U.S. TO REIN IN FLOOD OF VIRUS BLOOD TESTS AFTER LAX OVERSIGHT
WASHINGTON» U.S. regulators Monday pulled back a decision that allowed scores of coronavirus blood tests to hit the market without first providing proof that they worked.
The Food and Drug Administration said it took the action because some sellers have made false claims about the tests and their accuracy. Companies will now have to show their tests work or risk having them pulled from the market.
Under pressure to increase testing options, the FDA in March essentially allowed companies to begin selling tests as long as they notified the agency of their plans and provided disclaimers, including that they were not FDA approved. The policy was intended to allow “flexibility” needed to quickly ramp up production, officials said.
Senate secretary declines to release possible Reade report.
WASHINGTON» The secretary of the Senate has declined Joe Biden’s request to release any potential documents pertaining to an allegation of sexual assault against him from a former Senate staffer, citing confidentiality requirements under the law.
Biden made the request Friday after delivering his first public comments responding to the allegation from former staffer Tara Reade that he sexually assaulted her in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building in the spring of 1993. Biden has denied the allegation.
In response, the secretary of the Senate told Biden’s legal counsel in an email that after reviewing the Government Employee Rights Act of 1991 and a Senate resolution regarding the release of Senate records, “based on the law’s strict confidentiality requirements,” the Senate legal counsel has advised the Secretary “has no discretion to disclose any such information.”
Billions projected to suffer nearly unlivable heat in 2070.
MD.» In just 50 KENSINGTON, years, 2 billion to 3.5 billion people — mostly the poor who can’t afford air conditioning — will be living in a climate that historically has been too hot to handle, a new study said.
With every 1.8 degree Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) increase in global average annual temperature from manmade climate change, about a billion or so people will end up in areas too warm day-in, day-out to be habitable without cooling technology, according to ecologist Marten Scheffer of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, co-author of the study.
How many people will end up at risk depends on how much heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions are reduced and how fast the world population grows.
U.N.: U.S. hasn’t shared evidence on alleged coronavirus origin.
GENEVA» The World Health Organization’s emergencies chief said Monday that it has received no evidence from the U.S. government to back up allegations by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the coronavirus could have originated at a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
“From our perspective, this remains speculative,” Dr. Michael Ryan told reporters in Geneva.
He said WHO would be “very willing” to receive any such information the U.S. has.
World leaders pledge billions for virus vaccine research.
BRUSSELS» World leaders, organizations and banks on Monday pledged 7.4 billion euros ($8 billion) for research to find a vaccine against the new coronavirus, but warned that it is just the start of an effort that must be sustained over time to beat the disease.
The funds, pledged at a videoconference summit hosted by the European Union, fell marginally short of the 7.5 billion euros being sought, but more money could arrive in coming days. Notably absent from the event was the United States and Russia.