A crucial federal program tracking dangerous diseases is shutting down
A crucial federal program tracking dangerous diseases is shutting down
Predict, a pandemic preparedness program, thrived under Bush and Obama. Now it’s canceled.
By Kelsey Piper on October 29, 2019 8:00
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/future-perfect/2019/10/29/20936921/usaid-predict-pandemic-preparedness?__twitter_impression=true
"SNIP.....
Most of the deadliest diseases to affect humanity leap to human hosts from other animals. The 1918 flu pandemic likely came from birds. HIV likely jumped from a similar virus in chimpanzees and other monkeys. Recent Ebola outbreaks have come from bats, rats, and gorillas.
Ever since the 2005 H5N1 bird flu scare, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has run a project to track and research these diseases, called Predict. At a cost of $207 million during its existence, the program has collected more than 100,000 samples and found nearly 1,000 novel viruses, including a new Ebola virus.
But on Friday, the New York Times reported that the US government is shutting down the program. According to its former director Dennis Carroll, the program enjoyed enthusiastic support under Bush and Obama, but “things got complicated” in the last few years until the program “essentially collapsed.”
Some aspects of the program — it’s unclear which — will be continued under different auspices in other departments of the government. But the core program — working with local researchers around the world to collect samples and better understand viruses in animals — is over.
......SNIP"
= new reply since forum marked as read
