Archives: Morning Breakouts

The U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity on "Tuesday asked two scientific journals to leave out data from research studies on a lab-made version of bird flu that could spread more easily to humans, fearing it could be used as a potential weapon," Reuters reports (Steenhuysen, 12/20). The board "recommended that the journals Science and Nature publish only the general discoveries, not the full blueprint for these man-made strains," the Associated Press notes (Neergaard, 12/20). "Editors at the journals ... say they will not agree to the redactions until they are assured the data will be accessible to researchers" according to BBC News (12/20).

GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney used a TV appearance to take on rival candidate Newt Gingrich regarding a range of policy and political issues. Meanwhile, aides to President Barack Obama blasted Romney for shying away from the similarities between Massachusetts' health reforms and the 2010 health law. Negative ads also flood the Iowa airwaves.

The New York Times analyzes the Obama administration's approach to implementing the health law at the state level.

Reaching the Millennium Development Goal of "[r]educing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015" likely will be reached, "but large numbers of people in the world's least developed regions will still not benefit," according to a report (.pdf) released Tuesday by UNICEF and the WHO, the U.N. News Centre reports (12/20). The report "found that between 1990 and 2008, the proportion of the world's population with access to improved drinking water sources increased from 77 percent to 87 percent," which means 1.8 billion more people have drinking water access, according to Medical Daily (Daley, 12/20).

"Philippine authorities are warning of the spread of diseases in cramped evacuation centers, days after flash floods hit the southern Philippines and claimed more than a thousand lives," ABC/Asia Pacific News reports, noting that flooding also has affected the country's northern provinces, displacing at least 50,000 people (Escalante, 12/20). Tropical Storm Washi "hit the main southern island of Mindanao over the weekend, bringing heavy rains, flash floods and overflowing rivers that swept whole coastal villages away," forcing 44,000 people to evacuate the area, Agence France-Presse/Inquirer News writes (Celis, 12/21). Officials say hundreds of thousands of people are in need of humanitarian assistance, and the U.N. has stepped up its efforts in the area, the U.N. News Centre reports (12/20).

March 27 will be the day for two hours of arguments over the provision, which starting in 2014 will require most Americans to carry health insurance or pay a penalty. The high court is expected to announce its decision by the end of June.

The FY12 Appropriations Agreement recently passed by Congress includes reinstatements of bans on the domestic and international use of federal funds for needle-exchange programs, the Haiwai'i News Daily reports (Smith, 12/20). The following summarizes several opinion and blog pieces on the issue.

Inter Press Service profiles the Garissa Maternal Shelter in North Eastern Province, Kenya, "the only such facility in an area with the country's highest maternal mortality rate." The news service writes, "At 1,000 deaths per 100,000 live births, [the maternal mortality rate] is almost double the country's average, [b]ut despite this, there are only seven women here in a facility that can accommodate 24."