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Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
America's first needle-free, at-home flu vaccine is now available
There's one less excuse to skip the flu shot this season. Unsold completed new-build inventory is so high this $34B homebuilder is turning to investors 'Job hugging' is the newest career trend: Here's what it means—and why Gen Z is into it Spotify just redesigned the way you'll 'listen' to audiobooks Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is out with a new version of the flu vaccine, and it makes getting vaccinated easier than ever. The drug can be administered at home, giving you one less reason to trek to the doctor's office. And even better for the needle-averse: You don't need a jab to get it—the vaccine comes in nasal spray form. The drug, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration last fall, is available now and can be ordered online. While it will cost $70 out of pocket, AstraZeneca says that anyone with insurance coverage will only need to pay $8.99 for shipping. FluMist Home ships in a special cooling container and needs to be stored in a cool environment. So if you order the vaccine, you'll need to pop it in the fridge until you plan to administer it. Flu vaccination rates are on the downswing in the U.S., a phenomenon linked to pandemic fatigue and vaccine misinformation. While the flu is an endemic virus that comes back around every year, it can still be dangerous for unimmunized kids, older adults, and people with compromised immune systems. The flu vaccine isn't the only shot that Americans are skipping. From 2019 to 2023, measles vaccination rates fell from 95% to 92%, dipping below the critical threshold for population-level protection. Anti-vaccine activism is rising in the U.S., and that movement now has Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent ally, running the Department of Health and Human Services. On Thursday, HHS announced that it will bring back a task force aimed at scrutinizing the safety of vaccines for children. The Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy, called for the task force to be reestablished in a lawsuit filed against its former leader in May. This post originally appeared at to get the Fast Company newsletter: Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Democrats need to start using AI to help save democracy
As American democracy unravels at the hands of President Trump and his enabling congressional and Supreme Court majorities, millions of Americans are desperate to identify whatever possible countermeasures remain to slow the country's descent into fascism. The outcome of the 2026 midterms is unlikely to produce meaningful change, even if the Democrats take control of the House. Without a cooperative Senate, it will be impossible either to pass legislation or secure a conviction on impeachment charges. Oversight hearings can bring public attention to things like rampant corruption, but the threats Trump poses to the rule of law and democracy are already well-known. The courts can only do so much. There's another emerging tool, however: artificial intelligence. Trump seems to understands the transformative power of AI. Last month, the administration announced an ' AI Action Plan ' for 'winning the AI race.' Among other measures, it promises to remove 'onerous Federal regulations that hinder AI development and deployment, and seek private sector input on rules to remove.' As part of this initiative, the General Services Administration and OpenAI announced earlier this month that the company will be 'providing ChatGPT to the entire U.S. federal workforce' under a 'first-of-its-kind partnership.' Participating agencies will pay a nominal cost of $1 each for the first year to enable federal employees to 'explore and leverage AI.' The company is also 'teaming up with experienced partners Slalom and Boston Consulting Group to support secure, responsible deployment and trainings.' Last week, the AI company Anthropic likewise announced it had struck the same deal with GSA to enable federal agencies' access to its Claude model. The Trump administration's effort to streamline the federal government with AI models makes some sense. Research has shown that generative AI — particularly large language models, which consume vast amounts of data to understand and generate natural language content — can enhance government efficiency in data processing, analysis and drafting, among other potential advantages. But AI systems also increase the risk of widespread government surveillance, personalized misinformation and disinformation, systematic discrimination, lack of accountability and inaccuracy. According to a recent academic paper, 'although many studies have explored the ethical implications of AI, fewer have fully examined its democratic implications.' Trump's alliance with OpenAI head Sam Altman goes back to start of his second term, when he announced a $500 billion joint venture with OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank to build up to 20 large AI data centers. Trump called the venture 'Stargate.' The deal's details are murky, including who will have access to Stargate and how it will possibly benefit taxpayers. Although a spokesman for OpenAI told Fox News Digital that 'Sam Altman sort of planted a flag on democratic AI versus autocratic AI,' let's not forget that Altman is not a government official or employee. As a legal matter, it is unclear whether these ' fast-tracked ' deals will fully comply with traditional oversight and procurement laws and procedures. No major AI company is currently approved under the Federal Risk And Authorization Management Program, for example, which is the process for authorizing the use of cloud technologies by federal agencies. According the GSA website, the program aims to ensure 'security and protection of federal information' by imposing strict cybersecurity controls to protect against data breaches, hacking and unauthorized access, and requiring ongoing monitoring and reporting. Given that the GSA is reportedly working on 'developing a separate authorization' for generative AI systems like ChatGPT and Claude, the potential threats to national security and private citizens' personal information are significant. The Trump administration's lack of transparency also risks creating a black-box government run by proprietary algorithms that the public cannot inspect — centralizing control over federal AI in two companies whose interests clearly lie in market dominance, not the public good. This is why these kinds of decisions are best made through established legal procedures — including the Federal Competition in Contracting Act (requiring fair and open competition), the Privacy Act of 1974 (limiting how agencies can collect and disclose personal data), the Federal Records Act (requiring the proper retention and archiving of public records) and the Administrative Procedure Act (requiring public comment and input into major policy decisions). For now, OpenAI has promised that its 'goal is to ensure agencies can use AI securely and responsibly. ChatGPT Enterprise already does not use business data, including inputs or outputs, to train or improve OpenAI models. The same safeguards will apply to federal use.' This promise from Altman's company is no substitute for actual legal standards enforced by the federal government. Whether AI tools embedded in federal government systems could one day be used to sway elections to favor Trump and his cronies is a vital question. For now, what's clear is that Democrats need to get into the AI game, and fast. A Democratic political action committee called the National Democratic Training Committee recently unveiled on online course entitled 'AI For Progressive Campaigns,' which is designed to teach candidates how to use AI to help create social media content, draft speeches, craft voter outreach messaging and phone-banking scripts, conduct research into their constituencies and opponents, and develop internal training materials. The founder and CEO of the group, Kelly Dietrich, stated that 'thousands of Democratic campaigns can now leverage AI to compete at any scale.' This effort, although laudable, does not go far enough to capitalize on AI's potential to help outmaneuver authoritarianism in the U.S. There's much more that might be done, including using AI to educate citizens on the benefits of democracy, how institutions work and the facts underlying important issues; to create large-scale, moderated public deliberation and consensus around divisive issues; to detect and alert the public to manipulated media, thus combatting misinformation and disinformation and fostering public trust in an alternative to Trump; and to create and implement effective messaging strategies for alternative visions for the future of the country. AI could be American voters' best friend, not their enemy. It just needs to be asked.
CNBC
3 hours ago
- CNBC
Why the rally on Wall Street could be running out of steam
The stock market's run to all-time highs after a dreadful spring sell-off has many on the Street feeling good about equities. Others take a darker view. Wells Fargo said Friday it sees the S & P 500 running as high as 6,600 in 2025. Citigroup earlier this month also raised its year-end target on the benchmark to 6,600, while Oppenheimer in late July bumped its forecast all the way to 7,100. To be fair, there are good reasons to be optimistic. As CNBC's Michael Santoli pointed out in his Saturday column, the IPO market is showing signs of strength, credit spreads are tight and expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts are sky high. But not everyone is optimistic. RBC's Lori Calvasina, for example, thinks further gains may be harder to come by. .SPX YTD mountain SPX year to date "We continue to think the summer rally in the S & P 500 has generally made sense from a sentiment perspective, but is also starting to run out of room from that angle," the bank's head of U.S. equity strategy wrote Tuesday. Calvasina highlighted that the current rebound began more than 90 trading days ago. "Note that the rebounds of 2010, 2011, 2016, and 2022 all lost momentum around this point in time," she said. "As of August 15th, the 2025 rebound has been most closely correlated with the rebound off the Dec-2018 low. Now is right around when that rebound took a breather, with a 7% drawdown between late April and early June of 2019." Other issues are plaguing the market as well, including a high valuation and massive concentration in a few megacap tech names. "Mindful of this valuation pressure, along with the tendency of September and October to be tough months for S & P 500 performance in recent years, and the sudden deterioration in [American Association of Individual Investors] net bullishness, we remain on guard for choppy conditions in the balance of the year," said Calvasina. Calvasina has a 6,250 target on the S & P 500, which implies downside of 3.1% from Monday's close.
