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

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.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @12:33PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @12:33PM (#728242)

    The previous year's vaccine was limited in effectiveness due to a mutation producing a glycosylation site

    Was this predicted beforehand, or did they notice the vaccine didnt work and then go look for an excuse?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @01:52PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @01:52PM (#728253)

    IIRC they noticed during production/QC before the season began when they were doing HA neutralizing assays. The antibodies worked, but not as well as normal or compared to non-egg, in vitro produced vaccine that produce fully glycosylated surface proteins. It's worth noting that this was for one of the A strains (the vaccine includes 3-4 A strains and influenza B).