Kudos: Merck Set To Deliver Over 300,000 Ebola Vaccine Courses -- To Africa -- Within Weeks

Just as it did a generation ago with the river blindness initiative, it seems Kenilworth has really stepped up -- in combating the latest Ebola flare ups (also in Africa).

This news of 300,000 vaccine vials headed there, and within weeks -- may well mean the end of this horrific epidemic -- when used in a "contacts' ring" fashion. I am humbled by the magnitude of this effort. And to be sure, it is based on fundamental Canadian science, and NewLinks Genetics' development work. Well done -- Merck, NewLinks and HealthCanada.

From the online version of New Scientist, then, tonight -- we learn:

. . . .In March this year, 10 people in Guinea got Ebola after a man who had recovered from it 15 months earlier infected his wife via semen.

The outbreak was contained, partly because 1600 people who came into contact with these 10 received an experimental Ebola vaccine. The drug firm Merck says it will soon have 300,000 doses of this vaccine to help manage such flare-ups. . . .

And so. . . I am hopeful that both sides in the USW Local 10-86 labor dispute will remember that they are stewards to the legacy of ending river blindness. Stewards to science, and sometimes, to science even before maximum profits. So, I am now smiling -- and smiling widely. Let the luminous but clear dawn of bio-science push back -- against the night of disease. . . Very proud -- even as I ask Mr. Frazier to honor this legacy, and settle the contract with the USW.