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☆ Nurses in England plan third wave of strikes next month over pay
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Sachin Ravikumar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"Rather than negotiate, Rishi Sunak has chosen strike action again," RCN General Secretary Pat Cullen said. The fresh strikes will follow walkouts by nurses in mid-December — the RCN's first ever national strike — as well as strikes scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday this week. Ambulance workers have also launched their own industrial action over pay. Talks by government ministers with union leaders have so far failed to end strike action. The health department has previously said nurses' initial demands amounted to a 19% pay rise - unaffordable in the current economic climate.

☆ UK officials meet with unions in bid to end strikes by nurses and ambulance drivers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

London CNN —Senior UK government officials are meeting with labor unions on Monday in a last-ditch effort to avert another wave of strikes affecting vital public services such as health care and transport. On Monday, the education minister will meet with teaching unions, the transport minister will meet with rail unions and the health minister will meet with unions representing nurses and ambulance drivers. Workers are demanding higher pay and better working conditions in the face of record inflation and a sharp fall in living standards. Ambulance workers will strike on January 19 in Wales and on January 23 in England. Teacher unions are balloting members over a possible strike, while the British Medical Association started balloting junior doctors on Monday.

Jan 6 (Reuters) - Pharmacies across the United States are weighing whether to sell mifepristone, a pill used in medication abortions, following the Food and Drug Administration's announcement earlier this week that they can now do so. The FDA rule will make medication abortion, which accounts for more than half of U.S. abortions, more accessible in states where abortion remains legal, but its impact on pharmacies in the states that have banned abortion remains to be seen. The pharmacy is located near Florida's borders with Georgia and Alabama, where abortion is severely restricted. We're not near an abortion clinic or in a larger city where that happens more," she said. Steve Moore, pharmacist and owner of Condo Pharmacy in Plattsburgh, New York, a state where abortion is legal, plans to dispense the drug.

☆ As child vaccine rates slip, local health officials fight misinformation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Lauren Sausser | Kaiser Health News | Lauren Sausser Covers Health Across The South As Part Of Khn'S Southern Bureau. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

So the Health Department conducted something called an online “sentiment search,” which gauges how certain words are perceived on social media. An analysis conducted by KHN and The Associated Press found local health department spending dropped by 18% per capita from 2010 to 2020. To that end, the health department has partnered with local leaders and groups to encourage vaccinations. — Phil Maytubby, Oklahoma city County health departmentThe more than 3,000 public health departments nationwide stand to benefit from a unified message, he said. In late 2020, the foundation, working with other public health groups, established the Public Health Communications Collaborative to amplify easy-to-understand information about vaccines.

☆ Remote Workers Are Blowing the Whistle, Employees Exposing Companies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Britta Lokting | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

The Securities and Exchange Commission — which implemented a whistleblower program in 2011 and where Haugen and others have sent documents — has received a historic jump in complaints over the past few years. How remote work sparked a flood of whistleblowersAs the pandemic spread and workers retreated to their makeshift home offices, employees began to reconsider their relationship with work. MacGann, the Uber whistleblower, told Politico that it wasn't until the pandemic that he "had time on his hands" to really ponder his decision to come forward about the ride-hailing company's treatment of workers. Remote work, she explained, helps to remove some of those barriers to whistleblowing. In addition to the record-breaking number of tips, the SEC whistleblowing program awarded $229 million in 103 cases this year.

The UK government has promised to overhaul the youth gender care system, after it was deemed inadequate by England’s regulator of health and social care. They described a deeply flawed system that is now hobbled by a toxic political climate around gender care. The letter said a decision would be made at some point from early 2022 on whether the child “is likely to meet the access criteria” for gender care. The family has received no NHS gender care or mental health support since the referral, she said. These recommended supporting “identity exploration” and mental health treatment as the first steps to ensure that any psychological issues are addressed.

☆ Flesh-eating bacteria: What to know about Vibrio vulnificus, and how to avoid it
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( Jen Christensen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Vibrio vulnificus causes an estimated 80,000 illnesses and 100 deaths in the United States every year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vibrio vulnificus is one of the bacteria that can cause what’s commonly known as a flesh-eating infection. Vibrio vulnificus infection is the leading cause of death related to eating seafood in the United States. With skin infections, a doctor will first take samples from the infected area to determine if Vibrio vulnificus is what’s causing the problem. Up to 50% of Vibrio vulnificus infections don’t respond to certain antibiotics anymore, studies show.

☆ Vermont town employee who quietly lowered fluoride in water for years resigns
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

A town employee who quietly lowered the fluoride in a Vermont community’s drinking water for years has resigned — and is asserting that the levels had actually been low for much longer than believed. While fluoridating municipal water is voluntary, Vermont towns that do “shall control the level of fluoride” within the state’s specified ranges, according to the state’s water supply rule. The Vermont Health Department said it does not regulate municipal water systems. Town Manager Josh Arneson said Thursday that he will review fluoride levels monthly and that the town’s Water and Sewer Commission will also look at the report. The addition of fluoride to public drinking water systems has been routine in communities across the United States since the 1940s and 1950s.

☆ Florida sees rise in flesh-eating bacterial infections
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

Florida has seen an increase in cases of flesh-eating bacteria this year driven largely by a surge in the county hit hardest by Hurricane Ian. The state Department of Health reports that as of Friday there have been 65 cases of vibrio vulnificus infections and 11 deaths in Florida this year. In Lee County, where Ian stormed ashore last month, the health department reports 29 cases this year and four deaths. Lee County health officials earlier this month warned people that the post-hurricane environment — including warm, standing water — could pose a danger from the potentially deadly bacteria. People with open wounds should avoid such water and seek medical care immediately if an infection is apparent.

☆ Ghost kitchen startup Reef is facing new trailer shutdowns and violations. Insiders have long said it skirts health and safety regulations.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Austin health inspectors suspended four Reef food trailers after a recent inspection. And this month, Philadelphia inspectors cited a Reef kitchen trailer for having the wrong retail operating license, food-safety inspection records show. The company has previously said its engineless mobile kitchen vessels are difficult to inspect under existing permitting frameworks. "In every city where Reef operates, Reef seeks the appropriate permits," a Reef representative said in an email to Insider. The violation occurs when a kitchen trailer has not been authorized through the inspection process to sell and prepare food.

“After years of neglect, Jackson’s water system finally reached a breaking point this summer, leaving tens of thousands of people without any running water for weeks. Lumumba said Monday that his administration intends to cooperate with federal officials. In late 2019, the state Health Department notified the EPA about concerns with the city’s water system. An inspection by the EPA raised alarms about problems, including not having enough properly credentialed staff members at the city’s water treatment plants. Mark Chalos, an attorney who filed the most recent class-action lawsuit, said many Jacksonians remain suspicious of the city’s water quality.

☆ Montana defies order on transgender birth certificates
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-16 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

— Just hours after a Montana judge blocked health officials from enforcing a state rule that would prevent transgender people from changing the gender on their birth certificate, the Republican-run state on Thursday said it would defy the order. District Court Judge Michael Moses chided attorneys for the state during a hearing in Billings for circumventing his April order that temporarily blocked a 2021 Montana law that made it harder to change birth certificates. Moses said there was no question that state officials violated his earlier order by creating the new rule. ACLU attorney Malita Picasso expressed dismay with the agency’s stance and said officials should immediately start processing requests for birth certificate changes. State officials denied that the new rule preventing birth certificate changes was adopted in bad faith.

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