Erika Ayers Badan: What Do You Want?
Please meet Cynthia Pong. She came to me by way of super-connector and personal board director an occasional SVU actor, Sarah Storm. Cynthia Pong packs…
Thought Leader: Erika Ayers Badan
Science by press release: When the story gets ahead of the science
By Sanjay Gupta (original source CNN)
A little more than three months after the World Health Organization officially declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic, it has become evident that both the research cycle and the news cycle have accelerated to levels never seen before in our lifetime.
According to the Milken Institute, there are at least 254 treatments and 172 vaccines currently in development to fight Covid-19. I’ve reported on many of them. Some of them are just being developed, like PAC-MAN, a new anti-viral treatment that uses the gene therapy technology CRISPR. Others are drugs finding a new life, like remdesivir, which initially showed effectiveness in treating animals with SARS and MERS, and was even trialed unsuccessfully for Ebola.
The media’s coverage of these developments has also been at “breakneck speed” — because finding any way to stall the spread of this disease is so imperative. For example, several scientists recently called me both on and off the record to relay their optimism that a vaccine could be available by the beginning of next year. It would be a remarkably fast process, given that vaccine development is typically measured in years or decades, not months. So this past week, I took a step back to dig deeper into the studies and look into the source of this optimism. I was surprised at how thin the available data actually is in peer-reviewed medical journals.
Click here to read more
Relevant and recent posts
Patrick McGee: Foreign Affairs Best Books of 2025
McGee, a Financial Times journalist, brings his investigative skills to bear on the fascinating history of how, over a quarter century, China and the technology…
Thought Leader: Patrick McGee
Dr. Sanjay Gupta: How to Identify Medical Misinformation
As a practicing neurosurgeon and CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta can spot false health claims from a mile away. Still, he recently became…
Thought Leader: Sanjay Gupta
More with this speaker
Dr. Sanjay Gupta: How to Identify Medical Misinformation
Thought Leader: Sanjay Gupta
Dr. Sanjay Gupta: How to Safely Store Your Leftovers
Thought Leader: Sanjay Gupta