SCIENCEPHOTO: JENS BÜTTNER/DPA/PICTURE-ALLIANCE/NEWSCOMU.S. agencies, projects shut
FACILITIES |Research agencies have shut
down key facilities and postponed projects
across a span of disciplines to stem trans-
mission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes
COVID-19. The U.S. National Institutes of
Health, for example, said that as of 23 March
its more than 20,000 staff members can
enter their labs and offices only to perform
“mission-critical” work that cannot be done
remotely, such as studies on COVID-19 and
caring for patients in medically necessary
clinical trials or for research animals. The
consortium that operates oceanographic
research vessels for the National Science
Foundation and the Office of Naval Research
recommended a 30-day pause in operations
for 16 of its ships. The Department of Energy
has restricted access and ramped down
activities at its 17 national laboratories,
which every year serve more than 30,
visiting researchers. And the European
Space Agency suspended instrument opera-
tions and data gathering on four of its Solar
System science probes sent to explore Earth,
Mars, and the Sun.A race to develop virus tests
DIAGNOSTICS |To monitor and stop the
pandemic’s spread, companies are seeking
tests for SARS-CoV-2 that return results
more quickly. The traditional polymerase
chain reaction (PCR)-based method can
take 4 days. Last week, diagnostics company
Cepheid won emergency approval from the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration to use itsTHREE QSRubella’s lingering lessons
In the mid-1960s, rubella swept the
United States, infecting an estimated one
in 15 Americans. The virus responsible
was about twice as contagious as the
novel coronavirus spreading around the
world today seems to be. That rubella
epidemic resulted in about 20,000 babies
born with serious birth defects. (There’s
no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 infects
or hurts fetuses.) In 1964, working in
his Wistar Institute lab, Stanley Plotkin
invented the rubella vaccine used today
the world over. Now 87, he is advising
six companies developing COVID-
vaccines. A longer version of this interview
is at https://scim.ag/PlotkinQA.Q: Before the vaccine was licensed in
1969, rubella came in cyclical outbreaks
every 4 to 6 years. Should we expect
that with the novel coronavirus?
A: That is the $64,000 question. We all
hope—and I underline hope—that the
[novel] coronavirus will not persist in the
population in some mild form that could
pop up again and again. That’s why the
ef ort to develop a vaccine in the shortest
possible time is so important. Because
obviously if next winter [it] returns, we
must have a vaccine by that time.Q: How does the rubella story inform
today’s coronavirus vaccine race?
A: Perhaps [that] not only one should be
licensed. There are at least 40 [COVID-
19] vaccine candidates being developed
in various companies and biotechs not
only in the United States, but elsewhere
in the world. There may be advantages
to having more than one anticoronavirus
vaccine because if—and it’s a big if—one
needs millions of doses, asking a single
manufacturer to produce enough for the
world is unlikely. One is going to need
multiple manufacturers.Q: Do we have advantages now that we
didn’t have in the 1960s?
A: It took at least 5 years before a
[rubella] vaccine was on the market.
And we cannot af ord to have that kind
of delay when you have an emergency
such as this one. So, the prospect that
we have of getting a coronavirus vaccine
by next year, which I think is a reasonable
hope, is a big dif erence./NEWS
Read more news from Science online.Businesses in Germany have erected temporary walls to protect people from infection.INFECTIOUS DISEASECoronavirus impact on research spreads
As China this week reported few new cases of coronavirus disease 2019
(COVID-19) and eased lockdown restrictions intended to control its
spread, caseloads rose in other countries. Scientists stepped up their
research on the disease while other work was suspended. Read more
at /tags/coronavirus.1410 27 MARCH 2020 • VOL 367 ISSUE 6485NEWS | IN BRIEFGenXpert device, a small PCR system devel-
oped to detect influenza viruses and other
microbes, to test for SARS-CoV-2 in physi-
cians’ offices; it can produce a result in
45 minutes. Two other companies are devel-
oping tests based on the CRISPR genome
editor that may be faster still.Old vaccine, new use?
IMMUNOLOGY |Researchers in four coun-
tries this week began a clinical trial of an
unorthodox intervention: bacillus Calmette-
Guérin. It is a century-old vaccine against
tuberculosis, a bacterial disease, that they
hope can rev up the human immune system
so it can better fight SARS-CoV-2 and, per-
haps, fend off infection altogether. The trial
will study two high-risk populations—health
care workers and older patients.Fetal tissue ban blocks study
POLICY |The Trump administration’s
restrictive 2019 policy on research use
of human fetal tissue is stopping a U.S.
researcher from testing potential thera-
pies for COVID-19, The Washington Post
reported last week. The ban prevents
National Institutes of Health (NIH) scien-
tists from using human fetal tissue donated
after elective abortions. Kim Hasenkrug of
NIH’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories has
unsuccessfully sought an exemption to
study mice with humanlike lungs created
with fetal tissue. Unlike normal mice, these
can be infected with coronaviruses closely
related to SARS-CoV-2.