Latest news with #Covid19
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- General
- South China Morning Post
New Covid variant may be driving up cases in parts of the world: WHO
Covid-19 cases are rising again as a new variant begins to circulate in some parts of the world. The World Health Organization said Wednesday the rise in cases was primarily in the eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and western Pacific regions. Airport screening in the United States has detected the new variant in travellers arriving from those regions to destinations in California, Washington state, Virginia and New York. The new variant is called NB. 1.8.1. It arrives as the United States' official stance on Covid-19 vaccination is changing. On Tuesday, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jnr announced that Covid-19 shots are no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women – a move immediately questioned by several public health experts. The new variant, increasing globally, had by mid-May reached nearly 11 per cent of sequenced samples reported.
RNZ News
5 hours ago
- General
- RNZ News
Victorian government appoints Caroline McElnay as chief health officer
Caroline McElnay. Photo: Pool / Stuff / Robert Kitchin New Zealand's top public health official during the Covid-19 pandemic has been appointed the chief health officer for the state of Victoria in Australia. Dr Caroline McElnay, who was Director of Public Health between 2017 and 2022, worked alongside then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. McElnay was also named a companion of the Queen's Service Order in 2023 in recognition of her significant service to public health. In a statement, Dr McElnay said she was honoured to serve the Victorian community in this important role and looked forward to working with the government and the health sector to protect people's health. She will start the new role in August. Former New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush also recently took the job as Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police in Australia. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Harvard Business Review
8 hours ago
- Business
- Harvard Business Review
Rethink Your Pricing Strategies Amid Economic Uncertainty
Details Transcript founder of the consulting firm Culture of Profit, says a crisis or recession is not the time to panic and slash prices. He says leaders should instead reevaluate their pricing strategy—or develop one for the first time—to better respond to customers during the slump and keep them when the economy recovers. Since this conversation took place in 2020, the crisis you'll hear them referring to is—obviously—the Covid-19 pandemic. But these lessons apply well beyond that moment—to any period of economic instability. Mohammed shares examples of companies across a variety of industries that created effective price strategies in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Mohammed is the author of The 1% Windfall: How Successful Companies Use Price to Profit and Grow and the recent HBR article, ' Setting a Pricing Strategy Amid Ever-Changing Tariffs.' Key episode topics include: pricing strategy, competitive strategy, crisis management, customer strategy, economic downturns, economics, inflation, recessions, risk management, strategy HBR On Strategy curates the best conversations and case studies with the world's top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
Time of India
10 hours ago
- Health
- Time of India
Sadar hosp to issue passes to kin of patients
Ranchi: With Covid 19 cases recording a rise across the country once again, Ranchi sadar hospital has decided to introduce visitors' passes to the kin of patients who are admitted in the hospital. The move, hospital management said, is aimed at regulating the flow of visitors to prevent a spread. Under the new arrangement, only one visitor will be allowed to visit a patient at a time. Hospital management said entry of visitors without a valid pass will be banned. Family members will be allowed to meet their patients twice a day, including morning and evening. Ranchi civil surgeon Dr Prabhat Kumar said, overwhelming number of visitors leads to crowding inside the hospital and raises concerns on hygiene, infection control and disruption in medical services. So far, Ranchi has reported one positive cases till Wednesday. Besides allowing one visitor at a time, the hospital has also mandated that there will be one attendant for one patient. At present, multiple family members accompany and stay with a patient in the hospital during treatment. Kumar said hospital staff were trained to ensure smooth implementation of the new norms from next month.
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- General
- The Guardian
Doctors fear ‘devastating consequences' for pregnant people after RFK Jr order on Covid-19 boosters
Advocates for pregnant people said they are alarmed by Robert F Kennedy Jr's unprecedented and unilateral decision to remove Covid-19 booster shots from the recommended immunization schedule. A vaccine's inclusion on the schedule is important for patient access, because many private health insurance plans determine which vaccines to cover based on the schedule. 'Covid-19's impact on pregnancy is deeply personal to me,' said Dr Amanda Williams, interim chief medical officer at March of Dimes, a nonprofit focused on the health of mothers and babies, in a statement. 'During the height of the pandemic, I cared for a healthy patient who was 32 weeks pregnant and tragically died from Covid-19 despite state-of-the-art medical care. One of her last words was that she wished she had taken the vaccine.' The Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine (SMFM), experts on high-risk pregnancy, said in a statement that it 'strongly reaffirms its recommendation that pregnant patients receive the Covid-19 vaccine', and that the vaccine is safe to receive at any time during pregnancy. In a statement, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) said it was, 'concerned about and extremely disappointed', in the announcement. 'We also understand that despite the change in recommendations from HHS, the science has not changed,' said Dr Steven J Fleischman, ACOG president. 'It is very clear that Covid-19 infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic and lead to major disability, and it can cause devastating consequences for families,' said Fleischman. Kennedy made the announcement Tuesday on social media, flanked by Trump administration appointees to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – neither of whom are typically involved in such decisions. Typically, changes to the recommended vaccine schedule are based on the open public debate and recommendation of an independent panel of experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Kennedy's announcement circumvented both the CDC and its advisory panel, and neither body was advised of the forthcoming decision, sources told STAT. The CDC is currently without a leader. A directive making the change official, also reported by STAT, suggested that Kennedy reviewed the evidence with the FDA. That agency's advisory committee, which is structured similarly to the CDC's, was also bypassed. Just a week earlier, FDA head Dr Marty Makary published a similarly unprecedented article in the New England Journal of Medicine that described pregnancy and recent pregnancy as one a list of 'underlying medical conditions that can increase a person's risk of severe Covid-19'. As of Tuesday, the CDC's website continued to state that those who are pregnant are at increased risk of severe illness if they contract Covid-19, including heightened risk of hospitalization and the need for intensive care. Further, evidence shows that mothers who are vaccinated pass protective immunity to infants, without the many risks that come alongside Covid-19 infection during pregnancy. Infants younger than six months old are at the highest risk of severe disease among children, with the risk to children younger than four years old on par with that of 50-64-year-old adults, according to the Journal article. 'Kennedy's unilateral decision to change the CDC's recommended immunization schedule for Covid-19 vaccines demonstrates once again why he is completely unqualified to be the HHS secretary,' said Dr Robert Steinbrook, research director at consumer rights group Public Citizen, said in a statement. 'In Congressional testimony on May 14, Kennedy said, 'I don't think people should be taking medical advice from me.' Yet two weeks later he is making arbitrary public health decisions, defying norms, and with no accountability.' Despite the known risks of contracting Covid-19 while pregnant, public health authorities have struggled to get pregnant people vaccinated. CDC data shows only about 14% of pregnant people received the most recently updated Covid-19 vaccine. Kennedy's decision to unilaterally change the vaccine recommendation comes as some of his supporters, particularly anti-vaccine advocates, continue to call for Covid-19 vaccines to be completely removed from the market.
