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US Food Insecurity Is Causing Citizens To Go More Hungry Than They Did During The Pandemic 

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A survey released this week by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York revealed that more people in the United States are going hungry now than during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The survey showed that there are higher levels of food insecurity this year than there was during the summer of 2020, when the coronavirus outbreak led to “double-digit unemployment,” according to reports from NPR. 

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The New York Fed periodically asks Americans about whether they have to skip meals, rely on food donations, or receive federal assistance in order to buy groceries. The most recent survey was taken in February, and showed how hunger is a more intense problem now than any other time within the past six years. 

Amy Breitmann runs the Golden Harvest Food Bank in Augusta, Georgia. She recently told NPR how she’s witnessed first-hand the increasing number of families and children that are in need of food this year. 

“We have some distributions where people are sitting in a 2-to-3-mile line the night before the [food] distribution starts. They’re sleeping in their cars.”

The February survey from the New York Fed found that nationwide, 10% of families reported missing meals or having a lack of food in their household. About 16% of respondents relied on food donations. Families that are earning less than $50,000 annually are experiencing food insecurity twice as high as the last report. Nearly 20% of families have been forced to skip meals or went completely without food. 

CEO of the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama, Nicole Williams, also told the publication that they have to move their services to a larger building in order to accommodate the increased demand for food. The food bank serves 12 counties throughout the state. 

“Food insecurity could be your next-door neighbor. When gas costs a little bit more or food costs a little bit more, or they have a repair on their car or a medical bill, that takes away what they might be using to spend on food.”

Experts have been stating that what’s occurring is a part of a “K-shaped economy,” which represents a growing divide between individuals who have proper access to their basic needs and those who don’t. 

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The New York Fed recently wrote that “while many households are doing fine and economic activity overall has been expanding at a solid pace, large segments of the population are facing high levels of economic insecurity and financial strain, and consumer sentiment on the whole has dropped to low levels.”

In 2020, just 4% of households reported missing meals, which also included less than 7% of families that earn less than $50,000 annually. 

During the pandemic, families experienced some relief from their food insecurity thanks to government relief payments and supplemental unemployment benefits. Those same benefits, however, were pandemic-specific and are no longer available. Additionally, within the past six years food prices have increased rapidly. 

The most recent survey from the New York Fed was also conducted before the US war with Iran, which has caused gas prices to increase and the economy to strain further. 

Breitmann posed the question: “If you’re adding on another $100 to your budget a month just to put gas in your car to get to work or drop your kids at school and whatever they need their car for, where is that $100 coming from?”

“Most typically, they’re having to pull it from the grocery budget,” Breitmann said.

The survey also found that there is a growing number of Americans that are relying on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. This is surprising due to the fact that eligibility for the program has become even more strict as of late. 

About 18% of families this year had received SNAP benefits, compared to 10.6% in 2020. Lower-income families had over 38% receiving SNAP benefits, compared to around 22% in 2020. 

vaccine

China Deploys Drones and Mosquito-Eating Fish to Combat Chikungunya Outbreak

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Southern China is grappling with a major outbreak of chikungunya, a mosquito-borne viral illness that has rapidly infected thousands in recent weeks—marking one of the country’s largest recorded surges since the disease was first detected there nearly 20 years ago.

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Covid-19 Pandemic Accelerated Aging In Our Brains

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The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated our brain’s aging, regardless of if you were infected or not, according to a new study published recently in Nature Communications.

Researchers in the study looked at brain scans from 1,000 people during and before the pandemic. They then compared those to brain scans from other people taken during standard times as a model for typical brain aging.  

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Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad from the University of Nottingham School of Medicine in the U.K. led the study, and with his team of researchers they were able to measure brain function, gray and white matter volume, cognitive skills, and chronological age, according to reports. 

The team emphasized the importance of looking at both gray and white matter in this study as gray matter is critical for our memory, emotions, and movement while white matter helps our nerves transmit electrical signals. 

The data showed that the pandemic aged our brains about 5.5 months faster when compared to how our brains aged pre-pandemic. What was especially interesting was the fact that this accelerated aging was found in both people who ended up getting infected with Covid and those who didn’t. 

This suggests that pandemic-factors outside of just viral infection impacted the way our bodies and brains functioned. 

“This finding was interesting and rather unexpected, we found that participants who simply lived through the pandemic period, regardless of infection, also showed signs of slightly accelerated brain aging.” says Mohammadi-Nejad. 

“This highlights that the broader experience of the pandemic—including disruptions to daily life, stress, reduced social interactions, reduced activity, etc.,—may have had a measurable impact on brain health.”

Certain demographics also experienced an even higher level of accelerated brain aging. The study wrote that elderly people, men, individuals with compromised health, lower educational status/income, or unstable housing were among those groups. 

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More specifically, individuals with less stable employment during the pandemic had an average of five more months of brain aging compared to those with higher/more stable employment. 

Individuals with compromised immune systems/general health had an additional four months of increased brain aging. 

While only individuals who were infected with Covid-19 showed a decrease in cognitive skills, the fact that those who were never infected showed an acceleration in brain aging shows that other factors of the pandemic impacted the way we all function. 

“Brain health can be influenced by everyday life activities, and major societal disruptions—like those experienced during the pandemic—can leave a mark even in healthy individuals,” Mohammadi-Nejad says. 

“This adds to our understanding of public health by reinforcing the importance of considering mental, cognitive, and social well-being alongside traditional physical health indicators during future crisis-response planning.”

Mohammadi-Nejad said a healthy diet, exercise, solid sleep schedule, and social interactions are important to help our brains function properly, 

“Whether these can reverse the specific changes we observed remains to be studied,” he says.

birds

Trump Administration Terminates Moderna Bird Flu Vaccine Deal, Undermining Pandemic Preparedness

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In a striking reversal of pandemic preparedness efforts, the Trump administration has canceled a $600 million contract with Moderna aimed at developing a human vaccine against H5N1 bird flu—a virus with the potential to spark a national outbreak.

The termination also scrapped a key provision granting the U.S. priority access to doses in the event of a pandemic, dismantling an agreement crafted under the Biden administration to boost national readiness against the evolving bird flu threat. The Moderna initiative had expanded on a $175 million government investment made in 2023.

Although the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had signaled earlier this year that the contract was under review, the cancellation has still raised alarms across the scientific and public health communities.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long questioned the safety of mRNA vaccine technology, played a role in the decision. Moderna’s vaccine design relied on mRNA, the same technology used successfully in Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s COVID-19 shots, to prime the immune system by delivering a coded message to produce a harmless piece of the virus.

After what it described as a “rigorous review,” the HHS said it found “continued investment in Moderna’s H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable,” according to department spokesman Andrew Nixon.

Moderna, for its part, defended the project and the underlying mRNA platform. The biotech company said it would continue exploring other avenues to develop vaccines targeting potentially pandemic-level influenza strains.

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“Results during the pandemic speak for themselves, including demonstrated efficacy and a safety profile established in over a billion people worldwide.”

Public health experts are calling the decision short-sighted, particularly given the nature of bird flu’s current spread. The highly pathogenic H5N1 virus has been detected globally in wild birds, poultry, mammals such as bears and sea lions, and most recently, dairy cattle. Since arriving in the U.S. in 2022, it has triggered the culling of more than 173 million birds and infected over 1,000 cattle herds across 17 states.

At least 70 human cases have been reported, with the majority involving farm or dairy workers. One fatality occurred in January in Louisiana, involving an older adult exposed to infected backyard birds, the first known U.S. death tied to the virus.

While H5N1 has not yet shown sustained human-to-human transmission, virologists warn it could mutate and become highly contagious, underscoring the urgent need for adaptable vaccine platforms. Existing stockpiles of bird flu vaccines are limited and may not offer sufficient protection against future variants.

“Pandemic preparedness is about being proactive, fast and adaptable — the mRNA vaccine platform is all of that,” Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told The New York Times.

“The rationale given is likely fabricated and more of a function of R.F.K. Jr.’s assault on vaccines, the value of which he evades. Canceling this contract makes the world less safe.”

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Jennifer Nuzzo, who leads the Pandemic Center at Brown University, echoed that concern.

“When the next flu pandemic occurs, there is not going to be enough vaccine for everyone who wants it unless we invest to broaden the types of flu vaccines being made and the number of companies that make them. We shouldn’t let politically motivated attempts to unfairly brand mRNA vaccines as dangerous stand in the way of ensuring everyone who wants a pandemic vaccine can get one.”

Critics attribute Kennedy’s unconventional views on disease management as a key factor in the administration’s decision. In a recent interview, he suggested that farmers allow bird flu to run through flocks to study birds that survive the illness for the source of their immunity — an approach many scientists describe as both unethical and dangerous.

Last week, Kennedy publicly urged Canada to halt the planned euthanasia of 400 ostriches exposed to H5N1. Dr. Mehmet Oz, who heads Medicare and Medicaid services, even offered to relocate the birds to his Florida ranch.

Kennedy has a long history of promoting vaccine skepticism, especially toward mRNA vaccines, which he has falsely claimed are the “deadliest” ever developed. Such assertions starkly contradict a broad scientific consensus.

Currently, the federal government holds three other contracts focused on avian flu vaccine development. Still, the Moderna cancellation deals a significant blow to the push for faster, more agile pandemic response tools — and signals a broader resistance within the administration to emerging vaccine technologies.

drinks

Alcohol Consumption In The US Has Been On The Rise Since The Covid-19 Pandemic 

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According to Dr. Brian Lee, a transplant hepatologist at Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California, an increase in stress-related drinking and alcohol-related deaths brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic in the US has continued to rise. 

“I was hopeful that we would see declines in alcohol use, but I’m a practicing liver specialist, and the reality is, we have definitely seen a rise in patients with liver failure, which is really an extreme, I think, clinical condition from excessive alcohol use,” Lee said. 

“So we had definitely seen a surge with the pandemic. And if you look at my clinic and in the hospital, at least from my experience, it hasn’t gone down.”

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Lee led new research that was published this month in the Annals of Internal Medicine which found that an increase in alcohol consumption among people in the US in 2020 continued to rise in 2021 and 2022. 

The study utilized data from the National Health Interview Survey which compared recent data to 2018 as a baseline. “The study included almost 25,000 respondents from 2018, about 31,000 from 2020 and almost 27,000 from 2022,” according to CNN. 

There was an increase in drinking among men and women across all race and ethnic groups. The data revealed in 2022, 69.3% of Americans reported some level of alcohol consumption in the previous year, a .3% increase from 2020. 

“While the findings are troubling, they are not surprising,” said Dr. Jagpreet Chhatwal, director of the Institute for Technology Assessment at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“Alcohol consumption has been steadily increasing over the past several years.”

“It doesn’t take much alcohol to increase health dangers. If you’re drinking more than one drink per day as a woman, you can be at risk for having liver disease,” Lee stated. 

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines heavy drinking for women as four or more drinks per day or eight or more per week. For men it’s five or more drinks per day or 15 or more per week. 

Lee stated that the increase during the pandemic was likely caused by a few factors. 

“They had really disruptive pandemic-related effects to their careers, losing jobs or losing their routine. Some of them have young children, too. We know that alcohol is used as a coping mechanism for stress. What starts as a habit can become addictive or a substance disorder,”  he said.

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“Increasing stress and burnout in society exacerbate this tendency,” Chhatwal stated. 

“The normalization of drinking culture also contributes to increased and excessive consumption. Unfortunately, most people recognize the damage caused by alcohol only in the later stages of liver disease, when treatment options are limited.”

In 2020, there were over 49,000 alcohol-related deaths in the US.

“We’ve shown in studies that liver transplants for alcohol have increased fivefold in the last 20 years. We’ve also shown that alcohol deaths due to liver disease are surging,” Lee said. 

“Now, it’s about intervention. What interventions could actually work to save lives and what policies can we enact to stem the surge?”

“People need to know what is harmful alcohol use and what it does to your body,” Lee said. 

“Medical professionals really need to speak to their patients about alcohol use openly and nonjudgmentally. Alcohol has been implicated in more than 200 diseases, whether it’s heart disease, cancer, pancreatic disease – it really can affect your body, and both patients and doctors really need to be aware of this.”

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How The US Housing Market Is Reacting To 2024 Remote Work Trends

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The Covid-19 pandemic left America with a new standard of working. Many businesses and individuals not only started working remotely due to quarantine regulations, but continued to do so after quarantine was over. Now, experts in the real estate industry are discussing how the housing market is adapting to these work trends.

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Former CDC Director Believes Next Pandemic Will Be Caused By The Bird Flu

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Robert Redfield, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recently stated that the next pandemic could be caused by the bird flu. 

Additionally, the World Health Organization recently announced the first human death from bird flu in Mexico, and the virus itself has been found in cattle across dairy farms in the US, according to reports. 

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“I really do think it’s very likely that we will, at some time, it’s not a question of if, it’s more of a question of when we will have a bird flu pandemic,” Redfield said to NewsNation last week. 

He also discussed that the mortality rate will likely be much higher in a bird flu pandemic versus what the world experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic had a mortality rate that was 0.6%, and Redfield predicts the mortality “for the bird flu would probably be somewhere between 25 and 50%.”

The Hill reported that by late May, the CDC had found the third case of an individual diagnosed with bird flu within three months. Each case was found in a farmworker, but were unrelated to each other. The main symptoms included a cough and pink eye. 

As of right now, there is no direct evidence that suggests the virus is spreading amongst humans right now. 

Health experts and researchers found that in order for the bird flu to be able to connect to a human receptor, five amino acids have to change their key receptors. If that does occur, the virus would spread like Covid-19 did. 

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“Once the virus gains the ability to attach to the human receptor and then go human to human, that’s when you’re going to have the pandemic,” Redfield said. 

“I think it’s just a matter of time.”

While Redfield stated that it’s hard to predict how long it would take for the amino acids to change, but the fact that it’s been detected in cattle across the US is concerning. 

The CDC reported that more than 40 herds of cattle have been infected with the virus. They’ve been following wastewater treatment sites to track where the virus is originating from, and said that there’s low risk of the virus spreading throughout the public. 

The cattle infected live in the vicinity of pigs, which could allow the virus to evolve from pigs to humans, however, Redfield stated there’s more of a severe risk that the virus will be grown in a lab and spread that way. 

“I know exactly what amino acids I have to change because in 2012, against my recommendation, the scientists that did these experiments actually published them. So, the recipe for how to make bird flu highly infectious for humans is already out there,” he said.

Mevlude Markasjh Markashi Home Health Consulting LLC

Embracing Technology and Transforming Homecare | Mevlude Markashi

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The healthcare landscape is evolving rapidly, catalyzed by unprecedented challenges and opportunities. The COVID-19 pandemic not only shook the foundations of healthcare delivery but also accelerated the shift towards technological integration—highlighting the critical need for agility and resilience in the face of crisis. Mevlude “Mev” Markashi RN, CHFP, CSBI, whose career path exemplifies the essence of flexibility and foresight in healthcare, is at the vanguard of this transformation.

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Tiffany Pisoni

A Journey From Humble Beginnings to Multi-Venture Success in San Francisco’s Hospitality Scene | Tiffany Pisoni

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In the heart of San Francisco’s vibrant culinary scene, where tastes, trends, and traditions converge, a remarkable individual has carved an extraordinary path to success. With a determination fueled by passion, creativity, and an unwavering commitment to her dreams, Tiffany Pisoni has risen from humble beginnings to owning two thriving restaurants, a flourishing catering business, and a successful dishware company. Her journey is a testament to the power of hard work, resilience, and an unyielding love for hospitality.

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Dr. Anne Louise Phelan Doctor Advocate

Silenced and Stigmatized: The Untold Story of Physicians Denied Mental Healthcare | Dr. Anne Louise Phelan

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In the noble pursuit of healing others, doctors often find themselves battling an invisible adversary that silently erodes their well-being: their own mental health. However, a daunting obstacle stands in the way of seeking help—the fear that reaching out for support will jeopardize their professional careers. As a doctor and activist for medical professionals, Dr. Anne Louise Phelan passionately advocates for a better system—one that prioritizes support and understanding.

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