Good Day BIO: Vaccines changed the world – but there's still work to do

The House returns from recess to vote on drug price controls. Meanwhile, it’s National Immunization Awareness Month, a chance to highlight how vaccines changed the world—and how misinformation and policy (like price controls) could thwart progress. Plus, an emerging zoonotic disease is a reminder of the need for a One Health approach and modern animal biotech regulations. (836 words, 4 minutes, 10 seconds)

Vaccines changed the world – but there's still work to do

With COVID-19 still circulating, 10K monkeypox cases in the U.S., and polio detected in New York and London, there’s never been a more important time to talk about the importance of vaccination—and August’s National Immunization Awareness Month provides the perfect opportunity.   

By the numbers: “Before vaccines, there were more than 500,000 cases of measles reported every year in the U.S. In 2020, there were 13,” says Vaccinate Your Family (VYF). In the U.S. alone, routine immunization prevents 10.5 million cases of infectious disease per year and saves 33,000 lives.

Shoutout to the COVID-19 vaccine—which prevented around 20 million deaths in 2021, as Bio.News previously reported.

But vaccine hesitancy and misinformation are on the rise, causing rates of routine childhood vaccination to fall and risk to increase, explains VYF: “In some cases, even a small drop in the vaccination rate can lead to outbreaks of disease.”

Read: FDA Commissioner: Misinformation is ‘leading cause of death’

It’s time to take your best shot:VYF’s Their Best Shot campaign aims to “reignite a culture of immunization” by focusing on the benefits of immunization—and the tragic cost of not getting vaccinated for routine disease or COVID-19.

What they’re saying: “I want folks to think twice about not getting vaccinated because COVID is a real risk,” said Windell, sharing his story in the Vaccinate Your Family website. “The doctors told me that if my parents had been vaccinated, they probably would have pulled through. Instead, I lost both of my parents to COVID within 24 hours.”

The context: While we all have a role to play in getting vaccinated and sharing accurate, science-based information about vaccines, policy is also important—to ensure that public health and pandemic preparedness are properly funded. However, at the same time it’s debating funding for medical preparedness and response, Congress is also getting ready to pass drug price controls that will harm innovation—and perhaps thwart research on the next lifesaving vaccine.

Read more on Bio.News.

New virus might have jumped from shrews to humans – here’s what we need to do about it

The emergence of a dangerous new zoonotic virus in humans is a reminder of the need to advance One Health policy—and biotechnology that can stop animal diseases in their tracks.

The news: Langya henipavirus (LayV) has been detected in at least 35 people in China, reports Bio.News. Usually only found in shrews, the virus is thought to have jumped from animals to humans.

While the human cases have (so far) not been fatal, “there is still a need to be alert as many viruses have unpredictable results when they infect humans,” said Wang Linfa from the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, one of the researchers who has been following the outbreak.

“Globally, 70% of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) originate from zoonotic pathogens,”according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

And climate change is making infectious disease worse,as Bio.News reported earlier this week, especially as humans’ relationships with animals and the environment evolves.

A One Health approach can stop zoonotic disease outbreaks, by recognizing the links between humans, animals, and the environment, and working across sectors and stakeholders to foster and advance innovation.

We also need to modernize animal biotech policy,as BIO has explained. For example, gene editing can make pigs resistant to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) and chickens resistant to avian flu—but we need policy that allows us to advance this technology before these diseases evolve and become more lethal. 

Listen: During an episode of the I am BIO Podcast last year, we heard from experts (including the EcoHealth Alliance’s Dr. William Karesh) about how a One Health approach helped us address COVID-19—click here to listen.

President Biden’s Friday: Vacation in South Carolina.

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: The House is returning to Washington this weekend to vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, the Senate’s climate and tax bill that, as you know, contains harmful drug price controls. The House is expected to pass the bill; the vote could happen this afternoon.