Category:

Health

On Facebook, health-misinformation ‘superspreaders’ rack up billions of views: report

Facebook’s algorithm is a major threat to public health. Mark Zuckerberg promised to provide reliable information during the pandemic, but his algorithm is sabotaging those efforts by driving many of Facebook’s 2.7 billion users to health misinformation-spreading networks,” said Fadi Quran, campaign director at Avaaz.

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General insurers sell 7,50,000 Covid-19 policies covering 1.28 mn lives, earn a premium of Rs 215 crore:Alamelu

“96 percent of the population don’t have any kind of health cover against Covid -19 . During this time also a small out of pocket expense in hospitals can financially impact the customer. There is a need to reduce this gap,Today, health has become the biggest line of business under the general insurance category and by the year end, it will overtake motor insurance also” TL Alamelu,member, Non-Life, IRDAI, said.

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India’s COVID-19 tally crosses 27-lakh mark,death toll climbes to 51,797

the death toll climbed to 51,797 with 876 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours
There are 6,73,166 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which is 24.91 per cent of the total caseload, while the number of recoveries has risen to 19,77,779.
Of the 876 fresh deaths reported, 228 are from Maharashtra, 120 from Tamil Nadu, 115 from Karnataka, 82 from Andhra Pradesh, 66 from Uttar Pradesh, 45 from West Bengal, 51 from Punjab, 23 from Madhya Pradesh, 18 from Delhi, 15 from Gujarat, 13 from Kerala, 12 from Haryana, 11 from Rajasthan and 10 from Odisha

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General insurance industry in Japan to contract in 2020 due to COVID-19, says GlobalData

Sangharsan Biswas, Insurance Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The Japanese economy is projected to contract by 5% in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumer spending in May 2020 had declined by 16% year-on-year. This translates to lower premium collections for general insurers, as businesses scale down their operations.”

The impact on Japan’s general insurance business is most visible in motor and property insurance, which together account for over 75% of the premiums. As per the data from Japan Automobile Dealers Association, new vehicle sales declined by 23% in June 2020, on a year-on-year basis.

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Covid-19: India’s flimsy antigen testing regime ‘like flipping a coin’

With one of the world’s fastest-growing epidemics but also one of the lowest testing rates, India in late June started to use quick antigen tests to ramp up detection. But the tests, which can report false negatives as much 50 per cent of the time, threaten to obscure the true picture of its outbreak, further challenging containment efforts.

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Sweden set to become world’s first cashless society: GlobalData

Ravi Sharma, Retail Banking Analyst GlobalData’s, comments: “Contactless payments in Sweden is already growing at a faster pace, with Swedes increasingly making contactless payments in shops, restaurants and cafes. As a result of the pandemic, its usage is expected to become even more popular. The growing acceptance of contactless payments will support the adoption and use of NFC-enabled mobile wallet solutions, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.”

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Some Delhi hospitals seeing COVID re-emergence in recovered patients

“There can be a relapse. The virus can be isolated from the body particularly from the sputum. We have the evidence that after ninth or tenth day the virus becomes non-infectious and the patients are not tested again,” he said.

“However, the virus has been reported to be living in patients who have recovered around 39 to 40 days back,” he added.

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US pharma cos protected from COVID vaccine liability

Pandemic-related claims for vaccines will be routed to a rarely used USA federal program set up to encourage drugmakers to help combat public health emergencies. It spares pharmaceutical and device makers from costly liability lawsuits in exchange for taxpayers compensating injured patients — though it doesn’t guarantee there’s funding to do so.“We want people vaccinated and we don’t want to expose pharmaceutical companies to the kind of liability that they would otherwise have,” said Brent Johnson, a partner with Holland & Hart, who defends corporate clients. “That’s the price we’re willing to pay to get rid of this horrible coronavirus problem.”

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