HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

June 28, 2022 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

SCIENCE AND TECH

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HEALTH

Researchers Say COVID-19 May Raise Risk of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Stroke (Healthline)

Researchers say they’ve discovered that people who have had COVID-19 have a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and ischemic stroke. Experts say they already knew that COVID-19 can exacerbate the symptoms of Parkinson’s in somebody with the disease.

Monkeypox outbreak in U.S. is bigger than the CDC reports. Testing is 'abysmal' (NPR) 

On June 13, a man in New York began to feel ill.  "He starts to experience swollen lymph nodes and rectal discomfort," says epidemiologist Keletso Makofane, who's at Harvard University. The man suspects he might have monkeypox. He's a scientist, and knowledgeable about the signs and symptoms…

FDA panel endorses Covid vaccine for youngest children (NBC)

Children under age 5 remain the only group ineligible for Covid vaccination. Food and Drug Administration advisers voted Wednesday to recommend authorizing both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccines for young children, clearing one of the final hurdles to getting the youngest Americans vaccinated.

Kids can pet this dog visiting their classroom — but only after it sniffs for COVID (NPR)

For many people, the school year is finally wrapping up, and what a year it's been, navigating the dips and surges of the COVID-19 pandemic. NPR's Ari Daniel brings us the story of one community that helped keep its classrooms open by trying a unique approach with dogs.

EPA warns toxic ‘forever chemicals’ more dangerous than once thought (Washington Post)

The guidance may spur water utilities to tackle PFAS, but health advocates are still waiting for mandatory standards.

American Medical Association declares abortion bans ‘violation of human rights’ (Yahoo)

The largest medical association in the country has declared it will take any necessary legal steps to protect patients and doctors that seek and administer reproductive health services — including abortion and contraception. The American Medical Association (AMA) announced Tuesday it was implementing a new policy that will expand legal protection for patients and physicians against government systems of control and punishment that criminalize reproductive health services. 

California may require mental health risk warning on pot products (Health News)

"Today's turbocharged products are turbocharging the harms associated with cannabis," says Dr. Lynn Silver with the Public Health Institute, a nonprofit sponsoring the proposed labeling legislation, SB 1097, the Cannabis Right to Know Act.

SCIENCE AND TECH

Google Engineer On Leave After He Claims AI Program Has Gone Sentient (Huffington Post)

Artificially intelligent chatbot generator LaMDA wants “to be acknowledged as an employee of Google rather than as property," says engineer Blake Lemoine.

U.S. targets Russia with tech to evade censorship of Ukraine news (Reuters)

The U.S. government has pushed new, increased funding into three technology companies since the start of the Ukraine conflict to help Russians sidestep censors and access Western media, according to five people familiar with the situation. The financing effort is focused on three firms that build Virtual Private Networks (VPN) - nthLink, Psiphon and Lantern – and is designed to support a recent surge in their Russian users, the sources said.

Dell, Lenovo and HP kill laptops with hard disk drives, marking the end of an era  (MSN)

The biggest laptop vendors in the world no longer sell laptops with hard disk drives, at least in the US. 

Amazon's Alexa could soon speak in a dead relative's voice, making some feel uneasy (NPR)

Do you miss the sound of a dead relative's voice? Well fear not: Amazon unveiled a new feature in the works for its virtual assistant Alexa that can read aloud in a deceased loved one's voice based on a short recording of the person.

Think all bacteria are microscopic? Tell that to these centimeter-long monsters (NPR)

Bacteria typically live out their teeny-tiny lives in the microscopic realm, but now scientists have found a gargantuan one the size and shape of a human eyelash. The new find is "by far the largest bacteria known to date," says Jean-Marie Volland of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems. "These bacteria are about 5,000 times larger than most bacteria."