Experts call for global genetic warning system to combat the next pandemic and antimicrobial resistance (medicalxpress.com)

...genomic surveillance could do much more to reduce the toll of disease and death worldwide than just protect us from COVID-19. Writing in Frontiers in Science, an international collective of clinical and public health microbiologists from the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) calls for investment in technology, capacity, expertise, and collaboration to put genomic surveillance of pathogens at the forefront of future pandemic preparedness.

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Monkeypox virus: dangerous strain gains ability to spread through sex, new data suggest Nature - A cluster of mpox cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo sparks worries of a wider outbreak. Kozlov, Max nature

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Evidence from past outbreaks indicates that this strain, called clade I, is more lethal than the separate strain that sparked the 2022 outbreak. Clade I has for decades caused small outbreaks, often limited to a few households or communities, in Central Africa. Sexually acquired clade I infections had not been reported before last year.

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Global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives over the past 50 years A major landmark study reveals that global immunization efforts have saved an estimated 154 million lives – or the equivalent of 6 lives every minute of every year – over the past 50 years. The vast majority of lives saved – 101 million – were those of infants.

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Massive amounts of H5N1 vaccine would be needed if there's a bird flu pandemic. Can we make enough? The first signs that H5N1 avian flu was starting to spread from person to person would trigger a race to produce massive amounts of vaccine. Helen Branswell STAT

There is no way to predict if the virus will acquire the capacity to spread between people, or when and under what conditions it would make that fateful leap if it does.