The worst way to achieve herd immunity is demonizing anti-vaxxers
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Report: NFLPA tells players they can still use smelling salts
The NFL's ban on smelling salts and ammonia capsules comes with a massive asterisk. Players are still permitted to use them. Via Kalyn Kahler of the NFLPA sent the following message to all players on Wednesday night: "The NFL Players Association is aware of the memo issued by the league Tuesday regarding the use of smelling salts and ammonia capsules. We were not notified of this club policy change before the memo was sent out. To clarify, this policy does not prohibit player use of these substances, but rather it restricts clubs from providing or supplying them in any form. The NFL has confirmed this to us. If you have any questions, please reach out to your player director." (Emphasis in original.) The NFL didn't prohibit player use of smelling salts or ammonia capsules because it can't do so without collective bargaining. For now, it's a liability issue for the league. By preventing teams from supplying them, the NFL has an obvious defense if, for example, a player uses smelling salts or ammonia capsules to mask the symptoms of a concussion, returns to a game, and suffers a second concussion and a potentially serious brain injury because of it. If the league were truly concerned about the health and safety impact of using smelling salts or ammonia capsules, it would use all levers and leverage to persuade, and if necessary persude, the NFLPA to join in a mutual effort to prevent players from bringing and using their own. Unfortunately, the nature of collective bargaining isn't conducive to a single-issue win-win. If one side wants something, the other side will say, "What's in it for us?" In other words, "If you want us to agree to ban smelling salts and ammonia capsules, give us something in return." The better approach would be to truly appreciate and understand the health and safety issues associated with using smelling salts and/or ammonia capsules to clear the cobwebs from a brain that has been impacted by trauma. Both sides should want to stop using them. It's amazing, frankly, that it's taken the league so long to realize it's not a good idea to have them around. Now that the NFL is on board with banning them, the NFLPA should think less about parlaying this into a bargaining chip and more about whether it's in the best interests of the players to get them off the sidelines and out of the locker rooms. The problem is that neither side of any labor-management relationship thinks this way. It's always about getting something in return for whatever is being given up. On matters of player health and safety, the constant tug-of-war should yield to common sense.
CNN
12 minutes ago
- CNN
Los Angeles wildfires may be linked to 440 deaths, new research estimates
The wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles earlier this year — burning entire neighborhoods to the ground, straining firefighting resources and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes — may have led to hundreds more deaths than were recorded, a new study suggests. While officials reported that the Palisades and Eaton fires directly killed at least 30 people when they incinerated parts of Los Angeles County, the blazes may be linked to 410 additional deaths from January 5 to February 1, according to research published Wednesday in the The Journal of the American Medical Association. That would make for a total of 440 wildfire-related deaths, according to the study. 'These additional deaths likely reflect a combination of factors, including increased exposure to poor air quality and health care delays and interruptions,' the study says. The wildfires' impact on his loved ones motivated Andrew Stokes, a mortality demographer and one of the authors of the study, to probe for excess deaths. 'Having had many family and friends who were directly affected made me feel compelled to look into this further, using my expertise as a demographer and a person who studies mortality statistics,' the Boston University associate professor told CNN. The new findings highlight the need to quantify just how deadly wildfires and other climate-related emergencies can be beyond direct fatalities. The emergencies can have long-term health effects that extend well beyond the disaster itself, experts say. Years ago, Stokes evaluated the excess deaths during the pandemic after many deaths went uncounted, he said. After developing models to understand the true toll of the virus, Stokes used that expertise to look at the true mortality burden of natural disasters such as the Los Angeles wildfires. Along with deaths directly related to the wildfire, the researchers counted deaths partially and indirectly attributed to the wildfires. That includes lung or heart conditions exacerbated by smoke or stress, disruptions to health systems and mental health impacts, according to the study. To conduct the study, the researchers compared recorded deaths in Los Angeles County from January to February with figures from previous years, excluding 2020 to 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That helped researchers estimate how many deaths would have been expected in that time period had no wildfires occurred, Stokes said. They then calculated excess deaths as the difference between observed and expected deaths, according to the study. 'In Los Angeles County, weekly deaths consistently exceeded expected deaths during the period from January 5 to February 1, 2025,' the study says. A total of 6,371 deaths were observed in the county, compared with 5,931 expected deaths, according to the study. This means that nearly 7% of the recorded deaths in Los Angeles County were excess deaths linked to the wildfires. Stokes said he was 'really surprised and alarmed' at the findings. 'The magnitude of the underreporting in the official data is just very severe,' he said. But he hopes that quantifying the excess deaths can spur authorities to provide more assistance to those still grappling with the devastation. The researchers note that the data is preliminary and the toll could grow. 'That 440 value that we estimate is clearly the lower bound, because we only look at the first weeks after the wildfire started,' Stokes said. 'These medium and long- term effects … could manifest over time as people develop wildfire related diseases.' Future studies should investigate the longer-term health impacts of the wildfires and the specific causes of excess wildfire deaths, the researchers said.
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Sotera Health Company (SHC) Q2 Earnings: What To Expect
Healthcare services company Sotera Health (NASDAQ:) will be reporting results this Friday before market open. Here's what to expect. Sotera Health Company beat analysts' revenue expectations by 3.1% last quarter, reporting revenues of $254.5 million, up 2.6% year on year. It was a strong quarter for the company, with a solid beat of analysts' organic revenue estimates and a solid beat of analysts' EPS estimates. Is Sotera Health Company a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it's free. This quarter, analysts are expecting Sotera Health Company's revenue to be flat year on year at $275.6 million, slowing from the 8.3% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.17 per share. The majority of analysts covering the company have reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Sotera Health Company has missed Wall Street's revenue estimates twice over the last two years. Looking at Sotera Health Company's peers in the research tools & consumables segment, some have already reported their Q2 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Mettler-Toledo delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 3.9%, beating analysts' expectations by 2.9%, and Thermo Fisher reported revenues up 3%, topping estimates by 1.6%. Mettler-Toledo traded down 3% following the results while Thermo Fisher was up 11.3%. Read our full analysis of Mettler-Toledo's results here and Thermo Fisher's results here. Questions about potential tariffs and corporate tax changes have caused much volatility in 2025. While some of the research tools & consumables stocks have shown solid performance in this choppy environment, the group has generally underperformed, with share prices down 5.7% on average over the last month. Sotera Health Company is down 4.6% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $14.58 (compared to the current share price of $11.06). Unless you've been living under a rock, it should be obvious by now that generative AI is going to have a huge impact on how large corporations do business. While Nvidia and AMD are trading close to all-time highs, we prefer a lesser-known (but still profitable) semiconductor stock benefiting from the rise of AI. Click here to access our free report on our favorite semiconductor growth story. StockStory is growing and hiring equity analyst and marketing roles. Are you a 0 to 1 builder passionate about the markets and AI? See the open roles here.
