Finland to offer bird flu vaccine to select groups of people, a possible global first Finland is set to potentially become the first country to offer bird flu vaccine to people at risk of exposure to the virus. Andrew Joseph STAT

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The vaccine campaign will be limited, with doses set to be available to groups including poultry farmers, veterinarians, scientists who study the virus, and people who work on fur farms housing animals like mink and fox and where there have been outbreaks.

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Survey: Americans ready to take climate action

Most Americans are willing to take steps to help address climate change, a new survey finds.

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61% of Americans feel vulnerable to a lower quality of life due to climate change, while 57% worry about climate-related health risks, per the survey.

• 61% of Americans are open to drinking recycled wastewater in the face of water shortages, 74% would eat food grown using recycled water, and 82% would pay more to filter microplastics out of their drinking water.
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N95 respirator gets top billing in stopping SARS-CoV-2 viral leakage into the air Researchers who compared the ability of cloth and surgical masks and KN95 and N95 respirators to impede SARS-CoV-2 leakage into the environment show that the "duckbill" N95 won handily, stopping 98% of the virus that causes COVID-19. CIDRAP

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Study finds people of color disproportionately dropped from Medicaid (medicalxpress.com)

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New research suggests Black and Hispanic people were twice as likely as white people to lose Medicaid coverage due to process-related issues, report findings published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University, Northwestern University and Harvard Medical School.

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Placing COVID patients in skilled nursing facilities led to increased cases, deaths, study finds Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, some states allowed COVID-19 patients to be discharged from hospitals to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), and even offered financial incentives to SNFs to take in patients to deal with hospital bed shortages.  CIDRAP

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US health departments experience workforce shortages and struggle to reach adequate staffing levels in public health

Gaps persist in hiring enough U.S. public health workers, and health departments continue to face challenges in recruiting new employees, according to a new study by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Indiana University. Insufficient funding, a shortage of people with public health training, and a lack of visibility for public careers, in addition to lengthy hiring processes, are cited as barriers contributing to an absence of progress for achieving a satisfactory level of workers. The results are published in Health Affairs.

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Study: High excess death rates in the West for 3 years running since start of pandemic despite containment and vaccines Excess death rates have remained high in the West for three years running since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, finds a data analysis of 47 countries published in BMJ Public Health. Science X Medical Xpress

This is despite the implementation of various containment measures and the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, giving rise to "serious cause for concern," say the researchers, who call on governments and policymakers to thoroughly investigate the underlying causes.

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US will make millions of bird flu vaccines this summer As the H5N1 avian flu continues to spread among dairy cows in the United States, nearly 5 million doses of flu vaccine are now being prepared for possible use in humans. Robin Foster Medical Xpress

Since the outbreak in livestock began this spring, bird flu has been confirmed in three humans who worked on dairy farms in Texas and Michigan and health experts are concerned the virus could mutate to the point where it could spread easily among humans.

The Ultimate Killer: Pollution Deadlier Than War, Terrorism, and Major Diseases Manmade pollutants and climate change contribute to millions of deaths from cardiovascular disease each year, warn a coalition of leading scientists. A new series published today (June 3) in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology highlights how pollution, in all its forms, is a greater Mike O'Neill SciTechDaily

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Takeaways from Fauci’s testimony at contentious House hearing on Covid-19 pandemic | CNN Politics Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified on Monday at a House subcommittee hearing about the US response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the origins of the virus. Jen Christensen, Elise Hammond, Antoinette Radford, Maureen Chowdhury CNN

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