Deadly infection linked to contaminated room spray sold at Walmart

cases of a serious, sometimes fatal infection called melioidosis that have bedeviled public health investigators for months appear to have been linked to an aromatherapy room spray sold at Walmart, a product recall notice issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission revealed Friday.

The product, Better Homes and Gardens Lavender and Chamomile Essential Oil Infused Aromatherapy Room Spray with Gemstones, was sold at 55 Walmart locations and on the company’s website from February to Oct. 21.

A statement from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention instructs people to stop using it immediately but not to throw the product away. It says people who have the product should double bag it in clear plastic bags, place it in a small box, and return it to Walmart, which has issued a recall.

The CDC statement also suggests that people who have used the product in the past 21 days who have symptoms consistent with melioidosis should seek medical care and tell the attending doctor about the aromatherapy spray exposure. People who have no symptoms but have used the spray in the past seven days should also see a doctor, who may prescribe antibiotics to prevent infection, the CDC said.

Source: Deadly infection linked to contaminated room spray sold at Walmart

Opinion | Angela Merkel’s Refugee Plan Worked – The New York Times

“With the passage of time,” Marton told me, Merkel “turned out to have chosen the absolutely right course for not only Germany but for the world.”

The refugee policy was what inspired Marton, a former ABC News bureau chief in Germany and the author of nine previous books, to write about Merkel in the first place. Marton is herself the daughter of refugees from Hungary, journalists who had been imprisoned by the Communist regime, and the granddaughter of victims of Auschwitz. (She’s also the widow of the famed diplomat Richard Holbrooke, whom she began dating when he was Bill Clinton’s ambassador to Germany.) Watching Merkel in the summer of 2015, said Marton, “I just thought wow, who is she, and how is she getting away with this?”

Part of the reason that Germans accepted — and in many cases celebrated — Merkel’s decision lies in their country’s unique relationship to its national history. Germany has made reckoning with the Holocaust central to its identity, and many citizens grabbed eagerly at this chance for redemption.

“When their trains pulled into the gleaming Munich station, exhausted men, women and children were greeted by a sea of signs that read, ‘Welcome to Germany,’ held aloft by cheering citizens lining the platforms,” wrote Marton. Volunteers converted schools and stores into dormitories. “Germans were more than happy — in fact, thrilled — to see themselves in the role of humanitarian saviors,” said Stelzenmüller.

But the refugees had more to offer Germany than a burnished self-image. In an aging country with a low birthrate, they were a useful addition to the work force. The economy, Stelzenmüller said, “was looking for labor before the pandemic, and so there was a real demand and presumably a willingness from the labor market and companies to help people. And of course we have a long experience, a decades-long practice, of on-the-job training that is seen as a model by other European countries and in fact by America.”

With Covid infections rising, the Tories are conducting a deadly social experiment | Andy Beckett | The Guardian

In Britain, the politics of Covid have been thought about and discussed almost entirely in party terms: the relative caution and competence of the SNP government in Scotland and its Labour counterpart in Wales; the recklessness and lethal mistakes of the Conservatives in England, and whether Labour can make the Tories pay for them. The pandemic has been seen as a potential turning point for all the main parties.

That it has not worked out like that – so far – has been a huge disappointment for the Conservatives’ enemies. But this focus on the parties has also been convenient for voters. Uncomfortable questions about whether our individual behaviour during the pandemic has matched our political values have not been asked.

These questions particularly matter now. Since Boris Johnson declared “freedom day” on 19 July, almost all the previous restrictions on everyday life in England under Covid have been removed. “Personal responsibility”, as Johnson and his ministers like to put it with a libertarian relish, has replaced emergency legislation as one of the main weapons against the virus. In effect, a giant experiment in individual ethics has been under way.

The results look increasingly alarming. In pubs, in shops, on public transport and in other enclosed spaces where the virus easily spreads, many people are acting as if the pandemic is over – or at least, over for them. Mask-wearing and social distancing have sometimes become so rare that to practise them feels embarrassing.

Source: With Covid infections rising, the Tories are conducting a deadly social experiment | Andy Beckett | The Guardian

Animal rights becomes key issue in Japan’s general election

In its election campaign pledges, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party vows to crack down on irresponsible animal dealers and facilitate the adoptions of cats and dogs rescued after being abandoned by their original owners while seeking to reduce the number of euthanized pets to zero.

The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan calls for increasing animal dealers’ responsibilities and enhancing penalties for abuse. It also pledges to craft legislation on animal welfare and establish a system for taking away pets from abusive owners.

Komeito, the coalition partner of the LDP, has proposed measures against animal hoarding and combining policies that cover social welfare and animal protection, such as helping the elderly coexist with pets. The party is also calling for the promotion of nurses for pets.

Group homes with pets have garnered attention as they apparently help heal residents while reducing the number of euthanized animals. Japan culled roughly 33,000 cats and dogs in fiscal 2019, according to the Environment Ministry.

The Japan Communist Party, a smaller opposition force, is seeking to create a consultation system for preventing animal hoarding as well as how to deal with pets during times of disaster.

Source: Animal rights becomes key issue in Japan’s general election

APO Group – Africa Newsroom / Press release | Madagascar: Severe Drought could Spur World’s First Climate Change Famine

More than one million people in southern Madagascar are struggling to get enough to eat, due to what could become the first famine caused by climate change, according to the World Food Programme (WFP)

The region has been hit hard by successive years of severe drought, forcing families in rural communities to resort to desperate measures just to survive.

Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, has a unique ecosystem which includes animals and plants found nowhere else on the planet. The country experiences a dry season, usually from May to October, and a rainy season that starts in November.

Source: APO Group – Africa Newsroom / Press release | Madagascar: Severe Drought could Spur World’s First Climate Change Famine

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