Disaster

The UN has warned that millions of Yemenis face a severe famine as Saudi Arabia continue their relentless bombing campaign against Yemen.  According to a report issued by the UN food agency, 60% of people in Yemen, around 17 million people, will die unless a food crisis can be averted. “If humanitarian actors do not access all the people in need by the coming months, the situation may deteriorate dramatically,” a report by the World Food Programme (WFP) said.

Big Pharma Merck and Co. are being sued over their shingles vaccine Zostavax. The vaccine pulled in $749 million in sales last year for Merck. Several patients filed lawsuits claiming that Merck’s shingles vaccine caused serious injury and death. Attorneys have said that many more cases are on the way. Vaxxter reports: The plaintiffs have sued in Pennslyvania federal courts. “I think Merck has failed terribly … to warn about the very serious side effects and the failure of the vaccine to do what they claim it does,” attorney Marc Bern told FiercePharma. Bern, founding partner at Marc J.

When previewing the "crippling blizzard' which was supposed to leave as many as 50 million northeastern Americans under as much as 18 inches of snow, we mused that "some more cynical observers recall the last time New York was paralyzed ahead of what was expected to be a major storm, the impact ended up being relatively minor."

Smart meters cause a “cornucopia of health issues” for occupants of the 57 million American homes equipped with the new technology, according to the World Health Organization and Cancer.org. The news comes after a major university study into the “smart meter scam” revealed that the new meters regularly “overcharge consumers by up to 582%” while at the same time collecting owner’s data which is then sold to third parties for further profit. Electric utilities have embraced smart meters, pushing aggressively for the mass rollout of the wireless technology.

A major Nor'easter threatens to shut down travel due to heavy snow and strong winds from Washington, D.C., to New York City and Boston early this week, as weather forecasters on Sunday put the U.S. East Coast on a blizzard watch, warning some 50 million people of potential snowfall from 12 to 18 inches, coupled with wind blasts in some areas from Monday night into Wednesday. New York City issued a snow alert for Monday night, preparing its fleet of snow plows to deal with the fallout.