HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

June 3, 2024 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Some drugmakers to cap cost of asthma inhalers at $35 a month (NBC)
• Gangs mix another potent sedative into U.S. street drugs causing 'mass overdoses' (NPR)
• Bird Flu Virus Detected For First Time In Beef From Sick Dairy Cow: USDA (Patch)
• Bird flu: Why health experts are so worried about raw milk  (The Hill)
• New malaria vaccine delivered for the first time (NPR)
• Covid will still be here this summer. Will anyone care? (Washington Post)

SCIENCE AND TECH

• Glue pizza and eat rocks: AI search errors go viral  (BBC)
• Debunking misinformation failed. Welcome to ‘pre-bunking’ (Washington Post)
• A national network of local news sites is publishing AI-written articles under fake bylines. Experts are raising alarm (CNN)
• The tech transforming conservation in Africa (CNN)

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

HEALTH

Some drugmakers to cap cost of asthma inhalers at $35 a month (NBC)

Starting Saturday, the cost of inhalers will fall for many Americans, as new out-of-pocket price caps go into effect for the asthma medications from AstraZeneca and Boehringer Ingelheim....The moves mirror similar steps taken by insulin manufacturers last year following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.... An investigation by the Democratic-led Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions noted AstraZeneca charges $645 in the U.S. for the same inhaler it charges $49 for in the U.K. Teva Pharmaceuticals, another major inhaler manufacturer, charges $286 in the U.S. for an inhaler that costs $9 in Germany.

Gangs mix another potent sedative into U.S. street drugs causing 'mass overdoses' (NPR)

Public health officials say Mexican cartels and drug gangs inside the U.S. are mixing a dangerous chemical sedative called medetomidine into fentanyl and other drugs sold on the street. The combination triggered a new wave of overdoses that began in late April and have accelerated in May.

Bird Flu Virus Detected For First Time In Beef From Sick Dairy Cow: USDA (Patch)

According to officials, the USDA discovered the virus during routine testing of beef tissue from 96 dairy cows.

Bird flu: Why health experts are so worried about raw milk  (The Hill)

...When a cow is infected with bird flu, high amounts of the virus can be detected in its milk. However, the pasteurization process kills off or inactivates the virus, the Food and Drug Administration says.  Raw milk, on the other hand, is not pasteurized. “Raw milk can be contaminated with harmful germs that can make you very sick,” the CDC says on its website.

New malaria vaccine delivered for the first time (NPR)

The Central African Republic is the first country to receive thousands of doses of a new malaria vaccine first recommended by the World Health Organization….The vaccine — called R21/Matrix-M — will be used as part of children’s routine immunization.  It comes as welcome news in a country plagued by one of the highest incidences of malaria worldwide; more than 1.7 million cases were reported in 2022.

Covid will still be here this summer. Will anyone care? (Washington Post)

By now, it’s as familiar as sunscreen hitting the shelves: Americans are headed into another summer with new coronavirus variants and a likely uptick in cases.

SCIENCE AND TECH

Glue pizza and eat rocks: AI search errors go viral  (BBC)

Google's new artificial intelligence (AI) search feature is facing criticism for providing erratic, inaccurate answers. Its experimental "AI Overviews" tool has told some users searching for how to make cheese stick to pizza better that they could use "non-toxic glue".The search engine's AI-generated responses have also said geologists recommend humans eat one rock per day. A Google spokesperson told the BBC they were "isolated examples". Some of the answers appeared to be based on Reddit comments or articles written by satirical site, The Onion.

Debunking misinformation failed. Welcome to ‘pre-bunking’ (Washington Post)

Election officials around the world are adopting “prebunking” campaigns, as AI and other threats jeopardize voting....Modeled after vaccines, these campaigns — dubbed “prebunking” — expose people to weakened doses of misinformation paired with explanations and are aimed at helping the public develop “mental antibodies” to recognize and fend off hoaxes in a heated election year.

A national network of local news sites is publishing AI-written articles under fake bylines. Experts are raising alarm (CNN)

The articles on a local news site popping up around the country appear to cover what any community outlet would focus on: crime, local politics, weather and happenings... But a closer look at the bylines populating the local site and a national network of others — Sarah Kim, Jake Rodriguez, Mitch M. Rosenthal — reveals a tiny badge with the words “AI.” These are not real bylines. In fact, the names don’t even belong to real humans. The articles were written with the use of artificial intelligence. The outlet, Hoodline, is not the first or only news site to harness AI.

The tech transforming conservation in Africa (CNN)

Sera Community Conservancy in northern Kenya has successfully doubled its black rhino population with the help of groundbreaking technology.