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China Fails to Provide Flu Samples to U.S. Researchers

posted by chromas on Wednesday August 29 2018, @04:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the butt-heads-on-trade-agreements dept.

takyon writes:

The Chinese government appears to be withholding samples of the bird flu virus H7N9, requested by U.S. researchers:

The samples are critical for studying the virus and developing life-saving treatments and vaccines in preparation for potential outbreaks or pandemics. Usually, countries share viral samples "in a timely manner" without any fanfare under an agreement established by the World Health Organization to address such potential flu threats. That usually means a matter of months.

But according to The New York Times, China has failed to share the samples for more than a year, despite persistent requests from government officials and researchers, including those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Moreover, scientists and experts worry that, as the US and China continue to butt heads on trade agreements, the issue of sharing biological samples and other medical-related materials could worsen.

We can make our own flu, and send them live samples.

Also at The New York Times.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by axsdenied on Thursday August 30 2018, @01:30AM (5 children)

    by axsdenied (384) on Thursday August 30 2018, @01:30AM (#728093)

    Now you are contradicting yourself. Let me quote two statements from you:

    The flu vaccines dont work anyway...

    and

    It was that vaccine effectiveness more recently is reported to be closer to 35% than the 70%...

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @02:39AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @02:39AM (#728121)

    Yes, that was one paper that I skimmed... I also went on to site the 2018 cochrane review which concludes these studies seem to have issues:

    Conclusions favourable to the use of influenza vaccines
    were associated with a higher risk of bias. The authors of
    studies in this review made claims and drew conclusions that were
    unsupported by the data they presented.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @02:49AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @02:49AM (#728130)

      site -> cite

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @11:45AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @11:45AM (#728227)

      So the fact that they assessed bias and attempted to correct for it means that the review is wrong?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @12:41PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @12:41PM (#728245)

        No? Sorry, I have no idea what you are talking about.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @02:44AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @02:44AM (#728125)

    I don't take any of these claims I am citing to be fact if that is how you are thinking... but, at best, what these vaccines have to offer me sounds very limited. So Im not going to run off to pay big pharma for it (or get someone else to pay for me).