New top story from Time: We Need More Data in the Fight Against Cancer. Here’s a Plan to Help Us Get There

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For the first time in over a year, we are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel from the devastation caused by COVID-19. While much work remains to end and avoid a resurgence of the pandemic, public and private investments in scientific research will get us to a new normal. The speed to develop, test and manufacture COVID-19 vaccines has shown how science and technology, supported by leadership from governments and the private sector, have the ability to save lives. For example, the CDC’s V-safe program, which recorded side effects, led to the collection of data from tens of millions of people after vaccination, creating a new paradigm for data collection after drug approval.

These successes show just how much can be done when we invest in science and the systems to deploy it effectively. That is why we believe President Biden has the opportunity to lead on another major investment in scientific leadership: the battle to end suffering from cancer.

Despite recent advancements in medicine, cancer still kills more Americans each year than the COVID-19 pandemic has to date. Significant disparities exist, with African-American men having the highest death rates from cancer of any group in the country.

Now in its fifth of seven years, the Cancer Moonshot program, launched under the leadership of then Vice President Biden, has made significant progress. But with challenges remaining, there is a need to renew commitment, refresh priorities and increase funding for Cancer Moonshot 2.0. These efforts will complement and accelerate the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) existing work.

We see several interrelated priorities for a second Cancer Moonshot, which can unlock new and needed progress in the war on cancer. To begin: standardizing and collecting cancer-patient data (using the same vocabulary to describe medical events and collecting patient data in the same way so they can be compared), especially on outcomes that matter to patients. Patients want to be part of the solution and participate, through use of their privacy-protected data. For too long, electronic health records have been health system–centric, making it difficult for patients, doctors and researchers to track an individual patient’s data over time and across systems. With standardized, patient-centric data, artificial intelligence (AI) can help identify measures for intercepting cancer early, reducing disparities in outcomes and using precision medicine to get treatments to patients who will most benefit from them. With standardized data, we can also create a national cancer data (NatCanDa) repository that researchers can use to inform treatment development, and better pool and share our data with the world. Data holds the clues to better treating cancer.

In addition, we have to modernize systems at the NCI, the FDA, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and other government agencies that collect cancer-related data. Modernized systems, including outcomes, clinical-trial and claims data, will allow us to use real-world evidence to determine which treatments work best for which types of patients and under which models of care, and the most cost-effective ways of delivering those treatments. This will also serve as the foundation of a coordinated cancer clinical trial infrastructure to support faster and more effective drug development.

Together, these initiatives can set up a national “learning health system” for cancer treatment and prevention, where research informs clinical care, and clinical care informs research. Better data sharing and use of real-world evidence can lay the foundation for similar progress on other diseases, especially complex chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes.

The ability of science to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic shows that, with the right government, scientific, health care, technology and community leadership, we can come together to save lives.

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New top story from Time: All 53 People Aboard Indonesia Submarine Declared Dead After Vessel’s Wreckage Found

https://ift.tt/3ezrzg5 ANYUWANGI, Indonesia — Indonesia’s military on Sunday officially said all 53 crew members from a submarine that sank and broke apart last week are dead, and that search teams had located the vessel’s wreckage on the ocean floor. The grim announcement comes a day after Indonesia said the submarine was considered sunk, not merely missing , but did not explicitly say whether the crew was dead. Officials had also said the KRI Nanggala 402’s oxygen supply would have run out early Saturday, three days after vessel went missing off the resort island of Bali. “We received underwater pictures that are confirmed as the parts of the submarine, including its rear vertical rudder, anchors, outer pressure body, embossed dive rudder and other ship parts,” military chief Hadi Tjahjanto told reporters in Bali on Sunday. “With this authentic evidence, we can declare that KRI Nanggala 402 has sunk and all the crew members are dead,” Tjahjanto said. An underwater ro...

New top story from Time: As Myanmar’s Junta Intensifies Its Crackdown, Pro-Democracy Protesters Prepare for Civil War

https://ift.tt/3cUWeEQ Before the Feb. 1 coup, Zarni Win* worked for a United Nations-funded committee that monitored a ceasefire between Myanmar’s junta and ethnic armed groups. Today, the 27-year-old from Yangon, the country’s largest city, is getting ready to enlist in one of those groups herself. “Now is the time to start preparing to eliminate the terrorist military,” she tells TIME. “I am ready to join the armed revolution.” Myanmar is veering dangerously toward all-out civil war as the military, known as the Tatmadaw, terrorizes the public , and attacks restive ethnic territories. The U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, warned on Mar. 31 that “a bloodbath is imminent.” In an online presentation cited by the Associated Press, she said civil war “at an unprecedented scale” was a possibility and spoke of Myanmar’s deterioration into a “failed state.” Protesters in Myanmar have maintained a largely peaceful resistance to dictatorship since ...

New top story from Time: The Free Market is Dead: What Will Replace It?

https://ift.tt/32Q9kgW Big meetings in the Oval Office in the time of Covid-19 are rare, but two weeks into his presidency, President Joe Biden decided to make an exception. It was only a few days after the nation’s coronavirus case count peaked in late January, and Biden sat on a stately beige chair, double masked and flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and newly confirmed Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen. The leaders of some of the nation’s largest businesses like Wal-Mart and J.P. Morgan Chase had come to the White House that day to talk economic stimulus. But the real surprise attendee was the head of America’s largest business advocacy group, the Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue. Under Donohue’s leadership over the past two decades, the Chamber had effectively become an organ of the Republican party, handsomely rewarding conservatives who worked to dismantle public programs and the regulatory state with campaign donations and support. Donohue said little, but he ...

New top story from Time: I Found a Rainbow At the End of My Hunt For a Vaccine Appointment

https://ift.tt/3dt1i2v A version of this article also appeared in the It’s Not Just You newsletter. Sign up here to receive a new edition every Sunday. CHASING RAINBOWS (AND VACCINES) We humans are notoriously unreliable, superstitious narrators, always scanning the horizon for signs that validate what our hearts have already told us. Take me, for example. I keep telling people I was vaccinated at Hogwarts’ Manhattan campus under the waxing moon (it was a gibbous moon to be exact). How auspicious! Ok, so my COVID-vax site was really The City College of New York . But stepping through its big old gothic gates to receive a blessing of science was wondrous, maybe a little spiritual. There was even a rainbow-y halo around that big moon, another lucky omen if you’re hungry for such things. I started digging for lore on moons and rainbows and learned that the physics of rainbows doesn’t detract from the mythical place they have in our cultural imaginations. In fact ...

New top story from Time: Now India Faces Electricity Crisis as Coal Supplies Dwindle to 3 Days’ Worth

https://ift.tt/301H4JP (NEW DELHI) — An energy crisis is looming over India as coal supplies grow perilously low, adding to challenges for a recovery in Asia’s third largest economy after it was wracked by the pandemic. Supplies across the majority of coal-fired power plants in India have dwindled to just days worth of stock. Federal Power Minister R. K. Singh told the Indian Express newspaper this week that he was bracing for a “trying five to six months.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “I can’t say I am secure … With less than three days of stock, you can’t be secure,” Singh said. The shortages have stoked fears of potential black-outs in parts of India, where 70% of power is generated from coal. Experts say the crunch could upset renewed efforts to ramp up manufacturing. Power cuts and shortages over the years have subsided in big cities, but are fairly common in some smaller towns. Out of India’s 135 coal plants, 108 were facing critically low stocks, with 2...

New top story from Time: Afghanistan Is Imploding, But the Bigger Political Risk to Joe Biden May Be the Economy

https://ift.tt/3jq2Uyd This article is part of the The DC Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox every weekday. Unless you’re a die-hard political science nerd, the date of Aug. 16 probably means nothing to you. I know that I missed it as Kabul fell, Americans struggled to get fellow citizens and allies in the 20 years of war in Afghanistan out of the country and the Dow here at home dropped by almost 1 percentage point in one day of trading on Wall Street. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But on that day, by a margin of 0.1%, President Joe Biden’s job approval number, for the first time as President, dropped below 50% in the FiveThirtyEight poll of polls . In other words, it was the first crack in what had to that point suggested Biden had the support of at least half of the country he was leading. And it’s one of those moments when any leader expecting to slide into re-elect mode as early as November of next year sta...

New top story from Time: Flash Flooding in Tennessee Leaves 4 Dead After Record Rains

https://ift.tt/3w8onQb Heavy rains across Tennessee flooded homes and roads, prompting officials to rescue dozens of people from houses, apartments and vehicles. Authorities said four bodies were found Sunday in the flood’s aftermath. A flash flood emergency was declared overnight by the National Weather Service in Nashville for the city, as well as Brentwood, Franklin and Mt. Juliet. “Major flash flooding is occurring with numerous roads, interstates, and homes flooded with water rescues ongoing!” the agency tweeted. “Please stay home and do not travel!” The Nashville Fire Department said it rescued at least 130 people from cars, apartments and homes, while about 40 dogs were moved from a Nashville boarding kennel, Camp Bow Wow, to another location. To the south in Williamson County, over 34 swift water rescues were carried out, said county EMA Director Todd Horton during a media briefing. As many as 18 homes in one neighborhood had to be evacuated. A portion of Inters...

New top story from Time: A COVID Outbreak Sparked by Partying Teens Leads to 5,000 Being Quarantined in Spain

https://ift.tt/2UJaeL7 MADRID — Almost 5,000 people are in quarantine after vacationing high school students triggered a major COVID-19 outbreak on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, a senior official said Monday. Authorities have confirmed almost 1,200 positive cases from the outbreak, Spain’s emergency health response coordinator, Fernando Simón said. The partying teens celebrating the end of their university entrance exams last week created a “perfect breeding ground” for the virus as they mixed with others from around Spain and abroad, Simón told a news conference. Mallorca health authorities carried out mass testing on hundreds of students after the outbreak became clear. It is believed to have spread as hundreds of partying students gathered at a concert and street parties. Officials have so far traced 5,126 travelers to Mallorca. More than 900 COVID-19 cases in eight regions across mainland Spain have been traced back to the outbreak. Scores of infected teens are...

New top story from Time: Hurricane Ida Winds Hit 150 MPH Ahead of Louisiana Strike

https://ift.tt/3jmdoyl NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Ida rapidly grew in strength early Sunday, becoming a dangerous Category 4 hurricane just hours before hitting the Louisiana coast while emergency officials in the region grappled with opening shelters for displaced evacuees despite the risks of spreading the coronavirus. As Ida moved through some of the warmest ocean water in the world in the northern Gulf of Mexico, its top winds grew by 45 mph (72 kph) to 150 mph (230 kph) in five hours. The system was expected to make landfall Sunday afternoon, set to arrive on the exact date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The hurricane center said Ida is forecast to hit at 155 mph (250 kph), just 1 mph shy of a Category 5 hurricane. Only four Category 5 hurricanes have made landfall in the United States: Michael in 2018, Andrew in 1992, Camille in 1969 and the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. Both Michael and Andrew were u...

New top story from Time: Almost Every Doctor Recommends Sunscreen. So Why Don’t We Know More About Its Safety?

https://ift.tt/3llOUXn Each year, as Memorial Day approaches, Holly Thaggard braces herself for the headlines. About how sunscreen may be damaging coral reefs . About the possible flammability of spray-on sunscreen . Headlines—as there were this year—about how sunscreen contains chemicals that could harm your health . “This has happened every single year for the last decade of my life,” says Thaggard, founder of Texas-based Supergoop, a sunscreen company that brands itself as reef-safe and free of hundreds of potentially problematic ingredients. This year, the is-sunscreen-dangerous news cycle started in May, when Valisure, an independent laboratory dedicated to quality-testing pharmaceuticals and personal-care products, released a report warning that its scientists found benzene—a carcinogen also found in vehicle emissions and cigarette smoke—in 78 U.S. sun-care products. Benzene is not an ingredient in sunscreens, but rather a contaminant likely introduced during the manu...

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