Smoke..

 

You've probably heard the saying "Sitting is the new smoking," and while it may be true, it can also be pretty infuriating to hear. What if your job requires you to be seated, or you simply need a day to unwind on the couch? 

The very vital job of the heart is to pump (aka circulate) blood and oxygen throughout the body. When you're sitting for prolonged periods of time, whole-body blood flow isn't optimal. 

Thankfully, there are plenty of easy-to-adopt habits to sprinkle into your day for better blood flow, like these recommendations:

Heart health isn't predicated on intense cardio alone. Walking "is undoubtedly the best way to increase your circulation.

Whether you're taking the time to go for a mile-long walk outside, moving up and down the stairs, or walking a few laps around your kitchen, those micro-movements throughout the day add up for the better.

Just a thought.

Fourth..

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said a vaccine that targets the omicron variant of Covid will be ready in March, and the company's already begun manufacturing the doses.

Real-world data from the United Kingdom has shown that Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines are only about 10% effective at preventing symptomatic infection from omicron 20 weeks after the second dose, according to study from the U.K. Health Security Agency. 

However, the original two doses still provide good protection against severe illness, the study found. Booster shots are up to 75% effective at preventing symptomatic infection, according to the study. (For how long though?)

Bourla said it's not clear whether a fourth dose is needed. He said Pfizer will conduct experiments to make to determine if another dose is necessary.

Desruptive..

 

Activate..

 

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that he is activating the California National Guard to add COVID-19 testing sites and boost capacity.

More than 200 guard members are being deployed now - and likely more in the near future - to 50 OptumServe sites to help with clinical staffing and crowd control, the governor said.

The governor's move comes as it becomes more and more difficult to find test kits in many parts of California. Delays in getting results are causing increasing frustration and contributing to the surge of infections that in just two weeks more than doubled the number of people in hospitals with COVID-19.

Negative test results can be a necessity for any number of activities, from going to work to boarding an airplane or attending a sporting event. Delays in getting results - or inability to find a test kit - can mean people with very mild or no symptoms may presume they are not infected and go about their usual routines.

A day late and a dollar short.

Cash Cow..

 

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said the efficacy of boosters against Covid-19 will likely decline over time, and people may need a fourth shot in the fall to increase their protection.

Bancel said people who received their boosters last fall will likely have enough protection to get them through the winter, when new infections surge as people gather indoors to escape the cold.

An unprecedented surge of infections from the highly contagious omicron variant is currently spreading worldwide. In the U.S., the seven-day average is now more than 574,000 new cases daily, according to a CNBC analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

I think we need a better vaccine than the one we got. Just a thought.

Cutting..

 

Amazon is cutting paid leave time for U.S. front-line workers who test positive for Covid-19 or have to quarantine after exposure to the virus.

All U.S.-based Amazon workers who test positive for Covid-19 and those required to quarantine will now be eligible for one week, or up to 40 hours, of paid leave, according to a company notice sent to employees, which was viewed by CNBC.

The e-commerce giant initially offered up to two weeks of pay for any employees diagnosed with Covid-19 or placed into quarantine, but shortened paid leave to 10 days, in line with earlier guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The company said it was adjusting its policy after "reviewing the newly released guidance" from the CDC, which halved isolation requirements for asymptomatic people to five days. The updated recommendations also shortened the time that close contacts need to quarantine.  Just a "Cutting-Pay" thought.

Pennies..

 When Andreas Flaten didn't receive his final paycheck from a former employer last January, he complained about it, calling up the US Department of Labor to lodge an accusation of wage theft. That employer responded by leaving more than 91,000 pennies on his driveway in Fayetteville, Georgia.

Now the US government is suing that company, arguing the act constituted illegal retaliation.

In a complaint filed with a federal court in Georgia, the Department of Labor accuses A OK Walker Autoworks and its owner, Miles Walker, of more than just pettiness.

The lawsuit claims the auto-repair shop bilked its workers out of money they were owed. The lawsuit accuses the company of "repeatedly and willfully" failing to pay time and a half for overtime, instead relying on a flat rate of pay regardless of whether someone worked more than 40 hours in a week.

Penny wise pound. Just a thought.

Flu..

 

Accidents do happen. In 2011 the US National Research Council reported 196 “loss of containment” incidents involving dangerous pathogens between 2003 and 2009 at US government labs.

Today Mark Lipsitch of Harvard University and Alison Galvani of Yale University published a critique of gain-of-function flu work that emphasized the risk of lab escapes.

“While such a release is unlikely in a specific laboratory conducting research under strict biosafety procedures,” they write, “even a low likelihood should be taken seriously, given the scale of destruction if such an unlikely event were to occur.”

If this type of problem can happen at a CDC lab, it points out the issues regarding gain-of-function lab accidents,” says Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. In reply, flu virologists have insisted that they use very stringent safety procedures.

The incident has rattled critics of “gain of function” experiments with flu, because they can turn flu that does not pose a pandemic threat into a virus that could. Unlike anthrax such flu is highly contagious, and harder to kill with drugs.

They say that such work is unethical if whatever public health benefit it provides can be obtained with less-dangerous experiments – or just by investing in better vaccines.

Exposed..

 

Seventy-five lab workers may have been exposed to anthrax at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, the leading US lab for tracking infectious disease.  

According to the CDC, culture dishes of anthrax bacteria kept in a level 3 high-containment lab, were subjected to a treatment that should have killed them. Even though the treatment was reportedly experimental, the dishes were sent to a level 2 lower containment lab in the same building, to help develop detectors for environmental anthrax.

Workers there did not use heavy protective gear for procedures that could have spritzed the bacteria into the air as the anthrax was supposed to be dead. But few days later, when the dishes were being gathered for disposal, a live anthrax culture was growing on one.

People exposed have been given the anthrax vaccine and ciprofloxacin, the antibiotic that prevented illness when anthrax was sent to US government and media offices in 2001.  

Try it..