Tag: Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security

Before FTX collapse, founder poured millions into pandemic prevention

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Before FTX collapse, founder poured millions into pandemic prevention (archived)

The Bankman-Frieds’ family foundation in February also committed $5 million to ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization, to support reporting focused on pandemic preparedness and biosecurity, including one-third of the grant delivered upfront. The funding has subsidized several staff and articles — including a high-profile story with Vanity Fair about the possibility that covid leaked from a Chinese laboratory, which frustrated some of the Bankman-Frieds’ pandemic advisers who pointed to criticism of its translations of Mandarin Chinese. ProPublica was told last week that the remaining two-thirds of the grant is being paused, a spokesperson confirmed.

Source.
OpenSecrets.

I Tested Positive for Covid-19. What Does That Really Mean?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

I Tested Positive for Covid-19. What Does That Really Mean?

Michael Mina, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard, believes there should be more focus on the so-called cycle threshold, the number of PCR amplification cycles required to produce a positive result. A high number of cycles suggests a low viral load. This may indicate that someone is at the beginning of an infection—or the end of one. If a person tests positive but is symptom-free, and a subsequent test shows a lower viral load, then they might not need to quarantine for as long. Public health experts increasingly are debating this idea. Some believe that a more nuanced picture could help control the spread of the disease by pinpointing the most infectious people and reducing the burden of quarantine for those who are not infectious. Others warn that the cycle threshold may not be a sufficiently reliable gauge of viral load, since it is influenced by the equipment, the chemistry, and the quality of the sample in each test.