Important Innovations

  1st Pfizer/BioNTech COVID Vaccine,  Now Moderna Vaccine                                    Source: Moderna COVID Vaccine Moderna Vaccine is 94.5% Effective, Pfizer More than 90% More hope in the fight against the COVID-19 global pandemic.  Cambridge, MA based biotech Moderna reports that it has a COVID vaccine candidate that is 94.5% effective against the deadly virus .  COVID-19 has infected more than 55 million people and taken more than 1.3 million lives globally as of today.  Pfizer/Germany's BioNTech Vaccine Moderna has the second highly acclaimed vaccine candidate since Pfizer/BioNTech announced theirs a few days ago.  Pfizer claims their vaccine has a more than 90% effective rate. These vaccines have to be approved by regulatory authorities, but their results look very promising and are giving global medical experts hope of quick turnaround deployments. Dr. Anthony Fauci's Take The US's top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says that he is optimistic abou

Novel Flu Prevention Method Source:  Artist Rendering of the Bacteriophages German Scientific Discovery Scientists in Germany have invented a novel means of defeating the flu.  They've created non-infectious virus shells that the flu virus latches onto.  This essentially traps the flu virus and prevents it from causing infection. Highly Effective The virus shells, created by the scientists, are called bacteriophages or simply phages.  They act as a trap for the flu virus by mimicking lung cells, which is the normal target of the flu virus.  The shells encapsulate the flu virus, thereby rendering it ineffective.  Mathematical models show the non-infectious phages to work effectively against a number of flu strains, including the deadly Avian flu virus.  Tests in animal models and cell cultures showed the phages neutralizing the flu in human lung tissue, preventing the flu from taking hold and spreading infection. Next Steps This is a very promisin

Chinese Scientists Developing Promising Treatment Source:  Stock image of coronavirus "Extremely Effective" Antibodies Discovered to Fight the Disease A team of Chinese scientists at Tsinghau University in Beijing have isolated several antibodies that are "extremely effective" at blocking the coronavirus from entering cells.  They believe they may be on the right track for treating and even preventing the disease.  Globally, more than 850,000 have been infected by COVID-19 and 42,000 have died.  To date, there is no known, effective and proven treatment for the disease which originated in Wuhan, China Next Steps to Mass Production The team analyzed blood from patients who recovered from the coronavirus.  They pinpointed 206  antibodies with a strong  ability to bind with the virus' protein. Of that group 4 antibodies blocked the virus from entering cells and two are exceedingly effective at doing that.  The Chinese scientists are now work

Developing Customized Software to Combat It Source:  DARPA Disinformation Attacks Becoming More Technologically Innovative The U.S. Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA, is launching a project to thwart large-scale disinformation attacks.  DARPA considers these automated fake news attacks and fake social media posts as a threat to national security.  The new program's goal is to develop and deploy customized software to immediately spot fake news disinformation. Experts say the pace of innovation in new means to hack and disseminate disinformation is unprecedented. Massive News Scanning and Evaluation by Algorithms DARPA is now in discussions with software developers to design the system.  The Pentagon's R&D center wants to put the potential systems through rigorous testing.  The algorithm testing/detection process will scan and evaluate 250,000 news reports, 250,000 social media posts with 5,000 fake news items put into the mix.  The