Science Controversies
China sidesteps global safety norms, injecting thousands with potentially risky COVID vaccines
The world still lacks a proven coronavirus vaccine, but that has not stopped Chinese officials from trying to inoculate tens ...
‘Brussels Effect’: Europe’s CRISPR crop rules may have ‘costly’ international economic impacts
The CJEU decision of July 2018 has far‐reaching economic implications, given that products derived through the application of NPBTs are ...
Gene drive system that can eliminate many transmissible diseases, from Zika to Yellow Fever, likely now can be done with little or no risk
Although the newest gene drives have been proven to spread efficiently as designed in laboratory settings, concerns have been raised ...
Your personal genomic profile could guide treatment if you contract COVID
Over the past few months, a number of drugs have been under investigation to treat COVID-19 without well-established safety or data to ...
COVID logistics nightmare: Developing a vaccine might be easy compared to shipping vials at -112°F to hundreds of millions of people around the globe
Drug companies will have to develop a safe and effective vaccine. Billions of people will have to consent to vaccination ...
Biden says he would revive US project to track animal viruses shelved by Trump administration last year
Joseph R. Biden Jr. has promised that, if elected, he will restore [a] program, called Predict, which searched for dangerous new ...
COVID vaccines for children need to be vetted more carefully and may not be ready for a full year
Thanks to the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed and other programs, a number of Covid-19 vaccines for adults are already in advanced ...
Viewpoint: Organic industry’s fear-based case against CRISPR undermines sustainable farming
Welcome to the GMO Debate, part 2 ...
Viewpoint: AI ethics guidelines will fail unless they account for regional and cultural differences
AI systems have repeatedly been shown to cause problems that disproportionately affect marginalized groups while benefiting a privileged few. The ...
52% of UK consumers say farmers should have access to gene-edited crops, survey finds
The public have highlighted their worry over the fragility of the food system in the face of Covid-19, climate change ...
US and China buck WHO-backed global effort to expand access to COVID vaccine
Countries representing about 64% of the world population have signed up to expand global access to Covid-19 vaccines by funding ...
Easy-to-administer single shot COVID vaccine from Johnson & Johnson in final phase testing
[An] experimental vaccine being developed by pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson is the fourth vaccine to enter the large, Phase 3 ...
Viewpoint: Anti-Monsanto film ‘Percy’ promotes public confusion about crop biotech
Percy Schmeiser, a farmer from [Saskatchewan, Canada], has the real-life role of David in the movie adaptation of a reality ...
Chinese coronavirus quackery: Authoritarian government forces use of Traditional Chinese Medicine – TCM – to treat COVID
The government in China’s far northwest Xinjiang region is resorting to draconian measures to combat the coronavirus, including physically locking ...
Viewpoint: Coronavirus exposes why the UN is unfit to mobilize international cooperation, says Council on Foreign Relations head
The United Nations has fallen far short of its goals to “maintain international peace and security,” “develop friendly relations among ...
Geopolitical COVID challenge: China and Russia providing not-fully-vetted vaccines, targeting the Middle East
China's Sinopharm announced [September 14] that it would provide emergency doses of one of its two trial vaccines to the ...
CDC guidance in turmoil over conflicting evidence whether COVID can be transmitted through the air over longer distances
[On Monday, September 21,] the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention edited its Web page describing how the novel coronavirus spreads, ...
Viewpoint: Mexican government undermining science and agriculture
Over the last two years, the Mexican government led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador (who goes by his initials, AMLO) ...
COVID vaccine side effects are real. Here’s what you should know
There are several coronavirus vaccines that are currently in Phase 3 clinical trials. For vaccines, this final experimental stage requires ...
Viewpoint: US faces policy nightmare if China wins race to produce a safe, effective COVID vaccine
It’s very possible a Chinese [COVID-19] vaccine could be the first to succeed in Phase III trials. If Warp Speed ...
How the World Health Organization fumbled its preparations for a global pandemic
The WHO spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars honing a globe-spanning system of defenses against a pandemic it ...
Gene-edited, blight-resistant rice approved by USDA, Colombian regulators
The Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have approved a genetically edited rice resistant ...
Assessing Operation Warp Speed: What’s working, what’s not
Is [Operation Warp Speed] working? Roughly five months after top U.S. health officials coalesced around the idea of a public-private ...
World’s first nasal COVID vaccine in Phase 3 testing in China
Intranasal spray has previously been developed as a vaccine for the flu and is recommended for use among children and adults who ...
Promoting CRISPR crops at the expense of GMOs is short-sighted when we need both
With an ever-growing CRISPR genome-editing toolbox, scientists are creating crops that can resist diseases and pests, withstand global warming, and ...
Rushing the roll out of vaccines has led to past US health disasters
[Vaccine experts’] concern that the FDA may be moving too quickly heightened when FDA Commissioner Dr. Steven Hahn told the ...
US appears ill-prepared to support COVID vaccine rollout
In a four-page memo this summer, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told health departments across the country to draft ...
