Dear Research Advocate, Researchers at Yale and George Mason University released a report this week reflecting Americans’ attitudes on climate change, including its impact on health. Queried in April, in the midst of the pandemic, respondents registered high levels of concern, surprising researchers who had anticipated the pandemic would have displaced climate as a top issue. That Americans link climate change and health correlates with our own survey data from earlier this year (pre-pandemic) in America Speaks! Poll Data Summary . Just released today, a new Pew Research Center report shows that a growing number of Americans, surveyed recently, say they have a “great deal of confidence in...

COVID-19 serology tests, also known as antibody tests, are currently receiving heightened attention and scrutiny. Why? Validated and correctly performed positive serology tests are a tool to confirm previous SARS-CoV2 (the virus causing COVID-19) infection and may indicate that a patient has built immunity to the virus. However, there are still questions we need to answer about the clinical effectiveness of serology testing to ensure that they yield accurate results. Additionally, scientists do not yet know for sure if a patient with a validated positive serology test is immune to reinfection by the virus. What Must Be Learned Before Serology Tests Can Be Used Effectively In the American...

Dear Research Advocate, On Tuesday, Research!America sent a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar asking him to clarify the decision to end NIH grant funding for an ongoing, EcoHealth Alliance research initiative focused on pandemic preparedness. We urge the Secretary to shed needed light on this significant (on many levels) decision. On Capitol Hill : House Democrats have released a draft emergency spending bill, the HEROES Act . This discussion draft includes $4 billion for the Office of the Director at NIH, of which “not less than $3 billion” would be set aside to help academic institutions absorb COVID-19 related shutdown and start-up costs. (This is $7 billion shy of the recovery costs NIH...

Dear Research Advocate, “Hopefully, the urgency that everyone is seeing around COVID-19 will translate into bigger investments for global health vaccines.” — Dr. Peter Hotez Renowned vaccinologist and prolific author Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and Co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, joined us yesterday for an alliance member call. Dr. Hotez spoke about the history of life-saving vaccines, COVID-19 vaccine development, and the alarming spread of the novel coronavirus across the southern hemisphere. He also spoke about the anti-science and anti-vaccine movements in our country and...