(CHICAGO) — More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to the highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average, a surge driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant. The previous mark was 250,000 cases per day, set in mid-January, according to data kept by Johns Hopkins University. The fast-spreading mutant version of the virus has cast a pall over Christmas and New Year’s, forcing communities to scale back or call off their festivities just weeks after it seemed as if Americans were about to enjoy an almost normal holiday season. Thousands of flights have been canceled amid staffing shortages blamed on the virus. The number of Americans now in the hospital with COVID-19 is running at around 60,000, or about half the figure seen in January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. While hospitalizations sometimes lag behind case numbers, the figures may indicate omicron is not making people as severely ill as previous versions, as many experts suspect. COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have climbed over the past two weeks from an average of 1,200 per day to around 1,500. Several European countries, including France, Greece, Britain and Spain, also reported record case counts this week, prompting a ban on music at New Year’s celebrations in Greece and a renewed push to encourage vaccination by French authorities. from https://ift.tt/3sIidHx Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/
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(PARIS) — France’s government is forging ahead with efforts to increase pressure on unvaccinated people to get coronavirus shots, as the country reported 208,000 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday — a record fueled by the omicron variant. Health Minister Olivier Veran on Wednesday defended a government plan to allow only the fully vaccinated to enjoy continued access to places such as restaurants, cinemas, theaters, museums, and sports arenas. The pass will also be required on long-distance trains and domestic flights. Veran said at a parliamentary hearing that the record number of infections means that more than two French people are testing positive every second for COVID-19. Veran estimated that about 10% of the French population has been in contact recently with a person infected with the virus. Speaking to those not vaccinated, he said: “There is really little chance that this time you can escape (COVID-19): The virus is spreading too fast.” Veran said that in Paris public hospitals, 70% of people hospitalized in intensive care units aren’t vaccinated. He also advised the most vulnerable people who didn’t get the vaccine booster shot yet to “protect yourself in the coming days. Don’t take risks.” The speeded-up introduction of the so-called vaccine pass forms part of a government strategy to use vaccinations, rather than new lockdowns, to try to soften the impact of the fast-spreading omicron variant on already overburdened hospitals. France has vaccinated 77% of its population and is rushing out booster shots, again to combat omicron. But more than 4 million adults remain unvaccinated, including more than 1 million people over age 65. More than 3,400 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized in intensive care units on Wednesday, an increase of 10% over the past week. The figure represents two thirds of ICU beds occupied by people infected with the virus. But the number is lower than during the previous peak in the spring, when about 6,000 COVID-19 patients needed intensive care. The government wants the vaccine pass to be in place by mid-January. The bill is likely to be voted on quickly in parliament, with President Emmanuel Macron’s party holding a majority at the National Assembly, which has the final say. If approved, its introduction will mean that unvaccinated people will no longer be able to use negative test results to access places where the vaccine pass is required. The bill provides for an exception to the pass — notably to take trains and planes — for people with family or health emergencies on condition they are able to present a negative test. Those who aren’t vaccinated but have a proof of a recent COVID-19 recovery will be able to get a vaccine pass limited to a six-month period following infection. On Monday, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced a series of new measures to try to curb the spread of the virus. Yet the government stopped short of taking drastic restrictions, like curfews or lockdowns, appearing to be trying to strike a balance between measures needed to relieve hospitals and keep the economy running at the same time. Starting from next week, big events will be limited to 2,000 people indoors and 5,000 people outdoors. Eating and drinking will be banned in cinemas, theaters, sport facilities and public transportation, including on long-distance routes. Working from home will be mandatory at least three days per week for employees whose job makes it possible. from https://ift.tt/3FCEvxO Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ The Omicron variant is causing an increasing share of coronavirus infections in the U.S., though its climb to dominance has been gentler than earlier estimates indicated, according to an updated federal model. Omicron accounted for an estimated 58.6% of sequenced U.S. virus cases in the week ending Dec. 25, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Nowcast model showed Tuesday, up from an estimated 22.5% a week earlier. The once-dominant Delta variant accounted for 41.1% of cases in the most recent period, according to the CDC. Nowcast estimates levels of variant prevalence based on genomic-sequencing data. The week-earlier figure marks a substantial revision from a previous estimate, which said the Omicron variant was responsible for 73% of sequenced infections. That reading suggested that Omicron had rocketed to dominance practically overnight, leaping from just 3% of all cases in the preceding week. A CDC spokesperson said that additional data that came in caused the agency to reduce the earlier proportion of Omicron. The agency is still seeing a steady increase in the incidence of the variant, the spokesperson said. Read more: What Actually Worries U.S. Doctors About Omicron Omicron has swept through the U.S. since its detection in California on Dec. 1. In the region encompassing New York and New Jersey, for example, the variant accounts for an estimated 88% of cases, according to the CDC. But there are still some areas of the country where Delta remains dominant, including some Midwestern states and New England, the model suggests. Omicron’s rise has coincided with the holiday season in the U.S., stoking fears of another surge that could overwhelm the already exhausted health-care system. An average of 206,577 cases are recorded every day, according to the CDC, nearing levels not seen since last year’s winter wave. Incubation PeriodThe new variant may have a shorter incubation period and may be more likely to cause reinfections than other strains, the CDC said Tuesday in a separate report. The agency’s findings were based on an omicron outbreak among a six-person household, which included one person who was fully vaccinated, four previously infected people, and one person who tested positive for the first time. While the median time from infection to the appearance of symptoms has been estimated at five days or more for other variants, the incubation period in this group was about three days, the researchers said. People with confirmed prior infections said their symptoms were similar to or milder than earlier, the CDC said, echoing earlier research suggesting that Omicron causes less severe illness than other strains. “The horrific scenes that we saw a year ago—intensive care units being full, lots of people dying prematurely—that is now history in my view, and I think we should be reassured that that’s likely to continue,” said John Bell, regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford in England. He spoke to BBC Radio 4’s Today program after the U.K. government said it wouldn’t tighten COVID-19 restrictions before the end of the year. Despite the reports of milder illness, the variant still threatens to put stress on the economy. U.S. carriers canceled thousands of flights around the busy Christmas holiday because of staffing shortages. The CDC on Monday shortened the quarantine period for people who have been exposed to the virus and isolation time for those who have tested positive. People in both groups should continue to wear a mask when they resume activity, the CDC said. The new measures could minimize disruption to workplaces and schools amid the surge. from https://ift.tt/3HyQ3D5 Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Protection identified 89 cruise ships with COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, nearly all of which have met the threshold for a formal investigation. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal urged cruise companies and health agencies to stop ships from sailing, saying they are “repeating recent history as petri dishes of Covid-19 infection.” Operators such as Carnival Corp. have implemented safeguards including mandatory masking and proof of vaccination, but the fast-spreading omicron variant has triggered an increasing number of infections and reports of ships being turned away at ports. “Time for CDC & cruise lines to protect consumers & again pause—docking their ships,” Blumenthal said in a tweet. Roger Frizzell, a spokesperson for Carnival, said in an email that “our health and safety protocols put in place have proven to be effective time and time again over the past year with our sailings being restarted across each of our brands.” Of the 86 cruise ships under investigation by the CDC, Carnival operates 32, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. operates 25 and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. operates 15. Four ships operated by Walt Disney Co.’s Disney Cruise Line are now also under watch, according to the CDC website. The list is rapidly changing and the next stage for ships with outbreaks could involve taking additional public health measures. Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Disney Cruise Line and Viking Cruises didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. “Health and safety is the cruise industry’s highest priority,” said Bari Golin-Blaugrund, a spokesperson for the Cruise Lines International Association trade group, in an email. “In fact, the latest data show that cases have occurred less frequently on cruise ships than on land, with a greater proportion of asymptomatic or mild cases.” Shares of cruise operators rebounded Tuesday along with the travel sector. As of 12:35 p.m. New York time, Carnival was up 1.2%, Royal Caribbean gained 0.4% and Norwegian was little changed. Of the three, only Royal Caribbean shares have had positive returns this year and they have significantly trailed the broader market, up less than 6% year to date compared to a 27% gain in the S&P 500 Index. from https://ift.tt/32E7y5x Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ Emily Baldwin remembers the morning she realized that the COVID-19 pandemic was going to make her job more difficult. It was the spring of 2020, and the novel coronavirus was raging on the east coast but had yet to overtake West Virginia. A man rushed into the Milan Puskar Health Right clinic in Morgantown and said he thought there was someone dead in an alley about a block away. Baldwin, who is a nurse and the coordinator for the clinic’s harm reduction program, ran outside and quickly realized a young man was overdosing. She sprinted back to the clinic, grabbed Narcan, a medication that can reverse overdoses, then raced back to the collapsed man. By the time an ambulance showed up, Baldwin was administering Narcan, but the EMTs wouldn’t walk down the alley to help. “‘We can’t go near people like that’,” Baldwin recalls them saying. They seemed to be afraid the man might have COVID-19 and so kept their distance, she said, adding, “It kind of set the tone for the entire pandemic around here.” Over the past two years, situations like that—in which the opioid epidemic smashes headlong into the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic—have become frighteningly common, Baldwin says. Deaths from drug overdoses have surged since COVID-19 first spread across the country in spring 2020. More than 100,000 Americans died from overdoses in the year from April 2020 to April 2021, a record number, according to provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics. The majority of the deaths were linked to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, signaling another worrying trend as the powerful, deadly substance has flooded the U.S. street drug market. West Virginia saw the second highest increase in overdose deaths of any state, with a jump of 62% from early 2020. Read More: Fentanyl and COVID-19 May Have Made the Opioid Epidemic Even Deadlier In addition to the changing drug supply, public health experts say the pandemic exacerbated addiction and overdose numbers because it cost millions of Americans their jobs, interrupted drug treatment programs, left people isolated in their homes without support networks, and worsened mental health across the country. In the nearly two years since March 2020, community health centers, support groups, grassroots networks, and programs like the one in Morgantown, West Virginia have tried to help drug users stay connected and safe. But more than two decades into the opioid epidemic, those seeking to help are still grappling with small budgets, stigma and laws that can make their jobs difficult—all on top of a pandemic with seemingly no end in sight. “It’s maddening to know how preventable it is,” says Baldwin. “It doesn’t have to be this way.” ‘It’s about just keeping people alive’Baldwin runs West Virginia’s oldest program dedicated to what’s known as harm reduction, which means that instead of trying to help drug users attain abstinence, she and her colleagues are focused on trying to reduce people’s risk of dying or contracting infectious diseases like HIV. They provide sterile equipment, strips to test their drugs for fentanyl, naloxone to reverse overdoses, free medical care for wounds, peer support and even a safe place to spend time indoors. It’s all run out of Milan Puskar Health Right, a free health clinic for low-income and uninsured West Virginians. While the clinic never fully shut down during the worst of the pandemic, it did make drastic changes that limited staff contact with clients and cost months of rapport-building—a crucial step that can help connect vulnerable people to HIV screenings, homeless shelters, treatment programs and opportunities to find food and other support. In some places, support groups or other programs for those with substance use disorder could move online. But the staff at Health Right couldn’t give out clean syringes or administer naloxone over Zoom, and for many of their clients who don’t have a permanent home, the in-person interactions are crucial. Instead of offering each person a private meeting with a nurse, a peer recovery counselor, a social worker or a volunteer in an exam room as they would before the pandemic, Health Right staff began limiting the number of people who could enter the building and handing out supplies in their parking lot. “We are the kind of place that, if you’ve been here before, we remember your name and we smile at you. And there’s a lot of hugging. But we haven’t been able to do any of that,” says Laura Jones, executive director of the clinic. For months, the staff focused on giving out sterile needles, naloxone and COVID-19 supplies like masks and hand sanitizer. “It’s more about just keeping people alive,” Baldwin says. Throughout the pandemic, Jones, Baldwin and their coworkers have worried when they haven’t seen their regulars in a while. “Sometimes we’re the only place they check in with anyone,” Baldwin says. “If we don’t see that person for a while, it’s like everything is up in the air. Where are they? Are they OK?” And as new waves of COVID-19 have continued, the limited rapport has also made it more difficult to help new clients navigate the pandemic in addition to substance use issues. “Without that rapport going into COVID, we didn’t have that trust to educate people about COVID,” Baldwin explains. A political battleThe COVID-19 vaccines helped many services return this year, but then the West Virginia legislature passed a law aimed at cracking down on harm reduction programs like the one run out of Milan Puskar Health Right. State lawmakers concerned about finding used syringes in the community created a raft of new requirements that harm reduction programs will have to meet in order to keep operating next year. Health experts say many of the new rules are unnecessary and counter to CDC recommendations, but a lawsuit by Milan Puskar Health Right has not stopped the law. “The belief in West Virginia is still very much that drug use is a moral failure, addiction is a moral failure,” Jones says. “So that was really demoralizing for all of us, because we know that to not be true.” Under the new law, the clinic has to apply for a new license to operate the needle exchange program they’ve run for six years, start requiring West Virginia IDs from every participant, switch to only offering as many needles as each person brings back rather than giving out supplies on a needs-based system, and stop giving people needles they can bring to friends or family where they live. Several programs in the state have already closed because limited funds and staffing meant they were unable to adjust. West Virginia has many neighboring states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky, where people travel from to get clean needles, so the ID requirement will mean far fewer people can get help, Baldwin says. The rural environment also means that limiting the number of needles people can take and prohibiting them from picking up needles for their community will be significant barriers. Participants often travel more than an hour to reach the clinic in Morgantown, and many don’t have their own cars. All of these requirements also mean the clinic will need more staff and new training for volunteers, further straining limited resources. If fewer people can use her program, and others around the state are closing, Baldwin predicts dire consequences. “The naloxone access is less and people aren’t getting to touch base with anybody,” she says. “People are literally going to die because of this law.” Read More: The Opioid Diaries: Photos from the Opioid Epidemic in America Other cities like Charleston have had overwhelming HIV outbreaks in the past few years, while Morgantown has largely avoided this—something Baldwin and Jones say may be due to easy syringe access. Without that, other towns could see outbreaks as well. Girding for a tough winterNormally in December, the program’s three staffers would be focused on giving out flu or COVID-19 vaccines, helping homeless patients find shelter out of the cold or even helping plan the holiday party to bring the staff together. But the past few weeks have also been filled with mountains of paperwork and rewriting policies to ensure they are in compliance with their state’s new law. As Christmas approached, they were still waiting to hear back about their license to operate the harm reduction program, so they started giving out extra supplies to people in case they had to temporarily pause operations come Jan. 1. Then, near the end of the day on Dec. 23, the license came through. Jones and Baldwin both express frustration that as the pandemic continues, it’s only going to get even more difficult to help the people who need their program. But even with the third year of COVID-19 approaching and the West Virginia law’s requirements taking effect, they are committed to serving as many people as they can. “The thing that has kept me going for 30 some years in West Virginia is just the belief that health care is a human right and that it can manifest itself in a lot of different ways. Housing is health care. Harm reduction is health care. Emotional and mental health is health care,” Jones says. “I have worked really hard to find people who work here who have that same belief and that same mission. The team works equally as hard. There’s no one here that isn’t sacrificing a little bit of mental health or personal time with family to make sure that what we do can continue.” from https://ift.tt/3puIwi5 Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ New York City will double COVID-19 PCR testing in schools when students return in January, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. De Blasio, Mayor-elect Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul all spoke on Tuesday at a virus briefing of the importance of bringing students back to school in January, for kids and for parents. Schools are the “safest places to be in New York City,” de Blasio said. “Your children are safer in school,” Adams said during the briefing. He and de Blasio said they have been working closely planning for Jan. 3, when schools will reopen. The new approach for schools in January is called “stay safe and stay open,” the mayor said. Under his plan, the city plans to distribute at-home testing kits to classrooms when a student tests positive. All students who are asymptomatic and test negative will be able to return to schools. Students will take two at-home tests over the course of seven days, he said. Hochul said she sent 600,000 rapid tests to the city last week. The state and the city are working to make sure there’s no shortage of supply, Hochul said. New York City has reported a daily average of more than 20,000 confirmed and probable cases in the past week. That’s more than double the daily average over the past 28 days. While cases are at a record, hospitalizations and deaths remain well below record highs reached in 2020. In schools, about 98% of close contacts do not end up developing COVID-19, Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi said during the briefing. Ventilation, testing and vaccination all make schools safer than elsewhere, he said. from https://ift.tt/3EGuCy4 Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ Our ancestors started drinking booze millions of years ago, and we never stopped. Alcohol is embedded in nearly every culture in the world as a social lubricant, marker of taste and cornerstone of celebrations. If companies tried to bring it to market for the first time today, however, U.S. regulators would almost certainly forbid it. More than 200 health conditions—from cancer to dementia to cirrhosis— are linked to alcohol; it contributes to 3 million deaths globally each year, many via auto accidents and suicides; and in the U.S. alone, more than 14 million people struggle with alcohol-use disorder. It’s dangerous stuff, even though billions of people ingest it with hardly a second thought. But what if you could get the buzz of a good drink without the buzz-killing side effects? That’s the marketing hype bubbling up from startups around the world making beverages that promise to make you feel tipsy using the magic of plant extracts, not alcohol. These companies claim that after a botanical beverage, you’ll feel more sociable and relaxed without getting drunk, eliminating the hangover (and bad decisions) that sometimes follow a boozy night.
One such startup, the U.K.-based GABA Labs, launched its first product, an “active botanical spirit” called Sentia, earlier this year in Europe. Sentia is made from plant extracts that can mimic the effects of alcohol, and is meant to top out around the feeling of having a glass or two of wine. But its founders want to go even further: They have also created a (not-yet-for-sale) synthetic alcohol molecule that they say can be used to create dupes of any booze on the market, from beer to rum to champagne. The company’s founders don’t yet have enough evidence to legally make claims about their products’ health effects, but the implication is clear: synthetic alcohol could capture the good parts of drinking while ditching the death and disease associated with it.
But experts aren’t convinced. Things that sound too good to be true usually are, says Dr. Anna Lembke, medical director of addiction medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and author of Dopamine Nation. “There’s always the promise of some new molecule that’s going to do exactly what the old molecule did but not have the harmful effects,” she says. “Every single time, that has not panned out.” Heroin, for example, was intended to be a safer form of morphine. E-cigarettes were pitched as a less dangerous way to smoke. Neither has worked out as planned. Can alcohol really be faked in a healthy way, or would a synthetic version introduce new risks? Is it possible to create a product that imitates alcohol without introducing the possibility of addiction or dependence? And could fake alcohol make people already struggling with alcohol-use disorder more likely to relapse? “Given the significant harms caused when alcohol is misused, this is an interesting approach,” says Patricia Powell, deputy director of the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). “However, it raises a series of questions that we don’t have the answers to yet.” On a recent weeknight, I poured myself a glass of GABA Labs’ botanical product, Sentia. Mixed with seltzer water over ice, the burgundy liquid looked like a cocktail I might order at a pricey New York City bar. I tasted notes of rose and winter spices, followed by a slightly bitter aftertaste. (My boyfriend, helpfully, said it “tasted like plants.”) Because it really did feel like a cocktail, I found myself behaving as though it were: taking slow, small sips and relaxing into the experience as I did. By the time I finished my drink, I felt mellow and a little fuzzy around the edges, as if I’d had half a glass of wine. The effect wasn’t dramatic, but it did more or less deliver on Sentia’s promises. How? The answer is in the name of GABA Labs, which was co-founded by David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist who used to lead clinical science at the NIAAA. (He’s infamous for arguing, based on research he co-published, that alcohol is more dangerous to society than heroin or crack cocaine, and is a vocal proponent of expanding the use of psychedelics.) Nutt formulated Sentia by mixing botanical compounds that could stimulate the activity of gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), a neurotransmitter that produces calming signals in the brain. Alcohol also mimics the effects of GABA, which is why after a glass of wine or beer, you might feel anxiety and stress subside. But if one glass turns into many, that feeling might tip over into loss of control, coherence and (eventually) consciousness. Nutt wanted to avoid that risk with Sentia. “We don’t want to produce a massive stimulation,” Nutt says. “We’ve also worked to develop compounds which work relatively shortly, so they get in fast and get out fast.” Sentia is not the only product of its kind on the market. Kin Euphorics, Ghia and Psychedelic Water are three of several startups selling alcohol-free beverages that use plant compounds to create a slightly buzzy, relaxing sensation. All three have trendy bragging rights: supermodel Bella Hadid is a partner in Kin Euphorics, Ghia was founded by an ex-Glossier executive and Psychedelic Water went viral on TikTok this year. All told, non-alcoholic spirit sales in the U.S. grew by almost 300% from 2016 to 2020, according to beverage-industry research firm IWSR.
GABA Labs is also working on bringing the synthetic alcohol it invented to market. “The botanical is wonderful, but it’s not near as strong or effective” as the synthetic version of alcohol Nutt has created, says GABA Labs co-founder David Orren. As Orren describes it, the synthetic molecule works in much the same way Sentia does, only better—and without any plant-y flavor, making it more versatile.
But the testing required to bring it to market would take years of research and piles of money. Sentia is sort of a stop-gap measure. Since it’s plant-based and uses ingredients already used in food products and supplements, bringing it to market is much more straightforward. Without clinical trials for the synthetic molecule and limited studies on Sentia, Orren and Nutt are limited in the promises they can make about their products’ effects—but they’re perfectly willing to raise the possibility that they could have big payoffs. “If you want to have a good effect that you might expect from alcohol without a lot of the things some people don’t want, including breast cancer and liver failure and shrinking of your brain,” Orren says, “then it’s worth thinking about things we’re thinking about.” The concept of synthetic alcohol has potential, says Margie Skeer, an associate professor of public health and community medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine. “Any time that we can reduce harm associated with the things that we do on a daily basis is a positive thing.” However, “the public really needs to be cautious with new products that promise all of the good of a vice without the negative side effects,” she says. “We don’t have any research. We don’t have any data.” There may be unintended consequences to consider, too. What happens if someone combines fake alcohol with real alcohol or prescription drugs? (Orren says they haven’t specifically studied that possibility when it comes to Sentia, but concedes that “there’s a risk of everything.”) Powell, from the NIAAA, also notes that a single alcoholic drink can increase the risk of car crashes and other accidents, so any substance that alters someone’s mental state—however slightly—needs to be carefully examined. (Orren urges people to treat Sentia “with great respect, in terms of driving or operating physical machinery.”) Any product that promises neurological rewards could also become habit-forming, says Stanford’s Lembke. “There’s no way to get a euphoric effect or relaxant effect and not have some kind of rebound phenomenon,” she says. “In terms of biological systems, there’s no free lunch.” (While Orren and Nutt can’t promise their products won’t be habit-forming without clinical trials, Nutt emphasizes that he’s worked in psychopharmacology for decades and developed some of the methodologies used for assessing tolerance.) Then there’s marketing. “I would want to be very careful about how … a product that boasts no hangovers and getting drunk without any of the negative effects will be perceived by teenagers and how it will be marketed accordingly,” Skeer says. (The Sentia label says the product is “not recommended” for anyone younger than 18.) Both Skeer and Lembke say that synthetic alcohol makes them think of e-cigarettes, a harm reduction product that comes with drawbacks. Like synthetic alcohol, e-cigarettes were invented to keep the good parts of a dangerous habit—the ritual, the sensation of dragging on a cigarette, the nicotine—while eliminating many of the harmful components. Also like synthetic alcohol, many experts worried there wasn’t adequate research to prove their benefits and rule out their harms. And their appeal to young people sparked a teenage epidemic, with teen vaping becoming so widespread that lawmakers and regulators enacted drastic restrictions on e-cigarettes’ marketing and sale, affecting both underage users and the adult smokers for whom they were intended. Spotty research, questionable marketing tactics and minimal safeguards against underage use ultimately tainted whatever promise was associated with e-cigarettes, and their rise and fall portends a fate that could befall synthetic alcohol companies if they aren’t careful. But Orren believes the world is ready for a product like his. “Alcohol is a wonderful thing that’s brought a lot of people together, but there’s a huge downside to it…and it’s an unnecessary downside,” Orren says. “If we can deliver this, imagine what that means for families in the future. Imagine what that means for our ability to relax.” from https://ift.tt/3sEBd9D Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ President Joe Biden’s medical adviser said a domestic travel vaccination rule should be considered as the omicron variant fuels record Covid-19 case loads in some states and holiday travel continues to be disrupted around the U.S. Anthony Fauci said on MSNBC on Monday that it would be “reasonable to consider” a requirement to be vaccinated for coronavirus before getting on a domestic flight. Later, in an interview on CNN, he said people should consider avoiding larger New Year’s Eve parties. “When you make vaccination a requirement, that’s another incentive to get more people vaccinated,” Fauci said. “If you want to do that with domestic flights, I think that’s something that seriously should be considered.” Biden said on Monday that governors had asked Fauci about new requirements for air travel during a weekly conference call. The lobbying group for major U.S. air carriers, Airlines for America, said the administration had indicated that such a mandate wasn’t coming in the near term. “We have been informed by the administration that there is no imminent policy proposal regarding a domestic travel requirement and echo concerns expressed by the administration about the implementation and enforcement of such a policy,” the group said in a statement. Fauci also reiterated that officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are seriously discussing whether its feasible to shorten isolation and quarantine time for essential workers. Scrapped FlightsA surge in cases prompted U.S. airlines to scrap about 2,800 flights over the holiday weekend because of personnel shortages, and has disrupted plans for some of the traditional year-end college football games. U.S. travel stocks retreated on Monday despite gains in the wider market, with United Airlines Holdings Inc. down 0.9% at 12:57 p.m. in New York. Delta Air Lines Inc. lost 0.8% and American Airlines Group Inc. fell 0.6%. Among cruise-ship operators, Carnival Corp. declined 1.5%, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. retreated 2.1% and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. fell 2.9%. While some studies have suggested the omicron variant is less severe, particularly for vaccinated people, rising case loads have prompted concerns hospitals could still be overwhelmed with patients, a situation now being seen in pockets of the U.S. Biden is expected to discuss the situation in U.S. states on Monday with the National Governors Association. His remarks follow a spike in Covid-19 infections to record levels in several states, including New York, which reported 49,708 new cases on Dec. 24. –With assistance from Mary Schlangenstein and Justin Sink. from https://ift.tt/312WdeS Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ People who have Covid-19 can leave isolation after five days if they are no longer experiencing symptoms, U.S. health officials said, cutting the previously recommended period in half as the omicron variant spurs a jump in infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement Monday that following the initial five-day isolation period, people with Covid-19 should wear a mask for another five days when around other people. The new guidance supplants previous recommendations that said people who have tested positive for the virus should isolate for 10 days. Covid-19 cases are expected to soar in the U.S. following the holidays, threatening to upend the lives of workers and students who are infected or exposed to the virus. Shorter isolation and quarantine periods will allow people to return to work or to school sooner, potentially helping reduce widespread disruptions that could close schools or snarl supply chains. Studies suggesting that illness caused by omicron isn’t as severe, especially for people who have been vaccinated and received booster shots, has increased pressure on public-health officials to ease their stance on when infected or exposed people can return to their routines. Last week, the CDC shortened its isolation guidance for health-care workers, saying those with mild or moderate Covid-19 could return to work after seven days with a negative antigen test. “This is terrific — consistent with the evidence and data for contagiousness,” tweeted Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, who previously called for a shorter isolation period paired with a negative Covid test. “And exactly what our country needs right now.” Early TransmissionThe CDC’s shift in guidance was motivated by science showing that the majority of coronavirus transmission occurs early in the course of the illness, in the first day or two before the onset of symptoms and the two to three days that follow, the agency said. The CDC also updated its recommended quarantine period for people who have been exposed to Covid-19. For individuals who are unvaccinated, or for those who are eligible for a booster shot but haven’t yet received one, the agency recommends a five-day quarantine followed by strict use of a mask for five more days. However, if a five-day quarantine isn’t feasible, an exposed person should wear a well-fitting mask, such as an N95, at all times when around others for 10 days after exposure. Individuals who have received a booster shot don’t need to quarantine following an exposure, but should wear a mask for 10 days, the CDC said. If symptoms occur, individuals should quarantine until a negative test confirms that they don’t have Covid-19. The Biden administration has recently been pushing to get booster shots into the arms of more vaccinated people, and the new guidance could entice more Americans to seek another dose of a vaccine. Just under one-third of fully vaccinated people in the U.S. have received a booster, according to the CDC. –With assistance from Emma Court. from https://ift.tt/3122YgW Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ (JERUSALEM) — Israel has begun trials of a fourth dose of coronavirus vaccine in what is believed to be the first study of its kind. The trial began at Sheba Medical Center, outside Tel Aviv, with 150 medical personnel who received a booster dose in August receiving a fourth shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The staff receiving the additional dose were tested and found to have low antibody levels. The trial came as Israeli officials have considered rolling out a second tranche of booster shots to its population as the country grapples with rising infections with the new omicron variant. Read more: Vaccine Scientists Are TIME’s 2021 Heroes of the Year Prof. Jacob Lavee, former director of the heart transplant unit at Sheba, said “hopefully, we’ll be able to show here… that this fourth booster really provides protection against the omicron, which is highly needed.” Israel rolled out a world-leading vaccination campaign early this year. Just over 4.2 million of Israel’s 9.3 million people have received a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Israel has recorded at least 8,242 deaths from coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. from https://ift.tt/3FwDC9T Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ |
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April 2023
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