seven were contaminated, not with mouse DNA but with an infectious molecular clone originally made in his own lab in 2006.
After researchers began using the Silverman clone for their experiments, it replicated “like crazy” and spread beyond the boundaries of those projects throughout the lab, Silverman now found. The discovery was even more troubling since Silverman had sent his synthetic clone to “about a hundred labs” around the world.  "
https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/chasing-the-shadow-virus-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-and-xmrv

2013-08
Emerging infectious diseases associated with bat viruses.
Author information
Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China
This review provides a brief overview of bat viruses associated with emerging human infectious diseases.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23917838

2013-10
Receptor recognition and cross-species infections of SARS coronavirus.
Department of Pharmacology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Receptor recognition is a major determinant of the host range, cross-species infections, and pathogenesis of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV).
Grant support
R01 AI089728/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States
R01AI089728/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23994189

WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Frederick Were University of Nairobi, Kenya Nov. 2013 - Oct. 2019

Current WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Kari Johansen-Lundén (Vice-Chair) European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Sweden Apr. 2014 - (reappointed Oct. 2017) Dec. 2020

2014-05-27
Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence
Project Number: 1R01AI110964-01  
Contact PI/Project Leader: DASZAK, PETER
Awardee Organization: ECOHEALTH ALLIANCE, INC.
Funding IC: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Grand Total All Awards = $4,262,377

2014-08-24
A top researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) played a key role in helping uncover data manipulation by the CDC. This fraud obscured a higher incidence of autism in African-American boys. The whistleblower, Dr. William Thompson, came forward after a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for original data on an autism study was filed and these highly sensitive documents were received with the assistance of U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The CDC documents and discussions with the whistleblower reveal widespread manipulation of scientific data and top-down pressure on CDC scientists to suppress a causal link between the MMR vaccine and later autism diagnosis, particularly in a subset of African-American males who received their immunization “on-time” in accordance with the recommended CDC schedule.
https://novaccine.com/fraud-cdc-uncovered-340-increased-risk-autism-hidden-public/

WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Nikki Turner University of Auckland, New Zealand Oct. 2014 - Oct. 2019

2014-10-07
"New Phase of Cooperation Between NIH and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
I am delighted to announce today that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) have entered into a new phase of cooperation to develop interventions to reduce major global health burdens. The two organizations will launch milestone-driven projects on an agreed set of priorities, to include: vaccines to prevent HIV"
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, National Institutes of Health

2014-10-17
Obama White House
"the U.S. Government will institute a pause on funding for any new studies that include certain gain-of-function experiments involving influenza, SARS, and MERS viruses."

2014-11-28
Italy suspends Fluad flu vaccine from Novartis after deaths
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30240620

Issue Date FY: 2014 ( Subtotal = $666,442 )
Award Number: R01AI110964
Grand Total All Awards = $3,378,896
"UNDERSTANDING THE RISK OF BAT CORONAVIRUS EMERGENCE"
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES
 https://taggs.hhs.gov/Detail/AwardDetail?arg_AwardNum=R01AI110964&arg_ProgOfficeCode=104

2015
Issue Date FY: 2015 ( Subtotal = $754,420 )
Award Number: R01AI110700
Grand Total All Awards = $3,675,513
MECHANISMS OF MERS-COV ENTRY, CROSS-SPECIES TRANSMISSION AND PATHOGENESIS
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Recipient Name UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL
https://taggs.hhs.gov/Detail/AwardDetail?arg_AwardNum=R01AI110700&arg_ProgOfficeCode=104

2015-01
In 2004, the Chinese and French governments signed a cooperation agreement on fighting and preventing new diseases, stressing the active cooperation between China and France in the construction of high-level biosafety laboratories and the system construction of biosafety laws and regulations etc. In order to implement the spirit of Sino-French agreement, in 2005, Wuhan Institute of Virology undertook the task of building a national biosafety laboratory of Wuhan, Chinese Academy of Sciences. With nearly 10 years of unremitting efforts, the laboratory completed the physical facilities in January 2015.
http://english.whiov.cas.cn/About_Us2016/Brief_Introduction2016/

2015-03-20
Patent: WO2015143335A1
Application filed by The University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill
Inventor: Ralph BARIC
"Methods and compositions for chimeric coronavirus spike proteins"
"This invention was made with government support under Grant No. U54AI057157 awarded by the National Institutes of Health. The government has certain rights in the invention."

2015-4-19
Hegemonic Structure of Basic, Clinical and Patented Knowledge on Ebola Research: A US Army Reductionist Initiative
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25928238/

Current WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Jaleela Jawad Immunization Manager, Ministry of Health, Bahrain Apr. 2015 - (reappointed Oct. 2018) Oct. 2022

2015-06-08
AMA supports tighter limitations on immunization opt outs
CHICAGO — Addressing the re-emergence of vaccine preventable diseases in the United States requires states to move toward barring non-medical exemptions to immunization mandates, according to new policy adopted by the nation's physicians at the American Medical Association's annual meeting. Under new policy, the AMA will seek more stringent state immunization requirements to allow exemptions only for medical reasons.
Immunization programs in the Unites States are credited with having controlled or eliminated the spread of epidemic diseases, including smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria and polio. Immunization requirements vary from state to state, but only two states bar non-medical exemptions based on personal beliefs.
"When people are immunized they also help prevent the spread of disease to others, said AMA Board Member Patrice A. Harris, M.D. "As evident from the recent measles outbreak at Disneyland, protecting community health in today's mobile society requires that policymakers not permit individuals from opting out of immunization solely as a matter of personal preference or convenience."
New AMA policy recommends that states have in place an established decision mechanism that involves qualified public health physicians to determine which vaccines will be mandatory for admission to schools and other public venues. States should only grant exemptions to these mandated vaccines for medical reasons.
In recognition that highly transmissible diseases could pose significant medical risks for vulnerable patients and the health care workforce, new AMA policy also states that physicians and other health professionals who have direct patient care responsibilities have an obligation to accept immunization unless there is a recognized medical reason.
The AMA also intends to support the dissemination of materials on vaccine efficacy to states as part of the effort to eliminate non-medical exemptions.

2015-09-17
A synthetic consensus anti–spike protein DNA vaccine induces protective immunity against Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in nonhuman primates
Rocky Mountain Veterinary Branch, Division of Intramural Research, NIAID, NIH, Hamilton, MT 59840
"An optimized DNA vaccine encoding the MERS spike protein induced potent cellular immunity and antigen-specific neutralizing antibodies in mice, macaques, and camels. "

WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Charles Wiysonge Stellenbosch University, South Africa Oct. 2015 - Oct. 2018

Current WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Alejandro Cravioto (Chair) Affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico Oct. 2015 - (reappointed Jan. 2020) Oct. 2021 (Chair since Oct. 2016)

Current WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Ilesh Jani Instituto Nacional de Saúde , Ministry of Health, Mozambique Oct. 2015 - (reappointed Oct. 2018) Apr. 2022

2015-11-09
A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence
"The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV underscores the threat of cross-species transmission events leading to outbreaks in humans."
"we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone. The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV. Additionally, in vivo experiments demonstrate replication of the chimeric virus in mouse lung with notable pathogenesis. "
"Research in this manuscript was supported by grants from the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Disease and the National Institute of Aging of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) under awards U19AI109761 (R.S.B.), U19AI107810 (R.S.B.), AI085524 (W.A.M.), F32AI102561 (V.D.M.) and K99AG049092 (V.D.M.), and by the National Natural Science Foundation of China awards 81290341 (Z.-L.S.) and 31470260 (X.-Y.G.), and by USAID-EPT-PREDICT funding from EcoHealth Alliance (Z.-L.S.)."
Corresponding authors: Vineet D Menachery and Ralph S Baric

2016
Since 2006 in Alberta, Canada 195,270 females received 528,913 doses of HPV vaccine.  Of the women who received HPV vaccine 958 were hospitalized and 19,351 had an ED visit within 42 days of immunization.

2016-02-22
Replication and shedding of MERS-CoV in Jamaican fruit bats 
Laboratory of Virology, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, USA
"The ability of MERS-CoV to use DPP4 of multiple species as a receptor, including DPP4 of human, dromedary camel, and bat origin34,47, suggests that no prior adaptation was needed on the DPP4 receptor level for cross-species and zoonotic transmission to occur. With batCoV-HKU4, a closely related coronavirus, it was shown that replication in human cells required two mutations in the spike protein48. These amino acid residues, which are conserved in MERS-CoV, results in the activation of the batCoV-HKU4 spike protein by human cellular proteases. This suggests that batCoV-HKU4 needs these residues for replication in humans. Interestingly, our data show that MERS-CoV replicates efficiently in Jamaican fruit bat cells, suggesting that the MERS-CoV spike can efficiently be processed by Jamaican fruit bat cellular proteases and that there is no host restriction on the post-translational modification level of the MERS-CoV spike in dromedary camels, humans and bats."

2016-02-23
Ebola Survivor Study Yields Insights on Complications of Disease
WHAT:
Preliminary findings from PREVAIL III, a study of Ebola virus disease (EVD) survivors being conducted in Liberia, indicate that both Ebola survivors and their close contacts have a high burden of illness. However, the prevalence of eye, musculoskeletal, and neurological complications was greater among the individuals who survived EVD.
Initial results from PREVAIL III were presented this evening at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston by study co-principal investigator Mosoka Fallah, Ph.D., M.P.H., with the Liberian Ministry of Health. PREVAIL III began in June 2015 and is co-sponsored by the Liberian Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH. The trial is expected to enroll 7,500 people throughout Liberia, including 1,500 EVD survivors of any age and up to 6,000 of their close contacts, with participants followed for up to five years and study visits every six months.
Through February 15, 2016, the study had enrolled 1,049 EVD survivors and 1,034 close contacts with average ages of 30 and 26 years, respectively. On average, survivors enrolled in the study about one year after experiencing EVD symptoms. Investigators found that as self-reported by survivors, 60 percent experienced eye problems, 53 percent had musculoskeletal problems and 68 percent had neurological difficulties. Close contacts, who were potentially exposed to the Ebola virus but did not become infected, reported similar problems, albeit less frequently: 59 percent reported vision problems, 28 percent had musculoskeletal issues, and 48 percent had neurological issues.
Ninety-seven male survivors provided one or more semen samples for analysis. Overall, 38 percent of these men had Ebola detected in their semen at least once. In one-third of the 69 men who were tested more than once, virus detection in semen was intermittent (negative results then positive, or vice versa). The maximum amount of time between EVD symptoms and detection of Ebola in a semen sample was 18 months. Most survivors reported being sexually active. In a subset of 126 close contacts who reported sexual activity with a survivor, only four percent reported regular condom use, raising concerns about the potential for sexual transmission of EVD. However, so far, no cases of sexual transmission of Ebola have been detected in the PREVAIL III study.
EVENT:
These findings were presented today at the 23rd Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center in Boston.
WHO:
NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., and Michael C. Sneller, M.D., from NIAID’s Laboratory of Immunoregulation and co-investigator of the PREVAIL III study, are available for comment.

Current WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Andrew Pollard University of Oxford, United Kingdom Apr. 2016 - (reappointed Jan. 2020) Dec. 2021

2016-08
Wuhan Institute of Virology
In August 2016, it obtained the recognition and authentication certificate for the critical protection equipment installation and commissioning. After the completion of the laboratory, it is expected to carry out the scientific research on the prevention and control of new infectious diseases and biosafety in order to meet the needs of early warning, detection, research and biosecurity prevention system for newborn and strong infectious diseases in China. It is expected to become the prevention & control research and development center for China’s newly born diseases, virus seed storage centers and WHO reference laboratory, which shall play a basic, technical support role in China’s major newborn infectious diseases prevention and control, effectively improving our defense and resilience towards biological wars and terrorist attacks,  maintaining the national biosecurity.
http://english.whiov.cas.cn/About_Us2016/Brief_Introduction2016/

Current WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Firdausi Qadri International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease and Research, Bangladesh Oct. 2016 - (reappointed Jan. 2020) Dec. 2020

USA President 45th Donald Trump N.Y. Republican 2017–


2017-03-02
Yellow fever vaccine-associated neurological disease, a suspicious case.
Author information
1 Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital Garcia de Orta, Almada, Portugal.
2 Endocrinology department of the Portuguese Oncology Institute, Lisbon, Portugal.
Abstract
A 70-year-old man with known cardiovascular risk factors, presented with acute onset expression aphasia, agraphia, dyscalculia, right-left disorientation and finger agnosia, without fever or meningeal signs. Stroke was thought to be the cause, but cerebrovascular disease investigation was negative. Interviewing the family revealed he had undergone yellow fever vaccination 18 days before. Lumbar puncture revealed mild protein elevation. Cultural examinations, Coxiella burnetti, and neurotropic virus serologies were negative. Regarding the yellow fever virus, IgG was identified in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), with negative IgM and virus PCR in CSF. EEG showed an encephalopathic pattern. The patient improved gradually and a week after discharge was his usual self. Only criteria for suspect neurotropic disease were met, but it's possible the time spent between symptom onset and lumbar puncture prevented a definite diagnosis of yellow fever vaccine-associated neurological disease. This gap would have been smaller if the vaccination history had been collected earlier.

Current WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Rakesh Aggarwal Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), India Apr. 2017 - (reappointed Jan. 2020) Oct. 2022
Current WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Noni MacDonald Dalhousie University, Canada Apr. 2017 - (reappointed Jan. 2020) Dec. 2022
Current WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Jee Youngmee Korean Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Republic of Korea Apr. 2017 - Apr. 2020

2017-09-28
HHS boosts biodefense preparedness with smallpox vaccine for special populations
Seeking to protect all populations following a bioterrorism attack involving smallpox, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will purchase a lyophilized (freeze-dried) smallpox vaccine for women who are pregnant or nursing and people of any age with HIV or atopic dermatitis.
Using Project BioShield funding, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the HHS’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), will purchase the vaccine from Bavarian Nordic headquartered in Denmark over a period of five years for a total of $100 million.
https://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/news/Pages/smallpox-specialpops-28Sept2017.aspx

2017 Nov
"A large number of SARS-related coronaviruses (SARSr-CoV) have been detected in horseshoe bats since 2005 in different areas of China. "
"Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is a severe emerging viral disease with high fatality characterized by fever, headache and severe respiratory symptoms including cough, dyspnea and pneumonia [1]. Due to its high transmissibility among humans, after its first emergence in southern China in late 2002, it rapidly led to a global pandemic in 2003 and was marked as one of the most significant public health threats in the 21st century [2,3]. The causative agent, SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), has been previously assigned to group 2b CoV and is now a member of the lineage B of genus Betacoronavirus in the family Coronaviridae [4]. It shares similar genome organization with other coronaviruses, but exhibits a unique genomic structure which includes a number of specific accessory genes, including ORF3a, 3b, ORF6, ORF7a, 7b, ORF8a, 8b and 9b [5,6]."
"All sampling procedures were performed by veterinarians with approval from Animal Ethics Committee of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIVH05210201). The study was conducted in accordance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Wild Mammals in Research of the People’s Republic of China."
"Bat samplings were conducted ten times from April 2011 to October 2015 at different seasons in their natural habitat at a single location (cave) in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China. All members of field teams wore appropriate personal protective equipment, including N95 masks, tear-resistant gloves, disposable outerwear, and safety glasses. Bats were trapped and fecal swab samples were collected as described previously"
"The ORF8 genes of bat SARSr-CoV WIV1 and Rf4092 and the ORF8a gene of bat SARSr-CoV Rs4084 were amplified by PCR from the viral RNA extracted from the isolated virus or fecal samples. The ORF8 gene of SARS-CoV GZ02 and bat SARSr-CoV Rf1, and the ORF8a gene of SARS-CoV Tor2 were synthesized by Tsingke Biological Technology Co., Ltd (Wuhan, China)."
"In the current study, we successfully cultured an additional novel SARSr-CoV Rs4874 from a single fecal sample using an optimized protocol and Vero E6 cells [17]."
"We thank the Center for Instrumental Analysis and Metrology of Wuhan Institute of Virology, CAS, for the assistance in taking confocal microscope pictures (Dr. Ding Gao) and flow cytometry (Ms. Juan Min)."
Funding Statement
This work was jointly funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (81290341, 31621061) to ZLS, China Mega-Project for Infectious Disease (2014ZX10004001-003) to ZLS, Scientific and technological basis special project (2013FY113500) to YZZ and ZLS from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDPB0301) to ZLS, the National Institutes of Health (NIAID R01AI110964), the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT program to PD and ZLS, CAS Pioneer Hundred Talents Program to JC, NRF-CRP grant (NRF-CRP10-2012-05) to LFW and WIV “One-Three-Five” Strategic Program (WIV-135-TP1) to JC and ZLS
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5708621/


2017-12 NY Times (Published: 2020-04-15)
"Fauci’s studies alarmed scientists around the globe who complained, according to a December 2017 NY Times article, that “these researchers risk creating a monster germ that could escape the lab and seed a pandemic.” Dr. Marc Lipsitch of the Harvard School of Public Health’s Communicable Disease Center told the Times that Dr. Fauci’s NIAID experiments “have given us some modest scientific knowledge and done almost nothing to improve our preparedness for pandemic, and yet risked creating an accidental pandemic.”" "In October 2014, following a series of federal laboratory mishaps that narrowly missed releasing these deadly engineered viruses, President Obama ordered the halt to all federal funding for Fauci’s dangerous experiments. NIAID-funded gain of function research continued after the moratorium in a Wuhan-based laboratory. Congress needs to launch an investigation of NIAID’s mischief in China."
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/u-s-governments-3-7-million-grant-to-wuhan-lab-at-center-of-coronavirus-outbreak/

2017-12-19
"A Federal Ban on Making Lethal Viruses Is Lifted"
Federal officials on Tuesday ended a moratorium imposed three years ago on funding research that alters germs to make them more lethal.
Such work can now proceed, said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, but only if a scientific panel decides that the benefits justify the risks.
Some scientists are eager to pursue these studies because they may show, for example, how a bird flu could mutate to more easily infect humans, or could yield clues to making a better vaccine.
Critics say these researchers risk creating a monster germ that could escape the lab and seed a pandemic. Now, a government panel will require that researchers show that their studies in this area are scientifically sound and that they will be done in a high-security lab.
The pathogen to be modified must pose a serious health threat, and the work must produce knowledge — such as a vaccine — that would benefit humans. Finally, there must be no safer way to do the research.  “We see this as a rigorous policy,” Dr. Collins said. “We want to be sure we’re doing this right.”
In October 2014, all federal funding was halted on efforts to make three viruses more dangerous: the flu virus, and those causing Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
But the new regulations apply to any pathogen that could potentially cause a pandemic. For example, they would apply to a request to create an Ebola virus transmissible through the air, said Dr. Collins.
There has been a long, fierce debate about projects — known as “gain of function” research — intended to make pathogens more deadly or more transmissible.  In 2011, an outcry arose when laboratories in Wisconsin and the Netherlands revealed that they were trying to mutate the lethal H5N1 bird flu in ways that would let it jump easily between ferrets, which are used to model human flu susceptibility.
Tensions rose in 2014 after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention accidentally exposed lab workers to anthrax and shipped a deadly flu virus to a laboratory that had asked for a benign strain.
That year, the N.I.H. also found vials of smallpox in a freezer that had been forgotten for 50 years.
When the moratorium was imposed, it effectively halted 21 projects, Dr. Collins said. In the three years since, the N.I.H. created exceptions that funded ten of those projects. Five were flu-related, and five concerned the MERS virus.
That virus is a coronavirus carried by camels that has infected about 2,100 people since it was discovered in 2012, and has killed about a third of them, according to the World Health Organization.
Critics of such research had mixed reactions. “There’s less than meets the eye,” said Richard H. Ebright, a molecular biologist and bioweapons expert at Rutgers University. Although he applauded the requirement for review panels, he said he would prefer independent panels to government ones. He also wanted the rules to cover all such research rather than just government-funded work, as well as clearer minimum safety standards and a mandate that the benefits “outweigh” the risks instead of merely “justifying” them.
Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist who directs the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the Harvard School of Public Health, called review panels “a small step forward.”
Recent disease-enhancing experiments, he said, “have given us some modest scientific knowledge and done almost nothing to improve our preparedness for pandemics, and yet risked creating an accidental pandemic.”
Therefore, he said, he hoped the panels would turn down such work.
Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said he believed some laboratories could do such work safely, but wanted restrictions on what they could publish.
“If someone finds a way to make the Ebola virus more dangerous, I don’t believe that should be available to anybody off the street who could use it for nefarious purposes,” he said.
“Physicists long ago learned to distinguish between what can be publicly available and what’s classified,” he added, referring to nuclear weapons research. “We want to keep some of this stuff on a need-to-know basis.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/health/lethal-viruses-nih.html

2018
STRUCTURE-BASED DESIGN OF CORONAVIRUS SUBUNIT VACCINES
Award Number: R01AI139092
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Issue Date FY: 2018 ( Subtotal = $911,083 )
Grand Total All Awards = $2,595,434
Recipient Name: New York Blood Center, Inc.
https://taggs.hhs.gov/Detail/AwardDetail?arg_AwardNum=R01AI139092&arg_ProgOfficeCode=104

2018-01-18
HHS Announces New Conscience and Religious Freedom Division
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is pleased to announce the formation of a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR)
The Conscience and Religious Freedom Division has been established to restore federal enforcement of our nation’s laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom.
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2018/01/18/hhs-ocr-announces-new-conscience-and-religious-freedom-division.html

2018-04-04
No SARS-CoV cases have been identified since 2004. The study investigators identified SADS-CoV on four pig farms in China’s Guangdong Province. The work was a collaboration among scientists from EcoHealth Alliance, Duke-NUS Medical School, Wuhan Institute of Virology and other organizations, and was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/new-coronavirus-emerges-bats-china-devastates-young-swine

2018-05-22
Bat Caliciviruses and Human Noroviruses Are Antigenically Similar and Have Overlapping Histo-Blood Group Antigen Binding Profiles
"This work was supported by NIH grants U54AI057157 from the Southeastern Regional Center of Excellence for Emerging Infections and Biodefense and U19AI109761 from the NIAID and a grant-in-aid from the Burroughs Wellcome Trust."
Corresponding author: Ralph S. Baric

2018-06-13
Discovery of Novel Bat Coronaviruses in South China That Use the Same Receptor as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus.
CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei, China lifang@umn.edu zlshi@wh.iov.cn.
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has represented a human health threat since 2012. Although several MERS-related CoVs that belong to the same species as MERS-CoV have been identified from bats, they do not use the MERS-CoV receptor, dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4). Here, we screened 1,059 bat samples from at least 30 bat species collected in different regions in south China and identified 89 strains of lineage C betacoronaviruses, including Tylonycteris pachypus coronavirus HKU4, Pipistrellus pipistrelluscoronavirus HKU5, and MERS-related CoVs.
IMPORTANCE Previous studies suggested that MERS-CoV originated in bats. However, its evolutionary path from bats to humans remains unclear. In this study, we discovered 89 novel lineage C betacoronaviruses in eight bat species. We provide evidence of a MERS-related CoV derived from the great evening bat that uses the same host receptor as human MERS-CoV.
Grant support
R01 AI089728/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States
R01 AI110700/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States
R01 AI110964/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29669833

2018-06-27
HHS sent ICAN the following response to the FOIA Request:
The [Department]'s searches for records did not locate any records responsive to your request.
https://www.icandecide.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Stipulated-Order-copy-1.pdf

2018-07-01
Discovery of Novel Bat Coronaviruses in South China That Use the Same Receptor as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus
CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei, China
NIH grants (R01AI110964 to Z.-L.S.; R01AI089728 and R01AI110700 to F.L.),
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6002729/

2018-12-19
SARS-Like Coronavirus WIV1-CoV Does Not Replicate in Egyptian Fruit Bats
Rocky Mountain Veterinary Branch, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, MT 59840

Current WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Shabir Madhi University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa Apr. 2019 - Dec. 2021*
Current WHO SAGE MEMBER Prof. Peter McIntyre University of Sydney, Australia Apr. 2019 - Dec. 2021*
Current WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Ezzeddine Mohsni Global Health Development / Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network, Jordan Apr. 2019 - Dec. 2021*
Current WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Kathleen Neuzil University of Maryland School of Medicine, USA Apr. 2019 - Dec. 2021*

2019-04-11
Characterization of a New Member of Alphacoronavirus with Unique Genomic Features in Rhinolophus Bats
Bats have been identified as a natural reservoir of a variety of coronaviruses (CoVs). Several of them have caused diseases in humans and domestic animals by interspecies transmission. Considering the diversity of bat coronaviruses, bat species and populations, we expect to discover more bat CoVs through virus surveillance. In this study, we described a new member of alphaCoV (BtCoV/Rh/YN2012) in bats with unique genome features
Here, we report a novel species of alpha-CoV discovered in Rhinolophus bats in China, their unique genomic structures and a preliminary functional assessment of accessory genes, as well as this virus’ infectivity in different cells.
The surveillance was performed between November 2004 to November 2014 in 19 provinces of China. In total, 2061 fecal samples were collected from at least 12 Rhinolophus bat species (Figure 1A). CoVs were detected in 209 of these samples
We thank Hanzhong Wang (Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) for his generous sharing of human bocavirus VP1 plasmid.
Funding
This study was jointly funded by the strategic priority research program of the Chinese academy of sciences (XDB29010100), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31727901, 31621061, 31830096), Scientific and technological basis special project (2013FY113500) from the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China; United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT project grant (Cooperative Agreement no. AID-OAA-A-14-00102).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6521148/
Project/Activity Title: PREDICT
Award/Contract Number: AID-OAA-A-14-00102
Award/Contract Dates: 10/01/14-
09/30/19
Project/Activity Ceiling: $100,000,000
Implementing Organization(s): University of California-Davis (Prime)
Ecohealth Alliance
Metabiota
Project/Activity AOR/COR: Andrew Clements

2019-5
Biosafety Level 4 Laboratory User Training Program, China
Our rigorous training program will reduce the risk of harm or exposure to laboratory staff working with highly pathogenic agents. We encouraged all laboratory users to provide feedback and thoughts regarding how to improve and further advance our training program. China intends to build 5–7 high-containment laboratories by 2025 (9). Our BSL-4 laboratory worker training system is the starting point for developing national norms for high-containment laboratory training and preparing qualified, maximum biocontainment laboratory scientists and facility operations specialists.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6478205/
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/25/5/18-0220_article

2019-05-13
Yellow fever vaccine-associated neurological disease: it is not just the silver generation at risk.
Goldstein EJ1, Bell DJ2, Gunson RN1.
Author information
1 West of Scotland Specialist Virology Centre, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Glasgow, UK.
2 Infectious Diseases, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Glasgow, UK.
Abstract
A 35-year-old man presented to his optician with sudden onset diplopia and a 1-week history of headaches. He was noted to have sixth nerve palsy. The following day he was admitted to hospital with confusion and expressive dysphasia. He had been due to travel to Ghana on business and had received yellow fever (YF) vaccination 18 days prior to onset of headaches. His initial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) revealed elevated protein, increased white cell count but was PCR negative for standard viral pathogens. Herpes simplex virus (HSV)-1 was detected by PCR in CSF at a very low level from a second lumbar puncture performed 6 days later, and the patient was treated for HSV meningoencephalitis. However, retrospective investigation for yellow fever vaccine-associated neurological disease revealed increasing titres of YF IgG in three serial CSF samples, and no evidence of HSV antibodies in CSF or plasma, ruling out HSV encephalitis.

2019-06-13
American Medical Association
CHICAGO — Building on the AMA’s efforts to protect the public against vaccine-preventable diseases, the AMA adopted policy during its Annual meeting to expand its existing policy to actively advocate for legislation, regulations, programs and policies that incentivize states to eliminate non-medical exemptions from mandated pediatric immunizations.
“Getting vaccinated not only keeps individuals from becoming ill with vaccine-preventable diseases, such as the measles, but also helps prevent further spread to loved ones, neighbors, co-workers and others in close contact,” said AMA Board Member E. Scott Ferguson, M.D. “As evident from the measles outbreaks currently impacting communities in several states, when individuals are not immunized as a matter of personal preference or misinformation, they put themselves and others at risk of disease. The AMA strongly supports efforts to eliminate nonmedical exemptions from immunization, and we will continue to actively urge policymakers to do so.”
The overwhelming scientific evidence shows that vaccines are among the most effective and safest interventions to both prevent individual illness and protect the health of the public.
The AMA has long-supported eliminating all non-medical exemptions from required childhood vaccines and provided testimony on legislation in several states, including Arizona, Maine, Oregon and Washington.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. currently has the highest number of measles cases that the country has seen since the disease was considered eradicated. In fact, there have been more cases of measles in the first five months of 2019 than all of 1992, the last year that the U.S. experienced a major outbreak.

2019-09
A World at Risk
Annual report on global preparedness for health emergencies
Global Preparedness Monitoring Board
MEMBERS OF THE GLOBAL PREPAREDNESS MONITORING BOARD
H.E. Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland Co-Chair, GPMB; Former Prime Minister, Norway and Former Director- General, World Health Organization
Dr Chris Elias President, Global Development Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USA
Dr Anthony S. Fauci Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, USA
Dr George F. Gao Director-General, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, People’s Republic of China
Finally, we are grateful for the financial support provided to the GPMB Secretariat from the Government of Germany, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Welcome Trust, and Resolve to Save Lives.


2019-09-03
HHS Purchases Smallpox Vaccine to Enhance Biodefense Preparedness
As part of ongoing preparedness efforts against biodefense threats, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will purchase smallpox vaccine, called ACAM2000, to build and replenish vaccine stored in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) over the next decade.
Under the agreement announced today, the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), which oversees the SNS, will award approximately $170 million to Emergent BioSolutions of Gaithersburg, Maryland, for the purchase this year. ASPR can purchase additional vaccine over the next 10 years, with a target of $2 billion in procurement and surge options for up to a total of nearly $2.8 billion.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration licensed the smallpox vaccine in 2007 for people at high risk for smallpox infection.
Smallpox is a serious and highly infectious disease caused by the variola virus; historically, 30 percent of people with the infection died. Following a global public health campaign, which relied on vaccination, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease eradicated in 1980. Samples of the virus remain in two top-security laboratories, one in the United States and the other in Russia, for use in developing vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests for smallpox infections.
"Smallpox is one of the most contagious and deadly infections known to humankind," said HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Robert Kadlec, MD. "We do not know whether all samples of the virus, outside of two WHO-designated labs, actually have been found and destroyed; at the same time, synthetic biology for technology continues to advance and in the future could allow smallpox to be created as a bioweapon. For those reasons, the virus remains a potential threat to national and global health security. Having vaccines and treatments at-the-ready will be imperative to saving lives."
The United States has a long-standing commitment to the international community to develop two vaccines and two treatments for smallpox infections.
To meet that obligation, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a component of ASPR, continues to work with federal and private partners to develop an additional vaccine that can be administered safely to people with weakened immune systems or who are at high risk of adverse reaction to traditional smallpox vaccines, as well as to develop antiviral drugs. The first of those drugs, TPOXX, or tecovirimat, received FDA approval in 2018.
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2019/09/03/hhs-purchases-smallpox-vaccine-to-enhance-biodefense-preparedness.html



2020-04-14
“In January 2018, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing took the unusual step of repeatedly sending U.S. science diplomats to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which had in 2015 become China’s first laboratory to achieve the highest level of international bioresearch safety (known as BSL-4). WIV issued a news release in English about the last of these visits, which occurred on March 27, 2018. The U.S. delegation was led by Jamison Fouss, the consul general in Wuhan, and Rick Switzer, the embassy’s counselor of environment, science, technology and health. Last week, WIV erased that statement from its website, though it remains archived on the Internet.”"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2020/04/14/the-washington-post-goes-rogue-china-lab-in-focus-of-coronavirus-outbreak/#1cd742d1ee1f

WUHAN (CG) 47F New World Intl Trade Tower I, No.568 Jianshe Ave, Hankou, Wuhan 430022, 86-27-8555-7791, Fax 86-27-8555-
7761, Workweek: Monday-Friday, 7:45-17:15,
Website:
https://cn.usembassy.gov/
Officer Name
FCS Henley Jones
MGT Christopher Green
POL/ECON Charles Montgomery
CG B. Jamison Fouss
CON Sarah Nelson
PAO Michael Dubray
GSO Damian Richard
RSO David Nicholas
CLO Xenia Jones
ISO Scott Tolsma
https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Key-Officers.pdf

2018 January to March
"An American delegation led by Jamison Fouss, consul general in Wuhan, and Rick Switzer, counselor of the embassy of Beijing on environment, science, technology and health, visited the level four biosafety laboratory in Wuhan several times from January to March 2018."
https://www.fr24news.com/a/2020/04/the-state-department-warned-in-2018-that-the-wuhan-laboratory-could-cause-a-new-pandemic-similar-to-sars.html

2018-02-01
"Virus-based vaccines are made in living cells (cell substrates). Some manufacturers are investigating the use of new cell lines to make vaccines. The continual growth of cell lines ensures that there is a consistent supply of the same cells that can yield high quantities of the vaccine.
In some cases the cell lines that are used might be tumorigenic, that is, they form tumors when injected into rodents. Some of these tumor-forming cell lines may contain cancer-causing viruses that are not actively reproducing. Such viruses are hard to detect using standard methods."
"The urgent demand for vaccines against emerging diseases has necessitated the use of novel cell substrates. These include tumorigenic cells"
"The use of tumorigenic and tumor-derived cells is a major safety concern due to the potential presence of viruses such as retroviruses and oncogenic DNA viruses that could be associated with tumorigencity"
"We are also evaluating the risk of retrovirus infections in humans. (Retroviruses are RNA viruses that use an enzyme called reverse transcriptase (RT) to replicate; RNA is the de-coded form of DNA). Simian foamy virus (SFV) can be transmitted from nonhuman primates (e.g., monkeys) to humans. Although there is no evidence that SFV causes disease, the virus can remain in a lifelong quiet state in the DNA after infection. Moreover, two individuals in Africa were recently found to be infected with both HIV-1 and SFV. Therefore, it is important to determine if SFV poses a threat to human health and to understand how the virus spreads in order to create strategies for controlling human infections. "
https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/biologics-research-projects/investigating-viruses-cells-used-make-vaccines-and-evaluating-potential-threat-posed-transmission

2019-02-12
IN201911049432 - METHOD AND KIT FOR DETECTION OF POLYNUCLEOTIDE
Office
India
Application Number
201911049432
Application Date
02.12.2019
Publication Number
201911049432
Publication Date
03.09.2021
Applicants
COUNCIL OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH
Inventors
Sharma Namrata
Ansari Asgar Hussain
Sharma Saumya
Phutela Rhythm
Mishra Arpit
Chakraborty Debojyoti
Azhar Mohammad
Sinha Dipanjali
Maiti Souvik
The kit can also be used for detection of COVID-19.

2019-10-18
The Event 201 pandemic exercise, conducted on October 18, 2019, vividly demonstrated a number of these important gaps in pandemic preparedness as well as some of the elements of the solutions between the public and private sectors that will be needed to fill them. The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, World Economic Forum, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation jointly propose the following:

The World Health Organization (WHO) currently has an influenza vaccine virtual stockpile, with contracts in place with pharmaceutical companies that have agreed to supply vaccines should WHO request them.

Rex Wayne Tillerson
Entry on Duty: February 1, 2017
Termination of Appointment: March 31, 2018
https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/tillerson-rex-wayne

Michael R. Pompeo was sworn in as the 70th U.S. Secretary of State on April 26, 2018.
https://www.state.gov/secretary/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/us/politics/george-nader-elliott-broidy-uae-saudi-arabia-white-house-influence.htm

2019-11-17
Coronavirus: China’s first confirmed Covid-19 case traced back to November 17
Government records suggest first person infected with new disease may have been a Hubei resident aged 55, but ‘patient zero’ has yet to be confirmed
Interviews with whistle-blowers from the medical community suggest Chinese doctors only realised they were dealing with a new disease in late December.
On December 27, Zhang Jixian, a doctor from Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, told China’s health authorities that the disease was caused by a new coronavirus.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3074991/coronavirus-chinas-first-confirmed-covid-19-case-traced-back


2019-12-31
On 31 December 2019, the WHO China Country Office was informed of cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology (unknown cause) detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China.

Current WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Hanna Nohinek Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare THL, Finland Jan. 2020 - Dec. 2022*
Current WHO SAGE MEMBER Dr Folake Olayinka John Snow, Inc., USA Jan. 2020 - Dec. 2022*


2020-01-01
The evidence is highly suggestive that the outbreak is associated with exposures in one seafood market in Wuhan. The market was closed on 1 January 2020. 

2020-01-03
"The flu vaccine is available free of charge in Italy"
https://www.thelocal.it/20200103/flu-outbreak-in-italy-should-you-get-vaccinated

"This vaccine may not work as well if you have weak immune system"
"This vaccine may cause a serious type of allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis can be life-threatening and requires immediate medical attention. Tell your doctor right away if you have a rash, itching, swelling of the tongue and throat, or trouble breathing after you get the injection."
https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/influenza-a-virus-vaccine-h1n1-inactivated-intramuscular-route/before-using/drg-20073171

"Who Will Pay for the Vaccine?
The United States federal government will buy the H1N1 flu vaccine from the manufacturers"
"Can I Give My Child Acetaminophen to Prevent a Fever and Pain After He Is Vaccinated?
A study by researchers from the Czech Republic showed that giving acetaminophen (eg, Tylenol) to a child at the time of vaccination decreased the chance of developing a fever, but it may also lower the effectiveness of certain vaccines. The researchers did not study the effect of acetaminophen on flu vaccines. Talk to your child's doctor to see whether acetaminophen should be used when your child is getting a vaccine."
https://www.winchesterhospital.org/health-library/article?id=522598

2020-01-07
The Chinese authorities identified a new type of coronavirus, which was isolated on 7 January 2020. 

2020-01-09
Experts Cast Doubts on Chinese Official Claims Around 'New' Wuhan Coronavirus
China says the mystery virus that has sickened dozens of people in the central city of Wuhan is a new coronavirus in the same family as SARS, as experts said they don't believe official claims of no human-to-human transmission.
State news agency Xinhua quoted Xu Jianguo, the lead scientist on the team researching the virus, as saying that authorities had "preliminarily determined" that at least 15 patients in Wuhan had contracted the same virus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the discovery.
"Further investigations are also required to determine the source, modes of transmission, extent of infection and countermeasures implemented," the WHO's China representative Gauden Galea said in a statement.
At least 59 people in Wuhan have been taken ill -- seven of them seriously -- with what was initially feared to be a resurgence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/wuhan-outbreak-01092020133656.html

2020-01-12
On 12 January 2020, China shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus for countries to use in developing specific diagnostic kits

2020-01-15
US, China sign historic phase one trade deal

2020-01-17
Public Health Screening to Begin at 3 U.S. Airports for 2019 Novel Coronavirus (“2019-nCoV”)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today confirmed the first case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the United States in the state of Washington. The patient recently returned from Wuhan, China, where an outbreak of pneumonia caused by this novel coronavirus has been ongoing since December 2019. While originally thought to be spreading from animal-to-person, there are growing indications that limited person-to-person spread is happening. It’s unclear how easily this virus is spreading between people.
The patient from Washington with confirmed 2019-nCoV infection returned to the United States from Wuhan on January 15, 2020. 
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p0121-novel-coronavirus-travel-case.html

2020-01-22
NIH/NIAID Emails referencing Eco-health and Wuhan Institute of Virology grants
"Urgent for Dr. Fauci: China's lab for studying SARS and Ebola is in Wuhan, the outbreak's center"

2020-01-23
Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by real-time RT-PCR
Author:
1 Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin Institute of Virology, Berlin, Germany and German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), Berlin, Germany
2 Tib-Molbiol, Berlin, Germany
3 Department of Viroscience, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
4 National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands
5 University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
6 Universite d Aix-Marseille, Marseille, France
7 Public Health England, London, United Kingdom
8 Department of Medical Microbiology, Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Institute, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Aim
We aimed to develop and deploy robust diagnostic methodology for use in public health laboratory settings without having virus material available.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the WHO China Country Office was informed of cases of pneumonia of unknown aetiology in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, on 31 December 2019 [1]. A novel coronavirus currently termed 2019-nCoV was officially announced as the causative agent by Chinese authorities on 7 January.

This work was funded by European Union DG Research through projects Prepare (GA602525), Compare (GA643476), and EVAg (GA653316); by European Union DG SANCO through EVD-LabNet, as well as by the German Ministry of Research through projects RAPID (01KI1723A) and DZIF (301-4-7-01.703).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today confirmed the second infection with 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the United States has been detected in Illinois. The patient recently returned from Wuhan, China, where an outbreak of respiratory illness caused by this novel coronavirus has been ongoing since December 2019.
The patient returned to the U.S. from Wuhan on January 13, 2020, and called a health care provider after experiencing symptoms a few days later.  
SEATTLE, January 26, 2020 – The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced that it is immediately committing $10 million in emergency funds and corresponding technical support to help frontline responders in China and Africa accelerate their efforts to contain the global spread of 2019-nCoV.

2020-01-26
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today confirmed additional travel-related infections of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the United States, this time in Arizona and California. These patients recently returned to the U.S. from Wuhan, China, where an outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus has been ongoing since December 2019. This brings the total number of 2019-nCoV infections detected in the United States to five.

2020-01-27
On January 27, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued updated travel guidance for China, recommending that travelers avoid all nonessential travel to all of the country (Level 3 Travel Health Notice). This warning is in response to an ongoing outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a novel (new) coronavirus (2019-nCoV) spreading between people in many parts of that country.
Chinese health officials have reported thousands of 2019-nCoV cases in China, as well as severe illness including deaths. Sustained person-to-person community spread with this virus is reportedly occurring in China.
President Donald J. Trump announced the formation of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force.  Members of the Task Force have been meeting on a daily basis since Monday.  At today’s meeting, which the President chaired, he charged the Task Force with leading the United States Government response to the novel 2019 coronavirus and with keeping him apprised of developments.
The Task Force is led by Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, and is coordinated through the National Security Council.
Members of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force:
Secretary Alex Azar, Department of Health and Human Services
Robert O’Brien, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health
Deputy Secretary Stephen Biegun, Department of State
Ken Cuccinelli, Acting Deputy Secretary, Department of Homeland Security
Joel Szabat, Acting Under Secretary for Policy, Department of Transportation
Matthew Pottinger, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor
Rob Blair, Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff
Joseph Grogan, Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council
Christopher Liddell, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Coordination
Derek Kan, Executive Associate Director, Office of Management and Budget
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-regarding-presidents-coronavirus-task-force/

2020-01-30
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today confirmed that the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has spread between two people in the United States, representing the first instance of person-to-person spread with this new virus here.

2020-01-31
the President has signed a presidential proclamation, using his authority pursuant to Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, temporarily suspending the entry into the United States of foreign nationals who pose a risk of transmitting the 2019 novel coronavirus.

2020-01-31
An emerging coronavirus causing pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, China: calling for developing therapeutic and prophylactic strategies
Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute, New York Blood Center, New York, NY, USA
CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China
In December of 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia caused by an unknown aetiology occurred in Wuhan, China and most patients were linked to a single seafood market, which reportedly sold seafood and some live animals, including poultry, bats, marmots and other wild animals, suggesting that the pathogen may be transmitted from an animal to human. The pathogen was soon identified to be a novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV denoted by WHO
On 19 January 2020, Wuhan Health Commission reported that a total 198 cases in the 25–89-year-old range were confirmed positive for 2019-nCoV, including 25 being discharged and 3 having died. Among the 170 patients under treatment in hospitals, 126, 35, and 9 are in mild, severe, and critical condition, respectively (http://www.thatsmags.com/china/post/30618/new-coronavirus-spreads-to-over-130-in-china-death-toll-rises). In addition, two patients in Thailand, one in Japan, and one in South Korea, were detected positive for 2019-nCoV. They did not visit the specific seafood market, but might have close contact with some pneumonia patients during their trip in Wuhan, raising the concern of limited human-to-human transmission of 2019-nCoV (http://www.thatsmags.com/china/post/30618/new-coronavirus-spreads-to-over-130-in-china-death-toll-rises).
Funding Statement
This work was partially supported by the NIH R01AI139092 to L.D.
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Ben Hu at Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China for phylogenetic analysis of 2019-nCoV S gene.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7033706/

Award Number: R01AI139092
Receipient Name: New York Blood Center, Inc.
Grand Total All Awards = $2,595,434
https://taggs.hhs.gov/Detail/AwardDetail?arg_AwardNum=R01AI139092&arg_ProgOfficeCode=104


2020-02-03
The first test for COVID-19 diagnosis that CDC distributed, released in February 2020, is the CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, a test that accurately detects SARS-CoV-2 in respiratory specimens.
On February 3, 2020, CDC submitted an EUA package to expedite FDA-permitted use of the CDC 2019-nCoV Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel in the United States. FDA issued the EUA the next day and CDC sent the test kits to state and local public health laboratories.
On February 4, 2020, the HHS Secretary determined that there is a public health emergency that has a significant potential to affect national security or the health and security of United States citizens living abroad, and that involves the virus that causes COVID-19. On the basis of this determination, the Secretary then declared that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of emergency use of in vitro diagnostics for detection and/or diagnosis of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Section 564 of the FD&C Act was amended by the Project Bioshield Act of 2004 and was further amended by the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013 (PAHPRA), the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016, and Public Law 115-92 of 2017.
A CDC-developed laboratory test kit to detect 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) began shipping yesterday to select qualified U.S. and international laboratories.
“Our goal is early detection of new cases and to prevent further spread of the coronavirus,” said CDC Director Robert R. Redfield, M.D. “Distribution of these diagnostic tests to state laboratories, U.S. government partners and more broadly to the global public health community will accelerate efforts to confront this evolving global public health challenge.”
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p0206-coronavirus-diagnostic-test-kits.html

2020-02-06
Chinese Doctor Who Warned of Virus Dies
A Chinese doctor who was initially sanctioned for warning about the deadly Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in early January has died, stoking fresh anger online at the Communist Party-led government.
For hours, the status of the doctor, Li Wenliang, had been unclear after earlier reports of his death on Chinese social media were deleted and replaced by messages saying he was being treated. Around 3 a.m. Beijing time, Wuhan Central Hospital said that Li was dead “after all efforts to save him failed.”
“Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at our hospital, had unfortunately been infected when he worked on fighting against the coronavirus outbreak,” the hospital said on the Chinese social platform Weibo. He was 34, according to reports in Chinese media.
The Wuhan doctor became well-known after he made a December social media post warning about a SARS-like illness.

2020-02-12
When running laboratory diagnostics for any disease, anywhere in the world, the ability to match the individual to the specimen is key, and is part of the normal procedures put in place to ensure that that matching is done correctly.  But in this situation with this patient, it didn’t work correctly, and the patient was misidentified initially as negative.  The issue was identified within 24 hours.  The CDC tested the sample, the positive result was conveyed quickly to the local public health and CDC teams.
We have shipped the test kit internationally.
When a state gets the test kits, they have to verify that it works the same in their lab that it worked at CDC.
And when some states were doing this, we received feedback that they weren’t — that it wasn’t working as expected, specifically some public health labs at states were getting inconclusive results and what that means is that test results were not coming back as false positive or false negatives, but they were being read as inconclusive.  Now, these were not tests being run on actual clinical specimens from potential patients.  These were part of the verification process, and because of that we are — when we evaluated what the issue is, we think that there might be an issue with one of the three assays and we think that maybe one of the reagents wasn’t performing consistently, so it’s a long story to say that we think that the issue at the states can be explained by one reagent that isn’t performing as it should consistently and that’s why we are re-manufacturing that reagent, obviously a state wouldn’t want to be doing this test and using it to make clinical decisions if it isn’t working as well as perfectly at the state as it is at CDC, so this is part of a normal process and procedure and redoing the manufacturing is the next step.

2020-02-24
CN111333704 - COVID-19 VACCINE, PREPARATION METHODS AND APPLICATIONS
Office
China
Application Number
202010112679.9
Application Date
24.02.2020
Grant Number
111333704
Applicants
INSTITUTE OF MICROBE EPIDEMY, ACADEMY OF MILITARY MEDICAL SCIENCES
INSTITUTE OF MILITARY MEDICINE, ACADEMY OF MILITARY SCIENCES OF PLA
BEIJING JOINN BIOTECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
Inventors
ZHOU YUSEN

2020-02-28
Right now, labs can start testing with existing CDC test kits. States that were able to validate their kits should continue to test in this manner. States that were able to validate only the two components specific to novel coronavirus can test using only these two using revised instructions developed at CDC. We have established that the third component, which was the cause of the inconclusive results, can be excluded from testing without affecting accuracy.
Additionally, CDC has manufactured brand new test kits that will only include the two components that are specific to novel coronavirus.  Those test kits are at the International Reagent Resource, where orders can be placed. We are working as quickly as we can to get CDC test kits to state and local public health authorities. However, during any infectious disease response there is a great need for test manufacturers to rapidly make testing available in clinics, in hospitals, and at the bedside.  This is part of a huge effort within the US government led by HHS.

2020-02-28
The New England Journal of Medicine
Author : Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Responding to Covid-19 — A Once-in-a-Century Pandemic?
Covid-19 has started behaving a lot like the once-in-a-century pathogen we’ve been worried about. I hope it’s not that bad, but we should assume it will be until we know otherwise.
The data so far suggest that the virus has a case fatality risk around 1%; this rate would make it many times more severe than typical seasonal influenza, putting it somewhere between the 1957 influenza pandemic (0.6%) and the 1918 influenza pandemic (2%).
The world also needs to accelerate work on treatments and vaccines for Covid-19.
Then there’s the question of funding. Budgets for these efforts need to be expanded several times over. Billions more dollars are needed to complete phase 3 trials and secure regulatory approval for coronavirus vaccines, and still more funding will be needed to improve disease surveillance and response.
Government funding is needed because pandemic products are extraordinarily high-risk investments; public funding will minimize risk for pharmaceutical companies and get them to jump in with both feet. In addition, governments and other donors will need to fund — as a global public good — manufacturing facilities that can generate a vaccine supply in a matter of weeks. These facilities can make vaccines for routine immunization programs in normal times and be quickly refitted for production during a pandemic. Finally, governments will need to finance the procurement and distribution of vaccines to the populations that need them.
Billions of dollars for antipandemic efforts is a lot of money. But that’s the scale of investment required to solve the problem. And given the economic pain that an epidemic can impose — we’re already seeing how Covid-19 can disrupt supply chains and stock markets, not to mention people’s lives — it will be a bargain.
Finally, governments and industry will need to come to an agreement: during a pandemic, vaccines and antivirals can’t simply be sold to the highest bidder. They should be available and affordable for people who are at the heart of the outbreak and in greatest need. Not only is such distribution the right thing to do, it’s also the right strategy for short-circuiting transmission and preventing future pandemics.
These are the actions that leaders should be taking now. There is no time to waste.

2020-02-29
Today, as part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s ongoing and aggressive commitment to address the coronavirus outbreak, the agency issued a new policy for certain laboratories seeking to develop diagnostic tests for coronavirus in order to achieve more rapid testing capacity in the U.S.
The new policy is for certain laboratories that develop and begin to use validated COVID-19 diagnostics before the FDA has completed review of their Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) requests. The FDA can issue an EUA to permit the use, based on scientific data, of certain medical products that may be effective in diagnosing, treating or preventing a disease or condition when there is a determination, by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), that there is a public health emergency or a significant potential for a public health emergency that has a significant potential to affect national security or the health and security of U.S. citizens, and a declaration that circumstances exist justifying the medical products’ emergency use.

2020-03-08
The Chinese government has decided to donate $20 million U.S. dollars to the World Health Organization (WHO) to support it in carrying out international cooperation in fighting the outbreak of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and for helping developing countries improve their response capacities, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-03-08/WHO-says-COVID-19-cases-outside-China-over-20-000-OGroKZiuME/index.html

2020-04-14 Article posted in Forbes about activity in 2018
“In January 2018, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing took the unusual step of repeatedly sending U.S. science diplomats to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which had in 2015 become China’s first laboratory to achieve the highest level of international bioresearch safety (known as BSL-4). WIV issued a news release in English about the last of these visits, which occurred on March 27, 2018. The U.S. delegation was led by Jamison Fouss, the consul general in Wuhan, and Rick Switzer, the embassy’s counselor of environment, science, technology and health. Last week, WIV erased that statement from its website, though it remains archived on the Internet.”"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2020/04/14/the-washington-post-goes-rogue-china-lab-in-focus-of-coronavirus-outbreak/#1cd742d1ee1f

2020-04-14
Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing
Today I’m instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.
American taxpayers provide between $400 million and $500 million per year to the WHO.  In contrast, China contributes roughly $40 million a year and even less.  As the organization’s leading sponsor, the United States has a duty to insist on full accountability.
One of the most dangerous and costly decisions from the WHO was its disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations.  They were very much opposed to what we did.
The reality is that the WHO failed to adequately obtain that and share information in a timely and transparent fashion.
The WHO failed to investigate credible reports from sources in Wuhan that conflicted directly with the Chinese government’s official accounts.  There was credible information to suspect human-to-human transmission in December 2019, which should have spurred the WHO to investigate, and investigate immediately.

2020-04-15
Announcing an extra $150 million of funding from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help speed the development of treatments, vaccines and public health measures to tackle the new coronavirus outbreak, Melinda Gates said the WHO was “exactly the organization that can deal with this pandemic”.
“De-funding the WHO makes absolutely no sense during a pandemic. We need a global coordinated response,” Gates, who co-chairs the foundation with the billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, said in a telephone interview.
The Gates Foundation is the second largest donor to the WHO behind the United States. 
The philanthropic Gates Foundation’s new $150 million commitment brings its COVID-19 funding for the international response to date to $250 million
Alongside support for new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines, the Gates money is primarily aimed at helping poorer countries and vulnerable populations handle the oncoming and spreading pandemic and the poverty it will cause.
Gates said the Foundation is backing eight projects seeking potential solutions for COVID-19 vaccine development and has co-funded enhanced virus detection capacity in Africa as well as contributing to the response in China.

2020-04-19
Partial transcript of email exchanges in which NIH cuts off grant funding to EcoHealth Alliance
EcoHealth Alliance, Inc. is the recipient, as grantee, of an NIH grant entitled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.” It is our understanding that one of the sub-recipients on this grant is the Wuhan Institute of Virology (“WIV”). It is our understanding that Wuhan Institute of Virology studies the interaction between corona viruses and bats. The scientific community believes that the coronavirus causing COVID-19 jumped from bats to humans likely in Wuhan where the COVID-19 pandemic began.
There are now allegations that the current crisis was precipitated by the release from Wuhan Institute of Virology of the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19. Given these concerns, we are pursuing suspension of Wuhan Institute of Virology from participation in federal programs.
This suspension of the sub-recipient does not affect the remainder of your grant assuming that no grant funds are provided to WIV following receipt of this email during the period of suspension.
April 24th email from Lauer to Daszak:
I am writing to notify you that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), an
Institute with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), under the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) has elected to terminate the project Understanding the Risk of Bat
Coronavirus Emergence, funded under grant R01 AI110964, for convenience. This grant project was
issued under the authorization of Sections 201 and 405 of the Public Health Service Act as amended (42 USC 241 and 284). This grant was funded as a discretionary grant as outlined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement which states that the decision not to award a grant, or to award a grant at a particular funding level, is at the discretion of the agency, in accordance with NIH’s dual review system.
At this time, NIH does not believe that the current project outcomes align with the program goals and
agency priorities. NIAID has determined there are no animal and human ethical considerations, as this
project is not a clinical trial, but rather an observational study.
https://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/Lauer.Daszak.NIH%20grant%20killed.partial%20email%20transcripts.April%202020.pdf

2020-04-23
FBI Email referencing grant
"Details of the current NIAID grant for WIV bat coronavirus surveillance and WIV bat coronavirus gain-of function research": https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9819304 "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence"
https://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/FBI-NIH-Gain-of-Function-April-2024-1.pdf

2020-05-01
CDC has kicked off the SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing for Public Health Emergency Response, Epidemiology and Surveillance (SPHERES) consortium, which will greatly expand the use of whole genome sequencing (WGS) of the COVID-19 virus.

This national network of sequencing laboratories will speed the release of SARS-CoV-2 sequence data into the public domain.
“The U.S. is the world’s leader in advanced rapid genome sequencing. This coordinated effort across our public, private, clinical, and academic public health laboratories will play a vital role in understanding the transmission, evolution, and treatment of SARS-CoV-2. I am confident that our finest, most skilled minds are working together to help us save lives today and tomorrow,” said CDC Director Robert Redfield, M.D.
Consortium members include:

Federal agencies and laboratories
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Advanced Molecular Detections
Argonne National Laboratory
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Office of Genomics and Advanced Technology
National Institute of Standards and Technology
National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

Academic Institutions

Baylor University
Cornell University
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York University
Northern Arizona University
University of Buffalo
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, San Francisco
University of California, Santa Cruz
University of Chicago
University of Maryland
University of Minnesota
University of Nebraska
University of New Mexico
University of Washington
Yale University

Corporations*
Abbott Diagnostics
bioMérieux
Color Genomics
Gingko Bioworks
IDbyDNA
Illumina
In-Q-Tel
LabCorp
One Codex
Oxford Nanopore Technologies
Pacific Biosciences
Qiagen
Quest Diagnostics
Verily Life Sciences

*Names of corporations are provided for information purposes only, and their inclusion here does not constitute an endorsement of the corporations or any of their commercial products or services by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Non-profit public health or research institutes

Association of Public Health Laboratories
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Broad Institute
Chan Zuckerberg BioHub
J. Craig Venter Institute
Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology
Scripps Research
The Jackson Laboratory
Translational Genomics Research Institute – North
Walder Foundation

For the past six years, CDC’s Office of Advanced Molecular Detection program has invested in federal and state public health laboratories to expand the use of pathogen genomics and other advanced laboratory technologies for infectious disease surveillance and outbreak response. The current consortium investment aims to save lives in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and prepare the United States and the world for future pandemic response.
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p0501-SARS-CoV-2-transmission-map.html

2020-05-04
Coronavirus In Pittsburgh: Researcher Killed In Apparent Murder-Suicide Was Close To ‘Making Very Significant Findings’ Related To COVID-19, Pitt Says
https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/05/04/ross-township-apparent-murder-suicide/

2020-06-04
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced a five-year, US$1.6 billion commitment to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to deliver lifesaving vaccines to the world’s poorest countries. 

2020-06-04
Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation in COVID-19—Insights From the Front Lines  
Researchers: Low molecular weight heparin preferred as an anticoagulant over direct oral anticoagulants; key lab tests include TEG, D-dimer, platelet count, fibrinogen.
Evidence is mounting that seriously ill COVID-19 patients develop coagulation problems, giving rise to disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). This alarming trend, leading to strokes and death even among young people, raises questions over the need to treat intensive care (ICU) patients with anticoagulants—and which lab tests most effectively target DIC and monitor bleeding risk from these medications.

Studies have shown that blood clots appear in 20% to 30% of patients critically ill with the virus. In one study of COVID-19 autopsy results from a German hospital, researchers found elevated levels of D-dimer, C-reactive protein, and lactate dehydrogenase. These patients also had mild thrombocytopenia.

“COVID-19 may lead to pulmonary embolism by activating the coagulation system or causing a cytokine storm, in which high levels of proinflammatory cytokines start to attack the body’s own tissues rather than just the virus,” according to a summary of the German study. Based on these findings, the authors suggested using anticoagulant treatment in COVID-19 patients with elevated D-dimer levels. 

The American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) is a global scientific and medical professional organization dedicated to clinical laboratory science and its application to healthcare.

2020-07
CDC released a second assay in July 2020, the CDC Influenza SARS-CoV-2 (Flu SC2) Multiplex Assay, which permits public health laboratories to run three tests in a single reaction well.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/testing.html

2020-09
Cobrotoxin could be an effective therapeutic for COVID-19
Author: Fang Lin,Paul F. Reid, and Zheng-hong Qin

2020-10-03
CN111270012 - CRISPR NUCLEIC ACID DETECTION KIT FOR DETECTING NOVEL CORONAVIRUS (2019-NCOV)
Office
China
Application Number
202010160702.1
Application Date
10.03.2020
Publication Number
111270012
Publication Date
12.06.2020
Grant Number
111270012
Applicants
INSTITUTE OF MILITARY MEDICINE, ACADEMY OF MILITARY SCIENCES OF PLA
Inventors
LI HAO
KOU ZHIHUA
SUN YANSONG
ZHOU YUSEN

2020-10-11
BILL GATES: The only way we'll get completely back to normal is by having, maybe not the first generation of vaccines, but eventually a vaccine that is super effective, and that a lot of the people take, and that we get the disease eliminated on a global basis. 

2020-10-26
“The primary thing you want to do is that if people get infected, prevent them from getting sick, and if you prevent them from getting sick, you will ultimately prevent them from getting seriously ill,” Fauci said at Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit Monday.
“What I would settle for, and all of my colleagues would settle for, is the primary endpoint to prevent clinically recognizable disease,” he said.

2021-02-04
"Scientists have advanced more cures for COVID-19. Top on the list are: combination of ivermeticin, zinc and vitamin C; Andrographis paniculata, the key ingredient of IHP Detox Tea; extract of Artemisia annua, which interferes with replication of SARS-CoV-2; snake venom enzyme; metformin; colchicine, melatonin; and essential oils."

2021-06-30
"A new study of U.S. service members found higher than expected rates of heart inflammation following receipt of COVID-19 vaccines. It's a finding Defense Department researchers say should call attention to the condition, known as myocarditis, as a potential side effect of the immunizations."
"In an article published Tuesday in JAMA Cardiology, U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force physicians described 23 cases of myocarditis in previously healthy males who developed the condition within four days of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine."
"Physicians would have expected to find eight or fewer cases of myocarditis among the 436,000 male military members who received two mRNA shots, according to the study. But 20 military members developed inflammation after their second dose, including 14 after the Moderna shot and six after the Pfizer shot. Three developed the condition after their first vaccine."
"The Food and Drug Administration last week added a warning to the documentation that accompanies the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to notify recipients of the risk of developing myocarditis, seen mainly in young men."
"The papers say that the vaccines may bring "increased risks of myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly following the second dose.""


2021-08
The Origins of Covid-19: An Investigation of the Wuhan Institute of Virology

2021-08-24
"Researchers have identified what may be the key molecular mechanism responsible for COVID-19 mortality – an enzyme related to neurotoxins found in rattlesnake venom."
"Researchers from the University of Arizona, in collaboration with Stony Brook University and Wake Forest School of Medicine, analyzed blood samples from two COVID-19 patient cohorts and found that circulation of the enzyme – secreted phospholipase A2 group IIA, or sPLA2-IIA, – may be the most important factor in predicting which patients with severe COVID-19 eventually succumb to the virus.

The sPLA2-IIA enzyme, which has similarities to an active enzyme in rattlesnake venom, is found in low concentrations in healthy individuals and has long been known to play a critical role in defense against bacterial infections, destroying microbial cell membranes."
https://news.arizona.edu/story/venom-coursing-through-body-researchers-identify-mechanism-driving-covid-19-mortality

2021-12-07
Judicial Watch: New Fauci Agency COVID Records Reveal Information about NIH Research into the Coronavirus

2021-12-28
Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine announced today that CORBEVAX™, a protein sub-unit COVID-19 Vaccine, whose technology was created and engineered at its Center for Vaccine Development (CVD), has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to launch in India with other underserved countries to follow.

2023-02-21
Dissolution of Spike Protein by Nattokinase
"The issue at hand is the urgency of time, similar to that with SARS-CoV-2 infection and empiric early therapy."

2023-03-08
Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic
“Has gain-of-function stopped a pandemic in your opinion?”
Dr. Robert Redfield: “No, in the contrary, I think it probably caused the greatest pandemic our world has seen.”
https://twitter.com/COVIDSelect/status/1633486501223735301

2023-06-14
Federal Research: NIH Could Take Additional Actions to Manage Risks Involving Foreign Subrecipients
"We reviewed federal funds that agencies directly or indirectly awarded to 3 Chinese research institutions. Most of the money came from awards funded by the National Institutes of Health."
US Government Accountability Office


2023-07-27
"An investigation into a Reedley warehouse uncovered a large-scale illegal medical lab complete with bioengineered mice, infectious agents, nearly 30 refrigerators and freezers some of which were non-operational, incubators, and more leaving officials shocked and the public worried."
"What was supposed to be an empty building used only for storage was home to a black-market type of lab testing facility."
"According to court documents officials with the Centers for Disease Control tested what they could and determined that at least 20 potentially infectious viral, bacterial, and parasitic agents were present including E. Coli, malaria, and even COVID."

2025-06-03
COVID COMMITTEE HEARING WITH ANTHONY FAUCI
https://rumble.com/v4zd26x-covid-committee-hearing-with-anthony-fauci.html

CDC has many virus strains under patent.
"CDC’s Technology Transfer Office (TTO) includes the Atlanta-based team and a team at NIH/NIAID that handles CDC patents and licensing activities. CDC TTO is committed to transferring research into commercially viable products to address unmet public health needs. TTO accomplishes this goal by working as a liaison between CDC scientists and industry partners, to facilitate the technology transfer process."
"TTO is there to assist the CDC scientists during this initial phase by providing the scientists the advice and resources they need. "
"Timing is paramount so inventors need to disclose any invention to TTO once conceived to preserve its patentability. The inventor needs to fully disclose the invention, its improvements over current technologies, and the possible applications for the technology. To protect the patentability of the invention, CDC scientists are urged not to publically disclose or discuss the invention before consulting with TTO."
"When an EIR is received by TTO, the disclosure is evaluated to determine the marketability and patentability of the technology. TTO assesses the technology, discusses it with the scientist, and evaluates the potential of the technology. Based on the findings of this assessment, TTO makes recommendations on whether the technology should be patented. The recommendation, the EIR, and any pertinent information is then recorded in our database. In some instances, TTO might recommend that a technology not be patented."
"If the technology can be made into a commercial product that will potentially interest commercial partners, efforts are made to protect the invention. This protection is typically in the form of a US patent. Obtaining a patent can often be a lengthy process lasting 3 or more years. Foreign patent applications can also be filed to protect the invention abroad. This protection allows inventors and commercial partners to recover financial investments made to commercialize the product. CDC TTO works together with outside counsel in the patent filing and prosecution process for CDC technologies."
"TTO markets available technologies to attract licensing opportunities. Sometimes this happens after a patent application has been filed on an invention. Marketing can also be initiated for research material that is not patentable but still offers some commercial value."
"When a company is interested in securing rights to a CDC technology, a license is usually required. A license is an agreement where the owners of the invention give another party rights to the technology allowing them to produce, use, or sell it. The license defines the rights, responsibilities, exclusivity, and terms of the agreement."
"The CDC TTO negotiates the licensing of CDC technologies with potential commercial partners. Sometimes, licensing requests will be forwarded directly to TTO. In these cases, the Technology Transfer Specialists will assist the prospective licensee with the license application. For Biological Material License Agreements (BMLAs) where strains or isolates are being licensed out, the Specialists will assist the CDC scientists with the preparation of the EIR form for the strains."
"After a license is negotiated, post-license compliance must be maintained to ensure the scheduled development of the technology, payment of royalties, and compliance to the license agreement. Based on the terms negotiated in the agreement, a percentage of royalties will go to the inventor, while a portion will go to the originating laboratory for that technology. This allows funding to be reinvested into CDC for the development of additional technologies that can meet other public health needs."
https://www.cdc.gov/os/technology/techtransfer/technology-transfer-process.htm



New York Blood Center
NYBCe seeks financial support to help advance our efforts in CP patient availability, antibody testing, and in the development of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine which is currently in the preclinical phase.
NYBC is now increasing the nation’s supply of convalescent plasma by collecting donations from those who have recovered from COVID-19. NYBC will collect, process the plasma for infusion, and maintain a bank for hospitals to treat patients with serious or immediately life-threatening COVID-19 infections.
https://nybloodcenter.org/support-us/make-financial-contribution/fight-covid19/

From 1998 - 2020
New York Blood Center
Received $143,659,765 in Grants from the Federal Government
https://taggs.hhs.gov/Detail/RecipDetail?arg_RecipId=%2B6vi%2FHcTsiNh4TNiop7tlg%3D%3D

From 2002-2020
ECOHEALTH ALLIANCE INC
Received $12,296,341 in Grants from the Federal Government
https://taggs.hhs.gov/Detail/RecipDetail?arg_RecipId=ZfeVER2uWwKllnTv6X4AxA%3D%3D


From 1995-2020
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Received $2,602,204,002 in Grants from the Federal Government

From 1995-2020 
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL
Received $8,215,590,272 in Grants from the Federal Government

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