Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
Covid vaccines continue to protect against serious illness and death, especially for people ages 65 and older, although the benefits for younger adults are not as clear, according to a large new study of veterans.Researchers from the VA St. Louis Healthcare System analyzed data from nearly 300,000 veterans and found that last season’s Covid vaccine reduced the risk of emergency room visits by 29%, hospitalizations by 39% and deaths by 64% for all ages.When the researchers combined the three outcomes, overall effectiveness was 28%, making the Covid vaccine similar to the yearly flu shot, which ranges from 30% to 60%…
(Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday cleared Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ immunotherapy, Libtayo, as an add-on treatment for skin cancer patients at high risk of their disease returning after surgery and radiation, the drugmaker said.Libtayo is already approved in the U.S. for advanced skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma, advanced non-small cell lung cancer and cervical cancer.Regeneron said its approved application did not include contract drugmaker Catalent’s Indiana facility as a fill-finish site for the drug. The FDA in August had declined to approve Regeneron’s blood cancer therapy, odronextamab, citing its inspection of the facility.The Bloomington, Indiana site handles the…
CHICAGO (AP) — Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a tiebreaking two-run single and the Chicago Cubs avoided a sweep by holding off the Milwaukee Brewers for a 4-3 victory in Game 3 of their NL Division Series on Wednesday.Crow-Armstrong’s two-out swing was part of a four-run first inning for Chicago — continuing a wild trend. Michael Busch kicked off the rally by becoming the first player in major league history with multiple leadoff homers in a single postseason series.The matchup of NL Central rivals is the first postseason series in which both teams scored in the first in each of the first…
By Jonathan StempelNEW YORK (Reuters) -New York City filed a new lawsuit accusing Facebook, Google, Snapchat, TikTok and other online platforms of fueling a mental health crisis among children by addicting them to social media.Wednesday’s 327-page complaint in Manhattan federal court seeks damages from Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms, Google and YouTube owner Alphabet, Snapchat owner Snap and TikTok owner ByteDance. It accuses the defendants of gross negligence and causing a public nuisance.The city joined other governments, school districts and individuals pursuing approximately 2,050 similar lawsuits, in nationwide litigation in the Oakland, California, federal court.New York City is among…
When Nick Turley joined OpenAI in 2022 as the head of ChatGPT, he was tasked with commercializing the company’s research. He has made great strides toward that goal, growing the product to 800 million weekly active users. Now Turley wants to take an even bigger swing: transforming ChatGPT into a new type of operating system full of third-party apps. I sat down with Turley this week on the outskirts of San Francisco’s Fort Mason, a former U.S. military post where OpenAI held its third annual developer conference, to discuss how he’s thinking about ChatGPT’s future. You can find a transcript…
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — A former Wyoming library director who was fired amid an uproar over books with sexual content and LGBTQ+ themes that some people complained were inappropriate for youngsters and who sought their removal from youth shelves will be paid $700,000 after settling a lawsuit.Terri Lesley was fired as the library system director in northeastern Wyoming’s Campbell County in 2023, two years into the book dispute at the library in Gillette. Lesley sued last spring over her termination and reached the settlement with county officials Wednesday.“I do feel vindicated. It’s been a rough road, but I will…
By Krishna N. Das, Praveen Paramasivam and Jennifer RigbyNEW DELHI/CHENNAI (Reuters) -Indian authorities advised the public to avoid two more brands of cough syrup on Wednesday following the deaths of 17 children aged under five linked to a toxic ingredient, as the World Health Organization said the country had a “regulatory gap” in screening locally-sold syrup medicines.The children died in India over the past month after consuming cough medicine containing toxic diethylene glycol in quantities nearly 500 times the permissible limit, officials say. The deaths were all linked to the Coldrif medicine, banned after a test confirmed the presence of…
Watching SpongeBob cook meth is a very different experience from viewing the countless other memes of the beloved cartoon.SpongeBob, Pikachu, and other well-known characters have been starring in very new (and very unauthorized) types of content in recent days, thanks to OpenAI’s Sora video generation app, a TikTok-esque AI app. Tech analyst Ben Thompson asked OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about these types of videos.While Altman did not address specific examples, he said the intellectual property rights holders are responding differently to AI video.”Video hits people, particularly rights owners, very differently than still images, it turns out,” Altman told Thompson during…
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The number of children displaced by violence in Haiti has nearly doubled to 680,000, according to a new UNICEF report released Wednesday that warns minors are increasingly facing hunger, violence and recruitment by armed groups in the Caribbean nation.Overall, around 6 million Haitians — half the country’s population — need humanitarian assistance, including more than 3.3 million children, UNICEF said.“Without decisive action, the future of an entire generation is at stake,” the report stated.Gang violence has displaced a record 1.3 million Haitians in recent years, with many cramming into makeshift shelters after their communities were razed.The…
NEW YORK (AP) — Dolly Parton “ain’t dead yet,” the country superstar said on social media Wednesday following public speculation about her health.“There are just a lot of rumors flying around. But I figured if you heard it from me, you’d know that I was okay,” the 79-year-old singer said in a new two-minute video posted on Instagram. “I’m not ready to die yet. I don’t think God is through with me. And I ain’t done working.”Her post, which appeared on numerous of Parton’s social media accounts and her website, was captioned, “I ain’t dead yet.”Late last month Parton postponed…