Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
By Puyaan SinghJan 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday that it will limit regulation of wearable devices and software designed to support healthy lifestyles, issuing new guidance to clarify its regulatory approach.The guidance, along with comments from FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, adds to existing policy that classifies low-risk wellness tools, such as fitness apps and activity trackers that encourage exercise, as non-medical devices exempt from stringent regulation, provided they do not make claims related to disease diagnosis or treatment.”We have to promote these products and at the same time, just guard against major safety…
Billionaire Larry Page is peacing out of California.The Google cofounder has cut ties between California and many of his assets that risked exposing him to a proposed new wealth tax in the state, meeting an end-of-2025 deadline, according to filings reviewed by Business Insider.Page’s family office, Koop, was converted out of California in late December and incorporated in Delaware, per filings with both states. Page converted several other entities to Delaware, including Flu Lab LLC — a vehicle he has used to fund research on tackling influenza and lists its principal office address in Nevada — and another entity named…
CES 2026 is in full swing in Las Vegas, with the show floor open to the public after a packed couple of days occupied by press conferences from the likes of Nvidia, Sony, and AMD and previews from Sunday’s Unveiled event. As has been the case for the past two years at CES, AI is at the forefront of many companies’ messaging, though the hardware upgrades and oddities that have long defined the annual event still have their place on the show floor and in adjacent announcements. We’ll be collecting the biggest reveals and surprises here, though you can still catch the spur-of-the-moment reactions and thoughts from…
A Reddit user claiming to be a whistleblower from a food delivery app has been outed as a fake. The user wrote a viral post alleging that the company he worked for was exploiting its drivers and users. “You guys always suspect the algorithms are rigged against you, but the reality is actually so much more depressing than the conspiracy theories,” the supposed whistleblower wrote. He claimed to be drunk and at the library to use its public Wi-Fi, where he was typing this long screed about how the company was exploiting legal loopholes to steal drivers’ tips and wages…
President Donald Trump spread some confusion about childhood vaccinations in social media posts about changes to U.S. vaccine recommendations.Trump’s administration on Monday took the unprecedented step of cutting the number of vaccines the government has long routinely recommended for all children. On that list are vaccines against 11 diseases. Additional vaccines that were once broadly recommended now are separately categorized for at-risk children or as available through “shared decision-making” with their doctor.Leading medical groups are sticking with prior vaccine recommendations, saying there’s no new science to warrant a change — and they worry the conflicting advice will leave more children…
The Trump administration’s overhauling of the decades-old childhood vaccination schedule, announced by federal health officials on Jan. 5, 2026, has raised alarm among public health experts and pediatricians.The U.S. childhood immunization schedule, the grid of colored bars pediatricians share with parents, recommends a set of vaccines given from birth through adolescence to prevent a range of serious infections. The basic structure has been in place since 1995, when federal health officials and medical organizations first issued a unified national standard, though new vaccines have been added regularly as science advanced.That schedule is now being dismantled.In all, the sweeping change reduces…
xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company behind the Grok chatbot — it also owns X — announced that it has raised $20 billion in a Series E funding round. The company wrote in a blog post that investors will include Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity, Qatar Investment Authority, and others, including Nvidia and Cisco as “strategic investors.” xAI has not disclosed if these investments come in the form of equity or debt. xAI says it has about 600 million monthly active users of X and Grok, and it will use this new funding to continue expanding its data centers and Grok models.…
Flu activity is exploding across the United States this flu and cold season, in some cases reaching record highs, according to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.For the first time since 1997, when flu data was first tracked, 8% of visits to medical professionals were related to the flu or a flu-like illness the week ending Dec. 27, according to the CDC. Hospitalizations increased a whopping 48% week-over-week, amounting to 120,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths so far this season.A new mutation, called subclade K, continues to drive the spread, with some experts warning that it could supercharge the…
By Blake BrittainJan 6 (Reuters) – Bayer’s Monsanto sued COVID-19 vaccine makers Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna in Delaware federal court on Tuesday for allegedly misusing its messenger RNA technology in manufacturing their vaccines, a Bayer spokesperson confirmed.The patent infringement lawsuits said the companies copied technology developed by Monsanto in the 1980s for strengthening mRNA in crops in order to stabilize the genetic material used in their vaccines.Bayer separately filed a similar lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson in New Jersey federal court on Tuesday, arguing that a DNA-based process J&J used in manufacturing its shots infringed the patent.Bayer’s complaints add to…
Senator Steve Padilla (D-CA) introduced a bill on Monday that would place a four-year ban on the sale and manufacture of toys with AI chatbot capabilities for kids under 18. The goal is to give safety regulators time to develop regulations to protect children from “dangerous AI interactions.” “Chatbots and other AI tools may become integral parts of our lives in the future, but the dangers they pose now require us to take bold action to protect our children,” Senator Padilla said in a statement. “Our safety regulations around this kind of technology are in their infancy and will need…