Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Doctors, hospitals and public health departments are scrambling to ensure proper care for pregnant women and their babies following a controversial vote from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisers that reversed decades of standard medical practice giving newborns the hepatitis B vaccine.“We don’t really know just yet how individual hospitals and clinicians will handle this,” said Dr. Brenna Hughes, interim chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. “It’s creating fear and distrust.”Last Friday, the CDC’s vaccine panel advised that only babies born to women who test positive for hepatitis B should…

It’s normal for parents, or anyone, to have questions about vaccinations — but what happens if your pediatrician urges a shot that’s under attack by the Trump administration?That’s getting more likely: The nation’s leading doctors groups are in an unprecedented standoff with federal health officials who have attacked long-used, lifesaving vaccines.The revolt by pediatricians, obstetricians, family physicians, infectious disease experts and internists came to a head when an advisory panel handpicked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged an end to routine newborn vaccination against hepatitis B, a virus that can cause liver failure or liver cancer.That vaccine saves…

More parents are refusing a shot typically given at birth to reduce the risk of infant bleeding, a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found.An injection of vitamin K, which helps with blood clotting, within six hours of birth has been a standard practice in the U.S. since 1961.Since babies are born with low levels of the vitamin, they are more prone to serious bleeding, especially in the brain and gastrointestinal tract, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).Since implementing widespread use of the shot,…

Market research is a $90 billion industry that helps brands figure out how to best present themselves to potential customers. But that market insight isn’t cheap, nor is it quick. Cashew Research wants to change that using AI. Calgary, Alberta-based Cashew uses AI to develop market research plans and surveys for brands based on what information they are looking for — like what their brand recognition is for a specific population or how a marketing tagline resonates with customers. Cashew then sends the survey to real people and uses AI to summarize and digest the findings. Cashew was one of…

This week on StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos speaks with Science Corp. founder Max Hodak to discuss how brain-computer interfaces are arriving faster than anyone realizes. The Neuralink co-founder and former president shares how his company recently achieved what may be the biggest breakthrough in vision restoration in decades, enabling 80% of blind patients to read again with a tiny retinal implant smaller than a grain of rice. In this conversation, the two also explore the near-term commercial path for BCIs through medical applications, the long-term potential for cognitive enhancement, and “binding” multiple brains together, and why Science, which has so…

Kabir Narang, a founding general partner at B Capital and an early backer of several Indian startups, has left the global venture firm, TechCrunch has learned and confirmed with the company. Narang is laying the groundwork for a new investment platform slated for 2026 that will focus on “compounding at the intersection of technology, AI, and global capital flows,” per a note shared with founders and reviewed by TechCrunch. After joining B Capital in March 2017, Narang co-led the firm’s Asia strategy from Singapore and chaired its global investment committee. During his tenure, he backed Indian startups such as Meesho,…

Rod Paige, an educator, coach and administrator who rolled out the nation’s landmark “No Child Left Behind” policy as the first African American to serve as U.S. education secretary, died Tuesday.Former President George W. Bush, who tapped Paige for the nation’s top federal education post, announced the death in a statement but did not provide further details. Paige was 92. Under Paige’s leadership, the Department of Education implemented the “No Child Left Behind” policy that in 2002 became one of Bush’s signature laws and was modeled on Paige’s previous work as a schools superintendent in Houston. The law established universal…

Anysphere, the company that makes AI coding assistant darling Cursor, isn’t thinking about an IPO any time soon, its co-founder CEO Michael Truell said onstage Monday at Fortune’s AI Brainstorm conference. After reaching $1 billion in annualized revenue in November and raising $2.3 billion at a $29.3 billion valuation last month, Truell said his company is instead focused on building out more features. For instance, he noted that Cursor’s homegrown LLMs were geared to support specific products. Cursor also confirmed the existence of those models in November when it said in a blog post, “Our in-house models now generate more…

Rivian has spent nearly two years building its own AI assistant, an effort that remains separate from its multibillion-dollar technology joint venture with Volkswagen, TechCrunch has learned. Rivian hasn’t revealed when it will put the AI assistant in consumers hands. However, in an interview earlier this year, Rivian’s software chief Wassym Bensaid told TechCrunch it was targeting the end of the year. The company will likely share more during its upcoming AI & Autonomy Day, which will be livestreamed starting at 9 a.m. PT December 11. Rivian’s plans are reflective of the moment as the pace of development from foundational…

The Pew Research Center released a study on Tuesday that shows how young people are using both social media and AI chatbots. Teen internet safety has remained a global hot topic, with Australia planning to enforce a social media ban for under-16s starting on Wednesday. The impact of social media on teen mental health has been extensively debated — some studies show how online communities can improve mental health, while other research shows the adverse effects of doomscrolling or spending too much time online. The U.S. surgeon general even called for social media platforms to put warning labels on their…