In its ongoing effort to combat the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), in partnership with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory, will conduct tests in a real-world environment to determine the most effective measures to reduce the spread of viruses on public transit.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded over $107 million to support new, non-traditional approaches and reimagined uses of existing tools to address gaps in COVID-19 testing and surveillance. The program also will develop platforms that can be deployed in future outbreaks of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
National organizations have issued a statement calling for immediate action to implement crisis standards of care (CSC) during the current COVID-19 surge. The statement recommends key actions for governors, state health departments, and hospitals and health care systems to support, plan for, and equitably implement crisis standards of care.
A new tool to help decision makers and others assess how sea-level rise and other factors will affect the frequency of high-tide flooding in U.S. coastal locations in the next 50–100 years has been developed by University of Hawaiʻi Sea Level Center Director Phil Thompson with funding from NASA’s Earth Science Division.
BARDA and Chrysalis Biotherapeutics Inc. have exercised options under their current contract to expand their partnership and continue the development of TP508 (Chrysalin) as a countermeasure to address injuries resulting from a nuclear event. Chrysalis will conduct safety studies and additional activities required to request emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Trained dogs are incredible chemical sensors, far better at detecting explosives, narcotics, and other substances than even the most advanced technological device. But one challenge is that dogs have to be trained, and training them with real hazardous substances can be inconvenient and dangerous.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) scientists have been working to solve this problem.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released the CRC SimPLER, a free, publicly available, online tool to help state and local emergency and public health planners prepare for setting up community reception centers (CRCs) to monitor people following a large-scale radiation emergency.
The Department of Health and Human Services is laying the necessary groundwork for the distribution of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine by ensuring that all tribal health programs and urban Indian organizations (UIOs) have the choice on how they receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Tribal health programs and UIOs had the option of receiving the vaccine either through the Indian Health Service or their respective state.
Face masks have become a way of life due to the COVID-19 pandemic: wearing them nearly everywhere – at grocery stores, on public transportation, in schools, at work. One of the challenges the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate is now working to address is how to verify someone’s identity while maintaining overall safety.
FLIR Systems Inc. announced that it has acquired Altavian, Inc., a privately held manufacturer of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) for defense and public safety customers. Altavian’s airframes integrate multiple sensors, including FLIR thermal technology, to provide users with decision support and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capability.
