Current Events

Jeannie Wells had hoped that regular visits would resume at her elderly mother’s New York nursing home once all the residents were fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Around Easter, her wish finally came true, and she was able to hold the 93-year-old’s hand more than a year after bringing her mother to the facility for rehabilitation for a fractured hip and knee.

But that reunion was short-lived. Visits were quickly stopped for about six weeks after an employee tested positive for COVID, and Wells said visits are still far from normal even when there haven’t been outbreaks.

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The fund established to compensate victims of Takata’s defective airbag inflators is writing more checks. The fund administrators have announced they are paying an additional $46 million to settle 161 more claims.

The fund has already paid out billions of dollars after the largest auto recall in history. The airbag inflators can degrade over time and explode, spraying the inside of the vehicle with tiny bits of metal.

The faulty airbags have been linked to 18 deaths in the U.
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a recall of nearly 62,000 pacemakers that were distributed between April 2015 and February 2019 after it was discovered that moisture could get inside the device causing an electrical short. The agency said there have been 135 complaints, 135 injuries but no deaths related to the recall of Assurity and Endurity implantable pacemakers.

The devices, made by Abbott, work to detect when the heart is beating too slowly, and then send signals to the brain to make it beat at the correct pace. If there is an electrical short in the device, it could spur wrong information, impact battery life, lose pacing function or require replacement.

"If the device is unable to deliver pacing, patients may experience slow or irregular heartbeat, fainting, shortness of breath, tiredness, dizziness or discomfort," the FDA said, on its recall notice.
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Kia is again recalling over 283,000 Optima sedans from the 2013 through 2015 model years and more than 156,000 Sorento SUVs from the 2014 and 2015 model years to fix a faulty part that may cause a fire. As with past recalls related to components causing fires, the automaker recommends that owners park their vehicles outdoors and away from structures until the problem can be fixed.

The issue is due to the potential of leaking brake fluid within the antilock brake system (ABS) module, which could lead to a short circuit and cause a fire within the vehicle’s engine compartment, either while driving or parked.

This is the second time these specific vehicles have been recalled, and it’s the latest in a series of fire-related recalls involving Hyundai and Kia cars. According to documentation there were six Optima and two Sorento fire-related customer complaints at the time of the original recall, and there were no fatalities, injuries, or crashes reported.
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Huge numbers of employees at New York nursing homes still haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19 — with more than 60 percent of staffers at some city facilities refusing to get the jab, state data shows.

The vaccination rates among workers drastically trail that of vulnerable residents at the same facilities, sparking outrage from advocates who warn it could impede their ability to visit loved ones in the homes.

“If staffers choose not to get the vaccine, they should find another line of work,” said Vivian Zayas, founder of Voices for Seniors, whose mom, Ana Martinez, died after contracting COVID-19 at a Long Island nursing home last year.

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Peloton has agreed to recall all of its treadmills and apologized for having fought the federal government's request to do so after the equipment came under scrutiny in the death of a 6-year-old child.

The exercise services company and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on Wednesday jointly announced voluntary recalls of Peloton Tread+ and Tread treadmills, covering about 125,000 and 1,050 units, respectively, in the U.S.
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3M Co (MMM.N) was found liable on Friday for hearing damage suffered by three U.S. military veterans who accused the company of covering up design defects in its earplugs, a blow to 3M which faces more than 200,000 similar claims.

The jury awarded each of the plaintiffs $2.
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Acella Pharmaceuticals can’t seem to get its thyroid medicine right.

Acella recalled a whopping 35 commercial lots and three sample lots of NP Thyroid medicine, used to treat underactive thyroids, for sub-potency. Testing found these lots had less than 90% of the active ingredients liothyronine (T3) and/or levothyroxine (T4) as claimed on the bottle labels.

If this sounds familiar, Acella recalled certain lots of NP Thyroid for sub-potency in September 2020 and several lots of the drug in late May 2020 for “super potency.”

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The 2020-2021 Kia Soul and the 2021 Kia Seltos are at the heart of a new recall. The Korean brand is recalling 147,249 vehicles as a result of an engine flaw that could lead to a fire.

The recall relates specifically to vehicles fitted with the 2.0-liter Nu MPI engine whose piston oil rings may have been improperly heat-treated, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Inconsistent heating-treating could make the oil rings too hard.
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The Bio-Console 560 Extracorporeal Blood Pumping Console is used to pump and return blood to a person during cardiopulmonary bypass, a procedure that temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lungs during surgery. The cardiopulmonary bypass procedure provides both circulatory and breathing support to a person whose heart and lungs are too weak to pump enough blood to the rest of the body.

The Bio-Console 560 can pump blood for up to six hours each time used.

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The perception that self-driving cars can really operate themselves without driver involvement is worrying automotive watchdogs, who say that some Americans have grown dangerously confident in the capabilities of semi-autonomous vehicles.

Their comments come as electric vehicle maker Tesla's so-called Autopilot system is under scrutiny once again following a crash that killed two passengers in the Houston area late Saturday.

"I would start by saying there are no self-driving cars despite what you may read about or what you’ve seen advertised," said Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing for Consumer Reports. "And there's certainly nothing anywhere close to self-driving that is in production right now."

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