226 15 APRIL 2022 • VOL 376 ISSUE 6590 science.org SCIENCE
PHOTO: PHIL SAVOIE/NLP/MINDEN PICTURESNEWS | IN BRIEF
Organization (WHO) panel said this
week—a finding that could allow health
workers to stretch vaccine supplies and
boost the number of people inoculated.
In 2019, only 15% of girls worldwide had
received two doses. Boys also receive the
vaccine because HPV is linked to other
kinds of cancers, but girls should receive
priority, WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group
of Experts on Immunization said. Sexually
transmitted HPV causes more than 95% of
cervical cancer, the fourth most common
type of cancer in women globally; 90%
of these women live in low- and middle-
income countries.Gun seizures don’t curb injuries
PUBLIC HEALTH | A closely watched
2016 California law that allows courts
to temporarily take guns from people
deemed a significant danger to them-
selves or others did not reduce the rate
of firearm injuries in one metropolitan
county, according to a first-of-its-kind studypublished last week in JAMA Network
Open. Researchers at the University
of California, Davis, and colleagues
compared rates of firearm injuries from
assaults and self-inflicted violence from
2016 to 2019 in San Diego county with
those in a weighted combination of
27 other counties that issued far fewer
such orders in that period. They found
no significant differences in firearms
injuries, and speculate that people who
committed assaults after losing their
firearms may have obtained new ones
illicitly. A separate study by Stanford
University researchers found that
Californians living with someone who
lawfully owns a firearm were more than
twice as likely to be murdered than those
living with nonowners. For at-home
homicides, the risk was seven times as
high, and 84% of victims were women,
according to the study of more than 17 mil-
lion Californians tracked for up to 12 years.
The study was published last week in the
Annals of Internal Medicine.SCIENCE.ORG/NEWS
Read more news from Science online.simpler and less costly than therapies
such as genetically engineered chimeric
antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells. In the new
approach, researchers at MD Anderson
Cancer Center used a “bispecific”
antibody to connect a different type
of immune cell, natural killer (NK) cells,
with a surface protein on Hodgkin’s
lymphoma cells, then infused the
complexes into patients. Of the 22 lym-
phoma patients, none experienced serious
side effects, and tumors shrank in 17 of
19 who could be evaluated. Although
some tumors resumed growing, seven of
13 patients who received the highest dose
of cells were still in remission after 5 to
11 months.
One shot of HPV vaccine is enough
INFECTIOUS DISEASES | A single dose
of vaccine against human papilloma-
virus (HPV) protects children and teens
against later incidence of cervical cancer
as well as two doses do, a World Health
1895.
The 2021 level of atmospheric methane
in parts per billion (ppb), a new record.
The level of the powerful greenhouse
gas rose 17 ppb last year, the
largest absolute increase since modern
records began in 1983.
(U.S. National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration)15.8%
Share of the world’s population who
report a headache each day, on average,
making it one of the most common health
problems, a meta-analysis found.
(The Journal of Headache and Pain)46%
Portion of U.K. parents surveyed who call
school work in physics “complicated,”
which may be discouraging their
children from studying the subject.
(Institute of Physics)BY THE NUMBERSJ
ust 7 years after authorizing outdoor use of the insecticide sulfoxaflor as a less toxic
alternative to other products, the European Commission said last week it plans to
ban it. The move will prohibit farmers in the European Union from treating crops
with the widely used pesticide, manufactured by Corteva Agriscience. Regulators
cited risks to the common bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) and other species of
pollinators living next to farm fields. Sulfoxaflor threatens bees when they collect pollen
and nectar containing the chemical. Its use will still be allowed in greenhouses, which
regulators expect will protect wild bees from exposure. The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) does not allow sulfoxaflor on crops, such as cotton, that attract bees. But
both EPA and European countries have allowed emergency use of sulfoxaflor and other
insecticides if crops are threatened with a devastating infestation, which some environ-
mental advocates say is a loophole that will continue to harm pollinators.AGRICULTUREEurope will limit leading pesticide to spare pollinators
A bumble bee hovers near a rapeseed plant, a crop commonly sprayed with the insecticide sulfoxaflor.