Science
Among Seniors, a Declining Interest in Boosters

Linda Brantman, a retired membership salesperson at a well being membership in Chicago, was paying consideration final month when the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention really helpful the brand new bivalent booster that protects towards two variants of Covid-19. She went on-line and reserved an appointment at a Walgreens close to her residence.
Ms. Brantman, 65, who was already vaccinated and boosted twice, has grappled with bronchial asthma on and off for years; she retains an inhaler useful, even for an unusual chilly. If she have been sick with Covid, she mentioned, “I might undoubtedly have respiratory issues.” Inside two weeks of the C.D.C. announcement, she had acquired the newest booster — and public well being officers hope all Individuals over 5 can even roll up their sleeves once more.
However many older Individuals have responded extra like Alan Turner, 65, who lives in New Citadel, Del. and not too long ago retired from an industrial design agency. He acquired the preliminary two doses of the vaccine however stopped updating his immunity after the primary really helpful booster. “I’ve grow to be such a hermit,” he mentioned. “I’ve just about no contact with folks, so I haven’t gotten round to it. I don’t see any explicit want. I’m biding my time.”
Though Individuals over 65 stay the demographic more than likely to have acquired the unique collection of vaccinations, at 92 %, their curiosity in maintaining their vaccinations up-to-date is steadily declining, knowledge from the C.D.C. reveals. Up to now, about 71 % have acquired the primary really helpful booster, however solely about 44 % have acquired the second.
Youthful folks have additionally been much less more likely to obtain boosters than the unique vaccinations, and solely about one-third of individuals of all ages have acquired any booster, The New York Occasions vaccine tracker signifies. However seniors, who represent 16 % of the inhabitants, are extra susceptible to the virus’s results, accounting for three-quarters of the nation’s 1.1 million deaths.
“From the start, older folks have felt the virus was extra of a risk to their security and well being and have been among the many earliest adopters of the vaccine and the primary spherical of boosters,” mentioned Mollyann Brodie, the chief director of public opinion at Kaiser Household Basis, which has been monitoring vaccination charges and attitudes.
Now Kaiser’s most up-to-date vaccine monitor survey, revealed final month, has discovered that solely 8 % of seniors mentioned that they had acquired the up to date bivalent booster, and 37 % mentioned they supposed to “as quickly as attainable.” As a gaggle, older adults have been higher knowledgeable than youthful respondents, however virtually 40 % mentioned that they had heard little or nothing in regards to the up to date bivalent vaccine, and plenty of have been not sure whether or not the C.D.C. had really helpful it for them.
(At present the C.D.C. recommends that people over age 5 obtain the bivalent vaccine, which is efficient towards the unique pressure of Covid-19 and the Omicron variant, if two months have handed since their most up-to-date vaccination or booster.)
“The messaging on boosters has been very muddled,” mentioned Anne N. Sosin, a public well being researcher on the Rockefeller Heart for Public Coverage and the Social Sciences at Dartmouth School. Partly consequently, she added, “older persons are coming into the winter with much less safety than at earlier factors within the pandemic.”
Ms. Sosin and different specialists famous that older Individuals have a number of causes to be on guard. Their immunity from earlier vaccinations and boosters could have waned; mitigation insurance policies like necessary masking and vaccination have largely disappeared; and public testing and vaccination websites have shut down.
Learn Extra on the Coronavirus Pandemic
Early on, Ms. Sosin mentioned, many older adults modified their habits by staying at residence or masking and testing once they went out. Now they face better publicity as a result of “they’ve resumed their prepandemic actions.”
“Many are now not involved about Covid,” she mentioned.
Public opinion polls bear that out. Older adults might also cause that improved remedies for Covid infections make the virus much less harmful.
But deaths on this age group doubled from April to July, exceeding 11,000 in each July and August, largely due to the elevated transmissibility of the Omicron variant. Deaths started dipping once more final month.
For older folks, the hazard of Covid is “decreased, but it surely’s not gone,” mentioned William Schaffner, an infectious illness specialist at Vanderbilt College Medical Heart. “You’ll be able to’t overlook it. You’ll be able to’t put it within the rearview mirror.”
Two components make older folks extra susceptible to the virus. “Their immune methods grow to be weaker with advancing age,” Dr. Schaffner mentioned. “They usually accumulate underlying circumstances,” together with coronary heart and lung illness, smoking histories, diabetes and weight problems, that enhance their dangers.
“Do you have to grow to be contaminated, you’re in danger for a extra critical end result,” he mentioned. “All of the extra cause to guard your self as finest you may.”
Research have proven that vaccination and boosters defend towards critical sickness, hospitalization and loss of life, though that immunity ebbs over time. “The information are rock-solid,” Dr. Schaffner mentioned.
The Division of Well being and Human Companies estimated this month that amongst seniors and different Medicare beneficiaries, vaccination and boosters resulted in 650,000 fewer hospitalizations for Covid and had saved 300,000 lives in 2021.
However even in nursing properties, the place the early months of the pandemic had a devastating toll, the booster uptake “has been very stagnant,” mentioned Priya Chidambaram, a senior coverage analyst at Kaiser Household Basis and co-author of a survey revealed this month.
As of September, a mean of 74 % of nursing residence residents had acquired a number of boosters, however that determine ranged from 59 % in Arizona to 92 % in Vermont. Charges have been far decrease amongst nursing residence employees; nationally, solely about half had acquired a booster, and in Missouri, Alabama and Mississippi, solely one-third had.
A federal mandate requiring nursing residence employees members to be vaccinated stays in place, but it surely doesn’t embody boosters. A federal on-site vaccination marketing campaign for residents that relied on CVS and Walgreens bringing vaccines to nursing properties was efficient however has not been repeated for boosters.
“That push type of died down,” Ms. Chidambaram mentioned. “The federal authorities took its foot off the pedal.”
Some older adults who don’t reside in nursing properties could also be homebound or have issue touring to pharmacies. However their sense of urgency additionally seems to have diminished. “Most older folks have been vaccinated,” Ms. Sosin mentioned. “They weren’t hesitant or opposed.” However on the subject of boosters, she mentioned, “they’re not very motivated and so they haven’t been given a cause to be. There’s extra a way of, ‘Why trouble?’”
Quite a lot of public well being specialists at the moment are urging a full-scale campaign — together with mass-media campaigns; social media and digital communication; pop-up and drive-through websites; cellular vans; and residential visits — to lift the vaccination charge amongst seniors, and everybody else, earlier than a attainable winter surge of the virus.
“We’ve by no means seen an all-hands-on-deck method to booster supply,” Ms. Sosin mentioned. “We must be flooding folks with info, to the purpose the place it will get irritating.”
The Biden administration’s fall Covid plan, introduced early final month, has included many of those concepts. However Dr. Schaffner argued that it didn’t spell out particulars or take a sufficiently aggressive method for nursing properties.
Ms. Sosin was equally skeptical. “I’m not seeing the weather within the plan materialize,” she mentioned. “They’re not mirrored within the numbers we’re seeing,” she mentioned in reference to the variety of folks getting boosters.
People can play a job on this effort. Kaiser surveys have discovered that medical doctors and different well being care professionals are trusted sources of data, and the older inhabitants is in frequent contact with them.
“If extra suppliers acknowledged that 4 in 10 older adults don’t notice there’s a brand new booster and they need to get it, that’s numerous alternative to make an affect,” Dr. Brodie mentioned.
Relations, buddies, co-workers and neighbors additionally affect well being selections and habits, and Kaiser research present that they may help enhance vaccination charges.
For these on the fence, Dr. Brodie mentioned, “asking or reminding your dad or mum or grandparent in regards to the new booster could make fairly a distinction.”

Science
Face to Face With an Alligator? Here’s What to Do

An 11-foot alligator that tipped over a canoe and killed a woman in Central Florida on May 6 served as a reminder that, while alligator attacks on humans are “extremely rare,” as a state wildlife official said, they do happen, sometimes with fatal results.
“This serves as a somber reminder of the powerful wildlife that share our natural spaces,” said Roger Young, the executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Florida had an average of eight unprovoked alligator bites a year over the 10-year period that ended in 2022, according to the commission. Many of them were serious enough to require medical attention.
The commission has been urging people to exercise caution in or near the water during alligator mating season, which runs from early April to June. The risk of an attack is higher, it said, because alligators tend to be more aggressive, active and visible during this time.
The agency and other wildlife commissions offered these tips for avoiding or staying safe around the reptiles, which can grow up to 15 feet long.
Where are they?
Alligators can be found from central Texas eastward to North Carolina, according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Louisiana and Florida have the largest populations — more than one million each. Georgia has 200,000 to 250,000 alligators and South Carolina is home to about 100,000.
Morgan Hart, the alligator project leader for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, believes alligator attacks have increased in the state over the years because of “the sheer growth in human population in the coastal plain of South Carolina.”
When new housing developments are built, artificial lakes are often created with them and then quickly inhabited by alligators.
Be alligator aware.
If you encounter an alligator on land, “you can simply back away from it,” Ms. Hart said.
“Alligators will also hiss if they feel someone is too close and they can’t get away,” she said.
People should be wary of any alligator that approaches, she said, as it may be a sign that it has been fed and associates humans with food.
Humans should also keep at least 30 feet from alligators at all times, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission.
“They rarely chase people, but they can outrun or outswim the fastest person for the first 30 feet,” the agency said, noting that alligators can sprint up to 35 miles per hour for short distances on land.
Watch your children and dogs closely.
Alligators prefer to pursue prey they can easily overpower.
“Pets often resemble alligators’ natural prey,” said Lauren Claerbout, a spokeswoman for the Florida wildlife commission.
People should keep their pets on a leash and under control, and not allow them to swim or exercise in canals, ponds or lakes that may have alligators.
“The sound of dogs barking and playing may draw an alligator to the area,” the Florida wildlife commission said.
Be careful where you swim.
Wildlife agencies suggest that people swim only in designated areas during daylight hours, and without a pet.
“Alligators are most active between dusk and dawn,” Ms. Claerbout said.
If you encounter an alligator in the water, remain calm and do not approach it, according to the Florida wildlife commission.
Don’t feed them.
It is illegal, and dangerous, to feed alligators in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas (except during that state’s hunting season).
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said that people should not throw fish scraps into the water or feed other wildlife in areas where alligators congregate.
“As long as people don’t feed them,” said Donald Houser, the general manager at Gator Park, which is just south of Miami and features shows with alligators. He added that an alligator loses its fear of humans after three days of a person feeding it.
“Just stay away from it, basically,” he said.
How to fight back.
You should fight back against an alligator only if it gets hold of you, officials said.
“In that case, aim for its eyes, nose or throat, which are its most sensitive areas,” according to Everglades National Park in South Florida, adding that people should “hit, kick, or jab with as much strength as you can muster to try and force the gator to release its grip.”
Still, if you are grasped in an alligator’s jaws, there is a slim chance that you would be able to escape, Mr. Houser said.
“You better have someone close that knows what they are doing,” he said.
“Alligators don’t eat people,” he said, but they may bite someone and then spit the person out. By then, it may have held the person under water too long, he said, “and it may be too late.”
Science
Facing self-imposed budget cuts, Republicans in Congress mull the future of Medicaid
Congress is forging ahead with its budget for next year, but the most controversial program on the chopping block — Medicaid — is causing a rift within the Republican Party.
Earlier this year, Congress passed a budget blueprint that contains billions of dollars in cuts to federal spending, which House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) promised did not touch Medicaid. But as lawmakers hammer out the details of the spending plan, changes to the popular government-funded healthcare program are looming.
Republicans are scrambling to find creative ways to fulfill budget cuts they voted on without gutting Medicaid, a politically risky move that would endanger healthcare for more than 71 million people nationwide and lead to cascading effects for hospitals and nursing homes.
So far, the options being floated — ramping up eligibility and work requirements and limiting access for immigrants — would have a drastic effect on Medicaid, even as Republicans brand their vision as tackling “waste, fraud and abuse,” a popular line used by Trump administration officials who are downsizing federal government departments and programs.
The GOP is “strengthening Medicaid for people who need it by eliminating things like fraud, waste and abuse, which is a huge problem in the program, including removing illegal aliens,” Johnson said at a news conference Tuesday.
Other options that lawmakers have considered involve drastically cutting how much money the federal government gives to states that expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act. If the minimum threshold were eliminated, California could lose as much as $156.5 billion in federal funding for the program over the next 10 years, according to an analysis by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
“States can’t really raise that kind of revenue in general,” said Kathy Hempstead, senior policy officer at the foundation. “What states will do is maybe raise some revenue, but they’d have to start cutting services.”
Johnson indicated Tuesday that he’d moved away from that consideration.
Still, advocates warn that other options clamping down on eligibility will inadvertently disadvantage millions of people who qualify for the program.
The budget Congress passed included an order for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which governs spending on Medicaid, to slash $880 billion over 10 years. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said that level of reduction is possible only by cutting into Medicaid.
In a letter to committee leaders Wednesday, the CBO outlined how federal changes to Medicaid would result in a shrinking of the program.
It anticipates that states would spend more themselves on Medicaid, reduce payment rates to healthcare providers, limit optional benefits and reduce enrollment.
Last week, the committee postponed a planned meeting on the bill over continued disagreements among its members. Matt Herdman, state director for Protect Our Care California, saw the delay as a partial win.
“They’ve clearly noticed they have a huge problem on their hands. They have a ton of vulnerable members,” Herdman said. “They would not have pushed this back if they thought this was a done deal.”
But Johnson dismissed the idea that the postponement was “a snag,” saying that after meeting with President Trump over the weekend and reviewing numbers, they decided “it just made sense for us to press pause for a week … to get it right.” The speaker said he is still aiming to pass the budget by Memorial Day.
In the meantime, Johnson is wrangling members from the far-right flank of the party, who support defunding and reforming Medicaid, and other Republicans, who are beseeching party leaders to avoid forcing them to vote for the cuts.
Twelve members who represent districts with high Medicaid populations — including California Reps. David Valadao (R-Hanford) and Young Kim (R-Anaheim Hills) — sent a letter to House leaders last month, warning that a vote to cut Medicaid would jeopardize their hard-won districts in future elections.
“We cannot and will not support a final reconciliation bill that includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations,” the letter read, adding that the lawmakers support reforming the program. It concluded: “Communities like ours won us the majority, and we have a responsibility to deliver on the promises we made.”
Valadao told Politico that he texts and meets with his colleagues in Congress regularly, working on alternative solutions. Valadao has serious motivation to save the program — he represents the California district with the highest percentage of Medicaid recipients, and he lost his congressional seat after voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017.
His office declined an interview for this article.
Protests to preserve Medicaid have been sweeping the nation for weeks. The Service Employees International Union, home to many care workers in the U.S., organized several demonstrations outside Republican congressional offices in recent weeks, including Kim’s.
“I’m seeing unbelievable energy about this,” Herdman said. “I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite as large in person since the pandemic on a legislative issue.”
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), who sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee, told reporters Tuesday that she’s been hearing from constituents in her district who rely on Medicaid to sustain their healthcare.
“Medicaid is a lifeline. It keeps children healthy, it helps parents work and it cares for seniors in nursing homes,” Dingell said. “The American people cannot afford Medicaid cuts, especially as the economy is being crashed around them by President Trump.”
Science
In Their Final Moments, a Pompeii Family Fought to Survive

One day in the year 79, Pompeii came under fire. The explosion of nearby Mount Vesuvius sent a mushroom cloud of ash and rock into the atmosphere, pummeling the ancient Roman trading hub and resort in a ceaseless hail of tiny volcanic rocks.
Many residents ran for their lives, trying to find safety with their loved ones before searing volcanic debris buried the estimated 1,500 residents who remained in Pompeii.
In a study published last month in the journal Scavi di Pompei, scientists documented events at one home in the doomed city where a family sought refuge inside a back room by pushing a wooden bed against a door in a vain attempt to stop a flood of volcanic rocks from the sky, known as lapilli.
The small-but-well-appointed residence is known as the House of Helle and Phrixus, after a richly decorated fresco in the dining room. It depicts the mythological siblings Phrixus and Helle escaping their wicked stepmother on a winged ram only to have Helle fall and, ominously, drown in the sea below.
As with many ancient Roman residences, its atrium, an open-roof room centrally located in the home, was used for ventilation and rainwater collection. But on that day, the recess allowed volcanic rock to more rapidly overtake the space. Most Pompeians “had no clue what was happening,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, an author of the study and the director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. “Many thought the end of the world had come,” he added.
In the years that followed, the hot ash that eventually buried the home solidified and left an imprint that archaeologists filled with plaster to reconstruct the shape of the wooden bed that remained. The technique helps illustrate the horror of the Pompeian dead in their final moments and how perishable everyday items made of wood, textiles and leather were situated in their environments.
The skeletal remains of four people, most likely members of the same family, were identified in the study. The lapilli, which reached heights as high as nine feet in some locations, could not be controlled, and researchers believe the people made a final attempt to escape, leaving the small room in which they had barricaded themselves. They got only as far as the triclinium, the formal dining room where their remains were found.
“The family in the House of Helle and Phrixus probably died when the so-called pyroclastic flow, an avalanche of hot ash and toxic gas, arrived and parts of the building collapsed,” Dr. Zuchtriegel said.
He and his colleagues suggest that the remains of the four people found in the home were from a family that stayed behind and may have included some enslaved members who worked at the residence. Still, archaeologists don’t know for sure if they lived there or simply took refuge after the homeowners had already escaped.
“It’s not certain that the individuals found in the house as victims were part of the family,” said Marcello Mogetta, an associate professor of Roman art and archaeology at the University of Missouri who was not involved in the study.
Among the skeletal remains was a bronze bulla that belonged to a child. The ancient amulets were worn like lockets around the necks of young free boys to shield them from danger until they reached adulthood.
“The amulet was supposed to protect them, so there’s a cruel irony to the fact that it didn’t,” said Caitie Barrett, a professor of archaeology at Cornell University who was not involved in the study.
Bourbon explorers sent by Charles III in the 18th century carried out rudimentary excavations of Pompeii that disturbed the skeletal remains of the victims found in the House of Helle and Phrixus. When they tunneled into the residence in search of valuables like jewelry and artwork, they left behind holes in the walls. These early excavators often had little interest in human remains, either in respecting their preservation, dignifying their deaths or studying their material culture.
But today it’s the human toll that feels most prominent for archaeologists and for many of the visitors who regularly pour into Pompeii. Whether or not the remains belonged to those who were indeed family will be something that researchers may try to uncover through DNA analysis in the near future.
Family or not, it doesn’t change the human tragedy of the story.
“Whatever the nature of their specific relations, they would have been the last people to offer each other comfort at the end,” Dr. Barrett said.
-
Cleveland, OH1 week ago
Who is Gregory Moore? Former divorce attorney charged for murder of Aliza Sherman in downtown Cleveland
-
Politics1 week ago
Trump posts AI image of himself as Pope amid Vatican's search for new pontiff
-
Politics1 week ago
Rep. Mikie Sherrill suggests third Trump impeachment as she campaigns to be next New Jersey governor
-
News1 week ago
Family statement: Rodney Hinton Jr. walked out of body camera footage meeting with CPD prior to officer death
-
News1 week ago
Are Politicians Too Old? California Democrats Want to Debate an Age Cap.
-
World1 week ago
‘Don’t see a major war with India, but have to be ready’: Pakistan ex-NSA
-
News1 week ago
Father Whose Son Was Shot by Cincinnati Police Hits Deputy With Car, Killing Him
-
News1 week ago
Federal judge strikes down Trump order targeting the law firm Perkins Coie