HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

August 18, 2022 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• ​Over-the-counter hearing aids could be available as soon as October (NPR)
• Rainwater everywhere on Earth unsafe to drink due to ‘forever chemicals’, study finds (Euro News) 
• Dog tests positive for monkeypox in first suspected human-to-pet transmission (The Hill)
• FDA recommends 3 home tests if you're exposed to COVID (NPR)
•  The U.K. approved omicron-specific booster shots. They're coming to the U.S. soon (NPR)
• Myths and facts about how monkeypox spreads — and how to protect yourself (NPR) 
• New COVID boosters could get approved using a streamlined review process (NPR)
• CVS, Walmart and Walgreens ordered to pay $650.6 million to Ohio counties in opioid case (Reuters)

SCIENCE AND TECH

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

HEALTH

Over-the-counter hearing aids could be available as soon as October (NPR)

Adults with perceived mild to moderate hearing impairment will be able to buy hearing aids directly from stores, pharmacies and online retailers — no prescription or doctor's appointment required — as soon as mid-October.  That's thanks to a final rule issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday and set to take effect in two months…

Rainwater everywhere on Earth unsafe to drink due to ‘forever chemicals’, study finds (Euro News) 

…Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large family of human-made chemicals that don’t occur in nature. They are known as ‘forever chemicals’ because they don’t break down in the environment…University of Stockholm have found them in rainwater in most locations on the planet - including Antarctica. There is no safe space to escape them.

Dog tests positive for monkeypox in first suspected human-to-pet transmission (The Hill)

A medical journal has published evidence of the first suspected case of human-to-pet transmission of the monkeypox virus. A dog living with two men in France who were infected with the virus began exhibiting symptoms 12 days after they did, according to The Lancet.

FDA recommends 3 home tests if you're exposed to COVID (NPR)

If you were exposed to COVID-19, take three home tests instead of two to make sure you're not infected, according to new U.S. recommendations released Thursday.

The U.K. approved omicron-specific booster shots. They're coming to the U.S. soon (NPR)

The Moderna shot approved in the U.K. is "bivalent," meaning it's a mix of two versions of the vaccine: Half is targeted at the original strain of COVID-19, and half is a new formulation designed to fight the original omicron variant, also known as BA.1.

Myths and facts about how monkeypox spreads — and how to protect yourself (NPR) 

As the outbreak has grown, so too has the confusion about the virus, how it spreads and who is currently at high risk for becoming infected.  Can you catch it, say, on a crowded bus or airplane? From trying on clothes in a thrift shop? From a bathroom counter? Is everyone at equal risk? Several myths and misconceptions have cropped up around these questions. And there's a lot of conflicting information and guidance.

New COVID boosters could get approved using a streamlined review process (NPR)

For the first time, the FDA is planning to base its decision about whether to authorize new boosters on studies involving mice instead of humans.

CVS, Walmart and Walgreens ordered to pay $650.6 million to Ohio counties in opioid case (Reuters)

Pharmacy operators CVS, Walmart and Walgreens must pay a combined $650.6 million to two Ohio counties to address the damage done by the opioid epidemic, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

SCIENCE AND TECH

Nebraska abortion case underscores how evidence from online services is now fair game (NPR)

In Nebraska, the prosecution of an alleged illegal abortion has highlighted the fact that evidence from online services such as Facebook is fair game for evidence in a post-Roe U.S.

Sensitivity ruling by Europe’s top court could force broad privacy reboot (Techcrunch)

A ruling … by the European Union’s top court could have major implications for online platforms that use background tracking and profiling to target users with behavioral ads or … ‘personalized’ content….. In an email to TechCrunch, Dr Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, VP for global privacy at the Washington-based thinktank, the Future of Privacy Forum, sums up the CJEU’s “binding interpretation” as a confirmation that data that are capable of revealing the sexual orientation of a natural person “by means of an intellectual operation involving comparison or deduction” are in fact sensitive data protected by Article 9 of the GDPR.

A sustainable seafood alternative: lab-grown fish sticks (NPR)

who want sustainable meat alternatives. Bluu Seafood, based in Germany, is one of a number of companies working to bring lab-grown fish to a plate near you. The company says it's created the first market-ready fish sticks and fish balls from cultivated cells.

How the U.S. gave away a breakthrough battery technology to China (NPR)

The Chinese company didn't steal this technology. It was given to them — by the U.S. Department of Energy. First in 2017, as part of a sublicense, and later, in 2021, as part of a license transfer. An investigation by NPR and the Northwest News Network found the federal agency allowed the technology and jobs to move overseas, violating its own licensing rules while failing to intervene on behalf of U.S. workers in multiple instances.