Our Scans · Pandemics · Weekly Summary

• [New] Drugmakers forecast next-biggest thing in weight loss medications; Medicare's looming GLP-1 coverage could overwhelm doctors; Moderna is developing an investigational mRNA vaccine amid the Ebola outbreak. MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
• [New] As climate change intensifies weather variations across the tropics, a new study offers important insights into how shifting temperature and precipitation patterns influence dengue risk in Costa Rica - and provides a practical framework for predicting disease outbreaks at the district level. The Microbiologist
• [New] Under the high-emission SSP5 - 8.5 scenario, certain districts could see dengue cases rise by approximately 42 cases compared to historical baselines (1985-2015) by mid-century (2035-2065). The Microbiologist
• [New] Doctors battling a rare strain of Ebola in central Africa will probably need to wait many months for a vaccine to be ready for human trials. The Sydney Morning Herald
• [New] The risk of contracting Ebola is not nonzero, but it's low, very low, because it is not easy to transmit person to person. Skift Meetings
• [New] A cruise ship outbreak of hantavirus has rattled the public and reignited fears of another global health scare as passengers disperse across multiple countries, including the U.S. CNBC
• [New] Speakers emphasized that ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 remains possible, but only if countries sustain investments, strengthen domestic financing, and institutionalize support for communities most affected by HIV. George W. Bush Presidential Center
• [New] In order to end HIV and AIDS as public health threats by 2030, a genuinely impactful approach must place the most vulnerable at its core while championing human rights and gender equality and tackling stigma and discrimination. EEAS
• [New] Expanding pharmacy-based HIV prevention services could increase PrEP access points by as much as 80-fold in the southeastern U.S. since nearly 90% of Americans live within five miles of a pharmacy. EurekAlert!
• [New] Current platforms and product development pathways are insufficient to achieve the APPP goal of developing a vaccine within 100 days after a pandemic threat appears, and producing enough vaccine for the U.S. population by 130 days and the world by 200 days. PubMed Central (PMC)
• [New] Vetted developers and US government partners working on pandemic preparedness, biosecurity threat identification, and public health research are eligible. Build Fast with AI
• [New] The WHO has declared an international public health emergency for the outbreak, which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned could swell to become the largest Ebola epidemic on record, rivalling the 2014-2016 epidemic in West Africa. Al Jazeera
• [New] U.S. health regulators cleared use of retooled Covid-19 vaccines that target the latest versions of Omicron, in preparation for a fall booster campaign that could start within days. The Council of Industry
• [New] To rebuild trust and advance equity, the world requires independent pandemic risk monitoring, equitable access to countermeasures, and sustainable financing, enabled by sustained political attention. GPMB
• [New] The latest Ebola figures from the Democratic Republic of Congo appear to offer some hope after the number of cases was dramatically scaled back. BBC News
• [New] The key to preventing a bigger outbreak will depend on fencing in the screwworm fly, which has been gradually spreading north through Mexico over the past year. Insurance Journal
• [New] The US Department of Agriculture is racing to contain the deadly New World screwworm after a case was detected in Texas, where a broader outbreak could threaten an already-small domestic cattle herd. Insurance Journal
• [New] A major concern is that an AI-designed pathogen could intentionally or unintentionally spark a global pandemic. Wired
• [New] Addition of child or infant vaccination with four doses of the RTS, S vaccine candidate to existing malaria interventions in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to be cost-effective in 35 out of 41 countries using a cost-effectiveness threshold of 1 × GDP per capita. PubMed Central (PMC)
• [New] Though Westerners imagine they live in some sort of representative democracy or constitutional republic, the prevalent form of government throughout the globe is functional oligarchy, and that functional oligarchy often uses war and other SCADs, like fake pandemics, to achieve its goals. Unlimited Hangout

Last updated: 19 June 2026