PREPARING FOR THE NEXT PANDEMIC

What’s being done -- and what’s missing -- as the world prepares for future pandemics

GREATER NEW YORK AREA, USA, November 16, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- With the expected autumn rise of COVID-19 cases, the question of how to prepare for the next, inevitable pandemic virus remains unanswered. The reality is the U.S. and the world are not as well prepared as they could be, because a critical risk is being ignored by most research and related funding.

Since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, Dr. Samuel Brauer, a scientist, has been providing briefings to Washington insiders and members of the NanoBusiness Commercialization Alliance (NBCA); many say his briefings were more helpful than any other information they received about the SARS CoV-2 virus (COVID-19). In his briefings, Dr. Brauer addressed the need for antivirals as treatment, the origins of the virus, mortality rates, mutations, control technologies, and more.

Now, Dr. Brauer is looking at how best to prepare for future viruses and pandemics.

In a new scientific paper, Dr. Brauer addresses research and preparedness. One key issue is that much of the research and funding is focused on viruses with a zoonotic origin, which presumes a virus is naturally occurring and comes from animals. What’s being ignored is the very real possibility of engineered viruses as shown by SARS CoV-2; the virus itself indicates COVID-19 was genetically engineered in a laboratory.

Dr. Brauer says, “Recent publications on how the virus infects cells provide strong support for a laboratory engineered origin, but many authors continue to deny and obfuscate the issue. It’s frustrating, and a black eye for the science community,” adding, “humans can lie, the virus cannot.”

While zoonotic spillovers do happen on occasion (see avian flu, swine flu, etc.) if the virus does not develop the capability of human-to-human transmission, the pandemic threat from these spillovers is limited. With advancements in technology, humans now have the ability to engineer viruses to infect humans more readily -- as evidenced by SARS CoV-2 and COVID-19. Distinguishing between natural and engineered viruses is becoming increasingly difficult.

“It’s a similar problem that now bedevils image analysis. With today’s technology it’s impossible to determine if a photograph depicts reality or has been manipulated; we have a similar problem with viruses,” says Dr. Brauer.

Laboratories capable of these feats of genetic engineering are multiplying quickly, and yet have far fewer safeguards than our nuclear arsenals; keep in mind about 20 million died globally from the virus compared to less than 200 thousand from the nuclear attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. The clear lesson from SARS CoV-2 is that there needs to be far greater scrutiny of gain of function research (making viruses more transmissible in humans) and the need to use not only vaccines, but other methods to decrease the severity of pandemics.

Dr. Brauer reminding us, “The COVID-19 pandemic shows the limitations of vaccines, when dealing with viruses that have an appreciable mutation rate.”

Different problems require different plans. The danger in focusing almost exclusively on viruses with zoonotic origins is it ignores the increasing possibility and capability of virus designers, leaving the world exposed and without the best responses for future pandemics. Engineered viruses have the potential to be more difficult to detect, faster moving, and more challenging to combat, hence the need to include them in research and planning.

Dr. Brauer is committed to helping the world prepare for future viruses and pandemics – stemming from any origin, natural or human-made.

About Dr. Brauer:

Samuel Brauer, Ph.D. is the founder of Nanotech Plus, LLC and co-founder of NanoBiz, LLC. His work includes looking at the intersection of nanotechnology and biology, and explaining nanotechnology in cancer diagnostics and on vaccine adjuvants. Dr. Brauer has led many projects involving antiviral drugs, psychiatric drugs, Parkinson's Disease cell therapies, alcoholic liver disease, and drug delivery systems. He received his doctorate from Dartmouth College in bioinorganic chemistry involving chromium carcinogenesis, with postdoctoral work at University of California - Davis. Dr. Brauer is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the NBCA for his Scientific Contribution to the Nanotechnology Community.

Ann
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