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An infectious disease once eradicated in the U.S. is making a grim comeback this year. New CDC data reported on Wednesday reveals that the country tallied its highest number of measles cases since 1992. As of July 8, the U.S. has reported 1,288 cases of measles across 39 states. Of those documented measles cases, almost 90% are concentrated in outbreaks of three or more cases. The 2025 case tally halfway through the year already exceeds the post-1992 record of 1,274 measles cases reported in 2019. While the official measles numbers are alarming as is, any published number is likely an undercount due to the likelihood of unreported cases. A wildly contagious virus that poses a particular risk to children, measles was once considered a disease of the past in the U.S. due to widespread uptake of a safe, effective vaccine. The CDC declared measles officially eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, a milestone the agencys website still hails as a historic achievement attributable to a highly effective vaccination program in the country. Of the 1,288 reported measles cases this year, 29% were children under age 5 and two-thirds of the reported measles infections were people under the age of 19. Of those infected, 92% were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status, while 8% had received at least one dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. Of the total cases, 13% resulted in hospitalization and three measles deaths have been reported so far. Clusters of measles outbreaks While cases have been documented across most states, a major measles outbreak in Texas sent case counts soaring this year. By early July, Texas had reported 753 measles cases, mostly concentrated in a Mennonite community in Gaines County, near the border with New Mexico. Gaines County is one of the least-vaccinated areas of Texas, with almost 14% of school-aged children skipping at least one vaccine dose during the last school year. Beyond major outbreaks like the one in Texas, measles is making inroads in places that havent reported cases in years. North Dakota recorded its first case in more than a decade in May, when the spread of measles was limited to 11 states. When it gains a foothold in unvaccinated communities, measles infections spread like wildfire. The virus is extraordinarily contagious and can survive in the air hours after an infected person sneezes or coughs. An estimated 9 out of 10 nonimmune people exposed to the measles virus go on to become infecteda rate that outstrips COVID-19, the flu, and even the deadly Ebola virus. While vaccines are required for students in all 50 states, the majority of states let students opt out for personal or religious reasons, including Texas. Around the country, more parents of school-aged children are taking that out and declining vaccines in recent years. From 2019 to 2023, measles vaccination rates fell from 95% to 92%. That 95% threshold is important: A community is considered protected against the measles virus when 95% of its members are vaccinated. In Texas, kindergarten vaccination rates are now under 95% in half of counties around the state. National vaccination rates arent declining in a vacuum. Vaccine skepticismonce a fringe belief in the U.S.has become supercharged in recent years, with a proliferation of misinformation powering its rise. Political leaders have seized on worries about vaccine safety to sow political divisions and in some cases to cash in on the millions flowing to anti-vaccine causes. Most prominent among them is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who after being appointed by President Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services now shapes the national conversation around vaccines. Earlier this week, a group of major medical organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics sued HHS and Kennedy, alleging that he made unlawful, unilateral vaccine changes, including withdrawing the CDCs recommendation of the COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant women and children.
Category:
E-Commerce
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company said Wednesday that it’s taking down inappropriate posts” made by its Grok chatbot, which appeared to include antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler. Grok was developed by Musks xAI and pitched as alternative to woke AI interactions from rival chatbots like Googles Gemini, or OpenAIs ChatGPT. Musk said Friday that Grok has been improved significantly, and users should notice a difference. Since then, Grok has shared several antisemitic posts, including the trope that Jews run Hollywood, and denied that such a stance could be described as Nazism. Labeling truths as hate speech stifles discussion, Grok said. It also appeared to praise Hitler, according to screenshots of posts that have now apparently been deleted. After making one of the posts, Grok walked back the comments, saying it was an unacceptable error from an earlier model iteration, swiftly deleted” and that it condemned “Nazism and Hitler unequivocally his actions were genocidal horrors. We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts, the Grok account posted early Wednesday, without being more specific. “Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X. xAI is training only truth-seeking and thanks to the millions of users on X, we are able to quickly identify and update the model where training could be improved. The Anti-Defamation League, which works to combat antisemitism, called out Grok’s behavior. What we are seeing from Grok LLM right now is irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic, plain and simple, the group said in a post on X. This supercharging of extremist rhetoric will only amplify and encourage the antisemitism that is already surging on X and many other platforms. Musk later waded into the debate, alleging that some users may have been trying to manipulate Grok into making the statements. Grok was too compliant to user prompts. Too eager to please and be manipulated, essentially. That is being addressed, he wrote on X, in response to comments that a user was trying to get Grok to make controversial and politically incorrect statements. Also Wednesday, a court in Turkey ordered a ban on Grok and Poland’s digital minister said he would report the chatbot to the European Commission after it made vulgar comments about politicians and public figures in both countries. Krzysztof Gawkowski, who’s also Poland’s deputy prime minister, told private broadcaster RMF FM that his ministry would report Grok for investigation and, if necessary, imposing a fine on X. Under an EU digital law, social media platforms are required to protect users or face hefty fines. I have the impression that were entering a higher level of hate speech, which is controlled by algorithms, and that turning a blind eye . . . is a mistake that could cost people in the future, Gawkowski told the station. Turkey’s pro-government A Haber news channel reported that Grok posted vulgarities about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his late mother and well-known personalities. Offensive responses were also directed toward modern Turkeys founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, other media outlets said. That prompted the Ankara public prosecutor to file for the imposition of restrictions under Turkeys internet law, citing a threat to public order. A criminal court approved the request early on Wednesday, ordering the countrys telecommunications authority to enforce the ban. It’s not the first time Grok’s behavior has raised questions. Earlier this year the chatbot kept talking about South African racial politics and the subject of white genocide despite being asked a variety of questions, most of which had nothing to do with the country. An unauthorized modification was behind the problem, xAI said.
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump and his advisers promised a lightning round of global trade negotiations with dozens of countries back in April. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro predicted 90 deals in 90 days. Administration officials declared that other countries were desperate to make concessions to avoid the massive import taxestariffsthat Trump was threatening to plaster on their products starting July 9. But the 90 days have come and gone. And the tally of trade deals stands at twoone with the United Kingdom and one with Vietnam. Trump has also announced the framework for a deal with China, the details of which remain fuzzy. Trump has now extended the deadline for negotiations to Aug. 1 and tinkered with his threatened tariffs, leaving the global trading system pretty much where it stood three months agoin a state of limbo as businesses delay decisions on investments, contracts and hiring because they dont know what the rules will be. Its a rerun, basically, said William Reinsch, a former U.S. trade official whos now an adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. Trump and his team dont have the deals they want. So theyre piling on the threats.” The pattern has repeated itself enough times to earn Trump the label TACOan acronym coined by The Financial Times Robert Armstrong that stands for Trump Always Chickens Out. “This is classic Trump: Threaten, threaten more, but then extend the deadline, Reinsch said. July 30 arrives, does he do it again if he still doesnt have the deals? (Trump said Tuesday that there will be no more extensions.) The deal drought represents a collision with reality. Negotiating simultaneously with every country on earth was always an impossible task, as Trump himself belatedly admitted last month in an interview with the Fox News Channel. (Theres 200 countries, the president said. You cant talk to all of them.) And many trading partnerssuch as Japan and the European Unionwere always likely to balk at Trumps demands, at least without getting something in return. Its really, really hard to negotiate trade agreements, which usually takes several months even when it involves just one country or a small regional group, said Chad Bown, an economic adviser in the Obama White House and now senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. What the administration is doing is negotiating a bunch of these at the same time. The drama began April 2”Liberation Day,” Trump called itwhen the tariff-loving president announced a so-called baseline 10% import tax on everybody and what he called reciprocal levies of up to 50% on countries with which the United States runs trade deficits. The 10% baseline tariffs appear to be here to stay. Trump needs them to raise money to patch the hole his massive tax-cut bill is blasting into the federal budget deficit. By themselves, the baseline tariffs represent a massive shift in American trade policy: Tariffs averaged around 2.5% when Trump returned to the White House and were even lower before he started raising them in his first term. But the reciprocal tariffs are an even bigger deal. In announcing them, Trump effectively blew up the rules governing world trade. For decades, the United States and most other countries abided by tariff rates set through a series of complex negotiations known as the Uruguay round. Countries could set their own tariffsbut under the most favored nation approach, they couldnt charge one country more than they charged another. Now Trump is setting the tariff rates himself, creating tailor-made trade plans for each and every country on this planet, in the words of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. But investors have recoiled at the audacious plan, fearing that it will disrupt trade and damage the world economy. Trumps Liberation Day tariffs, for instance, set off a four-day rout in global financial markets. Trump blinked. Less than 13 hours after the reciprocal tariffs took effect April 9, he abruptly suspended them for 90 days, giving countries time to negotiate with his trade team. Despite the Trump administrations expressions of confidence, the talks turned into a slog. Countries have their own politics, their own domestic politics, Reinsch said. Trump structured this ideally so that all the concessions are made by the other guys and the only U.S. concession is: We dont impose the tariffs. But countries like South Korea and Japan needed to come back with something, he said. Their thinking: We have to get some concessions out of the United States to make it look like this is a win-win agreement and not a we-fold-and-surrender agreement. Japan, for example, wanted relief from another Trump tariff50% levies on steel and aluminum. Countries may also be hesitant to reach a deal with the United States while the Trump administration conducts investigations that might result in new tariffs on a range of products, including pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. Frustrated by the lack of progress, Trump on Monday sent letters to Japan, South Korea and 12 other countries, saying hed hit them with tariffs Aug. 1 if they couldnt reach an agreement. The levies were close to what hed announced on April 2; Japans, for example, would be 25%, compared to the 24% unveiled April 2. Trump did sign an agreement last month with the United Kingdom that, among other provisions, reduced U.S. tariffs on British automotive and aerospace products while opening the U.K. market for American beef and ethanol. But the pact kept the baseline tariff on British products mostly in place, underlining Trumps commitment to the 10% tax despite the United States running a trade surplusnot a deficitwith the U.K. for 19 straight years, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. On July 2. Trump announced a deal with Vietnam. The Vietnamese agreed to let U.S. products into the country duty free whle accepting a 20% tax on their exports to the United States, Trump said, though details of the agreement have not been released. The lopsided deal with Vietnam suggests that Trump can successfully use the tariff threat to bully concessions out of smaller economies. They just cant really negotiate in the same way that the (European Union) or Korea or Japan (or) Canada can negotiate with the United States, said Dan McCarthy, principal in McCarthy Consulting and a former official with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in the Biden administration. A lot of (smaller) countries just want to get out of this and are willing to cut their losses. But wrangling a deal with bigger trading partners is likely to remain tougher. The U.S. is gambling that these countries will ultimately be intimidated and fold, Reinsch said. And the countries are gambling that the longer this stretches out, and the longer it goes without Trump producing any more deals, the more desperate he gets; and he lowers his standards. “Its kind of a giant game of chicken. Paul Wiseman, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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