Tag Archives: science

Amazon Begins Online Sales For OTC Birth Control Pills

CNN reports: The rollout is underway for Opill, the first over-the-counter birth control pill approved in the United States, and online sales begin Monday morning, according to drugmaker Perrigo. Consumers can start ordering Opill online Monday, and orders will be fulfilled within a day or two, Sara Young, senior vice president and chief consumer officer at Perrigo, said in an …

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Kennedy Group Claims Polio Vaccine “Doesn’t Work”

The Los Angeles Times reports: What are the chances that the noted anti-vaxxers Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would make common cause to undermine Americans’ health in their pursuit for the presidency? It didn’t take much hindsight to say the answer is 100%. But there’s no need to speculate any longer — not since this weekend, when Trump …

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CDC Drops Five-Day Isolation Guidance For COVID

CNN reports: People who test positive for Covid-19 no longer need to routinely stay away from others for at least five days, according to new guidelines from the CDC issued Friday. The change ends a strategy from earlier in the pandemic that experts said has been important to controlling the spread of the infection. The agency says it’s updating its …

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US Mission Lands On Moon For First Time Since 1972

Yahoo News reports: An unmanned, robotic lunar lander launched by a private U.S. company landed on the moon Thursday evening. “We can confirm, without a doubt, that our equipment is on the surface of the moon,” said Stephen Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, the Houston-based company that operated the Odysseus spacecraft. “Welcome to the moon.” Altemus had estimated that Odysseus …

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Anthony Fauci To Release Memoir In June: “On Call”

Axios reports: Anthony Fauci, arguably the world’s most famous living doctor, will be out June 18 with a memoir called “On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service.” Fauci, 83 — as chief medical adviser President Biden, and longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — helped steer the U.S. through peak COVID with calm, relentless …

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World’s First Malaria Vax Program Begins In Cameroon

The BBC reports: The world’s first routine vaccine programme against malaria has started in Cameroon, in a move projected to save thousands of children’s lives across Africa. The symbolic first jab was given to a baby girl named Daniella at a health facility near Yaoundé on Monday. Every year 600,000 people die of malaria in Africa, according to the World …

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NOAA: Some States May See Northern Lights Tonight

Nexstar reports: A geomagnetic storm watch has been issued for Monday and Tuesday this week after an eruption of solar material was detected early Sunday morning. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) warned about the eruption, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) in a post to X. The northern lights, otherwise known as the aurora, are often associated with …

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NYC Midwife Fined $300K For Faking Childhood Vaccine Records Of 1500 Kids, Gave Them “Homeopath Pellets”

Gothamist reports: The state alleged that midwife Jeannette Breen falsified the immunization records for about 1,500 children statewide at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year. Breen was penalized $300,000 and permanently barred from administering vaccines reportable to the state, officials said. The state said the fabrications included records of vaccines for polio, chickenpox, measles, mumps and rubella, but excluded …

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Federal Scientists Recommend Decriminalizing Weed

The New York Times reports: Marijuana is neither as risky nor as prone to abuse as other tightly controlled substances and has potential medical benefits, and therefore should be removed from the nation’s most restrictive category of drugs, federal scientists have concluded. The recommendations are contained in a 250-page scientific review provided to Matthew Zorn, a Texas lawyer who sued …

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Philly Officials Report More Cases In Measles Outbreak

From the Philadelphia Enquirer editorial board: From so-called vaccine skeptics like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to anti-vaccine advocates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., some politicians are hoping to gain political power by exploiting the misguided fears of worried parents and the curdled selfishness of American individualism exemplified by the anti-vaxxer movement. Although these candidates’ chances of reaching the presidency are …

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Study: COVID “Cure” Likely Killed Tens Of Thousands

Politico Europe reports: Nearly 17,000 people may have died after taking hydroxycholoroquine during the first wave of COVID, according to a study by French researchers. The anti-malaria drug was prescribed to some patients hospitalized with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic, “despite the absence of evidence documenting its clinical benefits,” the researchers point out in their paper, published …

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STUDY: Pets Slow Decline For Seniors Living Alone

USA Today reports: Owning a pet may help slow cognitive decline among older people who live alone, according to a study published this week. A large cohort study of adults ages 50 and older living in the United Kingdom showed pet owners had less verbal memory and verbal fluency declines compared to people who lived alone without a pet. The …

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CDC: Latest COVID Strain Now Dominant Across US

The New York Times reports: As the holiday season winds down and Covid-19 cases start to pick up, a variant called JN.1 has now become the most common strain of the virus spreading across the United States. JN.1, which emerged from the variant BA.2.86 and was first detected in the United States in September, accounted for 44 percent of Covid …

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CDC: New COVID Strain Is Surging Across Northeast

CBS News reports: The new COVID-19 variant that scientists call JN.1 now makes up about 44.1% of COVID-19 cases across the country, the CDC estimated Friday, marking another week of the fast-spreading variant’s steep rise in the U.S. The increase is more than two times larger than the 21.3% that the CDC now estimates the strain made up of infections …

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Experts Warn Of Rapidly Spreading New COVID Variant

Axios reports: A fast-spreading new COVID-19 variant called JN.1 could drive a new wave of disease across the U.S. this holiday season just as other respiratory viruses are cresting, experts say. COVID modeler Jay Weiland estimated on Monday that JN.1 would become the dominant strain within a week and that daily new infections, now around 965,000, aren’t close to peaking. …

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CDC: High COVID Levels Ahead Of Holiday Travel

Axios reports: Wastewater analysis sites nationwide are showing high levels of COVID-19 as we head into the holiday travel season, per the latest CDC data. Almost every state reporting such data is showing at least “high” levels compared to baseline trends, with many reporting “very high” levels, as defined by the CDC. As of early December, 22 states had “very …

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COVID Deaths Up 25% Over Last Week Per CDC Data

The Messenger reports: Hospitalizations and deaths owed to COVID-19 are rising as the nation heads into the holidays, according to new data from the CDC. The CDC’s most recent report highlights a nearly 18% increase week over week in COVID hospitalizations. Concerningly, the data also shows a 25% increase in COVID deaths during the same week. The CDC estimates that …

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CDC Reports High Incidence Of Flu In Multiple States

Yahoo News reports: The U.S. flu season is underway, with at least seven states reporting high levels of illnesses and cases rising in other parts of the country, health officials say. The CDC posted new flu data on Friday, showing very high activity last week in Louisiana, and high activity in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, New Mexico and South Carolina. …

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CDC: “Staggering” Global Rise In Measles Deaths

CBS News reports: The number of countries battling disruptive outbreaks of measles surged to 37 last year, a report published by the CDC confirmed Thursday, as officials warn that the global fight against the disease has struggled to recover in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Measles can be deadly, especially in children, but it is preventable with a common …

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CVS Pulls Decongestants As FDA Says They Don’t Work

The Insider reports: CVS this week said it is pulling many popular decongestants from its shelves after advisors to the Food and Drug Administration said the active ingredient simply does not work. In September, an advisory panel to the FDA ruled that phenylephrine, when taken orally, is no better than a placebo despite being on the market for more than …

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