Science

Time Magazine reports: The American Medical Association is calling for an immediate ban on all electronic cigarettes and vaping devices. The group adopted the sweeping stance Tuesday at a policy-making meeting in San Diego. It aims to lobby for laws, regulations or legal action to achieve a ban, but the industry is sure to fight back. The AMA cited the …

USA Today reports: Drug-resistant “superbugs” infect 2.8 million people and cause more than 35,000 deaths each year, underscoring the enormous public health threat of germs in what one official describes as a “post-antibiotic era,” according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. The report, which analyzes electronic health records and other data, shows an infection every 11 …

Courthouse News reports: Scientists around the world – 11,000 of them from 153 nations – have declared a state of climate emergency, calling on the world to make urgent and meaningful changes to avoid serious and unknown consequences. The scientists made their declaration Tuesday in the journal Bioscience, on the 40th anniversary of the first world climate conference held in …

Reuters reports: In many U.S. cities, tanning salons appear to cluster in neighborhoods where more gay and bisexual men live, according to a study that suggests this might be one reason for higher skin cancer rates among sexual minority men. The odds of living near a tanning salon were twice as high in areas where at least 10% of households …

The Washington Post reports: NASA made history Friday morning when astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir stepped outside the International Space Station to replace a faulty battery charger. The all-female spacewalk — the first of its kind “in human history,” the agency said — began at 7:38 a.m. Eastern time as the two American astronauts set their suits to battery …

NBC News reports: Gilead Sciences, the drug giant behind the blockbuster HIV prevention pill Truvada, won FDA approval on Thursday to market Descovy — a medication already used by those who have HIV — as its next-generation prevention drug. The final approval follows an August vote in favor of Descovy as a pre-exposure prophylaxis medication, or PrEP, by an FDA …

CNBC reports: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging people to stop vaping THC products as the death toll from a mysterious lung disease rises with no signs of abating. The vaping-related illness has sickened 805 people across 46 states and one territory, the CDC said Friday. One person died in Oregon this week, bringing the death toll …

Axios reports: Public health officials on Thursday urged Americans to get their seasonal flu vaccine early this year, in case the U.S. follows Australia’s season in which the virus hit many people early. While public health officials admit the vaccine is not 100% effective, there’s growing research showing that the vaccine reduces the severe and sometimes deadly complications from the …

USA Today reports: The world’s oceans and mountains are in peril, and so are we, according to a major new report from United Nations climate scientists released early Wednesday. The “Special Report on Oceans and the Cryosphere” offers a bleak picture. It warns that the world’s oceans have reached or are nearing critical tipping points: Oceans have gotten warmer, more …

Fascinating deep dive from the New York Times: Though the situation may seem improbable to some, anti-vaccine sentiment has been building for decades, a byproduct of an internet humming with rumor and misinformation; the backlash against Big Pharma; an infatuation with celebrities that gives special credence to the anti-immunization statements from actors like Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey and Alicia Silverstone, …

The Bangor Daily News reports: Members of Mainers for Health and Parental Rights, the group opposing the vaccine law passed this year by the Democratic-led Legislature, were in Augusta on Wednesday to turn in 78,000 valid signatures — more than the 63,000 signatures required to suspend the law and put the people’s veto challenge on the ballot — to Secretary …

The New York Times reports: Walmart said on Friday that it would end sales of e-cigarettes at its United States locations. The decision comes amid growing medical concerns about the effects of vaping. In recent months, mysterious vaping-related illnesses have been on the rise. Medical authorities said on Thursday that the number of vaping-related lung illnesses had risen to 530 …

Axios reports: Climate activists are rallying in the streets here and around the world today calling for urgent action curbing carbon emissions, while a controversial but carbon-free nuclear power plant 180 miles away quietly goes offline. The big picture: It’s an ironic moment in history. Nuclear power provides America — and the world — with one of the largest sources …

Buzzfeed News reports: In late July, a record-setting asteroid hurtled just 40,400 miles over Earth, the largest space rock to come so close in a century. But perhaps more alarming than the flyby itself is how much it caught NASA by surprise, according to internal agency documents obtained by BuzzFeed News. Spotted just 24 hours before a relatively narrow miss …

NBC News reports: Three videos posted online that have been described as being related to UFO sightings do indeed include footage of “unidentified aerial phenomena,” a U.S. Navy spokesman confirmed. But as for specifics, spokesman Joseph Gradisher said the Navy doesn’t know exactly what the objects are. “The three videos (one from 2004 and two from 2015) show incursions into …

Politico reports: A chorus of mostly white women sang the gospel song “We Shall Overcome” in the California State Capitol, an anthem of the civil rights movement. Mothers rallied outside the governor’s office and marched through Capitol corridors chanting “No segregation, no discrimination, yes on education for all!” Some wore T-shirts that read “Freedom Keepers.” But this wasn’t about racial …

The New York Times reports: Amid a surge of vaping-related illnesses and deaths, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced on Sunday that he would pursue emergency regulations this week to quickly ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. The governor’s action comes days after President Trump announced an effort to ban similar vaping products on a federal level. If …

CNBC reports: The Trump administration is preparing to ban flavored e-cigarettes as federal health officials call for restrictions to combat an outbreak of a mysterious lung disease that has sickened hundreds and killed at least six people, U.S. health secretary Alex Azar told reporters Wednesday. President Donald Trump held a policy meeting on the issue at the White House on …

The New York Times reports: Medical experts and federal health officials on Friday warned the public about the dangers of vaping and discouraged using the devices as the number of people with a severe lung illness linked to vaping has more than doubled to 450 possible cases in 33 states. State officials reported two deaths, bringing the number of confirmed …

The Washington Post reports: State and federal health officials investigating mysterious lung illnesses linked to vaping have found the same chemical in samples of marijuana products used by people sickened in different parts of the country and who used different brands of products in recent weeks. The chemical is an oil derived from vitamin E. Investigators at the U.S. Food …