Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Summer heat, outdoor fun … and cold and flu symptoms?The three may not go together in many people’s minds: partly owing to common myths about germs and partly because many viruses really do have lower activity levels in the summer.But it is possible to get the sniffles — or worse — in the summer. Federal data released Friday, for example, shows COVID-19 is trending up in many parts of the country, with emergency department visits up among people of all ages.Here’s what to know about summer viruses.How much are colds and flu circulating right now?The number of people seeking medical…

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials have told more than a half-dozen of the nation’s top medical organizations that they will no longer help establish vaccination recommendations.The government told the organizations on Thursday via email that their experts are being disinvited from the workgroups that have been the backbone of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.The organizations include the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.“I’m concerned and distressed,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University vaccine expert who for decades has been involved with ACIP and its workgroups.He said the…

Childhood vaccination rates for the 2024-25 school year fell for the fifth year in a row, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published Thursday.Vaccine coverage for shots that protect against measles, polio, chickenpox, whooping cough and hepatitis B have now been under 95% — a threshold many experts consider herd immunity — since at least the 2020-2021 school year.Exemptions for vaccines also hit a record high, increasing to 3.6% for the 2024-25 school year compared to 3.3% during the previous school year. The number of kindergarteners exempt from one or more vaccines was about…

Would you want your chats with AI to show up in a Google search? I wouldn’t!OpenAI’s ChatGPT raised some eyebrows this week when people realized that certain chats were able to be found by Google search. Although people had checked a box to share the chats publicly, it seemed likely that not everyone understood what they were doing.On Thursday, OpenAI said that it would stop having shared chats be indexed by Google.Meanwhile, Meta’s stand-alone MetaAI app also allows users to share their chats — and it will continue to allow Google to index them, meaning that they can show up…

NEW YORK (AP) — Pitchers Ryan Helsley and Tyler Rogers and outfielder Cedric Mullins jumped into a pennant race Friday when they joined the National League-East leading New York Mets in search of the franchise’s first championship since 1986.“Everybody’s very excited — they’re matching my excitement to be here,” Rogers said before the Mets opened a three-game series against San Francisco.The Giants traded Rogers to New York for José Buttó and a pair of prospects Wednesday.The Mets, who fell to the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in last year’s NLCS, entered Friday with a half-game lead over the…

Figma’s blockbuster IPO turned out to be a design success story. It’s now also a case study of Wall Street severely underestimating the pent-up demand for new tech IPOs.The design software darling shattered expectations Thursday when its stock opened at $85 — more than double its $33 IPO price — and closed with a 250% gain, marking the biggest first-day pop for a U.S. IPO of its size in over three decades.Experts told BI that Figma’s stock surge isn’t surprising, given its high profit margins, solid revenue growth, and strong foothold in the design market. But the enormity of the…

A baby boy born last week to an Ohio couple developed from an embryo that had been frozen for more than 30 years in what is believed to be the longest storage time before a birth.In what’s known as embryo adoption, Lindsey and Tim Pierce used a handful of donated embryos that have been frozen since 1994 in pursuit of having a child after fighting infertility for years. Their son was born Saturday from an embryo that had been in storage for 11,148 days, which the Pierces’ doctor says sets a record.It’s a concept that has been around since the…

Luddites have no place in an AI-powered world, according to OpenAI’s vice president of education.”Workers who use AI in the workforce are incredibly more productive,” Leah Belsky, who’s been leading OpenAI’s education team since 2024, said on an episode of the company’s podcast on Friday.So learning to use the technology, she said, should start early. “Any graduate who leaves institution today needs to know how to use AI in their daily life,” she said. “And that will come in both where they’re applying for jobs as well as when they start their new job.”Most schools have so far sought ways…

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — In some tents and shelters in northern Gaza, emaciated children are held in their parents’ arms. Their tiny arms and legs dangle limp. Their shoulder blades and ribs stick out from skeletal bodies slowly consuming themselves for lack of food.Starvation always stalks the most vulnerable first. Kids with preexisting conditions, like cerebral palsy, waste away quickly because the high-calorie foods they need have run out, along with nutritional supplements.But after months of Israeli blockade and turmoil in the distribution of supplies, children in Gaza with no previous conditions are also starting to die from…

BOSTON (AP) — Carlos Correa wasn’t going to waive his no-trade clause for any other team.But when the Twins told him that they would be rebuilding for the rest of the season – and probably beyond – Correa OK’d a deal back to Houston, where he still owned the house from his first go-’round with the Astros.“My wife hates the cold,” the 2017 World Series champion said before making his Astros return in Friday night’s game against the Boston Red Sox. “We kept the house in Houston just to come back to, and our family and friends are there. So…