Author: Reporter

Avian Influenza: Costs pile up and health concern spreads as bird flu outbreak enters second year

The ongoing bird flu outbreak has cost the government roughly $661 million and added to consumers’ pain at the grocery store after more than 58 million birds were slaughtered to limit the spread of the virus. In addition to the cost of the government response and rising prices for eggs, chicken and turkey, farmers who raise those animals have easily lost more than $1 billion, said an agricultural economist, though no one has calculated the total cost to the industry yet. The bad news is that with the outbreak entering its second year and the spring migratory season looming,...

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World Health Organization’s chief says COVID still an emergency but nearing inflection point

The coronavirus remains a global health emergency, the World Health Organization chief said recently, after a key advisory panel found the pandemic may be nearing an “inflection point” where higher levels of immunity can lower virus-related deaths. Speaking at the opening of WHO’s annual executive board meeting, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “there is no doubt that we’re in a far better situation now” than a year ago — when the highly transmissible Omicron variant was at its peak. But Tedros warned that in the last eight weeks, at least 170,000 people have died around the world in...

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Scientific advisers support FDA’s plan to simplify process for COVID-19 vaccinations

The U.S. is poised to make COVID-19 vaccinations more like a yearly flu shot, a major shift in strategy despite a long list of questions about how to best protect against a still rapidly mutating virus. The Food and Drug Administration asked its scientific advisers recently to help lay the groundwork for switching to once-a-year boosters for most Americans, and how and when to periodically update the shots’ recipe. “This is a consequential meeting to determine if we’ve reached the point in the pandemic that allows for simplifying the use of current COVID-19 vaccines,” said FDA’s Dr. David Kaslow....

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The new Acorn Way: Street that honored KKK leader finally renamed after students press for change

A street that honored a leader of the Ku Klux Klan in New York has a new name after a yearslong campaign led by high school students. The village board of Malverne, on Long Island, voted last year to rename Lindner Place, named after Paul Lindner, a banker who helped develop the village more than a century ago and also served as great titan of the New York State Klan. The change became official last week when Lindner Place became Acorn Way. “The true meaning of justice is righting the wrongs that came before you,” Malverne High School sophomore...

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Environment. Social. Governance: Why ESG investing is the new political boogeyman hated by Conservatives

After sweeping through battles in statehouses across the country, the war against ESG investing is heating up in Congress. The Senate voted on March 1 to overturn a Labor Department rule allowing retirement plans to consider environmental, social and governance factors when making investment decisions, following a similar vote by House Republicans on previous day. It set the stage for a potential first veto by President Joe Biden. Critics say ESG investments allocate money based on political agendas, such as a drive against climate change, rather than on earning the best returns for savers. They say ESG is just...

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Chronic trend of mass shootings in America linked to spike in right-wing extremism over past decade

The number of U.S. mass killings linked to extremism over the past decade was at least three times higher than the total from any other 10-year period since the 1970s, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League. The report also found that all extremist killings identified in 2022 were linked to right-wing extremism, with an especially high number linked to white supremacy. They include a racist mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 Black shoppers dead and a mass shooting that killed five people at an LGBT nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “It...

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