ProPublica: Inside Google’s Quest to Digitize Troops’ Tissue Samples. “The tech giant has long sought access to a priceless trove of veterans’ skin samples, tumor biopsies and slices of organs. DOD staffers have pushed back, raising ethical and legal concerns, but Google might win anyway.”
Department of Defense: DOD Releases First Departmentwide Social Media Policy. “The Defense Department today released a policy that for the first time spells out, from the highest levels of the defense community, how DOD military and civilian personnel should use official social media accounts to best advance the mission of the U.S. military and further instill trust in the credibility of the DOD.”
US Department of Defense: Veterans in Medical, Emergency Fields Sought for Oral History Collection. “It has often focused on the experiences of veterans in war, including Medal of Honor recipients and many who made the ultimate sacrifice. But in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s now looking to highlight stories from the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service — officers defined as veterans when they’ve completed their service — as well as Armed Forces service members who were deployed to natural disasters, national emergencies and public health crises.”
US Department of Defense: Defense Department New Website to Navigate Innovation Opportunities. “The new website features user-friendly sections, called ‘pathways,’ to quickly provide the most relevant information to the user based on interests. The first is for the academic community. Students and faculty can search available DoD internships, grants, scholarships, and research opportunities. Second, there is a pathway for those in the commercial sector seeking business opportunities with the DoD. Businesses can also learn about ways to seek specific science, technology, prototyping, and experimentation opportunities. The last pathway is designed for military personnel and DoD civilians looking to leverage existing projects, participate in workshops, or collaborate.”
US Department of Defense: Statement by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III on COVID Status. “I tested positive this morning for COVID-19. I requested the test today after exhibiting symptoms while at home on leave. My symptoms are mild, and I am following my physician’s directions. In keeping with those directions, and in accordance with CDC guidelines, I will quarantine myself at home for the next five days. ”
New York Intelligencer: The Defense Department May Be Getting an Office to Investigate UFOs. “Two years after lawmakers were ‘coming out of the woodwork’ to be briefed about Navy and Air Force pilots coming across unidentified aerial phenomena, a bipartisan group of senators led by New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand wants to formalize the process of learning about the unexplained sightings more commonly known as UFOs.”
The Hill: Ex-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell sues over Pentagon vaccine mandate. “Pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell is suing the Department of Defense, seeking to block the Pentagon from enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Powell’s Texas-based group Defending the Republic announced Wednesday that it had filed a lawsuit against Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on behalf of 16 active-duty service members ‘in support of their right to refuse’ the coronavirus vaccine.”
U.S. Department of Defense: Website Informs Civilians About DOD Opportunities. “The website project’s team lead said the site is primarily a recruitment tool; the website’s purposes were to educate folks about civilian employment and help them explore where they might find their fit within the organization…. There are more than 600 civilian occupations in the DOD. There are all kinds of careers from scientists and engineers to artists to human resource personnel to intelligence analysts to medical professionals.”
Politico: The Pentagon had an email security problem. The pandemic fixed it.. “In December, the Pentagon quietly adopted a security measure for ensuring that its email conversations with outsiders would be encrypted — more than a decade after many private companies and other institutions had done the same. Attempts to permanently fix the flaw didn’t gain momentum until last year, when DoD officials realized that the weakness was exposing electronic conversations with a host of civilian agencies and companies developing Covid-19 vaccines.”
Department of Defense: DOD Uses 3D-Printing to Create N95 Respirators. “Air Force Maj. Daniel Williams serves as product manager of the WEMT PMO’s N95 respirator efforts at USAMMDA. These include coordinating programmatic and regulatory support, leveraging existing government resources and developing synergies within the Defense Department’s organic industrial base to successfully generate N95 respirator products. He explained that his primary task is to ensure the medical device meets military needs and regulatory requirements, and that development of the product remains on schedule and within budget.”
US Department of Defense: DOD Announces Release of the DOD Regional Sea Level Database. “Public access to the database allows for the integration of future sea level change information by contracted third parties such as engineering firms in their efforts to provide installation and facilities planning and design services for coastal locations. The database and its accompanying report, Regional Sea Level Scenarios for Coastal Risk Management, were developed by the DOD-led Coastal Assessment Regional Scenario Working Group to provide a consistent, authoritative approach to account for changing sea levels at DOD sites worldwide.”
CNN: Vaccination cards will be issued to everyone getting Covid-19 vaccine, health officials say. “The Department of Defense released the first images of a Covid-19 vaccination record card and vaccination kits Wednesday. Vaccination cards will be used as the ‘simplest’ way to keep track of Covid-19 shots, said Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of the Immunization Action Coalition, which is supporting frontline workers who will administer Covid-19 vaccinations.”
FedScoop: DOD needs some help digitizing a massive collection of respiratory disease samples. “The Department of Defense has the world’s largest collection of pathology specimens, including ‘invaluable’ data from the 1918 influenza pandemic. Now it wants help to digitize it. Digitizing the collection of more than a hundred years of data —in the form of 55 million glass slides, 31 million paraffin-embedded tissue blocks and 500,000 wet tissue samples — would create a potentially exquisite machine learning database for computers to gain broader understanding of global health issues.”
Task & Purpose: Leaked Pentagon memo warns of ‘real possibility’ of COVID-19 resurgence, vaccine not coming until summer 2021. “The Defense Department should prepare to operate in a “globally-persistent” novel coronavirus (COVID-19) environment without an effective vaccine until “at least the summer of 2021,” according to a draft Pentagon memo obtained by Task & Purpose. ‘We have a long path ahead, with the real possibility of a resurgence of COVID-19,’ reads the memo, authored for Secretary of Defense Mark Esper but not yet bearing his signature.”
CNET: Social Security numbers stolen in defense agency data breach. “An agency under the US Department of Defense was hit by a data breach that affected personal information. Hackers stole Social Security numbers, names and other personal data, a department spokesman said Thursday.”
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