Essential drugs

GREENSBURG, Pa. (KDKA) — Police say a man who led them on a foot chase was arrested after he left a trail of drugs. Susan Sager told KDKA that she was having a good night’s sleep when things got crazy last Friday. READ MORE: 7 Southwestern Pa. Counties To Discuss Creating Regional Health Department “I was sleeping and I heard screaming and shouting,” Sager said. The Greensburg woman was talking about when police showed up at a home on Euclid Avenue looking for John Stenhouse. Sager, who has lived in the neighborhood for four years, said, “I got up and looked outside and saw the police there.” Investigators say the 20-year-old man was suspected of carrying a large number of illegal drugs. When police showed up, they say Stenhouse ran down back alleys. According to police, as Stenhouse was running from law enforcement, he was getting rid of the alleged drugs he was carrying on his person. He essentially gave police a breadcrumb trail of illegal drugs that eventually lead … [Read more...] about Police: Man Runs From Officers In Westmoreland Co., Arrested After Leaving Trail Of Drugs

With attention firmly focused on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the United States, a key point in the process has been largely overlooked: full approval of the vaccines themselves. The vaccines currently being distributed and administered across the U.S. are still approved only under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Emergency Use Authorization. Full vaccine approval normally takes five to ten years. But rumor has it that FDA approval for COVID vaccines may come as early as this year. The approval process gives the FDA an opportunity to ensure we have the long-term data needed to make use of the vaccines as a tool to stem the pandemic. While some hold out hope that mass vaccination alone will bring an end to the pandemic, from what we know today about the virus and its ability to mutate and evolve, there’s no guarantee it will. With the approval process, the FDA can move us closer to that goal. There are some pieces of data that we will definitely have access to … [Read more...] about Questions the FDA must ask drug makers as it considers full COVID-19 vaccine approval

WASHINGTON - U.S. pharmaceutical giant Merck has agreed to help manufacture rival Johnson & Johnson’s new coronavirus vaccine to help speed production of millions of new doses of the single shots to inoculate more Americans in the coming months, White House officials said Tuesday. Johnson & Johnson has encountered unexpected production problems, even as it won emergency use approval last weekend for the vaccine. The company has manufactured 3.9 million doses so far, but says it is on pace to produce 100 million doses by the end of June. President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the U.S. will have enough vaccines for all Americans in May, calling the agreement between the two pharmaceutical companies a “major step forward. “There is a light at the end of the tunnel,” Biden said, but cautioned that “it’s not over yet.” Asked when Americans could expect a return to a “normal” life resembling pre-pandemic times, he said he could not give a sure answer, but hoped it would be … [Read more...] about US Drug Maker Merck to Help Produce Rival’s COVID Vaccine

The full impact of coronavirus pandemic lockdowns may take years to understand, but the negative effects have already taken a toll on many aspects of Americans’ lives.The abrupt change in routine for millions upended the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds. World Health Organization (WHO) special COVID-19 envoy David Nabarro also recently said the WHO does not advocate lockdowns as the “primary means of control of this virus,” and that lockdowns are only justified as a tool to “buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources.”  Months after the popularized motto “flatten the curve” encouraged people to make the temporary sacrifice of remaining at home and only going to the store when absolutely necessary, millions continue feeling the effects of the lockdowns.  Sequential surveys studied by the University of Texas’s Olivier Coibion, University of California at Berkeley’s Yuriy Gorodnichenko, and … [Read more...] about The True Cost Of Coronavirus Lockdowns

Tracey Ballard applied to join the Central Intelligence Agency in 1985. The last step in her months-long vetting was a polygraph exam. Ballard knew that she might be asked about her sexuality. And if she answered truthfully, she thought she probably wouldn’t get the job. To be openly gay or lesbian, according to the twisted official logic of that bygone but not-distant era, was presumed to be so shameful that intelligence agency employees would do anything to keep their dark secret, including handing over classified information to a foreign adversary who threatened blackmail. Never mind that being open about one’s sexuality or gender identity would take away the very leverage that a Chinese or Russian agent might try to use. As a matter of policy, the federal government could deny or revoke a security clearance, and thus access to classified information, based on someone’s sexual orientation. And someone who lacks a clearance is effectively unemployable, at the CIA or … [Read more...] about How the CIA Came Out of the Closet