| | | | |  | | By Carmen Paun, Gregory Svirnovskiy, Ruth Reader, Daniel Payne and Erin Schumaker | | | | |  Developing countries had to wait for Covid shots, and may have to wait again when the next pandemic comes. | Getty Images | The Biden administration’s plan for combating the next pandemic involves aid to low- and middle-income countries but no new commitments to share the intellectual property undergirding vaccines and treatments. The White House released a new global health security strategy this week that focuses on helping 50 low- and middle-income nations beef up their capacity to detect and respond to disease outbreaks before they spread. At the same time, the latest draft text of an agreement under negotiation at the World Health Organization doesn’t include language requiring that nations share intellectual property. That’s at the U.S.’ and other rich countries’ request. More aid planned: The global health security strategy includes a plan to encourage other G-7 countries — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the U.K. — to help 50 additional countries prepare for the next pandemic, bringing the total to 100 by the end of this year. The U.S. International Development Finance Corp., an arm of the federal government that helps fund development efforts overseas, is working with financial institutions in the other G-7 countries to make money available at the start of an outbreak so that low- and middle-income countries can get vaccines, tests and treatments quicker. As it has in the past, the U.S. also plans to help raise money this year for the Pandemic Fund, which is hosted by the World Bank and provides money to developing countries to improve their pandemic prevention and preparedness. Even so: The new aid comes as countries struggle to compromise on the international agreement that would establish nations’ obligations in the event of another pandemic. Negotiators have extended talks at the WHO in Geneva ahead of a May deadline as they try to work out the specifics around the sharing of intellectual property and disease data. The latest draft treaty defers key decisions on pathogen data access until 2026 while sticking to voluntary measures on intellectual-property sharing, POLITICO’s Rory O’Neill reports. “Our strategy is designed to remain adaptable while upholding our core principles and objectives of equity and partnership,” Loyce Pace, HHS assistant secretary of global affairs, told Carmen via email.
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Asheville, N.C. | Shawn Zeller/POLITICO | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Wine in a can is convenient and better for the environment than glass bottles, but if the wine corrodes the can, it can give off a rotten egg smell. Cornell University food scientists are on the case, working hard to develop a thicker lining for wine cans that prevents corrosion without compromising sustainability, according to a new study. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com, Daniel Payne at dpayne@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp.
| | |  UVA researchers are sharing their AI heart disease tool for free. | Win McNamee/Getty Images | University of Virginia researchers are using artificial intelligence to predict outcomes for heart failure patients. And now they’re making that technology available to outside clinicians free of charge. Talking about tech: The new tool, dubbed CARNA, was trained on clinical data from thousands of heart failure cases and combines machine learning and AI to determine the likely effects of heart surgery or transplant for individual patients. Why it matters: Nearly 7 million Americans ages 20 and older are living with heart failure, a number expected to grow to 8.5 million by 2030. Hundreds of thousands of new cases arise every year. What they’re saying: “This model presents a breakthrough because it ingests complex sets of data and can make decisions even among missing and conflicting factors,” said Josephine Lamp, one of the study’s researchers, in a release.
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Pallone is holding out for tougher social media rules. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | Bipartisan bills in Congress to impose new regulations on social media firms to protect kids’ privacy and mental health face a major hurdle with House Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.). How’s that? Pallone’s holding out for tougher rules than his colleagues — including leading progressives — propose. During a hearing of his panel yesterday, Pallone said the Childrens’ and Teens Online Privacy and Protection Act, sponsored by Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) in the House and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in the Senate, isn’t tough enough. The bill seeks to update an old law that offers basic online data protections to kids under 13 years old by expanding coverage to older teens and ensuring that social media companies obtain consent for data collection. The new measure “offers a nod to data minimization but leaves websites and apps largely free to collect, use, and disclose minors’ information after obtaining consent from a teen or the parent of a child,” Pallone said. Shifting alliances: Pallone has said he also isn’t satisfied with another bill that would set a national data privacy standard that’s sponsored by Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), and Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). Pallone called their draft “very strong,” but also said he wanted to offer stronger protections for children. Pallone worked with Rodgers on a previous version of that bill that Cantwell opposed because it would have preempted some state laws to set a national standard. The new version from Cantwell and Rodgers would also preempt some state laws, but the sponsors say it sets a tougher standard than any state currently has. Why it matters: Legislators and care providers are concerned that social media is contributing to a mounting youth mental health crisis. Advocacy groups are pushing for both state and federal legislators to pass laws that force companies to design a safer web. In the absence of federal action, there is a growing patchwork of data privacy laws across states. What’s next? Despite bipartisan support, advocates of regulating social media in Congress still aren’t close to passing legislation. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
