Pfizer’s antiviral pill is highly effective at preventing people who catch COVID-19 from becoming seriously ill, the company said today in a press release. A clinical trial showed that the pill, which has the brand name Paxlovid, cut the risk of hospitalization and death by 89 percent for adults at high risk of developing severe disease when it was given within three days of symptoms appearing. The company said it plans to submit its data to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use authorization “as soon as possible.” This is the second effective anti-COVID-19 pill. The first, developed…
Author: Mike Harrison
Apple ID website has been redesigned by the giant iPhone maker to offer a better user experience. (Photo : Photo credit should read GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images)Customers stand in line to purchase the new Apple iPhone 8 at Dubai Mall Apple Store in Dubai, on September 23, 2017. – The new Apple iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, as well as the updated Apple Watch and Apple TV, went on sale today. (Photo by GIUSEPPE CACACE / AFP) “A single Apple ID and password gives you access to all Apple services. Sign in to manage your account,” said Apple on…
Apple is reportedly planning to begin ending mask requirements for customers at some of its US retail stores as early as Friday (via Bloomberg). The company told employees about the change in an internal memo on Thursday, Bloomberg reported, saying the decision was based on a decline in coronavirus cases and a rise in vaccination rates. Like many companies with multiple locations, Apple has changed its masking requirements for customers more than once since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic last year. In March 2020, the company closed most of its retail stores as the virus spread. It began reopening…
In 2019, the Food and Drug Administration won a major victory when a judge shut down a clinic in Florida claiming to treat everything from back problems to heart diseases with stem cells. The decision was additional juice for the FDA to regulate the growing industry, which sells risky, unproven stem cell procedures as cure-alls. But despite the high-profile success in Florida, the problem has gotten worse. There are more than four times as many businesses in the United States advertising unproven stem cell therapies now than there were four years ago, according to an analysis published today in the…
The Biden administration on Thursday announced a rule that requires private businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure their workers are either vaccinated or tested for COVID-19 on at least a weekly basis. This new push to bump vaccination rates comes after the White House set a rule requiring federal contractors to establish plans ensuring their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19. The new rule (PDF) was drafted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a government subagency under the US Department of Labor that covers about 84 million private-sector employers and workers. It requires that employers provide paid time…
Today we learned more about Theranos’ kink for corporate cosplay. The company liked to dress up its own reports in pharmaceutical companies’ logos, to use the present tense when the future tense would be more appropriate, and to reiterate its favorite buzzwords in PowerPoint slide after PowerPoint slide. Elizabeth Holmes’ lawyers, in defending her against the wire fraud charges that the government has brought, resumed cross-examination of Lisa Peterson, who worked for the DeVos family offices and was involved in approving their investment in the company. (Family offices are a rich people thing — an investment arm for all that…
More than 1,000 communities in the United States are hotspots for toxic air pollution that can cause cancer, according to an extensive new analysis from ProPublica. Over a quarter-million people are living in places with a level of cancer risk higher than what the Environmental Protection Agency says is acceptable, and 74 million Americans have a higher level of risk than what the EPA says it “strives to protect” people from. ProPublica used an EPA modeling tool to map how carcinogen-laced air spreads from chemical plants across the country. Most areas where people have the highest exposure to that air…
Urian B., Tech Times 02 November 2021, 02:11 am (Photo : Image from Unsplash Website) Meta Trademark Applicants Open to Give Way to Facebook but for a Price When Facebook wants something done, it’s most likely that they will find a way to get it. With the company’s decision to change its name to “Meta,” existing trademark applicants of “Meta” are now supposedly open to selling the trademark to Mark Zuckerberg. Of course, this would come at a price. Trademark Applicants of ‘Meta’ According to the story by HypeBeast, the trademark applicants of “Meta” are now supposedly open to selling…
When Tim Cook took the stage at a September 2014 event to announce the hotly anticipated, long-rumored Apple Watch, he described it as a “comprehensive health and fitness device.” The announcement set the foundation for what the company thought smartwatches and wearable devices would be — not just for fun, not just for notifications, but for your health. It was a big promise for a new, unproven product, made at a time when no one was quite sure what smartwatches were for or what they might be able to do. In the years before the Apple Watch launched, similar devices…
Urian B., Tech Times 30 October 2021, 11:10 am (Photo : Image from Unsplash Website) Facebook Meta Reality Labs Acquires Supernatural VR Workout App Maker Facebook Meta Reality Labs is now acquiring the Supernatural VR workout app maker. With the company’s official announcement on its plans to focus on the metaverse, the acquisition of Supernatural’s creator is expected to operate directly under Meta’s Reality Labs. Facebook Rebrands Itself as Meta According to the story by Engadget, Facebook reportedly made it quite clear that the company is now focusing on the metaverse. This was made really obvious with the company’s decision…