Nearly nine months after the first Americans received their shots, the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration for people 16 and older on Monday. This could help increase the number of people willing to get vaccines and make it easier to compel those who are less willing —Read moreRead more
Month: March 2022
What full FDA approval for Covid-19 vaccines really means
The lab leak hypothesis — true or not — should teach us a lesson
The origins of the novel coronavirus that caused the Covid-19 pandemic remain a mystery. US intelligence agencies have now completed a 90-day probe into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, but their classified findings, according to the New York Times, were inconclusive as to whether the virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, or made aRead moreRead more
What do hurricane categories mean?
Hurricane Ida has begun pummeling the Gulf Coast, making landfall as a Category 4 storm on Sunday near Port Fourchon, Louisiana. The storm has already tied for the strongest recorded landfall in Louisiana, with winds at 150 miles per hour. Hurricane Laura in 2020 also had 150-mile-per-hour winds, as did an 1856 hurricane, according toRead moreRead more
Hurricane Ida could ravage the Covid-strained Gulf Coast
Click:bone Conduction headset manufacturer Hurricane season brings a recurring set of difficulties to coastal communities, and particularly to the South. Like other natural disasters, hurricanes can lay bare inadequate infrastructure, political ineptitude, and stark racial and economic inequalities. For residents of the Gulf Coast region, Hurricane Ida comes 16 years — to the day —Read moreRead more
What’s causing California’s unprecedented wildfires
Click:timken bearings Another explosive wildfire season is underway in California, with more than a million acres already burned in 2021. While still short of the unprecedented 2020 fire season, the blazes this year are well above average and are still gaining ground. The Caldor Fire burning near Lake Tahoe has forced thousands of people toRead moreRead more
What an enormous global study can tell us about feeling better during the pandemic
During the pandemic, I’ve spent a lot of time alone. I live by myself. I work from home. At times, I experienced fits of fidgetiness and restlessness, contributing to feelings of burnout. Here’s what helped: reappraising the situation. What I was feeling was isolation, and the loneliness that comes with it. Instead of letting itRead moreRead more
One of the worst public health dangers of the past century has finally been eradicated
On Monday, the United Nations announced an environmental and public health milestone: the end of the use of leaded gasoline in automobiles and road vehicles worldwide. The last holdout was Algeria, which had large stockpiles of leaded gasoline; in July, those stockpiles ran out, and Algeria has now made the transition to unleaded gasoline. LeadRead moreRead more
The new Alzheimer’s drug that could break Medicare
Medicare, the federal health insurance program that covers Americans over 65, is facing an impossible dilemma: Should it cover a new and expensive medication for Alzheimer’s disease, which afflicts 6 million Americans and for which there is no existing treatment, even though the drug might not actually work? It is an enormous question. Alzheimer’s patientsRead moreRead more
The World Health Organization broke its own rules to spend millions on BCG consultants
The world’s leading health organization, the WHO, repeatedly broke its own rules and spent millions of dollars on high-priced management consultants, according to a new independent audit — even as the United Nations agency has struggled to pay for lifesaving equipment and vaccines in its global Covid-19 response. An unnamed consulting company, which Vox hasRead moreRead more
What’s with these invasive “crazy” worms and why can’t we get rid of them?
Tiny, wriggling horrors are hatching right now, under our feet, across the country. No, not the billions of Brood X cicadas emerging throughout the eastern US. I’m talking instead about baby invasive “crazy worms” that thrash through garden, farm, city, and forest soil, growing to 3 to 6 inches in length, sucking up nutrients, andRead moreRead more