Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
Dec 19 (Reuters) – The U.S. plans to scale back public health recommendations for most childhood vaccines and propose fewer shots, aiming to align with Denmark’s immunization model, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with the matter.Federal health officials are weighing vaccine guidance that would switch away from the current model in which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes universal recommendations for which vaccines to give children. Instead, parents would consult with doctors before deciding on most shots, the report said, adding it remains unclear which shots would no longer be recommended.The move…
Dec 19 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it has authorized the marketing of six Altria-owned on! PLUS nicotine pouch products, through a pilot program aimed to fast-track reviews of such products.The authorization was the first under the pilot program that the FDA launched in September, and applies to six on! PLUS nicotine pouches, which are manufactured by Helix Innovations LLC, an Altria joint venture for the global on! PLUS nicotine pouch portfolio.The company had applied for premarket authorization for the products in June 2024.The decision allows the mint, tobacco and wintergreen-flavored pouches, offered in…
Dec 19 (Reuters) – The U.S. government on Friday announced pilot programs to start in 2026 and 2027 that are aimed at reducing out-of-pocket drug costs under the Medicare healthcare program for older and disabled Americans to prices on par with economically comparable countries.The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the programs, titled Guarding U.S. Medicare Against Rising Drug Costs (GUARD) and Global Benchmark for Efficient Drug Pricing (GLOBE), would assess a rebate for certain drugs payable under Medicare part D and Part B, respectively, if they exceed the prices paid in other similar countries.Under the GLOBE model, CMS…
Flu season has taken off nationwide, with cases rising rapidly in some parts of the country over the past few weeks.“We’ve seen sustained, elevated activity across multiple key indicators in many areas of the country,” said Alicia Budd, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s domestic influenza surveillance team.The CDC released its latest report on flu Friday, estimating that so far this season, there have been at least 4.6 million illnesses, causing more than 49,000 hospitalizations and 1,900 deaths.Young children, infants through age 4, have been hit hardest so far.There’s plenty of other evidence of an early and…
Flu activity is increasing across the country, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.New York City is seeing some of the highest levels of flu-like activity across the country. States including Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Texas are seeing “moderate” activity of respiratory illnesses. All other states are seeing low or very low levels.The CDC estimates that there have been at least 4.6 million illnesses, 49,000 hospitalizations, and 1,900 deaths from flu this season so far.Flu cases are on the rise in the US. Here’s what you need to knowThe…
AI coding assistant Cursor announced that it has acquired Graphite, a startup that uses AI to review and debug code. Although the terms of the deal were not disclosed, Axios reported that Cursor paid “way over” Graphite’s last valuation of $290 million, which was set when the five-year-old company raised a $52 million Series B earlier this year. The tie-up makes strategic sense. The output of code generated by AI is often buggy, forcing engineers to spend a lot of time on corrections. Even though Cursor offers AI-powered code review through its Bugbot product, Graphite’s specialized toolset provides a distinct…
2025-12-19T21:50:41.567Z Share Copy link Email Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt. Impact Link Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. Elon Musk is entitled to his $55.8 billion Tesla pay package from 2018, Delaware’s Supreme Court ruled.A Delaware Chancery Court judge struck down the compensation package last year after a Tesla shareholder sued over the massive payday, which was tied to a series of growth goalposts for the EV…
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug.The order moves cannabis from a Schedule I drug, a category that includes heroin and LSD, to a Schedule III drug, a category including ketamine, Tylenol with codeine and steroids.The executive order does not, however, legalize marijuana under federal law. Cannabis is currently legal in 40 states for medical use and in 24 states for recreational use.Trump to sign executive order reclassifying marijuana: OfficialsSome pharmaceutical experts and addiction specialists told ABC News that the reclassification could remove stigma of the drug and open the…
Is TikTok really selling its US business? Kind of.TikTok has reached an agreement that would give it a new set of owners in the US as part of a joint-venture agreement. Larry Ellison’s Oracle, Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX, and private-equity firm Silver Lake are all coming on as managing investors in the US spin-off.But how much influence will these investors have over the money-making side of the business? Not much, according to an internal memo TikTok CEO Shou Chew sent to employees on Thursday, viewed by Business Insider.The new investors will focus on national security-related tasks, such as data…
The hardware world had a brutal week, with iRobot, Luminar, and Rad Power Bikes all filing for bankruptcy. Each company faces its own mix of tariff pressures, supply chain issues, and shifting markets, but together they tell a larger story about the challenges of building physical products in an era of global trade tensions and cheap overseas competition. From the Roomba maker that almost got acquired by Amazon to the e-bike company that couldn’t escape its Chinese supply chain, this week’s bankruptcies are a warning sign for hardware startups everywhere. Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Anthony Ha, Rebecca Bellan, and Sean O’Kane discuss what went wrong for three once-promising…