September 20, 2024
A New Edition of Developing World Bioethics Is Now Available
Developing World Bioethics (vol. 24, no. 3, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
Global Bioethics
September 19, 2024
New research points to raccoon dogs in Wuhan market as pandemic trigger. It’s controversial
(NPR) – Researchers had found genetic evidence that raccoon dogs, an exotic species known to be susceptible to the virus, were among the animals for sale at the wet market in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak was first identified. Now … Read More
September 19, 2024
The United Nations Wants to Treat AI With the Same Urgency as Climate Change
(Wired) – A UN report proposes that the organization take a much more active role in the monitoring and oversight of AI. A United Nations report released today proposes having the international body oversee the first truly global effort for … Read More
September 19, 2024
A New Edition of The New England Journal of Medicine Is Now Available
The New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 391, no. 9, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
September 18, 2024
Doctors Without Borders Closes Operations in Russia
(Associated Press) – Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday it has closed its operations in Russia after 32 years, citing a Justice Ministry letter that said the medical aid group had been removed from a register of foreign nongovernmental organizations. The … Read More
September 18, 2024
The Missing Girls: How China’s One-Child Policy Tore Families Apart
(Wall Street Journal) – A now-ended adoption program created the perception that Chinese girls weren’t valued. One adoptee, once hidden in a grocery bag, found there was more to her own story. In “Ricki’s Promise,” a 2014 documentary by Changfu … Read More
September 17, 2024
This Preventive Drug Could Be a ‘Game Changer’ in Ending the HIV Epidemic
(NPR) – PURPOSE 2, the name for the latest trial sponsored by Gilead Science, the California-based maker of lenacapavir, found the drug to be 96% effective in preventing HIV infections in the newly released results of a clinical trial of … Read More
September 16, 2024
Austrian Woman Is Found Guilty of Fatally Infecting Her Neighbor with COVID-19
(Associated Press) – A woman in Austria was found guilty of fatally infecting her neighbor with COVID-19 in 2021, her second pandemic-related conviction in a year, according to local media. A judge sentenced the 54-year-old on Thursday to four months’ … Read More
September 16, 2024
‘For Me, There Was No Other Choice’: Inside the Global Illegal Organ Trade
(The Guardian) – As a legal academic, I have been investigating the global trade in organs since 2014. Over the past 10 years, I have spoken to 43 people from Sudan, South Sudan and Eritrea who sold a kidney out … Read More
September 13, 2024
Congress Targets Chinese Influence in Health Tech. It Could Come with Tradeoffs
(ABC News) – A San Jose-based biotechnology company that helps doctors detect genetic causes for cancer is among those that could be cut out of the U.S. market over ties to China A California biotechnology company that helps doctors detect … Read More
September 11, 2024
Cholera Deaths Soar Worldwide Despite Being Easily Preventable
(New York Times) – Fatalities spiked 71 percent last year, far outpacing the 13 percent rise in cases, the World Health Organization said. The cholera outbreaks spreading across the globe are becoming more deadly. Deaths from the diarrheal disease soared … Read More
September 10, 2024
Children Show Up in Droves for Gaza’s ‘Dangerous and Difficult’ Polio Campaign
(ABC News) – A 12-day campaign to stop the polio outbreak in the Gaza Strip moved into its third and final phase today, an effort to vaccinate about 150,000 children in the northern part of the war-torn territory. Its previous … Read More
September 10, 2024
How to Support Indigenous Peoples on Biodiversity: Be Rigorous with Data
(Nature) – Questions surrounding an often-repeated statistic about Indigenous Peoples and biodiversity show that researchers should take more care when sourcing facts. For at least two decades, scientists, policymakers and journals, including Nature, have cited a statistic without determining its … Read More
September 9, 2024
How Did Polio Reemerge in Gaza After a Quarter of a Century? Q&A with a Virologist
(The Conversation) – A ten-month-old boy in the Gaza Strip was recently paralysed by poliovirus – the first such case in the region this century. Israel and Hamas have agreed to a limited ceasefire to allow 640,000 children in the … Read More
September 6, 2024
Whatever Happened to … the Gaza Neurosurgeon Who Faced a Wrenching Decision
(NPR) – Last time NPR spoke to Abukhedeir, it had been just a month since he left Gaza. The physical exhaustion and the emotional wounds of the death and injuries he had to deal with as the chief neurosurgeon of … Read More
September 6, 2024
China Detains AstraZeneca Employees Over Alleged Transport of Unapproved Drug
(Wall Street Journal) – Chinese authorities have detained several employees of British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca on suspicion of bringing an unapproved cancer drug into the country, people familiar with the matter said. Chinese authorities have recently given closer scrutiny to cases … Read More
September 6, 2024
China’s One-Child Policy Sent Thousands of Adoptees Overseas. That Era Is Over.
(Wall Street Journal) – Beijing formally ends a program that was propelled by birth restrictions and that had been largely on hold since the pandemic China said it was formally ending almost all international adoptions, shutting down a process that … Read More
September 5, 2024
US and UK Sign Legally Enforceable AI Treaty
(The Verge) – The US, UK, and European Union have signed the first “legally binding” treaty on AI, which is supposed to ensure its use aligns with “human rights, democracy and the rule of law,” according to the Council of Europe. The … Read More
September 5, 2024
First Doses of Mpox Vaccines Arrive at the Heart of Africa’s Outbreak. What Took So Long?
(NPR) – It seems as if getting mpox vaccines to Congo should have been straightforward — one country needs vaccines, other countries are willing to give them. The U.S. in fact has been ready to send doses to Africa for … Read More
September 4, 2024
A New Edition of Journal of Medical Humanities Is Now Available
Journal of Medical Humanities (vol. 45, no 3, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
September 2, 2024
An Ethical Way Forward for Indigenous Microbiome Research
(Nature) – Science has a history of exploitation and extraction. Microbiologists have the chance to take a different approach. Around the time the study was published, Crittenden found herself sitting with a Hadza friend on a blanket under the shade … Read More
September 2, 2024
Large-Scale Polio Vaccinations Begin in War-Ravaged Gaza After First Case in 25 Years
(ABC News) – Palestinian health authorities and United Nations agencies on Sunday began a large-scale campaign of vaccinations against polio in the Gaza Strip, hoping to prevent an outbreak in the territory that has been ravaged by the Israel-Hamas war. … Read More
August 29, 2024
WHO Says Its Deal with Israel Will Allow Limited Pauses in Gaza Fighting for Polio Vaccinations
(ABC News) – The U.N. World Health Organization said Thursday that it has reached an agreement with Israel for limited pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow for polio vaccinations for hundreds of thousands of children after a baby contracted … Read More
August 29, 2024
This Ancient Disease Still Kills 1 Million People Every Year
(Vox) – More than a decade ago, scientists achieved a historic breakthrough: They found a first-ever cure for hepatitis C, one of two related liver diseases that, combined, take more than a million lives every year. In 2016, just three … Read More
August 29, 2024
Google and Others Are Developing AI That Can Hear Signs of Sickness
(Bloomberg) – Bioacoustics is the thrilling combination of biology and acoustics, helping us gain insights from sounds produced by animals and humans. Generative AI, the kind of tech that brought ChatGPT to 200 million users worldwide, is now adding a … Read More
