Tag: pandemic

Study Tests Masks to Prevent Flu Pandemic

Flu season is here. And this year the campus at the University of Michigan will be teeming with students wearing surgical masks. But it’s not a sign that a pandemic has hit the US. Tracy Samilton reports:

Transcript

Flu season is here. And this year the campus at the University of Michigan will be teeming with students wearing surgical masks. But it’s not a sign that a pandemic has hit the US. Tracy Samilton reports:


The students will be participating in a massive study to determine if wearing surgical masks really helps to cut down on the risk of getting the flu. University of Michigan researcher Arnold Monto says wearing a mask may end up having only a small effect. But he says it’s still important to know for sure.


“The reason these kinds of differences may be very important is they’re easier to implement than taking medication, so even if it has a very small effect it will end up having a major impact when we do have the inevitable pandemic.”


Students will be expected to wear surgical masks in the dorms, and they’ll be encouraged to wear them everywhere they go. The study will last for six weeks, the expected duration of the flu season.


For the Environment Report, I’m Tracy Samilton.

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Scientists Propose Sharing Bird Flu Data

A group of flu scientists and health officials want to end secrecy over avian flu data. The group says some scientists and governments are keeping flu data hidden. The GLRC’s
Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

A group of flu scientists and health officials want to end secrecy over avian flu data. The
group says some scientists and governments are keeping flu data hidden. The GLRC’s
Lester Graham reports:


Some data on avian flu outbreaks are restricted by governments, or kept private within small
groups of researchers, or the information hoarded for years by scientists who want to be
the first to publish in academic journals, according to correspondence published online by
the journal Nature.


Seventy top flu scientists and health officials propose sharing all data through what
they’re calling the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data. The consortium
and its data will be open to all scientists provided they agree to share their own research.


Any articles published in academic journals would have to credit the use of other
researchers’ data. The idea is to more quickly allow scientists and health officials world-
wide to better understand how avian flu viruses spread and evolve before they reach
pandemic levels.


For the GLRC, this is Lester Graham.

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