Tag Archives: exposed

Health

I got exposed to COVID. Here’s what I learned to do next.

Leave a comment

ST. PETERSBURG — Last week I was exposed to COVID-19.

I had a group of friends over for dinner before everyone left for the holidays. Everyone was fully vaccinated and symptom-free, so we thought we were in the clear.

The next morning, one guest tested positive.

As the highly contagious omicron variant spreads across the state, it’s a situation that Floridians will face over the holiday season. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an exposure as being within 6 feet of an infected individual for more than 15 minutes.

So sitting next to an infected dinner guest for hours, as I did, definitely counts as an exposure.

Here are some steps that you can take to avoid exposure and what you can do if you’ve been exposed.

Related: Why won’t Florida, CDC release state’s breakthrough COVID data?

Take precautions

The good news, according to public health experts, is that you can still see friends and family this holiday season while minimizing your risk of exposure. Some precautions may be inconvenient, but far less so than the steps you’ll have to take after you learn you’ve been exposed.

I took some steps to avoid exposure, but experts I spoke to said I could have done better. Everyone at dinner was fully vaccinated and symptom-free, and we left the windows open to increase airflow indoors. I had recently received my booster shot, which experts say offers the best protection against omicron.

But being indoors was itself a problem, said Dr. Nishant Anand, executive vice president and chief medical officer for BayCare Health System.

“If you think of it on a sliding scale, the riskiest thing is to be indoors without a mask,” he said. “It does help whenever there are windows open and fans blowing to cycle the air out.”

He added: “Especially with the weather as nice as it is, I think it’s a much better idea for people to gather outside whenever they can.”

Our dinner was Sunday, Dec. 19. One guest, who was from out of town, tested negative for the coronavirus the day before our dinner. But he was the one who ended up positive less than 48 hours later.

Related: Omicron could drive 40,000 COVID cases a day in Florida, UF model shows

Going from negative to fully symptomatic in just two days would have seemed impossible with the previous variants, but it’s going to be a regular occurrence with omicron, said Céline Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at the New York University School of Medicine.

“The original variants had an incubation period of something like four to five days,” Gounder said. “With omicron it’s two to three days.”

That means people have to get tested more frequently in order to catch an infection, she said. “With omicron, you’re probably looking at testing at least daily, particularly in high-risk settings.”

Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines

Subscribe to our free DayStarter newsletter

We’ll deliver the latest news and information you need to know every weekday morning.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

Experts suggested taking a rapid antigen test every morning if you’re planning on being in close contact with people outside your immediate household.

Even with all those precautions, it’s inevitable that Floridians will be exposed to someone who contracts COVID-19. Here’s what experts say you should do next:

Contact tracing

“The first thing to do, obviously, is contact tracing,” said University of South Florida immunologist Michael Teng. “People need to know that they’ve been exposed so they can get tested and start monitoring for symptoms.”

That means you have to contact those you were in close contact with and let them know you were exposed to COVID-19, whether you’re experiencing symptoms and when you got tested.

Don’t rely on the government’s contact tracing. The Tampa Bay Times reported in October on the problems with the state’s contact tracing program, which spent millions telling infected people to call and warn those they were in contact with.

Teng suggests checking temperature regularly and using a fingertip oximeter to measure blood oxygen saturation. A change in temperature or oxygen saturation can often indicate an infection before you’d see the results of an at-home antigen test, Teng said.

Letting others know that they’ve been exposed is especially important at this time of year, when more people may be traveling to visit friends and family. “It’s incredibly easy to spread this variant,” the immunologist said, “so you need to know if you’re at risk of infection.”

Related: There’s not much ‘tracing’ in Florida’s COVID-19 contact tracing program

Wash hands, clean surfaces

If you’ve had an infected individual in your home, Anand said, it’s essential to wipe down surfaces with an antiviral cleaning agent. And you need to go back to washing your hands frequently, in case you’ve been slacking on that.

Household products like Lysol, Clorox, and a diluted solution of bleach work well for killing any virus particles left behind, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

“We know that most infections come from airborne particles,” Teng said. “The best way to avoid contact with virus (particles) that you pick up from surfaces … is still to wash your hands and avoid touching your face.”

Related: Are you ‘fully vaccinated’ against COVID? Omicron may change that.

Isolate and mask

Once you’re exposed, experts said, the most important thing is to make sure you don’t spread the virus to others.

The CDC recommends that fully vaccinated individuals should isolate for 10 days after an exposure, but that time period soon may be reduced. After that period of isolation, if you’re symptom-free and test negative, you should be in the clear.

During isolation, assume that you’re infected and can spread the virus to others. “It takes time for symptoms and tests to emerge as positive,” Gounder said. But you still can spread the virus to others before you feel ill or test positive.

“If you need to go out and get food or run to the drugstore, that’s fine,” she said. “But keep it to essential activities, not going out to the bar on Friday with my friends.”

And when you do go out, it’s essential to wear a mask to curb the potential that you might spread the virus to others. “You need to wear a higher-grade mask, at bare minimum a surgical mask,” Gounder said. N95 or KN95 type masks are the gold standard, especially for omicron, because “cloth masks just don’t cut it,” she said.

Related: Biden pledges 500 million free COVID tests to counter omicron

Don’t let the prospect of a positive result keep you from getting tested. Even the best COVID tests have some degree of uncertainty, “but not testing means your uncertainty level is 100 percent,” said Teng.

Don’t be embarrassed to tell others if you do test positive, and remember to be kind to someone who tells you that they might have been exposed. If someone tested positive and told you, Teng said, it means they care about you.

“That should be your takeaway, not that they brought COVID into your house,” he said. “They didn’t know they were infected and now they do. By telling you, they’re trying to protect you.”

Editor’s note: Ian Hodgson covers the COVID-19 pandemic for the Times. His last negative antigen test was on Dec. 23 and he is waiting for the results of a PCR test. He remains symptom-free.

• • •

For more information

The Florida Department of Health has tips for dealing with an exposure at: floridahealthcovid19.gov/exposure/

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers tips for staying safe during the holidays: bit.ly/3FsQa24

The Food and Drug Administration’s frequently asked COVID-19 questions: bit.ly/3JgX1Os

• • •

How to get vaccinated

The COVID-19 vaccine for ages 5 and up and booster shots for eligible recipients are being administered at doctors’ offices, clinics, pharmacies, grocery stores and public vaccination sites. Many allow appointments to be booked online. Here’s how to find a site near you:

Find a site: Visit vaccines.gov to find vaccination sites in your zip code.

More help: Call the National COVID-19 Vaccination Assistance Hotline.

Phone: 800-232-0233. Help is available in English, Spanish and other languages.

TTY: 888-720-7489

Disability Information and Access Line: Call 888-677-1199 or email DIAL@n4a.org.

• • •

KIDS AND VACCINES: Got questions about vaccinating your kid? Here are some answers.

BOOSTER SHOTS: Confused about which COVID booster to get? This guide will help.

BOOSTER QUESTIONS: Are there side effects? Why do I need it? Here’s the answers to your questions.

PROTECTING SENIORS: Here’s how seniors can stay safe from the virus.

COVID AND THE FLU: Get a flu shot and the COVID vaccine to avoid a ‘twindemic.’

GET THE DAYSTARTER MORNING UPDATE: Sign up to receive the most up-to-date information.

A TRIBUTE TO FLORIDIANS TAKEN BY THE CORONAVIRUS: They were parents and retirees, police officers and doctors, imperfect but loved deeply.

HAVE A TIP?: Send us confidential news tips.

We’re working hard to bring you the latest news on the coronavirus in Florida. This effort takes a lot of resources to gather and update. If you haven’t already subscribed, please consider buying a print or digital subscription.

Read original article here

Health

What Should You Do If You Test Positive for COVID or Were Exposed to Someone Who Has? – NBC Chicago

Leave a comment

What should you do if you or someone you have been in close contact with tests positive for coronavirus?

It’s a question many are asking as COVID cases surge in Illinois and across the U.S. leading up to the holidays and some questions how long they should quarantine, if at all and how long they might be contagious.

Here’s a look at the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on what to do if you test positive or believe you were exposed to someone who has.

How Soon Might Symptoms Appear?

According to the CDC, COVID symptoms can appear anywhere from two to 14 days after someone is exposed to the virus.

Anyone with symptoms should get tested for COVID.

When Should You Get a COVID Test?

Those who have been fully vaccinated and around someone who has COVID-19 are recommended to get tested between five and seven days after their exposure, according to the most recent guidance from the CDC, though previous guidance had been between three and five days.

Those who develop symptoms should get tested as symptoms develop, but if a test is negative and symptoms persist another test might be needed a few days later, particularly for those who use at-home test kits.

“So if someone is having symptoms and they get a negative test, one, it depends on the severity right? If you’re having severe symptoms we don’t want you to just do a home test either,” said Dr. Nimmi Rajagopal, the associate chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine for Cook County Health. “We want you to call your doctor’s office and make sure that they have an opinion here because there are of course other things like the flu that are out there that can mimic symptoms or have similar symptoms. But if you’re having symptoms and they’re kind of mild and lingering and you use the [at-home] test and it’s negative, we want you to take the precautions and then retest in three to five days. And that’s why most of these kits actually come with two tests.”

When is Someone With COVID Contagious?

A person with COVID-19 is considered infectious starting two days before they develop symptoms, or two days before the date of their positive test if they do not have symptoms.

How Long Should you Quarantine or Isolate?

First things first, those who believe they have been in contact with someone who has COVID and are unvaccinated should quarantine. Those who test positive, regardless of vaccination status, must isolate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s the breakdown:

Quarantine

Those who have been within 6 feet of someone with COVID for a cumulative total of at least 15 minutes over a 24-hour period should stay home for 14 days after their last contact with that person and watch for symptoms. If possible, those quarantining should also stay away from the people they live with, particularly those who are at an increased risk of developing more severe COVID illness.

If symptoms appear within the quarantine window, isolate immediately and contact a healthcare provider, the CDC’s guidance states.

Those who are fully vaccinated do not need to quarantine, according to the CDC, but they should get tested anywhere from five to seven days following their exposure regardless of symptoms.

Local health authorities can also make the final determination about how long a quarantine should last, however. And testing can play a role.

For example, in Chicago, those who travel to or from certain parts of the country and are unvaccinated must quarantine upon arrival to Chicago, but the length of time they should do so for depends on whether they get tested for COVID.

The city’s travel advisory recommends those who travel from the designated warning states must:

  • Get tested with a viral test 3-5 days after travel AND stay home and self-quarantine for a full 7 days.
  • Even if you test negative, stay home and self-quarantine for the full 7 days.
    • If your test is positive, isolate yourself to protect others from getting infected.
  • If you don’t get tested, stay home and self-quarantine for 10 days after travel.

Illinois’ health department states that:

  • Quarantine can end after Day 10 without testing and if no symptoms have been reported during any day of the daily monitoring period.
  • Quarantine can end after Day 7 if a RT (Reverse Transcriptase)-PCR test is negative and if no symptoms were reported during any day of the daily monitoring period. The earliest a specimen may be collected and tested would be on Day 6 with quarantine being discontinued no earlier than Day 8. This option is not recommended for children in daycares or K-12 schools, however.

“Due to the risk of severe illness and congregate transmission, IDPH recommends the full 14-day quarantine period rather than the shortened options described above in congregate living settings with vulnerable populations, such as skilled care and correctional facilities,” the Illinois Department of Public Health states on its website.

For schools, the guidance is different. In these settings, IDPH guidance states that:

  1. Any student or school personnel who is a confirmed case or probable case should stay home for a minimum of 10 days following onset date if symptomatic or date of positive test if asymptomatic, or as otherwise directed by the school’s local health authority.
  2. Any unvaccinated student or school personnel who is a close contact must stay home for a minimum of 14 days or as otherwise directed by the school’s local health authority, which may recommend options such as exclusion for 10 days without testing but with daily symptom check or seven days with a negative test result on day 6. As an alternative to exclusion, schools may permit close contacts who are asymptomatic to be on the school premises, extracurricular events, or any other events organized by the school if both the confirmed case or probable case and the contact were masked for the entire exposure period and provided the contact tests negative on days 1, 3, 5 and 7 following the exposure. Individuals who are fully vaccinated or who tested positive for COVID-19 within prior 90 days and are currently asymptomatic are not considered close contacts.
  3. Any student or school personnel who exhibit symptoms of COVID-19, as defined by the CDC, should stay home until they test negative for COVID-19, or for a minimum of 10 days, until they are fever free for 24 hours and until 48 hours after diarrhea or vomiting have ceased.

Isolation

According to the CDC, people who are positive for COVID should stay home until it’s safe for them to be around others, including even other members of their home.

Health officials recommend a “sick room” or area for those who are infected and a separate bathroom, if possible.

So how do you calculate your 10-day isolation period?

According to the CDC, “day 0 is your first day of symptoms.” That means that Day 1 is the first full day after your symptoms developed.

For those who test positive for COVID but have no symptoms, day 0 is the day of the positive test. Those who develop symptoms after testing positive must start their calculations over, however, with day 0 then becoming the first day of symptoms.

When Should You Call a Doctor?

The CDC urges those who have or may have COVID-19 to watch for emergency warning signs and seek medical care immediately if they experience symptoms including:

  • Trouble breathing
  • Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
  • New confusion
  • Inability to wake or stay awake
  • Pale, gray, or blue-colored skin, lips, or nail beds, depending on skin tone

“This list is not all possible symptoms,” the CDC states. “Please call your medical provider for any other symptoms that are severe or concerning to you.”

You can also notify the operator that you believe you or someone you are caring for has COVID.

What If You Test Positive Using an At-Home Test?

Those who test positive using an at-home test are asked to follow the latest CDC guidelines and communicate the results to their healthcare provider, who is responsible for reporting test results to the state health department.

Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady has said that that process is not likely happening for every test, however.

“All of those negatives realistically are not being reported,” Arwady said. “We’re not counting, you know, it’s a fiction that we’ve ever counted every COVID test.”

She added that though many home tests are not being reported, positive results likely are provided to health care providers, then to the health departments.

When Can You Be Around Other People After Having COVID?

If you had symptoms, the CDC says you can be around others if you meet the following criteria:

  • 10 days since symptoms first appeared and
  • 24 hours with no fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and
  • Other symptoms of COVID-19 are improving (note that loss of taste and smell may persist for weeks or months after recovery and do not count among these symptoms)

The CDC says these recommendations don’t apply to those who have severe COVID or weakened immune systems, however.

If you tested positive but had no symptoms for the duration of your isolation, the CDC says:

  • You can be with others after 10 days have passed since you had a positive viral test for COVID-19 (based on the date you were tested)

For those with severe illnesses or weakened immune systems, the CDC says staying home up to 20 days after symptoms first appeared is advised, but people in this group should talk to their healthcare provider before making decisions.

“People with weakened immune systems may require testing to determine when they can be around others,” the CDC’s website states. “Talk to your healthcare provider for more information.”

Read original article here

Health

Hospitalized patients at Jesse Brown VA Medical Center exposed to COVID-19 after staff member comes to work sick

Leave a comment

At least 18 people hospitalized at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center have tested positive for COVID-19 and potentially caught the disease from a sick staff member who continued to work for several days, according to an internal memo shared with the Sun-Times.

At least one of the patients has died.

Dr. Sarah Unterman, chief of staff at the hospital, called the situation “horrific and disturbing” in a memo sent to staff members last week, in which she also said many staff members weren’t wearing masks.

“We have committed very real harm to a large number of patients this week,” Unterman said in the memo. “All of these patients are vaccinated, and yet when a sick staff member came to work several days in a row, they exposed many patients to COVID who were here for other reasons.”

Unterman declined to comment directly about the memo and referred all questions to the hospital’s communications team. On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the hospital confirmed the memo was sent to staff last week.

Two high-risk patients who contracted COVID-19 were a patient over the age of 90 and a patient awaiting a lung transplant.

“We did this. And we all need to take responsibility,” Unterman wrote. “We absolutely must do and be better for the sake of our patients and our staff.”

In response to the recent outbreak, the 220-bed veterans hospital put in place restrictions for visitors at its main campus at 820 S. Damen Ave. Only a maximum of two inpatient visitors per patient are allowed into the facility for “end-of-life hospitalizations.”

Outpatient services remained unchanged with visitors only allowed in the facility if they are assisting a veteran who requires help, such as patients in wheelchairs.

Unterman stressed employees who are sick should stay home and put in place additional restrictions to help mitigate the spread of the virus, including mandating all staff members wear N95 masks and eye protection whenever entering a patient’s room in certain areas of the hospital.

All patients will need to wear hospital-issued masks when staff or visitors enter their rooms or are being transported through the hospital.

“Our hope is that this will not occur again and that these measures will lead to the prevention of COVID-19 in the future for the health and safety of veterans, their families, caregivers and our staff,” the spokeswoman said.

Unterman repeatedly urged staff members to wear a mask and said she had walked through the facility and ”found literally dozens of people (patients, staff, visitors) who either were not wearing a mask at all” or weren’t wearing it properly.

“We are better than this,” Unterman said. “We are supposed to be a place of healing, not a place of harm.”

Read original article here

Health

Thousands Possibly Exposed to Hepatitis a at NJ Starbucks: Officials

Leave a comment

  • Hundreds of people received vaccinations against hepatitis A after a Starbucks employee potentially exposed thousands to the virus. 
  • The Starbucks, located 1490 Blackwood Clementon Road in New Jersey, has been shut down. 
  • The employee tested positive for hepatitis A in November and handled food, CNN reported. 

We are so sorry! We bumped into a system failure and couldn’t take your email this time.

Hundreds of people in New Jersey got vaccinated against hepatitis A after a Starbucks employee tested positive for the virus and handled food. 

The Starbucks employee tested positive for hepatitis A earlier this month and may have exposed thousands of people to the virus, CNN reported.

Hepatitis A infects the liver and is easily spread through close contact or through consumption of contaminated food and beverages, according to a webpage from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms, which include fever, nausea, and vomiting, can appear two to six weeks after infection and last up to two months, according to the CDC. 

Health officials from the Camden County Health Department urged people in a news release to get vaccinated “as soon as possible but no later than 14 days after contact” if they had visited the Starbucks, located at 1490 Blackwood Clementon Road, on November 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, and 13. 

Immediately upon hearing the news of the possible exposure, the Camden County Health Department shut down the Starbucks location, CNN reported.

“The county health department has been working closely with the patient and the staff at the Starbucks to address the situation,” Camden County Health Officer Paschal Nwako said in a release. “Our highest priority is ensuring everyone involved remains safe and healthy. The patient is not currently working, and close contacts have been identified. We encourage anyone who may believe they were exposed to get vaccinated against hepatitis A by calling the county health department or your primary care physician.”

Public health employees set up pop-up vaccine clinics near the affected Starbucks location on Friday and Saturday, CNN reported. So far, health officials have distributed 800 vaccines against hepatitis A, the largest vaccine effort in the history of New Jersey, according to CNN. 

“Starbucks says that that location is busy, as most are. They’re saying they have an average of 600 patrons a day and some are return patrons maybe going multiple times a day,” county spokesperson Dan Keashen told CNN. “But the exposure is probably in the thousands.”

The employee who tested positive is in recovery, CNN reported. And so far, no one else has tested positive. 

Read original article here

Entertainment

Meghan Markle’s Private Messages Exposed by Aide Behind Bullying Accusation

Leave a comment

Meghan Markle’s private messages to the aide who accused her of bullying have blown open her PR operation in the middle of her most high-profile lawsuit.

The Duchess of Sussex sued the Mail on Sunday for publishing a private letter she sent her father, in which she begged him to stop talking to the media.

She won a resounding victory in February with no need for a trial in which she would have to give evidence, but the newspaper appealed.

Now Jason Knauf, her former communications secretary, handed text messages she sent him about the handwritten note to the Court of Appeal, where the tabloid is trying to overturn her privacy victory.

Meghan’s message to Knauf in 2018, prior to sending the letter said: “Obviously everything I’ve drafted is with the understanding that it could be leaked so I have been meticulous in my word choice but please do let me know if anything stands out to you as a liability.”

She added: “Honestly Jason, I feel fantastic, cathartic and real and honest and factual.

“If he leaks it then that’s on his conscience but at least the world will know the truth, words I could never voice publicly.”

The newspaper is using the messages to argue Meghan’s right to privacy was diluted by the fact she expressed a willingness for the world to know the contents of the letter.

Meghan did also express a desire for it to remain secret, saying: “Given I’ve only ever called him ‘Daddy’ it may make sense to open as such (despite him being less than paternal), and in the unfortunate event that it leaked it would pull at the heartstrings.”

She added: “The rest is in the spirit of facts without seeming orchestrated simply an appeal for peace and a reminder of what’s actually happened.”

The Mail on Sunday‘s lawyers suggest the messages directly contradict Meghan’s own case to the court.

Meghan said, in a witness statement seen by Newsweek: “To be clear, I did not want any of it to be published, and wanted to ensure that the risk of it being manipulated or misleadingly edited was minimized, were it to be exploited.”

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, seen at Global Citizen Live on September 25, 2021, have seen their private messages with aide Jason Knauf exposed through a court case over a letter the duchess sent her father Thomas Markle. Meghan sued the ‘Mail on Sunday’ for publishing it.
NDZ/Star Max/GC Images

However, Knauf’s disclosures did not stop there and turned to another area where Meghan has been in dispute with the media.

The former palace staffer also released messages sent to him by both Meghan and Harry about the biography Finding Freedom ahead of a meeting he had with the authors in December 2018.

Meghan wrote to Knauf: “Thank you very much for the info below – for when you sit down with them [the book’s authors] it may be helpful to have some background reminders so I’ve included them below just in case.

“I know you are better versed at this than most but assisting where I can. I appreciate your support – please let me know if you need me to fill in any other blanks.”

Prince Harry also sent him a message, which said: “I totally agree that we have to be able to say we didn’t have anything to do with it.

“Equally, you giving the right context and background to them would help get some
truths out there.

“The truth is v much needed and would be appreciated, especially around the Markle/wedding stuff but at the same time we can’t put them directly in touch with her friends.”

Meghan said in her witness statement to the court: “As far as I can recall, Mr. Knauf first brought the book to my attention in around early summer of 2018, at a meeting in the Audience Room of Kensington Palace, which is where many of our conversations took place.

“He told me about the book and that the authors wanted to meet with me, which we both agreed would be inappropriate and therefore I would decline.

“Given my experience with the U.K. media at that point, which I had come to distrust, I did not wish to meet with any authors in connection with any book being written about me, and nor did I.”

Read original article here

Sports

Jake Paul takes aim at Claressa Shields after PFL loss: ‘The fake always get exposed’

Leave a comment

Jake Paul didn’t waste any time firing back in the aftermath of Claressa Shields’ PFL loss.

Shields suffered her first professional loss in combat sports on Wednesday when she dropped a split decision to Abigail Montes at PFL’s season finale. Two judges scored the contest 29-28 in favor of the 21-year-old Montes, who stifled Shields with her wrestling and clinch game en route to pulling off the upset over the decorated boxing champion.

Mere minutes after the bout’s conclusion, Paul tweeted at Shields with a gleeful message calling the two-time Olympic champion “a loser” and blasting her for having a “prima donna attitude.”

Paul’s words can be read in full below.

“The truth hurts but it’s necessary. Clarissa [sic] Shields is a loser. In MMA, and even more so with her prima donna attitude. The fake always get exposed. Losses come when anger and hate take over. Just ask Rousey and McGregor. She spent more time berating Jake Paul than learning Jiu Jitsu. She’s never been a big draw and unfortunately for her she never will be. Amanda Serrano (the GWOAT) though, has 30 KOs in 42 fights. 2-0 in MMA, both wins by submission. Congrats Abigail Montes on the win.”

Paul’s message appeared to be a direct response to comments Shields made in recent months about not wanting to fight on one of Paul’s undercards. Shields initially spoke on the subject at a PFL press conference in September and framed the topic as disrespectful. She then elaborated on her words on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour.

“What has Jake Paul done that’s so great to where he gets to be the main event pay-per-view on Showtime, but I don’t?” Shields told host Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “I gotta fight under him. That’s the thing, it’s like I actually earned my opportunity. They’re just giving it to him. They’re like, ‘Hey, you’re Jake Paul, you’ve got a million subscribers on YouTube, you and your brother get to fight main event on Showtime.’

“That’s trash. I literally earned my spot and never was given an opportunity. That’s what pisses me off. It’s not really Jake Paul, it’s more like how dare they give him the opportunity that I earned. I fought the main event on Showtime six times, sold out arenas for Showtime, and still would get the ‘We don’t think you’re big enough to fight on pay-per-view.’ Get out of here. It’s crap. That’s why I would never fight on the undercard of him or nobody else who haven’t earned it. If they’re not a world champion, Errol Spence, Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather, Terence Crawford, even Shakur Stevenson, if they not under them I’m not fighting on no undercard of no other men.”

Shields remains one of the most decorated female boxers of her era, a champion in three weight divisions who also captured gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. She is an undefeated 11-0 in her professional boxing career and held a 77-1 record as an amateur.

The 26-year-old boxing champion inked a three-year deal with PFL in November 2020 and went into Wednesday’s event having won her MMA debut over Brittney Elkin in June with a dramatic third-round comeback. Her attempt at competing simultaneously in boxing and MMA may have taken a hit Wednesday, but Shields is still tentatively scheduled to defend her three boxing titles against Ema Kozin on Dec. 11 in Birmingham, England.

Paul is 4-0 as a professional boxer and last fought against former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in August, winning via split decision.

Read original article here

Technology

Amazon-owned Twitch says source code exposed in last week’s data breach

Leave a comment

A twitch sign-in screen is seen at the offices of Twitch Interactive Inc, a social video platform and gaming community owned by Amazon, in San Francisco, California, U.S., March 6, 2017. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

Oct 15 (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc-owned (AMZN.O) Twitch said on Friday that last week’s data breach at the live streaming e-sports platform contained documents from its source code.

Passwords, login credentials, full credit card numbers and bank details of users were not accessed or exposed in the breach, Twitch said in a statement.

The platform, which is used by video gamers for interacting with users while live streaming content, had blamed the breach on an error in the server configuration change.

Server configuration changes are performed during server maintenance. A faulty configuration can expose the data stored in the servers to unauthorized access.

Twitch said it was “confident” the incident affected only a small number of users and that it was contacting those who had been directly impacted. The platform has more than 30 million average daily visitors.

Video Games Chronicle had reported that about 125 gigabytes of data was leaked in the breach, including details on Twitch’s highest-paid video game streamers since 2019.

Reporting by Chavi Mehta and Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read original article here

Technology

Whole Foods customer records among 82M exposed due to vulnerable database

Leave a comment

In early July, security researcher Jeremiah Fowler, in partnership with the CoolTechZone research team, discovered a non-password-protected database that contained more than 82 million records.

The records had information that referenced multiple companies, including Whole Foods Market (owned by Amazon) and Skaggs Public Safety Uniforms, a company that sells uniforms for police, fire, and medical customers all over the United States.

The logging records exposed numerous customer order records, names, physical addresses, emails, partial credit card numbers, and more. These records were marked as “Production.”

Overall, the size of the leaked data is approximately 9.57GB. The total number of records when first discovered (between April 25 and July 11) was 28,035,225. After the notice was sent (between April 25 and July 30), the total number of records rose to 82,099,847.

What do logging records tell us?

There were millions of logging records that did not have any specific order, so it is hard to fully understand just how many individuals were affected.

The Whole Foods records identified internal user IDs of their procurement system, IP addresses, and what appear to be authorization logs or successful login records from an activity monitoring system.

Other logs had references to Smith System, a school furniture manufacturer, and Chalk Mountain Services, a trucking leader in the oilfield services industry.

The majority of the payment and credit records appeared to be connected to Skaggs Public Safety Uniforms. They operate multiple locations and have offices in Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. CoolTechZone ran several queries for words such as “police” and “fire” and could see multiple agencies as well as their orders, notes, and customization requests.

Logging can identify important security information about a network. The most important thing about monitoring and logging is to understand that they can inadvertently expose sensitive information or records in the process.

Reviewing logs regularly is an important security step that should not be overlooked, but often is. These reviews could help identify malicious attacks on your system or unauthorized access.

Unfortunately, because of the massive amount of log data generated by systems, it is often not logical to manually review these logs, and they get ignored. It is vital to ensure that records are not kept for longer than is needed, sensitive data is not stored in plain text, and public access is restricted to any storage repositories.

How is this dangerous for users?

The real risk to customers is that criminals would have insider information that could be used to socially engineer their victims.

As an example, there would be enough information to call or email and say, “I see you just purchased our product recently, and I need to verify your payment information for the card ending in 123.” The unsuspecting customer would have no reason to doubt the verification because the criminal would already have enough information to establish trust and credibility.

Or, using a “Man in the Middle” approach, the criminal could provide invoices to partners or customers with different payment information so that the funds would be sent to the criminal and not the intended company.

Internal records can also show where data is stored, what versions of middleware are being used, and other important information about the configuration of the network.

This could identify critical vulnerabilities that could potentially allow for a secondary path into the network. Middleware is considered “software glue” and serves as a bridge between two applications. Middleware can also introduce added security risks.

Using any third party application, service, or software creates a scenario where your data may be out of your control. As is commonly said, “data is the new oil,” and it is extremely valuable.

Often, when there is a data exposure, it happens because of human error and misconfiguration, not malicious intent. CoolTechZone would highly recommend changing all administrative credentials in the event of any data exposure to be on the safe side.

It is unclear exactly how long the database was exposed and who else may have gained access to the publicly accessible records. Only a thorough cyber forensic audit would identify if the dataset was accessed by other individuals or what activity was conducted.

It is also unclear if clients, customers, or authorities were notified of the potential exposure.

This story originally appeared on Cooltechzone.com. Copyright 2021

VentureBeat

VentureBeat’s mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative technology and transact.

Our site delivers essential information on data technologies and strategies to guide you as you lead your organizations. We invite you to become a member of our community, to access:

  • up-to-date information on the subjects of interest to you
  • our newsletters
  • gated thought-leader content and discounted access to our prized events, such as Transform 2021: Learn More
  • networking features, and more

Become a member

Read original article here

Technology

Twitch Streamers’ Earnings Were Exposed. Now, It’s a Meme

Leave a comment

Usually on Twitch, the rallying cry “Let’s get top five, baby!” refers to a video game leaderboard. Now, in the wake of a cataclysmic data breach, the gaming world is focused on a new leaderboard: one that ranks streamers according to how much money they make from Twitch.

A circus of controversy washed over the internet Wednesday after an anonymous 4chan user leaked 125 GB of data from the streaming platform, which included payout information for over 10,000 Twitch streamers. Twitch confirmed the breach later that day, saying that a server configuration change had allowed a “malicious third party” to access the data. The revenue data, which spanned subscriptions, donations and ads between August 2019 to October 2021, immediately went viral on 4chan, Twitter, Reddit, and other social media. (Several streamers have stated that the information is mostly accurate, although the Twitch payments do not represent their only income source.) And while streamers are understandably concerned about potential privacy risks associated with the data breach, many have also been meme-ing on the money and, as always, making money on the memes.

“NUMBA 6 BEGS FOR PRIMES,” top streamer Ludwig Ahgren titled his livestream yesterday, referring to Twitch’s Prime subscriptions. Twenty-four thousand viewers tuned in. Scrolling through a website that organized the payout information into a leaderboard, Ahgren typed in various streamers’ usernames to find what they made. (The website has since been taken down.) At one point, Ahgren called another streamer, Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo, to continue the gossip fest. “Number six!” Rinaudo yelled in a greeting to Ahgren. “You have to scroll to see my number. That’s embarrassing.”

“I’d never want to hide how much I make, so I’m down to make a meme out of it,” Ahgren tells WIRED. “I’ve had a meme for a while: bigger number, better person. That’s kind of how it feels when you’re a content creator, directly correlating your value as a human to how big you are, how much money you make.” (Ludwig confirmed that he did earn about $3.3 million through Twitch subscriptions, bits, and ads between late 2019 and October 2021.)

All day yesterday, streamers and their fans referred to their favorite gaming celebrities by their numbers on the now-defunct Twitch earnings leaderboard. On popular Twitch gossip subreddit r/LivestreamFail, posts piled up with titles like “#6 talks to #23,” “#137’s worst nightmare” or even “#6, #188, #264, #280, #269, #343, #414, #550, #1049 and #1905 team up to beat up #28.”

Part of the impetus to meme came simply from streamers’ gargantuan payouts. According to the leaked data, the top 81 streamers each earned over $1 million through Twitch since late 2019. The top five earned over $5 million each. While the financial information was explosive, it’s not news that some streamers rake in millions. In fact, savvy viewers might be able to approximately calculate some streamers’ revenue information on their own, no leak required. Most subscriptions for streamers with Partner status cost $5 and Twitch takes 50 percent of those earnings. So if a Partnered streamer has 50 subscribers paying $5 a month, that streamer will earn $125 a month from subscriptions alone. On top of that, streamers will earn money from Bit donations (which Twitch skims 30 percent off) and partner program ads (which Twitch skims 20 to 30 percent off), according to Alex Curry, gaming influencer marketing strategist at Upfluence.

“This leak highlights how lucrative streaming can be, and we are only speaking of direct incomes from Twitch itself (subs + ads + bits),” says Curry. That’s not a whole picture of streamers’ earnings, though. “To those figures, you can add brand collaborations, sponsorship, merchandising, and donations. So the top streamer salary reality is significantly higher than this.” The actual mystery, at least to the public, is how much money streamers make from those private deals. And those numbers—which weren’t included in the hacker’s data dump—can be huge. Yesterday, in a spreadsheet, Ahgren shared that between late 2019 and October 2021, he made $3,000,000, or 44 percent of his income, off sponsors.

Read original article here

Business

Pfizer testing oral drug to prevent COVID-19 in those exposed to virus

Leave a comment

Pfizer has started mid-to-late stage trials to test an oral drug designed to prevent COVID-19 in those who’ve been exposed to the virus, the company announced Monday.  

The drugmaker has moved forward in examining the effects of the oral antiviral candidate PF-07321332 after its first trial phase determined the drug was “safe and well-tolerated.” In the next phase, Pfizer will enroll up to 2,660 healthy adults who live in the same household as a person with a confirmed symptomatic COVID-19 infection. 

Participants will receive the oral drug and a low dose of the HIV drug ritonavir to help slow the breakdown of PF-07321332 to keep it in the body longer, or a placebo twice daily for five to 10 days. The protease inhibitor works by blocking the activity of an enzyme that the virus needs to duplicate. 

The study aims to “assess safety and efficacy” of the drug in preventing COVID-19 cases and symptoms through two weeks after exposure. Pfizer said in a release that the drug can potentially be administered “at the first sign of infection or at first awareness of an exposure without requiring patients to be hospitalized.”

Such a treatment for COVID-19 exposure has the potential to decrease infections and change the trajectory of the pandemic. Currently, there is no approved oral treatment for those exposed to COVID-19 seeking to prevent infection.

Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer, said the company thinks developing treatments for those who catch or are exposed to the virus can help limit infections by “complementing” vaccines. 

“If successful, we believe this therapy could help stop the virus early – before it has had a chance to replicate extensively – potentially preventing symptomatic disease in those who have been exposed and inhibiting the onset of infection in others,” Dolsten said.

Pfizer’s vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech, has been the only shot approved in the U.S. to receive full Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval so far. More than 223 million doses have been administered to Americans since its emergency authorization in December, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.



Read original article here