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China Has Withheld Samples of a Dangerous Flu Virus (nytimes.com)
For over a year, the Chinese government has withheld lab samples of a rapidly evolving influenza virus from the United States -- specimens needed to develop vaccines and treatments, according to federal health officials, The New York Times reports. From the story: Despite persistent requests from government officials and research institutions, China has not provided samples of the dangerous virus, a type of bird flu called H7N9 [Editor's note: the link maybe paywalled; alternative source]. In the past, such exchanges have been mostly routine under rules established by the World Health Organization. Now, as the United States and China spar over trade, some scientists worry that the vital exchange of medical supplies and information could slow, hampering preparedness for the next biological threat. The scenario is "unlike shortages in aluminum and soybeans," said Dr. Michael Callahan, an infectious disease specialist at Harvard Medical School. "Jeopardizing U.S. access to foreign pathogens and therapies to counter them undermines our nation's ability to protect against infections which can spread globally within days." Experts concur that the world's next global pandemic will likely come from a repeat offender: the flu. The H7N9 virus is one candidate.
Oh, don't be so dramatic. Sure, China won't share the specimens with us, but all we have to do is get one of our friends to ask for it....
Oh, wait.
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For over a year, the Chinese government has withheld lab samples...Now, as the United States and China spar over trade, some scientists worry that the vital exchange of medical supplies and information could slow... infections which can spread globally within days...Experts concur that the world's next global pandemic will likely come from a repeat offender: the flu.
See that intentional equivocation and correlation structure? Think of news like this as code to understand it.
The trade issues are short months old and this has been going on for over a year. The linking to a potential global pandemic within days. Classic salesmanship tactic of time pressure. Clearly intended writing to give the impression of something without directly saying it. So much bullshit hidden in the structure. So much propaganda.
Don't fall for propaganda. Don't post it here on slashdot.
Exactly this ... the US is pissing off friends and allies all over the place. And while most of them probably wouldn't withhold medical stuff, America has fewer friends these days they can count on ... because those friends are tired of being blamed for everything by the Cheeto in Chief.
I'm not actually surprised that China has said "fuck you" and decided not to play nicely.
I won't be surprised if other countries decide similar things.
This is one of those "be careful what you wish for" things. Trump is doing more damage to international relationships than will be easily remedied, so if suddenly other countries are a whole lot less enthusiastic about what the US wants, then we'll just get another bullshit cycle of Trump blaming everyone else.
At some point, if the diplomatic equivalent of "bummer dude, not my problem" happens, you'll know who to blame.
Hey look, someone who knows what's up
Cheers to that shit
Fear mongering and cover stories...... yay
The PRC has never "played well with others" when it comes to infectious diseases, their first instinct is to claim nothing is happening, see SARS, they exclude the ROC (Taiwan) from as much of the international health network as they can, it's what you expect from a government were politics trumps (heh) everything else, especially including human lives. They don't much care if they kill their own Han Chinese by the tens of millions, why would even they care about foreign devils?
If, as you claim, they're doing this to spite Trump, that just further proves that they always put politics ahead of human lives.
Although it is true that the PRC has never really played nice with others (I do remember the SARS kerfuffle), it does not refute the fact that this ridiculous trade war is making a bad situation worse.
From memory, and what I was just able to look up, there's 3 or so labs in the US that do this, St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, New York Medical College in Westchester County (maybe the top place, or maybe they just get the best press since a woman runs it), and maybe the CDC, all mustache twirling evil non-profit academic labs.
Your worldview is severely stunted and parochial.
It's also a very slow process, and each egg produces at most 3 doses. I was appalled with 2 'p's when the FDA tried to deny Protein Sciences a licence with the excuse the old methods were good enough. They use modern biotech, splicing the relevant antigen coding DNA into ... whatever, insect? cells that grow well in bioreactors to quickly mass produce the antigens, as I recall something like 100,000 doses in each run. Something like what they're doing would be the only real hope if we were facing a true death plague.
The FDA is a scam and everyone knows it. It's job is to protect their own jobs first, big pharmas profits second, and Americans a distant third. If they cared about helping Americans we would be able to buy drugs from Canada still.