HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

May 7, 2022 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Week-long ‘Mother’s Day Strike’ set to protest overturn of Roe (The Hill)
• FDA puts strict limits on Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine (CNN)
• Better ventilation makes a healthier workplace — if companies invest : Shots - Health News (NPR)
• The tick that makes people allergic to red meat is in D.C. (Washington Post)
• Public health expert talks about effectiveness of a second COVID-19 vaccine booster (KPBS)
• E-cigs using synthetic nicotine come under FDA oversight (10 News)

SCIENCE AND TECH

• You can now ask Google to take your personal data out of its search results (NPR)
• Elon Musk launches hostile takeover bid: ‘Twitter needs to be transformed’ (Washington Post)
• Meet the Reddit ‘Aunties’ covertly helping people get abortions (Washington Post)

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

HEALTH

Week-long ‘Mother’s Day Strike’ set to protest overturn of Roe (The Hill)

TikTok users have planned a week-long women’s labor strike set to begin on Mother’s Day in protest of the leaked Supreme Court opinion set to overturn Roe v. Wade. The strike aims to push the government to enact the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would establish a statutory right for health care providers to provide, and patients to receive, abortion care without restrictions, therefore codifying abortion rights protections into federal law

FDA puts strict limits on Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine (CNN)

The US Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that it is limiting the emergency use authorization of the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen Covid-19 vaccine to people 18 and older for whom other vaccines aren’t appropriate or accessible and those who opt for J&J because they wouldn’t otherwise get vaccinated. The FDA said in a statement that the change is being made because of the risk of a rare and dangerous clotting condition called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) after receiving the vaccine.

Better ventilation makes a healthier workplace — if companies invest : Shots - Health News (NPR)

Although scientists have known for years that good ventilation can reduce the spread of respiratory diseases such as influenza and measles, the notion of improved ventilation as a front-line weapon in stemming the spread of COVID received little attention until March. That's when the White House launched a voluntary initiative encouraging schools and work sites to assess and improve their ventilation.

The tick that makes people allergic to red meat is in D.C. (Washington Post)

Our recent warm weather has reawakened ticks, and one type in particular is becoming more common in the D.C. area: the lone star tick. One bite from this tick, which is easily identified by the white spot on its back if it’s a female, can cause a life-long adverse reaction to eating red meat.

Public health expert talks about effectiveness of a second COVID-19 vaccine booster (KPBS)

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday evaluated the early effectiveness of a second COVID-19 vaccine booster for people over the age of 60…The results from the analysis show a 52% reduction in COVID-19 infections, a 72% reduction in hospitalizations and a 76% reduction in COVID-related deaths in participants over 60 who had a second booster.

E-cigs using synthetic nicotine come under FDA oversight (10 News)

The Food and Drug Administration says it will begin cracking down on e-cigarettes that have used synthetic nicotine to skirt oversight.  The companies behind those products sell vaping flavors that appeal to kids.

SCIENCE AND TECH

You can now ask Google to take your personal data out of its search results (NPR)

Google is offering a new tool to anyone who doesn't want their phone number, email or street address and other personal information to be found online: People can ask for their contact details to be stripped from search results.

Elon Musk launches hostile takeover bid: ‘Twitter needs to be transformed’ (Washington Post)

Elon Musk has launched a $43 billion hostile takeover bid for Twitter, the social network that the eccentric billionaire behind Tesla uses as a hobby to connect with his 81 million followers, saying he thinks the platform is essential to the functioning of democracy.

Meet the Reddit ‘Aunties’ covertly helping people get abortions (Washington Post)

The Reddit group offers a glimpse into a post-Roe era where people resort to informal networks to assist those locked out of an abortion.