The Dish: Sampling Today’s News – February 21, 2008
Texas A&M University said Wednesday it will pay $1 million to settle an investigation involving safety violations in its biodefense research program. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigated the university after workers were exposed to pathogens. Inspectors cited Texas A&M for missing vials, loose access to dangerous substances, careless storage of infected animals, poor hand-washing habits, and improper handling of lab coats. Texas A&M is a lead institution in the National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense, which receives funding from the Department of Homeland Security (via The Scientist).
The United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 on Wednesday that medical device makers are immune from liability for injuries as long as the devices were previously approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The legal question behind the case pertained to whether or not Federal law (specifically, the Medical Device Amendments to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act) can preempt state-based lawsuits. Next Monday, the Supreme Court will hear another FDA-related case which explores further the rights of states to challenge FDA decisions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been fairly successful over the years in predicting the most virulent flu strains and then formulating vaccines based on those predictions. This year was an exception. The current vaccine is most effective against fewer than half of the strains that are most dominant in the human population. Government researchers are presently deciding which strains next year’s vaccine should target, and they have decided, in an unusual move, to leave out two of the strains targeted by the present vaccine and replace them with two new strains next year. How well vaccine makers will adapt to the CDC decision in time to produce 100 million doses by the fall remains to be seen. The Knight Science Journalism Tracker has a full roundup of coverage.
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