Tag: CDC

This year’s flu shot was up to 78% effective at preventing hospitalization in kids, early data finds | Live Science

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This year’s flu shots have dramatically reduced hospitalizations for seasonal influenza, early data suggest.

For kids and teens, the shots were at least 63% effective against flu hospitalizations and up to 78% in some regions. That’s according to data pulled from two networks of health care centers that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) monitors to assess flu shot effectiveness.

“Vaccine effectiveness” reflects how much a shot lowers the chances of a particular health outcome in the real world, and it’s calculated by comparing how often that outcome occurs in vaccinated versus unvaccinated people. So in this case, vaccinated kids had a 63% to 78% lower chance of being hospitalized for flu.

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Salmonella outbreak tied to cucumbers sickens 162 | Live Science

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Cucumbers contaminated with Salmonella bacteria have been tied to an outbreak that has affected at least 162 people in the United States.

Of these, 54 people have been hospitalized and none have died, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Wednesday (June 5).

The agency noted that the total number of sick people is likely higher than reported. That’s because some people recover from Salmonella infection without medical care, and it can take weeks to deduce that confirmed cases of the illness are connected to an ongoing outbreak.

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Does fully vaccinated mean boosted? Yes, say these companies | Fast Company

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Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests eligible people should consider getting a booster shot starting at about six months after the date of their original COVID-19 vaccine regimen. For many Americans, that date has passed. Factor in more heavily mutated variants like omicron, and you can see why proof of vaccination is hurtling toward showing you’ve also received a booster shot. Around the country, a number of private businesses have already started rolling one out, and some local governments are beginning to do the same.

The federal government hasn’t signed off yet on booster shot mandates. Ground zero for them, then, might seem like it would be progressive states. But so far, it’s a mixed bag pulling the trigger:

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CDC: ‘Avoid Travel’ Warning For 5 New Destinations Due To Covid-19 | Forbes

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Well, the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Covid-19 Travel Recommendations seem to change as frequently as the Kardashians’ wardrobes. Every week there are new additions to the list of destinations considered Level 4, the highest of four Covid-19 risk levels. Destinations at Level 4 are deemed by the CDC as places that you should avoid traveling to, regardless of whether you are fully vaccinated against Covid-19. This past week five new destinations ascended to Level 4: Belarus, Moldova, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

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Pausing the J&J Vaccine Was Easy. Unpausing Will Be Hard | WIRED

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DESPITE THE HASTILY called press conference on Tuesday, the late-night meetings, and the growing worry over a potentially fatal side effect, the decision to pause the use of one of the three Covid-19 vaccines available in the United States was a relatively easy one.

Figuring out how to unpause, though—that’s going to be a lot trickier.

The public health community had some hope that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might find a fast path through the data fog. But that vanished late Wednesday, when an emergency meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices ended without a recommendation. Amid a global pandemic and a race for mass vaccinations, the pause continues pausing.

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Socially Distanced Workplace | Getentrepreneurial.com

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In 1931, in the midst of the polio epidemic, the Swiss architect Le Corbusier finished his famous Villa Savoye, on the outskirts of Paris. When you walk into the building, the first thing you see is a stand-alone ceramic sink. Todd Heiser has been thinking about that sink a lot lately.

“It encouraged people to have good hygiene,” he says. “Moving forward from this pandemic, I think we’re really going to see a refocus on zoning and what happens when we come into a space.”

Heiser is a co–managing director of the Chicago office of Gensler, a global architecture firm that has created a data-driven tool called ReRun to help businesses reimagine their offices to accommodate new social distancing guidelines based on their individual space, staff size, and advice from the CDC and the WHO.

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The coronavirus ‘does not spread easily’ from touching surfaces or objects, CDC says | Live Science

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The new coronavirus “does not spread easily” from touching surfaces or objects, according to updated wording on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website.

This change was made on May 11 without an announcement from the organization, according to NBC News. The change, which was made during an internal review of their website, was meant to “clarify other types of spread beyond person to person,” CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund told NBC News.

But there doesn’t appear to be any new data on how infectious viral particles are on surfaces, according to NBC News.

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Trying to make up for lost time, the CDC will distribute 1.1 million COVID-19 tests by this weekend | TechCrunch

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In a press conference late on Friday, Vice President Mike Pence said that the government will finally have the capacity to provide over 1 million tests for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.

Joined by representatives of the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the vice president detailed the continuing efforts from the White House to coordinate a response to the spread of the coronavirus.

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Please, Please, Please Don’t Sleep in Contact Lenses, CDC Says | Live Science

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It’s late, you’re tired, and the last thing you want to do is get out of bed and take out your contact lenses. If so, you’re not alone: Around one-third of people who wear contact lenses have reported that they sleep or nap in them.

But people who do this have six to eight times the risk of developing eye infections, according to a new report published today (Aug. 16) in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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US opioid abuse ‘linked to jobs market’ says Fed boss | BBC News

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Widespread opioid abuse is tied to a fall in the share of Americans working or looking for work, the head of the US central bank said on Thursday.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said she was not sure if it was a cause of the decline or a symptom revealing more longstanding economic problems.

Technological changes and an ageing workforce also contributed, she said.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimate that prescription drug abuse costs $78.5bn (£61.5bn) annually.

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