| | | | |  | | By Gregory Svirnovskiy, Toni Odejimi, Carmen Paun, Daniel Payne, Ruth Reader and Erin Schumaker | | | | |  The WHO wants to be ready if avian flu sparks another pandemic. | AFP via Getty Images | The possibility of an avian flu pandemic is driving a World Health Organization initiative to arm low- and middle-income countries with the technology and expertise to develop their own mRNA vaccines. A virus is currently decimating world poultry populations and threatening to sicken humans. On Monday, the WHO launched the new vaccine campaign alongside Argentina’s Sinergium Biotech. How it works: Sinergium, which has already developed several candidate vaccines, will share relevant information with participating vaccine manufacturers once the preclinical data is ready. The WHO’s mRNA Technology Transfer Programme, developed in 2021, counts 15 countries, including Kenya, Nigeria and Ukraine, and their domestic partner manufacturers as members. Why it matters: Global vaccine inequities marred the world’s Covid-19 response, leading to countless deaths and leaving all countries vulnerable to outbreaks brought on by new mutations. As of October 2023, more than 70 percent of the population in high-income countries was fully vaccinated as opposed to just 30 percent in low-income countries. And more than 50 percent of Covid deaths in 20 low-income countries could have been avoided with better access to vaccines, per a 2023 study in Nature Communications. What they’re saying: “This initiative exemplifies why WHO established the mRNA Technology Transfer Programme — to foster greater research, development and production in low- and middle-income countries, so that when the next pandemic arrives, the world will be better prepared to mount a more effective and more equitable response,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, said.
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Hull, Mass. | Shawn Zeller/POLITICO | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. A new calculator some doctors are using to assess heart attack risk sees fewer men in danger. Ironically, that could lead to more heart attacks if fewer also receive medicine to keep them healthy, Harvard researchers are warning. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com, Daniel Payne at dpayne@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com, or Toni Odejimi at aodejimi@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp.
| | |  Data is key to innovation, but poor data privacy practices will undermine access to it, a group of health care companies says. | Getty Images | Health tech companies need the public’s trust if they want access to the data they need to innovate. Insurers, health systems and tech companies formed the Healthcare Trust Institute to spread the word on best practices and laid out some ideas to build trust at a briefing on Capitol Hill yesterday. “We are really concerned about loss or erosion of trust, in the sharing of our health information in a way that's privacy protective but that allows for treatments and cures and health care quality to improve,” said Tina Grande, the institute’s president and CEO. One strategy discussed to build trust involves the creation of “synthetic data,” in which algorithms extrapolate based on real data, capturing trend lines but not personally identifiable information. It has the added benefit of reducing the effort needed to create a statistically sound dataset. “If you need 100,000 more patients, you don’t need to go sign up another health system or run another clinical trial,” said Brian Rasquinha, associate director of solution architecture at Privacy Analytics, a Canadian firm that helps others comply with health data privacy rules. Government’s role: The institute, whose members include the American Hospital Association, electronic health records firm Epic, and insurer UnitedHealth Group, is pushing Congress to build on the existing health data privacy law, HIPAA, to offer broader protections for patient data. “I believe we are the only developed nation in the world that does not have a national privacy law for its citizen population,” said Grande.
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Suicide rates in the U.S. are at record highs. | Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images | The deaths by suicide of three celebrities, one in 2014 and two in 2018, led to an increase in the number of people contemplating ending their own lives and in a rise of deaths by suicide in the U.S., a new study from Columbia University shows. The 2014 suicide of actor Robin Williams led to a doubling of excess suicide deaths. The 2018 suicides of fashion designer Kate Spade and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, which happened in quick succession, also led to an increase in suicides, according to the study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and published in the journal Science Advances today. How so? The spread of suicide ideation and suicidal behavior following celebrity suicides has been documented before. But the researchers developed a model to document so-called suicide contagion, a cause-and-effect link, based on the volume of calls to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System. Suicide contagion occurs when suicidal behavior or ideation spreads among susceptible individuals, typically after a prominent person dies by suicide. Both metrics showed a spike in the immediate aftermath of the three celebrity suicides. Why it matters: As America struggles with a mental health crisis that led to more than 50,000 suicides in 2023 — a record high — the researchers said additional studies are needed to fully understand the mechanisms driving contagion and to inform suicide response and prevention efforts. Coupled with real-time data showing potential surges in the number of people contemplating suicide, this understanding could help policymakers target messages at specific subgroups to prevent suicides triggered by news of celebrities taking their own lives. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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