Morning Headlines 5/16/17

US defends NSA over WannaCry cyber attack

White House officials refute claims that the NSA deserves any blame for the WannaCry cyberattack after Microsoft President and chief legal officer Brad Smith publish a blog post publically criticizing the agency for losing control of a stockpile of unknown security vulnerabilities, saying “An equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the US military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen.”

Dr. Gottlieb’s First Remarks to FDA Staff

FDA administrator Scott Gottlieb, MD issues a memo to his staff addressing his view of the agency’s role under his leadership. He discusses the importance of continuing to drive down US smoking rates, the emergency of gene therapies, the need to reduce drug prices, and the implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act.

Ebola outbreak reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo

As a small Ebola outbreak takes hold in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Merck confirms that it has stockpiled 300,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine designed by scientists at Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory that has shown “high efficacy in clinical trials and could play a vital role in protecting the most vulnerable”