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Today a study from Germany published in Science shows three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine raised antibody levels against the highly transmissible Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant.The study was based on sera from 51 participants, which was ch

United States, South Korea and Australia in August 2021 and will now be tested in Brazil, Spain and the Philippines, according to a tweet from Twitter Safety. Since the August launch, Twitter said it received about 3 million reports from users calling out tweets that violated the companies policies on misinformation. RELATED: Twitter suspends verified account belonging to Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene In the experimental phase, Twitter planned to test the new feature in a small, geographically diverse set of regions before expanding it further. The tech company said it is assessing if the new feature is an effective approach at identifying and removing misinformation on its platform. Twitter said it may not take action and respond to every report during the feature’s beta phase, but user input will help the company identify trends. With the new feature, Twitter hopes to improve the speed and scale its efforts to remove misinformation from its platform. Amid the spread of misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 presidential election, social media giants such as Meta, formerly known as Facebook, and Twitter have launched several tools to help combat the onslaught of misleading information. In July 2021, Twitter launched another separate feature that would place warning labels on false and misleading tweets, redesigned to make them more effective and less confusing. The labels are an update from those Twitter used for election misinformation before and after the 2020 presidential election.

aviation crisis in less than 36 hours, when AT&T and Verizon are set to deploy new 5G service.The airlines warned the new C-Band 5G service set to begin on Wednesday could render a significant number of widebody aircraft unusable and “could potentially strand tens of thousands of Americans overseas” while causing “chaos” for U.S. flights.“Unless our major hubs are cleared to fly, the vast majority of the traveling and shipping public will essentially be grounded,” wrote the chief executives of American Airlines , Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and others in a letter first reported by Reuters.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has warned that potential interference could affect sensitive airplane instruments such as altimeters and significantly hamper low-visibility operations.“This means that on a day like yesterday, more than 1,100 flights and 100,000 passengers would be subjected to cancellations, diversions or delays,” the letter cautioned.Airlines late on Monday were considering whether to begin canceling some international flights that are scheduled to arrive in the United States on Wednesday. Y2K 20-20: How a New Year’s mass scare became an embarrassing joke “With the proposed restrictions at selected airports, the transportation industry is preparing for some service disruption.

Cases are declining in a few big cities in the eastern United States that felt the earliest impact from the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant, but surges are still building in other regions of the country, pushing some hospitals and workplaces to the brink.

Chinese health authorities have claimed that the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19 may have arrived into the capital, Beijing, via a contaminated letter from Canada — an assertion dismissed and questioned by Canadian experts.The Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control (BCDC) said in a news release Monday that its first case of the Omicron variant in a Beijing resident could be the result of international mail sent from Canada via the United States and Hong Kong.The letter was sent on Jan. 7 and received on Jan.

Today Americans can order four free COVID-19 at-home antigen tests at COVIDtests.gov, 1 month after President Joe Biden said he was securing 500 million free tests for Americans.

WASHINGTON - Officials across the U.S. are again weighing how and whether to impose mask mandates as COVID-19 infections soar and the American public grows weary of pandemic-related restrictions.The U.S.

WASHINGTON - Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, repeated a stark warning this week that the omicron variant will likely infect most Americans, but he noted how those who are fully vaccinated and boosted face a much lower risk of getting seriously ill."Omicron, with its extraordinary, unprecedented degree of efficiency of transmissibility, will, ultimately, find just about everybody," Fauci told the Center for Strategic and International Studies in an interview published on Tuesday."Those who have been vaccinated, and vaccinated and boosted, would get exposed.

A previous Covid infection could lead to ‘hair shedding’, experts have claimed.

WASHINGTON - The White House is finalizing plans to ship 500 million free at-home COVID-19 tests to Americans nationwide and has awarded its first contracts as part of this pledge."We are actively finalizing the details of the distribution mechanism, including a website as we've talked about," White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday. "I would expect us to provide those details next week, and yes, these tests will be sent out through the mail.""What I can say is, last night we issued out our first letter award to provide tests toward this half a billion.

Mandate Trade Union has written to all major retail employers and the Minister for Health calling for the provision of free antigen tests and high quality masks for workers in the retail and hospitality.

An American Airlines plane is seen at sunrise on the tarmac of the Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia, on April 22, 2021. (Photo by Daniel SLIM / AFP) (Photo by DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images) WASHINGTON - AT&T and Verizon will delay launching new wireless service near some airports.

An American Airlines plane is seen at sunrise on the tarmac of the Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia, on April 22, 2021. (Photo by Daniel SLIM / AFP) (Photo by DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images) WASHINGTON - CEOs of major airlines are raising concerns about the rollout of the new 5G wireless service and the potential "catastrophic disruption" it could cause to airplane systems and operations. In a letter obtained by FOX Television Stations, the airline leaders wrote on Monday that they’re requesting 5G service to be implemented everywhere in the country except "within two miles of airport runways at affected airports." The CEOs said this would avoid disruptions to the aviation industry, air travelers, airline employees, supply chain, and vaccine distribution.The airline leaders wrote that the 5G rollout could ground flights and leave thousands of American travelers "stranded overseas."In December 2021, the FAA said in December 2021 that it would restrict pilots from using automated landing systems at certain airports after the rollout of 5G or fifth-generation wireless service because it could interfere with radio altimeters.Altimeters are devices that measure the height of aircraft above the ground.

FILE - An Army Preventive Medicine Specialist administers a COVID-19 vaccine to a soldier on Sept. 9, 2021, in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Students are seen walking out of Redondo Union High School in protest of in-person classes on Jan. 12, 2022.

Inside a Noah's New York Bagels shop. (File photo by Joe Pugliese/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) VACAVILLE, Calif. - All 15 employees at a Noah's New York Bagels in Vacaville, California quit over a general manager whom they felt was wrongly fired and the moment had gone viral on TikTok, according to KTVU.Noah’s NY Bagels is a restaurant franchise located mainly in California.

WASHINGTON - A new federal website to request free COVID-19 test kits -- originally scheduled to launch Wednesday -- is online now.Americans can request free COVID-19 test kits -- four per address -- at COVIDTESTS.GOV. The tests are free from the U.S. government and the first shipments are set to go out by the end of January. Here's what you need to know:Download the FOX 5 DC News App for Local Breaking News and WeatherSUBSCRIBE TO FOX 5 DC ON YOUTUBEFree At-Home COVID-19 Tests (USPS) HOW CAN I REQUEST A FREE TEST?GET FREE AT-⁠HOME COVID-⁠19 TESTS AT COVIDTESTS.GOVStarting Tuesday, Jan.

The US COVID-19 vaccination program may have averted 14 million infections, saved more than 240,000 lives, and prevented upwards of 1.1 million hospitalizations in the first half of 2021, according to estimates from a modeling study yesterday in JAMA Network Open.Led by York University scientists in Toronto, the research team

WASHINGTON - Americans will be able to order free COVID-19 tests from the comfort of their home next week.The Biden administration has pledged to provide 1 billion COVID-19 test kits to American households at no cost. To facilitate those orders, the White House has launched the website covidtests.gov, which will begin taking orders on Wednesday, Jan.

Several desks sit empty in a second grade class at Robert M. Pyles STEM Academy in Stanton, CA. Some school districts are seeing high absenteeism among students and staff and few substitute teachers to fill in the gaps.

Today the US Supreme Court, on a 6-3 vote, blocked a COVID-19 vaccine mandate that would have affected one in three American workers while leaving in place a requirement for healthcare workers.

After witnessing generic drug quality issues during visits to Asian manufacturing facilities and wrestling with dwindling domestic production capacity and foreign pricing fluctuations, family-run Nexus Pharmaceuticals found a solution a half hour north of its Lincolnshire, Illinois, headquarters.

WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden on Thursday directed his administration to double the commitment of free, at-home COVID-19 tests being made available to Americans, increasing the number to a total of 1 billion kits, amid a tidal wave of cases and criticism over shortages. The president is also planning to make high-quality N95 masks available for free."Today, I am directing my team to procure an additional 500 million more tests to distribute for free," Biden said during remarks on the pandemic.

Needless insurer spending on ivermectin prescriptions for COVID-19, estimated at $2.5 million in the United States for the week of Aug 13, 2021—the most recent week analyzed—would extrapolate to $130 million annually, US researchers reported yesterday in JAMA.Ivermectin has become a hot-button drug because some, especia

Pedestrians pass by trash bags piled on a street in Manhattan following a slow down in garbage collection by workers unhappy with mandatory vaccinations imposed by Mayor Bill de Blasio, in New York on October 28, 2021. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The omicron variant is sickening so many sanitation workers around the U.S.

ATLANTA - When it comes to COVID-19 infections, Brandon Weldon of East Atlanta has been there and done that, twice.Last week, the 31-year-old tested positive again, even though he is fully vaccinated and has been extra careful.But, Weldon says, this second bout was nothing like the first.That was back in June 2020, just a few months into the pandemic."I started out as a tickle, in the back of my throat," Weldon remembers.Back then, there was no COVID-19 vaccine, and Weldon, who was working at an East Atlanta bar, says the virus hit him hard."For more than a month, I was out of work and sick every day," Weldon says. "I had no appetite, shaking, chills, and there was nothing I could do but take Tylenol and sleep."HOW SOON CAN YOU GET VACCINATED AFTER HAVING COVID-19? HERE'S WHAT HEALTH EXPERTS SAYNow working as an animal care specialist at PAWS Atlanta, Weldon says he struggled with lingering COVID-19 symptoms, like shortness of breath and nightly fevers for months.So, as soon as he was eligible, he got vaccinated, and, a couple of months ago, boosted.Then, last week, he started feeling sick again."My throat felt scratchy," Weldon says.The next day, he felt worse."My voice was really dry; it was grainy," he says.

Guelph police are investigating after an online cryptocurrency scam resulted in a man losing nearly $100,000.

Women who gave birth within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test died at a significantly higher rate than their healthy counterparts, finds a Scottish study yesterday in Nature Medicine. They were also more prone to poor birth outcomes, even if they weren't severely ill, according to a US study in The Lancet Digital Health.

WASHINGTON - Scientists are seeing signals that COVID-19′s alarming omicron wave may have peaked in Britain and is about to do the same in the U.S., at which point cases may start dropping off dramatically.The reason: The variant has proved so wildly contagious that it may already be running out of people to infect, just a month and a half after it was first detected in South Africa."It’s going to come down as fast as it went up," said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle.At the same time, experts warn that much is still uncertain about how the next phase of the pandemic might unfold. The plateauing or ebbing in the two countries is not happening everywhere at the same time or at the same pace.

FILE - Tractor-trailer trucks carrying goods along I-74 during the COVID-19 pandemic on May 4, 2020, in Veedersburg, Indiana. (Photo by David Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) DETROIT - The federal government is moving forward with a plan to let teenagers drive big rigs from state to state in a test program.Currently, truckers who cross state lines must be at least 21 years old, but an apprenticeship program required by Congress to help ease supply chain backlogs would let 18-to-20-year-old truckers drive outside their home states.The pilot program, detailed Thursday in a proposed regulation from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, would screen the teens, barring any with driving-while-impaired violations or traffic tickets for causing a crash.But safety advocates say the program runs counter to data showing that younger drivers get in more crashes than older ones.

pic.twitter.com/zNnDMBo1JRDion, who turns 54 this year, recently received treatment for “severe and persistent muscle spasms which are preventing her from performing, and her recovery is taking longer than she hoped,” according to the statement.Dion is still scheduled to participate in the “European leg” of the tour, which is scheduled to begin May 25, in Birmingham, England.

Download the FOX 5 DC News App for Local Breaking News and WeatherThose kinds of masks are considered better at filtering the air. But they were in short supply previously, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials had said they should be prioritized for health care workers.In updated guidance posted late Friday afternoon, CDC officials removed concerns related to supply shortages and more clearly said that properly fitted N95 and KN95 masks offer the most protection.However, agency officials noted some masks are harder to tolerate than others, and urged people to choose good-fitting masks that they will wear consistently.READ MORE: What face mask should you be wearing? Mask confusion cleared up by health experts"Our main message continues to be that any mask is better than no mask," Kristen Nordlund, a CDC spokeswoman, said in a statement.The CDC has evolved its mask guidance throughout the pandemic.In its last update, in September, CDC officials became more encouraging of disposable N95 masks, saying they could be used in certain situations if supplies were available.

A mysterious long Covid symptom is making life miserable for one young woman.

COLOMBO (News 1st): The Ministry of Power will hold a discussion on Tuesday (Jan. 18) with the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, on obtaining the required US dollars for the Ceylon Electricity Board. “A fuel tanker is currently at the Port and the discussions with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the Finance Ministry, and the Bank of Ceylon today (18), will focus on getting the tanker released to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation,” Minister of Power Gamini Lokuge told News 1st.Accordingly, once the shipment of fuel onboard the tanker is released to the CPC, the CEB could also obtain the required fuel for power generation, he added.“The Central Bank provided US dollars for all these shipments, and for this shipment also, we’ll obtain the required dollars from the CBSL,” Minister Lokuge noted.The Minister was hopeful that the prevailing power crisis could be rectified by the 22nd of this month, once the fault at the Norochcholai Power Plant is resolved and re-activated, as that would add another 300 MW of power to the National Grid.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka’s Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila has warned that if the fuel imported to the country is released to the Ceylon Electricity Board for electricity generation, there will be a shortage of fuel for vehicles.“We were compelled to reach a decision to only release fuel to the CEB if they deliver payment in USD,” the Minister told News 1st adding that Sri Lanka does not have oil deposits or large stocks of fuel to be given to the CEB.“We can only procure fuel for the CEB if they can provide us with payment in USD,” he said.The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has already delivered 1,500 metric tons of diesel per day in the last two days.“At present, there are two tankers anchored at sea with a total of 76,000 MT of diesel. If the (CEB) can provide us with the US Dollars to unload one of them, we can deliver diesel to the Ceylon Electricity Board,” he told News 1st while denying that he will be held accountable for any power-cuts that may arise over the shortage of fuel to generate electricity.Minister Gammanpila said he is NOT vested with the responsibility of sourcing US Dollars for the country, adding that he has no power to even print US dollars.“The issue is not the fact that the CEB owes the CPC over Rs.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lankan authorities will meet on Tuesday (18) to discuss the procurement of fuel for an uninterruptible power supply to the island nation.The Ceylon Electricity Board told News 1st that the existing stocks of fuel will only be sufficient to generate electricity until Tuesday (18) morning.On Saturday (15) the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation supplied 3,000 MT of Diesel to the Ceylon Electricity Board for power generation, and the CPC said the fuel was released considering it as an urgent requirement.Minister of Energy Udaya Gammanpila said if the Ceylon Electricity Board needs fuel continuously, it must provide US dollars to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.The Minister said if the CEB provides the dollars, the Ministry of Energy is prepared to import and supply the required stocks of fuel for power generation.Minister Gammanpila noted that amidst the prevailing dollar crisis in the country, the CPC goes through serious difficulties to earn USD $400 million every month, to ensure the adequate supply of fuel stocks required for transportation and other industries.He said the Ministry of Energy informed the CEB three months ago that if they require fuel for power generation, they should inform in advance.However, according to the Energy Minister, the CEB has informed the CPC on the 11th of January that they require Diesel from the 13th of January.Minister Gammanpila said the CPC does not possess additional stocks of Diesel to supply on such short notice.He emphasized that the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation is ready to import and supply fuel if the Ceylon Electricity Board provides the necessary dollars, adding that the CEB can also directly import fuel by themselves.

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An NHS doctor took to the social media platform TikTok to explain how tap water and other soft drinks are showing up false positives for Covid-19 lateral flow test results.

COLOMBO (News 1st); The government is preparing to import fertilizer again from China’s Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group.A stock of fertilizer sent by the Chinese fertilizer company was rejected earlier, for containing harmful pathogens.However, the government eventually paid 6.9 million US dollars Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group for the rejected shipment.Now the Sri Lanka Standards Institute is preparing new standards for special types of fertilizer.Its Senior Deputy Director K.A. Anil said initial work is being done to prepare the new standards.Agriculture minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage said the ministry had requested the SLSI to prepare new standards for liquid biofertilizer and solid fertilizers.He noted that the previous standards did not allow the importation of fertilizer containing bacteria.The minister said that authorities would not allow fertilizer containing harmful bacteria into the country.The Sri Lanka Standards Institute says it would not set standards targetting Chinese fertilizer.Senior Deputy Director K.A.

Covid could cause a penis to shorten in rare cases, a doctor has claimed.

Boris Johnson's future hangs in the balance today after he admitted attending a party in the Downing Street garden during the first covid lockdown in 2020.

COLOMBO (News 1st); What would you do if you were the President today?, was the question posed to Sri Lanka’s Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday (12).Wickremesinghe is the Leader of the United National Party, the oldest political party in Sri Lanka, and the only MP in parliament from the UNP.“I am not the President. But, I know what should be done at this time,” said Wickremesinghe during the 10 Questions programs with News 1st.According to Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka’s economy was stable in 2019 despite the Easter Attacks, and it was a matter of moving forward.He said suspending the imports of raw material to save reserves is a wrong move, adding SWAP agreements with other countries will not be successful.Wickremesinghe said the Trincomalee Oil Tanks could have been developed and Sri Lanka could have supplied fuel to the whole of South India.He said the Light rail transit (LRT), LNG programs, Central Expressway, MCC, and related programs could have boosted the reserves.“I would not anger India, China, Japan, USA, Europe, all at once,” pointed out Wickremesinghe.

FILE - Aerial view of the Pentagon building photographed on Sept. 24, 2017.

Alberta’s tourism industry could take another hit with the U.S. CDC advising Americans not to travel north of the border because of rising COVID-19 cases.

Jennifer Lopez's latest film, The Mother, put a pause on production in Spain due to a coronavirus outbreak.The Mother, which is set to be released later this year, had been filming in Vancouver, British Columbia, before production recently moved to Gran Canaria near the Canary Islands.PEOPLEmagazine confirmed that filming overseas had been halted 'due to positive coronavirus cases associated with the production team.' Stopped: Jennifer Lopez's latest film, The Mother, put a pause on production in Spain due to a coronavirus outbreak; seen in OctoberLopez reportedly flew into town last week and had been isolated while awaiting shooting, only to leave on a private plane back to the US just yesterday, according to Page Six. The 52-year-old actress stars alongside Joseph Fiennes, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Omari Hardwick in the Niki Caro-directed film.The local paper, La Provincia, first reported that a 'massive' coronavirus outbreak plagued a Netflix shoot, causing 'weeks-long production suspension.' The 52-year-old actress stars alongside Joseph Fiennes, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Omari Hardwick in the Niki Caro-directed film; seen in December The Spanish outlet reported that Lopez was first spotted in town on Wednesday and was set to film multiple scenes throughout the week.It's unclear when production will resume filming.Spain has seen a rise in COVID-19 cases as the Omicron surges across the globe, with 2,722 cases per 100,000 people reported on Friday, according to Reuters.The percentage of hospital beds occupied by patients with coronavirus was 11.79%, while the number of patients with COVID-19 in intensive care units rose to 22.06%.

A new mutation of Covid-19 is reported to have been discovered in Cyprus, and has been entitled the Deltacron variant.

Times points out, the set of women using the Natural Cycles app isn’t nationally representative—these users tend to be white, educated, thinner than the average American woman, and are not using hormonal contraception, making it difficult to draw generalizable conclusions. Alison Edelman, M.D., a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health & Science University and the lead author of the study, also noted that there’s lots of room for individual variation in the data. For example, a large factor influencing the findings was a group of 380 women who experienced a two-day delay in the start of their period, she told the Times.

A couple who were married for over four decades held hands as they died from coronavirus just seconds apart.