Media/Policy Watch
This section is intended to alert readers to substantive news, analysis and opinion from the general media on vaccines, immunization, global; public health and related themes. Media Watch is not intended to be exhaustive, but indicative of themes and issues CVEP is actively tracking. This section will grow from an initial base of newspapers, magazines and blog sources, and is segregated from Journal Watch above which scans the peer-reviewed journal ecology.

We acknowledge the Western/Northern bias in this initial selection of titles and invite suggestions for expanded coverage. We are conservative in our outlook in adding news sources which largely report on primary content we are already covering above. Many electronic media sources have tiered, fee-based subscription models for access. We will provide full-text where content is published without restriction, but most publications require registration and some subscription level.

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Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/
Accessed 24 October2015
Going After Customized Lung Cancer Vaccines, Gritstone Grabs $102M
Exciting things are happening in cancer immunotherapy, but scientists don’t have all the pieces of the puzzle yet for most patients. Today, a startup has gotten more than $100 million straight out of the gate to see if it can make customized types of puzzle pieces–cancer vaccines based on a patient’s […]
Luke Timmerman, Contributor Oct 20, 2015

Three Ways Sanofi Pasteur Encourages Collaboration
When you think of companies that foster and encourage employee collaboration, a big pharmaceutical company probably doesn’t top your list. But thanks to enthusiastic employees and visionary leadership, Sanofi, one of the top five pharmaceutical companies in the world, is leading the charge in a new wave of collaboration. I sat […]
Jacob Morgan, Contributor Oct 20, 2015

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The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Accessed 24 October2015
The Fight Against Yellow Fever Must Go On
Dr. Orin Levine
Director of Vaccine Delivery, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
16 October 2015
As health systems around the world get stronger and more vaccines are available to more communities, it can be easy to grow complacent and forget that this absence of disease is the result of ongoing efforts that must be sustained. The most destructive Ebola outbreak in history provides a valuable reminder of the terrible toll of epidemic infectious diseases. Earlier this year, Germany and the United States experienced their first measles deaths in years and just last month, polio crept back into Ukraine. Now, as governments and heroic health workers continue working to treat ill patients while increasing efforts to reach more communities with vaccines, global attention may be tempted to shift elsewhere.. But it shouldn’t…

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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Accessed 24 October2015
WHO Chief Says U.S., Saudi Discussing MERS Vaccine
GENEVA — The United States and Saudi Arabia are discussing the possibility of readying a vaccine for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) before the next outbreak of the disease, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO)
October 20, 2015 – By REUTERS

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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Accessed 24 October2015
A new wave of diseases threatens Southern Europe and the Middle East
With new infection hot zones developing in Europe, world leaders need to get ahead of potential epidemics.
Peter J. Hotez | Editorial-Opinion | Oct 23, 2015
While global attention has been focused on strengthening health systems in West Africa in the aftermath of the Ebola outbreak there, a new wave of tropical infectious disease is threatening Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

The unprecedented appearance of tropical diseases in Southern Europe in recent years has been well documented. Dengue fever appeared on Madeira off the coast of Portugal in 2012, and chikungunya arrived in Spain this year. Malaria has returned to Greece after being eliminated in the 1960s, and West Nile virus has gained a foothold throughout Southern Europe. These infections are transmitted by mosquitoes that now inhabit the region. Schistosomiasis, a parasitic blood fluke infection transmitted by snails, just made its first recorded appearance on the island of Corsica, while outbreaks of opisthorchiasis, a liver fluke that causes bile duct cancer, have occurred in Italy.

We are still investigating the forces responsible for the transformation of Southern Europe into a tropical disease “hot zone.” Among the possible causes are the severe economic downturns in Greece, Italy and Spain, which may have slowed national public-health efforts, and global warming, which is creating temperature and rainfall conditions better suited for insects and other carriers of disease adapted to tropical climates.

But a third factor must also be considered: The conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa. Ebola arose in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, in part because the health systems of the affected countries had been weakened by years of conflict and human migration. That same combination is now present in the Islamic State-occupied areas of Syria, Iraq and Libya, as well as in Yemen…