Category: Health

Categories
Health

C.D.C. Director Warns of a ‘Pandemic of the Unvaccinated’

C.D.C. Director Warns of a ‘Pandemic of the Unvaccinated’

As the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus fuel outbreaks in the United States, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Friday that “this is going to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated”.

Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths remain well below last winter’s peak, and vaccines are effective against Delta, but CDC director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, urged people to get fully vaccinated for robust protection, pleading, “Do it for yourself, your family, and for your community. And please do it to protect your young children who cannot be vaccinated at the moment. “

The number of new virus cases is likely to increase in the coming weeks, and those cases are likely to be concentrated in low-vaccination areas, officials said at a White House briefing on the pandemic.

“Our greatest concern is that we will continue to see preventable cases, hospital admissions and, unfortunately, deaths among the unvaccinated,” said Dr. Walensky. According to a New York Times database, the nation exceeded 34 million cumulative cases as of Friday.

Delta now accounts for more than half of the new infections across the country, and the number of cases has increased in all states. Around 28,000 new cases are reported every day, up from just 11,000 per day less than a month ago.

So far, data suggests that many of the vaccines – including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccinations – offer good protection against Delta, especially against its worst outcomes, including hospitalization and death. (Receiving a single dose of two-shot therapy, however, offers poor protection against the variant.) Nearly 60 percent of US adults were fully vaccinated, but fewer than 50 percent of Americans were vaccinated; only people aged 12 and over are eligible to participate.

“We have come a long way in our fight against this virus,” said Jeffrey D. Zients, the government’s Covid-19 response coordinator, at the briefing.

The rate of vaccination has slowed considerably since the spring and the rate of vaccination remains very inconsistent. Delta is already skyrocketing case numbers in undervaccinated areas, including parts of Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana.

The World Health Organization recently reiterated its recommendation that vaccinated people should continue to wear masks, also because of the global spread of Delta.

Updated

July 16, 2021, 9:50 p.m. ET

However, the CDC has stood by its mask policy, with Dr. Walensky pointed to WHO’s global jurisdiction and the fact that wealthy nations took so many of the recordings available. She added that local officials in the United States can opt for stricter measures to protect the unvaccinated.

On Thursday, the Los Angeles District said that as of this weekend, indoor mask requirements will be reintroduced for everyone, regardless of vaccination status. On Friday, Dr. Walensky pointed out the heterogeneity of the country and said: “These decisions have to be made at the local level.”

“If you have areas with low vaccination and high case numbers, I would say local politicians are considering whether masking would be helpful for their community at this point,” she added.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday there are currently no plans to reinstate a mask mandate for everyone across the city, nor did he consider the move necessary. The city recently reported a streak of more than 400 cases per day, up from an average of about 200 per day a few weeks ago. “We have to see it like a hawk,” he said on a radio broadcast, referring to the Delta variant.

Health officials are focusing on hospital stays that have remained low over the past few weeks. According to the city, about 53 percent of city residents are fully vaccinated. Should hospital stays increase, the city will adapt.

“We currently have no plan to change course,” he said. “When we see something that we need to change, we say it right away and call people to arms.”

After narrowly missing a self-imposed target of at least partially vaccinating 70 percent of adults by July 4, the Biden government is trying again to reach out to those who have still not received their vaccinations. Officials also recently announced the creation of surge response teams to help hard-hit states manage delta-driven outbreaks. Missouri and Nevada have already asked for help.

Categories
Health

England’s lifting of Covid lockdowns a hazard to entire world: specialists

England's lifting of Covid lockdowns a danger to whole world: experts

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street to attend Prime Minister Questions at the House of Parliament on July 7, 2021 in London, England.

Chris J. Ratcliffe | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON – Global scientists have criticized the UK government’s plans to relax almost all Covid-19 restrictions, calling them unethical and dangerous for the entire planet.

At a virtual summit on Friday, leading academics and government advisers from around the world warned the UK was headed for disaster by lifting most of its remaining restrictions on Monday.

The event came when more than 1,200 scientists backed a letter to the medical journal Lancet describing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans as “dangerous and premature”.

In England, most of the last remaining restrictions, including mandatory mask wear and social distancing, will be lifted on Monday in what will be an “irreversible” move, according to Johnson.

Johnson has fiercely defended his new strategy, arguing that now is “the time to move on” before the weather got colder and “the natural firebreak of school holidays” approached.

“It is absolutely important that we proceed with caution now … we cannot just return to life immediately from Monday as before Covid,” he said at a press conference on Monday.

Christina Pagel, Director of the Clinical Operational Research Unit at London’s UCL, warned at the panel on Friday that there was potential for a new variant of Covid this summer.

“Any mutation that can infect vaccinated people better has a great selective advantage and can spread,” she said. “And because of our position as a global travel hub, any variant that becomes dominant in the UK is likely to spread to the rest of the world – we’ve seen it at Alpha, and I’m absolutely certain we have contributed to the rise of Delta through Europe and North America. “

“British politics are not just about us, they are about everyone – everyone has an interest in what we do,” she added.

Clinical epidemiologist Deepti Gurdasani, who also attended the summit, agreed and said ahead of the event on Twitter that “the world is watching the current UK avoidable crisis unfold”.

Michael Baker, professor of public health and a member of the New Zealand Department of Health advisory group, said he was “amazed” at the UK government’s plans to lift almost all restrictions on Monday.

Baker suggested that the UK government appeared to be reverting to a “herd immunity approach” which he described as “totally unacceptable”, arguing that the strategy “failed miserably around the globe”.

New Zealand is widely viewed as successful in suppressing the coronavirus within its borders, and life on the island nation has returned to a state of relative normalcy. The country currently has 48 “active” cases, all of which have been found in immigrants, nine of which have been reported in the past 24 hours. According to the New Zealand Ministry of Health, there are zero cases in the community.

‘Disasters’ Directive

William Haseltine, a US virologist and chairman and president of ACCESS Health International, told the panel at the summit on Friday that the world “has always looked for great, sensible policies in the UK”.

“Unfortunately, that was not the case with the Covid pandemic,” he said. “What I fear is that some of the worst stimuli in many of our states will follow Britain’s lead.”

Haseltine criticized so-called herd immunity strategies – which allow populations to build natural immunity to a disease by being exposed to it – as “murderous”.

“I think that’s a word we should use because it is. It is the knowledge that you are doing something that results in thousands, and in some cases tens of thousands, of people, ”he said.

“It is a disaster as a policy, it is clear that this has been the case for some time, and to continue with this policy is unscrupulous.”

Jose M Martin-Moreno, Professor of Public Health at the University of Valencia in Spain, echoed Haseltine’s concerns about other parts of the world, along the lines of the UK.

“We cannot understand why this is happening, despite the knowledge (the UK) has,” he said, warning that other countries may begin to “mimick” British policies.

“If we remove the tools that contain the transmission – that’s it,” he added.

“Everyone is affected”

Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of the New England Complex Systems Institute and founder of the World Health Network, said that now is the time for governments to act – but in the opposite direction of UK lawmakers.

“Opening up while the pandemic is still spreading doesn’t make sense to protect the public,” he said. “Everyone will be affected once the pandemic gets out of hand.”

Meanwhile, Shu-Ti Chiou, founding president of the Taiwan Health and Sustainable Development Foundation, said it was unethical to “take away umbrellas without a raincoat while it is raining heavily.” She also raised concerns that children who cannot be vaccinated would be “left behind” due to the high prevalence of “long covid” among young people.

However, there were also warnings that even those who were fully vaccinated would feel the effects of the high transmission rates.

Meir Rubin, an attorney who advises the Israeli government on risk management, warned that “even the best vaccines are only a tactic, not a strategy”.

In one region of Israel, more than 80% of the population had been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, but there was still a “severe outbreak” of Covid. Rubin told the panel that without eliminating the virus, even a vaccinated population “could collapse under the next variant.”

“An infectious carrier of the Delta variant will infect their family even if they are fully vaccinated. If you live with a child who is a Delta carrier, they will infect the parents, ”he said, adding that Israel has seen severe cases and hospitalizations even with fully vaccinated patients.

Haseltine also noted that vaccines alone would not bring an end to the pandemic.

“Even if you are fully vaccinated, you must make serious efforts and controls to try to correct the problem, not just to alleviate it. A policy that opens up the country in the midst of a growing wave of infections is counterproductive in extreme cases, ”he warned.

Categories
Health

Ignored No Extra: Rebecca Lee Crumpler, Who Battled Prejudice in Drugs

Overlooked No More: Rebecca Lee Crumpler, Who Battled Prejudice in Medicine

Her home at 67 Joy Street now has a plaque honoring her and is a stop on the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.

From this house, Crumpler mainly treated women and children, regardless of their solvency. Her book, dedicated to nurses and mothers, is believed to be the forerunner of What To Expect When You Expect (1984), which is considered the prenatal Bible for countless pregnant women. It is full of admonitions.

“Children should not be asked if they like this and the food, with the privilege of choosing what does not give them food for the blood,” wrote Crumpler. She also said: “Parents should hold their children and children should stand by their parents until the last thread of the silk cord is broken.”

An 1894 article in The Boston Globe described her book as “valuable” and Crumpler as “a very pleasant and intellectual woman” and “a tireless community worker.”

Crumpler died of fibroids on March 9, 1895. She was 64 years old. Her husband died in 1910.

In 2019, Vicki Gall, a history buff and president of Friends of the Hyde Park Library, started a fundraiser to have tombstones erected for both of them. They were added at a ceremony on July 16, 2020 that Gall presided over.

“I didn’t do this as a feel-good moment,” Gall said on the phone. “That was a historic moment. She didn’t know then how important her actions were, but we can see it now. “

There is no more trampled grass near Rebecca Lee Crumpler’s rest stop. Instead, there is an awakening of their contributions to the medical community. As she wrote in A Book of Medical Discourses: “What we need in every community today is not a shrinking or weakening of female usefulness in this field, but a new and courageous willingness to do when and where duty calls . “

Categories
Health

Dr. Scott Gottlieb says U.S. is ‘vastly underestimating’ stage of Covid delta unfold

Dr. Scott Gottlieb says U.S. is ‘vastly underestimating’ level of Covid delta spread

Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday that he believes the US is significantly under counting Covid Delta infections, making it difficult to know if the highly communicable strain is causing unexpectedly high hospital admissions and death rates.

“We just don’t know what the denominator is,” said Gottlieb in an interview with “Squawk Box”. “I think we are underestimating the extent of the Delta Spread right now because I think that people who are vaccinated may develop mild symptoms or develop a breakthrough case, by and large, not going out and getting tested. has been vaccinated and you are just catching a mild cold, don’t think you have Covid. “

Coronavirus cases in the United States have increased due to the Delta variant, with the seven-day average of new infections every day a CNBC analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University at 26,448. That’s 67% more than a week ago. The weekly average of new daily deaths has increased to 273 from a week ago, according to CNBC analysis.

“There is no clear evidence that this is more pathogenic, that it causes more serious infections. It is clearly more virulent, it is clearly more contagious” than previous strains of the virus, said Gottlieb, who sits on the board of directors at Covid vaccine manufacturer Pfizer.

If younger Americans get the Delta variant at a higher level compared to earlier points in the pandemic, it is because “younger people remain unvaccinated,” claimed Gottlieb. “When vaccinated people get infected and there are breakthrough infections, they don’t get as sick. They are protected from serious illnesses.”

Delta is now the most common strain of coronavirus in the United States, accounting for more than 57% of cases in the two weeks June 20 through July 3. This is the latest available window on the CDC website.

U.S. health officials have been sounding the alarm for weeks about the potential of the variant to reduce hard-earned advances in reducing infection rates that plummeted in the spring as the American vaccination campaign took off. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, by Friday 48.3% of the country’s population had been fully vaccinated and nearly 56% had received at least one dose.

The Covid vaccination rate is higher in the most vulnerable group of Americans: the elderly. According to the CDC, more than 79% of people aged 65 and over are fully vaccinated and nearly 89% have received at least one dose.

The vast majority of US states with currently high infection rates – defined as at least 100 new cases in the last seven days per 100,000 residents – have vaccinated fewer than 40% of their residents, according to a CNBC analysis completed earlier this week.

Los Angeles County officials responded Thursday to a surge in cases by reintroducing an indoor mask mandate for those who were fully vaccinated. LA County, the most populous county in the country, had lifted its previous mask requirement about a month ago, in conjunction with the lifting of most of its remaining pandemic restrictions by the state of California.

Gottlieb said he doesn’t expect many other state or local governments to follow LA County and put in place abated mitigation measures “because there won’t be much support for mandates at this point.”

“People who are worried about Covid have been vaccinated for the most part. I understand that not everyone could be vaccinated, but most of the people who are worried about this infection have been vaccinated,” said Gottlieb, who was the FDA in 2017 in the Trump administration until 2019.

“People who remain unvaccinated are not worried about the infection or want to wear masks. The bottom line is that this will only spread to the population,” he added.

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC employee and a member of the board of directors of Pfizer, genetic testing startup Tempus, health technology company Aetion, and biotechnology company Illumina. He is also co-chair of the Healthy Sail Panel of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean.

Categories
Health

People Are Flocking to Mexico, Regardless of Rising Covid Instances

Americans Are Flocking to Mexico, Despite Rising Covid Cases

“During Covid, bookings never slowed down,” she said, noting that some resorts are planning to begin charging for the tests later this month, with rates running from $50 to $150.

In Los Cabos, Mr. Chung paid $40 for his Covid test.

Lynda Hower, a travel adviser based in Pittsburgh, was vacationing in the Cancún area with her family earlier this month. She said the airport customs lines were crowded with several flights landing at the same time, resulting in little social distancing. To reach the resort, she opted for a private transfer. A few days before returning home, the family was tested for free at the resort and able to receive their negative results via text at the pool.

“It was very professional,” she said, noting she got the results in 20 minutes.

The state of Jalisco, home to Puerto Vallarta, is green on the stoplight system, and it’s not hard to spot a tourist in town, especially as travel has picked up this year.

“The majority are still masked down here and if someone is not masked, you can assume they are probably a tourist,” said Robert Nelson, a California native who lives in Puerto Vallarta and runs the subscription website Expats in Mexico. “We are working hard to get more people vaccinated, but we need a little help from the folks visiting to abide by the local regulations.”

But even compliant travelers will find the experience changed, because of fewer visitors or safety protocols.

“Don’t expect bars to allow you to stay until 4 or 5 in the morning doing shots,” Mr. Nelson added.

In San Miguel de Allende, the popular colonial town in Guanajuato in central Mexico, public statues are dressed in masks and anyone entering the central plaza must pass through an arch that mists sanitizer. Local police admonish visitors to wear or pull up their masks and have been known to take scofflaws to jail for flouting the rules.

Ann Kuffner, an American retiree who has been living in San Miguel de Allende for the past three years, is telling friends who want to visit to wait until fall when vaccination rates will be higher and the events for which San Miguel is known, such as Day of the Dead festivities, may safely return.

Categories
Health

Singapore to introduce totally different guidelines for vaccinated individuals

Singapore to introduce different rules for vaccinated people

On May 28th, 2021, people are walking on their lunch break in the Raffles Place financial district in Singapore.

Facebook Facebook logo Sign up on Facebook to connect with Roslan Rahman AFP | Getty Images

SINGAPORE – Singapore Introduces New Differentiated Covid Measures For Food As New Cases Keep Rising.

Only fully vaccinated people and people who have recovered from Covid-19 will be able to eat in groups of five without Covid tests when the new rules come into effect on July 19, the Ministry of Health said in a press release on Friday.

These food and beverage stores need to set up systems to check their customers’ vaccination status.

Unvaccinated people need to do rapid antigen tests to group together in groups of five over mealtimes. The food in the restaurant is otherwise limited to groups of two people.

Children under the age of 12 who cannot yet be vaccinated can dine with members of the household without a Covid test. These groups are also limited to five.

Singapore considers people fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving their second dose of Pfizer BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.

Authorities previously said those who received syringes developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech will not receive the same perks as those who were vaccinated with Pfizer BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. Sinovac’s vaccine has not been included in Singapore’s national vaccine program and is only available through a dedicated access route in the city-state.

The latest tightening of measures comes when Singapore announced that a cluster related to so-called KTV lounges has grown to 120 cases.

Night clubs, bars and KTV or karaoke TV lounges have been banned in Singapore since last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. These stores are considered to be high risk as the activities on the premises sometimes result in customers interacting with hostesses and drinking alcoholic beverages.

However, some decided to continue operating as food and beverage outlets. Some of them are suspected of breaking the rules by providing hostess services.

The number of new infections in the community last week is 127, up from 23 the week before, the Ministry of Health said in an update on July 15.

Singapore has reported 62,913 cases of Covid-19 as of July 16.

At a virtual press conference Friday, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung told reporters that 73% of the population have received at least one dose of a vaccine and 45% are fully vaccinated.

Because of the vaccination appointments, that number is expected to rise to 50% next week, he added.

He said the country was “on track” to meet its goal of having two-thirds of its population fully vaccinated by August 9, its national day.

Categories
Health

Covid Is Particularly Dangerous for Individuals With H.I.V., Giant Research Finds

Covid Is Especially Risky for People With H.I.V., Large Study Finds

“HIV knocks out all the brakes on the immune system, and as a consequence you get this inflammatory response that is robust and persistent – and now you still have Covid,” said Dr. Steven Deeks, an HIV expert at the University of California, San Francisco. “I would be surprised if HIV wasn’t linked to the progression of Covid-19”.

Updated

July 15, 2021, 7:14 p.m. ET

Dr. Deeks disagreed with the study researchers’ decision to adjust the calculations for the presence of other conditions such as obesity, as HIV infection itself can cause many of these diseases. “For 25 years we have argued that a history of HIV infection is an independent risk factor for the progression of heart disease, cancer and aging,” he said. Without this statistical adjustment, the increased risk of death for these patients would most likely have been higher than the 30 percent reported in the study.

Many previous studies had a bias that could have masked some of the risk: Doctors tend to hospitalize Covid-19 patients with HIV out of caution, which means patients are less sick and more likely to survive compared to those who do not having HIV.This larger number of patients would make HIV infection seem less of a problem than it is, said Dr. Matthew Spinelli, an infectious disease doctor at San Francisco General Hospital.

“Early studies may have misled people on this issue,” he said. The results of the new study are more in line with large, population-based studies from South Africa and England showing HIV infection doubles the risk of dying from Covid-19, and from a similar study in New York state, he added added.

The new findings should prompt doctors to give people with HIV quick access to monoclonal antibodies or antiviral drugs to treat Covid-19, said Dr. Deeks. The data also underscores the need to understand how HIV infection affects a person’s response to a Covid vaccine and whether some people with HIV need a booster vaccination, as many immunocompromised people do.

AIDS activists successfully campaigned for the inclusion of people with HIV in clinical trials with coronavirus vaccines, but the data are limited. A clinical study in South Africa showed the coronavirus vaccine, manufactured by Novavax, to be more effective than analysis excluded people with HIV, suggesting that HIV infection undermines the immune response to vaccines.

Out of 100 countries that have released information, 40 listed people with HIV as a priority group for Covid-19 vaccination, said Dr. Meg Doherty, WHO directs HIV programs

Categories
Health

Not prudent to deploy vaccine boosters at this level: Ex-FDA director

Not prudent to deploy vaccine boosters at this point: Ex-FDA director

There is currently insufficient evidence that Covid vaccine booster shots are required, according to a former FDA director.

“It is a good thing to be prepared to make boosters, but we really don’t have … evidence, at least in the United States, where we’re seeing vaccine failures or a decrease in immunity, so it’s time to put a booster on “said Norman Baylor, who previously worked for the US Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccine Research and Review Bureau.

Pharmaceutical company Pfizer is developing a Covid booster, or third dose, to combat the highly transmissible Delta variant, which has become the dominant strain in many countries, including the United States

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA said in a joint statement last week that “Americans who have been fully vaccinated currently do not need a booster dose”.

Pfizer met with U.S. officials Monday to plead for a third shot.

The company worked with German company BioNTech to develop a vaccine consisting of two doses given three weeks apart. In December it received emergency approval from the World Health Organization.

No significant vaccination failure

The vaccine errors are currently very small with the vaccines currently in use. Until that changes, I don’t think it would be advisable to give a booster dose.

Norman Baylor

CEO of Biologics Consulting

Westbury, NY: A man receives the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine while at the Long Island State Qualified Health Center in Westbury, New York on April 29, 2021. (Photo by Steve Pfost / Newsday via Getty Images)

Steve Pfost | News day | Getty Images

He said health officials seem to agree that a third dose is not required.

“We’re just not there yet … we have no evidence that it is time to get a booster,” he said, adding that there may be new variations in the future that make current vaccines ineffective or much less effective.

Vaccination inequality

Richer countries have been able to vaccinate a large part of their population, while poorer countries lag behind.

The issue of vaccine disparity between regions needs to be addressed, Baylor said.

“A pandemic itself, the definition is that it is global,” he said, adding that he agreed with the World Health Organization that the crisis must be viewed from a global perspective.

Some countries and regions are actually ordering millions of booster doses before other countries have had supplies to vaccinate their health workers and those most at risk.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Director General, World Health Organization

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday the world is “in the midst of a growing two-pronged pandemic”.

“Some countries and regions are actually ordering millions of booster doses before other countries have had supplies to vaccinate their health workers and the most vulnerable,” he said during a press conference, adding that the world Make “conscious choices” so as not to protect those most in need.

The data suggest the vaccines offer long-lasting immunity to severe and deadly Covid-19, he said.

“The priority now must be to vaccinate those who have received no doses and no protection,” said the WHO chief.

Biotech companies such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which have developed another mRNA vaccine against Covid-19, must “give everything” to direct supply to the places in need, including through the Covax vaccine distribution alliance, he added.

Categories
Health

Surgeon Normal Assails Tech Corporations Over Misinformation on Covid-19

Surgeon General Assails Tech Companies Over Misinformation on Covid-19

President Biden’s surgeon general used his first formal piece of advice to the United States on Thursday to deliver a broadside against tech and social media companies that he accused of not doing enough to spread dangerous health misinformation – in particular about Covid-19 – stop.

The officer, Dr. Vivek Murthy declared such misinformation to be “an urgent threat to public health”. His announcement came just days after his office representatives met with Twitter officials, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Surgeons in general have traditionally used advice – brief statements designed to draw Americans’ attention to a public health problem and make recommendations for its resolution – to talk about health topics such as tobacco use, opioid addiction, suicide prevention, and breastfeeding.

But dr. Murthy’s Counselor, a 22-page report with footnotes, had a more political context. Fox News presenters like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, along with their guests, are among those who have raised doubts about Covid-19 vaccines, which studies show are very effective in preventing death and hospitalization from the disease.

Dr. Murthy formulated his criticism of technology companies in a broader statement about the dangers of inaccurate and inaccurate health information, including misinformation about coronavirus vaccinations. He urged all Americans to endeavor to share correct information and said the United States needs “a societal approach” to address the problem.

But at a press conference on Thursday, Dr. Murthy appealed to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, making it clear that technology and social media companies are his primary target, saying they have a unique responsibility to be more aggressive against misinformation and citing Facebook by name.

“Modern technology companies have allowed misinformation to poison our information environment without being held accountable to their users,” said Dr. Murthy.

“We expect more from our tech companies,” he added. “We ask them to work with greater transparency and accountability. We ask you to monitor misinformation more closely. “

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube said Thursday that they have taken steps to crack down on misleading health information in line with their coronavirus misinformation guidelines. All three said they had introduced features to direct users to authoritative health sources on their platforms.

“We are permanently banning pages, groups and accounts that repeatedly violate our Covid misinformation rules, and that includes more than a dozen pages, groups and accounts from some of the people referred to in the press conference today,” said Dani Lever, a spokeswoman for Facebook.

Updated

July 15, 2021, 7:14 p.m. ET

YouTube said in a statement that it welcomes many aspects of the surgeon general’s report. Twitter said it agreed with Dr. Murthy’s approach and welcomed his partnership.

Calling tech and media companies out is a tricky business, and the White House has raised the question of whether it would try to regulate companies like Facebook that have become platforms for health disinformation. Asked about this at her briefing on Wednesday, Ms. Psaki was non-binding.

“Of course, decisions to regulate or hold a platform accountable would certainly be a political decision,” she said. “But in the meantime we will continue to shout disinformation and indicate where this information is going.”

Hours after Dr. Murthy announced in a press release by the Rockefeller Foundation that it would allocate $ 13.5 million in new funding to step up coronavirus response efforts in the United States, Africa, India and Latin America, and in particular “health.” To fight grievances ”. – and disinformation. “

The Digital Public Library of America also said it will work with the surgeon general by bringing together librarians, scholars, journalists and citizen leaders to discuss the role libraries can play in combating misinformation.

Misinformation about social distancing, mask use, treatments, and vaccines was rampant during the pandemic. The report is a sign that the Biden government is more determined to face this in the face of a sharp drop in the number of new vaccinations. Less than 50 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated, and many top health experts have urged the president to do more to reach people who haven’t been vaccinated.

While nationwide cases and hospital admissions remain relatively low, more local hotspots are emerging and national trends are moving in the wrong direction, fueled by the spread of the more contagious delta variant. Vaccines are effective against the variant. Counties that voted for Mr Biden had higher vaccination rates on average than those that voted for former President Donald J. Trump. Conservatives are far more likely to reject vaccinations than Democrats.

The General Surgeon’s report is eagerly apolitical and does not identify any specific providers of misinformation. But some Republican leaders, worried the virus is spreading rapidly in conservative parts of the country, are beginning to promote vaccination and speak out against media and elected officials who cast doubts about vaccines.

Health misinformation is not a new phenomenon – and is not limited to the news media. In the 1990s, the report said that “a poorly designed study” – later withdrawn – falsely claimed that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine caused autism. “Even after the withdrawal, the claim gained momentum and contributed to lower vaccination rates over the next 20 years,” the report said.

It cites evidence of the spread of misinformation, including a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation that found in late May that 67 percent of unvaccinated adults had heard at least one Covid-19 vaccine myth and either believed it to be true or unsafe. An analysis of millions of social media posts in Science Magazine found that hoaxes are 70 percent more likely to be shared than true stories.

Another recent study showed that even brief exposure to misinformation reduces the likelihood that people will want a vaccine, the surgeon general said.

Categories
Health

Mark Wahlberg-backed F45 pops on IPO day. The actor touts exercises’ vitality

Mark Wahlberg-backed F45 pops on IPO day. The actor touts workouts' energy

Global fitness company F45 Training, backed by actor Mark Wahlberg, made its stock market debut Thursday.

Under the ticker symbol FXLV, it started trading on the New York Stock Exchange and went as high as $17.75 per share on its first day for a $1.6 billion market cap. The initial public offering of 20.3 million shares was priced Wednesday evening in the middle of the expected range at $16 per share. The company raised $325 million. The stock drifted back toward its offering price in afternoon trading, closing up 1.25% at $16.20 per share.

Before the stock opened, Wahlberg, known for his physique and his intense early morning workouts, told CNBC from the floor of the NYSE why he likes the company’s approach so much.

“Die-hard fitness enthusiasts who don’t have the schedule, got to do it in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning, don’t want to get on a bike. That’s fine. But eventually that becomes, stagnant and boring,” Wahlberg said. “You want to be in there with the energy of people working out with you, alongside you, inspiring you, pushing you and supporting you.” He added, “The energy is absolutely incredible.”

Founded in 2013 in Australia, F45 Training offers what it calls functional 45-minute studio and home workouts for people across all fitness levels. It has new workouts each day, inspired by a database of over 3,900 high-intensity interval training exercises consisting of both cardio and resistance.

The company currently has 1,555 studios and 2,801 franchises across 63 countries, and aims to ultimately have more than 23,000 studios worldwide.

“People at any level of fitness can come in and do the workout, and I had never seen that before,” Wahlberg said on “Squawk Box.” “Somebody who’s clearly in the beginning of their fitness journey working out with somebody who is an elite athlete, and being able to do the same exercises, where they’re modified, never the same exercise twice. It’s absolutely fantastic.”

Mark Wahlberg, left, and Adam Gilchrist, CEO, F45 Training Holdings at the New York Stock Exchange, July 15, 2021.

Source: NYSE

In addition to Wahlberg, F45 Training said in its IPO filing that it has promotional relationships with basketball legend Magic Johnson, soccer great David Beckham, standout golfer Greg Norman and super model Cindy Crawford.

The company plans to use $190.7 million of the IPO’s net proceeds to repay debt, $2.5 million to give select cash bonuses for select employees, and $25 million to acquire the Flywheel indoor cycling chain.

“We’re going to be opportunistic with that capital,” F45 founder and CEO Adam Gilchrist told CNBC, standing next to Wahlberg. “We’ve been fiscally conservative since 2013, having never had an unprofitable quarter, and there’s not many start-ups that have been growing at this sort of breakneck speed that can boast that.”

Gilchrist called the company’s acquisition of Flywheel a “great investment” because he said the cycling chain had invested $65 million in technology, saving F45 Training about $40 million on costs and the three years, he believes, it would have taken F45 to build that technology.

F45 Training prides itself on providing a judgement-free zone, Gilchrist said, adding the company’s studios are considered “sanctuaries” for members, with no mirrors and no scales. The program applauds people for coming in three times a week.

An average F45 Training studio has 175 members while the company’s break-even point — when total revenue equal total expenses — is 75 members, he said. The CEO added that 75% of the company’s members are female and 25% are male, with the general age demographic ranging from 25 to 42 years old.

The small membership size develops a tight-knit community within the studios, he said, where members show up at 6 a.m., and know each other by name.

“We are a premium product where they pay anywhere up to $3,000 a year,” Gilchrist said, adding that the company’s monthly retention rate is in the “low single digits.”

Wahlberg said the company has seen people in the second months of their membership visiting the studio more frequently than they did before the Covid pandemic.

“We’re trying to create communities and community for us is actually even more important than the actual workout,” Gilchrist said. “We want people to have a third place to go. Obviously, they have home, work, and F45 is that spot where … it’s a sanctuary for people to turn up, and just have a fun 45 minutes of the day.”

F45 Training agreed in June 2020 to merge with Crescent Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, but later canceled the deal as the pandemic shut several of its studios.

— Reuters contributed to this report.