#How to Protect Yourself and Your Employees During Employment Drug Testing

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How to Protect Yourself and Your Employees During Employment Drug Testing

Don’t fret about that test! Read more to learn how you can protect yourself and your employees during the routine employment drug test! Well informed is well armed — never more true than with the issue of employment drug testing. Understanding the process will help keep your employees protected and your business on the right […]

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Health Shop Online - The Online Drugstore

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[remotecareers]

Bilingual (Vietnamese/English) Customer Service Navigator – New York, NY or Remote

If you are located within commutable distance from the office, you would be required to work onsite.

For those outside the area, you may enjoy the flexibility to telecommute from anywhere in the U.S.

Welcome to one of the toughest and most fulfilling ways to help people, including yourself.

We offer the latest tools, most intensive training program in the industry and nearly limitless opportunities for advancement.

Join us and start doing your life’s best work.

SM

When you are in the business of health care, you’re in the business of people.

At UnitedHealth Group we want every customer experience to be distinctly personal.

The challenge is complex.

When people call us for help, their focus is on getting the best care possible.

We help them understand their benefits and their options.

This part of their lives matters a lot to them and it matters just as much to us.

Our customer service teams have a serious responsibility to make every contact informative, productive, positive, and memorable for what it says about how much we care.

Positions in this function are responsible for providing expertise and a high level of customer service support to our Dual SNP members.

This position will provide excellent customer service to members regarding benefits, policies, procedures and protocols.

Direct phone-based customer interaction to answer and resolve a wide variety of inquiries is also an essential part of the position.

This position is full-time (40 hours/week) Monday – Friday.

Employees are required to have flexibility to work any of our 8-hour shift schedules during our normal business hours of 9:00am – 8:30pm EST.

It may be necessary, given the business need, to work occasional overtime.

Our offices are located at: 77 Water Street, 14th & 15th Floor, New York, NY 10005 136-02 Roosevelt Ave, Flushing (Queens), New York 11354 Training will be conducted virtually from your home.

*All Telecommuters will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group’s Telecommuter Policy.

Primary Responsibilities: Acts as a dedicated customer service go to person to assist customers to resolve issues and problems Outbound calls to Dual SNP members to build relations Assists members to identify needs and close gaps in care Follow-up calls to members with resolution to identify issues in timely manner Resolves inquiries related to authorizations, claims, enrollment, and billing Fulfills material requests for members Maintains accurate member data, including addresses, phone numbers, and PCP changes Inputs data in system for record tracking and issue resolution Proactively educates members on cover benefits, plan exclusions, and procedures to enhance total customer service experience Performs accountabilities in accordance with established organizational metrics Identifies trends and continuously makes recommendations to improve processes Reports issues or problems with members, systems and processes to manager Assists and involves in member retention projects Performs other related projects and duties as assigned Meets established performance standards Demonstrates the ability to build and maintain productive working relationship with others and contribute as an effective team member You’ll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications: High School Diploma, GED (or higher) or equivalent work experience 2+ years of experience in a customer service environment.

Bilingual fluency (verbal and written) in Vietnamese and English Ability to work an 8-hour shift between the hours of 9:00am and 8:30pm EST, Monday – Friday.

Set shifts on rotation about 3 – 4 times a year If you need to enter a work site for any reason, you will be required to screen for symptoms using the ProtectWell mobile app, Interactive Voice Response (i.e., entering your symptoms via phone system) or similar UnitedHealth Group-approved symptom screener.

When in a UnitedHealth Group building, employees are required to wear a mask in common areas.

In addition, employees must comply with any state and local masking orders Telecommuting Requirements: Required to have a dedicated work area established that is separated from other living areas and provides information privacy Ability to keep all company sensitive documents secure (if applicable) Must live in a location that can receive a UnitedHealth Group approved high-speed internet connection or leverage an existing high-speed internet service Preferred Qualifications: Associate’s Degree (or higher) Health Care / Insurance environment (familiarity with medical terminology, health plan documents, or benefit plan design) Social work, behavioral health, disease prevention, health promotion and behavior change (working with vulnerable populations) Physical and Work Environment: Frequent speaking, listening using a headset, sitting, use of hands/fingers across keyboard or mouse, handling other objects, long periods working at a computer Service center environment with moderate noise level due to phone and walk-in conversation, printers, and floor activities.

UnitedHealth Group is an essential business.

The health and safety of our team members is our highest priority, so we are taking a science driven approach to slowly welcome and transition some of our workforce back to the office with many safety protocols in place.

We continue to monitor and assess before we confirm the return of each wave, paying specific attention to geography-specific trends.

At this time, 90% of our non – clinical workforce transitioned to a work at home (remote) status.

We have taken steps to ensure the safety of our 325,000 team members and their families, providing them with resources and support as they continue to serve the members, patients and customers who depend on us.

You can learn more about all we are doing to fight COVID-19 and support impacted communities at:

Careers at UnitedHealthcare Employer & Individual.

We all want to make a difference with the work we do.

Sometimes we’re presented with an opportunity to make a difference on a scale we couldn’t imagine.

Here, you get that opportunity every day.

As a member of one of our elite teams, you’ll provide the ideas and solutions that help nearly 25 million customers live healthier lives.

You’ll help write the next chapter in the history of healthcare.

And you’ll find a wealth of open doors and career paths that will take you as far as you want to go.

Go further.

This is your life’s best work.

SM

Colorado Residents Only: The hourly range for Colorado residents is $17.12 to $30.34.

Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to education, work experience, certifications, etc.

As of the date of this posting, In addition to your salary, UHG offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements: Health, dental, and vision plans; wellness program; flexible spending accounts; paid parking or public transportation costs; 401(k) retirement plan; employee stock purchase plan; life insurance, short-term disability insurance, and long-term disability insurance; business travel accident insurance; Employee Assistance Program; PTO; and employee-paid critical illness and accident insurance.

Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

UnitedHealth Group is a drug – free workplace.

Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.

Keywords: customer service representative, customer service, CSR, UnitedHealth Group, call center, UnitedHealthcare, health care, office, phone support, work at home, work from home, WAH, WFH, remote, telecommute, hiring immediately, #RPO

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New Post has been published on SHTFandGO Rocket Stoves and Water Purification Equipment

New Post has been published on https://www.shtfandgo.com/bio-terrorist-attack-emergency-preparedness/

Bio Terrorist Attack/Emergency Preparedness

Martha McSally

U.S. Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ), who chairs the subcommittee on emergency preparedness.

“The risk of a biological terrorist attack to America is an urgent and serious threat,” McSally said. “A bioattack could cause illness and even kill hundreds of thousands of people, overwhelm our public health capabilities, and create significant economic, societal and political consequences. Our nation’s capacity to prevent, respond to, and mitigate the impacts of biological terror incidents is a top national security priority. This hearing will highlight the threat of bioterrorism and ensure we’re taking the needed steps to prepare for and defend America against this threat.”

What can a family do to prepare for such an emergency?

Biological and Chemical weapons may be the most devastating and uncontrollable weapons ever rendered by man. Biological weapons are any man made weapon caused to disperse viruses, bacteria, or toxins derived from living organisms to cause death or disease within humans. Recent statistics claim that in the event of a future terrorist attack, the means in which the attack would be achieved would be through the use of bio-chemical weapons. This is not hard to believe, considering most bio-chemical agents can be created in ones own home with readily available materials. Due to the nature of biological and chemical weapons, the most widely predicted use for such weapons would be against the populace of a nation, where it may inflict massive fatalities and economic destruction. However this does not mean that a bio-chemical attack is unsurvivable, with proper knowledge and readiness it can very well be a crisis that one can overcome.

Don’t count on a vaccine being available. The flu vaccine that is currently used for seasonal flu will not work against any Chemical or Biological Attack. New strains of the virus require new vaccines, and these can take months or years to develop and even longer to produce and distribute on a large scale.

Stay informed. Should a pandemic of any kind flare up, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other governmental and non-governmental organizations will provide information on the spread of the disease, as well as updates on vaccines or other medications, tips for keeping yourself safe, and travel advisories. The WHO and CDC, as well as various national governments, already have websites in place to provide useful planning information to the public. Newspapers and TV and radio broadcasts will also help disseminate critical warnings and advice.

Get your yearly flu vaccine shot. While the current vaccine won’t protect you from every flu or any other “new” strains of the virus, it can help you stay healthy (by protecting you some flu virus strains), which may in turn help your body to fight the virus better if you do become infected.

Get a pneumonia vaccine shot. In past Chemical or Biological pandemics, many victims succumbed to secondary pneumonia infection. While the pneumonia vaccine cannot protect against all types of pneumonia, it can improve your chances of surviving the pandemic. The vaccine is especially recommended for people over the age of 65 or those who have chronic illnesses such as diabetes or asthma.

Use anti-viral medications if advised to do so by a health professional or by the government. Two antiviral medications, Tamiflu and Relenza, have shown the potential to effectively prevent and treat avian flu. These are both available only by prescription and will probably be effective only if taken before infection or very shortly afterward. It should be noted that additional testing is necessary to determine how effective these drugs really are against avian flu. Furthermore, mutations in the avian flu virus may render them ineffective in time.

Use an alcohol-based disinfectant. Since it’s probably not feasible to wash your hands every time you touch something that may carry the virus, you should carry an alcohol-based hand cleaner with you at all times. These cleaners come in a variety of forms, and can be used any time you need a quick touch-up. Keep in mind, however, that the use of these cleaners is not a substitute for thoroughly washing your hands, and they should only be used to supplement hand washing.

Avoid exposure to infected. Right now, the only documented way to become infected with avian influenza is by coming into contact with infected birds or poultry products, and these routes of infection will continue even if the virus mutates so that human-to-human transmission becomes the greatest threat. Avoid handling any thing the infected has already touched, and try to prevent domestic animals (such as house cats/dogs) from coming into contact with Infected. If you work in proximity the dead or living infected, for example–take precautions such as wearing gloves, respirators, and safety aprons. Cook all foods thoroughly, to 165 °F (74 °C) throughout, and exercise proper food-handling techniques, as you would to protect yourself from other threats such as salmonella. Proper cooking kills the most virus.

Exercise social distancing. The most effective way to prevent becoming infected is to avoid exposure to infected people. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to determine who is infected and who is not–by the time symptoms appear, a person is already contagious. Social distancing, deliberately limiting contact with people (especially large groups of people), is a reasonable precaution to take in the event of a pandemic.

Stay home from work. If you’re sick or if others at your workplace have become sick, you should stay away from your workplace even in the absence of a pandemic. Given that people will generally be infected and contagious before they exhibit symptoms, however, during a pandemic it’s essential to stay away from places, such as work, where you have a high probability of being exposed to an infected person.

Try to work from home. A pandemic can last for months or even years, and waves of intense local outbreaks can last for weeks, so it’s not like you can just take a few sick days to protect yourself from workplace infection. If possible, try to arrange a work-from-home situation. A surprising variety of jobs can now be accomplished remotely, and employers will likely be willing–or even required–to try this out if a pandemic strikes.

Keep children home from school. Any parent knows that kids pick up all kinds of bugs at school. Avoid public transportation. Buses, planes, boats, and trains place large numbers of people in close quarters. Public transportation is the ideal vehicle for widespread spread of infectious disease.

Stay away from public events. During a pandemic, governments may cancel public events, but even if they don’t, you should probably stay away from them. Any large gathering of people in close proximity creates a high-risk situation.

Wear a respirator. The most virus can be spread through the air, so in the event of a pandemic it’s a good idea to protect yourself from inhalation of the virus if you’re out in public. While surgical masks only prevent the wearer from spreading germs, respirators (which often look like surgical masks) protect the wearer from inhaling germs. You can buy respirators that are designed for one-time use, or you can buy reusable ones with replaceable filters. Use only respirators labeled as “NIOSH certified,” “N95,” “N99,” or “N100,” as these help protect against inhalation of very small particles. Respirators only provide protection when worn properly, so be sure to follow the instructions exactly–they should cover the nose, and there should be no gaps between the mask and the side of the face.

Wear medical gloves. Gloves can prevent germs from getting on your hands, where they can be absorbed directly through open cuts or spread to other parts of your body. Latex or nitrile medical gloves or heavy-duty rubber gloves can be used to protect the hands. The gloves should be removed if torn or damaged, and hands should be thoroughly washed after removal of gloves.

Protect your eyes. Some Illnesses can be spread if contaminated droplets (from a sneeze, or spit, for example) and then enter the eyes or mouth. Wear glasses or goggles to prevent this from occurring, and avoid touching your eyes or mouth with your hands or with potentially contaminated materials.

Dispose of potentially contaminated materials properly. Gloves, masks, tissues, and other potential bio-hazards should be handled carefully and disposed of properly. Place these materials in approved bio-hazard containers or seal them in clearly marked plastic bags.

Prepare for disruption of services. If a pandemic strikes, many of the basic services we take for granted, such as electricity, phone, and mass transit, may be disrupted temporarily. Widespread employee absenteeism and massive death tolls can shut down everything from the corner store to hospitals.

Keep cash on hand at all times as banks may close and ATMs may be out of service. Discuss emergency preparation with your family. Make a plan so that children will know what to do and where to go if you are incapacitated or killed, or if family members cannot communicate with each other.

           Emergency Water Filter System

Stock up on necessities. In the developed world, at least, food shortages and disruption of services will likely not last more than a week or two at a time. Still, it’s essential to be prepared for such an event. Store a two-week supply of water for everyone in your household. Keep at least 1 gallon (3.8 L) per person per day in clear plastic containers.

Store a two-week supply of food. Opt for non-perishable foods that don’t need to be cooked and that don’t require a lot of water to prepare.

Make sure you have an adequate supply of essential medications.

Seek medical attention at the onset of symptoms. The effectiveness of antiviral medications decreases as the illness progresses, so prompt medical treatment is imperative. If someone with whom you have had close contact becomes infected, be sure to seek medical care even if you do not display symptoms.

Anthrax

Organism accountable (Type): Bacillus anthracis (Bacteria)

Method of Infection: Inhalation, Intestinal, Cutaneous (through the skin)

Incubation Period

Inhalation: 1-60 days

Intestinal: 3-7 days

Cutaneous: 1-2 days

Lethality

Inhalation: 90-100% untreated, 30-50% treated (this percentage rises the longer it takes to receive antibiotics.)

Intestinal: 50% untreated, 10-15% treated

Cutaneous: 20% untreated.

Treatment and Vaccine: Antibiotics such as Ciprofloxacin and Doxycycline are available through the centers for disease control, the sooner one receives treatments the higher the chance that they will survive.

Inhalation: Initial Flu like symptoms such as; fever, headaches, abdominal pain, chest pain, vomiting, and coughing, but with no nasal congestion. Eventually it will lead up to severe respiratory problems, where the victims will die of asphyxiation from the lungs filling up with blood and fluids.

Intestinal: Begins with abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fever, sore throat and a painful ulcer at the base of the tongue.

Cutaneous: At first red itchy bumps begin to form all over the body, then they collapse into painful ulcers which later scab over.

Cover your nose and mouth with fabric, wet fabric if possible, this will filter out a portion of the deadly spores.

Leave area of attack immediately.

Take shallow breaths or if possible, hold your breath until you leave the area of attack.

Limit your movement from a contaminated area to a secure area. Constant movement will spread the deadly spores. Once you reach a safe area remove your exposed clothing and place them in sealed plastic bags.

Take a cold (hot or warm water may open pores) shower as soon as possible with copious amounts of soap. Wash your eyes with a saline solution or just warm water.

Await antibiotic treatment. The key to survival is early antibiotic treatment.

Glanders

Organism Responsible (Type): Burkholderia maller (Bacteria)

Method of Infection: Inhalation, Cutaneous/Mucous membranes

Incubation Period

Inhalation: 10-15 days

Cutaneous/Mucous membrane: 1-5 days

Lethality: Nearly 100% within 1 month, without any treatment. Rapid medical attention would likely decrease the chances, however little or no medical data is available.

Treatment and Vaccine: No vaccine available. Antibiotics like, combined Amoxicillin and Clavulanate, Bactrim, Ceftazidime, or Tetracycline must be consumed for 50-150 days to effectively purge the toxin.

Inhalation: Begins with fevers, chills, sweating, headaches, body aches, chest pain and congestion. Later the neck glands begin to swell and pneumonia will develop. Painful open sores start to develop along the internal organs and mucous membranes. Dark pus-filled rashes may also form.

Cutaneous/Mucous membranes: Painful ulcers along the point of entry, and swollen lymph nodes start to form. Increased mucous production from the nose and mouth.

Cover your nose and mouth with fabric, wet fabric if possible, this will filter out a portion of the deadly spores.

Leave area of attack immediately.

Take shallow breaths or if possible, hold your breath until you leave the area of attack.

Wash skin with soap and water.

Run your eyes through warm running water for 10-15 minutes.

Await medical treatment from response teams. If you begin developing a fever, seek medical attention immediately.

Ricin

Organism Responsible (Type): Ricinuss communis (Plant derived toxin)

Method of Infection: Inhalation, Intestinal, Injection

Incubation Period

Inhalation/Intestinal/Injection: 2-8 hours

Lethality: With a standard high dose, lethality becomes a devastating 97%. Most victims will die within 24-72 hours after the initial symptoms.

Treatment and Vaccine: No treatment available except activated charcoal for ingested Ricin. Vaccine is experimental at the moment.

Inhalation: Sudden onset of fever, cough, chest pain, and nausea. Then one begins to feel joint pain and a shortness of breath. Respiratory problems begin to get more severe as time passes.

Ingestion/Injection: Abdominal pain, nausea, bloody diarrhea, and vomiting.

Cover your nose and mouth with fabric, wet fabric if possible, this will filter out a portion of the deadly spores.

Leave area of attack immediately.

Take shallow breaths or, if possible, hold your breath until you leave the area of attack.

Wash your body, clothes and contaminated surfaces with soap and water, or a mild bleach solution if you have become directly exposed.

Await instructions from medical response teams.

Gas Attacks

Gas attacks have been around since the 5th century BC, when they were used as chemical warfare.[1] Today, the release of toxic gas might also be the product of a terrorist attack or industrial accident.[2][3] While you should hope that you never have to experience this, knowing how to recognize and respond to such a threat could save your life.

Chlorine Gas

Be aware of any yellow-green gas floating around with the strong smell of bleach. Some soldiers in WWI described it as pepper and pineapple. If you are exposed to chlorine gas, you may have trouble breathing or seeing and will feel a burning sensation.

Move quickly into an area with clean air in order to minimize exposure to the gas.

If indoors, exit the building as quickly as possible.

If outdoors, move to the highest ground. Since chlorine gas is more dense than air, it will sink to the ground.

Grab a cotton pad or any fabric and soak it in urine. Hold it up to your nose as a mask. The Canadian military survived the first large-scale chlorine gas attack in WWI by using urine instead of water, under the presumption that the urine crystallizes the gas.

Remove all clothing that may have been exposed to the gas, being sure not to let the clothes touch your face or head. Cut the clothes off so that they don’t need to make additional contact with your skin as they’re peeled off. Seal the clothes in plastic bags.

Clean your body thoroughly with a lot of soap and water. Rinse your eyes with water if your vision is blurred or your eyes burn; if you wear contact lenses, throw them away. However, water mixed with Chlorine gas can turn into Hydrochloric acid, so be careful.

Call emergency services and wait for help to arrive.

Mustard Gas

Be aware of a usually colorless gas that smells like mustard, garlic, or onions–but note it doesn’t always have an odor. If you are exposed to mustard gas, you may notice the following symptoms but they may not appear until 2 to 24 hours after exposure:

redness and itching of skin, eventually changes to yellow blistering

irritation of eyes; if exposure is severe, there may be light sensitivity, severe pain, or temporary blindness

irritation of respiratory tract (runny nose, sneezing, hoarseness, bloody nose, sinus pain, shortness of breath, and cough)

Move from the area from where it was released onto higher ground, as mustard gas is heaver than air.

Remove all clothing that may have been exposed to the gas, being sure not to let the clothes touch your face or head. Cut the clothes off so that they don’t need to make additional contact with your skin as they’re peeled off. Seal the clothes in plastic bags.

Rinse any exposed parts of your body with plain water. Eyes should be flushed for 10-15 minutes. Don’t cover them with bandages; however, sunglasses or goggles are fine.

Call emergency services and wait for help to arrive.

Tips

Purchase and use “Self Powered Radios” AND “Self Powered Flashlights”. In anyemergency, especially one of this magnitude, batteries will be unavailable. Get this equipment AHEAD of time. These devices will keep you informed and you’ll also have reliable lighting as well. The latest of these designs will also charge your cell phones as well.

Listen to qualified medical responders at all times, even if their instructions contradict this article. This article MAY NOT be 100% accurate, and medical responders probably know best.

Sources

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From Around the Web: 20 Fabulous Infographics About cbd shop

Holding in your mind that whilst cannabis has long been legalized in a number of the individual states, it remains unlawful around the federal stage. This by yourself illustrates The shortage of resolve on this question.

Relating to what exactly is legal in workplaces, California and many other states that have legalized health-related marijuana inside the nineteen nineties have set up some essential tips. California Proposition 215 (1996) legalized its use by health care provider's prescription, but companies can however seek the services of and fire at will, which includes for using cannabis. This provision for companies was published into Prop 215.

Even more, a 2008 court case (Ross vs. RagingWire Telecommunications) established a possible staff who experienced analyzed beneficial for cannabis use within a pre-work drug screening may be denied a task on that foundation. The plaintiff argued his clinical ailment necessary its use, but the courtroom ruled he has that proper inside a felony, although not civil, situation. To paraphrase, the employer retains its suitable to make a decision.

Now with California Proposition sixty four (2016), which legalizes recreational use in addition, it could appear like marijuana use is in exactly the same class of Alcoholic beverages. For now, the situation precedence in Ross vs. RagingWire even now applies. Most lawyers counsel companies that want to ban its use, off premises while not Operating and during the workday, to obviously communicate this kind of coverage with frequency.

So it continues to be authorized and defensible to have a zero tolerance, drug no cost office plan that prohibits marijuana use. Continue to, the employer need to be cautious about how to put into action this type of plan.

Several corporations examination for cannabis and also other managed material use as a pre-work screen (commonly, following a career provide is built, but conditional on the final results on the take a look at). This really is most typical in protection-important workplaces and positions, including car and devices operators, but is often placed on any and all positions such as the government suite.

It really is a common practice for employers to require a drug take a look at from employees which might be hurt on The task, or whose conduct suggests Energetic use. But notification beforehand of such circumstances is strongly recommended (posted signage, staff handbooks, pre-work paperwork, etc.).

But what is the efficacy of screening for marijuana use? Urinalysis and blood tests usually identify modern use; hair Evaluation, which is dearer and applied a lot less commonly, can discover use as far back as two months prior to the examination.

A urinalysis is most often applied. It does not detect the particular presence of Energetic marijuana from the system, but instead detects the inactive marijuana metabolite (THC-COOH) indicating There's been marijuana ingested in preceding times and months. For that infrequent person, this metabolite is normally out in their procedure in just several several hours. To the typical person, the metabolite is often detected for a longer interval preceding the exam.

So to recap: It is possible to exam for marijuana use like a situation of employment and also you are suggested to communicate the policy Evidently.

As A growing number of American states legalize cannabis for medical together with leisure use for Older people, health care officers believe that this kind of action is bringing about the propagation from the notion that cannabis is harmless, Specially among the youth. The legalization of marijuana is a relatively new improvement in the United States. Presented the federal federal government's emphasis on "war on medication," cannabis has become historically condemned and is still classified like a Timetable I drug underneath the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

Gurus forewarn the general public the lawful availability of cannabis for use might have a variety of undesirable outcomes on Those people misusing it, Particularly the adolescents. Within the one hand the legalization of marijuana will be the precursor to higher social acceptability and increased availability in the drug amongst young adults and kids, Alternatively it could indicate advocating the cultivation of a lot more potent marijuana strains and new ways of consuming the drug recreationally.

Shift in cannabis use behavior write-up legalization

Becoming of their rising period, the lengthy-term marijuana use by adolescents yields unfavorable results on their cognitive features. Aside from triggering habit and producing psychological and Bodily dependence, young people who're launched to marijuana early inside their existence are more likely to go on to abuse the drug even inside their adulthood.

Akin to most kinds of habit, the Regular usage of marijuana has the opportunity to change the hardwiring on the Mind, therefore building drug-trying to find conduct a precedence. In teenagers, marijuana use can cause a drop in cognitive techniques, college effectiveness, personal interactions, socio-behavioral expertise, etc., which lay the groundwork for psychiatric troubles to established in afterwards in adulthood. Whichever way the lifestyle of marijuana evolves adhering to its legalization, adolescents are regarded to create up the higher-risk group for abuse.

A review by researchers at Dartmouth found that youngsters in states in which medical cannabis continues to be legalized are more likely to experiment While using the new methods of utilizing the drug. This has actually been attributed to the growing variety of dispensaries which have appear going to assist the legalization of cannabis.

Even so, an unintended repercussion of the enhancement was that little ones and adolescents were hoping new ways of using the drug, which include edibles and vaping, at a Significantly younger age when compared with their peers within the states exactly where cannabis has not been legalized.

The analyze led by Jacob Borodovsky, a Ph.D. college student at The Dartmouth Institute for Overall health Policy and Clinical Practice and the Center for Technology and Behavioral Wellness emphasized that it is very important to grasp the effect on the shifting authorized landscape of cannabis on youngsters and adolescents.

Apparently, particular provisions or aspects of the legislation legitimizing the use of cannabis, including permitting dispensaries, home cultivation, and so forth., alter the use styles among children. With various legal guidelines emerging across the nation, You will find cbd kaufen a need to have for being familiar with The nice and undesirable outcomes of cannabis use.

To collect epidemiological samples, the scientists made use of social media marketing applications, for example on line surveys through Facebook, to collect info within the demographical pattern of cannabis use amongst adolescents. The scientists found an Energetic romantic relationship amongst the degree of regulatory oversight of lawful cannabis consumption along with a youngsters' increased propensity to experiment Together with the new means of consuming marijuana.

This spikes the probability of establishing a cannabis ailment amid children. Thinking of the significant implications of marijuana use, scientists strongly feel that the legalization of cannabis must be closely monitored and prepared perfectly to avoid unwelcome community health outcomes Down the road.

Consequently, the necessity from the hour is to generate rational info-centered cannabis legislation than to put into practice a legislation depending on anecdotes. The acceptance of healthcare and leisure cannabis use in lots of states could adversely impression adolescents in ways that raise their chance of acquiring a cannabis use ailment. According to the direct creator Borodovsky, "My hope is that we could use these and other types of outcomes to create rational lawful cannabis legislation which might be dependant on info as an alternative to anecdotes."

Protecting against cannabis use ailment

Research advise that each personal has the neurobiological potential to acquire an habit. Medicines of abuse can possibly change the wiring of the Mind and activate its reward-seeking facilities in unnatural ways. When the brain gets to be hardwired, the person begins to expertise a large number of challenges in all facets of her or his lifetime.

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Minor League Baseball Season Is Canceled for the First Time

The announcement that 160 minor league baseball teams and tens of thousands of workers and players had long been expecting finally arrived Tuesday afternoon: the 2020 minor league baseball season will not happen.

It is the first time in the history of Minor League Baseball, which was founded in 1901, that a season has been canceled.

“These are unprecedented times for our country and our organization, as this is the first time in our history that we’ve had a summer without Minor League Baseball played,” Pat O’Conner, MiLB’s president and chief executive, said in a statement. “While this is a sad day for many, this announcement removes the uncertainty surrounding the 2020 season and allows our teams to begin planning for an exciting 2021 season.”

Technically, the season’s fate was sealed when Major League Baseball informed MiLB that it would not be providing the players needed for the season because of the national emergency brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The MiLB Board of Trustees met earlier on Tuesday to finalize what had been apparent for months.

Many of the roughly 8,000 minor league players — those who are not part of their affiliated M.L.B. team’s 60-man player pool for the 2020 season — will miss an entire year of their careers. Most M.L.B. teams have committed to paying their minor league players, many of whom earn less than $15,000 per season, $400 a week beyond June 30.

Playing a 2020 season was always a more daunting undertaking for MiLB than for M.L.B. Unlike M.L.B. franchises, minor league teams rely heavily on revenue from people in the stands — tickets, beer and hot dog sales and sponsorships tied to attendance.

Because they do not have widespread TV or streaming deals, it would not be feasible for MiLB to play games in empty stadiums, as M.L.B. plans to do beginning July 23. Another complicating factor: MiLB plays in smaller towns across the country and would have had to negotiate many more state and local reopening guidelines.

The MiLB season was originally scheduled to start on April 9 and end in August. Without any games, minor league teams were forced to reduce their workforces and seek federal and local aid. Some teams had been trying creative ways to bring in at least some cash by renting out their stadiums for overnight stays or selling ballpark food for takeout, but nothing could replace a 140-game schedule for a full-season team.

According to MiLB figures, minor league teams earned an average of $70,000 in gross revenue per home game, and $5.4 million per year. Most of that money went to operating expenses, including paying employees (each team averages 21 full-timers and 200 seasonal workers) and rent (teams pay a combined $65 million annually, the majority to local governments). M.L.B. teams paid for and provided the minor league players and coaches.

Without a season, several minor league owners feared some teams would fold permanently because they could not go 18 months without revenue — in effect giving M.L.B. the minor-league contraction it has sought since last fall.

Updated June 30, 2020

What are the symptoms of coronavirus?

Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

Is it harder to exercise while wearing a mask?

A commentary published this month on the website of the British Journal of Sports Medicine points out that covering your face during exercise “comes with issues of potential breathing restriction and discomfort” and requires “balancing benefits versus possible adverse events.” Masks do alter exercise, says Cedric X. Bryant, the president and chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise, a nonprofit organization that funds exercise research and certifies fitness professionals. “In my personal experience,” he says, “heart rates are higher at the same relative intensity when you wear a mask.” Some people also could experience lightheadedness during familiar workouts while masked, says Len Kravitz, a professor of exercise science at the University of New Mexico.

I’ve heard about a treatment called dexamethasone. Does it work?

The steroid, dexamethasone, is the first treatment shown to reduce mortality in severely ill patients, according to scientists in Britain. The drug appears to reduce inflammation caused by the immune system, protecting the tissues. In the study, dexamethasone reduced deaths of patients on ventilators by one-third, and deaths of patients on oxygen by one-fifth.

What is pandemic paid leave?

The coronavirus emergency relief package gives many American workers paid leave if they need to take time off because of the virus. It gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose child care provider is unavailable because of the coronavirus. It is the first time the United States has had widespread federally mandated paid leave, and includes people who don’t typically get such benefits, like part-time and gig economy workers. But the measure excludes at least half of private-sector workers, including those at the country’s largest employers, and gives small employers significant leeway to deny leave.

Does asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 happen?

So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement.

What’s the risk of catching coronavirus from a surface?

Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus — whether it’s surface transmission or close human contact — is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks.

How does blood type influence coronavirus?

A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.

How many people have lost their jobs due to coronavirus in the U.S.?

The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nation’s job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April.

How can I protect myself while flying?

If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)

What should I do if I feel sick?

If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.

With the operating agreement between M.L.B. and MiLB set to expire in September, M.L.B. had been seeking to eliminate at least 40 minor league affiliates as part of a larger restructuring the league has said it was pursuing to improve player development, cut down on unforgiving travel and upgrade rundown facilities in the minors. After initially fighting M.L.B.’s plan, MiLB’s resistance softened during the pandemic.

O’Conner told reporters on Tuesday evening that more than half of the minor league team owners could either be forced to sell their teams or go insolvent without outside financial help.

“This is the perfect storm,” he said. “There are many teams that are not liquid.”

The post Minor League Baseball Season Is Canceled for the First Time appeared first on Sansaar Times.

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In early April, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first COVID-19 antibody test amidst much fanfare from the scientific community. The hope was to use this type of blood test (which is different from tests for the virus itself) to identify people who have already been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 (aka the novel coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19) by testing their blood for the presence of COVID-19-specific antibodies—proteins produced by white blood cells as a direct response to the novel coronavirus.

Knowing who has been exposed to the coronavirus has huge implications for fighting the pandemic. Considering an estimated 25 percent of individuals who contract SARS-CoV-2 are asymptomatic (and thus likely don’t ever get tested for the virus), and a large percentage of cases (about 80 percent) are considered mild, an antibody test could give public health officials a better understanding of how many people truly have had COVID-19. Even more exciting: People who have been exposed to the coronavirus might also have some immunity to it, thanks to the antibodies their immune system created to fight off the virus. (Emphasis on might—we don’t know enough about the virus yet to know whether a person would be totally immune or just less vulnerable to future infections, or how long that immunity might last.)

In theory, this could be game-changing for health-care workers and others on the front lines fighting the pandemic, Rand McClain, DO, chief medical officer of Live Cell Research, previously told Well+Good. “If we can identify that they’ve already inoculated the virus, and are therefore [potentially] immune, then [the fear of getting sick] doesn’t have to add stress to everything else is going on,” he said. “We can put those people on the front lines, and those who don’t have the antibodies we can choose to be more careful with.” Companies like Amazon and General Motors have also talked about doing wide-scale testing of their employees to see who has already been exposed and thus is potentially safe to come back to work—an appealing idea to many during a massive economic collapse.

There’s also been talk of using people who have recovered from COVID-19 for plasma donations for people who are critically ill—effectively gifting immunity to those most at risk of dying from the virus. (The Red Cross is seeking such donations now.) Antibody testing could widen the field of potentially eligible donors by identifying even more people who have had the virus.

However, in recent weeks, the medical community has come to grips with the fact that many of the publicly-available antibody tests aren’t living up to their promise. The antibody tests mass-ordered by the UK turned out not to be able to test for the novel coronavirus,  while $100,000 worth of tests ordered by the University of Washington from China had to be recalled because they were contaminated with a bacteria. Even FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn urged Americans last week to “be very cautious” about many of the antibody tests currently available on the market. So what went wrong?

Are COVID-19 antibody tests accurate? The answer is yes—but only from specific, FDA-approved providers

Obviously, the massive potential of these tests hinges upon their ability to accurately identify COVID-19 antibodies (first, an antibody called IgM which appears when your body starts fighting a new infection, and second, a version of IgG, which created later to fight the specific invader), and we’re not quite there yet.

According to Dr. McClain, what makes an antibody test “accurate” really comes down to two factors: its sensitivity and its specificity.  Sensitivity refers to a test’s ability to measure a “true positive” (someone who is most likely immune to COVID-19) while specificity is defined in this case as a test’s ability to identify immunity to this particular strain of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)—and not immunity you may have developed from another form of the virus (like 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1) at a different stage of your life. A test lacking in both factors will yield an inaccurate—and potentially life-threatening-result.

“This can be potentially extremely dangerous,” says George Declos, MD, PhD, respiratory disease and occupational medicine specialist at the University of Texas. “Not only because [a bad test] gives misinformation, but because it may trigger actions on the part of employers, and possibly even health-care providers, to act on the basis of a positive result that is inaccurate.” For example, if someone goes back to work after getting a false positive from a bad antibody test, Dr. Declos says, they’re now being put in a dangerous situation where they could actually get infected (because no antibodies = no immunity at all.)

“This can be potentially extremely dangerous. Not only because [a bad test] gives misinformation, but because it may trigger actions on the part of employers, and possibly even health-care providers, to act on the basis of a positive result that is inaccurate.” —George Declos, MD, PHD

Yet despite the very real risks of faulty tests, there isn’t a ton of oversight right now on what’s going to market. When the FDA issued emergency use authorizations  (“EAUs”) for four COVID-19 antibody tests earlier in the month, Dr. McClain says that the Secretary of Health and Human Services also issued a policy stating that, “circumstances exist justifying the authorization of emergency use of in vitro diagnostics for the detection and/or diagnosis of the novel coronavirus.” Meaning, so long as the company wrote a letter to the FDA promising to adhere to the rigorous requirements of the tests put in place by the department, they wouldn’t need to be vetted.

According to Dr. McClain, many companies are staying true to their word and creating tests that follow the FDA’s guidelines down to the last detail. A number of them have either not submitted letters to the FDA, however, and still more are advertising that they’re “approved by the FDA,” when they technically are not. “They are registering with the FDA through a letter saying, ‘We promise you the tests have been validated.’ So if it does come out that they’re not, in fact, validating this testing, they’re going to get a pretty good spanking,” he says.  So, of course, the findings from these tests cannot be trusted in the same way as the FDA-vetted Mount Sinai Laboratory test or the Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. test—because there’s been no third-party confirmation that these tests are truly effective.

FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn said in a statement that the department is now in the process of investigating and warning companies that are issuing poorly manufactured tests, along with the help of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “When we become aware of these issues, we have and will continue to take appropriate action against firms making or distributing unvalidated tests or those making false claims, such as issuing Warning Letters requesting that companies stop their unlawful promotion and detaining and refusing fraudulent test kits at the border,” he said.

Hopefully, stricter regulations will deliver the antibody test back to its original status as a source of hope—and not one of confusion—says Dr. McClain. And more importantly, a larger crop of dependable tests will generate data that are easier to interpret, learn from, and implement.

My workplace or doctor offered me an antibody test—how can I vet it myself?

Despite the fact that companies like Amazon and General Motors are looking into the idea of antibody testing their employees, both Dr. Declos and Dr. McClain agree: We’re nowhere near ready to use antibody tests as a way to end the workforce’s remote status. The science just isn’t there yet.

“If you are thinking about having people to return to work based on an assumption that just because they have antibodies means that they are protected from infections, and it turns out not to be the case when the science is reviewed, that is concerning because you’re putting people in harm’s way unnecessarily,” says Dr. Declos. “I think antibody testing is a good thing, but I think jumping the gun and making use of testing before the science is there can be extremely dangerous.”

If you are given the opportunity to take the antibody test through your place of work, there are a few ways to vet it yourself. The most obvious? Call your doctor. “If I’m the patient, that’s the best way. A doctor is supposed to go through this process and vet [the test], and has the tools, presumably, to do so,” says Dr. McClain. The next best place to go is the FDA’s website, which lists out all of the tests as well as their status. If you don’t see the test distributed by your employer on the list, take your results with a grain of salt. (Oh, and if a test is costing you a mere $5, you can go ahead and write it off as fake.)

The path forward for antibody tests

Dr. McClain is optimistic that $484 billion relief bill working its way through Congress this week, which promises to provide money for COVID-19 testing, will also pave the way for a larger sample size of people who have received the highest quality antibody tests.

“A large amount of testing would be required to get a handle on this virus,” says Dr. McClain. “We need a representative sample in this country to figure out a range of how many people are infected, how many people have symptoms and don’t, and how many have died. Right now, we have what would be considered a very biased sample in that we really only have information on the people we know are infected, and particularly those with severe disease.”

With this information in hand, he believes it would be easier to make smart, calculated decisions about how long the country needs to stay shut—and when it’s okay to open back up.  “All this information is still not sufficient to get our arms around the virus. We have statistics which tell us that fewer people are dying now. About the virus itself, though, we know very, very little still, because we don’t know how many people are infected now.”

“We need a representative sample in this country to figure out a range of how many people are infected, how many people have symptoms and don’t, and how many have died.” —Rand McClain, DO

Researchers from the University of Southern California and Los Angeles County Department of Public Health recently tried to pool a smaller model of the “representative sample” Dr. McClain is referring to by using the antibody test results of 3,330 participants to determine how many people in LA had been exposed to the virus. The study indicated that between 2.8 percent and 5.6 percent of those tested may have been infected in early April. And although the study has been criticized for certain biases, it does shed light on the kind of data that could be made available in a nationwide study conducted with sound, FDA-approved tests.

The first-generation HIV antibody testing (introduced in 1985) produced false-positives and underwent five more iterations over 30 years until it became the accurate test it is today. Here’s hoping that in 2020 we can use knowledge from past experiences (and common sense) to make COVID-19 antibody testing efficacious faster and more efficiently.

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Employee Drug Abuse: The Right Way to Deal With Addicts in Your Company

Drug abuse can be one of the biggest roadblocks to employee productivity and is a nightmare for many employers across the globe. According to a white paper titled “Drug and Alcohol Awareness”:

Drug abuse costs employers $ 81 billion annually

70% of an estimated 14.8 million Americans who use illegal drugs are employed.

Drug abuse by an employee can lead to productivity loss, regular absence from work, injuries and traffic accidents. So, the question is how to deal with this situation? Take these measures while addressing drug abuse amongst your employees:

1. Prepare a well-documented drug abuse policy that condemns drug use at work. Make every employee read and sign an agreement to make them understand the policies.

2. Watch out for the signs of drug abuse amongst employees in your workplace.

3. Deal promptly with employees who have a drug abuse problem.

Signs An Employee is Abusing Drugs in the Workplace

There are different signs that you can keep a watch on to identify if someone might be addicted to drugs.

1. A sudden change in the behavior or personality of the employee

2. Poor hygiene

3. Poor productivity

4. Increase in number of poor decisions or bad judgment taken by the employee

5. Failure to meet deadlines or not showing up in meetings

6. Sudden display of forgetfulness or confusion.

Apart from the signs mentioned above, an employee having a drug abuse problem will also show signs of depression, anxiety or other health concerns. It is extremely critical for you as an employer to deal with the situation empathy and careful judgment.

Measures to Deal WIth Employee Drug Abuse

1. Gather Evidence

If you suspect an employee is abusing drugs, the very first thing that you need to do is to gather evidence. Remember, it is never right to approach the employee having a drug abuse problem directly, and question him regarding this habit. Rather, you should document instances where there have been performance issues with the complete account of date and time.

There are organizations who still do not have the mandate to conduct mandatory drug testing. But, if permitted, conduct a drug test. Before approaching the employee, the best approach is to review the signs of abuse with an Employee Assistance Program Counselor.

2. Schedule one-to-one meeting with the employee

Notify the date, time and place of the meeting with the employee to discuss their performance. Always ensure that you hold the meeting at a private place. Be discrete and selective while disclosing the conversation that takes place at the meeting in the organization. The key is to win the confidence of the employee to let them open up to you.

3. Start the conversation on a lighter tone

Unless there are obvious signs of job impairment by the employee, the best resort is to avoid asking the drug abuse question directly. Instead, focus on the employee’s job performance. Encourage them to tell you their part of the story. Refer the employee to the Employee Assistance Program and explain them that if their performance does not improve then there can be disciplinary action taken against them and in some circumstances, even termination.

4. Have a plan B is the employee denies drug abuse

Remember, at the very first instance the employee will never come up with the correct version of their story. So, be prepared for them to be in denial stage early on. In case, the employee denies having a drug abuse problem and also refuses to take the assistance from the Employee Assistance Program, take a note of the problems and discipline the employee, if required.

5. Encourage professional help once he/she agrees to the problem of drug abuse

After the first denial, the employee may agree to the problem of drug abuse, albeit with much intervention. The best thing in such a situation is to make them sit with colleagues and other people who are close to the addicted person. Confront them and ask them to take professional help. But, the important thing is this work-based intervention should come from a trained professional. Contact your Employee Assistance Program Counselor for more information on this subject.

6. Give the contact of drug abuse prevention agencies to the employee

There are communities who have a list of drug abuse prevention agencies and resources. Inquire from the local organizations about any educational material or recommended resources for people dealing with drug abuse. By providing a list of treatment facilities, support groups and other resources to the employee you are giving them a perfect place to restart their life.

7. Keep yourself updated with the laws pertaining to workplace drug use in your country

There are countries where addiction qualifies as a health condition under the provision of the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This means that if the employee is receiving company insurance, they are eligible for a maximum of 12 weeks of unpaid leaves without fear of losing the job. Keep yourself educated with the FMLA rules and other employee job protection laws, that protect the employees with drug abuse problems.

8. Offer total support to the employee

In order to make the employee recover from the drug abuse problem, ensure that you provide complete support to them. You can do this by providing medical insurance that consists of comprehensive health plans covering all the stages of the treatment of drug abuse disorders. Always opt for the best plans that covers treatment, counseling, aftercare and educating the employees about the dangers of drug abuse.

During the recovery stage, follow up with the employee after they graduate from rehab. After the employee completes the addiction treatment program shift them to a less stressful job. It can be a new position that does not deal with stressful situations. Give the employee enough leeway to attend outpatient counseling sessions and group meetings.

Conclusion

In the end, it has got to be said that dealing with an employee having a drug abuse problem is never an easy proposition for an employer. Multiple things go in the minds of the employer while taking the final call on whether to retain or fire an employee having a drug abuse problem. But, the ones who offer second chance to the employees, provide enough motivation to them in pursuing the recovery process.

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Commercial Cleaning for Dummies

Connie Claims: June nineteenth, 2015 at 3:44 pm I'd another person out to wash my ducts previous weekend. He took a blue bag up in my attic. He came back again down in only a couple of minutes and claimed I'd mould and he even confirmed me an image of a little something expressing it had been mold but I couldn’t seriously convey to. check my blog , it''s mandatory to be aware of the scope of labor and also the timeframes obtainable for that perform. The fee in this article in Jackson Co., Oregon is about $250. Connect with the Construction Contractor’s Board (CCB) under condition listings within your cell phone e book for specific info close to you. (Polices are generally transforming.) The CCB will send you an application packet. Only Ad here to the actions. They need your company. 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It’s in no way been cleaned considering that ive been below. Could it be one thing I can do with a store vac? Am i able to make use of a soaked rag to find the powder dust on the inside from the vents off. A person vent has what appears like chunks of dry wall or thick paint sitting down in the vent and none of the vents screw in the wall, the screws just tumble out. Nobody ever reinforced the realm so the wall just essentially crumbles. Form of ineffective to spend the money on filters Considering that the air and dust just blows out throughout the sides in the vents and on the list of vents just falls ideal out of your wall if the warmth is turned on. I don’t know why the owner doesn’t deal with it. He’s been below to replace filters and noticed the affliction. If you have to employ the service of enable I recommend you are doing it by means of A short lived-labor provider agency. 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Then they immediately ship the employee a paycheck and bill you concurrently. At the end of the 12 months they concern W-2s and spare you that grief also. On ordinary you can expect to pay for from $eight to $twelve an hour or so for assistance. Following a demo period, if an staff proves to generally be a great employee, It might be intelligent to offer her or him a increase. 4. Bid on Positions. When you start obtaining phone calls, established appointments to walk through the households of one's future clients. Just about every homeowner should have distinctive priorities concerning a variety of cleaning tasks, so carry a notepad to jot down details you’ll have to have to keep in mind. You could price your get the job done in several different ways. Environment an hourly charge will take a lot of the guesswork outside of pricing Positions, but while you gain proficiency, you’ll learn that a home that originally took you 4 hrs to clean may very well be finished in 3. 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[therecoversite]

How do I get time off of work to attend addiction rehab?

New Post has been published on https://therecoverdev.wpengine.com/how-do-i-get-time-off-of-work-to-attend-addiction-rehab/

How do I get time off of work to attend addiction rehab?

The first step in recovering from drug abuse or alcohol abuse is realizing and accepting that you have a problem. Everything else will surface from there. It may be hard to think logical and convince yourself that you need to attend treatment, along with so many other questions that are racing through your mind. If you’re a parent and have young kids, finding suitable long-term child care that you’re confident with may be expensive. Finding a family member or a friend that is willing and able to help may be a better option.

For many, the essential concern will be how to survive financially while out of work and how their bills are going to get paid. Many individuals will not be able to work for the time being when choosing a residential or outpatient drug treatment program. The ability of having a job during alcohol or drug rehab is a huge factor for many Americans.  In many cases, people think that keeping a job is more important than getting help. When having this mind set, it will only last for so long then eventually backfire. Addicts that don’t treat their addiction, will end up bringing their problems to work and may result in being let go due to having repetitive and ongoing problems effecting their work ethic.

Can I lose my job if my boss knows that I’m an addict and need treatment?

This is another burden for many professionals in the same difficult dilemma. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects employees from being discriminated against because of a disability. Under this act, it defines what qualifies as a disability. People who struggle with alcohol/drugs are considered to have a disability under this law.

Here’s where it gets tricky, if your job performance is being affected because of your drinking, your employer has every right to fire you. They first have to prove that your quality of performance is poor, or that you are lacking what they expect from you.  If you choose to get help before your employer takes any disciplinary action, they cannot fire you for past mistakes or poor quality of work.

People taking advantage and using illegal drugs are not protected by the ADA. The act protects someone that has a history of drug use but is in recovery for it. It also protects someone that is no longer using and attending treatment. Your employer has the right to drug test you as needed. If you have a problem and know it, it is best if you take the initiative and seek help now.

Your addiction may be causing issues at work. If it continues, it can eventually lead to you getting fired. This means no income, and can result in you losing everything that you worked so hard your whole life for (family, your home, etc).  It’s not like it stops when you get to work, then once you’re done, you pick it back up. You are using while working. If you have an addiction, it most likely is already affecting your work ethic. People with addictions often:

Take unapproved or obscure leave.

Arrive late.

Takes advantage of sick time.

Has patterns of absence (certain days or after payday).

Take absences due to “accidents or emergencies”.

Frequently misses deadlines.

Turns in incomplete work

Fails to meet production quotas

Always has excuses for late or incomplete work

Produces poor work ethic

Has problems with coworkers or becomes aggressive towards them

Is distant

Research has shown that alcohol abuse alone costs American employers 33 to 68 billion dollars per year. With this being said, not being able to miss work to get help for your addiction isn’t believable. Most jobs would want you to get the help when having a problem and there would be no issue accommodating you, rather than keeping a worker that has a problem and continues to slack off.  Rates of addiction seem to be much higher among the unemployed rather than the individuals that are employed. If you rely on your addiction, it will only be a matter of time before you will find yourself without a job.

Can an employer fire you while you are away getting treatment?

It all depends on who you are employed by. In most cases, using drugs can be a good enough reason for getting fired by your employer. You would be putting not only your job at risk, but you would be putting yourself at risk as well.

If you are not actively using, some employers will have accommodating policies giving attention to employee’s detainment after drug or alcohol treatment, or will be under union contract to treat the employee with certain regulations. For those without clear guidelines, the Family and Medical Leave Act can often fill in the gaps.

According to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), an employee can get up to 12 weeks of leave (either paid or unpaid) every 12 months in order to treat their addiction that constrains them from working. This includes going to rehab, as long as there is no valid reasoning, such as poor work ethic due to your addiction.

Can I keep my job while in rehab?

Once an employee is accepted and takes a leave of absence, the employer must keep that position open until the approved time of leave expires. The employer must keep the health coverage of the employee as well.  The problem with the FMLA is that it only applies to companies with fifty or more employees. A person can lose coverage if there are any details missed due to complicated rules that surrounded the application of a FMLA based leave. If you are unsure if your able to keep your job with your employer when entering rehab, speak to an employment lawyer in your state, they can give you more accurate information.

What exactly is FMLA?

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) is a United States federal law that covers employers and provides employees job-protected and unpaid leave for skillful medical and family reasoning.  Medical and family qualifications include: personal or family illness, family military leave, pregnancy, adoption, or fostering a child. FMLA leave may only be taken for substance abuse treatment provided by a health care provider or by a provider of health care services on referral by a health care provider. Employees having a leave of absence due to addiction, instead of treatment, doesn’t qualify under the FMLA act.

Employers cannot take action against an employee if they have devoted his or her right to take FMLA leave for substance abuse treatment. If the employer has a permanent policy, applied in a non-discriminatory manner, that has been provided to all employees under assured circumstances, an employee may be let go for using substances. The employee may then be terminated whether he or she is presently taking FMLA leave. An employee may also be eligible to take FMLA leave to take care of a family member who is receiving treatment for addiction and the employer is not allowed to take action against the employee.

Who Can Use FMLA Leave?

You must work for a covered employer in order to take FMLA leave. Private employers with 50 or more employees are covered by the law. If you’re a private employer with less than 50 employees, you will not be covered but may qualify for family state and medical leave laws. Government agencies (including local, state and federal employers) and elementary and secondary schools are covered by the FMLA, no matter the amount of employees. You need to meet additional criteria to be eligible to take FMLA leave if you work for a covered company.

Not everyone who works for a covered employer is accepted. First, you must have worked for your employer for at least 12 months. You do not have to have worked for 12 months in a row (so seasonal work counts), but generally if you have a break in service that lasted more than seven years, you cannot calculate that period of employment prior to the seven-year break. Second, you must have worked for the employer for at least 1250 hours in the 12 months before you take leave. That works out to an average of about 24 hours per week over the course of a year. Lastly, you must work at a place where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles of your worksite. Even if your employer has more than 50 employees, they can’t be spread out and if there are not 50 employees within 75 miles of where you work, you will not qualify to take FMLA leave. Airline Flight Attendants/Flight Crew Employees Due to non-traditional work schedules, airline flight attendants and flight crew members are subject to special eligibility requirements under the FMLA. You meet the hours of work requirement if, during the 12 months prior to your need for leave, you have worked or been paid for at least 60% of your applicable monthly guarantee, and have worked or been paid for at least 504 hours, not including personal commute time, or time spent on vacation, medical or sick leave.

HIPPA Laws

This kind of law also helps cover addicts wanting to go to addiction treatment. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) is United States legislation that provides data privacy and security arrangements for securing medical information. The act, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in August 1996, consists of 5 sections, or titles:

HIPAA Title I protects health insurance coverage for people who lose or change jobs. It also restricts group health plans from denying coverage to people with particular illnesses and pre-existing conditions, and from setting life time coverage limitations.

HIPAA Title II directs the United States Department of Health and Human Services to develop nationwide requirements for processing electronic health care deals. It needs health care companies to execute safe and secure electronic access to health data and to stay in compliance with privacy policies set by HHS.

HIPAA Title III consists of tax-related arrangements and standards for treatment.

HIPAA Title IV further more specifies medical insurance reform, consisting of arrangements for people with pre-existing conditions and those looking for continued protection.

HIPAA Title V deals with arranging company-owned life insurance coverage and treatment to those who lose their U.S. citizenship for income tax purposes.

In IT circles, sticking to HIPAA Title II is exactly what many people indicate when they describe HIPAA compliance. Likewise referred to as the Administrative Simplification provisions, Title II consists of the following HIPAA compliance requirements:

National Provider Identifier Standard- Each health care entity, consisting of people, employers, health plans and healthcare providers, need to have a distinct 10-digit nationwide provider identifier number, or NPI.

Transactions and Code Sets Standards- Health care companies should follow a standardized system for electronic information interchange (EDI) in order to send and process insurance coverage claims.

HIPAA Privacy Rule- Formally known as the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, this guideline develops nationwide requirements to secure patient health information.

HIPAA Security Rule- The Security Standards for the Protection of Electronic Protected Health Information sets requirements for patient data security.

HIPAA Enforcement Rule- This guideline develops standards for examinations into HIPAA compliance infractions.

In 2013, the HIPAA Omnibus Rule was put in place by HHS to execute adjustments to HIPAA in accordance with standards set in 2009 by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act concerning the obligations of service partners of covered entities. The omnibus guideline has increased penalties for HIPAA compliance violations to an optimum of $1.5 million per incident.

HIPAA offenses can be rather expensive for health care companies. Initially, the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule within the omnibus set of regulation requires entities and any afflicted company partners to inform clients following a data breach. In addition to the notification expenses, health care companies can experience fines after HIPAA audits mandated by the HITECH Act and performed by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Providers might then deal with criminal charges originating from offenses of the HIPAA privacy and security guidelines.

Organizations can reduce their threat of regulative action through HIPAA compliance training programs. The OCR has 6 curricula on adhering to the privacy and security guidelines; a variety of consultancies and training groups provide programs as well. Healthcare providers may then decide to produce their own training programs, which frequently incorporates each company’s present HIPAA privacy and security policies, the HITECH Act, mobile phone management processes and other suitable standards.

While there is no main HIPAA compliance accreditation program, training business uses accreditation qualifications to show an understanding of the standards and policies defined by the act.

Is drug addiction considered a disability?

Filing for Social Security Disability with a Drug Addiction Diagnosis is not possible at this moment to get Social Security Disability advantages based exclusively on Drug Addiction. The Social Security Administration (SSA) will not grant disability benefits to individuals with disabilities that have been triggered or intensified by addiction.

If Drug Addiction is considered immaterial to your disability, it is possible that the SSA will give your disability claim. Nevertheless, if the SSA finds that your addiction primarily impacts your impairment, it will not grant your application for impairment advantages.

Does short term disability cover rehab?

Direct costs of drug and alcohol rehabilitation will typically be covered by most health insurance plans. But you may be asking how you can afford to leave work to enter a treatment facility. Your everyday living expenses will continue, but what about your income? When it comes to short term disability insurance may cover drug rehabilitation. Policy exclusion language is the first item to consider when deciding whether your short-term disability policy covers drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Every private policy will include a list of items excluded from coverage. Read your policy carefully and look for language addressing mental illness, and addiction recovery.

There is no exact answer to whether every short-term disability policy covers drug and alcohol addiction. Each insurer is different. Each policy issued by an insurer contains different policy exclusions. Some do, and some do not. Some do under specific circumstances.

Don’t Let Money Hit the Breaks

Even though people seeking addiction treatment have comfort in the knowledge that there is job security during their medical leave for addiction, there is still the obstacle of financial hardship since the FMLA is an unpaid leave. However, there are solutions to this problem.  For instance, under certain conditions, employers can choose to substitute accrued paid leave (such as sick or vacation leave) for FMLA leave while you are in rehab for your drug or alcohol addiction. If this is not an option for you, there may be funding through private or disability insurances available.

If you have the funds available, you should plan ahead of time on how you will pay your bills, some ideas are to designate a family member or friend that you 100% trust and have a list of the bills you need paid and how to access your funds. An easier way to handle your finances is to have them paid ahead of time or have them automatically taken out of your account. There are many different options that can help you handle this stress while in recovery.

Make That Call

Addiction is tough, and making the commitment to get help is never easy. However, people seeking assistance for their addictions should consider FMLA leave or HIPPA laws and see what options are available to them. Thanks to FMLA leave and HIPPA laws, there is a light at the end of the tunnel for many addicts.

If you are considering entering rehab for your addiction, please call now. Our admissions coordinators will help you with all of the forms needed to help you qualify to use FMLA or HIPPA laws to get the addiction treatment you need.

Returning to Work After Drug Rehab

An extensive drug or alcohol rehabilitation process makes the addict feel normal enough that he or she can return to their normal life style. If you have left your addiction behind you and have finally decided to re-enter the normal world with zeal and courage, then you will have to display your mental power and face the world. The good news is that by the time you try and take your first step after rehabilitation, you have already gotten better.

Reconciling the problems that you will face upon completing rehab will depend on your willpower. If you take all these problems personally, you might once again seek refuge in drugs or alcohol and this is less than desirable.

There will be pressure at home, at work and in daily life routines. Your family, friends and co-workers might look over your shoulder to make sure you are not indulging in the habit and this might irritate you. But, if you take this attitude positively, chances are you would be able to take the pressure and tag along with them.

[ronaldmrashid]

The Difficulties Of Pregnancy: Why More Should Be Done For Working Pregnant Women

This Mother’s Day, I’d like to highlight how difficult it is to get pregnant, stay pregnant, and work while pregnant. My hope is the more aware people are about the difficulties of pregnancy, the more compassion there will be for pregnant women and moms in general.

I’ve come across too many heartless folks who make pregnant women feel uncomfortable at work and make them never want to go back to work after giving birth. Here’s a comment that illustrates my point from the post, Career Advice For Women: Blaze Your Own Path Instead.

My husband is also a “revenue making” startup founder, and I kind of know people hate him because he is a harsh boss, he says things for shock value, but yes he gets things done.

He could’ve said what this guy said (“I hate women”), and he has told me in private that having to deal with his pregnant female employees leaving early or because they are tired, and dealing with maternity leave of his female employees is painful because a startup just does not have that kind of bandwidth. They expect everyone all hands on deck all the time. That’s the reality of it, given the breakneck speed of how things work plus juggling finance, legal, there just isn’t enough bandwidth to run a start up like a large fortune 500 company with HR departments and such.

What I describe above is a different scenario from what you experienced and my husband mentioned this to me in private, but his arguments could be true of any startup.

This type of thinking is endemic among many males and some females. In a highly competitive business environment, I can understand the strains of lost productivity. However, someone has to give birth.  Otherwise, nobody would exist. To create more empathy, let’s address three things everybody should know about pregnancy. 

Important Things To Know About Pregnancy

1) Roughly 20% – 25% of pregnant women suffer a miscarriage. Miscarriage aka “spontaneous abortion” is the loss of a pregnancy during the first 20 weeks.

A miscarriage is obviously a very difficult experience to deal with, especially if you’ve experienced more than one. The chances are pretty high that someone you know at work is trying to get pregnant and has not succeeded or has gone through a miscarriage. People just don’t talk openly about these kinds of difficulties.

Don’t question why your female colleague has to take the afternoon or the day off from work. I had the opportunity to meet several women who told me in private that due to the discovery of chromosomal abnormalities such as Trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome), they decided to get a dilation & curettage due to the likelihood of severe intellectual disability and physical abnormalities. Too ashamed to tell their colleagues and bosses, they suffer in silence.

Never assume the reason a woman doesn’t have children is because she doesn’t want them. There may be a plethora of reasons, ranging from not finding the right partner, not feeling financially secure, or nature not cooperating after multiple attempts. Unless you’re a close friend, it’s probably best not to ask someone, “When are you going to have a baby?” or “Why don’t you have kids yet?” These may seem like harmless questions, but in reality, if the woman has been trying for years, the questions may be quite hurtful.

Related: Develop Emotional Intelligence For An Easier Life

General pregnancy rates by age. Source: CDC

2) The cost to get pregnant can be prohibitively expensive. Imagine trying for two years and not succeeding due to endometriosis in the ovaries, a bulging cyst, or a poor sperm count. Patience and optimism can wane after so many failed attempts.

The general next step many couples go through is intrauterine insemination (IUI). Each session can cost between $300 – $1,300, depending on where you live and your health insurance provider. Each IUI procedure will pull both you and your partner away from the office for at least two hours. Now imagine not succeeding after six IUIs. Not only are you now even more frustrated, your co-workers may start whispering about your lack of commitment at work. Further, you’re probably out thousands of dollars.

If IUI doesn’t work, some couples consider in vitro fertilization (IVF), a medical procedure whereby an egg is fertilized by sperm in a test tube or elsewhere outside the body. The first step – and often the most unpleasant step – in IVF is a regimen of injected fertility drugs for 7 – 12 days. These drugs stimulate the production of an unusually high number of egg follicles. Once mature, a final shot is given to cause you to ovulate the eggs, which are then harvested in an egg retrieval procedure

The national average cost for a “fresh” IVF cycle is about $12,000 plus medications, which typically run $3,000 to $5,000. So now we’re talking $15,000 – $18,000 out of pocket and only a ~40% chance of conceiving if you are under 35. For any family not making at least $100,000 a year, that is an enormous sum of money. Despite Facebook being the king of fake news, it’s great to hear it covers IVF costs for its employees.

Take a look at the IVF success rates by age from the CDC. By age 41, your chance of a live birth drops down to only 11%. You may literally need to spend $100,000+ over nine IVF cycles before succeeding. When you combine money stress, failure stress, and artificial hormone stress, it’s difficult to always be chipper at work.

Average success rate for live birth is ~40% for women under 35. Source: CDC

3) Being pregnant can be extremely uncomfortable. Hollywood has built up a perception that pregnancy is an easy, beautiful, magical process that makes women “glow” for nine months. For a lot of women, the reality is a lot different. There’s nothing magical about vomiting every day for months or feeling like you’re getting stabbed every time you sneeze.

When a woman is pregnant, her uterus pushes against the bladder (even before she may be showing), which leads to the urge to pee frequently. Commuting to work can be unbearable especially if you have to stand, change vehicles, etc. for more than 30 minutes. If you have to sit in a one-hour meeting, you may have to walk out mid-meeting to go to the bathroom. Those of us who’ve never been pregnant take our ability to go for hours without having to pee for granted.

Pregnancy can cause frequent constipation and excess gas. One of the key benefits of working at home is being able to relieve yourself with ease. Not so much when you’ve got multiple co-workers sitting inches away. Further, pregnant women often tire easily, especially during the first trimester. One friend always prided herself on never napping. But after she got pregnant, she had to nap for an hour every day for four months.

Further, the recommended weight gain is ~25 – 35 lbs for the average weight women, or roughly 20% heavier. Imagine always carrying a backpack containing two watermelons everywhere you go. Tiring!

Finally, trying to always protect your baby from harm’s way can take its toll. You’re always watching where you’re stepping, careful not to fall. You’re also protecting your belly from bashing into anything. You’re also constantly mindful of what you can and cannot eat and drink.

Be More Empathetic To Pregnant Women

Career opportunity is the reason why many couples are choosing to delay marriage and start families. Unfortunately, our biology isn’t following suit. It would be nice if the statistics showed that the new “safest age” to give birth is 40 or under, but it remains around 35 or under. Not everybody can find the one and feel financially and emotionally ready enough to have a child in their 20s  Roughly 25% of couples have pregnancy-related complications.

After speaking with so many women about their pregnancy experiences for this article, including my own mother, sister, and best friend who just gave birth, I’m actually surprised any pregnant woman is willing to work during the third trimester (28 – 40th week). The unfortunate reality is that for many, financial constraints make working through pregnancy a necessity.

Let’s encourage the following:

* Equal parental leave for men and women so employers have a lower likelihood of discriminating against women who may take maternity leave. Some women think this is unfair since men don’t have to go through pregnancy. But good fathers are there to assist, bottle feed, change diapers, and go through many sleepless nights as well.

* Allow for more pregnant women to work from home. There are too many things going on with a pregnant woman’s body to make her feel absolutely comfortable working in close quarters with so many other people. If you allow more moms to work from home, you stand a higher chance of keeping them as employees.

* Instead of only 12 weeks of unpaid maternity leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, how about at least 8 weeks of paid maternity leave for mothers. It may take mothers 6 – 9 months to recover fully due to tears, complications, and cesareans. Currently only California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island require private employers to pay for maternity leave.

* Create more awareness about the difficulties of pregnancy. A good start is by sharing this article and others like it.

Happy Mother’s Day to my three favorite moms out there! You know who you are! Lots of love.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Related posts:

How Much Does IVF And Eastern Medicine Cost To Combat Infertility?

How To Build A Stronger Brand For You

How To Make Six Figures At Almost Any Age

Why do you think more people can’t empathize with pregnant women? To help other women, should pregnant women or mothers raise more awareness? Have you or your partner gone through a difficult pregnancy?

from http://www.financialsamurai.com/the-difficulties-of-pregnancy-why-more-should-be-done-for-working-pregnant-women/

[smartselectnz]

Deep Sea Fishing Crew

New Post has been published on https://www.smartselect.co.nz/jobs/deep-sea-fishing-crew/

Deep Sea Fishing Crew

We are recruiting for our modern freezer trawler fleet. We are looking for keen, hard-working and enthusiastic men and women to join our team.

Our trips vary from 14 to 45 days, and depending how long your vessel goes out for, you get the same amount of time off straight after! That means you only end up working six months of each year! Being paid during your trip off as well as your trip on certainly helps as well.

What we look for in a fisher

A career in fishing with Sealord offers a career path that is rewarding, exciting and challenging. You’ll be in a constantly changing environment where no two days are ever the same. It takes a resilient person who is willing to put in the hard yards to reap the generous rewards.

While you work with us you’ll need to embrace our values and put them into practice in everything you do. Some of the qualities we look for in our fishing crew are:

a strong safety focus

the ability to communicate well

able to build good relationships

open to receive and follow instructions and feedback

a mature work ethic – that is be honest, reliable, and trustworthy

able to work under pressure and to perform well in this setting

fit and healthy, and committed to looking after your health.

Things you should know about the job

the trip lengths vary from vessel to vessel ranging from two to six weeks

trip on trip off. The amount of time you are out on the vessel, you will get the same amount of time off following

hours of work are generally done in shifts of 6 hours on and 6 off

three delicious meals a day served up by our experienced cooks

all personal protective equipment supplied to keep you safe and your clothing clean

internet access while at sea

boats dock at Port Nelson and it is your responsibility to make sure you can get to Nelson in time to sail

in the interests of keeping everyone safe at sea, drug testing is part of our pre-employment health assessment. Random drug testing is an on-going condition of employment.

What’s in it for you

comprehensive induction to both the Nelson site and your vessel

ongoing certified health and safety, compliance, and development training

opportunities to gain a qualification while you work

onsite health centre and nurse, as well as on-board trained medic

staff sales – a shop with cheap as chips Sealord product that only Sealord employees can purchase

staff discount card for a whole lot of Nelson based businesses

working for a company committed to training and development and helping you fufill your potential

free flu vaccines and wellness checks.

If you consider yourself to be motivated and hardworking person who is looking for a challenge (and good money!) then we want to hear from you. Please fill in the online application and answer all the questions. We will review your application and if we think you have what it takes then we will be in touch!

[freshstartformillenials]

Marijuana Is Changing the Workplace. Here’s How Employers Should Deal With It.

With medical marijuana legal in 23 states and Washington, D.C., there are now millions of card-carrying cannabis users working at companies across the U.S. While four states and the District have legalized recreational marijuana use, pot is still illegal under federal law, and many business owners still subscribe to the plant's Reefer Madness stigma and don't want to allow people to smoke on the job. For some of those owners, that can mean getting sued for failing to accommodate an employee who has a medical condition.

Regardless of how you feel about marijuana, there are certain rules employees and employers need to follow when it comes to drugs in the workplace. If you make a mistake, you could find yourself in court. Todd Wulffson, a partner at California-based employment and labor law firm Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger, is one of the many lawyers who have been busy defending employers in these types of cases. Wulffson says that to protect your business you need to update your employment policies and human resources programs, and train all managers.

First, employers need to be familiar with the laws that have been passed in their states and consider a drug policy that doesn't prohibit employees from using cannabis on their own time. With 86 percent of Americans supporting medical marijuana, an overly restrictive policy may chase some of your workers to another employer. Marijuana, while still classified as a Schedule I drug without medical use, does have medical benefits, and a bipartisan bill to make medical marijuana legal on the federal level has been introduced in the Senate.

Until then, employers need to take steps to avoid becoming a target of an employee lawsuit (whether the employee would have a strong case or not). "There are four scenarios that play out in these types of lawsuits that I see over and over again," Wulffson says.

1. Innocent inquiry

The first scenario is when an employee or an applicant innocently asks the question "'I just wanted to know, would you accommodate my use of medical marijuana?'" "That's a loaded question because you have to accommodate the underlying disability of the medical condition," Wulffson says. "But you don't have to accommodate being stoned at work."

If the query is put to the human resources department, the HR person should tell the employee that the company will accommodate his condition. At the same time, the employee should explain his condition, the treatment, and exactly what kind of accommodation he needs so you can have a dialogue about it. Where most companies falter is when a manager doesn't know the company policy and speaks out of turn.

"If an employee asks a line manager, they could easily say, 'Hell no! We don't accommodate stoners! You can't be stoned at work!' " Then the employee says, "Gee, I got glaucoma and I was hoping you'd accommodate my condition." If the manager doesn't tell the employee to go talk to HR and fires them, Wulffson warns, the result may be a lawsuit.

2. An ill employee stoned at work

The second scenario, Wulffson says, is when an employee with a serious disease is under the influence at work and gets called on the carpet: "The employee will say, 'I am getting treated for cancer and I am going through chemo. The only thing that helps is medical marijuana and I had to smoke a bowl at lunch to keep from throwing up. I am really sorry, I'll do something light until it wears off.' " Wulffson says that although you may have sympathy for the employee's situation, the only way to protect yourself from litigation is to institute a zero-tolerance policy for the use of any drugs, including medical marijuana, while at work.

Keep in mind, however, that if you are in a state that mandates employers accommodate medical marijuana (i.e., Arizona, Delaware, or Minnesota) you cannot fire a medical marijuana card-holding employee for a positive marijuana test. While it is indeed advisable to have a drug policy prohibiting marijuana use during work hours, you don't need to know about what employees are doing on their own time.

3. The future smoker

Wulffson says he's currently representing three clients who are in this situation: The employee comes to you and says she's suffering from anxiety or glaucoma and needs to deal with the symptoms. She tells you she's about to go outside, walk 50 feet away from the building, smoke, and come back. "They're telling you they're going to do it, but they are not stoned right now, so you don't have the right to fire them right now," he says. "But, invariably, the manager says, 'No, no, no, no. Go home, stay home, you're fired.' "

Wulffson says you should not allow the employee to smoke while at work, but you can make allowances. Say something like this: "We will reasonably accommodate your condition, but we cannot allow you to be under the influence while on the clock—it's too risky for the company. You can go home for the rest of the day and come back tomorrow."

4. Social media smokers

Here, an employee goes on Facebook or Twitter and sees pictures of an applicant smoking a joint. The employee then emails the hiring manager to discourage him from hiring the person. When the candidate finds out you saw the photos, Wulffson says, "that's when they claim you didn't hire them because of either a perceived disability" and/or because you don't want to provide an accommodation for them.

You might find this is frivolous, but there are lawyers out there looking to cash in. "There is a cottage industry of lawyers that do nothing but bring claims related to medical marijuana against employers," Wulffson says. "Google 'medical marijuana rights' and you'll find 50 lawyers who write well-written letters about how you didn't accommodate the employee and you're getting sued for hundreds of millions of dollars, but today they'll take $15,000 to go away."

Wulffson says these lawsuits are catching a lot of employers off guard because of the confusion over medical marijuana laws. "It may be legal in many states, but it's still a federal crime," he says. California and other states will not prosecute someone with a medical card who is carrying less than a certain amount, but that's not a blanket permission. "You can't go on federal property, you can't work for a federal employer," he says. "'Don't work for a federal contractor because you could be fired and maybe jailed."

When it comes to drug use at work—whether it is an employee with cancer smoking marijuana or one popping Xanax to deal with anxiety—Wulffson suggests you should adopt a simple, straightforward company policy that reads something like this: "We don't allow the use of, the possession, or being under the influence of any illegal drug in the workplace. 'Illegal drug' is defined as 'the abuse of over-the-counter medication, prescription medication, medical marijuana, and alcohol.' "

Additionally, Wulffson says, make sure you train all of your managers to answer questions. "If anything from any employee looks, sounds, or smells like they have a medical condition or medical marijuana issue, refer them to HR," he says. "The biggest issue I see is that companies don't get the word out and the line managers say and do things that get the company sued."

Source: Marijuana Is Changing the Workplace. Here’s How Employers Should Deal With It.

[brajeshupadhyay]

The announcement that 160 minor league baseball teams and tens of thousands of workers and players had long been expecting finally arrived Tuesday afternoon: the 2020 minor league baseball season will not happen. It is the first time in the history of Minor League Baseball, which was founded in 1901, that a season has been canceled. “These are unprecedented times for our country and our organization, as this is the first time in our history that we’ve had a summer without Minor League Baseball played,” Pat O’Conner, MiLB’s president and chief executive, said in a statement. “While this is a sad day for many, this announcement removes the uncertainty surrounding the 2020 season and allows our teams to begin planning for an exciting 2021 season.” Technically, the season’s fate was sealed when Major League Baseball informed MiLB that it would not be providing the players needed for the season because of the national emergency brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The MiLB Board of Trustees met earlier on Tuesday to finalize what had been apparent for months. Many of the roughly 8,000 minor league players — those who are not part of their affiliated M.L.B. team’s 60-man player pool for the 2020 season — will miss an entire year of their careers. Most M.L.B. teams have committed to paying their minor league players, many of whom earn less than $15,000 per season, $400 a week beyond June 30. Playing a 2020 season was always a more daunting undertaking for MiLB than for M.L.B. Unlike M.L.B. franchises, minor league teams rely heavily on revenue from people in the stands — tickets, beer and hot dog sales and sponsorships tied to attendance. Because they do not have widespread TV or streaming deals, it would not be feasible for MiLB to play games in empty stadiums, as M.L.B. plans to do beginning July 23. Another complicating factor: MiLB plays in smaller towns across the country and would have had to negotiate many more state and local reopening guidelines. The MiLB season was originally scheduled to start on April 9 and end in August. Without any games, minor league teams were forced to reduce their workforces and seek federal and local aid. Some teams had been trying creative ways to bring in at least some cash by renting out their stadiums for overnight stays or selling ballpark food for takeout, but nothing could replace a 140-game schedule for a full-season team. According to MiLB figures, minor league teams earned an average of $70,000 in gross revenue per home game, and $5.4 million per year. Most of that money went to operating expenses, including paying employees (each team averages 21 full-timers and 200 seasonal workers) and rent (teams pay a combined $65 million annually, the majority to local governments). M.L.B. teams paid for and provided the minor league players and coaches. Without a season, several minor league owners feared some teams would fold permanently because they could not go 18 months without revenue — in effect giving M.L.B. the minor-league contraction it has sought since last fall. Updated June 30, 2020 What are the symptoms of coronavirus? Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days. Is it harder to exercise while wearing a mask? A commentary published this month on the website of the British Journal of Sports Medicine points out that covering your face during exercise “comes with issues of potential breathing restriction and discomfort” and requires “balancing benefits versus possible adverse events.” Masks do alter exercise, says Cedric X. Bryant, the president and chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise, a nonprofit organization that funds exercise research and certifies fitness professionals. “In my personal experience,” he says, “heart rates are higher at the same relative intensity when you wear a mask.” Some people also could experience lightheadedness during familiar workouts while masked, says Len Kravitz, a professor of exercise science at the University of New Mexico. I’ve heard about a treatment called dexamethasone. Does it work? The steroid, dexamethasone, is the first treatment shown to reduce mortality in severely ill patients, according to scientists in Britain. The drug appears to reduce inflammation caused by the immune system, protecting the tissues. In the study, dexamethasone reduced deaths of patients on ventilators by one-third, and deaths of patients on oxygen by one-fifth. What is pandemic paid leave? The coronavirus emergency relief package gives many American workers paid leave if they need to take time off because of the virus. It gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose child care provider is unavailable because of the coronavirus. It is the first time the United States has had widespread federally mandated paid leave, and includes people who don’t typically get such benefits, like part-time and gig economy workers. But the measure excludes at least half of private-sector workers, including those at the country’s largest employers, and gives small employers significant leeway to deny leave. Does asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 happen? So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement. What’s the risk of catching coronavirus from a surface? Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus — whether it’s surface transmission or close human contact — is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks. How does blood type influence coronavirus? A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study. How many people have lost their jobs due to coronavirus in the U.S.? The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nation’s job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April. How can I protect myself while flying? If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.) What should I do if I feel sick? If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others. With the operating agreement between M.L.B. and MiLB set to expire in September, M.L.B. had been seeking to eliminate at least 40 minor league affiliates as part of a larger restructuring the league has said it was pursuing to improve player development, cut down on unforgiving travel and upgrade rundown facilities in the minors. After initially fighting M.L.B.’s plan, MiLB’s resistance softened during the pandemic. O’Conner told reporters on Tuesday evening that more than half of the minor league team owners could either be forced to sell their teams or go insolvent without outside financial help. “This is the perfect storm,” he said. “There are many teams that are not liquid.” The post Minor League Baseball Season Is Canceled for the First Time appeared first on Sansaar Times.

http://sansaartimes.blogspot.com/2020/07/minor-league-baseball-season-is.html

[brajeshupadhyay]

When a new coronavirus outbreak emerged last week in Beijing, residents were jolted by reports that traces of the virus had been found on a cutting board used for imported salmon, and the backlash was swift. Within a few days, salmon was removed from major supermarket shelves in Beijing, reserves of the fish were dumped and bulk orders evaporated. Diners rushed to cancel reservations at Japanese restaurants in the capital, while salmon suppliers around the world scrambled to salvage the tarnished reputation of their prized product in the country. Chinese officials later said that imported salmon was not responsible for spreading the virus, but the damage had already been done. “The unluckiest restaurateur of 2020,” said Alan Wong, owner of Hatsune, a chain of Japanese restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai. “That’s my title.” “We were packed on Friday and now dead ever since,” he said. “Totally empty.” In a country where fears of the virus remain strong and nationalism is on the rise, imported salmon has found itself an easy target. Facing global criticism for its initial mishandling of the virus, Chinese authorities have for months waged a propaganda campaign to highlight their successes in taming the virus and deflect blame for the pandemic to outsiders. They have cast foreigners as public health risks, sowed doubt about the origins of the virus and even pushed an unfounded conspiracy theory that the United States military had deliberately brought the virus to China. After the chairman of the wholesale market linked to the latest outbreak told a Beijing News reporter that the virus had been found on a cutting board used for salmon, panic ensued. On Saturday, Zeng Guang, a senior epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, was quoted in the Global Times, a party-controlled nationalist newspaper, urging the public to temporarily stay away from raw salmon. For years, China’s growing appetite for salmon, like American lobsters, oysters and cherries, had been celebrated as a sign of the country’s rising living standards and burgeoning middle class. Now, the luxury good, which is mostly imported from Norway and Chile, is being cast out. For the many salmon suppliers and restaurateurs who were already struggling to claw their way back in the aftermath of the pandemic, the sudden boycott in China has dealt an unexpected blow. Like many other restaurant owners in China, Mr. Wong of Hatsune was forced to close several of his fifteen restaurants after the epidemic exploded in the country in late January. The remaining restaurants were beginning to return to pre-pandemic levels of business earlier this month. Then reports began circulating last Friday about the contaminated cutting board, and the customers stopped coming. Halfway around the world, the reports also delivered a seismic shock. Regin Jacobsen, chief executive of Bakkafrost, a salmon farming company based in the Faroe Islands, said that calls from China to cancel orders began coming in over the weekend and soon they “practically went from 100 percent down to zero.” Over the last decade, Mr. Jacobsen said, the market for salmon in China had grown with the increase in Japanese restaurants and the expansion of a Chinese middle class interested in reaping salmon’s health benefits. Up to 20 percent of Bakkafrost’s fresh salmon exports, he said, went to China every year. After seeing the mounting cancellations, Bakkafrost rushed to respond, putting out a statement emphasizing that there had been no new cases of the coronavirus in the Faroe Islands since April and that the company’s employees had been regularly tested for the coronavirus. Anders Snellingen, manager of global operations for the Norwegian Seafood Council, an industry group, said that Norway’s seafood companies had also seen a rapid uptick in cancellations for salmon orders from China over the weekend and that several shipments of salmon had been destroyed or returned. “We hope this can be resolved quickly,” said Mr. Snellingen. “In the very short term we see there might be logistical challenges to getting seafood in via Beijing.” It is not the first time that Norwegian salmon has been made collateral damage in China. In 2010, the Nobel committee, which is based in Norway, awarded the Peace Prize to pro-democracy dissident Liu Xiaobo, angering the Chinese authorities. Beijing responded in part by slapping import controls on Norwegian salmon that were so strict that much of the fresh fish reportedly ended up rotting in Chinese warehouses. It took six years for Norway and China to normalize relations, and salmon sales began to recover. Last year, Norwegian salmon accounted for 45 percent of the market in China, according to the Norwegian Seafood Council. The total value of the country’s salmon exports to China last year reached $167 million and was growing, Mr. Snellingen said. The new outbreak, which has so far sickened more than 130 people in Beijing and forced the closure of workplaces, restaurants and hotels in high-risk areas of the city, comes at a delicate time for China’s leader Xi Jinping. Official data released this week showed that authorities are still struggling to rev up the country’s economy. Abroad, the ruling Communist Party faces a growing international backlash for its initial attempts to downplay the epidemic. “Given all of the effort they put into protecting Beijing, the fact that they let the virus slip through their formidable capital defenses is a bit of a blow to the Communist Party,” said Drew Thompson, director for China in the Pentagon from 2011 to 2018 and now a research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. “Blaming this on foreign forces that got through their screen is a palatable option for them,” he added, calling the backlash against salmon a form of “xenopescophobia, the fear of foreign fish.” In Beijing, concerns have spread beyond salmon. One vendor at Jingshen market, which processes much of the city’s seafood, said in a telephone interview that he had seen sales of all seafood drop by 80 percent since Friday, though he was optimistic that demand would eventually rebound. In the last few days, state media and health officials have started to walk back their earlier statements about salmon. At a news briefing on Tuesday, Shi Guoqing, an official from the Chinese Center for Disease Control said that there was no evidence to suggest that salmon could host the new coronavirus. Officials, however, have not ruled out the possibility that the seafood products could have been contaminated during the packaging process. Updated June 16, 2020 I’ve heard about a treatment called dexamethasone. Does it work? The steroid, dexamethasone, is the first treatment shown to reduce mortality in severely ill patients, according to scientists in Britain. The drug appears to reduce inflammation caused by the immune system, protecting the tissues. In the study, dexamethasone reduced deaths of patients on ventilators by one-third, and deaths of patients on oxygen by one-fifth. What is pandemic paid leave? The coronavirus emergency relief package gives many American workers paid leave if they need to take time off because of the virus. It gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose child care provider is unavailable because of the coronavirus. It is the first time the United States has had widespread federally mandated paid leave, and includes people who don’t typically get such benefits, like part-time and gig economy workers. But the measure excludes at least half of private-sector workers, including those at the country’s largest employers, and gives small employers significant leeway to deny leave. Does asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 happen? So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement. What’s the risk of catching coronavirus from a surface? Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus — whether it’s surface transmission or close human contact — is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks. How does blood type influence coronavirus? A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study. How many people have lost their jobs due to coronavirus in the U.S.? The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nation’s job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April. Will protests set off a second viral wave of coronavirus? Mass protests against police brutality that have brought thousands of people onto the streets in cities across America are raising the specter of new coronavirus outbreaks, prompting political leaders, physicians and public health experts to warn that the crowds could cause a surge in cases. While many political leaders affirmed the right of protesters to express themselves, they urged the demonstrators to wear face masks and maintain social distancing, both to protect themselves and to prevent further community spread of the virus. Some infectious disease experts were reassured by the fact that the protests were held outdoors, saying the open air settings could mitigate the risk of transmission. My state is reopening. Is it safe to go out? States are reopening bit by bit. This means that more public spaces are available for use and more and more businesses are being allowed to open again. The federal government is largely leaving the decision up to states, and some state leaders are leaving the decision up to local authorities. Even if you aren’t being told to stay at home, it’s still a good idea to limit trips outside and your interaction with other people. What are the symptoms of coronavirus? Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days. How can I protect myself while flying? If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.) Should I wear a mask? The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’t need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks don’t replace hand washing and social distancing. What should I do if I feel sick? If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others. Norwegian officials said on Wednesday that together with Chinese authorities, they had concluded that salmon from Norway was not the source of the coronavirus found on cutting boards at the Beijing market. “We can clear away uncertainty,” Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen, Norway’s fisheries and seafood minister, said during a video conference. Despite the official reassurances, many Chinese diners were still hesitant. Alyssa Mai, 19, a college student from Guangzhou, said that while she knew the risk of getting the virus from eating salmon was low, she would not have it any time soon. “My relatives would be worried,” she said. Some Chinese researchers and state media have zeroed in on a finding that the virus in the latest outbreak most closely resembles what they described as a “European strain.” They have cited it as the latest reason to question whether the virus originated from Wuhan. On Monday, the headline of a story in the Global Times read: “Source of Beijing cases renews speculation over Covid-19 origin.” Other experts said that the speculation over the virus strain was misleading. “It clearly emerged in Wuhan,” said Ben Cowling, a professor and head of the division of epidemiology and biostatistics at Hong Kong University’s School of Public Health. “In the media in China they are saying it’s a European strain but they haven’t clarified that it’s the virus that came from Wuhan and went to Europe and then came back again.” As Beijing reverts to a partial lockdown, many restaurateurs like Li Kuan are finding it harder to be optimistic about the future. Mr. Li had been forced to suspend business at his 30-seat, high-end Japanese restaurant during the height of the epidemic but bookings quickly bounced back in May as restrictions were lifted. But since Friday, the intimate, earth-toned restaurant in eastern Beijing has been nearly empty. Mr. Li said he was reluctant to close the restaurant because he didn’t want to give in to the misinformation. But, he was struggling to stay afloat — he had already sent half of his staff home and was sitting on a rapidly expiring stock of fresh tuna and salmon flown in from Japan. “I’ve been a chef for so many years, I can’t just give up now,” Mr. Li said. “But right now the problem I’m thinking about is just: when is this going to end?” Bella Huang contributed reporting from Hong Kong. The post Coronavirus Fears in China Find a New Target: Salmon appeared first on Sansaar Times.

http://sansaartimes.blogspot.com/2020/06/coronavirus-fears-in-china-find-new.html

[brajeshupadhyay]

Coronavirus Fears in China Find a New Target: Salmon

When a new coronavirus outbreak emerged last week in Beijing, residents were jolted by reports that traces of the virus had been found on a cutting board used for imported salmon, and the backlash was swift.

Within a few days, salmon was removed from major supermarket shelves in Beijing, reserves of the fish were dumped and bulk orders evaporated. Diners rushed to cancel reservations at Japanese restaurants in the capital, while salmon suppliers around the world scrambled to salvage the tarnished reputation of their prized product in the country. Chinese officials later said that imported salmon was not responsible for spreading the virus, but the damage had already been done.

“The unluckiest restaurateur of 2020,” said Alan Wong, owner of Hatsune, a chain of Japanese restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai. “That’s my title.”

“We were packed on Friday and now dead ever since,” he said. “Totally empty.”

In a country where fears of the virus remain strong and nationalism is on the rise, imported salmon has found itself an easy target.

Facing global criticism for its initial mishandling of the virus, Chinese authorities have for months waged a propaganda campaign to highlight their successes in taming the virus and deflect blame for the pandemic to outsiders. They have cast foreigners as public health risks, sowed doubt about the origins of the virus and even pushed an unfounded conspiracy theory that the United States military had deliberately brought the virus to China.

After the chairman of the wholesale market linked to the latest outbreak told a Beijing News reporter that the virus had been found on a cutting board used for salmon, panic ensued. On Saturday, Zeng Guang, a senior epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, was quoted in the Global Times, a party-controlled nationalist newspaper, urging the public to temporarily stay away from raw salmon.

For years, China’s growing appetite for salmon, like American lobsters, oysters and cherries, had been celebrated as a sign of the country’s rising living standards and burgeoning middle class. Now, the luxury good, which is mostly imported from Norway and Chile, is being cast out.

For the many salmon suppliers and restaurateurs who were already struggling to claw their way back in the aftermath of the pandemic, the sudden boycott in China has dealt an unexpected blow.

Like many other restaurant owners in China, Mr. Wong of Hatsune was forced to close several of his fifteen restaurants after the epidemic exploded in the country in late January. The remaining restaurants were beginning to return to pre-pandemic levels of business earlier this month. Then reports began circulating last Friday about the contaminated cutting board, and the customers stopped coming.

Halfway around the world, the reports also delivered a seismic shock. Regin Jacobsen, chief executive of Bakkafrost, a salmon farming company based in the Faroe Islands, said that calls from China to cancel orders began coming in over the weekend and soon they “practically went from 100 percent down to zero.”

Over the last decade, Mr. Jacobsen said, the market for salmon in China had grown with the increase in Japanese restaurants and the expansion of a Chinese middle class interested in reaping salmon’s health benefits. Up to 20 percent of Bakkafrost’s fresh salmon exports, he said, went to China every year.

After seeing the mounting cancellations, Bakkafrost rushed to respond, putting out a statement emphasizing that there had been no new cases of the coronavirus in the Faroe Islands since April and that the company’s employees had been regularly tested for the coronavirus.

Anders Snellingen, manager of global operations for the Norwegian Seafood Council, an industry group, said that Norway’s seafood companies had also seen a rapid uptick in cancellations for salmon orders from China over the weekend and that several shipments of salmon had been destroyed or returned.

“We hope this can be resolved quickly,” said Mr. Snellingen. “In the very short term we see there might be logistical challenges to getting seafood in via Beijing.”

It is not the first time that Norwegian salmon has been made collateral damage in China. In 2010, the Nobel committee, which is based in Norway, awarded the Peace Prize to pro-democracy dissident Liu Xiaobo, angering the Chinese authorities. Beijing responded in part by slapping import controls on Norwegian salmon that were so strict that much of the fresh fish reportedly ended up rotting in Chinese warehouses. It took six years for Norway and China to normalize relations, and salmon sales began to recover.

Last year, Norwegian salmon accounted for 45 percent of the market in China, according to the Norwegian Seafood Council. The total value of the country’s salmon exports to China last year reached $167 million and was growing, Mr. Snellingen said.

The new outbreak, which has so far sickened more than 130 people in Beijing and forced the closure of workplaces, restaurants and hotels in high-risk areas of the city, comes at a delicate time for China’s leader Xi Jinping. Official data released this week showed that authorities are still struggling to rev up the country’s economy. Abroad, the ruling Communist Party faces a growing international backlash for its initial attempts to downplay the epidemic.

“Given all of the effort they put into protecting Beijing, the fact that they let the virus slip through their formidable capital defenses is a bit of a blow to the Communist Party,” said Drew Thompson, director for China in the Pentagon from 2011 to 2018 and now a research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

“Blaming this on foreign forces that got through their screen is a palatable option for them,” he added, calling the backlash against salmon a form of “xenopescophobia, the fear of foreign fish.”

In Beijing, concerns have spread beyond salmon. One vendor at Jingshen market, which processes much of the city’s seafood, said in a telephone interview that he had seen sales of all seafood drop by 80 percent since Friday, though he was optimistic that demand would eventually rebound.

In the last few days, state media and health officials have started to walk back their earlier statements about salmon. At a news briefing on Tuesday, Shi Guoqing, an official from the Chinese Center for Disease Control said that there was no evidence to suggest that salmon could host the new coronavirus.

Officials, however, have not ruled out the possibility that the seafood products could have been contaminated during the packaging process.

Updated June 16, 2020

I’ve heard about a treatment called dexamethasone. Does it work?

The steroid, dexamethasone, is the first treatment shown to reduce mortality in severely ill patients, according to scientists in Britain. The drug appears to reduce inflammation caused by the immune system, protecting the tissues. In the study, dexamethasone reduced deaths of patients on ventilators by one-third, and deaths of patients on oxygen by one-fifth.

What is pandemic paid leave?

The coronavirus emergency relief package gives many American workers paid leave if they need to take time off because of the virus. It gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose child care provider is unavailable because of the coronavirus. It is the first time the United States has had widespread federally mandated paid leave, and includes people who don’t typically get such benefits, like part-time and gig economy workers. But the measure excludes at least half of private-sector workers, including those at the country’s largest employers, and gives small employers significant leeway to deny leave.

Does asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 happen?

So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement.

What’s the risk of catching coronavirus from a surface?

Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus — whether it’s surface transmission or close human contact — is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks.

How does blood type influence coronavirus?

A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.

How many people have lost their jobs due to coronavirus in the U.S.?

The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nation’s job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April.

Will protests set off a second viral wave of coronavirus?

Mass protests against police brutality that have brought thousands of people onto the streets in cities across America are raising the specter of new coronavirus outbreaks, prompting political leaders, physicians and public health experts to warn that the crowds could cause a surge in cases. While many political leaders affirmed the right of protesters to express themselves, they urged the demonstrators to wear face masks and maintain social distancing, both to protect themselves and to prevent further community spread of the virus. Some infectious disease experts were reassured by the fact that the protests were held outdoors, saying the open air settings could mitigate the risk of transmission.

My state is reopening. Is it safe to go out?

States are reopening bit by bit. This means that more public spaces are available for use and more and more businesses are being allowed to open again. The federal government is largely leaving the decision up to states, and some state leaders are leaving the decision up to local authorities. Even if you aren’t being told to stay at home, it’s still a good idea to limit trips outside and your interaction with other people.

What are the symptoms of coronavirus?

Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

How can I protect myself while flying?

If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)

Should I wear a mask?

The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’t need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks don’t replace hand washing and social distancing.

What should I do if I feel sick?

If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.

Norwegian officials said on Wednesday that together with Chinese authorities, they had concluded that salmon from Norway was not the source of the coronavirus found on cutting boards at the Beijing market.

“We can clear away uncertainty,” Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen, Norway’s fisheries and seafood minister, said during a video conference.

Despite the official reassurances, many Chinese diners were still hesitant. Alyssa Mai, 19, a college student from Guangzhou, said that while she knew the risk of getting the virus from eating salmon was low, she would not have it any time soon. “My relatives would be worried,” she said.

Some Chinese researchers and state media have zeroed in on a finding that the virus in the latest outbreak most closely resembles what they described as a “European strain.” They have cited it as the latest reason to question whether the virus originated from Wuhan. On Monday, the headline of a story in the Global Times read: “Source of Beijing cases renews speculation over Covid-19 origin.”

Other experts said that the speculation over the virus strain was misleading.

“It clearly emerged in Wuhan,” said Ben Cowling, a professor and head of the division of epidemiology and biostatistics at Hong Kong University’s School of Public Health. “In the media in China they are saying it’s a European strain but they haven’t clarified that it’s the virus that came from Wuhan and went to Europe and then came back again.”

As Beijing reverts to a partial lockdown, many restaurateurs like Li Kuan are finding it harder to be optimistic about the future. Mr. Li had been forced to suspend business at his 30-seat, high-end Japanese restaurant during the height of the epidemic but bookings quickly bounced back in May as restrictions were lifted.

But since Friday, the intimate, earth-toned restaurant in eastern Beijing has been nearly empty. Mr. Li said he was reluctant to close the restaurant because he didn’t want to give in to the misinformation. But, he was struggling to stay afloat — he had already sent half of his staff home and was sitting on a rapidly expiring stock of fresh tuna and salmon flown in from Japan.

“I’ve been a chef for so many years, I can’t just give up now,” Mr. Li said. “But right now the problem I’m thinking about is just: when is this going to end?”

Bella Huang contributed reporting from Hong Kong.

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