Hopes, Hesitancy and the Risky Business of Vaccine Development

Recent policy conversations about vaccination programmes primarily target the problem of vaccine hesitancy and the lack of public participation at the level required for community immunity, or herd immunity. In this editorial we will first explore the nature of public vaccine hesitancy, review what is known and demonstrate the significance of understanding vaccine hesitancy in the COVID-19 context. We argue that sociological research indicates that to sufficiently grasp vaccine hesitancy in the twenty-first century it is necessary to consider several aspects: the nature of medical decision-making, trust, risk and social responsibility, and the role of information technology and various forms of media. There are also questions about what influences the (successful) development and provision of a vaccine – issues that have been brought sharply into focus by the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, in the second half of the editorial we move to consider the supply side of vaccination. We examine what shapes this configuration and consider the role of key players such as those who manufacture the vaccines and, in turn, those who regulate development, again with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemi

The Disparate Approaches of General Practitioners to the Pharmaceuticalisation of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention

In the context of current clinical practice guidance, this paper will analyse the role of GPs in decision-making about the primaryprevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) using the concept of pharmaceuticalisation. Drawing on thematic analysis ofsemi-structured interviews with 20 GPs, the paper argues that the way GPs approach CVD pharmaceuticalisation is shaped bytheir understandings of and use of guidelines (and the knowledge they embody), existing treatment perspectives and the moralqualities of preventative treatment, and professional evaluations of ‘relevant’ information. The analysis indicates that there existdisparate and distinct approaches to and understandings of CVD pharmaceuticalisation amongst GPs. Depending on how knowledge,treatment perspectives and values variously combine, GPs sit somewhere on a spectrum of how pharmaceuticalised they are interms of the approaches to and understandings of the prevention of CVD

All for Vaccination ? Vaccination for All?

It is the purpose of this article to review and assert the utility of sociological knowledge about vaccines. Building on our previous work, we also want to pose a range of, as yet, unanswered questions about COVID-19 vaccination and thus offer an agenda for sociological research. Alongside exploring the social influences on vaccine hesitancy, we also argue that to effectively control the COVID-19 pandemic sociological analysis is also required of the processes of development and regulation of COVID-19 vaccines and of inequalities in the access to and availability of vaccines

Covid 19 and Deprivation: Levelling Upstream

COVID-19 and its socio-economic and public health impact has provided the opportunity for the government to seriously pursue its stated political aim of levelling up.The greater risk of serious illness and death experienced by poorer and marginalised socio-economic groups have been reflected and exacerbated directly by COVID-19. Thus, there is a clear need to refocus policies further upstream digging deeper into the structural causes of absolute and relative deprivation

A comprehensive candidate gene approach identifies genetic variation associated with osteosarcoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Osteosarcoma (OS) is a bone malignancy which occurs primarily in adolescents. Since it occurs during a period of rapid growth, genes important in bone formation and growth are plausible modifiers of risk. Genes involved in DNA repair and ribosomal function may contribute to OS pathogenesis, because they maintain the integrity of critical cellular processes. We evaluated these hypotheses in an OS association study of genes from growth/hormone, bone formation, DNA repair, and ribosomal pathways.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We evaluated 4836 tag-SNPs across 255 candidate genes in 96 OS cases and 1426 controls. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twelve SNPs in growth or DNA repair genes were significantly associated with OS after Bonferroni correction. Four SNPs in the DNA repair gene <it>FANCM </it>(ORs 1.9-2.0, <it>P </it>= 0.003-0.004) and 2 SNPs downstream of the growth hormone gene <it>GH1 </it>(OR 1.6, <it>P </it>= 0.002; OR 0.5, <it>P </it>= 0.0009) were significantly associated with OS. One SNP in the region of each of the following genes was significant: <it>MDM2</it>, <it>MPG</it>, <it>FGF2</it>, <it>FGFR3</it>, <it>GNRH2</it>, and <it>IGF1</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results suggest that several SNPs in biologically plausible pathways are associated with OS. Larger studies are required to confirm our findings.</p

The number of tree species on Earth

One of the most fundamental questions in ecology is how many species inhabit the Earth. However, due to massive logistical and financial challenges and taxonomic difficulties connected to the species concept definition, the global numbers of species, including those of important and well-studied life forms such as trees, still remain largely unknown. Here, based on global ground sourced data, we estimate the total tree species richness at global, continental, and biome levels. Our results indicate that there are ∼73,000 tree species globally, among which ∼9,000 tree species are yet to be discovered. Roughly 40% of undiscovered tree species are in South America. Moreover, almost one-third of all tree species to be discovered may be rare, with very low populations and limited spatial distribution (likely in remote tropical lowlands and mountains). These findings highlight the vulnerability of global forest biodiversity to anthropogenic changes in land use and climate, which disproportionately threaten rare species and thus, global tree richness. Please note an (erratum/corrigendum) for this article is available via https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.220278411

Science from an Ultra-Deep, High-Resolution Millimeter-Wave Survey

Opening up a new window of millimeter-wave observations that span frequency bands in the range of 30 to 500 GHz, survey half the sky, and are both an order of magnitude deeper (about 0.5 uK-arcmin) and of higher-resolution (about 10 arcseconds) than currently funded surveys would yield an enormous gain in understanding of both fundamental physics and astrophysics. In particular, such a survey would allow for major advances in measuring the distribution of dark matter and gas on small-scales, and yield needed insight on 1.) dark matter particle properties, 2.) the evolution of gas and galaxies, 3.) new light particle species, 4.) the epoch of inflation, and 5.) the census of bodies orbiting in the outer Solar System.Comment: 5 pages + references; Submitted to the Astro2020 call for science white paper