#Chris Van Deusen

[dankusner]

TEXAS State bans changes to sex listed on birth certificates

Transgender people unable to affirm gender identity

Transgender Texans will no longer be allowed to change the sex on their birth certificates to reflect their gender identity.

The policy change comes less than two weeks after Texas banned transgender residents from changing the sex on driver’s licenses or state-issued IDs.

Only clerical errors or omissions made by the hospital can now be amended.

Previously, a person could change the sex on their birth certificate and ID with a court order.

The news was first reported by Austin-area NBC affiliate KXAN.

A spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed the change Tuesday afternoon in an email to The Dallas Morning News .

Texas follows a handful of other states that have issued similar policies.

According to the Movement Advancement Project, an advocacy group that tracks LGBTQ laws, five states — including Oklahoma, Kansas and Tennessee — have banned people from changing the sex on their birth certificate.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a vocal opponent of gay and transgender rights, has raised questions about the validity of court orders to amend sex, prompting the state’s policy changes.

Brad Pritchett, interim CEO of LGBTQ rights organization Equality Texas, accused Paxton of bullying state agencies and making life more difficult for some Texans.

“Life requires lots of paperwork: birth certificates, social security cards, driver’s licenses,” Pritchett said in an email.

“For transgender Texans, many of those documents may hold names that do not reflect who they are, so they need to engage in the tedious and time-consuming process of legally updating their name and gender marker.”

“Paxton can make life in public a nuisance, but he cannot erase transgender Texans from public life,” he added.

The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for a response Tuesday afternoon.

Paxton has previously sought information on transgender Texans, according to a report in The Washington Post .

In 2022, he asked the Department of Public Safety for data on transgender Texans who requested changes on their licenses, the newspaper reported.

The agency said it advised Paxton’s office that the data requested did not exist or could not be accurately produced, so it did not provide the requested data.

In a written statement, the health services department included the attorney general’s office in its explanation of the policy change:

“Recent public reports have highlighted concerns about the validity of court orders purporting to amend sex for purposes of state-issued documents,” Chris Van Deusen, a spokesperson for the state health department, said in an email.

“DSHS is seeking assistance from the Office of Attorney General to determine the applicability of these concerns to amendments to vital records.”

Transgender rights have come under fire in Texas and across the U.S. in recent years.

Last year, Texas banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, one of more than 20 states that adopted similar laws.

It also prohibited transgender athletes from competing on college sports teams that do not align with their birth sex.

Dozens of school districts across the state, including some in North Texas, have designated which bathrooms transgender students could use, allowed teachers to use students’ biological rather than preferred pronouns and placed restrictions on how teachers could talk about gender and sexuality.

[pashterlengkap]

Texas denies trans people the ability to change the sex on their birth certificates

Texas has eliminated the ability for transgender people to alter the sex marker on their birth certificates. The new policy change, which was made with no forewarning or announcement, will put trans people at risk of discrimination. Previously, trans people could change the sex marker on their birth certificates by presenting proof of gender-affirming surgery, a court order signifying that they had “fully transitioned” and supporting statements from medical professionals. These are no longer sufficient, a spokesperson for the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) told The Texas Newsroom. Now, birth certificates can only be changed for children due to a hospital error or omission. Related Detransitioned man stuck in “limbo” because Texas forbids driver’s license gender changes Right-wing Attorney General Ken Paxton ordered the man’s personal info to be added to a list of transgender Texans that he’s compiling. Additionally, the DSHS website previously listed directions on how to change one’s assigned sex at birth on their birth certificate — the directions have since been removed. “Recent public reports have highlighted concerns about the validity of court orders purporting to amend sex for purposes of state-issued documents. DSHS is seeking assistance from the Office of Attorney General to determine the applicability of these concerns to amendments to vital records,” said DSHS spokesperson Chris Van Deusen. Van Deusen was likely referencing state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s continued efforts to oppose the legal recognition of trans people in Texas. Stay connected to your community Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Last week, Paxton blocked trans people from being able to change the sex marker on their driver’s license. This is part of his sweeping policy to oppose gender-affirming care for trans people, particularly trans minors, who have reported mental and emotional distress over laws targeting their educational and healthcare rights. Paxton’s crusade is also part of an onslaught of policies across the country to deny any legal recognition of trans people. Five other states are enacting policies restricting birth certificates, according to the Movement Advancement Project. The Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT) wrote of the new policy changes on Instagram, stating, “We are committed to keeping the community safe and will do all we can to assure trans Texans can get the most accurate information as possible through these rolling changes.” “Trans people have and always will exist. We will continue the legacy of our trans ancestors by fighting back, creating spaces for joy, and living our lives to the best of our abilities. Our transness is not determined by a piece of paper and cannot be taken away by hateful policies. We will overcome transphobic bigotry,” TENT’s post added. View this post on Instagram A post shared by TENT (@transtexas) “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has bullied state agencies into denying the specific types of updates that transgender Texans need,” wrote Johnathon Gooch, communications director for Equality Texas. “Ironically, that means the state’s top legal officer has instructed state agencies to deny court orders from state judges. So, what should be a simple administrative task has now become a nightmare.” Because birth certificates are used to help correct the gender markers on trans people’s driver’s licenses and other government-issued identity documents, if these commonly used documents don’t match their gender identity, it effectively outs a person as trans. This outing can lead to difficulty accessing various services as well as harassment and violence. http://dlvr.it/TCnF4f

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Texas health officials have missed a key window to complete the state's first major updated count of pregnancy related deaths in nearly a decade, saying the findings will now be released next summer, most likely after the Legislature's biennial session.

The delay, disclosed earlier this month by the Department of State Health Services, means lawmakers won't likely be able to use the analysis, covering deaths from 2019, until the 2025 legislative cycle. The most recent state-level data available is nine years old.

In a hearing this month with the state’s Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee, DSHS commissioner Dr. John Hellerstedt said the agency wanted to better align its methodology with that of other states, and that there hadn’t been enough staff and money to finish the review for a scheduled Sept. 1 release.

“The information we provide is not easily understood, and not easily and readily comparable to what goes on in other states,” Hellerstedt told the committee. “And the fact it isn’t easily understood or easily comparable in my mind leaves room for a great deal of misunderstanding about what the data really means.”

In a statement, DSHS spokesman Chris Van Deusen said the agency is reviewing its “internal processes” to try to develop more timely data.

“I expect we’ll be having conversations with legislators about what could be done to speed up the lengthy review process,” he said.

The setback comes four months before the start of the legislative session and two months before the midterm election, which has been dominated in part by the state’s new Republican-led abortion ban. Those restrictions have placed more scrutiny on the state’s maternal mortality rate, which is among the 10 highest in the country, according to national estimates that track pregnancy-related complications while pregnant or within a year of giving birth.

“There are a lot of us that want to know whether or not pregnancy in Texas is a death sentence,” said state Rep. Ann Johnson, a Houston Democrat and member of the Texas Women’s Health Caucus. “If we’ve got a higher rate of maternal mortality, we sure want to figure it out. You can’t figure it out if somebody’s sitting on the numbers, and that’s my worry.”

Like in other states, maternal outcomes in Texas are worse for Black women, who have died at about three times the rate of non-black women. This year’s findings were expected to drill further into the causes behind those disparities.

Rep. Shawn Thierry, a Houston Democrat who has described going through her own dangerous birthing experience, said the data is critical for understanding the role cesarean sections play in maternal deaths and whether implicit bias is playing a factor in the quality of maternal care for Black women.

“There is so much to unpack from the data,” Thierry said, adding that “no woman who chooses life should have to do so in exchange for their own.”

Members of the state’s maternal mortality committee, which compiles the official report, said they were disappointed by the decision to hold the preliminary findings.

“(We) do the work to honor the lives of women who lost their lives, and families that are forever impacted by the loss of a mother,” said Dr. Carla Ortique, the committee chair. “So there’s disappointment on both fronts: that we’re not honoring those women and families, and that we may be negatively impacting efforts to improve maternal health outcomes in our state.”

Ortique said the state has already identified 149 potential maternal deaths in 2019, of which 118 have been analyzed by the committee to see if they were pregnancy-related. Six newly identified deaths may be added to that group, she said. The numbers cover deaths during the pregnancy through one year after giving birth.

The state has published a maternal death report every other year since 2014, often based on preliminary data updated later. For example, the maternal death report in 2018 identified 29 deaths in 2012 that were not included in the previous report. The committee also released updating findings from its most recent report, studying deaths from 2013, at the Sept. 2 meeting.

Out of 175 potential maternal deaths in 2013, 70 have since been determined to be pregnancy-related.

The state has been collecting the updated numbers as part of the requirements of a new CDC grant, awarded to the DSHS in 2019. The balance, according to advocates, is in making sure data is as accurate as possible, but also released quickly enough to be of use to researchers and policymakers.

The reports usually come with wide-ranging recommendations to improve maternal health in the state, including expanding Medicaid to one year postpartum, proactively treating chronic conditions and addressing the disproportionately high number of maternal deaths among Black women.

Texas has extended Medicaid coverage for pregnant women until six months after they give birth or miscarry, but the state has declined to expand coverage to the recommended 12 months.

The unexpected delay has frustrated advocates, who are gearing up to push Republicans in the Senate and the Governor to back the full 12-month extension, as many other states have done.

“State leaders will be able to make better policy decisions for Texas moms if they have more recent data on maternal deaths as well as health challenges like infections or postpartum depression that new moms are facing in Texas,” said Diana Forrester, director of health care policy at Texans Care for Children.

Republican leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, who is running for re-election, have celebrated the overturning of federal abortion protections this summer by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Many have committed to boosting resources for pregnant women and new mothers. A spokesman for Abbott did not respond to a request for comment. Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan, who supports the 12-month extension, was critical of the delay, saying it “comes at a time when Texas must support moms and families.”

“Our work will start with passing legislation that further extends postpartum health coverage for new Texas mothers to a full year, which our chamber approved overwhelmingly in 2021 and I expect will do so again next year,” Phelan said in a statement.

In addition to providing updated recommendations for lawmakers, the report also helps nonprofits compete for grants that support new or expectant mothers, said Nakeenya Wilson, an Austin-based maternal health advocate and member of the state’s maternal mortality committee.

Her group, the Maternal Health Equity Collaborative, used data from past reports to earn a $1 million grant that provides childcare for new mothers in Central Texas.

“If they don’t have the most up-to-date information, then we run the risk of disenfranchising some of the most vulnerable in our state,” she said.

Johnson said the delay was “unacceptable” given the high rate of maternal mortalities.

“It is a crisis that we claim on bipartisan grounds to want to investigate,” Johnson said. “And yet here we are told at the last minute on the date that the report was supposed to be due, ‘Sorry, we couldn’t get around to it.’”

[why-bless-your-heart]

From Texas Alliance for Life: “Texas has been criticized for its extraordinarily high maternal mortality rate, in part blamed on the state's success in defunding Planned Parenthood. It turns out the actual rate is only half what it was thought to have been. This news release is from the Texas Department of State Health Services:

NEW DATA REFUTES INFLATED TEXAS MATERNAL MORTALITY RATE

Study finds true maternal death count less than half the number previously reported

A new study by researchers at the Texas Department of State Health Services has found the number of maternal deaths in Texas in 2012 was actually less than half the number previously reported. The peer-reviewed research, published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, determined there were 56 maternal deaths among Texas residents compared with 147 reported in national statistics.

After a 2016 publication asserted a dramatic increase in the number of maternal deaths in Texas from 2010 to 2012, DSHS developed a rigorous method to verify maternal deaths, beginning with 2012, and will continue to use it to find more accurate maternal death counts for additional years.

The study shows dozens of women were identified on their death certificates as being pregnant at the time of their deaths, when they were not. The misclassification most likely occurred because people certifying the deaths selected the wrong pregnancy option in the electronic system used to register deaths. That may have become a bigger issue between 2010 and 2012 as the proportion of death certificates submitted electronically in Texas increased by more than 40 percent.

“Other academic research has shown issues with the as shown issues shquality of death data, nationally,” said Sonia Baeva, DSHS maternal mortality and morbidity epidemiologist and the study’s lead author. “Death data can be a rich source of information, but our work shows that identification of rare events, such as maternal deaths, should be supported with additional evidence.”

The standard method of calculating maternal deaths relies solely on cause of death codes from death certificates. The enhanced method used by DSHS verifies those deaths by matching them to records of births and fetal deaths and by reviewing medical and autopsy records for any evidence of pregnancy, including miscarriage. Researchers also identified some maternal deaths missed by the standard method by matching the death records of all female Texas residents against birth and fetal death records.

“This more accurate, verified data is an important part of our ongoing work to improve maternal health in Texas,” said Dr. Manda Hall, DSHS Associate Commissioner for Community Health Improvement. “Better data will improve our ability to implement and assess ways to reduce maternal deaths and other severe pregnancy complications.”

Maternal mortality has been a priority for the Texas Legislature since it established the Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Task Force in 2013. DSHS continues its efforts to reduce the number of maternal deaths by supporting the work of the task force, rallying hospitals to implement best practices to reduce pregnancy complications, joining other states to develop new guidelines for treating opioid use in pregnancy, and encouraging parents-to-be to improve their preconception health.

The agency is also implementing legislation aimed at improving the quality of death data by developing best practices for investigating and reporting maternal deaths and creating new training for medical certifiers like doctors, justices of the peace and medical examiners. A new registration system being developed will prompt certifiers to confirm the pregnancy status before allowing a death record to be submitted.

A copy of the study, "Identifying Maternal Deaths in Texas Using an Enhanced Method," is available from communications@acog.org.

-30-

(News Media Contact: Chris Van Deusen, DSHS Director of Media Relations, 512-776-7119)”

[kooks71]

Shonda Rhimes & Chris van Deusen did say they weren't doing the books in order and they were 'adaptations' with Julia Quinn's consent. So anything is possible now.

Personally I don't see the show running for 8 series. Increasing the amount of episodes could work because two of the siblings relationships can be storyarcs alongside each other. Especially Eloise & Francesca given they marry within months of each other...as do Colin & Penelope, and they are the first couple.....

See what I mean about the show gradually moving away from the book series and turning the Bridgertons into the Shondaland vision.

@regencyromancefangirl @billy-hargrooves @sharonccrter @colin-bridgerton-simp @bridgertonallday

*Spoilers ahead*

I’ve been seeing a lot of discussion surrounding whether Bridgerton will change the sequence of the books; namely Colin and Penelope being season 3 rather than season 4. Here is why for me that doesn’t work and it ruins the integrity of the books.

First off its important to note that book 1 (Duke & I) book 2 (The Viscount Who Loved Me) and book 3 (An Offer From A Gentleman) take place in the span of three years from 1813-1815. Book 3 also introduces John Sterling and has him and Francesca get married. Unless they don’t plan on making it to season 6, aka book 6 (When He Was Wicked) it is imperative that we see them meet and get married or else the entire emotional crux of book 6 will not land.      

Then we time jump 10 years, yes 10 years because book 4 (Romancing Mr Bridgerton) take place in 1824 and that is important. In my opinion in order to like Colin and Penelope’s love story, you need that time jump. If they switch book 4 with book 3 then that time jump won’t be possible because then Benedict’s story wouldn’t make sense.

Penelope should be in her late 20s and Colin should be in his early 30s (or just turning 30) that matters. By this point Penelope should have spent 10 years thinking she wasn’t going to ever get married; Colin has had time to mature (yes his still an idiot but that’s more a Bridgerton trait then anything else.) I can’t imagine their love story working with only a 1 year time jump. That would make Colin 22 at most 23 and Penelope at most 20, give or take a year. There isn’t enough time and them being young when their love story takes place in my opinion ruins the narrative being told and rushes the whole thing too much.

It also effects Eloise because book 5 (To Sir Philip, With Love) takes place at the same time as book 4. Hell the only reason Eloise considers marriage is because she’s lonely without Penelope. Again Eloise in my opinion benefits from the time jump her getting married in her mid to late 20s makes sense for the character. Also (and I’m not going to get into the Theo thing because I still think its going to be Philip they wouldn’t have even bothered to have him in that scene during season 2 if it weren’t hinting at what’s time come) the twins (Philip’s kids) need to be old enough for their to be hijinks with Eloise.

A big part of Eloise’s book is her helping the twins and Philip deal with the grief of losing their mother and wife and Eloise taking on the role of a mother as well as her falling in love with Philip. The twins can’t be 2 or 3 they need to be way older hence the reason for the time jump. Having Eloise’s story take place way after Colin and Penelope also doesn’t work either the three of them are too connected for that.

Lastly Francesca, the events of book 4 directly tie into the events of book 6, it reinforces her always feeling left out and like the black sheep of the family. Like for example her not being invited/not told about Penelope and Colin’s wedding until after the fact to which she responds “fuck it then you all aren’t invited to my second wedding!”

All of this to say that each book has its place in the timeline for a reason book1&2&3 then 4&5&6 then 7&8 changing the order tells me two things, they don’t care that much about the source materiel and plan to wreck it, and two they don’t plan to get renewed past season 4 so basically their not bothering to plan ahead but that’s a shit plan because what if they do?

[abhayhatia]

Texas' Newest COVID-19 Wave Climbing Steeper Than Previous Waves, State Well being Leaders Say

Texas’ Newest COVID-19 Wave Climbing Steeper Than Previous Waves, State Well being Leaders Say

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM/AP) – The rising charges of latest COVID-19 instances, hospitalizations and deaths in Texas are displaying steeper jumps than previous surges, state well being officers stated Wednesday, August 4, as they careworn the have to be absolutely vaccinated to gradual the state’s third wave introduced on by the delta variant. In a video convention, Chris Van Deusen, the Texas Division…

[megalium]

Big Storms Mean Big Vaccine Delays as Bad Weather Wallops the U.S.

Big Storms Mean Big Vaccine Delays as Bad Weather Wallops the U.S.

There is new hope that the global vaccine drive will speed up. Women leaving the work force because of the pandemic have led to a “national emergency,” Vice President Kamala Harris said. https://julianalonsorun.com/forums/topic/full-watch-wandavision-season-1-episode-7-2021-online-free/

Just as vaccine distribution was beginning to gather steam in the United States, brutal winter weather is delaying the delivery of hundreds of thousands of doses across the country.

Earlier this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projected “widespread delays” in vaccine shipments and deliveries because of weather affecting a FedEx facility in Memphis and a UPS facility in Louisville, both vaccine shipping hubs. Now those projections appear to be coming true.

Shipment delays have been reported in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Utah, Washington and Oregon, among other states, forcing vaccine sites to temporarily shutter and coveted appointments to be rescheduled.

In Texas, where millions of residents lost power during this week’s powerful storm, a delivery of more than 400,000 first doses and 330,000 second doses was delayed in anticipation of the bad weather. A portion of those shots, roughly 35,000 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, were sent to North Texas providers on Wednesday, but shipments will continue to depend on safety conditions.

Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said Thursday that the state was “asking providers that aren’t able to store vaccine due to power outages to transfer it elsewhere or administer it so it doesn’t spoil.”

On Monday, health officials in Texas scrambled to get more than 5,000 shots into arms after a power outage in a storage facility where they were being kept. But Mr. Van Deusen said that “reports of vaccine spoiling have been minimal.”

The Houston Health Department said Thursday it would restart vaccinations for second doses this weekend, and schedule additional first and second dose appointments next week.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said more than 2,000 vaccine sites are in areas with power outages.

Most of the vaccines for New York State, scheduled for delivery between Feb. 12 and Feb. 21, have been delayed as well, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Thursday night.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference earlier in the day that “a vast majority of the resupply” the city was expecting for this week had not yet shipped from the factories.

The city has had to hold off on scheduling upward of 35,000 appointments for first vaccine doses because of shipment delays and vaccine shortages. The opening of two new distribution sites was also postponed.

In Los Angeles, the city said that appointments for about 12,500 will be delayed.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said that while 136,000 Pfizer doses had arrived this week, the state had still not received its shipment for the week of 200,000 Moderna doses. He said the shipment could be delayed as late as Monday.

“Because the storms we are seeing in the rest of the country, it’s basically sitting in the FedEx warehouse — and I don’t think they can even get into it because of everything,” Mr. DeSantis said at a news conference Thursday, encouraging those who had appointments rescheduled to “hang in there, the doses are going to get here.”

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, called the weather delay “significant.”

“Well, obviously it’s an issue,” he told MSNBC on Thursday. “It’s been slowed down in some places, going to a grinding halt.”

Dr. Fauci said, “We’re just going to have to make up for it as soon as the weather lifts a bit, the ice melts and we can get the trucks out and the people out. We’re going to just have to make up for it, namely do double time when this thing clears up.”

Jennifer Psaki, the White House press secretary, said that the Biden administration was working closely with manufacturing and shipping partners to assess weather conditions.

As of Thursday, the C.D.C. said about 41 million people have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, including about 16.2 million people who have been fully vaccinated.

[techcrunchappcom]

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/covid-19-news-live-updates-on-vaccines-variants-and-global-cases/

Covid-19 News: Live Updates on Vaccines, Variants and Global Cases

Here’s what you need to know:

Vaccines were still being administered on Thursday at a community center in the Bronx.Credit…James Estrin/The New York Times

With vast swaths of the United States pelted by heavy winter storms that brought Covid-19 vaccinations to a near-halt over the past week, health officials say a daunting task has become even more difficult.

But not impossible.

“We’re going to just have to make up for it: namely do double time when this thing clears up,” declared Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a top pandemic adviser to President Biden.

Jennifer Psaki, the White House press secretary, said the Biden administration was working closely with manufacturing and shipping partners to assess weather conditions, and would have more updates on delivery issues on Friday.

The brutal winter weather delayed the delivery of hundreds of thousands of doses across the country just as vaccine distribution was beginning to gather steam in the United States. Part of the problems is that the storms affected a FedEx facility in Memphis and a UPS facility in Louisville, Ky. — both vaccine shipping hubs.

Shipment delays have been reported in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Utah and Washington, among other states, forcing vaccine sites to temporarily shutter and coveted appointments to be rescheduled.

In Texas, where millions of residents lost power during the powerful storm, a delivery of more than 400,000 first doses and 330,000 second doses was delayed. A portion of those shots, roughly 35,000 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, were sent to North Texas providers on Wednesday, but shipments will continue to depend on safety conditions.

Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said on Thursday that the state was “asking providers that aren’t able to store vaccine due to power outages to transfer it elsewhere or administer it so it doesn’t spoil.”

On Monday, health officials in Texas scrambled to give people more than 5,000 doses after a power outage in a storage facility where they were being kept. But Mr. Van Deusen said that “reports of vaccine spoiling have been minimal.”

The Houston Health Department said on Thursday it would restart vaccinations for second doses this weekend and schedule additional first- and second-dose appointments next week. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said that more than 2,000 vaccine sites were in areas with power outages.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference that “a vast majority of the resupply” the city was expecting for this week had not yet shipped from the factories.

The city has had to hold off on scheduling upward of 35,000 appointments for first vaccine doses because of shipment delays and vaccine shortages. The opening of two new distribution sites was also postponed.

In Los Angeles, the city said that appointments for about 12,500 would be delayed.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said that while 136,000 Pfizer doses had arrived this week, the state had not received its shipment for the week of 200,000 Moderna doses. He said the shipment could be delayed as late as Monday.

“Because the storms we are seeing in the rest of the country, it’s basically sitting in the FedEx warehouse — and I don’t think they can even get into it because of everything,” Mr. DeSantis said at a news conference, encouraging those who had appointments rescheduled to “hang in there, the doses are going to get here.”

Dr. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, called the weather delay “significant.”

“Obviously it’s an issue,” he told MSNBC on Thursday. “It’s been slowed down in some places, going to a grinding halt.”

Dr. Fauci said, “We’re just going to have to make up for it as soon as the weather lifts a bit, the ice melts and we can get the trucks out and the people out.”

As of Thursday, the C.D.C. said that about 41 million people had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, including about 16.2 million people who have been fully vaccinated.

United States › United StatesOn Feb. 18 14-day change New cases 71,874 –44% New deaths 2,620 –39%

World › WorldOn Feb. 18 14-day change New cases 405,130 –24% New deaths 11,497 –17%

U.S. vaccinations ›

After taking office, President Biden directed federal agencies to come up with “a framework for donating surplus vaccines, once there is sufficient supply in the United States, to countries in need.”Credit…Oliver Contreras for The New York Times

An international effort to speed up the manufacture and distribution of coronavirus vaccines around the globe got a boost Thursday on two fronts: White House officials said the Biden administration would make good on a U.S. promise to donate $4 billion to the campaign over the next two years and the pharmaceutical company Novavax committed to eventually sell 1.1 billion doses of its vaccine.

President Biden will make his announcement on Friday during a virtual meeting with other leaders from the Group of 7, where he is also expected to call on other countries to step up their contributions. The $4 billion was approved last year by a Republican-led Senate when President Donald J. Trump was still in office.

Public health experts often say that unless everyone is vaccinated, it is as if no one is vaccinated. One of the officials, who spoke anonymously to preview the president’s announcement, noted that the move to help with efforts abroad to diminish the impact of the pandemic was also in the interest of international security for the United States.

Countries such as India and China are already using the coronavirus vaccine as a diplomatic tool; both are giving away doses to other nations in an effort to expand their global influence. National security experts said the United States should consider doing the same.

But, an official said, the United States will not be able to share vaccines now, while the American vaccination campaign is still continuing to expand.

The international vaccine effort, known as Covax, has been led by the public-private health partnership known as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, as well as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the World Health Organization. It aims to distribute vaccines that have been deemed safe and effective by the W.H.O., with a special emphasis on low- and middle-income countries.

So far, the United States has pledged more than any other nation, according to the White House. Officials there said the money would be delivered in multiple tranches: an initial donation of $500 million right away, followed shortly by an additional $1.5 billion. The remaining $2 billion will delivered by the end of 2022

The Novavax sale will not come immediately; its vaccine has not yet been approved by a government regulatory authority. [An earlier version of this article incorrectly described the company’s planned action as a donation, not a sale.]

Under a memorandum of understanding between Gavi and Novavax, the company agreed to provide “1.1 billion cumulative doses,” though it did not specify a time frame.

Mr. Biden was not the only G-7 member urging greater contribution to the global vaccination effort. President Emmanuel Macron of France said the United States and Europe should allocate up to 5 percent of their vaccine orders to developing countries.

“We are allowing the idea to take hold that hundreds of millions of vaccines are being given in rich countries and that we are not starting in poor countries,” Mr. Macron said in an interview with The Financial Times.

António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General, also offered choice words for what he described as a “wildly uneven and unfair” distribution of vaccines. In a high-level meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, Mr. Guterres called vaccine equity “the biggest moral test before the global community.”

He called on G-7 countries to “create the momentum to mobilize the necessary financial resources” at their Friday meeting.

Syed Hussain, 14, serving food at his father’s restaurant in Queens on Wednesday.Credit…Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

In the few days since indoor dining resumed in New York City, customers appeared to be trickling in, but usually in modest numbers, and interviews with owners, workers and industry experts suggested that many people were still leery of being inside.

Industry experts also say that allowing restaurants to open their doors to patrons at 25 percent capacity is unlikely to significantly reverse the economic damage that the pandemic has inflicted.

Thousands of New York’s 25,000 restaurants, bars and nightclubs have closed for good. Many others are barely holding on. They are way behind on rent, furloughing or laying off workers and making a fraction of their usual revenues.

The restaurant industry, one of the city’s most vital economic pillars, once employed 325,000 people. It has shed more than 140,000 jobs.

A survey by the New York City Hospitality Alliance, an industry group, found that 92 percent of restaurants reported being unable to afford their rent in December, up from 80 percent in June.

“We have been the eye of this crisis,” said Andrew Rigie, the alliance’s executive director. “When Covid-19 hit, we were told to socially distance, but restaurants are where we come together to socialize. Restaurants are part of not only the economic foundation, but also the social and cultural fabric of New York City.”

The return of indoor dining has renewed public health concerns after a post-holiday spike in infection rates across the city, the emergence of new virus variants and limited vaccine supplies.

W. Ian Lipkin, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, said he would still be cautious about where he dined indoors, despite having been vaccinated. He said he would choose only restaurants that took appropriate safety measures, including spacing tables at least six feet apart, maintaining adequate air flow, installing high-quality air filters and requiring servers to wear masks and gloves.

Not even the draw of a warm seat in the frigid winter could bring some diners inside.

“I’m still not ready to do indoor dining,” said Jennifer Brehm, 37, a teacher who huddled with her 8-month-old daughter, Cassia, at an outdoor cabana at Queen Bar & Restaurant in Brooklyn, noting that Cassia “can’t wear a mask yet.”

Ms. Brehm said she was concerned about new virus variants and had been following the vaccinate efforts. “Until it seems more under control,” she said of local virus caseload, “I won’t be ready to eat indoors.”

The day before Thanksgiving last year at a nearly empty LaGuardia Airport in New York City.Credit…Jonah Markowitz for The New York Times

Air travel has recovered somewhat in recent months, but it remains deeply depressed compared with 2019, and no one knows when business will return to previous levels.

Now and for the next several months at least, airlines are flying whomever they can wherever they can. That often means catering to a small group of people who are undeterred by the pandemic to travel to ski slopes or beaches.

“As a quick strategy, fly where people are,” said Ben Baldanza, a former chief executive of Spirit Airlines, the low-cost carrier. “That’s been a real smart strategy, but that’s not a long-term way for those airlines to make money.”

Such leisure travel offers limited comfort to an industry so thoroughly clobbered. Tourists and people visiting family and friends typically take up most of the seats on planes, but airlines rely disproportionately on revenue from corporate travelers in the front of the cabin.

Before the pandemic, business travel accounted for about 30 percent of trips but 40 to 50 percent of passenger revenue, according to Airlines for America, an industry association. And those customers aren’t expected to return in great numbers anytime soon.

The four largest U.S. airlines — American, Delta, United and Southwest — lost more than $31 billion last year, and the industry over all is shedding more than $150 million each day, according to an estimate from Airlines for America.

The industry spent much of the past year scrimping and saving, trimming older, less efficient planes from their fleets; renegotiating contracts; and encouraging tens of thousands of workers to take buyouts or early retirement packages.

But it hasn’t been enough to offset a drop of nearly two-thirds in air travel as public health experts and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to discourage travel. Airlines for America does not expect passenger numbers to return to 2019 levels until at least 2023. And airlines might have to wait even longer if the economic recovery falters because of the spread of coronavirus variants or a delay in vaccinations.

Some experts say that corporate travel may never return to peak levels, with many in-person meetings replaced by video conferences and phone calls.

Airlines are more hopeful, perhaps because they rely heavily on corporate travel.

Ed Bastian, Delta’s chief executive, said on a conference call last month that about 40 percent of Delta’s big corporate customers expected their business travel to be fully recovered by 2022, and an additional 11 percent by 2023. Citing the airline’s internal research, he said 7 percent expected that business travel might never be fully restored, while the rest said they were unsure when things would return to previous levels.

American is “very optimistic” that corporate travel will return as vaccines are distributed, Vasu Raja, the airline’s chief revenue officer, told investors and reporters last month. But, he added, “the rate of that is unclear at best.”

Waiting for passengers arriving on international flights before getting transported to their place of quarantine, at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand in November.Credit…Diego Azubel/EPA, via Shutterstock

BANGKOK — Once again, a Thailand hotel guest who posted complaints online faces the threat of a defamation charge. This time, it centers on the guest’s claim of cockroach legs in his macaroni.

Topp Dunyawit Phadungsaeng, who spent 14 days in coronavirus quarantine at the Ambassador City Jomtien Hotel after arriving last month from San Francisco, had plenty of time on his hands to record complaints about the quality of the food, the lack of cleanliness and the presence of bugs.

On Monday, after checking out, he posted on Facebook about his stay, including 46 photographs and four videos that he took of the hotel, a government-designated quarantine facility. His posts were widely shared, especially a photo of what he said were the legs of a cockroach in his stir-fried meal.

“It turned out to be the worst 14 days of my life,” he said in his post. “Don’t call this quarantine. A forced prison stay looks better than this.”

His complaints were widely picked up by the Thai news media. And a day after his post appeared, the hotel issued a statement calling on a “certain group of people” to stop posting “false information” with the intent of damaging the hotel’s reputation. Otherwise, the hotel said, it had the right to pursue civil and criminal charges “to the utmost.”

Because of the coronavirus, anyone coming to Thailand must spend 14 days in quarantine. The government will cover the cost of some hotels, including the Ambassador City Jomtien, which is near Pattaya city. Guests can pay to stay at higher-end hotels, including some with five stars, that are designated quarantine sites.

Mr. Topp said he regretted not paying for better lodging. Among his complaints were that his room had no Wi-Fi but plenty of mosquitoes and cockroaches. Water dripped from the ceiling, bedsheets were moldy, and he was served food that was sometimes inedible, he said.

“I didn’t expect it to be a luxury five-star hotel,” he wrote. “But have you ever been disappointed despite not having any expectations?”

In September, an American hotel guest was arrested and charged with criminal defamation after posting complaints on TripAdvisor about his stay at the Sea View Koh Chang resort on Koh Chang island.

The guest, Wesley Barnes, eventually made a formal apology in exchange for the hotel’s dropping the charges. But the Sea View’s strategy backfired. It was widely criticized on social media, and TripAdvisor posted a notice warning travelers that the hotel was behind the jailing of a guest for harsh reviews.

A spokesman for the defense ministry, which has a role in overseeing quarantine facilities, said he hoped Mr. Topp and the Ambassador City Jomtien Hotel resolve their difference.

“In this case, it is the right of the reviewer,” said the spokesman, Kongcheep Tantravanich, “but we would also ask for sympathy for the hotel owners.”

Fran GoldmanCredit…Ruth Goldman, via Associated Press

To get her coronavirus vaccination last weekend, Frances H. Goldman, 90, went to an extraordinary length: six miles. On foot.

It was too snowy to drive at 8 a.m. on Sunday when Ms. Goldman took out her hiking poles, dusted off her snow boots and started out from her home in the Seattle neighborhood of View Ridge. She made her way to the Burke-Gilman Trail on the edge of the city, where she then wended her way alongside a set of old railroad tracks, heading south. Then she traversed the residential streets of Laurelhurst to reach the Seattle Children’s Hospital.

It was a quiet walk, Ms. Goldman said. People were scarce. She caught glimpses of Lake Washington through falling snow. It would have been more difficult, she said, had she not gotten a bad hip replaced last year.

At the hospital, about three miles and an hour from home, she got the jab. Then she bundled up again and walked back the way she had come.

It was an extraordinary effort — but that was not the extent of it. Ms. Goldman, who became eligible for a vaccine last month, had already tried everything she could think of to secure an appointment. She had made repeated phone calls and fruitless visits to the websites of local pharmacies, hospitals and government health departments. She enlisted a daughter in New York and a friend in Arizona to help her find an appointment.

Finally, on Friday, a visit to the Seattle Children’s Hospital website yielded results.

“Lo and behold, a whole list of times popped up,” she said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “I couldn’t believe my eyes. I went and got my glasses to make sure I was seeing it right.”

Then came the snow, which would ultimately drop more than 10 inches, in one of Seattle’s snowiest weekends on record. Wary of driving on hilly, unplowed roads, Ms. Goldman decided to go to the hospital on foot. She took a test walk part of the way on Saturday to get a sense of how long the trip might take.

And on Sunday, she trekked all the way to the hospital to get her vaccine.

“I hope that it will inspire people to get their shots,” she said. “I think it’s important for the whole country.”

The rollout in Washington State, like many around the country, has been complicated by failures of technology, shortfalls in equity and a persistent imbalance of supply and demand. State officials have struggled to set up the infrastructure necessary to schedule and vaccinate the millions of people who are already eligible.

Ms. Goldman is scheduled to receive her second dose of the vaccine next month. She plans to drive.

Arriving to get vaccinated at the Maccabi Health vaccination centre in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa.Credit…Jack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Israel has raced ahead with the fastest Covid-19 vaccination campaign in the world, inoculating nearly half its population with at least one dose. Now its success is making it a case study in setting rules for a partially vaccinated society — raising thorny questions about rights, obligations and the greater good.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted this week to open shopping malls and museums to the public, subject to social distancing rules and mandatory masking. For the first time in many months, gyms, cultural and sports events, hotels and swimming pools will also reopen, but only for some.

Under a new “Green Badge” system that functions as both a carrot and a stick, the government is making leisure activities accessible only to people who are fully vaccinated or recovered starting from Sunday. Two weeks later, restaurants, event halls and conferences will be allowed to operate under those rules. Customers and attendees will have to carry a certificate of vaccination with a QR code.

Israel is one of the first countries grappling in real time with a host of legal, moral and ethical questions as it tries to balance the steps toward resuming public life with sensitive issues such as public safety, discrimination, free choice and privacy.

“Getting vaccinated is a moral duty. It is part of our mutual responsibility,” said the health minister, Yuli Edelstein. He also has a new mantra: “Whoever does not get vaccinated will be left behind.”

Four million Israelis — nearly half the population of nine million — have received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and more than 2.6 million have gotten a second dose. But about two million eligible citizens aged 16 or over have not sought vaccines. The average number of new daily infections is hovering around 4,000.

Israel’s central government — eager to bring the country out of its third national lockdown without setting off a new wave of infections — was spurred into action by local initiatives. Chafing under the country’s lockdown regulations, an indoor shopping mall in the working-class Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam threw its doors open last week for customers who could prove that they had been vaccinated or had recovered from Covid-19.

In Karmiel, the mayor made a similar decision to open his city in the northern Galilee region for business. Other mayors want to bar unvaccinated teachers from classrooms while some hoteliers threatened unvaccinated employees with dismissal.

Mr. Edelstein, the health minister, said on Thursday that vaccination would not be compulsory in Israel. But his ministry is now proposing legislation that would oblige unvaccinated employees whose work involves contact with the public to be tested for the virus every two days. And he is promoting a bill that would allow the ministry to identify unvaccinated people to the local authorities.

[dipulb3]

A dozen Texas bars temporarily lose alcohol permits for allegedly breaking coronavirus protocols | Foxton News

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/a-dozen-texas-bars-temporarily-lose-alcohol-permits-for-allegedly-breaking-coronavirus-protocols-foxton-news/

A dozen Texas bars temporarily lose alcohol permits for allegedly breaking coronavirus protocols | Foxton News

Texas at present requires bars to restrict their indoor buyer capability at 50% and have prospects socially distance with no less than 6 ft between teams. The fee, nonetheless, present in an undercover investigation dubbed “Operation Secure Open” that a dozen bars weren’t implementing the foundations.

Movies and pictures posted by the fee on Twitter present crowded bars over the weekend with seemingly no social distancing.

“Defending the well being and security of Texans throughout this pandemic is our high precedence,” TABC Government Director Bentley Nettles mentioned in a press release. “We warned companies TABC could have no tolerance for breaking the foundations, and now, some bars are paying the worth. I hope different institutions will study from these suspensions.”

The bars which have had their alcohol permits suspended for 30 days embody bars in Dallas, Austin and El Paso. Others embody institutions within the cities of Seabrook, Fort Price, Lubbock and McAllen. If the bars violate the protocols a second time, they may have their license suspended for as much as 60 days, the fee added.

Seabrook’s Barge 295, which was named by TABC as one of many bars, said on Facebook that that they had no reported instances amongst employees or prospects and would combat the license suspension.

“We intend to observe the order nonetheless we’re interesting it with the assistance of our attorneys…” they mentioned. “Everybody within the nation is conscious of the scenario and has the flexibility to suppose for themselves and determine when and the place they need to work together socially. We’re Individuals and we’re free.”

Texas, which was one of many first states to reopen, noticed a report variety of 4,430 new coronavirus cases on Saturday. Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the state’s Division of Well being Companies attributed a few of these instances to Texans gathering at bars and taking part in different social actions, according to the Texas Tribune.

As of Monday afternoon, Texas has 112,944 confirmed instances of the coronavirus and a pair of,191 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Appradab’s Melissa Alonso and Amanda Jackson contributed to this report.

[arnoldjaime13]

Blog Tour- SHINE! By @CGrabenstein & JJ Grabenstein With An Excerpt & #Giveaway! @randomhousekids

I am stoked to be hosting a stop on the blog tour for SHINE! By Chris Grabenstein & JJ Grabenstein! I have an excerpt to share with you today check it out and enter to win the giveaway below!

About the Book:

Title: SHINE!

Author: J.J. Grabenstein & Chris Grabenstein

Pub. Date: November 5, 2019

Publisher: Random House Children's Books

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook

Pages: 210

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

"Inspirational, commonsensical, and a whole lot of fun." --James Patterson Everyone deserves to shine in this sparkling new book from the New York Times bestselling author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library , Chris Grabenstein, and coauthor J.J. Grabenstein--just right for fans of Word of Mouse and The Fourteenth Goldfish. "Who do you want to be?" asks Mr. Van Deusen. "And not when you grow up. Right here, right now." Shine on! might be the catchphrase of twelve-year-old Piper's hero--astronaut, astronomer, and television host Nellie Dumont Frisse--but Piper knows the truth: some people are born to shine, and she's just not one of them. That fact has never been clearer than now, since her dad's new job has landed them both at Chumley Prep, a posh private school where everyone seems to be the best at something and where Piper definitely doesn't fit in. Bursting with humor, heart, science, possibilities, and big questions, Shine! is a story about finding your place in the universe--a story about figuring out who you are and who you want to be.

Co-author J.J. Grabenstein reads the first chapter of SHINE!:

SHINE! First Chapter Read Aloud from Chris Grabenstein on Vimeo.

Read Chapters 1-4:

Shine 4 Chapters by Jaime Arnold on Scribd

About JJ & Chris: 

J.J. Grabenstein is the co-author, with her husband, ChrisGrabenstein, of SHINE! This is her first novel as a co-authorbut she has been the "first editor" on everything her husband hasever written, including the award-winning/bestselling ESCAPE FROMMR.LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY series and more than fifty other works.

J.J. and Chris live in New York City with their cat Phoebe Squeak.

CHRIS GRABENSTEIN is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ESCAPE FROM MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY, MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY OLYMPICS, THE ISLAND OF DR. LIBRIS, WELCOME TO WONDERLAND: HOME SWEET MOTEL and many other books, as well as the coauthor of numerous fun and funny page-turners with James Patterson, including I FUNNY, HOUSE OF ROBOTS, TREASURE HUNTERS, and JACKY HA-HA. Chris lives in New York City with his wife, J.J., two cats, and a dog named Fred. You can visit Chris at ChrisGrabenstein.com.

Website

Follow JJ!

Goodreads 

Follow Chris!

Twitter | Facebbok | Instagram | Goodreads 

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of SHINE!, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

11/5/2019

BookHounds YA

Excerpt

11/6/2019

Nerdophiles

Review

11/7/2019

@___nimraaa

Excerpt

11/8/2019

Books_andPoetrii

Excerpt

Week Two:

11/11/2019

Cuz I’m a Nerd

Review

11/12/2019

HBB Reviews

Review

11/13/2019

onemused

Review

11/14/2019

@fictitious.fox

Review

11/15/2019

Twirling Book Princess

Excerpt

Week Three:

11/18/2019

Wonder Struck

Review

11/19/2019

For the Love of KidLit

Excerpt

11/20/2019

Savings in Seconds

Review

11/21/2019

Popthebutterfly

Review

11/22/2019

Two Chicks on Books

Excerpt

Week Four:

11/25/2019

Jaime's World

Excerpt

11/26/2019

Southern Girl Bookaholic

Review

11/27/2019

Smada's Book Smack

Excerpt

11/28/2019

Books a Plenty Book Reviews

Review

11/29/2019

Fyrekatz Blog

Review

Week Five:

12/2/2019

BookishRealmReviews

Review

12/3/2019

She Just Loves Books

Excerpt

12/4/2019

A Dream Within A Dream

Excerpt

12/5/2019

Owl Always Be Reading

Excerpt

12/6/2019

Two points of interest

Review

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt:

The Gulf Coast faces an evolving public health crisis in the wake of Hurricane Harvey that's likely to unfold over months or even years. Health officials are concerned about everything from immediate injuries and exposure to germs and toxic chemicals to more insidious and long-term threats, including mold in the walls of flooded homes and mental health problems.

Many of those public health concerns match what experts have been warning we'll see more of as climate change brings more severe weather.

When storms hit, they can tip the vulnerable over the edge of danger. ANew York Times interactive of requests for help from Houston-area residents offers a snapshot of the wide range of problems that can arise in the midst of a storm, from "on last oxygen tank," to "no food and babies have no milk," to simply "neck deep in water.

"You have to worry about immediate effects like drowning, you have chemical exposures from the refineries around Houston, as well as chemicals from households," said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College. "You also have to worry about infectious diseases."

Chris Van Deusen, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said it's too soon to know if bacterial diseases are spreading in the floodwater. But in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported clusters of Staphylococcus aureusand Vibrio vulnificus—two skin infections—as well as diarrheal diseases and vomiting among evacuees.

The next concern, Van Deusen said, comes as people collect in shelters. "Shelter operations are going to be going on for an extended period of time," he said. "Anytime you have that many people in close proximity, you're at risk for communicable disease."

[science-criticaltheory]

Harvey Aftermath: A Public Health Crisis in the Making by Nicholas Kusnetz

Matthew Koser looks for heirlooms in his grandfather's flooded house after Hurricane Harvey deluged the Houston area this week. Credit: Erich Schlegel/Getty

From water contamination to diseases to mold in the walls, dangers continue long after the hurricane. These sorts of risks accompany climate change.

The Gulf Coast faces an evolving public health crisis in the wake of Hurricane Harvey that's likely to unfold over months or even years. Health officials are concerned about everything from immediate injuries and exposure to germs and toxic chemicals to more insidious and long-term threats, including mold in the walls of flooded homes and mental health problems.

Many of those public health concerns match what experts have been warning we'll see more of as climate change brings more severe weather.

When storms hit, they can tip the vulnerable over the edge of danger. ANew York Times interactive of requests for help from Houston-area residents offers a snapshot of the wide range of problems that can arise in the midst of a storm, from "on last oxygen tank," to "no food and babies have no milk," to simply "neck deep in water.

"You have to worry about immediate effects like drowning, you have chemical exposures from the refineries around Houston, as well as chemicals from households," said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College. "You also have to worry about infectious diseases."

Chris Van Deusen, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said it's too soon to know if bacterial diseases are spreading in the floodwater. But in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported clusters of Staphylococcus aureusand Vibrio vulnificus—two skin infections—as well as diarrheal diseases and vomiting among evacuees.

The next concern, Van Deusen said, comes as people collect in shelters. 

"Shelter operations are going to be going on for an extended period of time," he said. "Anytime you have that many people in close proximity, you're at risk for communicable disease."

Thousands of people took shelter at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston as their homes flooded during Harvey. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Porfirio Villarreal, a spokesman for the Houston Health Department, told the Times that the risks from the floodwaters themselves were obvious.

"There's no need to test it," he said. "It's contaminated. There's millions of contaminants."

While that's true of floodwaters from any storm in an urban area, the waters may prove to be particularly dangerous in Southeast Texas, a center of the nation's oil refining and petrochemical infrastructure.

Early Thursday morning, Harris County officials reported two explosions at a chemical facility full of organic peroxides. The company had warned that explosions could be imminent, and county officials had already ordered the evacuation of people within 1.5 miles. The smoke can cause respiratory and skin irritation, as well as dizziness and nausea. Arkema Inc. said in a statement that "the best course of action is to let the fire burn itself out."

Petrochemical Industry Adds a Toxic Brew

As the storm approached, energy companies began shutting refineries to protect their operations—emitting toxic gases in the process. Facilities have reported releasing more than 2 million pounds of hazardous chemicals into the air since the shutdowns began last week, according to an analysis of state regulatory filings by the Environmental Defense Fund. That equals nearly 40 percent of all the releases from the facilities in 2016.

"On a good day, there's already a high risk of cancer," said Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas, an advocacy group based in Austin. "This amount of pollution in such a short time just makes that risk even higher."

To continue reading click here

[morganbelarus]

FDA Warns Public Of Botulism Danger After Four Infants Are Hospitalized Due To Honey-Filled Pacifiers

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued an alert reminding parents not to feed honey to infants younger than one year of age after four babies in Texas were hospitalized with botulism transmitted through honey-filled and honey-dipped pacifiers.

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), the four infants are unrelated and from different regions of the state. After all four were treated for life-threatening infections of Clostridium bacteria, the genus that produces the potent nervous system toxin botulinum, health workers tracking the source revealed that each had been given a honey-containing pacifier bought in Mexico. The illnesses occurred from mid-August to the end of October. Information regarding the four affected infants’ current status has not been released.

Though the state agency has not been able to confirm that the pacifiers were contaminated with Clostridium through microbial testing, DSHS spokesperson Chris Van Deusen has stated that they are fairly confident these items are the culprit.

“Honey-filled pacifiers are not common in the United States but may be available in some specialty stores and through online retailers,” the DSHS report said. “Most aren’t designed for the honey to be consumed, but some have a small hole so a child could eat the honey, or the pacifier could accidentally rupture or leak. Parents should also avoid pacifiers containing any other food substance, because they could also pose a risk of botulism.”

As the FDA explains, consuming small numbers of Clostridium in honey or other foods does not pose a risk to children over one year or adults because older individuals have established gut microbiomes whose resident strains outcompete newly introduced Clostridium. But in newborns, the gut is sparsely populated, allowing the pathogenic bacteria to settle in and multiply rapidly. As they grow, the Clostridium produce botulinum: the most lethal toxin yet discovered (just 0.07 millionths of a gram is enough to kill a 70 kg [154 lb] person).

A scanning microscopy image of Clostridium botulinum bacteria. Cedric Woudstra/ResearchGate

Like other nerve agents, botulinum impairs the activity of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter found in the brain and in the junctions of motor neurons and muscles. The toxin is able to enter nerve cells, whereupon it cuts apart the proteins required to release acetylcholine into the cell junction, thus preventing muscles from responding to signals from the nervous system. Symptoms of botulinum poisoning include lowered muscle tone or paralysis and difficulty breathing.

Naturally occurring in soil and aquatic sediment around the world, botulinum-producing Clostridium are known to show up inside or on the surfaces of many foods. Because honey is typically a non-pasteurized food (and you can’t exactly wash it), live spores of the bacteria can persist in honey products.

The FDA is calling for online retailers to discontinue sales of honey-filled pacifiers.

Original Article : HERE ; This post was curated & posted using : RealSpecific

=> *********************************************** Article Source Here: FDA Warns Public Of Botulism Danger After Four Infants Are Hospitalized Due To Honey-Filled Pacifiers ************************************ =>

FDA Warns Public Of Botulism Danger After Four Infants Are Hospitalized Due To Honey-Filled Pacifiers was originally posted by 16 MP Just news

[savetopnow]

2018-03-09 04 HEALTH now

HEALTH

Daily Burn

10 Brilliant Dinner Shortcuts for Healthy 20-Minute Meals

The Kitchen Tools These Bloggers Can’t Live Without

The Top 11 Nutrients Your Body Needs to Build Muscle

How to Eat Better, According to Dr. Mark Hyman

8 Essential Meal Prep Tips for Healthy Eating

JillFit

JillFit Holiday Gift Guide 2017

Can People *Really* Change? Here’s What It Takes

The 4 Key Ways to Build Trust with Customers Online

Awareness Is Great, Action is Better: Here’s How to Just Do the Damn Thing

2 Tools to Quit Being Distracted by Other People’s Fabulous Lives

Medgadget

Drone Lifelines: Interview with Zipline’s Keenan Wyrobek

Learning Method for Tuning Exoskeletons

Spectralink Versity Smartphones Designed for Hospital Use

MedCline Reflux Relief System: A Medgadget Product Review

Pillo Automated Pill Dispenser and Personal Assistant

My Fitness Pal

On Sweating Safely

On When To Eat

Gains

On Finding the Right Trainer

On Gymtimidation

No Exam

Burial Insurance: The Definitive Guide to Final Expense Life Insurance

Banner Life Insurance Review 2018

The Importance of Hobbies For Health

No Medical Exam Life Insurance: The Definitive Guide to No Exam Life Insurance

Getting Started in Life Insurance

SCD Lifestyle

Alyssa’s SCD Diet Success: How She Overcame Crohn’s Disease Naturally

Healthy Gut Nut-Flour-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

How To Overcome Restless Leg Syndrome Naturally (By Healing The Gut)

How Tapping Transformed My Health

How To Make Chicken Bone Broth In The Instant Pot

WebMD

Brain Doesn't Produce New Neurons After Age 13

There have been no reports of mumps in Texas or any other states in connection with the National Cheerleaders Association All-Star National Championship held Feb. 23-25, according to health department spokesman Chris Van Deusen.

Nurse Treats, Survives His Own Heart Attack

Blood Pressure Check? You May Find an App for That

Breast Cancer Screening Standard May Miss Minorities

Wellness Mama

143: Thomas DeLauer on Reducing Inflammation, Curcumin, Keto for Women, & Easy Weight Loss

Himalayan Salt Lamp Benefits: Facts, Myths and How to Use Them

Why Do Gardeners Live Longer?

Real Food Shamrock Shake Recipe

Dairy-Free Cilantro Pesto Recipe (With Pumpkin Seeds!)

Zen Habits

The Craving for Wholeness That Drives Our Actions

The March Challenge: One Small Change, One Big Impact

How to Develop a Mind That Clings to Nothing

Beautiful Practice Ground: The Secret to Training Your Mind

A Practice For When You Find Yourself Annoyed by Other People

[kristinsimmons]

There have been no reports of mumps in Texas or any other states in connection with the National Cheerleaders Association All-Star National Championship held Feb. 23-25, according to health department spokesman Chris Van Deusen.

There have been no reports of mumps in Texas or any other states in connection with the National Cheerleaders Association All-Star National Championship held Feb. 23-25, according to health department spokesman Chris Van Deusen.

There have been no reports of mumps in Texas or any other states in connection with the National Cheerleaders Association All-Star National Championship held Feb. 23-25, according to health department spokesman Chris Van Deusen. published first on https://wittooth.tumblr.com/

[saramc1980]

Enjoy the "shine" of reading in this youthful text!

Enjoy the “shine” of reading in this youthful text!

Shine! – “Inspirational, commonsensical, and a whole lot of fun.” –James Patterson Everyone deserves to Shine! in this sparkling new book from the New York Times bestselling author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, Chris Grabenstein, and coauthor J.J. Grabenstein–just right for fans of Word of Mouse and The Fourteenth Goldfish.

“Who do you want to be?” asks Mr. Van Deusen. “And not when…