Reopening America

New York City is now enforcing its vaccine requirement for restaurant employees and patrons who wish to eat indoors. Anyone aged 12 or older, must show proof of at least one shot to eat or drink indoors at restaurants, bars, nightclubs and more. Establishments will be fined $1,000 for a first violation. Heather Haddon, restaurants reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how businesses and customers are divided over this new enforcement.

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We have heard for a while now that sitting for prolonged periods of time can be very harmful to your health contributing to high blood sugar, high cholesterol and messing with your metabolic health. To counter the ill effects of sitting too long, a new study says that moving for 3 minutes every 30 minutes can be very helpful. Even just walking 15 steps improved the blood sugar of workers in the study. Gretchen Reynolds, Phys Ed columnist at the NY Times, joins us for what to know.

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The WSJ set up 31 TikTok accounts registered to teenagers to see what the algorithm would serve them up. What they saw after thousands of videos was a never ending stream content related to sex, drugs, and eating disorders. TikTok’s algorithm is engagement based, so spend any amount of time on a video or re-watch it, and get ready for a flood of similar content. The company uses 10,000 people and other algorithms to police content, but the app does not restrict certain videos based on age. Georgia Wells, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how TikTok serves up videos to minors.

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Despite being vaccinated, many people are still worried about breakthrough Covid infections and curious how to navigate this phase of the pandemic. It really depends on a lot of factors including your overall health and the concentration of infections where you live. Another thing that can help you in managing your risk is more home testing. Tara Parker-Pope, health columnist at the NY Times, joins us for what to know.

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Retailers are very worried about the holiday shopping season as pandemic related delays continue. Factory shutdowns, computer chip shortages, and clogged ports are gearing up to leave stores with emptier shelves and consumers with higher prices and longer waits for shipping. Abha Bhattarai, national retail reporter at the Washington Post, joins us for how September is the new December when it comes to holiday shopping. If there is something you want, get it now.

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The demand for deworming drug ivermectin has been surging to more than 80,000 prescriptions per week. Pharmacists have been reporting shortages of the drug which is used in small doses in humans to treat lice, scabies, and other parasites, but most commonly used in animals. The big concern is people trying to get the drug from livestock stores. Emma Goldberg, reporter at the NY Times, joins us for the surging demand despite studies showing it does little to treat Covid.

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We have seen the demand for Covid-19 monoclonal antibody treatments skyrocket in the last few weeks. Some states have set up infusion centers where patients can get the treatment and are also passing rules where you can get it without a doctor’s prescription. Karen Weintraub, health reporter at USA Today, joins us for how this underutilized treatment is gaining traction.

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A look inside Pfizer’s Pearl River research center, where the vaccine was created with their partner BioNTech. The team there is in a never-ending effort to stay ahead of the pandemic. The lab has “variant hunters” that continue to track the effectiveness of the vaccine on new variants, a “virus farmer” that grows the latest variants for testing, and scientists developing the next formulation of the vaccine if needed. Olivia Goldhill, investigative reporter at STAT News, joins us for a look inside Pfizer’s labs.

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The intelligence community has provided President Biden with a report on the origins of Covid-19 and it was inconclusive. Furthermore, the WHO team that was also looking into the start of the pandemic warned that time is running out and it could soon be biologically impossible to obtain the data needed to nail down the cause. Betsy McKay, senior writer at the WSJ, joins us for ongoing delays into the search for the pandemic origins.

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As the Delta variant continues to infect so many people, the demand for at-home Covid tests is going up. The only problem with that, is that the test manufacturers can’t keep up and they are becoming harder to find online and on pharmacy shelves. These antigen tests have faced questions of reliability, but work best on people who are shedding lots of virus particles and provide quick results. Brianna Abbot, health reporter at the WSJ, joins us for more.

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