Latest news with #Raman
The Advertiser
20 hours ago
- Health
- The Advertiser
Low vaccine rates see flu cases rise, putting vulnerable people at risk
This year's flu season is shaping up to be one for the ages if current influenza case numbers are anything to go by - and low flu vaccination rates could be to blame. Figures from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System show there have been more than 80,000 lab-confirmed influenza cases recorded across Australia in the year to May 19, representing about a 13 per cent increase over the same period last year. At the same time, flu vaccination rates are alarmingly low. Despite being part of a high-risk group, only 11.7 per cent of children aged between six months and five years old have received a flu vaccine this year. People aged 65 and over are another high-risk cohort at risk of serious complications from influenza. But data shows less than half (46.9 per cent) of this group are covered for the upcoming winter months. Dr Ramya Raman, vice-president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), said people may be reluctant to get the flu vaccine due to fatigue surrounding vaccines in recent years. "There is a level of vaccine hesitancy that we are seeing, and it's primarily related to a sense of exhaustion," she said. But Dr Raman said flu vaccination is still very important, not just for your own health, but the health of those around you. "It's well proven in effectiveness," she said. "It not only protects patients, it also protects their families, their communities. And it makes a huge difference from having good herd immunity." The updated flu vaccine for the 2025 season is a quadrivalent vaccine, meaning it targets four separate strains. The following groups can access flu vaccines for free through their pharmacist or GP: If you are part of one of these high-risk groups, it's best to seek advice from your regular GP or medical practitioner before receiving a vaccine. This year's flu season is shaping up to be one for the ages if current influenza case numbers are anything to go by - and low flu vaccination rates could be to blame. Figures from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System show there have been more than 80,000 lab-confirmed influenza cases recorded across Australia in the year to May 19, representing about a 13 per cent increase over the same period last year. At the same time, flu vaccination rates are alarmingly low. Despite being part of a high-risk group, only 11.7 per cent of children aged between six months and five years old have received a flu vaccine this year. People aged 65 and over are another high-risk cohort at risk of serious complications from influenza. But data shows less than half (46.9 per cent) of this group are covered for the upcoming winter months. Dr Ramya Raman, vice-president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), said people may be reluctant to get the flu vaccine due to fatigue surrounding vaccines in recent years. "There is a level of vaccine hesitancy that we are seeing, and it's primarily related to a sense of exhaustion," she said. But Dr Raman said flu vaccination is still very important, not just for your own health, but the health of those around you. "It's well proven in effectiveness," she said. "It not only protects patients, it also protects their families, their communities. And it makes a huge difference from having good herd immunity." The updated flu vaccine for the 2025 season is a quadrivalent vaccine, meaning it targets four separate strains. The following groups can access flu vaccines for free through their pharmacist or GP: If you are part of one of these high-risk groups, it's best to seek advice from your regular GP or medical practitioner before receiving a vaccine. This year's flu season is shaping up to be one for the ages if current influenza case numbers are anything to go by - and low flu vaccination rates could be to blame. Figures from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System show there have been more than 80,000 lab-confirmed influenza cases recorded across Australia in the year to May 19, representing about a 13 per cent increase over the same period last year. At the same time, flu vaccination rates are alarmingly low. Despite being part of a high-risk group, only 11.7 per cent of children aged between six months and five years old have received a flu vaccine this year. People aged 65 and over are another high-risk cohort at risk of serious complications from influenza. But data shows less than half (46.9 per cent) of this group are covered for the upcoming winter months. Dr Ramya Raman, vice-president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), said people may be reluctant to get the flu vaccine due to fatigue surrounding vaccines in recent years. "There is a level of vaccine hesitancy that we are seeing, and it's primarily related to a sense of exhaustion," she said. But Dr Raman said flu vaccination is still very important, not just for your own health, but the health of those around you. "It's well proven in effectiveness," she said. "It not only protects patients, it also protects their families, their communities. And it makes a huge difference from having good herd immunity." The updated flu vaccine for the 2025 season is a quadrivalent vaccine, meaning it targets four separate strains. The following groups can access flu vaccines for free through their pharmacist or GP: If you are part of one of these high-risk groups, it's best to seek advice from your regular GP or medical practitioner before receiving a vaccine. This year's flu season is shaping up to be one for the ages if current influenza case numbers are anything to go by - and low flu vaccination rates could be to blame. Figures from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System show there have been more than 80,000 lab-confirmed influenza cases recorded across Australia in the year to May 19, representing about a 13 per cent increase over the same period last year. At the same time, flu vaccination rates are alarmingly low. Despite being part of a high-risk group, only 11.7 per cent of children aged between six months and five years old have received a flu vaccine this year. People aged 65 and over are another high-risk cohort at risk of serious complications from influenza. But data shows less than half (46.9 per cent) of this group are covered for the upcoming winter months. Dr Ramya Raman, vice-president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), said people may be reluctant to get the flu vaccine due to fatigue surrounding vaccines in recent years. "There is a level of vaccine hesitancy that we are seeing, and it's primarily related to a sense of exhaustion," she said. But Dr Raman said flu vaccination is still very important, not just for your own health, but the health of those around you. "It's well proven in effectiveness," she said. "It not only protects patients, it also protects their families, their communities. And it makes a huge difference from having good herd immunity." The updated flu vaccine for the 2025 season is a quadrivalent vaccine, meaning it targets four separate strains. The following groups can access flu vaccines for free through their pharmacist or GP: If you are part of one of these high-risk groups, it's best to seek advice from your regular GP or medical practitioner before receiving a vaccine.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
AI Is Destroying Gen Z's Chances at a Stable Career
In 1986, an inventor named David Humble rolled out the first self-checkout machine to a Kroger outside of Atlanta. It was a watershed moment for shop owners at the time, who hoped to "increase store profits" and "alleviate labor shortages" — another way to say "avoid hiring workers above the national minimum wage," which was then $3.35 per hour, and just $7.25 today. Fast forward 39 years, and self-checkout has taken the world by storm. Today, there are over 217,000 self-checkout terminals installed throughout the world, a technology which labor experts estimate eliminates 35 to 40 percent of entry-level retail jobs within 12 months of operation in any given store. But with constant outages, unsettling surveillance schemes, and millions of unexpected items in the bagging area, who really benefits from all this tech? That's a question Gen Z is being forced to grapple with in an imminent way. Not just with self-checkout, but with the explosive growth of artificial intelligence over the years they're entering — or at least attempting to enter — the labor force. A recent report by the Oxford Economics Group found that unemployment rates among recent college grads in the US are rising, suggesting that "entry-level positions are being displaced by artificial intelligence at higher rates." Among 22 to 27 year olds, work in STEM industries like computer science is down 8 percent from 2022, signaling a major disruption in labor market norms. "Recent and experienced college graduate unemployment rates have always been lower than the national average, until now," the report reads. While there's always been a gap in employment as young college grads search for their first "real job," the number now struggling to find work is growing faster than unemployment overall, suggesting that "entry-level positions have become harder to find." That's a view shared by LinkedIn executive Aneesh Raman, who recently penned an op-ed about artificial intelligence and the entry-level job market. "Breaking first is the bottom rung of the career ladder," Raman said. He points to tech as a key example, where simple coding and debugging tasks — once the proving ground for junior software engineers — have rapidly become automated by AI, despite some major shortcomings with the tech. Other disruptions can be found in big law, where entry-level clerical work is being handed over to AI, and retail jobs, where AI chatbots take on the friction of customer service, to the annoyance of pretty much everyone. While these upsets may seem isolated to specialized industries compared to US labor overall, the job market is a tightly wound ecosystem, and Raman notes the potential for ruffles in white collar labor to make huge waves across the country. "If entry-level roles evaporate, those lacking elite networks or privileged backgrounds will face even steeper barriers to finding their footing in the workplace," the LinkedIn executive wrote. "Plus, the fallout from large-scale economic shifts ripples through entire communities. When manufacturing jobs vanished across America's heartland, the result wasn't just lost income, but also social and political upheaval." Whether or not AI is ready to take on the jobs typically given to early-career college grads is a whole different story. Many preliminary reports suggest the tech's actual capabilities are far behind the typical narrative of an AI-dominated labor market. That's a story typically fed to us from executives and tech industry moguls. Raman notes that, in a LinkedIn survey of over 3,000 corporate bigwigs, "63 percent agreed that AI will eventually take on some of the mundane tasks" that usually go to entry-level associates. There's reason to believe these buzzy tales of AI "innovation" and "workplace paradigm shifts" are really just cover for broader — and more perfidious — trends in the labor market, such as the "gigification" of labor. Meanwhile, researchers and labor organizers are sounding the alarm that the most vulnerable among us — not just entry-level, but minority, immigrant, and elderly workers — will be among the first to feel the rungs break as the "AI revolution" barrels on. More on AI: AI Is Replacing Women's Jobs Specifically
Ammon
3 days ago
- Business
- Ammon
AI threatens entry-level jobs for young people
Ammon News - LinkedIn's chief economic opportunity officer, Aneesh Raman, said artificial intelligence is increasingly threatening the types of jobs that historically have served as stepping stones for young workers who are just beginning their careers. He likened the disruption to the decline of manufacturing in the 1980s. As millions of students get ready to graduate this spring, their prospects for landing that first job that helps launch their careers is looking dimmer. In addition to an economy that's slowing amid tariff-induced uncertainty, artificial intelligence is threatening entry-level work that traditionally has served as stepping stones, according to LinkedIn's chief economic opportunity officer, Aneesh Raman, who likened the shift to the decline of manufacturing in the 1980s. 'Now it is our office workers who are staring down the same kind of technological and economic disruption,' he wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed. 'Breaking first is the bottom rung of the career ladder.' For example, AI tools are doing the types of simple coding and debugging tasks that junior software developers did to gain experience. AI is also doing work that young employees in the legal and retail sectors once did. And Wall Street firms are reportedly considering steep cuts to entry-level hiring. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for college graduates has been rising faster than for other workers in past few years, Raman pointed out, though there isn't definitive evidence yet that AI is the cause of the weak job market. To be sure, businesses aren't doing away with entry-level work altogether, as executives still seek fresh ideas from young workers, he added. AI has also freed up some junior employees to take on more advanced work earlier in their careers. But changes rippling through certain sectors today are likely heading for others in the future, with office jobs due to feel the biggest impact, Raman predicted. 'While the technology sector is feeling the first waves of change, reflecting A.I.'s mass adoption in this field, the erosion of traditional entry-level tasks is expected to play out in fields like finance, travel, food and professional services, too,' he said. To fix entry-level work, Raman called for colleges to incorporate AI across their curricula and for companies to give junior roles higher-level tasks. There are some signs that companies are adapting to the new AI landscape. CEO Timothy Young told Fortune's Diane Brady recently that 'the commoditization of intelligence' means hiring the smartest people is less important than developing staff to have management skills. 'There is a lot of power in the junior employees, but you can't leverage them the same way that you would in the past,' he said, noting that he looks for curiosity and resilience when hiring. Agencies
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First Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- First Post
Prime Video unveils the trailer of upcoming original movie 'Stolen' starring Abhishek Banerjee set to premiere on June 4
The riveting trailer for Stolen opens with a heart-wrenching moment as a baby is snatched from her mother, Jhumpa's arms, played by Mia Maelzer, as she sleeps at a desolate railway station. What follows is a relentless pursuit, as brothers Raman and Gautam, played by Shubham Vardhan and Abhishek Banerjee respectively, join Jhumpa as they navigate treacherous terrain while hunting for the missing child. Deep in India's remote hinterlands, with hostile locals threatening their lives, their search evolves into a desperate fight for survival. The trailer pulses with raw emotion and intensity, immersing viewers in a world where justice and vengeance blur - Will Jhumpa find her missing child? What fate awaits Raman and Gautam? STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Talking about the film, actor Abhishek Banerjee said, 'Stolen is India's answer to raw, genre-driven filmmaking. The day I heard the story, I knew I wanted to be in the driver's seat—just like my character, Gautam. Karan Tejpal, our director, is one of the freshest, most exciting minds I've come across. He's here to stay, and I can't wait for the world to see what he's capable of. Our producer, Gaurav Dhingra, is passionate to the core about good filmmaking—we need more people like him in the industry. I'm thrilled for audiences across the globe to experience this gripping thriller when it premieres on Prime Video.' More from Entertainment Netflix to return with The Royals Season 2 despite mixed reviews; most loved shows Black Warrant & Maamla Legal Hai also make a comeback Actor Mia Maelzer added, 'Stolen has been a profound journey for me as an actor. Karan Tejpal's vision and sensitivity as a director created a space where authenticity could truly flourish, guiding us to bring out the rawness and depth the story demands. Portraying Jhumpa meant delving into a character layered with complexity and emotional depth, a challenge that pushed my boundaries. The film's powerful reception at festivals has been incredibly encouraging, and I'm thrilled that Prime Video is helping this unique story reach audiences worldwide.' 'When I first read the script of Stolen, I couldn't shake it off.' said actor Shubham Vardhan. He added, 'Playing the character of Raman challenged me, quietly and steadily — in all the ways that matter. There's a deep emotional current running through him, and portraying that was both demanding and incredibly rewarding. Working with Karan was an incredible experience; his clarity of vision and trust in his actors created a space where we could really dive deep. I'm grateful that Stolen has found a global home on Prime Video, where its story can resonate far and wide.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
Mint
5 days ago
- Business
- Mint
AI a ‘real threat' to entry-level jobs; GenZ workers in danger? Here's what LinkedIn executive says
Artificial intelligence may pose a significant threat to millions of students who are getting ready to graduate this year, according to LinkedIn's chief economic opportunity officer, Aneesh Raman. In an article written for the New York Times, Raman likened today's situation to that of the decline of the manufacturing sector in the 1980s, which saw a steep fall. Raman argued that office workers are now in a similar kind of situation amid technological and economic disruption. 'Now it is our office workers who are staring down the same kind of technological and economic disruption,' he wrote. The bottom rung of the career ladder, which is the entry-level employees, will be the first to break. 'Breaking first is the bottom rung of the career ladder,' Raman wrote. The LinkedIn executive wrote that artificial intelligence poses a real threat to a number of entry-level jobs that serve as the stepping stone for Gen Z workers to launch their careers. 'There are growing signs that artificial intelligence poses a real threat to a substantial number of the jobs that normally serve as the first step for each new generation of young workers,' as per Raman. The pressures of sinking numbers of jobs are only being accelerated by uncertainty in the economy due to tariffs, as global trade woes persist at a time when millions of Gen Z students are trying to enter the workforce. 'Uncertainty around tariffs and global trade is likely to only accelerate that pressure, just as millions of 2025 graduates enter the work force,' the LinkedIn executive wrote in his op-ed. Raman cited LinkedIn's latest employment figures to say that the changes in hiring behaviour are coinciding with a shift in the numbers. As per LinkedIn's Workforce Confidence Index, which has hit new lows amid general uncertainty, shows that GenZ is the most pessimistic about jobs than any other group. In one of LinkedIn's recent surveys, over 3,000 executives at the vice president level or higher agreed that AI will eventually replace some of the mundane tasks that are typically done by entry-level workers. 'Virtually all jobs will experience some impacts, but office jobs are expected to feel the biggest crunch,' Raman said.
