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Tag: Pandemic

  • Here are the latest tech layoffs as the industry shudders

    Here are the latest tech layoffs as the industry shudders

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    The high-flying tech industry is facing a reckoning as the economy slows and customers pull back on spending.

    In the past month alone, tech companies have cut nearly 60,000 jobs, reversing a hiring spree that surged during the pandemic as millions of Americans moved their lives online. IBM was one of the latest to slash its headcount, announcing 3,900 layoffs in January, or less than 2% of its global workforce. 

    Even with the surge in layoffs, most tech companies are still vastly larger than they were three years ago. But industry analysts expect further industry cuts in 2023 as the Federal Reserve continues to increase interest rates as it hits the brakes on economic growth. 

    This year, “a major theme will be tech layoffs as Silicon Valley, after a decade of hyper growth, now comes to the reality of cost-cutting mode,” analysts at Wedbush said in a research note Friday.

    As for what that means for tech workers, it’s too soon to tell, experts say. Despite the cascade of layoff announcements, employment in the information sector rose through most of last year, dropping only in December. That suggests demand for talent remains strong enough that many laid-off tech employees will likely be able to find new jobs.

    “While layoffs from high-profile firms make the headlines, plenty of firms are desperate for more workers, especially tech workers. Those workers are in high demand from the auto industry to the Department of Veterans Affairs to not-for-profits,” said Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union.

    “The labor market is still so tight that many tech workers, and workers with other skills, are snapped up well before they need to collect an unemployment check. And they are more likely to be snapped up by smaller firms, which have a much greater demand for workers than major corporations.

    The tech downturn is an anomaly amid a job market that remains the tightest in decades and has allowed many workers to command higher pay. Across the economy, announced layoffs last year fell to their second-lowest in 30 years of tracking by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, second only to 2021.

    But even as overall layoffs fell, tech layoffs rose, with a record 1 in 4 layoffs last year taking place in the tech sector.

    Here are the largest tech companies to announce cuts since 2022.

    Alphabet   

    The Google parent said on January 20 that it would let go of 12,000 workers, or about 6% of its 186,000-strong global workforce. The cuts apply “across Alphabet — product areas, functions, levels and regions,” CEO Sundar Pichai said.

    Pichai told employees that the Silicon Valley company simply hired too fast during the pandemic. 

    “Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth,” Pichai wrote in an email that was also posted on Alphabet’s corporate blog. “To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.”

    Amazon

    The e-commerce company is moving to cut about 18,000 positions, a downshift that began in November and that will continue into this year. That’s just a fraction of its 1.5 million-strong global workforce. 

    While the vast majority of the company’s employees work in its vast warehouse and logistics operation — which doubled in size during the pandemic — the cuts mostly affect white-collar employees in some of the company’s less profitable sectors, including the division responsible for its voice assistant, Alexa.

    Carvana

    The online car seller cut about 2,500 workers in May 2022, or 12% of its workforce. The company was widely criticized for its handling of the layoffs, many of which were done via Zoom and email. 

    The Phoenix-based company, which delivers new and used cars to buyers, blamed the cuts on an “automotive recession.”

    Coinbase

    The cryptocurrency trading platform cut roughly 20% of its workforce, or about 950 jobs, in January. It’s the second round of layoffs in less than a year, with 1,100 workers losing their jobs in June.

    Dell

    The computer company in February announced it would slash 5% of its workforce due to a “challenging global economic environment.” The Texas-based company has about 133,000 employees, according to its most recent annual report, putting the layoffs on track to eliminate about 6,600 jobs.

    eBay

    The online marketplace said in February it would cut 500 jobs, or about 4% of its global workforce, according to an internal email included with a securities filing.

    The layoffs allow the company “to invest and create new roles in high-potential areas,” CEO Jamie Iannone said in the message. The will also “[simplify] our structure to make decisions more effectively and with more speed,” he said.

    IBM

    The company plans to cut about 3,900 workers, its chief financial officer told Bloomberg in January. The cuts amount to about 1.5% of the company’s global workforce, and come even as IBM posted better-than-expected revenue for the most recent quarter.

    The Armonk, New York-based firm will continue hiring in what its financial officer called “higher-growth areas.” IBM last year said it would invest tens of billions of dollars across New York’s Hudson Valley to spur semiconductor manufacturing.

    Lyft

    The ride-hailing service said in November it was cutting 13% of its workforce, almost 700 employees. The layoffs affect its corporate employees, since Lyft’s army of drivers are considered independent businesses, not employees of the transportation company. 

    Meta

    The parent company of Facebook in November laid off 11,000 people, about 13% of its workforce. Meta has struggled more than many tech companies this year; its user base has shrunk, while CEO Mark Zuckerberg has put billions of dollars into building what he calls the “metaverse,” to the consternation of its investors. The company’s stock has lost two-thirds of its value since peaking in August 2021.

    Microsoft

    The software company in January said it would cut about 10,000 jobs, almost 5% of its workforce, as it refocuses its strategy on artificial intelligence and away from hardware. In the two years ending in June 2022, Microsoft had expanded from 163,000 workers to 221,000.

    PayPal

    The digital payments company said in January it was cutting 2,000 jobs, or about 7% of its workforce, as it contends with what it called “the challenging macro-economic environment.”

    The San Jose, California-based company is the parent of PayPal is the parent of payment apps Venmo and Xoom and the coupon service Honey, among other brands. PayPal said the cuts would affect different brands unequally, although it did not specify further.

    Robinhood

    The company, whose app helped attract a new generation of investors to the market, announced in August that it would reduce its headcount by 23%, or approximately 780 people. That’s the second round of recent layoffs for the company, which last year cut 9% of its workforce.

    Salesforce

    The company cut 10% of its workforce, or about 7,300 employees, in January. It also said it was closing some offices, citing a “challenging” environment and lower customer spending. 

    Snap

    The parent company of social media platform Snapchat said in August that it was letting go of 20% of its staff. Snap’s staff has grown to more than 5,600 employees in recent years, meaning that, even after laying off more than 1,000 people, Snap’s staff would be larger than it was a year earlier.

    Spotify

    The music streaming service said in January it was cutting 6% of its workforce, or roughly 580 jobs, as part of a push to make the company more efficient. In 2022, Spotify’s operating costs grew twice as fast as its revenue, CEO Daniel Ek said, a pace he called “unsustainable.”

    “We still spend far too much time syncing on slightly different strategies, which slows us down,” CEO Daniel Elk said in a January 23 letter to employees posted on the company’s site. “And in a challenging economic environment, efficiency takes on greater importance.”

    Stripe

    The payment processor announced layoffs of roughly 1,000 workers in November,  amounting to 14% of its workforce. In an email to employees posted on Stripe’s website, CEO Patrick Collison said the company expected “leaner times” amid worsening economic conditions.

    Twitter

    About half of the social media platform’s staff of 7,500 was let go after the billionaire CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, acquired the service in October. An unknown number have left, with some objecting to the new ownership and Musk’s demand for an “extremely hardcore” attitude.

    Wayfair

    The online shopping company announced in January that it would cut 1,750 workers, or about 10% of its global employees, as it adjusts to falling consumer demand after the home-renovation boom of the pandemic. It’s the second round of layoffs for the Boston-based company, which cut 870 employees in August.

    CEO Niraj Shah said the company “simply grew too big.”

    “In hindsight, similar to our technology peers, we scaled our spend too quickly over the last few years,” Shah said in a statement.

    Zoom

    The video-conferencing company that surged early in the pandemic said it would lay off 1,300 “talented, hardworking colleagues” in early February. The cuts represent about 15% of Zoom’s workforce, according to a company blog.

    The company tripled in size in 2020 as white-collar workers shifted to remote environments, but its user growth then slowed dramatically.

    “We didn’t take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyze our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably,” CEO Eric Yuan said in a post. “[T]he uncertainty of the global economy, and its effect on our customers, means we need to take a hard – yet important – look inward to reset ourselves so we can weather the economic environment, deliver for our customers and achieve Zoom’s long-term vision,” he added.

    Yuan said he would forgo his entire salary and bonus for the current fiscal year, and that the executive team would see 20% salary cuts and no bonus. Yuan made $320,000 in compensation last year, and also holds about $3.3 million worth of Zoom stock, according to securities filings.

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  • The Truth Behind Viral Videos Linking COVID Vaccine to Spasms, Shakes

    The Truth Behind Viral Videos Linking COVID Vaccine to Spasms, Shakes

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    SOURCES: 

    Twitter: @AngeliaDesselle, Jan. 21, 2023, @seanybrams, Jan. 24, 2023. 

    JAMA Neurology: “Current Concepts in Diagnosis and Treatment of Functional Neurological Disorders.”

    Functional Neurological Disorder Society: “Press release from the Functional Neurological Disorders Society.”

    European Journal of Neurology: “Functional disorders as a common motor manifestation of COVID-19 infection or vaccination.”

    Alfonso Fasano MD, chair, Neuromodulation and Multi-Disciplinary Care, University of Toronto and University Health Network, co-director, Surgical Program for Movement Disorders, Toronto Western Hospital, Ottawa, Canada. 

    Neurologist: “Functional Neurological Disorders: Clinical Spectrum, Diagnosis, and Treatment.”

    Matthew Laurens, MD, pediatric infectious disease specialist, professor of pediatrics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore.

    Jennifer Frontera, MD, neurologist, NYU Langone Health, professor of neurology, NYU Langone School of Medicine, New York City.

    Annals of Neurology: “Neurological Events Reported after COVID-19 Vaccines: An Analysis of VAERS.”

    Movement Disorders Clinical Practice: “Tics and TikTok: Functional Tics Spread Through Social Media.”

    Politifact: “The ‘shaking’ COVID-19 vaccine side-effect videos and what we know about them.”

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  • Inflammation and Immunity Troubles Top Long COVID Suspect List

    Inflammation and Immunity Troubles Top Long COVID Suspect List

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    SOURCES:

    Alexander Truong, MD, pulmonologist, assistant professor, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta.

    Alexander Charney, MD, PhD, lead principal investigator, RECOVER adult cohort, associate professor of psychiatry, genetics and genomic sciences, neuroscience, and neurosurgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York.

    Michael Peluso, MD, assistant professor of medicine, infectious diseases doctor, University of California, San Francisco.

    Rainu Kaushal, MD, senior associate dean for clinical research, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York.

    The Lancet eClinicalMedicine: “Characterizing long COVID in an international cohort: 7 months of symptoms and their impact.”

    Nature Reviews Microbiology: “Long COVID: major findings, mechanisms and recommendations.”

    Immunity, Inflammation and Disease: “COVID-19 associated EBV reactivation and effects of ganciclovir treatment.”

    Clinical Infectious Diseases: “Persistent Circulating Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Spike Is Associated With Post-acute Coronavirus Disease 2019 Sequelae.”

    Cell Reports Medicine: “The IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF cytokine triad is associated with post-acute sequelae of COVID-19.”

    Nature Medicine: “Data-driven identification of post-acute SARS-CoV-2 infection subphenotypes,” “Molecular states during acute COVID-19 reveal distinct etiologies of long-term sequelae.”

    Nature Immunology: “Immunological dysfunction persists for 8 months following initial mild-to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

    Science Translational Medicine: “Persistent post–COVID-19 smell loss is associated with immune cell infiltration and altered gene expression in olfactory epithelium.”

    European Respiratory Journal: “Circulating anti-nuclear autoantibodies in COVID-19 survivors predict long COVID symptoms.”

    Journal of Medical Virology: “Persistence of neutrophil extracellular traps and anticardiolipin auto-antibodies in post-acute phase COVID-19 patients.”

    Johns Hopkins Medicine: “What are common symptoms of autoimmune disease?”

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  • GOP-led House Oversight Committee targets fraud in COVID relief programs

    GOP-led House Oversight Committee targets fraud in COVID relief programs

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    More than 1,000 people have pleaded guilty or have been convicted on federal charges of defrauding the myriad COVID-19 relief programs that Congress established in the early days of the pandemic. And over 600 other people and entities face federal fraud charges.

    But that’s just the start, according to investigators scheduled to testify Wednesday to a congressional committee as House Republicans mark the beginning of what they promise will be aggressive oversight of President Joe Biden’s administration.

    The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is holding its first hearing in the new Congress on fraud and waste in federal pandemic spending. In total, Congress approved about $4.6 trillion in spending from six coronavirus relief laws, beginning in March 2020 when Donald Trump was president.

    “We owe it to the American people to get to the bottom of the greatest theft of American taxpayer dollars in history,” said the chairman of the committee, Rep. James Comer, Republican of Kentucky.

    The Government Accountability Office is expected to tell the committee that the number of cases of suspected fraud is certain to grow in the coming months. For example, the inspector general for the Small Business Administration has more than 500 ongoing investigations involving loan programs designed to help businesses meet operating expenses during the pandemic. The inspector general for the Labor Department continues to open at least 100 unemployment insurance fraud investigations each week.

    The GAO said the more than 1,000 convictions related to COVID-19 relief fraud are one measure of how extensive it was. It’s unknown how much money was lost to fraud, the GAO also said, but it reported in December that an extrapolation of Labor Department data would suggest more than $60 billion in fraudulent unemployment insurance payments during the pandemic. But the GAO also warned that such an extrapolation has inherent limitations and should be interpreted with caution.

    Still, lawmakers are anxious to discern how much theft has occurred and what can be done to stop it in future emergencies.

    “We must identify where this money went, how much ended up in the hands of fraudsters or ineligible participants, and what should be done to ensure it never happens again,” Comer said.

    Some 20 inspectors general work collaboratively to investigate pandemic relief spending. Michael Horowitz, who chairs a committee Congress created in March 2020 to lead oversight of COVID-19 spending, is also scheduled to testify.

    In his prepared remarks, Horowitz said the committee issued a fraud alert this week regarding the use of more than 69,000 questionable Social Security numbers to obtain $5.4 billion in pandemic loans and grants.

    Also testifying is David Smith, an assistant director of the Office of Investigations at the U.S. Secret Service, who predicts that efforts to recover stolen assets and hold criminals accountable for pandemic fraud will continue for years to come.

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  • Here are the latest tech layoffs as the industry shudders

    Here are the latest tech layoffs as the industry shudders

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    The high-flying tech industry is facing a reckoning as the economy slows and customers pull back on spending.

    In the past month alone, tech companies have cut nearly 60,000 jobs, reversing a hiring spree that surged during the pandemic as millions of Americans moved their lives online. IBM was one of the latest to slash its headcount, announcing 3,900 layoffs in January, or less than 2% of its global workforce. 

    Even with the surge in layoffs, most tech companies are still vastly larger than they were three years ago. But industry analysts expect further industry cuts in 2023 as the Federal Reserve continues to increase interest rates as it hits the brakes on economic growth. 

    This year, “a major theme will be tech layoffs as Silicon Valley, after a decade of hyper growth, now comes to the reality of cost-cutting mode,” analysts at Wedbush said in a research note Friday.

    As for what that means for tech workers, it’s too soon to tell, experts say. Despite the cascade of layoff announcements, employment in the information sector rose through most of last year, dropping only in December. That suggests demand for talent remains strong enough that many laid-off tech employees will likely be able to find new jobs.

    “While layoffs from high-profile firms make the headlines, plenty of firms are desperate for more workers, especially tech workers. Those workers are in high demand from the auto industry to the Department of Veterans Affairs to not-for-profits,” said Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union.

    “The labor market is still so tight that many tech workers, and workers with other skills, are snapped up well before they need to collect an unemployment check. And they are more likely to be snapped up by smaller firms, which have a much greater demand for workers than major corporations.

    The tech downturn is an anomaly amid a job market that remains the tightest in decades and has allowed many workers to command higher pay. Across the economy, announced layoffs last year fell to their second-lowest in 30 years of tracking by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, second only to 2021.

    But even as overall layoffs fell, tech layoffs rose, with a record 1 in 4 layoffs last year taking place in the tech sector.

    Here are the largest tech companies to announce cuts since 2022.

    Alphabet   

    The Google parent said on January 20 that it would let go of 12,000 workers, or about 6% of its 186,000-strong global workforce. The cuts apply “across Alphabet — product areas, functions, levels and regions,” CEO Sundar Pichai said.

    Pichai told employees that the Silicon Valley company simply hired too fast during the pandemic. 

    “Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth,” Pichai wrote in an email that was also posted on Alphabet’s corporate blog. “To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.”

    Amazon

    The e-commerce company is moving to cut about 18,000 positions, a downshift that began in November and that will continue into this year. That’s just a fraction of its 1.5 million-strong global workforce. 

    While the vast majority of the company’s employees work in its vast warehouse and logistics operation — which doubled in size during the pandemic — the cuts mostly affect white-collar employees in some of the company’s less profitable sectors, including the division responsible for its voice assistant, Alexa.

    Carvana

    The online car seller cut about 2,500 workers in May 2022, or 12% of its workforce. The company was widely criticized for its handling of the layoffs, many of which were done via Zoom and email. 

    The Phoenix-based company, which delivers new and used cars to buyers, blamed the cuts on an “automotive recession.”

    Coinbase

    The cryptocurrency trading platform cut roughly 20% of its workforce, or about 950 jobs, in January. It’s the second round of layoffs in less than a year, with 1,100 workers losing their jobs in June.

    IBM

    The company plans to cut about 3,900 workers, its chief financial officer told Bloomberg in January. The cuts amount to about 1.5% of the company’s global workforce, and come even as IBM posted better-than-expected revenue for the most recent quarter.

    The Armonk, New York-based firm will continue hiring in what its financial officer called “higher-growth areas.” IBM last year said it would invest tens of billions of dollars across New York’s Hudson Valley to spur semiconductor manufacturing.

    Lyft

    The ride-hailing service said in November it was cutting 13% of its workforce, almost 700 employees. The layoffs affect its corporate employees, since Lyft’s army of drivers are considered independent businesses, not employees of the transportation company. 

    Meta

    The parent company of Facebook in November laid off 11,000 people, about 13% of its workforce. Meta has struggled more than many tech companies this year; its user base has shrunk, while CEO Mark Zuckerberg has put billions of dollars into building what he calls the “metaverse,” to the consternation of its investors. The company’s stock has lost two-thirds of its value since peaking in August 2021.

    Microsoft

    The software company in January said it would cut about 10,000 jobs, almost 5% of its workforce, as it refocuses its strategy on artificial intelligence and away from hardware. In the two years ending in June 2022, Microsoft had expanded from 163,000 workers to 221,000.

    PayPal

    The digital payments company said in January it was cutting 2,000 jobs, or about 7% of its workforce, as it contends with what it called “the challenging macro-economic environment.”

    The San Jose, California-based company is the parent of PayPal is the parent of payment apps Venmo and Xoom and the coupon service Honey, among other brands. PayPal said the cuts would affect different brands unequally, although it did not specify further.

    Robinhood

    The company, whose app helped attract a new generation of investors to the market, announced in August that it would reduce its headcount by 23%, or approximately 780 people. That’s the second round of recent layoffs for the company, which last year cut 9% of its workforce.

    Salesforce

    The company cut 10% of its workforce, or about 7,300 employees, in January. It also said it was closing some offices, citing a “challenging” environment and lower customer spending. 

    Snap

    The parent company of social media platform Snapchat said in August that it was letting go of 20% of its staff. Snap’s staff has grown to more than 5,600 employees in recent years, meaning that, even after laying off more than 1,000 people, Snap’s staff would be larger than it was a year earlier.

    Spotify

    The music streaming service said in January it was cutting 6% of its workforce, or roughly 580 jobs, as part of a push to make the company more efficient. In 2022, Spotify’s operating costs grew twice as fast as its revenue, CEO Daniel Ek said, a pace he called “unsustainable.”

    “We still spend far too much time syncing on slightly different strategies, which slows us down,” CEO Daniel Elk said in a January 23 letter to employees posted on the company’s site. “And in a challenging economic environment, efficiency takes on greater importance.”

    Stripe

    The payment processor announced layoffs of roughly 1,000 workers in November,  amounting to 14% of its workforce. In an email to employees posted on Stripe’s website, CEO Patrick Collison said the company expected “leaner times” amid worsening economic conditions.

    Twitter

    About half of the social media platform’s staff of 7,500 was let go after the billionaire CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, acquired the service in October. An unknown number have left, with some objecting to the new ownership and Musk’s demand for an “extremely hardcore” attitude.

    Wayfair

    The online shopping company announced in January that it would cut 1,750 workers, or about 10% of its global employees, as it adjusts to falling consumer demand after the home-renovation boom of the pandemic. It’s the second round of layoffs for the Boston-based company, which cut 870 employees in August.

    CEO Niraj Shah said the company “simply grew too big.”

    “In hindsight, similar to our technology peers, we scaled our spend too quickly over the last few years,” Shah said in a statement.

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  • Firefighter back on the job after fighting for his life against COVID

    Firefighter back on the job after fighting for his life against COVID

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    Firefighter back on the job after fighting for his life against COVID – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    In the fight for his life against COVID-19, a Texas firefighter sought to inspire his kids by showing them that they can achieve anything if they set their minds to it. After more than 500 grueling days, he’s finally back on the job. Omar Villafranca shares more.

    Be the first to know

    Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.


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  • Biden to End COVID Emergencies in May

    Biden to End COVID Emergencies in May

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    Jan. 30, 2023 – The two national emergency declarations dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic will end May 11, President Joe Biden said Monday. 

    Doing so will have many effects, including the end of free vaccines and health services to fight the pandemic. The public health emergency has been renewed every 90 days since first being declared by the Trump administration in January 2020.

    The declaration allowed major changes throughout the health care system to deal with the pandemic, including the free distribution of vaccines, testing and treatments. In addition, telehealth services were expanded, and Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) were extended to millions more Americans.

    Biden said the COVID-19 national emergency is set to expire March 1 while the declared public health emergency would currently expire on April 11. The president said both will be extended to end May 11. 

    There were nearly 300,00 newly reported COVID-19 cases in the United States for the week ending Jan. 25, according to CDC data, as well as more than 3,750 deaths. 

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  • Fauci Q&A: On Masking, Vaccines, and What Keeps Him Up at Night

    Fauci Q&A: On Masking, Vaccines, and What Keeps Him Up at Night

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    Jan. 30, 2023 – When he was a young boy growing up in Brooklyn, Anthony Fauci loved playing sports. As captain of his high school basketball team, he wanted to be an athlete, but at 5-foot-7, he says it wasn’t in the cards. So, he decided to become a doctor instead. 

    Fauci, who turned 82 in December, stepped down as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases that same month, leaving behind a high-profile career in government spanning more than half a century, during which he counseled seven presidents, including Joe Biden. Fauci worked at the National Institutes of Health for 54 years and served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 38 years. In an interview last week, he spoke to WebMD about his career and his plans for the future. 

    This interview has been edited and condensed.

    It’s only been a few weeks since your official “retirement,” but what’s next for you?

    What’s next for me is certainly not classical retirement. I have probably a few more years of being as active, vigorous, passionate about my field of public health, public service in the arena of infectious diseases and immunology. [I’ve] had the privilege of advising seven presidents of the United States in areas that are fundamentally centered around our response and preparation for emerging infections going back to the early years of HIV, pandemic flu, bird flu, Ebola, Zika, and now, most recently the last 3 years, with COVID. What I want to do in the next few years, by writing, by lecturing, and by serving in a senior advisory role, is to hopefully inspire young people to go into the field of medicine and science, and perhaps even to consider going into the area of public service. 

    Almost certainly, I’ll begin working on a memoir. So that’s what I’d like to do over the next few years.

    Are you looking forward to going back and seeing patients and being out of the public eye?

    I will almost certainly associate myself with a medical center, either one locally here in the Washington, DC, area or some of the other medical centers that have expressed an interest in my joining the faculty. I am not going to dissociate myself from clinical medicine, since clinical medicine is such an important part of my identity and has been thus literally for well over 50 years. So, I’m not exactly sure of the venue in which I will do that, but I certainly will have some connection with clinical medicine.

    What are you looking forward to most about going back to doctoring?

    Well, I’ve always had a great deal of attraction to the concept of medicine, the application of medicine. I have taken care of thousands of patients in my long career. I spent a considerable amount of time in the early years of HIV, even before we knew it was HIV, taking care of desperately ill patients. I’ve been involved in a number of clinical research projects, and I was always fascinated by that because there’s much gratification and good feeling you get when you take care of, personally, an individual patient, when you do research that advances the field, and those advances that you may have been a part of benefit larger numbers of patients that are being taken care of by other physicians throughout the country and perhaps even throughout the world. 

    So those are all of the aspects of clinical medicine that I want to encourage younger people that these are the opportunities that they can be a part of, which can be very gratifying and certainly productive in the sense of saving lives.

    Looking back over your career, what were some of the highs and lows, or turning points?

    I first became involved in the personal care and research on persons with HIV, literally in the fall of 1981. [That was] weeks to months after the first cases were recognized. My colleagues and I spent the next few years taking care of desperately ill patients, and we did not have effective therapies because the first couple of years, we did not even know what the ideologic agent was. Even after it was recognized after 1983 and 1984, it took several years before effective therapies were developed, so there was a period of time where we were in a very difficult situation. We were essentially putting Band-Aids on hemorrhages, metaphorically, because no matter what we did, our patients continued to decline. That was a low and dark period of our lives, inspired only by the bravery and the resilience of our patients. A very high period was in [the late 1990s] and into the next century [with the development] of drugs that were highly effective in prolonged and effective suppression of viral loads to the point where people who were living with HIV, if they had access to therapy, could essentially lead a normal lifespan..

    We put together the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program know as PEPFAR, which now, celebrating its 20th anniversary, has resulted in saving 20-25 million lives. So, I would say that is … the highest point in my experience as a physician and a scientist, to have been an important part in the development of that program.

    Do you feel like there’s any unfinished business? Anything you would change? 

    Certainly, there’s unfinished business. One of the goals I would have liked to have achieved, but that is going to have to wait another few years, is the development of a safe and effective vaccine for HIV. A lot of very elegant science has been done in that regard, but we’re not there yet, it’s a very challenging scientific problem. 

    The other unfinished business is some of the other diseases that cause a considerable amount of morbidity and mortality globally, diseases like malaria and tuberculosis. We’ve made extraordinary progress over the 38 years that I’ve been director of the institute We have a vaccine, though it isn’t a perfect vaccine [for malaria]; we have monoclonal antibodies that are now highly effective in preventing malaria; we have newer drugs, better drugs for tuberculosis, but we don’t have an effective vaccine for tuberculosis. So, malaria vaccines, tuberculosis vaccines, those are all unfinished business. I believe we will get there.

    These new COVID-19 variants keep getting more and more contagious. Do you see the potential for a serious new variant that could plunge us back into some level of public restrictions?

    Anything is possible. One cannot predict, exactly, what the likelihood of getting yet again another variant that’s so different that it eludes the protection that we have from the vaccines and from prior infection. Again, I can’t give a number on that. I don’t think it’s highly likely that will happen. 

    Ever since Omicron came well over a year ago, we have had sublineages of Omicron that progressively seem to elude the immune response that’s been developed. But the one thing that’s good and has been sustained is that protection against severity of disease seems to hold out pretty well. I don’t think that we should be talking about restrictions in the sense of draconian methods of shutting things down; I mean, that was only done for a very brief period of time when our hospitals were being overrun. I don’t anticipate that that is going to be something in the future, but you’ve got to be prepared for it. There are some things that have been highly successful, and that is the vaccines that were developed in less than 1 year. And now, our challenge is to get more people to get their updated boosters. 

    There’s already been criticism of the FDA’s discussion about of an annual COVID-19 vaccine. One criticism is that the COVID vaccines’ effectiveness appears to wane after several months, so it would not offer protection for much of the year. Is that a legitimate criticism?

    There’s no perfect solution to keeping the country optimally protected. I believe that it gets down to, “It’s not perfect, but don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” We want to get into some regular cadence to get people updated with a booster that is hopefully managed reasonably well to what the circulating variant is. There are certainly going to be people – perhaps the elderly, some of the immune-compromised, and perhaps children – who will need a shot more than once per year, but the FDA’s leaning towards getting a shot that is [timed] with the flu shot, would at least bring some degree of order and stability to the process of people getting into the regular routine of keeping themselves updated and protected to the best extent possible. 

    Do you think we need to move on from mRNA vaccines to something that hopefully has longer-lasting protection?

    Yes, we certainly want next-generation vaccines – both vaccines that have a greater degree of breadth, namely covering multiple variants, as well as a greater degree of duration. So, the real question is, “Is it the mRNA vaccine platform that is inducing a response that is not durable, or is the response against coronaviruses not a durable response?” That’s still uncertain. Yes, we need to do better with a better platform, or an improvement on the platform; that could mean adding adjuvants, that could mean a [nasal] vaccine in addition to a systemic vaccine. 

    Do you always wear a mask when you go out into the world? How do you evaluate the relative risk of situations when you go out in public?

    I’ve been vaccinated, doubly boosted, I’ve gotten infected, and I’ve gotten the bivalent boost. So, I evaluate things depending upon what the level of viral activity is in the particular location where I’m at. If I’m going to go on a plane, for example, I have no idea where these people are coming from, I generally wear a mask on a plane. I don’t really go to congregate settings often. Many of the events I do go to are situations where a requirement for [attending] is to get a test that’s negative that day. 

    When you’re in a situation like that, even if it’s a crowded congregant setting, I don’t have any problem not wearing a mask. But when I’m unsure of what the status is and I might be in an area where there is a considerable degree of viral activity, I would wear a mask. I think you just have to use [your] judgment, depending on the circumstances that you find yourself in.

    Doctors and health care professionals have been through hell during COVID. Do you think this might bring a permanent change to how doctors perceive their jobs?

    Health care providers have been under a considerable amount of stress because this is a totally unprecedented situation that we find ourselves in. This is the likes of which we have not seen in well over 100 years. I hope this is not something that is going to be permanent, I don’t think it is, I think that we are ultimately going to get to a point where the level of virus is low enough that it’s not going to disrupt either society or the health care system or the economy. 

    We’re not totally there yet. We’re still having about 500 deaths per day, which is much, much better than the 3,000 to 4,000 deaths that we were seeing over a year ago, but it is still not low enough to be able to feel comfortable. 

    As a scientist, even a semi-retired one, what scares you? What wakes you up at night with worry? 

    The same thing I have been concerned about for, you know, 40 years: the appearance of a highly transmissible respiratory virus that has a degree of morbidity and mortality that could really be very disruptive of us in this country and globally. Unfortunately, we’re in the middle of that situation now, finishing our third year and going into year 4. So what worries me is yet another pandemic. Now that could be a year from now, 5 years from now, 50 years from now. Remember, the last time a pandemic of this magnitude occurred was well over 100 years ago. My concern is that we stay prepared. [We may] not necessarily prevent the emergence of a new infection, but hopefully we can prevent it from becoming a pandemic.

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  • Chipotle looks to hire 15,000 workers amid continuing labor shortage

    Chipotle looks to hire 15,000 workers amid continuing labor shortage

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    Restaurants are beginning the new year with a recurring problem: labor shortages.

    Chipotle said Thursday it’s looking to hire 15,000 people in North America to ensure its stores are staffed up ahead of its busy spring season. Other chains are also looking for workers: Taco Bell has more than 25,000 listings for crew members posted on its website, while Starbucks has posted more than 10,000 listings for baristas.

    U.S. restaurants have added jobs for 24 consecutive months since the height of the pandemic, according to the National Restaurant Association. But restaurant employment is still 3.6% lower than before the pandemic, or the equivalent of 450,000 jobs.

    In a November survey of its members, the association found that 62% of restaurant operators said they didn’t have enough employees to satisfy customer demand. Eighty-seven percent of operators said they will hire additional employees in the next year if they find qualified applicants, but 79% said they already have job openings that have been difficult to fill.

    Hudson Riehle, the association’s senior vice president for research, said a growing number of jobs — like delivery drivers — outside of the restaurant industry are competing for the same workers. Restaurants are raising pay and adding benefits, but he still doesn’t expect the restaurant industry workforce to return to its pre-pandemic levels this year.


    U.S. hiring remains resilient, latest jobs report shows

    04:50

    Dean Nunez, the director of operations for Floriana, an Italian restaurant in Wilmington, North Carolina, said line cooks, dishwashers and other back-of-the-house jobs are the hardest to fill right now. Many of the people who used to do those jobs found work at groceries, drugstores, banks and other places during the pandemic and have never returned, he said.

    Floriana has raised pay to at least $15 per hour to help fill those positions, he said. It’s charging diners more for their meals to compensate. But attracting workers — especially young people — is still hard. Most people in Floriana’s kitchen are in their 50s or 60s.

    “It’s tough. It’s not for everyone,” Nunez said. “It’s long hours, it’s hot, it’s repetitive.”

    Chipotle’s hiring campaign will feature current employees talking about their career progression within the company, in an effort not only to attract workers but to retain them.

    Chipotle’s Chief Restaurant Officer Scott Boatwright said the hiring push aims to ensure that stores are fully staffed between March and May, Chipotle’s busiest months. The Newport Beach, California-based chain also needs employees to meet its growth plans; It wants to double its North American store count to 7,000 over the next several years.

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  • The FDA Wants an Annual COVID Vaccine: What You Need to Know

    The FDA Wants an Annual COVID Vaccine: What You Need to Know

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    Jan. 24, 2023 – Is pivoting to an annual COVID-19 shot a smart move? The FDA, which proposed the change on Monday, says an annual shot vs. periodic boosters could simplify the process to ensure more people stay vaccinated and protected against severe COVID-19 infection. 

    A national advisory committee plans to vote on the recommendation Thursday.

    If accepted, the vaccine formula would be decided each June and Americans could start getting their annual COVID-19 shot in the fall, like your yearly flu shot.  

    Keep in mind: Older Americans and those who are immunocompromised may need more than one dose of the annual COVID-19 shot.

    Most Americans are not up to date with their COVID-19 boosters. Only 15% of Americans have gotten the latest booster dose, while a whopping nine out of 10 Americans age 12 or older finished their primary vaccine series. The FDA, in briefing documents for Thursday’s meeting, says problems with getting vaccines into people’s arms makes this a change worth considering. 

    “Given these complexities, and the available data, a move to a single vaccine composition for primary and booster vaccinations should be considered,” the agency says.

    A yearly COVID-19 vaccine could be simpler, but would it be as effective? WebMD asks health experts your most pressing questions about the proposal.

    Pros and Cons of an Annual Shot

    Having an annual COVID-19 shot, alongside the flu shot, could make it simpler for doctors and health care providers to share vaccination recommendations and reminders, according to Leana Wen, MD, a public health professor at George Washington University and former Baltimore health commissioner.

    “It would be easier [for primary care doctors and other health care providers] to encourage our patients to get one set of annual shots, rather than to count the number of boosters or have two separate shots that people have to obtain,” she says.

    “Employers, nursing homes, and other facilities could offer the two shots together, and a combined shot may even be possible in the future.”

    Despite the greater convenience, not everyone is enthusiastic about the idea of an annual COVID shot. COVID-19 does not behave the same as the flu, says Eric Topol, MD, editor-in-chief of Medscape, WebMD’s sister site for health care professionals.

    Trying to mimic flu vaccination and have a year of protection from a single COVID-19 immunization “is not based on science,” he says. 

    Carlos del Rio, MD, of Emory University in Atlanta and president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, agrees. 

    “We would like to see something simple and similar like the flu. But I also think we need to have the science to guide us, and I think the science right now is not necessarily there. I’m looking forward to seeing what the advisory committee, VRBAC, debates on Thursday. Based on the information I’ve seen and the data we have, I’m not convinced that this is a strategy that is going to make sense,” he says. 

    “One thing we’ve learned from this virus is that it throws curveballs frequently, and when we make a decision, something changes. So, I think we continue doing research, we follow the science, and we make decisions based on science and not what is most convenient.” 

    COVID-19 Isn’t Seasonal Like the Flu

    “Flu is very seasonal, and you can predict the months when it’s going to strike here,” Topol says. “And as everyone knows, COVID is a year-round problem.” He says it’s less about a particular season and more about times when people are more likely to gather indoors. 

    So far, European officials are not considering an annual COVID-19 vaccination schedule, says Annelies Zinkernagel, MD, PhD, of the University of Zurich and president of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. 

    Regarding seasonality, she says, “what we do know is that in closed rooms in the U.S. as well as in Europe, we can have more crowding. And if you’re more indoors or outdoors, that definitely makes a big difference.”

    Which Variant(s) Would It Target?

    To decide which variants an annual COVID-19 shot will attack, one possibility could be for the FDA to use the same process used for the flu vaccine, Wen says.

    “At the beginning of flu season, it’s always an educated guess as to which influenza strains will be dominant,” she says.

    “We cannot predict the future of which variants might develop for COVID, but the hope is that a booster would provide broad coverage against a wide array of possible variants.”

    Topol agrees it’s difficult to predict. A future with “new viral variants, perhaps a whole new family beyond Omicron, is uncertain.”

    Reading the FDA briefing document “to me was depressing, and it’s just basically a retread. There’s no aspiration for doing bold things,” Topol says. “I would much rather see an aggressive push for next-generation vaccines and nasal vaccines.”

    To provide the longest protection, “the annual shot should target currently predominant circulating strains, without a long delay before booster administration,” says Jeffrey Townsend, PhD, a professor of biostatistics and ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale School of Public Health. 

    “Just like the influenza vaccine, it may be that some years the shot is less useful, and some years the shot is more useful,” he says, depending on how the virus changes over time and which strain(s) the vaccine targets. “On average, yearly updated boosters should provide the protection predicted by our analysis.”

    Townsend and colleagues published a prediction study on Jan. 5, in the Journal of Medical Virology. They look at both Moderna and Pfizer  vaccines and how much protection they would offer over 6 years based on people getting regular vaccinations every 6 months, every year, or for longer periods between shots. 

    They report that annual boosting with the Moderna vaccine would provide 75% protection against infection and an annual Pfizer vaccine would provide 69% protection. These predictions take into account new variants emerging over time, Townsend says, based on behavior of other coronaviruses.

    “These percentages of fending off infection may appear large in reference to the last 2 years of pandemic disease with the massive surges of infection that we experienced,” he says. “Keep in mind, we’re estimating the eventual, endemic risk going forward, not pandemic risk.”

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  • China celebrates Lunar New Year amid COVID surge

    China celebrates Lunar New Year amid COVID surge

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    China celebrates Lunar New Year amid COVID surge – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    Millions of people celebrated the Lunar New Year in China for the first time in two years as most COVID-19 restrictions are now lifted. Elizabeth Palmer reports.

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  • Can ‘Radical Rest’ Help With Long COVID Symptoms?

    Can ‘Radical Rest’ Help With Long COVID Symptoms?

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    Jan. 18, 2023 – On March 18, 2020, Megan Fitzgerald was lying on the floor of her Philadelphia home after COVID-19 hit her like a ton of bricks. She had a fever, severe digestive issues, and she couldn’t stand on her own. Yet there she was, splayed out in the bathroom, trying both to respond to work emails and entertain her 3-year-old son, who was attempting to entice her by passing his toys through the door. 

    She and her husband, both medical researchers, were working from home early in the pandemic with no child care for their toddler. Her husband had a grant application due, so it was all-hands-on-deck for the couple, even when she got sick. 

    “My husband would help me up and down stairs because I couldn’t stand,” Fitzgerald says.

    So, she put a mask on and tried to take care of her son, telling him, “Mommy’s sleeping on the floor again.” She regrets pushing so hard, having since discovered there may have been consequences. She often wonders: If she’d rested more during that time, would she have prevented the years of decline and disability that followed? 

    There’s growing evidence that overexertion and not getting enough rest in that acute phase of COVID-19 infection can make longer-term symptoms worse. 

    “The concept that I would be too sick to work was very alien to me,” Fitzgerald says. “It didn’t occur to me that an illness and acute virus could be long-term debilitating.” 

    Her story is common among long COVID-19 patients, not just for those who get severely ill but also those who only have moderate symptoms. It’s why many medical experts and researchers who specialize in long COVID rehabilitation recommend what’s known as radical rest – a term popularized by journalist and long COVID advocate Fiona Lowenstein – right after infection as well as a way of coping with the debilitating fatigue and crashes of energy that many have in the weeks, months, and years after getting sick.

    These sustained periods of rest and “pacing” – a strategy for moderating and balancing activity– have long been promoted by people with post-viral illnesses such as myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), which share many symptoms with long COVID.

    That’s why researchers and health care providers who have spent years trying to help patients with ME/CFS and, more recently, long COVID, recommend they rest as much as possible for at least 2 weeks after viral infection to help their immune systems. They also advise spreading out activities to avoid post-exertional malaise (PEM), a phenomenon where even minor physical or mental effort can trigger a flare-up of symptoms, including severe fatigue, headaches, and brain fog.

    An international study, done with the help of the U.S. Patient-Led Research Collaborative and published in The Lancet in 2021, found that out of nearly 1,800 long COVID patients who tried pacing, more than 40% said it helped them manage symptoms.

    Burden on Women and Mothers

    In another survey published last year, British researchers asked 2,550 long COVID patients about their symptoms and found that not getting enough rest in the first 2 weeks of illness, along with other things like lower income, younger age, and being female, were associated with more severe long COVID symptoms.

    It’s also not lost on many investigators and patients that COVID’s prolonged symptoms disproportionately affect women – many of whom don’t have disability benefits or a choice about whether they can afford to rest after getting sick. 

    “I don’t think it’s a coincidence, particularly in America, that women of reproductive age have been hit the hardest with long COVID,” says Fitzgerald. “We work outside the home, and we do a tremendous amount of unpaid labor in the home as well.”

    How Does Lack of Rest Affect People With COVID?

    Experts are still trying to understand the many symptoms and mechanisms behind long COVID. But until the science is settled, both rest and pacing are two of the most solid pieces of advice they can offer, says David Putrino, PhD, a neuroscientist and physical therapist who has worked with thousands of long COVID patients at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. “These things are currently the best defense we have against uncontrolled disease progression,” he says.

    There are many recommended guides for rest and pacing for those living with long COVID, but ultimately, patients need to carefully develop their own personal strategies that work for them, says Putrino. He calls for research to better understand what’s going wrong with each patient and why they may respond differently to similar strategies. 

    There are several theories on how long COVID infection triggers fatigue. One is that inflammatory molecules called cytokines, which are higher in long COVID patients, may injure the mitochondria that fuel the body’s cells, making them less able to use oxygen. 

    “When a virus infects your body, it starts to hijack your mitochondria and steal energy from your own cells,” says Putrino. Attempts to exercise through that can significantly increase the energy demands on the body, which damages the mitochondria, and also creates waste products from burning that fuel, kind of like exhaust fumes, he explains. It drives oxidative stress, which can damage the body.

    “The more we look objectively, the more we see physiological changes that are associated with long COVID,” he says. “There is a clear organic pathobiology that is causing the fatigue and post-exertional malaise.”

    To better understand what’s going on with infection associated with complex chronic illnesses such as long COVID and ME/CFS, Putrino’s lab is looking at things like mitochondrial dysfunction and blood biomarkers such as microclots. 

    He also points to research by pulmonologist David Systrom, MD, director of the Advanced Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Systrom has done invasive exercise testing experiments that show that people with long COVID have a different physiology than people who have had COVID and recovered. His studies suggest that the problem doesn’t lie with the functioning of the heart or lungs, but with blood vessels that aren’t getting enough blood and oxygen to the heart, brain, and muscles.

    Why these blood vessel problems occur is not yet known, but one study led by Systrom’s colleague, neurologist Peter Novak, MD, PhD, suggests that the small nerve fibers in people with long COVID are missing or damaged. As a result, the fibers fail to properly squeeze the big veins (in the legs and belly, for instance) that lead to the heart and brain, causing symptoms such as fatigue, PEM, and brain fog. Systrom has seen similar evidence of dysfunctional or missing nerves in people with other chronic illnesses such as ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).

    “It’s been incredibly rewarding to help patients understand what ails them and it’s not in their head and it’s not simple detraining or deconditioning,” says Systrom, referring to misguided advice from some doctors who tell patients to simply exercise their way out of persistent fatigue. 

    These findings are also helping to shape specialized rehab for long COVID at places like Mount Sinai and Brigham and Women’s hospitals, whose programs also include things like increasing fluids and electrolytes, wearing compression clothing, and making diet changes. And while different types of exercise therapies have long been shown to do serious damage to people with ME/CFS symptoms, both Putrino and Systrom say that skilled rehabilitation can still involve small amounts of exercise when cautiously prescribed and paired with rest to avoid pushing patients to the point of crashing. In some cases, the exercise can be paired with medication.

    In a small clinical trial published in November, Systrom and his research team found that patients with ME/CFS and long COVID were able to increase their exercise threshold with the help of a POTS drug, Mestinon, known generically as pyridostigmine, taken off label.

    As is the case of many people with long COVID, Fitzgerald’s recovery has had ups and downs. She now has more help with child care and a research job with the disability-friendly Patient-Led Research Collaborative. While she hasn’t gotten into a long COVID rehab group, she’s been teaching herself pacing and breathwork. In fact, the only therapeutic referral she got from her doctor was for cognitive behavioral therapy, which has been helpful for the toll the condition has taken emotionally. “But it doesn’t help any of the physical symptoms,” Fitzgerald says.

    She’s not the only one who finds that a problem.

    “We need to continue to call out people who are trying to psychologize the illness as opposed to understanding the physiology that is leading to these symptoms,” says Putrino. “We need to make sure that patients actually get care as opposed to gaslighting.”

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  • Is It Time for Yet Another COVID Booster? It’s Complicated

    Is It Time for Yet Another COVID Booster? It’s Complicated

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    SOURCES: 

    Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, dean, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine; co-director, Center for Vaccine Development, Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston.

    Paul Offit, MD, director, Vaccine Education Center and professor of pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

    Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

    Ground Truths. Eric Topol, MD: “The bivalent vaccine booster outperforms.” 

    CDC: “COVID Data Tracker: Weekly Review,” “Rates of Laboratory-Confirmed COVID-19 Hospitalizations by Vaccination Status,” “Trend in the Number of COVID-19 Vaccinations in the U.S.”

    FDA: “Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee January 26 Meeting Announcement.”

    The New England Journal of Medicine: “Immunogenicity of BA.5 Bivalent mRNA Vaccine Boosters,” “Antibody Response to Omicron BA.4-BA.5 Bivalent Booster,” “Neutralization against BA.2.75.2, BQ.1.1, and XBB from mRNA Bivalent Booster,” “Bivalent Covid-19 Vaccines – A Cautionary Tale.”

    Nature Medicine: “Low neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2.75.2, BQ.1.1 and XBB.1 by parental mRNA vaccine or a BA.5 bivalent booster.”

    BioRxiv: “Bivalent mRNA vaccine improves antibody-mediated neutralization of many SARS-CoV-2 Omicron lineage variants,” “Improved Neutralization of Omicron BA.4/5, BA.4.6, BA.2.75.2, BQ.1.1, and XBB.1 with Bivalent BA.4/5 Vaccine.”

    Kaiser Family Foundation: “ How Much Could COVID-19 Vaccines Cost the U.S. After Commercialization?”

    Alison Chartan, spokesperson, Novavax.

    Pfizer Media Relations.

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  • Add This to the List of Long COVID Symptoms: Stigma

    Add This to the List of Long COVID Symptoms: Stigma

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    Jan. 13, 2023 – People with long COVID may have dizziness, headaches, sleep problems, sluggish thinking, and many other problems. But they can also face another problem – stigma.

    Most people with long COVID find they’re facing stigma due to their condition, according to a new report from researchers in the United Kingdom. In short: Relatives and friends may not believe they’re truly sick.

    The U.K. team found that more than three-quarters of people studied had experienced stigma often or always. 

    In fact, 95% of people with long COVID faced at least one type of stigma at least sometimes, according to the study, published in November in the journal PLOS One. 

    Those conclusions had surprised the study’s lead researcher, Marija Pantelic, PhD, a public health lecturer at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

    “After years of working on HIV-related stigma, I was shocked to see how many people were turning a blind eye to and dismissing the difficulties experienced by people with long COVID,” Pantelic says. “It has also been clear to me from the start that this stigma is detrimental not just for people’s dignity, but also public health.”

    Even some doctors argue that the growing attention paid to long COVID is excessive. 

    “It’s often normal to experience mild fatigue or weaknesses for weeks after being sick and inactive and not eating well. Calling these cases long COVID is the medicalization of modern life,” Marty Makary, MD, a surgeon and public policy researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, wrote in a commentary in The Wall Street Journal. 

    Other doctors strongly disagree, including Alba Azola, MD, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Post-Acute COVID-19 Team and an expert in the stigma surrounding long COVID. 

    “Putting that spin on things, it’s just hurting people,” she says. 

    One example is people who cannot return to work.

    “A lot of their family members tell me that they’re being lazy,” Azola says. “That’s part of the public stigma, that these are people just trying to get out of work.” 

    Some experts say the U.K. study represents a landmark. 

    “When you have data like this on long COVID stigma, it becomes more difficult to deny its existence or address it,” says Naomi Torres-Mackie, PhD, a clinical psychologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She also is head of research at the New York-based Mental Health Coalition, a group of experts working to end the stigma surrounding mental health.

    She recalls her first patient with long COVID.

    “She experienced the discomfort and pain itself, and then she had this crushing feeling that it wasn’t valid, or real. She felt very alone in it,” Torres-Mackie says. 

    Another one of her patients is working at her job from home but facing doubt about her condition from her employers.

    “Every month, her medical doctor has to produce a letter confirming her medical condition,” Torres-Mackie says.

    Taking part in the British stigma survey were 1,166 people, including 966 residents of the United Kingdom, with the average age of 48. Nearly 85% were female, and more than three-quarters were educated at the university level or higher.

    Half of them said they had a clinical diagnosis of long COVID.

    More than 60% of them said that at least some of the time, they were cautious about who they talked to about their condition. And fully 34% of those who did disclose their diagnosis said that they regretted having done so.

    That’s a difficult experience for those with long COVID, says Leonard Jason, PhD, a professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago.

    “It’s like they’re traumatized by the initial experience of being sick, and retraumatized by the response of others to them,” he says.

    Unexplained illnesses are not well-regarded by the general public, Jason says. 

    He gave the example of multiple sclerosis. Before the 1980s, those with MS were considered to have a psychological illness, he says. “Then, in the 1980s, there were biomarkers that said, ‘Here’s the evidence.’”

    The British study described three types of stigma stemming from the long COVID diagnosis of those questioned:

    • Enacted stigma: People were directly treated unfairly because of their condition.
    • Internalized stigma: People felt embarrassed by that condition.
    • Anticipated stigma: People expected they would be treated poorly because of their diagnosis.

    Azola calls the medical community a major problem when it comes to dealing with long COVID.

    “What I see with my patients is medical trauma,” she says. They may have symptoms that send them to the emergency room, and then the tests come back negative. “Instead of tracking the patients’ symptoms, patients get told, ‘Everything looks good, you can go home, this is a panic attack,’” she says.

    Some people go online to search for treatments, sometimes launching GoFundMe campaigns to raise money for unreliable treatments. 

    Long COVID patients may have gone through five to 10 doctors before they arrive for treatment with the Hopkins Post-Acute COVID-19 Team. The clinic began in April 2020 remotely and in August of that year in person.

    Today, the clinic staff spends an hour with a first-time long COVID patient, hearing their stories and helping relieve anxiety, Azola says. 

    The phenomenon of long COVID is similar to what patients have had with chronic fatigue syndrome, lupus, or fibromyalgia, where people have symptoms that are hard to explain, says Jennifer Chevinsky, MD, deputy public health officer for Riverside County, CA.

    “Stigma within medicine or health care is nothing new,” she says.

    In Chicago, Jason notes that the federal government’s decision to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in long COVID research “shows the government is helping destigmatize it.”

    Pantelic says she and her colleagues are continuing their research. 

    “We are interested in understanding the impacts of this stigma, and how to mitigate any adverse outcomes for patients and services,” she says.

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  • Fortnite’s Plague Doc Skin Is Back After Three Years, Fans Blame COVID

    Fortnite’s Plague Doc Skin Is Back After Three Years, Fans Blame COVID

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    Image: Epic Games / Kotaku

    Yesterday, after 1,410 days (or 3 years and 10 months) the Grim Medicine cosmetic set—complete with the popular Plague Doctor skin—returned to Fortnite’s in-game store, letting players buy it for the first time since the start of the covid-19 pandemic. And many believe it was the pandemic itself that kept the plague-themed items and skins out of the game for such a long period of time.

    I doubt I need to explain Fortnite to you, but just so everyone’s on the same page: Epic’s Fortnite is a free-to-play battle royale PVP shooter available on nearly every modern platform out there. It supports crossplay across all of them and for the last few years has been one of the most popular games in the world as it continues to expand and include more characters from other franchises, like Star Wars, Dragonball Z, and Street Fighter.

    But Fortnite also has plenty of its own original skins and cosmetic items too, like Peely and the previously mentioned Plague Doctor. But until yesterday, these plague-related items hadn’t appeared in the game since March 1, 2019, making them extremely rare, as the only people who could use them were folks who bought them back when they were last available. Meanwhile, most other skins appear again and again in the store every few weeks or months.

    Fans had theorized that the Grim Medicine cosmetic set had been blacklisted and retired by Epic due to the covid-19 pandemic. This makes sense, as including those skins during the height of the deadly pandemic that has killed over 6 million people worldwide as of January 2023 would have been a bad look.

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    All you need to do is sign up with your email and boom: credit for your preorder on a new Samsung device.

    The working theory is that the skin popped up in the store on March 1, 2019. Then before it could appear again in the store, covid-19 was detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and eventually spread around the world, officially becoming a pandemic according to the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. It’s not unreasonable that Epic saw this happening and decided to pull the plague-themed items from the store’s rotation in order to avoid any controversy.

    The thing is, Epic has never officially confirmed this theory at any point. Kotaku has reached out about the skin and the long gap in time between it showing up, but didn’t hear back from the company. Still, even if Epic hasn’t officially confirmed the reason for the Grim Medicine items going missing for nearly four years, the covid-19 theory doesn’t seem unreasonable to me. And regardless of why, many players were excited to see it return, even if only to make a joke about its long absence. Or to point out that covid-19 is still a thing in 2023, which it is, and it’s still deadly and dangerous, too.

    “One of my friends IMMEDIATELY dropped money into the game upon getting this notification. He’s been waiting since it was last in the shop,” tweeted one person. “LETS GOOOO! I finally got PLAGUE!!! I wanted him for 2 years,” tweeted another player upon seeing the news of the Plague Doctor’s return to Fortnite. Of course, there were other players who found it funny everybody was excited over the skin, and others who owned it already and were now sad to see their once rare skin become common once more.

    Personally, I’m not excited about the Grim Medicine skins as I don’t really like how they look. And besides, I only like to buy the most cursed and bizarre skins in Fortnite, like Mr. Meeseeks from Rick and Morty.

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    Zack Zwiezen

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  • U.S. Seniors Bearing Brunt of COVID Wave – Is Help Coming?

    U.S. Seniors Bearing Brunt of COVID Wave – Is Help Coming?

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    Jan. 10, 2023 – It might appear that we’re back to some semblance of “normal” at this point in the COVID-19 pandemic. But many people remain at higher risk for serious outcomes like hospitalization and death, especially older Americans. 

    Legula Estiloz was diagnosed with COVID-19 at age 104, for example. “She and I both came down with COVID at the same time, a few days after Christmas of 2020,” her son Tim Estiloz says.

    “I went in to wake her up for her breakfast, and she was just drenched, sopping wet – her bed clothes and her nightgown,” Tim says. 

    Legula, a resident of The Willows, a skilled nursing community in Oakmont, PA, owned and operated by Presbyterian SeniorCare Network, sought care at nearby Magee Hospital. Both Legula and Tim were swabbed for COVID-19 and tested positive. They had low-grade fevers and fatigue. Legula lost her appetite for months. But neither lost their sense of smell or taste or had respiratory challenges. 

    The COVID-19 vaccines were not available at the time. “It is all the more miraculous that she survived it at that age, and without even the benefit of the vaccine to get her through it,” he says.

    Americans 65 and older are dying at disproportionately higher rates from COVID-19. For example, people ages 65 to 74 account for 22% of COVID-19 deaths, even though this age group represents less than 10% of the U.S. population, CDC figures show. The picture is more dire for those 75 to 84 – a group that accounts for 26% of deaths but less than 5% of the population.

    The oldest Americans, those 85 and over, account for 27% of deaths but make up only 2% of the U.S. population.

    Add to this the yet-to-be-fully appreciated impact of the latest Omicron subvariant on the rise, XBB.1.5, and the future remains anything but certain.

    Legula, who survived COVID-19, went on to have a heart attack and be diagnosed with breast cancer, all before spring 2020. 

    Her prognosis is good now, Tim says. “She’s doing quite well. I think for a period of time, she was doing better than me.” She plays notes on the piano, likes to “dance” in her wheelchair, and catches a ball thrown from 3 or 4 feet away “each and every time.” 

    To summarize her pandemic experience, Legula “battled breast cancer, had radiation treatment, she fell once, she survived COVID, and she survived a heart attack,” Tim says. Although the admitting doctor warned that his mother might not survive the night of her heart attack, she improved and in January 2021 celebrated her 104th birthday. 

    “And now, God willing, in a few days she’ll celebrate her 106th.”

    Bivalent Booster Buy-In

    A key factor in Legula’s recovery: She also is up to date on her COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters.

    The bivalent boosters – which target some Omicron strains and the original coronavirus – are 84% more effective at keeping seniors from being hospitalized, says David Gifford, MD, chief medical officer at the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living in Washington, DC.

    A Jan. 3 preprint study published in the journal The Lancet backs that up. While it hasn’t been peer-reviewed, researchers studied 622,701 people ages 65 and older and found those who had received the bivalent booster were 81% less likely to be hospitalized and 86% less likely to die from COVID-19 than others who did not receive it.

    But only slightly more than one-third of Americans 65 and older, 38%, have received a bivalent booster, compared to 15% of all Americans 5 years or older, CDC data shows. So there is great room for improvement, experts say. 

    “We have this ongoing push among our members to increase booster acceptance rate among residents,” says Lisa Sanders, director of media relations at LeadingAge, a national association of nonprofit providers and aging services, including nursing homes, retirement community settings, and affordable housing for older adults. 

    One of the biggest misconceptions, she says, is “the thinking that the bivalent booster is not necessary.” In addition, ongoing education and access to vaccines remain important “because there is a lot of misinformation.”

    “The messaging has to be clear: You need to get the bivalent booster,” Sanders says, “especially now after the holidays and [when] new variants are emerging.”

    COVID and Congregate Living

    With older Americans more vulnerable to serious effects of COVID-19, a question that comes up is: What about settings where they live together, such as nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, and other care centers? Earlier in the pandemic, these locations faced greater infection control challenges with the coronavirus.

    “Long-term care professionals have known since day one that older adults with chronic conditions are most vulnerable when it comes to this virus. They have been bedside to unspeakable tragedy these past 3 years,” Gifford says.

    “Unfortunately, ageism has been on full display during this pandemic, as evidenced by long term-care facilities begging public health officials for resources to no avail in the beginning,” he says.

    So where are they now?

    On the plus side, defenses and preventive measures have come a long way since the pandemic started, Gifford says. “While older adults are still most vulnerable, we have the tools to help protect them from serious illness and hospitalization. First and foremost, seniors need to stay up to date on their COVID vaccinations, which means getting the updated, bivalent booster.”

    Florida at the Forefront

    The three U.S. states with the most residents ages 65 and older are California, Florida, and Texas. As a percentage, more than 1 in 5 Floridians, or 21%, for example, are in this age group, according to 2021 U.S. Census numbers. 

    With one of the country’s most vulnerable older populations, the Florida Health Care Association in Tallahassee continues to promote the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine and boosters. Kristen Knapp, senior director of strategy and communications for the association, says, “While the booster may not prevent infections, we know that it can help residents from becoming very sick or being hospitalized.” 

    COVID-19 vaccination is not a requirement for resident admission or staff employment. But Knapp says that, vaccinated or not, anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 is required to follow infection control protocols.

     The Feds Get Involved

    On Nov. 22, the White House announced a campaign to promote boosters in older adults. The focus is on reaching seniors and other communities hardest hit by COVID-19, making it even more convenient to get vaccinated, and increasing awareness through paid media.

    The initiative includes new enforcement guidance through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to ensure nursing homes are offering updated COVID-19 vaccines as well as timely treatment to their residents and staff.

    Shortly thereafter, LeadingAge joined forces with American Health Care Association to create an “All Hands on Deck” initiative to help achieve the White House goals. One strategy is to get hospitals more involved. This is important, Sanders says, because about 90% of nursing home admissions involve people transferred from a hospital. 

    Ongoing Vigilance

    Future variants continue to be a threat, but the vaccines are incredibly effective in preventing hospitalizations and death, experts emphasize. 

    “We continue to monitor and prepare for anticipated surges, like this winter’s, and encourage everyone, including our residents and staff, to get their boosters,” Gifford says.

    There needs to be an ongoing vigilance that this is a community issue, Sanders says. “There’s a human tendency to want to push it away and say, ‘oh it’s their problem.’ 

    “Really, it’s all of our problem, and if we all take steps to protect ourselves and each other, we’ll be better off as a society.”

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  • Are You Using This Anti-COVID Secret Weapon?

    Are You Using This Anti-COVID Secret Weapon?

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    Jan. 9, 2023 – Jan. 9, 2023 — If you vowed to start exercising this year, here’s another incentive to help you stick to your guns: You could protect yourself from potentially devastating COVID-19 outcomes like hospitalization and even death. 

    The evidence is piling up that physical activity can lower the risk of getting very sick from COVID. The CDC, based on a systematic review of the evidence, has reported that “physical activity is associated with a decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths, while inactivity increases that risk.” Other research has linked regular physical activity with a lower risk of infection, hospitalization, and death from COVID.

    The latest such study, from Kaiser Permanente, suggests that exercise in almost any amount can cut the risk of severe or fatal COVID even among high-risk patients like those with high blood pressure or heart disease. 

    “We found that every level of physical activity provided some level of protection,” says lead study author Deborah Rohm Young, PhD, director of the Division of Behavioral Research for Kaiser’s Southern California Department of Research and Evaluation. “Even a 10-minute walk [per] week is associated with better COVID-19 outcomes.”

    The best outcomes were seen among “those who are consistently meeting our national guidelines of greater than 150 minutes a week of at least brisk walking,” she says. That’s 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week. However, “every bit is beneficial.”

    Yet, 1 in 4 adults don’t get any physical activity outside of their jobs, according to the CDC. That matters as we move into January and COVID numbers trend up. As of press time, the CDC is reporting more than 470,000 weekly cases, compared to about 265,000 for the week ending Oct. 12. On average, over 6,000 people were admitted to the hospital per day from Dec. 31 to Jan. 6, and deaths totaled 2,731 weekly as of Jan. 4. 

    “The missing aspect in our response to the public health challenge of COVID has been the heightened need for personal and community well-health,” says Gene Olinger, PhD, chief science advisor for research company MRI Global, and an adjunct associate professor at Boston University School of Medicine. “Proactive medicine – where individuals optimize nutrition, exercise, sleep, and whole-body meditation — is not a priority in the current health ecosystem. It is changing, and this is good news.” 

    Of course, everyone should still get vaccinated, Young cautions, and not rely on exercise and healthy living alone to ward off severe COVID. “The more we can do to protect ourselves from having bad COVID, it should all be done.”

    The More Activity Prior to Infection, the Better

    In the Kaiser study, the researchers looked at health records for 194,191 Kaiser adult patients who tested positive for COVID-19 between January 2020 and May 2021. 

    Patients’ activity levels were assessed using a self-report system that Kaiser has used since 2009 involving two questions: “On average, how many days per week do you engage in moderate to strenuous exercise (like a brisk walk)?” and, “On average, how many minutes do you engage in exercise at this level?” To be included in the study, participants had to have completed at least three of these assessments in the 2 years before infection.

    The more active a patient was, the better their outcomes tended to be, the researchers found. Likewise, less active patients saw worse outcomes.

    In the most dramatic gap, those who were consistently inactive (less than 10 minutes of activity per week) before getting COVID-19 were 91%  more likely to be hospitalized, and 291% more likely to die from the disease, than active patients.  

    Like all studies, this one had limitations. Because it took place before vaccinations were easier to get, it could not assess whether physical activity improved outcomes among the vaccinated. It also did not look at exercise’s impact on those with repeat COVID-19 infections. Still, the study suggests that inactive folks should boost their activity to help ward off severe COVID-19. 

    The exercise benefits come as no surprise to physician Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, MD, head of critical care at the Ottawa Hospital, in Canada, and an associate professor at the University of Ottawa. 

    “As an ICU physician who has been taking care of COVID patients from day one, I saw on a regular basis that people in poor metabolic health had bad outcomes,” says Kyeremanteng, who was not involved in the study. “It was clear early on [that] obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disease [were] risk factors for severe COVID and dying from COVID. Basically, the results of the study correlate with what we saw on the front lines.” 

    Fitness Is No Guarantee 

    It’s important to note that all trends have outliers. Even highly conditioned athletes who exercise often and hard can — and do — become very ill with COVID and can have lingering symptoms like shortness of breath, severe fatigue, and brain fog.

    “In younger athletes and those who are optimally fit, there is evidence that COVID can cause myocardial inflammation [heart damage] in one out of 100,” says Olinger. “Fortunately, it is almost always reversible.”

    And while controversial, the concept of over-exercising (aka overtraining syndrome) has been associated with suppressed immune function and more cases of upper respiratory tract infection, he says. 

    “However, the level of exercise that one can achieve varies widely,” Olinger says. “The data is clear that vaccinations for COVID and regular exercise are key to a lifelong resistance to disease and infections.”

    What About Exercising After You Get COVID?

    Another caution: While the evidence shows that exercise before getting COVID-19 can help improve outcomes, other research has found that returning to exercise too soon after contracting the virus can be dangerous, regardless of your fitness level. In fact, exercise is likely to make long COVID symptoms worse. 

    After a bout with COVID-19, return to exercise gradually, says Kyeremanteng. Let your symptoms be your guide. A study in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport suggests that athletes with no or minimal symptoms should return to their pre-COVID exercise habits in a “graduated fashion” over 7 to 14 days. “Those with pre-existing medical comorbidities should adopt a more cautious approach,” the study says.

    “Listen to your body,” says Olinger. “You are the only one who knows what feels right.”

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  • What Biotechnology’s Paradigm Shift Means for Businesses

    What Biotechnology’s Paradigm Shift Means for Businesses

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The past three years have changed nearly every industry. Where business used to be conducted in person, in offices and laboratories, the coronavirus pandemic forced a change. When remote work became mandatory, even traditional industries like the biopharmaceutical sector had to embrace new technologies.

    Today, the world may no longer be required to isolate and keep a distance, but the influence of advanced technologies is only growing. Their potential is apparent in shortening the time it takes to bring medications to market, dealing with supply chain issues and personalizing medicine.

    The paradigm shift of biopharma

    The biopharmaceutical industry has a reputation for being rather traditional. Despite its dependence on research, development and innovation, the industry has relied on tried and tested ways of conducting research. Conducting clinical trials and bringing new medications to the market tended to follow a specific format. This traditional business model has helped biopharma in the U.S. become a global leader for decades.

    Although emerging countries have been mounting a challenge, the United States continues to dominate the global pharmaceutical market. Five of the top ten pharmaceutical companies worldwide are based in this country. Their sales account for nearly 50% of all sales of medication around the world.

    2020 turned the industry on its head. As governments decided to impose lockdowns on their citizens, countless clinical trials came to an abrupt halt. Other companies rechanneled their energies into developing Covid-19 vaccines; for one of those companies, Pfizer, the vaccine resulted in the business becoming number one in the U.S.

    Others again started to look at advanced technologies to transform their operations. This is how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) entered this field. Initial results of AI and ML developments are exciting and have ensured that these technologies are here to stay for the foreseeable future.

    Related: The Future of Food: How Biotech Will Save Us All

    Making medications available faster

    The biopharmaceutical industry has long faced questions about the time it takes to develop, test and deliver a new drug to the market. During the pandemic, the rapid development of mRNA vaccines showed that technology could accelerate the process safely. In addition, the Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines also proved the viability of mRNA technology.

    Jan van de Winkel, President and CEO of Danish biotechnology company Genmab, believes that next-generation technologies will be the key to accelerating drug development. In this context, biopharmaceutical companies are starting to take advantage of the likes of AI and ML. AI can process and analyze larger data volumes than humans can. This enables scientists to recognize patterns and their implications faster than ever before.

    ML-based algorithms are being used successfully in clinical trials. One recent example of this is Anavex Life Sciences. The company’s drug candidate Anavex2-73 looks set to provide treatment for dementia patients. The drug is undergoing a phase 2a clinical trial with only 32 patients. Anavex has been using decentralized trials since before the pandemic, minimizing the need to travel and making trials more accessible for patients. The company is supplementing them with whole genome analysis to enhance trial results.

    Utilizing technology like this can help speed up the development of new drugs without compromising patient safety.

    Related: Orchestrating an Innovation Ecosystem

    Improving supply chains

    One of the pandemic’s most noticeable consequences was supply chain disruption. Like others, the biopharmaceutical industry scrambled to continue supplying life-changing medications. As manufacturing and shipping all but halted in countries with strict restrictions, biopharma manufacturers needed to look for alternatives.

    Establishing closer relationships with external contractors proved to be one of the solutions. Those contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) have always been a part of the industry. But their role was often confined to early clinical development or filling in the odd production lot. Since 2020, CMOs have both cemented and extended their role in the biopharma industry. Currently, CRB survey results suggest that more than half of biopharma manufacturers plan to use these contractors as an integral part of their pipeline.

    Genmab found that working with CMOs added value to their manufacturing of modified antibody candidates and related products. External organizations were able to offer highly specialized services that supported in-house manufacturing.

    Personalizing medicine

    Precision medicine, or personalized medicine, holds the promise of customizing treatments for the individual. Backed by data, this approach would allow doctors to make recommendations based on the patient’s genetics and lifestyle. Precision medicine has huge potential in cancer treatment, for example.

    Experts also believe that precision medicine may hold the key to the continued growth of the entire sector. According to analysts from Boston Consulting Group, medicines driven by biomarkers derived from genomic data will be at the heart of this development. At the same time, the analysts highlight the challenges this type of medication brings. Personalizing treatments and drugs increases manufacturing complexity in ways that the industry is only just starting to explore.

    Related: How Green Pharma Can Cure Disease and (Possibly) Save the Planet

    Cooperating for patient benefit

    The biopharmaceutical industry is competitive. However, during the pandemic, cooperation between businesses became one of the drivers behind progress. Accelerating the time it took to develop, test, and distribute vaccines worldwide required manufacturers to streamline their processes. They also needed to work closely with regulators to ensure vaccines were both safe and effective before entering mainstream production.

    Some industry insiders refer to the pandemic years as a period of creativity. Key players in the industry were forced to change their approach to manufacturing and distribution. The entire sector came together to solve a global problem at an unprecedented scale. Larger manufacturers provided the capacity and infrastructure that small, innovative biotechnology outfits needed to bring their products to the public. The cooperation between Pfizer and BioNTech is perhaps the best-known example of this synergy.

    Biotechnology and the biopharmaceutical industry are starting to embrace technology to transform their research and development departments and manufacturing processes. Continuing this digital transformation will give patients faster access to life-saving treatments and, eventually, personalized pharmaceuticals.

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    Jessica Wong

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  • 1/5: CBS News Prime Time

    1/5: CBS News Prime Time

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    1/5: CBS News Prime Time – CBS News


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    Elaine Qujano reports on the days-long chaos to elect a House speaker, the latest update on Damar Hamlin’s condition, and why U.S. public schools have lost more than a million students during the pandemic.

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  • No COVID-19 restrictions for hundreds of thousands in New York’s Times Square for New Year’s

    No COVID-19 restrictions for hundreds of thousands in New York’s Times Square for New Year’s

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    No COVID-19 restrictions for hundreds of thousands in New York’s Times Square for New Year’s – CBS News


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    In New York City, New Year’s Eve celebrations and crowds are returning after two years of scaled-back festivities. But the threat from COVID-19 is not gone. Charlie De Mar has more.

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