Free Republic

Washington (CNN)The Biden administration is issuing a new warning that the US could potentially see 100 million Covid-19 infections this fall and winter, as officials publicly stress the need for more funding from Congress to prepare the nation. The projection of 100 million potential infections is an estimate based on a range of outside models that are being closely tracked by the administration and would include both the fall and winter, a senior administration official told CNN. Officials say this estimate is based on an underlying assumption of no additional resources or extra mitigation measures being taken, including new Covid-19...

The danger of Israel’s bird flu outbreak jumping to humans is real and “very concerning,” according to a top epidemiologist. Prof. Amnon Lahad, chairman of Israel’s National Council for Community Health, told The Times of Israel that he is tracking the avian outbreak, which has killed thousands of wild birds. “The widespread nature of the avian flu is very concerning, especially given that it is infecting chickens and not just wild birds. It’s made the move from wildlife to stock animals, and I’m hoping it won’t make the next step to humans,” he said Wednesday. Most bird flu strains don’t...

The US now has more confirmed cases of coronavirus than any other country with at least 82,404 positive tests. According to the latest figures collated by Johns Hopkins University, the US overtook China (81,782 cases) and Italy (80,589). The grim milestone came as President Donald Trump predicted the nation would get back to work "pretty quickly", after 3.3 million layoffs. More than 1,100 people with Covid-19 have died in the US.

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A health warning. The extremely contagious measles virus is back. An outbreak that started at Disneyland is starting to sweep the country.Christie Ileto has the push for children to get vaccinated.Measles was thought to have been eliminated in the U.S. 15 years ago. Now its back, targeting those who haven’t been immunized.The outbreak that started in California’s Disneyland is expanding. At least 75 cases of measles span six states.“It’s scary to think the happiest place on Earth is infected with measles,” one Disney employee said.For this Disney employee, knowing co-workers are infected is cause for concern. Measles...

More cases of chikungunya, a painful virus spread by mosquitos, are being reported across the country. The Centers for Disease Control has listed a total of 497 cases in the U.S. in 35 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, 197 locally transmitted. Examiner.com reports that other state and local health agencies noted 40 cases, bringing the total to 537. The outbreak is due to a recent epidemic that started late last year in the Caribbean. The first two locally transmitted stateside cases were reported in Florida late last week. "The arrival of chikungunya virus, first in the tropical Americas...

A startling case in Japan has confirmed that pregnant women with cancer can pass the disease to their fetuses. These transmissions, normally blocked by the placenta, are rare, so the work likely won't change how doctors screen or care for pregnant women. But scientists say the case could help illuminate how cancer foils the body's immune system. In early 2007, a 28-year-old Japanese woman gave birth to a girl. Thirty-six days later, the mother was hospitalized with vaginal bleeding, which became uncontrollable. Doctors diagnosed leukemia, and she soon died. The baby developed normally until age 11 months, when a huge...

New York (AHN)- Researchers at Symantec Corp. bought a brand new PC this year and connected it to the internet. They browsed without installing any kind of protection software. After one hour of surfing five or six children's sites and clicking around, they discovered the computer had been loaded with 359 different pieces of adware software. With travel sites averaging 64 adware programs and sports sites 17, kid's sites clearly lead the pack in adware inundation. The ads offer free Ipods or "punch the president" type games, which kids find inticing. Clicking on one of these banner ads is followed...

Adware infections net the purveyors of slimeware software around $3 a year for each infected PC, according to estimates from anti-spyware firm Webroot Software. Using this figure and stats from its own malware auditing services, Webroot guesstimates the illicit advertising market underpinned by adware infection of home and business PCs could be worth up to $1.6bn a year. According to Richard Stiennon, VP of threat research at Webroot, the illicit ad market enjoys approximately the same growth rate as the legitimate market. But that's where the similarities end. "It [adware] has a similar bus model and some of the same...

Downloads malicious application when video files are runSecurity experts have intercepted two malicious Trojans hidden in video files that download and install spyware, diallers and computer viruses when played in Microsoft Windows Media player. PandaLabs warned that Trj/WmvDownloader.A and Trj/WmvDownloader.B, are spreading through P2P networks hidden in video files. These Trojans take advantage of technology incorporated in Microsoft Windows Media player called Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM), designed to protect the intellectual property rights of multimedia content. When a user tries to play a protected Windows media file, this technology demands a valid licence. If the license is...

Hackers co-opted several popular Web sites including comedycentral.com over the weekend, using them to infect thousands of computers with a virus that can be used to steal passwords, bank accounts and other personal information. Displaying an increasingly sophisticated approach to online theft, the hackers gained control of a German online advertising services firm and served up thousands of Internet ads designed to send visitors to one of several Web sites where the hackers had installed the virus. Hackers also can use the virus to plant programs on victims' computers that send out spam, flood monitors with pop-up advertising or...

A Pox To Blight WithTechnology Is Good For You        I've decided that I support the exploration of Mars. I want to go first. And hide there, in a sealed space suit. I was boring myself to death on one of those diabolical exercise machines at Gold's, and in desperation reading Scientific American, a magazine of left-wing politics and occasional science. I ran across a small blurb about Eckhard Wimmer, of the State University of New York at Stonybrook. He and some other folk had built artificial polio virus, said SciAm, starting with mail-order chemicals. And it worked. It...