Posts tagged with "COVID-19"

Photo source: @fearless.free.mom/#peloton/Instagram

Peloton to briefly halt production of its Bikes, Treads as demand wanes

January 24, 2022

Peloton is temporarily halting production of its connected fitness products as consumer demand wanes and the company looks to control costs, according to internal documents obtained by CNBC.

Peloton plans to pause Bike production for two months, from February to March, the documents show. It already has halted production of its more expensive Bike+ in December and will do so until June. It won’t manufacture its Tread treadmill machine for six weeks, beginning next month. And it doesn’t anticipate producing any Tread+ machines in fiscal 2022, according to the documents. Peloton had previously halted Tread+ production after a safety recall last year.

The company said in a confidential presentation dated January 10 that demand for its connected fitness equipment has faced a “significant reduction” around the world due to shoppers’ price sensitivity and amplified competitor activity.

Indeed, according to CNBC, Peloton essentially has guessed wrong about how many people would be buying its products, after so much demand was pulled forward during the coronavirus pandemic. The company now finds itself left with thousands of cycles and treadmills sitting in warehouses or on cargo ships, and it needs to reset its inventory levels.

The planned production halt comes as close to $40 billion has been shaved off of Peloton’s market cap over the past year. Its market value hit a high of nearly $50 billion last January.

However, Peloton said, the latest forecast doesn’t take into account any impact to demand the company might see when it begins to charge customers an extra $250 in delivery and setup fees for its Bike, and another $350 for its Tread, beginning at the end of this month.

Peloton also said it has seen low email capture rates for the upcoming debut of its $495 strength training product, Peloton Guide, which is codenamed “Project Tiger” in internal documents viewed by CNBC. Email capture rates keep track of the number of people who enter their email addresses on Peloton’s website to receive information on the product. The company said this is a signal of “a more challenging post-COVID demand environment.”

The official U.S. launch of Guide has been pushed from last October to next month and now could come as late as April, the presentation dated earlier this month said. The company also said it initially planned to charge $595 for the bundle that includes one of Peloton’s heart rate arm bands and later dropped the price by $100.

Late Thursday, CEO John Foley said in a statement, “As we discussed last quarter, we are taking significant corrective actions to improve our profitability outlook and optimize our costs across the company. This includes gross margin improvements, moving to a more variable cost structure, and identifying reductions in our operating expenses as we build a more focused Peloton moving forward.”

Research contact: @CNBC

Visual source: Fox 17 News Michigan

Supreme Court blocks Biden’s vaccine-or-test rule for large employers

January 17, 2022

On Thursday, January13, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Biden Administration from enforcing its emergency rule mandating that workers at large businesses get vaccinated or undergo regular testing for COVID-19—a major setback for the president’s national vaccination effort, reports the HuffPost.

However, the court decided to allow the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for health care workers at federally funded facilities.

The justices’ decision to intervene and halt one of the vaccine regulations has major public health implications amid a surge in coronavirus cases due to the omicron variant. The White House hoped the rule, issued through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), would protect workers against COVID-19 transmission and encourage holdouts to get vaccinated.

The justices ruled 6-3 in favor of halting OSHA’s vaccine-or-test rule, with the court’s six conservatives in the majority and the three liberals dissenting. They ruled 5-4 in favor of letting the healthcare rule proceed, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh breaking with their conservative colleagues to join the liberals.

The OSHA regulation requires that employers with at least 100 workers implement programs in which those workers show proof of vaccination or provide a negative COVID-19 test each week. The administration estimates it would cover 84 million workers, mostly in the private sector.

Enforcement of the testing provision was slated to begin on Febrary 9.

Business groups and state GOP officials filed lawsuits aimed at blocking the rule, arguing that it went beyond OSHA’s legal power and would hurt the economy by prompting workers to quit their jobs. Lower courts disagreed on whether the rule was within OSHA’s authority.

In their ruling, the majority said the opponents of the OSHA rule were likely to prevail in court, and so the justices’ decision prevents the rule from going into effect while the litigation plays out. In an opinion joined by justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that “Congress has nowhere clearly assigned so much power to OSHA” to institute such a requirement for employers.

“Yet that is precisely what the agency seeks to do now—regulate not just what happens inside the workplace but induce individuals to undertake a medical procedure that affects their lives outside the workplace,” Gorsuch wrote.

In their dissenting opinion, Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan said the court should leave such policies to the experts. By acting “outside of its competence and without legal basis,” they argued, the court was substituting its own judgment for that of the government officials tasked with responding to a crisis.

“If OSHA’s Standard is far-reaching—applying to many millions of American workers—it no more than reflects the scope of the crisis,” the justices wrote. “The Standard responds to a workplace health emergency unprecedented in the agency’s history: an infectious disease that has already killed hundreds of thousands and sickened millions.”

The court held a special session to hear oral arguments on the matter on January 7-—expediting the case as enforcement of the rule was about to begin. While the court’s three liberal justices seemed loath to undermine a public health regulation as COVID-19 cases were soaring, most of the conservative justices voiced skepticism of the rule, suggesting it should necessitate an act of Congress.

Alito wondered whether OSHA was trying to legally “squeeze an elephant through a mouse hole” by issuing the rule. Chief Justice John Roberts asked “why Congress doesn’t have a say in this.”

The Biden administration has argued that OSHA has the authority to issue the vaccine-or-test rule under its emergency powers, and that a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic necessitates such a sweeping regulation.

such as hepatitis B, influenza, and measles, mumps, and rubella,” they wrote.

Biden said in a statement Thursday that the ruling upholding the health care rule “will save lives,” including those of patients, nurses and doctors. He also said he was “disappointed” that the court blocked the OSHA regulation, saying it included “common-sense life-saving requirements” for employers.

Research contact: @HuffPost

Above, a wearable air sampler clip. (Photo source: Adapted from Environmental Science Technology Letters)

Wearable air sampler assesses personal exposure to COVID-19

January 13, 2022

Masks, social distancing, proper hygiene, and ventilation can help reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in public places—but even with these measures, scientists have detected airborne SARS-CoV-2 in indoor settings, EurekAlert reports.

Now, researchers from Yale University School of Engineering and Applied Science and Yale University School of Public Health—working on behalf of the American Chemical Society—say they have developed a passive air sampler clip that can help assess personal exposure to SARS-CoV-2 that could be especially helpful for workers in high-risk settings, such as restaurants or healthcare facilities.

Reporting in the January 12 edition of ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters, the researchers note that COVID-19 is primarily transmitted through the inhalation of virus-laden aerosols and respiratory droplets that infected individuals expel by coughing, sneezing, speaking, or breathing.

To date, active air sampling devices to detect airborne SARS-CoV-2 have been used in indoor settings; however, these monitors are typically large, expensive, non-portable and require electricity. To better understand personal exposures to the virus, lead author Krystal Pollitt and colleagues wanted to develop a small, lightweight, inexpensive and wearable device that doesn’t require a power source.

The researchers developed a wearable passive air sampler, known as the Fresh Air Clip, that continually adsorbs virus-laden aerosols on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface. The team tested the air sampler in a rotating drum in which they generated aerosols containing a surrogate virus, a bacteriophage with similar properties to SARS-CoV-2. They detected virus on the PDMS sampler using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), showing that the device could be used to reliably estimate airborne virus concentrations.

Then, the researchers distributed Fresh Air Clips to 62 volunteers, who wore the monitors for five days. PCR analysis of the clips detected SARS-CoV-2 RNA in five of the clips: Four were worn by restaurant servers and one by a homeless shelter staff person. The highest viral loads (more than 100 RNA copies per clip) were detected in two badges from restaurant servers.

Although the Fresh Air Clip has not yet been commercialized, these results indicate that it could serve as a semiquantitative screening tool for assessing personal exposure to SARS-CoV-2, as well as help identify high-risk areas for indoor exposure, the researchers say.

Research contact: @EurekAlert

Photo source: @circleoflifechiropractic7675/#teachers/Instagram

Survey: 48% of teachers are considering quitting their jobs; 38% are on the verge of changing careers

January 11, 2022

A recent survey showed that nearly half of teachers are considering quitting their jobs—with about one-third of respondents admitting that they might leave the profession entirely, reports Fox Business.

Data from Teachers Pay Teachers, an online forum for curriculum content for teachers, revealed that 48% of 6,000 teachers surveyed in November said they had considered changing jobs in the past month—an increase from 32% in June, K-12 Dive reports.

The outlet noted that 34% of those teachers surveyed said they had considered changing careers in the past month and 11% said they considered taking a leave of absence.

“Ten years ago, the program enrollment for traditional ed [education] programs started to decrease,” Dr. Heather Sparks, director of Teacher Education at Oklahoma City University, said in an interview that aired on Varney and Co. on Monday, January 10.

“People are just not valuing the profession anymore,” she added. “These are folks who put in four years and then some, continue to get training even after their degree. and yet are paid minimally compared to other professionals who have four-year degrees.”

Schools nationwide say they are dealing with significant teacher shortages, and some principals are saying the start of the school year was the most difficult one yet.

Officals are pointing to an array of factors that have converged to create the vacancies in the wake of COVID-19, and experts warn the problem may not be fixed any time soon.

Administrators are being called into the classroom in some districts dealing with teacher shortages, and several places are calling on retirees to step in and fill the voids.

As teachers continue to flee the profession, studies show fewer college students are pursuing education degrees – a trend researchers had seen long before COVID-19 hit.

Enrollment in education programs at Louisiana colleges has fallen by nearly 8,000 students over the past two decades, according to statewide enrollment data from the Louisiana Board of Regents.

The pandemic is not the sole reason why teachers are leaving the profession, but it has contributed to the burnout that has been common among educators for years.

“Teachers, because of COVID and other reasons, are under a lot of stress,” teacher and President of the Lafayette Parish Association of Educators Julia Reed said at a school board meeting last October 6, according to the Lafayette Daily Advertiser.

Reed noted that, when she speaks with teachers, “their No. 1 issue is not money; it’s workload.”

Research contact: @FoxBusiness

Photo source: MedPage Today

Study: Doctors are becoming overwhelmed by constant visits from ‘frequent attenders’

December 23, 2021

Is there such a thing as going to the doctor too much? A new study by reearchers at the University of Manchester in England finds that family doctors are being overwhelmed by “frequent attenders”—who, they estimate, visit their practices five times more often than other patients, reports Study Finds.

Based on the recent study, these individuals make up around 40% of consultations. This isn’t a new trend either. The proportion of medical “regulars” has soared over the past two decades, years before the emergence of COVID-19.

“A relatively small number of patients are accounting for a large proportion of GP workload including face-to-face consultations,” says corresponding author Professor Evangelos Kontopantelis in a media release.

“Frequent attenders appear to be a major driver for the increase in consultations that have contributed to perceptions of increased workload in general practice,” the study author adds. “GPs should be looking at this group of patients more closely to understand who they are and why they are consulting more frequently.”

The findings come from an analysis of nearly 1.7 billion doctor’s appointments involving just 12.3 million patients over 20 years. The results also come after the pandemic has caused severe disruptions to medical practices over the last two years.

GPs have repeatedly sounded the alarm on the increasing pressures of an aging population, the complexity of care, and initiatives to shift treatment from hospitals into the community. A poll earlier this year found that doctors were working 11 hours a day on average and seeing 37 patients — a third more than what experts consider safe.

In-person care rose from an average of 38% between 2000 and 2001, to 43% between 2018 and 2019—and from an average of 38% to 40% for all practice staff.

The Manchester team drew on anonymized information in the Clinical Practice Research Database. It covered 845 surgeries across the U.K. between April 2000 and March 2019, with 113 contributing doctor’s offices throughout the entire period. Frequent attenders show up for an examination around five times as frequently as the average patient.

“While many of these patients may have comorbidities and may need to be seen regularly, research suggest that they have wider social and psychological needs,” the researchers write in the journal BMJ Open.

Who are the most frequent attenders? The evidence across Europe reveals that frequent attenders are more likely to be female, older, and have more social and psychiatric problems. They are also more likely to be taking drugs for mental illness, have more medically unexplainable symptoms, and more long-term conditions.

Among frequent attenders, all types of consultations with GPs rose from an average of 13 to 21 a year during the study. However, those consultations with other practice staff rose from an average of 27 a year to 60 between April 2000 and March 2019.

There was relatively little regional variation across the entire United Kingdom in any of the trends, but face-to-face consultations with GPs and all staff were highest in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Typically, frequent attenders visit their family doctor between 20 to 40 times a year. Researchers note this is an observational study and can’t determine the exact cause of this trend, but health officials believe loneliness may be part of the issue.

Research contact: @StudyFinds

Above, Representative Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), the former president's physician. (Photo source: @johnshinkle/Politico/#ronnyjackson/Instagram)

On Omicron, former WH doctor Ronny Jackson says, ‘Here comes the MEV—the Midterm Election Variant!’

November 30, 2021

A Republican lawmaker who previously served as White House doctor under former presidents Trump and Obama claims Democrats seems to be using the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, to help the GOP cheat in the midterm elections, reports The Hill.

The World Health Organization (WHO) classified the new coronavirus strain as a “variant of concern” on Friday, November 26—due to preliminary evidence suggesting it carries an increased risk of reinfection compared to other variants. WHO officials said the new variant poses a “very high” risk worldwide, but noted that there is still much to learn about the strain.

Representative Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) spoke out on news of the variant of concern Saturday, November 27—saying the strain would serve as a pretext for absentee voting, which Democrats would use to somehow cheat in the 2022 midterm elections.

“Here comes the MEV—the Midterm Election Variant!” Jackson tweeted.

“They NEED a reason to push unsolicited nationwide mail-in ballots. Democrats will do anything to CHEAT during an election—but we’re not going to let them!” he added.

Jackson was appointed as a White House physician during the George W. Bush administration; and shot to national prominence in 2018, when he gave former President Donald Trump a glowing medical evaluation.

A March report from the Pentagon’s inspector general found that Jackson carried out “inappropriate conduct” during his time as White House doctor. The report said Jackson disparaged, belittled, bullied and humiliated subordinates, creating a toxic work environment. It also found that he used alcohol while on duty.

Jackson has explicitly denied the report’s findings.

Research contact: @thehill

Above, the vinyl for the series, 'Friends.' (Photo source: @vinylairin/#vinylrecords/Instagram)

The music industry is an unexpected victim of a plastics shortage

November 15, 2021

Many artists in the music industry are having a tough time “getting into the groove,” according to a recent report by The Economist.

The publication cites the case of Green Lung, a London heavy-metal act with a cult following who were about to go on their first American tour after producing their premiere album when COVID-19 shut it down.

The band used ensuing lockdowns to produce a second album, “Black Harvest.” By December 2020, it was recorded and ready to be mastered and pressed onto 5,000 gold-vinyl records. Given pandemic disruptions, Green Lung gave itself lots of time, fully nine months, to make these in time for a tour this past September. “We were fairly comfortable,” says Tom Templar, the lead singer.

Instead the first pressing of the record, which is sold out in pre-orders, will not be available until October. The band could have launched on a streaming service like Spotify. But it wanted to wait for the LP, which generates far more money in the short run. “The vinyl sales prop up the U.S. tour,” Templar told The Economist.

In the end, Green Lung played its album-launch gig on September 1 record-less. The band thus became the latest, unexpected casualty of upheaval in global supply chains.

First CDs, then digital downloads, and now pvc streaming have made vinyl records look like a vintage curiosity. In recent years, however, sales have soared, as fans have taken to owning their favorite bands’ music in physical form (waxing insistent about its supposedly better sound quality). In March vinyl sales in Britain reached highs last seen in 1989.

“Every artist in the world has spent 18 months twiddling their thumbs, so they are making records,” says Ed Macdonald, the manager of 100% Records, which represents artists such as We Are Scientists, an indie rock band. “Vinyl is such an integral part of our turnover,” he says. Mainstream artists are increasingly involved. Taylor Swift’s album, “Evermore”, first released digitally in December, broke a 30-year record for vinyl sales. Albums are expected to be released soon by Ed Sheeran, Abba, and Coldplay.

Unfortunately for musicians, getting them pressed is becoming close to impossible. In the late 1990s and early 2000s most vinyl-pressing factories closed. As COVID-19 raged, the biggest remaining ones—in America, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland—had to shut temporarily, creating a backlog. Now demand from musicians is outstripping capacity.

On top of that, the price of PVC the plastic used to make LPs, has surged after Hurricane Ida knocked out 60% of America’s production in August, while demand has boomed from firms that use the stuff in cars, pipes, and many other types of goods.

Dirk van den Heuvel of Groove Distribution, a distributor of dance music in Chicago, says that the big labels created the crisis by closing their own pressing factories in the 2000s. If they had kept these running, he grumbles, the majors would have been ready for the demand and smaller musicians would not now be so squeezed. It is true that big labels can often secure priority on the presses. But not always.

It may be cold comfort to van den Heuvel or Green Lung, but Taylor Swift’s fans had to wait months for their LPs, too.

Research contact: @TheEconomist

Visual source: lufkin Daily News