Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
By Nancy LapidDec 4 (Reuters) – Vaccine advisers to U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were expected to vote on Thursday on whether to scrap a broad recommendation for the hepatitis B vaccine for children, a move that would leave the choice to parents in most cases.The U.S. vaccine panel has proposed that only infants born to mothers who test positive for hepatitis B would be recommended to get the vaccine. It would represent the most significant change to date in national immunization policy under Kennedy, who has long promoted anti-vaccine views.However, the committee voted 6 to 3 to…
Meta is planning budget cuts and considering job cuts as part of that across its metaverse unit, according to a person familiar with the matter.The company is considering budget cuts of up to 30% within its Reality Labs division, which could impact employees working on its virtual spaces platform, Horizon Worlds, according to the person Business Insider spoke to. The person requested anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak to the press on these matters.Bloomberg earlier reported on the potential cuts.The news follows a meeting last month at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Hawaii compound, where he discussed strategy and next…
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is drafting the company’s annual strategic plan, and he shared key parts of the vision for next year in an interview with Business Insider.This annual document is called the V2MOM, which stands for Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measurements. It’s shared internally at the start of each fiscal year, which begins in February. The document often contains important projections. For instance, Business Insider broke details of Salesforce’s 2023 plan to cut costs and boost profit margins, which fueled a massive rally in the stock that year. More recently, Salesforce has made a huge bet on AI…
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Jo Ann Allen Boyce, who as part of the “Clinton 12” helped integrate one of the first public schools in the South, died on Wednesday at her Los Angeles home. She was 84. Her death was confirmed by her daughter, Kamlyn Young, who said her mother died from pancreatic cancer after living with it for a decade.Clinton High School in Tennessee was integrated in 1956, a couple of years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v Board of Education that separating public school children on the basis of race was unconstitutional and a year…
Executives worldwide are developing expansive, costly AI initiatives. Amplitude CEO Spenser Skates says a lot of the industry’s buy-in is thanks to Sam Altman.Skates cofounded the publicly traded analytics company, which he said has about 800 employees. On the “Lightcone Podcast,” Skates acknowledged that some engineers were skeptical of their company leaders’ rapid adoption of AI.While it may sound “extraordinarily reductive,” Skates credited the OpenAI CEO.”I think Sam Altman is the best salesperson of this generation, bar none,” Skates said. “I think he has done an exceptional job stating a very ambitious vision, getting a lot of people rallied behind…
Meta is launching a new centralized support hub for Facebook and Instagram users, the company announced on Thursday, adding that its prior support options haven’t “always met expectations.” Within the hub, users will find tools to report an account issue, recover an account they’ve lost access to, and get answers via AI-powered search and an AI assistant. The feature is rolling out now to global users on Facebook and Instagram on both the iOS and Android apps. The new AI assistant being tested is designed to offer more personalized help with things like account recovery, managing your profile, or updating…
Meta may be planning to make serious cuts to its Metaverse division, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources. Company executives are mulling slashing the virtual reality platform’s budget by up to 30%, the report said, adding that any reductions would also include layoffs. If Meta does go ahead with such a plan, the move would reflect the overall lack of interest in products like Meta’s social virtual reality platform Horizon Worlds, as well as its virtual reality hardware — both in the industry at large, as well as among consumers. Since Meta’s rebrand in 2021, investors have been skeptical of the…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel is meeting Thursday for the first of two days of discussions about childhood vaccine schedules and recommendations. The panel is focusing on the hepatitis B vaccine and will vote on whether to continue recommending it be given to all children at birth or delay the first dose.The hepatitis B vaccine has been universally recommended for newborns in the U.S. since 1991. Since then, research shows hepatitis B infections among infants and children have dropped 99%.Hepatitis B is an incurable infection that can lead to liver disease, cancer and early death.The shot has…
Cervical cancer screening can now include “self-swab” HPV tests, according to updated guidelines published Thursday by the American Cancer Society.The change, experts hope, will encourage more women to undergo regular screening for the cancer by giving them an alternative to a speculum exam.Testing for HPV, or human papillomavirus, has supplanted the Pap test as the preferred method for cervical cancer screening. Pap tests (also called cytology) involve collecting cells from a patient’s cervix during a pelvic exam, a process some women find uncomfortable and even painful.“HPV is such a strong indicator of cervical cancer, we know now that screening for…
A federal vaccine advisory committee on Thursday voted to delay a decision on whether newborns should still get the hepatitis B vaccine on the day they’re born.The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, meeting in Atlanta, voted to delay the decision until Friday after committee members voiced confusion about voting language — and some voiced concern about taking such a step.For decades, the government has advised that all babies be vaccinated against the liver infection right after birth. The shots are widely considered to be a public health success for preventing thousands of illnesses.But U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s…