Scientists at Kansas State University are working with a biopharmaceutical company to advance a COVID-19 vaccine based on weakened bovine parainfluenza 3 virus invented by Waithaka Mwangi, a professor of diagnostic pathobiology in the university’s College of Veterinary Medicine…

Jul 13, 2020

MANHATTAN — Kansas State University has signed a new preclinical research and option agreement with Tonix Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, to develop a vaccine candidate for the prevention of COVID-19.

The inventor of the technology, Waithaka Mwangi, professor of diagnostic pathobiology in the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine, will direct the research, which is based on a new vaccine platform that his research team developed for bovine parainfluenza 3 virus, known as BPI3V, which is closely related to human parainfluenza 3 virus.

“A weakened BPI3V has previously been shown to be an effective vaccine vehicle in humans. More importantly, following extensive testing, BPI3V was shown to be safe and stable in infants and children,” Mwangi said. “The vector is well suited for mucosal immunization using a nasal atomizer, but it can also be injected. Therefore, BPI3V is suitable for development of COVID-19 vaccine candidates.” …

“… Meanwhile,  country-director of WWF-Cambodia Seng Teak says the organisation is advocating the “One Health” approach, an initiative that links the health of the people and conservation of animals and promotes the need to heal human-nature relationship to avert future pandemics. …”

“World Bank: Safeguarding Animal, Human and Ecosystem Health: One Health at the World Bank (7/9).”

“If human history were a clock, it’s One Health O’clock.”

“ … Driving the news: The United Nations Environment Program issued a report this week outlining steps to prevent spillovers and encouraging governments to adopt a “One Health” approach to humans, animals and the environment.

• Countries need to be all working on the same page and make sure “that the human disease surveillance systems are sophisticated and sensitive enough that they can catch any cases that do spillover to humans,” says Julie Fischer, senior technical adviser to the Global Health Security Agenda Consortium. …”

One Health: Virology in action https://aphascience.blog.gov.uk/2020/07/06/virology-in-action/

Dr. Sharon Brookes, Lead Scientist for Animal and Zoonotic Viral Diseases

FREE enrollment ONE HEALTH Princeton University, 1^st of its kind online course starts today July2 2020: “Bats, Ducks, and Pandemics: An Introduction to One Health Policy” https://www.coursera.org/learn/onehealth/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=other&utm_campaign=opencourse.zegVDcOAEemOARJ_oF_sig.launch

By Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP

“…A new Department of Health Security based on the One Health approach would ensure that health and well-being would become one of the federal government’s top priorities. By highlighting the limitations of the siloed federal approach to human disease, the environment, and agriculture, COVID-19 has created an opening for the next administration to do something different. …”

“The mutual dependence of human and animal health is central to the One Health initiative as an integrated strategy for infectious disease control and management. A crucial element of the One Health includes preparation and response to influenza A virus (IAV) threats at the human-animal interface. …”

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The global human suffering, economic damage, and social disruption we are currently experiencing from the COVID-19 pandemic stem from inadequate preparedness and ineffective response to emerging pathogens. At its core, the COVID-19 pandemic is a consequence of our fundamental ignorance of our planet’s natural ecosystems and the effects of our encroachment on them. Our reactive approaches to the emergence of zoonotic pathogens, which are responsible for approximately 75% of all new emerging infectious disease outbreaks, are too often based on limited knowledge of the origin, pathogenicity, and basic biology of the wild host and pathogen coupled with poor communication among relevant stakeholders. Others have pointed to this ignorance of viral diversity and offered solutions (Andersen et al. 2020), but a broad, fully integrative discussion of how to leverage existing infrastructure and to build new resources has been missing. In the present article, we call for the development of alternative tactics that are aimed at proactively meeting the daunting challenges to humanity posed by emerging zoonotic pathogens.

The potential role of natural history specimens in pathogen discovery and mitigation is recognized in the museum world (DiEuliis et al. 2016, Dunnum et al. 2017) and by at least some disease ecologists (e.g., Mills and Childs 1998). However, relatively few in the One Health community (e.g., Kelly et al. 2020) embrace the value of leveraging existing biodiversity infrastructure (i.e., natural history collections, biorepositories, and their associated expertise and informatics resources) to more fully understand zoonotic pathogen emergence and reemergence. This concept is not new; in the early 1900 s, the American Museum of Natural History created the Department of Public Health (Brown 2014). Although a lack of funding put an early end to the initiative, the Department of Public Health made extensive progress, from clever exhibitions for the public to assembling a living collection of bacterial cultures (Brown 2014). Renewed efforts to align pathobiology with biodiversity discovery initiatives are critical. Moreover, linking both biodiversity infrastructure and building capacity closer to zoonotic pathogen surveys in biodiverse countries would substantially improve proactive responses to pandemics before they once again wreak havoc across the globe.”

JUNE 26 2020…This letter was sent to the Senate HELP Committee on behalf of the informal coalition of One Health partner organizations.

“…Now, more than ever, after seeing the devastation of the current zoonotic disease pandemic, the federal government must adopt a coordinated, One Health framework to prepare for and respond to the next infectious disease outbreak. We urge the HELP Committee to embrace and approve the One Health Act of 2019 so it can proceed to the Senate Floor for a full vote.”

… “We must prevent this from happening again,” said Dr. Gerald Parker, Director of the Pandemic and Biosecurity Policy Program at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service. “This is not going to be our last pandemic.”

Dr. Peter Hotez, a Hagler Institute scholar at Texas A&M and a vaccine researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, agreed with the need for a bipartisan inquiry.” …

“ … Hotez, a physician, is one of the globe’s most influential people in health care through his work at Baylor and as co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.

Parker, a veterinary scientist, is one of the nation’s top experts on defending against emerging public health threats after serving in bio defense leadership positions at the U.S. Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services. He also is associate dean for Global One Health at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences. …”

“… Around two-thirds of CGIAR’s existing research portfolio is already directly relevant to tackling the coronavirus outbreak. The work of most immediate relevance encompasses four research pillars: (1) food systems, (2) One Health (the human-animal-environment health interface), (3) inclusive public programs for food security and nutrition and (4) policies and investments for crisis response, economic recovery and improved future resilience. …”

“Thanks to a Cummings Foundation $100,000 grant, The Fletcher School at Tufts University will launch a Global One Health Diplomacy Initiative dedicated to identifying holistic, interdisciplinary solutions to complex global health problems. The Initiative seeks to meet the need for effective global health diplomacy by combining The Fletcher School’s distinctive strengths in international law and diplomacy, social justice, and international peace and security, with the expertise in health and nutrition science, and human and veterinary medicine at Tufts’ health sciences schools. …”