Confederate Symbols: Relation to Federal Lands and Programs

"Congress is considering the relationship of Confederate symbols to federal lands and programs. A number of federal agencies administer assets or fund activities in which references to the Civil War Confederacy, Confederate flags and artifacts, and commemorations of Confederate soldiers are present. In particular, the National Park Service (NPS), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Department of Defense (DOD) manage multiple sites or programs involving Confederate symbols.

NPS manages over 100 units of the National Park System with resources related to Civil War history. Some of these units contain works commemorating Confederate soldiers or actions. NPS also administers national cemeteries that display the Confederate flag at certain times. Further, the agency is connected with some state and local Confederate memorials through its historic preservation assistance to nonfederal sites. NPS manages its Confederate-related assets in the context of its statutory mission to preserve historic and cultural resources unimpaired for future generations. NPS engages in interpretation and education about these symbols.

Through its National Cemetery Administration, VA administers 143 national cemeteries, many of which contain the remains of Confederate soldiers. VA also provides grants to assist with the establishment of state veterans’ cemeteries. Confederate graves in VA cemeteries may have a special headstone that includes the Southern Cross of Honor and may display the Confederate flag at certain times. In addition, 34 monuments and memorials located in national cemeteries explicitly honor Confederate soldiers or officials. VA manages these memorials and monuments in the context of its mandate to maintain national cemeteries as “national shrines.”

Within DOD, the Army administers 10 major installations named after Confederate military leaders. The Army also has jurisdiction over Arlington National Cemetery, which contains Section 16 for Confederate graves and a monument to Confederate dead. More broadly, the military services have considered Confederate symbols in the context of policies on flag displays and policies for good order and discipline within units..."
Confederate Symbols

Salmonella and Food

"You may know that Salmonella can contaminate poultry and eggs, but it also sneaks its way into many other foods. Learn what you can do to make your food safer to eat.

Salmonella is a bacteria that commonly causes foodborne illness, sometimes called “food poisoning.” CDC estimates Salmonella causes 1 million foodborne illnesses every year in the United States. During the past few years, outbreaks of Salmonella illness have been linked to contaminated cucumbers, pre-cut melon, chicken, eggs, pistachios, raw tuna, sprouts, and many other foods.

Five Facts That May Surprise You

Don’t let Salmonella make you or your loved ones sick. Learn these five facts and tips for lowering your chance of getting a Salmonella infection.

1. You can get a Salmonella infection from a variety of foods. Salmonella can be found in many foods including beef, chicken, eggs, fruits, pork, sprouts, vegetables, and even processed foods, such as nut butters, frozen pot pies, chicken nuggets, and stuffed chicken entrees. When you eat a food that is contaminated with Salmonella, it can make you sick. Contaminated foods usually look and smell normal, which is why it is important to know how to prevent Salmonella infection.

Watch AJ’s story to learn how he got Salmonella from eating contaminated chicken.

2. Salmonella illness is more common in the summer. Warmer weather and unrefrigerated foods create ideal conditions for Salmonella to grow. Be sure to refrigerate or freeze perishables (foods likely to spoil or go bad quickly), prepared foods, and leftovers within 2 hours. Chill them within 1 hour if the temperature is 90°F or hotter.

3. Salmonella illness can be serious and is more dangerous for certain people. Symptoms of infection usually appear 6 hours to 6 days after eating a contaminated food. These symptoms include diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps. In most cases, illness lasts 4–7 days and people recover without antibiotic treatment. Some people may have severe diarrhea and need to be hospitalized. Anyone can get a Salmonella infection, but some groups are more likely to develop a serious illness: adults aged 65 and older, children younger than 5 years, and people with immune systems weakened from medical conditions, such as diabetes, liver or kidney disease, and cancer, or their treatment..."
   Salmonella

Do I have a Salmonella infection?
Contact your doctor or healthcare provider if you have:

• Diarrhea and a fever over 102°F
• Diarrhea for more than 3 days that is not improving
• Bloody stools
• Prolonged vomiting that prevents you from keeping liquids down
• Signs of dehydration, such as:
  • Making very little urine
  • Dry mouth and throat
  • Dizziness when standing up

New COVID-19 Law Lab

[World  Health Organization]

"Launching today, the COVID-19 Law Lab initiative gathers and shares legal documents from over 190 countries across the world to help states establish and implement strong legal frameworks to manage the pandemic. The goal is to ensure that laws protect the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities and that they adhere to international human rights standards.

The new Lab (at www.COVIDLawLab.org) is a joint project of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University. 

Well-designed laws can help build strong health systems; evaluate and approve safe and effective drugs and vaccines; and enforce actions to create healthier and safer public spaces and workplaces. Critically, they are key to effective implementation of the WHO International Health Regulations: surveillance; infection prevention and control; management of travel and trade; and implementation of measures to maintain essential health services. .."

COVID-19 Law Lab

Routine Vaccination During the COVID-19 Outbreak

"A CDC report released in May 2020 found a troubling drop in routine childhood vaccinations as a result of families staying at home. While families followed public health warnings about going out, an unfortunate result was many missed routine vaccinations. CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend every child continues to receive routine vaccinations during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Well-Child Visits and Vaccinations Are Essential Services

Children need to be protected against vaccine-preventable diseases. Well-child visits and vaccinations are essential services and help make sure children are protected. Children who are not protected by vaccines may be more likely to get diseases like measles and whooping cough.

As communities are opening up, it’s important for parents to work with their children’s doctor or nurse to make sure their children stay up to date on routine vaccines.

Going to Medical Offices During the COVID-19 Outbreak

If your child is due for a well-child visit, call the doctor’s office and ask about ways they safely offer well-child visits during this time. Many medical offices are taking extra steps to make sure that well visits can happen safely during the COVID-19 outbreak, including:

• Scheduling sick visits and well-child visits during different times of the day
• Asking patients to remain outside until it’s time for their appointment to reduce the number of people in waiting rooms
• Offering sick visits and well-child visits in different locations.."
  Vaccines and COVID-19

Get the New Shingrix Vaccine If You Are 50 or Older

"Shingles is a painful rash illness, which sometimes leads to long-term nerve pain. A shingles vaccine called Shingrix is the best way to help protect yourself against shingles.

If you’re 50 or older, get Shingrix

• Shingrix provides strong protection from shingles and long-term nerve pain.
• Get Shingrix even if you already had shingles, because you can get the disease more than once.
• Your risk of shingles and complications increases as you age.
• You need 2 doses of Shingrix. Get the second dose 2 to 6 months after you get the first dose.

If you got a shingles vaccine in the past, still get Shingrix

• You may have already got a different shingles vaccine called Zostavax. If you did, you still need 2 doses of Shingrix.

Make a plan to get 2 doses

• You can get Shingrix at your doctor’s office or pharmacy. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about getting Shingrix.
• Call your health insurance provider ahead of time to see if they will cover the vaccine.
• Plan to get your second dose of Shingrix 2 to 6 months after your first dose..."
  Shingrix

World Hepatitis Day,, July 28th

"Learn more about World Hepatitis Day and how viral hepatitis impacts millions of people worldwide.

World Hepatitis Day is recognized annually on July 28th, the birthday of Dr. Baruch Blumberg (1925–2011). Dr. Blumberg discovered the hepatitis B virus in 1967, and 2 years later he developed the first hepatitis B vaccine. These achievements culminated in Dr. Blumberg winning the Nobel Prize. Organizations around the world, including WHO and CDC, commemorate World Hepatitis Day to raise awareness of the problem of viral hepatitis, which impacts more than 325 million people worldwide. It creates an opportunity to educate people about the burden of these infections, CDC’s efforts to combat viral hepatitis around the world, and actions people can take to prevent these infections.

Viral hepatitis — a group of infectious diseases known as hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E — affects millions of people worldwide, causing both acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) liver disease. Viral hepatitis causes more than one million deaths each year. While deaths from tuberculosis and HIV have been declining, deaths from hepatitis are increasing.

What is CDC doing to help combat hepatitis globally?

The vision of CDC is to eliminate viral hepatitis in the United States and globally. When resources permit, CDC collaborates with international partners to help countries experiencing high rates of infection prevent and control viral hepatitis..."
Hepitatis

Keep Your Cool in Hot Weather!

"Learn about heat-related illness and how to stay cool and safe in hot weather.

High temperatures kill hundreds of people every year. Heat-related deaths and illness are preventable, yet more than 700 people die from extreme heat every year in the United States.

Take measures to stay cool, remain hydrated, and keep informed. Getting too hot can make you sick. You can become ill from the heat if your body can’t compensate for it and properly cool you off. The main things affecting your body’s ability to cool itself during extremely hot weather are:

• High humidity. When the humidity is high, sweat won’t evaporate as quickly. This keeps your body from releasing heat as fast as it may need to.
• Personal factors. Age, obesity, fever, dehydration, heart disease, mental illness, poor circulation, sunburn, and prescription drug and alcohol use all can play a role in whether a person can cool off enough in very hot weather.

Those who are at highest risk include people 65 and older, children younger than two, and people with chronic diseases or mental illness.

Closely monitor people who depend on you for their care and ask these questions:

• Are they drinking enough water?
• Do they have access to air conditioning?
• Do they need help keeping cool?.."
  Extreme heat

Oysters and Vibriosis

"Raw oysters can ruin your summer. That’s because you can get very sick from eating raw oysters. Learn about vibriosis—a disease linked to raw oysters—and how to protect your health when it comes to oysters and certain other shellfish.

Most illnesses from raw oysters occur in summer. Whenever and wherever you like to enjoy oysters, eating raw oysters and certain other undercooked shellfish, such as clams and mussels, can put you at risk for infections.

Oysters eat by constantly drawing in water and materials in the water, including harmful bacteria and viruses. These bacteria and viruses can become concentrated in an oyster’s body and infect people who eat the oysters raw or undercooked. One of the infections people get from eating raw oysters is caused by some types of Vibrio—bacteria that occur naturally in coastal waters where oysters grow. This infection is called vibrioisis. People also can get vibriosis after exposing a wound to salt water or brackish water containing the bacteria. Brackish water is a mixture of fresh and salt water. It is often found where rivers meet the sea.

About 80,000 people get vibriosis—and 100 people die from it—in the United States every year. Most of these illnesses happen from May through October when water temperatures are warmer. However, you can get sick from eating raw or undercooked oysters during any month of the year, and raw oysters from typically colder waters also can cause vibriosis.

An oyster that contains harmful bacteria doesn’t look, smell, or even taste different from any other oyster. The only way to kill harmful bacteria in oysters is to cook them properly.

What are the symptoms of vibriosis?

Most Vibrio infections from oysters, such as Vibrio parahaemolyticus infection, result in mild illness, including diarrhea and vomiting. However, people with a Vibrio vulnificus infection can get very sick. As many as 1 in 5 people with a V. vulnificus infection die. This is because it can lead to bloodstream infections, severe blistering skin lesions, and limb amputations. If you develop symptoms of vibriosis, tell your medical provider if you recently ate or touched raw shellfish or came into contact with brackish or salt water..."
Oysters and vibriosis

Casualty List of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry

"The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was one of the most celebrated regiments of black soldiers that fought in the Civil War. Known simply as "the 54th," this regiment became famous after the heroic, but ill-fated, assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina in July, 1863. Leading the direct assault under heavy fire, the 54th suffered enormous casualties before being forced to withdraw.

The courage and sacrifice of the 54th helped to dispel doubt within the Union Army about the fighting ability of black soldiers and earned this regiment undying battlefield glory. Shown here is one of the 54th’s casualty lists with the names of 116 enlisted men who died at Fort Wagner. Of the 600 men that charged Fort Wagner, 272 were killed, wounded, or captured.."
54th Massachusets Infantry

Trump Administration Strips C.D.C. of Control of Coronavirus Data

[New York Times, July 14, 2020]
"The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send all Covid-19 patient information to a central database in Washington beginning on Wednesday. The move has alarmed health experts who fear the data will be politicized or withheld from the public.

The new instructions were posted recently in a little-noticed document on the Department of Health and Human Services website. From now on, the department — not the C.D.C. — will collect daily reports about the patients that each hospital is treating, the number of available beds and ventilators, and other information vital to tracking the pandemic.

Officials say the change will streamline data gathering and assist the White House coronavirus task force in allocating scarce supplies like personal protective gear and remdesivir, the first drug shown to be effective against the virus. But the Health and Human Services database that will receive new information is not open to the public, which could affect the work of scores of researchers, modelers and health officials who rely on C.D.C. data to make projections and crucial decisions..."
Trump Administration and Coronavirus Data

Powered by Tracking

"Environmental Public Health Tracking is more than just data. CDC’s Tracking Program uses data science methods, expertise, and technology that make data easier to understand, act upon, and improve the health of communities. Learn about a few public health resources that are “Powered By Tracking.”

Environmental Public Health Tracking: More Than Data

CDC’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Program uses data science to provide quality data and information on many health and environmental topics through its flagship product, the Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Tracking Network). But Tracking is more than just a data system! The Tracking Program’s interdisciplinary team of experts provides technical assistance to other programs looking to create their own tools and resources, offering them the power of Tracking’s methods and resources..."
Tracking

Environmental Health

"Learn more about how CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) protect and promote environmental health across the United States.

Your environment is everything around you—the air you breathe, the water you drink, the places where your food is grown or prepared, your workplace, and your home.

When your environment is safe and healthy, you are more likely to stay healthy. But when your environment exposes you to dangerous events or harmful amounts of toxic substances, your health can be affected. In fact, according to the World Health Organization, 24% of all diseases worldwide are caused by something harmful in the environment.

How can my environment affect my health?

Where is contamination in the environment? Contaminants can pollute air, water, soil, or food. We sometimes call these “environmental media”.

Environmental contaminants can be carried to humans by air, water, soil, or food.

Here are some examples of the many ways the environment can affect your health:

• Drinking well water can contain benzene from industrial activities, if near one’s home.
• A child’s exposure to air pollution can potentially cause asthma.
• Individuals can inhale contaminants when they’re released into the air from contaminated sources, such as a mercury spill in a home or school.
• Contaminants can accumulate in food sources, such as the tissue of animals, fish eating birds, or contaminated soil where food is grown.
• People can come into contact with contaminants from natural elements found in rocks and fertilizer and when man-made chemical compounds make their way into the soil..."
  Environmental health

Symptoms and Diagnosis of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease

"Hand, foot, and mouth disease is common in infants and children younger than five years old. Most children have mild symptoms for 7 to 10 days.

Symptoms include

Fever and flu-like symptoms

Children often get a fever and other flu-like symptoms three to six days after they catch the virus. Symptoms may include:

• Fever
• Eating or drinking less
• Sore throat
• Feeling unwell

Other symptoms may appear over the next few days.

Mouth sores

One or two days after the fever starts, your child may get painful mouth sores (herpangina). These sores usually start as small red spots, often in the back of that mouth, that blister and can become painful.

Signs that swallowing may be painful for your child:

• Not eating or drinking
• Drooling more than usual
• Only wanting to drink cold fluids

Skin rash

Your child may get a skin rash on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. It may also show up on the knees, elbows, buttocks, or genital area.

The rash usually looks like flat, red spots, sometimes with blisters. Fluid in the blister and the scab that forms as the blister heals may contain the virus that causes hand, foot, and mouth disease. Keep blisters or scabs clean and avoid touching them..."

Hand, foot and mouth disease

Cancer Prevention Starts in Childhood

"You can lower your children’s risk of getting cancer later in life by getting them vaccinated against HPV and helping them make healthy choices.

Get Your Kids Vaccinated Against HPV

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common virus that is passed from one person to another during sex. It can cause cervical and other kinds of cancer. Some cancers of the vulva, vagina, penis, anus, and oropharynx (back of the throat, including the base of the tongue and tonsils) are caused by HPV.

The HPV vaccine protects against the types of HPV that most commonly cause cancer. All preteens should get vaccinated when they are 11 or 12 years old. Teenagers and young adults through 26 years, who haven’t started or finished the HPV vaccine series, should get vaccinated as soon as possible. HPV vaccination can be given starting at age 9 years.

Talk to Your Kids About Smoking and Cancer

Nearly 9 out of 10 people who smoke cigarettes first try them by age 18, and 98% by age 26. In 2019, about one-third of high school students and about 1 in 8 middle school students had used a tobacco product in the past 30 days. Talk to your children about why you don’t want them to smoke..."
Cancer prevention in children

You Can Help Solve Foodborne Outbreaks

"Each year in the United States, about 1 in 6 people (or 48 million) get sick from a foodborne illness, also known as food poisoning. Many of these illnesses occur one by one, but some are part of outbreaks.

Finding the source of an outbreak is important because the contaminated food could still be in stores, restaurants, or kitchens and could make more people sick. You can help solve these outbreaks by providing vital clues to disease detectives. Keep reading to find out how you can help.

Three Ways You Can Help if You Have Food Poisoning

1. Talk to Your Healthcare Provider

Talk to your healthcare provider about whether you should be tested for a foodborne disease.

Healthcare providers can test your stool (poop) or blood, which can tell them if you have a foodborne disease. Many doctors are now using tests that give a quick diagnosis, often while you wait in the office. If this test shows that you have an infection with a notifiable disease like Salmonella or E. coli, the doctor or laboratory should order another test and send those results to the public health laboratory in your state. Results from this test, without information that identifies you, are added to a database at CDC that holds DNA fingerprints of foodborne germs. The database is part of PulseNet, a network of local, state, and federal public health and food regulatory agency laboratories. PulseNet looks for groups of similar foodborne germ DNA fingerprints for health officials to investigate. This information helps health officials determine if there is an outbreak where other people became sick from the same food item..."
Foodbourne illness

"

An Update to the Economic Outlook: 2020 to 2030

July 2, 2020

Report

CBO projects that from 2020 to 2030, annual real GDP will be 3.4 percent lower, on average, than it projected in January. The annual unemployment rate, which was projected to average 4.2 percent, is now projected to average 6.1 percent.

View Document

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Summary

This report presents the baseline economic forecast that CBO is using as the basis for updating its budget projections for 2020 to 2030. The agency currently plans to release those budget projections later this summer.

This economic forecast provides CBO’s first complete set of economic projections through 2030 since January and incorporates information available as of June 26. The baseline forecast is being published now, rather than later with the budget projections, to provide the Congress with CBO’s current assessment of the economic outlook in a rapidly evolving environment. This economic forecast updates the interim forecast that CBO published in May, which focused on 2020 and 2021. It is similar to the May forecast for those two years, except that the projection of growth in the second half of 2020 has been revised downward..."
Economic outlook

Programs to Collect Data on Law Enforcement Activities: Overview and Issues

"The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN,while he was in the custody of law enforcement, and several other recent high-profile deaths of African Americans at the hands of police, have generated interest in legislation to reform policing practices. Two major pieces of legislation that contain police reform proposals are before Congress: H.R. 7120, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020—passed by the House on June 25, 2020—and S. 3985, the Just and Unifying Solutions to Invigorate Communities Everywhere (JUSTICE) Act.

Each bill would establish programs to collect data on a variety of policing activities, such as the use of force, racial profiling, the use of no-knock warrants, and in-custody deaths. In some cases, state and local law enforcement agencies would report these data directly to the Department of Justice (DOJ). In other instances, states would be required to establish systems for collecting required data and reporting them to DOJ. Both pieces of legislation would provide incentives for state and local governments to report data by attaching conditions to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) or the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) programs.

DOJ currently operates programs to collect and report data on the use of force by police officers and in-custody deaths. For instance, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) collects data on use-of-force incidents that result in the death or serious bodily injury of a person, as well as when a police officer discharges a firearm at or in the direction of a person. DOJ also collects data on deaths of people who are temporarily detained, under arrest, in the process of being arrested, en route to be incarcerated, or incarcerated at a municipal or county jail, a state prison, a state-run boot camp prison, a boot camp prison that is contracted out by the state, any state or local contract facility, or any other local or state correctional facility (including juvenile facilities), per the requirement of the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013 (P.L. 113-242)..."
Data on law enforcement activities

SBA Paycheck Protection Program Loan Level Data

"To download all Paycheck Protection Program data, click here.

Paycheck Protection Program Loans of $150,000 and above by State

Click here to download Paycheck Protection Program loan data by state for loans of $150,000 and above. The data for all 56 states and territories is available in a single CSV file.

Paycheck Protection Program Loans under $150,000 by State
Click on the state or territory below to download loan data under $150,000..."
Paycheck protection program

Zoonotic Diseases

"Animals provide many benefits to people. Many people interact with animals in their daily lives, both at home and away from home. Animals provide food, fiber, livelihoods, travel, sport, companionship, and education for people across the globe. Millions of households in the United States have one or more pets. We might come into contact with animals in either urban or rural settings, during travel, while visiting animal exhibits, or while enjoying outdoor activities.

However, animals can sometimes carry harmful germs that can spread to people and cause illness – these are known as zoonotic diseases or zoonoses. Zoonotic diseases are caused by harmful germs like viruses, bacterial, parasites, and fungi. These germs can cause many different types of illnesses in people and animals, ranging from mild to serious illness and even death. Animals can sometimes appear healthy even when they are carrying germs that can make people sick, depending on the zoonotic disease.

Zoonotic diseases are very common, both in the United States and around the world. Scientists estimate that more than 6 out of every 10 known infectious diseases in people can be spread from animals, and 3 out of every 4 new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals. Because of this, CDC works 24/7 to protect people from zoonotic diseases in the United States and around the world..."
Zoonotic diseases

Runway to Recovery: The United States Framework for Airlines and Airports to Mitigate the Public Health Risks of Coronavirus

"The U.S. economy is reopening after the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency (PHE) resulted in Federal, State, and local mandated closures and restrictions across many sectors in the first half of 2020. A safe, secure, efficient, and resilient air transportation system that addresses the threat of COVID-19 is critical to reducing the public health risk and supporting the United States’ critical infrastructure needs. Government, aviation, and public health leaders must work together to meaningfully reduce the public health risk and restore passenger, aviation workforce, including crew, and public confidence in air travel.

This document provides the U.S. Government’s guidance to airports and airlines for implementing measures to mitigate the public health risks associated with COVID-19, prepare for an increase in travel volume, and ensure that aviation safety and security are not compromised. It is intended to address public health concerns and support U.S. air carriers and airports as they make decisions and implement changes to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The U.S. Government views public health as a key component of a resilient aviation transportation system, much like safety and security. The aviation industry has maintained a safe and secure system, because stakeholders do not compete on safety and security; we expect the aviation industry to take the same approach to implementing guidance on public health risk mitigations.."
Airlines and COVID-19

Rescuing Victims of Child Sexual Abuse

"FBI Programs Support a Global Effort to Save Children from Harm

With every report to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and every law enforcement investigation dealing with child sexual abuse material, a largely unseen—but urgent—effort begins to identify and aid the child or children being harmed in the images.

It is an effort that relies on technology and painstaking investigative work—where details as small as a baseball cap or a soda cup have provided the clues that allowed investigators to find a child.

At the FBI, the Endangered Child Alert Program (ECAP) works alongside Operation Rescue Me to explore every possible avenue in identifying a child victim of sexual abuse. Operation Rescue Me is focused on rescuing the child victim from further abuse and exploitation. In pursuit of that same goal, ECAP seeks national and international exposure of unknown adults whose faces and/or distinguishing characteristics are visible in images of child sexual abuse..."