Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) and

US-based fintech Felix Pago has announced a partnership...

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UK-based alternative banking provider Suits Me has announced the acquisition of Engage Card customers from Solaris, with the company focusing on scaling financial inclusion in the region. 

Metro Bank has been fined nearly GBP 17 million by the UK’s financial watchdog FCA for failings in its money-laundering controls over four years.

Mollie, a financial service provider in Europe, has introduced Tap to Pay on iPhone, enabling businesses to accept contactless payments via the Mollie app.

Singapore-based TransferTo has partnered with the Pan-African Ecobank Group in order to expand financial access and cross-border payments across the region of Africa.

Mbank has partnered with Al Etihad Payments Company (AEP), a Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) subsidiary, to introduce the Aani Instant Payment Platform on its mobile application.

The graphics in my post about R^2 were produced by an updated version of a sixty-year old program involving the U.S. census. Originally, the program was based on census data from 1900 to 1960 and sought to predict the population in 1970. The software back then was written in Fortran, the predominate technical programming language a half century ago. I have updated the MATLAB version of the program so that it now uses census data from 1900 to 2020.... read more >>

Our technical support group recently received a request for a tool that would convert IBM System/360 hexadecimal floating point numbers to the IEEE-754 format. I am probably the only one left at MathWorks that actually used IBM mainframe computers. I thought we had seen the last of hexadecimal arithmetic years ago. But, it turns out that the hexadecimal floating point format is alive and well.... read more >>

Floating point arithmetic doesn't get the respect it deserves. Many people consider it mysterious, fuzzy, unpredictable. These misgivings often occur in discussion of vector sums. Our provocatively named SuperSum is intended to calm these fears.... read more >>

I didn't know anything about these topics until a couple of weeks ago. Now I can't stop thinking about them.... read more >>

Shortly after I posted Redheffer, Mertens and One-Million Dollars a few days ago, Mathworks' Pat Quillen made an important observation about computing the Mertens function.... read more >>

Shortly after I published the second post about the Mertens conjecture, a reader's comment suggested a new approach to computing Redheffer determinants and the Mertens function. It is now possible to compute a half-million values of the Mertens function in about five hours.... read more >>

Recently, I have made a series of blog posts about Redheffer matrices and the Mertens conjecture. After each of the posts, readers and colleagues offered suggestions to speed up the calculations. Here is a summary of what I have learned.... read more >>

Source: Jeremy Hoy 11/06/2024

O3 Mining Inc. (TSXV:OIII; OTCQX:OIIIF) announced it now intends to release a completed preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of its Marban Alliance project near Val d'Or in Quebec, Canada, in Q4/24, ahead of the previously planned feasibility study (FS), reported Canaccord Genuity analyst Jeremy Hoy in an Oct. 30 research note.

"Given the time passed since the 2022 prefeasibility study (PFS), moderate inflation, and the run-up in the gold price, we expect to see incremental increases to costs and capex, and likely higher commodity price assumptions for resources in the PEA," Hoy wrote.

Potential Gain of 254%

Canaccord Genuity reiterated its CA$4 per share price target on O3 Mining, trading at the time of the report at about CA$1.13 per share, noted Hoy. From the current price, the return to target is 254%.

The Canadian explorer-developer is a Speculative Buy.

PEA in Progress

Management indicated the PEA will encompass advancements at Marban Alliance made since the PFS, including optimized mining and processing parameters, as well as additional resources, Hoy reported. These additional ounces will come from conversion of resources at the current pits along with the Malartic H zone's 342,000 ounce gold resource.

The PEA and FS will showcase a standalone operation. O3 is evaluating toll milling options separately.

What To Expect, Watch For

Hoy presented the next steps for Marban Alliance, which are potential catalysts for O3 Mining.

Following the completion of the PEA in Q4/24, environmental baseline studies will be finished in Q1/25. The start of impact studies will follow in Q2/25. An FS on the gold project will be done in H2/25. The impact study results will be filed in Q1/26.

Meanwhile, exploration results from Horizon and Kinebik will be released as they become available. Mergers and acquisitions activity is yet another potential stock-moving event.

"O3 is progressing Marban Alliance as a standalone project, but we continue to view [the company] as an important component in any Val d'Or consolidation discussion given its proximity to existing operations and other projects of scale in the region," wrote Hoy.

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Important Disclosures:

1. O3 Mining Inc. is a billboard sponsor of Streetwise Reports and pays SWR a monthly sponsorship fee between US$4,000 and US$5,000.
2. Doresa Banning wrote this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an independent contractor.
3. This article does not constitute investment advice and is not a solicitation for any investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her personal financial adviser and perform their own comprehensive investment research. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company.

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Disclosures for Canaccord Genuity, O3 Mining Inc., October 30, 2024

Analyst Certification Each authoring analyst of Canaccord Genuity whose name appears on the front page of this research hereby certifies that (i) the recommendations and opinions expressed in this research accurately reflect the authoring analyst’s personal, independent and objective views about any and all of the designated investments or relevant issuers discussed herein that are within such authoring analyst’s coverage universe and (ii) no part of the authoring analyst’s compensation was, is, or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific recommendations or views expressed by the authoring analyst in the research, and (iii) to the best of the authoring analyst’s knowledge, she/he is not in receipt of material non-public information about the issuer. Analysts employed outside the US are not registered as research analysts with FINRA. These analysts may not be associated persons of Canaccord Genuity LLC and therefore may not be subject to the FINRA Rule 2241 and NYSE Rule 472 restrictions on communications with a subject company, public appearances and trading securities held by a research analyst account.

Required Company-Specific Disclosures (as of date of this publication) O3 Mining Inc. currently is, or in the past 12 months was, a client of Canaccord Genuity or its affiliated companies. During this period, Canaccord Genuity or its affiliated companies provided investment banking services to O3 Mining Inc.. In the past 12 months, Canaccord Genuity or its affiliated companies have received compensation for Investment Banking services from O3 Mining Inc. . In the past 12 months, Canaccord Genuity or any of its affiliated companies have been lead manager, co-lead manager or comanager of a public offering of securities of O3 Mining Inc. or any publicly disclosed offer of securities of O3 Mining Inc. or in any related derivatives. Canaccord Genuity or one or more of its affiliated companies intend to seek or expect to receive compensation for Investment Banking services from O3 Mining Inc. in the next three months. An analyst has visited the material operations of O3 Mining Inc.. Partial payment was received for the related travel costs.

Past performance In line with Article 44(4)(b), MiFID II Delegated Regulation, we disclose price performance for the preceding five years or the whole period for which the financial instrument has been offered or investment service provided where less than five years. Please note price history refers to actual past performance, and that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future price and/or performance. Online Disclosures Up-to-date disclosures may be obtained at the following website (provided as a hyperlink if this report is being read electronically) http://disclosures.canaccordgenuity.com/EN/Pages/default.aspx; or by sending a request to Canaccord Genuity Corp. Research, Attn: Disclosures, P.O. Box 10337 Pacific Centre, 2200-609 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V7Y 1H2; or by sending a request by email to disclosures@cgf.com. The reader may also obtain a copy of Canaccord Genuity’s policies and procedures regarding the dissemination of research by following the steps outlined above.

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This research is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any designated investments discussed herein in any jurisdiction where such offer or solicitation would be prohibited. As a result, the designated investments discussed in this research may not be eligible for sale in some jurisdictions. This research is not, and under no circumstances should be construed as, a solicitation to act as a securities broker or dealer in any jurisdiction by any person or company that is not legally permitted to carry on the business of a securities broker or dealer in that jurisdiction. This material is prepared for general circulation to clients and does not have regard to the investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs of any particular person. Investors should obtain advice based on their own individual circumstances before making an investment decision. To the fullest extent permitted by law, none of Canaccord Genuity, its affiliated companies or any other person accepts any liability whatsoever for any direct or consequential loss arising from or relating to any use of the information contained in this research. Research Distribution Policy Canaccord Genuity research is posted on the Canaccord Genuity Research Portal and will be available simultaneously for access by all of Canaccord Genuity’s customers who are entitled to receive the firm's research. In addition research may be distributed by the firm’s sales and trading personnel via email, instant message or other electronic means. Customers entitled to receive research may also receive it via third party vendors. Until such time as research is made available to Canaccord Genuity’s customers as described above, Authoring Analysts will not discuss the contents of their research with Sales and Trading or Investment Banking employees without prior compliance consent. For further information about the proprietary model(s) associated with the covered issuer(s) in this research report, clients should contact their local sales representative.

Short-Term Trade Ideas Research Analysts may, from time to time, discuss “short-term trade ideas” in research reports. A short-term trade idea offers a near-term view on how a security may trade, based on market and trading events or catalysts, and the resulting trading opportunity that may be available. Any such trading strategies are distinct from and do not affect the analysts' fundamental equity rating for such stocks. A short-term trade idea may differ from the price targets and recommendations in our published research reports that reflect the research analyst's views of the longer-term (i.e. one-year or greater) prospects of the subject company, as a result of the differing time horizons, methodologies and/or other factors. It is possible, for example, that a subject company's common equity that is considered a long-term ‘Hold' or 'Sell' might present a short-term buying opportunity as a result of temporary selling pressure in the market or for other reasons described in the research report; conversely, a subject company's stock rated a long-term 'Buy' or “Speculative Buy’ could be considered susceptible to a downward price correction, or other factors may exist that lead the research analyst to suggest a sale over the short-term. Short-term trade ideas are not ratings, nor are they part of any ratings system, and the firm does not intend, and does not undertake any obligation, to maintain or update short-term trade ideas. Short-term trade ideas are not suitable for all investors and are not tailored to individual investor circumstances and objectives, and investors should make their own independent decisions regarding any securities or strategies discussed herein. Please contact your salesperson for more information regarding Canaccord Genuity’s research.

For Canadian Residents: This research has been approved by Canaccord Genuity Corp., which accepts sole responsibility for this research and its dissemination in Canada. Canaccord Genuity Corp. is registered and regulated by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) and is a Member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund. Canadian clients wishing to effect transactions in any designated investment discussed should do so through a qualified salesperson of Canaccord Genuity Corp. in their particular province or territory. For United States Persons: Canaccord Genuity LLC, a US registered broker-dealer, accepts responsibility for this research and its dissemination in the United States. This research is intended for distribution in the United States only to certain US institutional investors. US clients wishing to effect transactions in any designated investment discussed should do so through a qualified salesperson of Canaccord Genuity LLC. Analysts employed outside the US, as specifically indicated elsewhere in this report, are not registered as research analysts with FINRA. These analysts may not be associated persons of Canaccord Genuity LLC and therefore may not be subject to the FINRA Rule 2241 and NYSE Rule 472 restrictions on communications with a subject company, public appearances and trading securities held by a research analyst account. For United Kingdom and European Residents: This research is distributed in the United Kingdom and elsewhere Europe, as third party research by Canaccord Genuity Limited, which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. This research is for distribution only to persons who are Eligible Counterparties or Professional Clients only and is exempt from the general restrictions in section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 on the communication of invitations or inducements to engage in investment activity on the grounds that it is being distributed in the United Kingdom only to persons of a kind described in Article 19(5) (Investment Professionals) and 49(2) (High Net Worth companies, unincorporated associations etc) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (as amended). It is not intended to be distributed or passed on, directly or indirectly, to any other class of persons. This material is not for distribution in the United Kingdom or elsewhere in Europe to retail clients, as defined under the rules of the Financial Conduct Authority. For Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man Residents: This research is sent to you by Canaccord Genuity Wealth (International) Limited (CGWI) for information purposes and is not to be construed as a solicitation or an offer to purchase or sell investments or related financial instruments. This research has been produced by an affiliate of CGWI for circulation to its institutional clients and also CGWI. Its contents have been approved by CGWI and we are providing it to you on the basis that we believe it to be of interest to you. This statement should be read in conjunction with your client agreement, CGWI's current terms of business and the other disclosures and disclaimers contained within this research. If you are in any doubt, you should consult your financial adviser. CGWI is licensed and regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, the Jersey Financial Services Commission and the Isle of Man Financial Supervision Commission. CGWI is registered in Guernsey and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. For Australian Residents: This research is distributed in Australia by Canaccord Genuity (Australia) Limited ABN 19 075 071 466 holder of AFS Licence No 234666. To the extent that this research contains any advice, this is limited to general advice only. Recipients should take into account their own personal circumstances before making an investment decision. Clients wishing to effect any transactions in any financial products discussed in the research should do so through a qualified representative of Canaccord Genuity (Australia) Limited or its Wealth Management affiliated company, Canaccord Genuity Financial Limited ABN 69 008 896 311 holder of AFS Licence No 239052. This report should be read in conjunction with the Financial Services Guide available here - Financial Services Guide. For Hong Kong Residents: This research is distributed in Hong Kong by Canaccord Genuity (Hong Kong) Limited which is licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission. This research is only intended for persons who fall within the definition of professional investor as defined in the Securities and Futures Ordinance. It is not intended to be distributed or passed on, directly or indirectly, to any other class of persons. Recipients of this report can contact Canaccord Genuity (Hong Kong) Limited. (Contact Tel: +852 3919 2561) in respect of any matters arising from, or in connection with, this research.

Additional information is available on request. Copyright © Canaccord Genuity Corp. 2024 – Member CIRO/Canadian Investor Protection Fund Copyright © Canaccord Genuity Limited. 2024 – Member LSE, authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Copyright © Canaccord Genuity LLC 2024 – Member FINRA/SIPC Copyright © Canaccord Genuity (Australia) Limited. 2024 – Participant of ASX Group, Cboe Australia and of the NSX. Authorized and regulated by ASIC. All rights reserved. All material presented in this document, unless specifically indicated otherwise, is under copyright to Canaccord Genuity Corp., Canaccord Genuity Limited, Canaccord Genuity LLC or Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. None of the material, nor its content, nor any copy of it, may be altered in any way, or transmitted to or distributed to any other party, without the prior express written permission of the entities listed above. None of the material, nor its content, nor any copy of it, may be altered in any way, reproduced, or distributed to any other party including by way of any form of social media, without the prior express written permission of the entities listed above.

( Companies Mentioned: TSXV:OIII;OTCQX:OIIIF, )

Source: Peter Bell 11/04/2024

Liberty Gold Corp. (LGD:TSX; LGDTF:OTCQX) released the results of the first study, a prefeasibility study (PFS), of its flagship Black Pine project in Idaho, reported Canaccord Genuity analyst Peter Bell in an Oct. 10 research note.

"The completion of the prefeasibility study is a key step in advancing the project through permitting, bringing a Black Pine mine much closer to reality," Bell wrote. "This is positive."

885% Gain Possible

Canaccord Genuity has a CA$3.25 per share price target on the Canadian Idaho-based exploration and development company, trading at the time of the report at about CA$0.33 per share, noted Bell. These figures imply a potential return on investment of 885%.

Liberty is rated Speculative Buy.

Specifics of the PFS

Bell presented the details of the Black Pine operation as outlined in the PFS, based on reserves of 3,110,000 ounces (3.11 Moz) of 0.32 grams per ton (0.32 g/t) gold.

Average production is 183,000 ounces per year (183 Koz/year) gold for the first five years, peaking at about 231 Koz. The average annual production, based on a 50,000 ton per day throughput, over a 17-year life of mine (LOM) is 135 Koz.

The PFS has the head grade during years one through five at 0.45 g/t gold. Over the LOM, the head grade is 0.32 g/t gold and gold recoveries, 70.4%.

As for costs, operating costs are low at US$9.10 per ton processed. The all-in-sustaining cost (AISC) is US$1,205 per ounce (US$1,205/oz) of gold for years one through five and US$1,380/oz of gold for the LOM.

"We believe the study highlights a simple, lower-risk and long-lived operation with an attractive cost profile," Bell wrote. "We model Liberty achieving initial production at Black Pine in 2029, based on company disclosure around the permitting process."

Attractive Economics

Bell reported the economics outlined in the PFS for the base case using a US$2,000/oz gold price. The after-tax net present value discounted at 5% (NPV5%) is US$552 million, the internal rate of return (IRR) is 32%, and the payback period is 3.3 years. The strip ratio is low at 1.3.

"Of note is the study's leverage to higher gold prices with an NPV5% of US$1,296M (62% IRR at US$2,600/oz)," Bell wrote. At the same gold price, Canaccord Genuity's estimated NPV5% is higher, at US$1,569.

Bell noted that Liberty could enhance the value of Black Pine in any of four ways, by optimizing the resource and mine planning; delineating additional ounces or feed sources; using electric, maybe even autonomous, mining equipment; and defining options for using renewable energy like solar to potentially lower operating costs more.

How Results Stack Up

The analysts pointed out the similarities and differences between Liberty Gold's PFS and Canaccord Genuity's estimates on Black Pine. Between the two, the capex, AISC, mined throughput, and NPV are consistent, "which we view as positive," Bell wrote.

Among the parameters that differ are unit costs per ton processed, strip ratio, head grade, recovery, and total recovered ounces, all lower in the PFS. Mine life, though, is longer.

"The longer mine life and lower total ounce total equate to a lower number of ounces of annual production," Bell explained.

Process and general and administrative costs are lower in the PFS, which decreases the cutoff and the overall grade when compared to Canaccord Genuity's version. Bell indicated that the lower operating cost per ton, however, is positive.

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Important Disclosures:

1. Liberty Gold Corp. is a billboard sponsor of Streetwise Reports.
2. Doresa Banning wrote this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an independent contractor.
3. This article does not constitute investment advice and is not a solicitation for any investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her personal financial adviser and perform their own comprehensive investment research. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company.

For additional disclosures, please click here.

Disclosures for Canaccord Genuity, Liberty Gold Corp., October 10, 2024

Analyst Certification Each authoring analyst of Canaccord Genuity whose name appears on the front page of this research hereby certifies that (i) the recommendations and opinions expressed in this research accurately reflect the authoring analyst’s personal, independent and objective views about any and all of the designated investments or relevant issuers discussed herein that are within such authoring analyst’s coverage universe and (ii) no part of the authoring analyst’s compensation was, is, or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific recommendations or views expressed by the authoring analyst in the research, and (iii) to the best of the authoring analyst’s knowledge, she/he is not in receipt of material non-public information about the issuer. Analysts employed outside the US are not registered as research analysts with FINRA. These analysts may not be associated persons of Canaccord Genuity LLC and therefore may not be subject to the FINRA Rule 2241 and NYSE Rule 472 restrictions on communications with a subject company, public appearances, and trading securities held by a research analyst account.

Sector Coverage Individuals identified as “Sector Coverage” cover a subject company’s industry in the identified jurisdiction, but are not authoring analysts of the report. Investment Recommendation Date and time of first dissemination: October 10, 2024, 09:56 ET Date and time of production: October 10, 2024, 09:56 ET Target Price / Valuation Methodology: Liberty Gold Corp. - LGD Our target price is based on a 0.85x multiple applied to our forward curve derived operating NAV less net debt and other corporate adjustments. Risks to achieving Target Price / Valuation: Liberty Gold Corp. - LGD In addition to the usual risks to target prices associated with commodity pricing, exchange rates, and mineral exploration/ development, we highlight the following: Commodity price risk: As a precious metals development company, LGD’s future revenue is dependent on the price of gold. Water rights: The Goldstrike Project does not currently have sufficient water rights to operate the proposed mine and heap leach. They announced June 1 that they have retained consultants to attempt to obtain water. Geo-political risk: Liberty is currently focussed on the western United States but retains exposure to Turkey through the TV-Tower project. Accordingly, Liberty’s operations could be adversely impacted by political or economic instability or changes in government policy that impact the ownership of assets, mining activities, exchange rates, taxation, or royalties in Turkey. We note that Liberty’s Turkish asset, TV-Tower, accounts for less than 3% of NAV in our valuation. Mining risk: LGD faces the typical risks inherent to mining companies relating to operating and capital costs, availability of capital, permitting requirements and timelines, technical and operating parameters, reserve and resource models, social license and community relations, taxation and royalty regimes, and regulatory and political risks. Black Pine does not currently have a published economic study so the estimates in our model are based on our own interpretation of how the operation may be designed. As such, our valuation of the Black Pine project may be impacted by differences in strip ratio, CapEx, mining throughput, recovery assumptions, and gold grade. Development risk: LGD is planning to develop the Black Pine and Goldstrike projects in Idaho and Utah respectively. The company faces risks associated with developing the project including capital and operating cost risk, financing, project permitting and timelines, and technical risks to achieve the planned operating rates. Permitting risk: Permitting is still underway at the Black Pine project. As such, the company may not be able to proceed with the project as it is currently envisaged if the required permits are not received in a timely manner. Financing risk: As a pre-cash-flow development company, LGD is reliant on the capital markets to remain a going concern. At present, the company has an estimated cash position of ~US$13.1M (Q2/24), which positions the company well in the near term to continue to advance its portfolio of exploration/development projects, in our view. We note that there is no guarantee that LGD will be able to access capital markets in the future as the result of potential changes in market sentiment/pricing and/or concerns involving project feasibility. As such, there is no guarantee that LGD will be able to secure the required funds to advance the Black Pine project, including but not limited to debt/equity financing and/or a strategic investment.

Required Company-Specific Disclosures (as of date of this publication) Canaccord Genuity or one or more of its affiliated companies intend to seek or expect to receive compensation for Investment Banking services from Liberty Gold Corp. in the next three months.

Past performance In line with Article 44(4)(b), MiFID II Delegated Regulation, we disclose price performance for the preceding five years or the whole period for which the financial instrument has been offered or investment service provided where less than five years. Please note price history refers to actual past performance, and that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future price and/or performance. Online Disclosures Up-to-date disclosures may be obtained at the following website (provided as a hyperlink if this report is being read electronically) http://disclosures.canaccordgenuity.com/EN/Pages/default.aspx; or by sending a request to Canaccord Genuity Corp. Research, Attn: Disclosures, P.O. Box 10337 Pacific Centre, 2200-609 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V7Y 1H2; or by sending a request by email to disclosures@cgf.com. The reader may also obtain a copy of Canaccord Genuity’s policies and procedures regarding the dissemination of research by following the steps outlined above.

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( Companies Mentioned: LGD:TSX; LGDTF:OTCQX, )

Source: Streetwise Reports 11/05/2024

Dolly Varden Silver Corp. (DV:TSX.V; DOLLF:OTCQX) released results from five drill holes from its completed 2024 drilling program at its Kitsault Valley project in British Columbia's Golden Triangle.

In total, the program drilled 69 holes for 31,726 meters — 41 holes totaling more than 15,000 meters at the Dolly Varden area and 28 holes totaling more than 16,000 meters at Homestake Ridge.

Highlights of Monday's release include one hole from the Homestake Silver Deposit that found 12.23 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au) and 84 g/t silver (Ag) over 34.93 meters with high-grade breccia veins that included 166 g/t Au and 675 g/t Ag over 0.97 meters.

"The identification of a gold-rich, wide and high-grade area within the Homestake Silver Deposit is highly encouraging," said Chief Executive Officer Shawn Khunkhun. "Our geological team is encouraged by overlapping mineralizing phases of silver and gold-rich veins and breccias; the deposit remains open for expansion."

Technical Analyst Clive Maund, writing on Sunday, called Dolly Varden "one of the best pure silver companies around."

The stock's "breakout at end of last month/early this month was on big volume means it was genuine," Maund wrote.

The stock is at a "classic buy spot, although we should remain aware that it could zigzag a little lower over the short-term, but that said it looks like a strong buy here."

Highlights From Results

Highlights from the Homestake Silver Deposit include:

• Hole HR24-432: Mineralized envelope including veins: 8.85 g/t Au and 5 g/t Ag over 48.23 meters, including an internal zone of stronger breccia vein intervals grading 29.24 g/t Au and 16 g/t Ag over 13.94 meters, including one breccia vein grading 701 g/t Au and 184 g/t Ag over 0.54 meters.
• Hole HR24-435: Mineralized envelope including veins: 4.64 g/t Au and 38 g/t Ag over 100.80 meters, including an internal interval of stronger breccia vein mineralization grading 12.23 g/t Au and 84 g/t Ag over 34.93 meters. High-grade breccia veins include 166 g/t Au and 675 g/t Ag over 0.97 meters.
• Hole HR24-442: Vein breccia zone: 4.58 g/t Au over 9.95 meters, including 14.96 g/t Au over 1.69 meters.

"Results from the five holes in this release suggest that the plunge of mineralization at Homestake Silver has a similar orientation as the Homestake Main Deposit, located 300 meters to the northwest," the company said in a release. "The average grades within these core areas are higher, on a precious metal silver equivalent basis, than the average grade of the silver deposits at the Dolly Varden property further south, due to the increased gold content at the Homestake Ridge Deposits."

Technical Analyst Clive Maund, writing on Sunday, called Dolly Varden "one of the best pure silver companies around."

Drill holes HR24-442 and HR24-445 are step-outs and encountered the mineralized and altered structural corridor of Homestake Silver, the company said. Drill hole HR24-442 intersected a mineralized vein breccia stockwork zone grading 4.58 g/t Au over 9.95 meters, including individual breccias with stronger pyrite mineralization grading 14.96 g/t Au over 1.69 meters.

The Homestake Ridge deposits are interpreted as structurally controlled, multi-phase epithermal vein stockwork and vein breccia system hosted in Jurassic Hazelton volcanic rocks, Dolly Varden noted. Mineralization consists of pyrite plus galena and sphalerite with visible gold in a breccia matrix within a silica breccia vein system.

"The northwest orientation of the main Homestake structural trend appears to have numerous subparallel internal structures that are interpreted to form the controls for higher grade gold and silver shoots within a broader mineralized envelope at the Homestake Silver deposit," the company said. "The main structural corridor dips steeply to the northeast at Homestake Main and rolls to vertical or steeply southwest at Homestake Silver."

Analyst's Response: 'Boom'

Jeff Valks, Senior Analyst for The Gold Advisor newsletter, reacted to the results with the word "BOOM."

"Dolly Varden Silver reports more high-grade drill results from its 2024 exploration program at the Homestake Silver Deposit in British Columbia's Golden Triangle," he wrote on Monday. "Results from five drill holes have confirmed significant gold and silver mineralization in an area targeted within the plunge of a previously undrilled high-grade zone, signaling potential expansion opportunities."

Jeff Valks, Senior Analyst for The Gold Advisor newsletter, reacted to the results with the word "BOOM."

We look forward to the remaining results." Vaks wrote. "In the meantime, the stock is flat as I write but is up over 35% year-to-date. It's not too late to buy, it's down from its recent spike, and as (editor) Jeff (Clark) has said, this is a core holding for the silver bull market. Use a stink bid if you're looking for shares. Both Jeff and I hold long positions."

Analyst Marcus Giannini of Haywood Capital Markets noted in a recent research note that Dolly Varden continues to "push the margins of known high-grade mineralization" at the project.

Gianini gave the stock a Buy rating with a CA$2.40 per share target price. "We continue to view Dolly's high-grade endowment as an increasingly attractive target for larger North American-focused precious metal producers," he noted.

The Catalyst: Analysts Point to Patience

While it has chased the record highs gold has been setting this year, silver recently broke through US$35 per ounce, reflecting a year-to-date gain of about 47%. It has since settled but held to the "crucial US$32.50 level," according to Christopher Lewis of FX Empire on Monday.

"Keep in mind that this is a market that is extraordinarily volatile and, of course, will continue to be noisy over the next couple of days as we get election results in the United States," Lewis wrote. "And of course, we also get the Federal Reserve interest rate decision on Thursday, both of which could cause chaos."

Lewis said he thinks the "least likely path is lower."

"I still favor an upside move, but I recognize that we are definitely in a little bit of a holding pattern," he wrote. "Having said that, if we do see momentum to the upside, then there's really not a whole lot here that could keep this market from trying to challenge the (US$)35 level again, obviously, a large round psychologically significant figure, but we'll just have to wait and see how that plays out."

The most conductive element in nature, silver is used to coat electrical contacts in computers, phones, cars, and appliances. It's also an important element in solar technology.

Mordor Intelligence noted that the white metal is expected to register a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 5% between 2024 and 2029.

Newsletter editor Brien Lundin encouraged investors not to get discouraged, as any price drop-off is temporary, he said. He expects the silver price to soar when the U.S. Federal Reserve doubles down on its efforts to get interest rates much lower, he wrote on Oct. 23. [OWNERSHIP_CHART-5439]

Based on silver's charts, Ron Struthers of Struthers Resource Stock Report also predicted a major run-up in the silver price.

"Back in April or early May, I highlighted the breakout from a cup and handle formation and [that] that would lead to a major upside move. This is now confirmed," he wrote on Oct. 23.

Ownership and Share Structure

According to the company's latest corporate presentation, 50% of its stock is held by institutional investors, including Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, Sprott Asset Management LP, U.S. Global Investors Inc., and Delbrook.

About 41% is with strategic investors, including 17% with Fury Gold Mines, 14% with Hecla, and Eric Sprott owns 10% himself.

The rest, 9%, is with retail and high-net-worth investors.

The company has 301.16 million outstanding shares. Its market cap is CA$380.72 million, and its 52-week trading range is CA$0.62–1.46 per share.

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Important Disclosures:

1. Dolly Varden Silver Corp. is a billboard sponsor of Streetwise Reports and pays SWR a monthly sponsorship fee between US$4,000 and US$5,000.
2. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Dolly Varden Silver Corp.
3. Steve Sobek wrote this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an employee.
4. This article does not constitute investment advice and is not a solicitation for any investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her personal financial adviser and perform their own comprehensive investment research. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company.

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( Companies Mentioned: DV:TSX.V; DOLLF:OTCQX, )

; Credit: /Joy Ho for NPR

Perhaps the only respite pandemic closures brought to my family — which includes two kids under age 6 — was freedom from the constant misery of dripping noses, sneezes and coughs. And statistics suggest we weren't the only ones who had fewer colds last year: With daycares and in-person schools closed and widespread use of masks and hand sanitizer in most communities, cases of many seasonal respiratory infections went down, and flu cases dropped off a cliff.

That reprieve might be ending. Social mixing has been starting up again in much of the U.S. and so have cases of garden-variety sniffles. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just warned physicians that RSV, a unpleasant respiratory virus, is surging right now in southern states. And it's not just happening in the U.S. — researchers in the U.K. and Hong Kong found that rhinovirus outbreaks spiked there, too, when COVID-19 lockdowns ended.

My family is at the vanguard of this trend. Right after Washington D.C. lifted its mask mandate a few weeks ago, both my kids got runny noses and coughs, and as soon as they tested negative for COVID-19, my pandemic fears were replaced by a familiar dread. I had visions of sleepless, cough-filled nights, dirty tissues everywhere, and — in short order — my own miserable cold.

"If someone in your house is sick, you're not only breathing in their sick air, you're touching those contaminated surfaces. You're having closer contact, you're having longer exposures," says Seema Lakdawala, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who studies how influenza viruses transmit between people. It can start to feel inevitable that the whole family will get sick.

Take heart, my fellow parents-of-adorable-little-germ-machines! Lakdawala says many strategies we all picked up to fight COVID-19 can also stop the spread of many routine respiratory viruses. In fact, they may be even more effective against run-of-the-mill germs, since, unlike the viruses behind most colds, SARS-CoV2 was new to the human immune system.

Those strategies start with everyone keeping their children home from school, camp and playdates when they're sick and keeping up with any and all vaccinations against childhood illnesses. Beyond that, specialists in infectious disease transmission I consulted offer five more tips for keeping my family and yours healthier this summer.

Tip #1: Hang on to those masks

In pre-pandemic times, it might have seemed like a weird move to put on a mask during storytime with your drippy-nosed kid, but Dr. Tina Tan says that's her top tip. She's a professor of pediatrics at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and a pediatric infectious disease physician at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago.

When it comes to influenza, a rhinovirus, or any of the other respiratory bugs constantly circulating, "once these viruses touch your mucous membranes, whether it's your eyes, your nose or your mouth, you do have a chance of contracting it," says Tan. Masks help stop infectious particles and virus-filled droplets from getting into your body.

"You don't need a N95," Tan says. A light-weight surgical mask or homemade cloth mask can work as long as it has two or more layers. The mask-wearing also doesn't have to be constant. "If you're going to be face to face with them — they're sitting in your lap, you're reading to them, you're feeding them, etc. — then I would say wear a mask," Tan advises.

Even better, if it's not too uncomfortable for your sick child, have them wear a mask, Lakdawala says. "If your kids are old enough to wear a mask, that would probably be the best strategy, because then you're reducing the amount of virus-laden aerosols in the environment."

How long should you stay masked-up?

For most respiratory viruses, "the infectious period is probably similar to that of COVID," says Dr. Jennifer Shu, a pediatrician in Atlanta and medical editor of the American Academy of Pediatrics' site HealthyChildren.org. It might technically start a few days before symptoms begin and last for up to two weeks, but your sniffly kids are likely most contagious during those first runny-nosed days Shu says. "You could have kids over [age] 2 wear a mask for the first three or four days of symptoms," she suggests.

And if you can't bring yourself to wear a mask or put one on your child inside your own home to fight a cold, don't worry. Lakdawala has a few more ideas.

Tip #2: Air it out, space it out

When Lakdawala's 5- and 8-year-old kids get sick, "I open the windows, I turn on the fans, I get a lot more air circulation going on in the house," she says — that is, weather and allergies permitting, of course.

"A lot of these viruses tend to circulate more during the colder weather, so where you live is going to determine how much you can open your windows," Tan points out. But certainly, she says, "the better the ventilation, the less likely the viruses are going to get transmitted from one person to another."

What about buying HEPA filter air purifiers, or changing the filter in your heating and air conditioning system? "I would not suggest going out to purchase extra HEPA filters just for this purpose," says Dr. Ibukun Kalu, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Duke University. For hospitals that are treating very contagious and serious pathogens like tuberculosis or SARS-CoV2, those upgrades may be important, she says. "But for all of the other routine viruses, it's routine ventilation."

Kalu says you might also want to think strategically about creating some social distance — when it's possible — like strategically having the parent who tends not to get as sick provide the one-on-one care for the sick kid.

Obviously, you can't isolate a sick child in a room by themselves until they recover, but Lakdawala says not getting too close or for too long can help. When her kids are sick, "I do try to just not snuggle them — keep them a little bit at a distance."

Tip #3: Don't try to be a HAZMAT team

There's good news on the house-cleaning front. "Most of these viruses don't live on surfaces for very long periods of time," says Tan.

The research on exactly how long cold-causing rhinoviruses can survive on surfaces — and how likely they are to remain infectious — isn't definitive. As Dr. Donald Goldmann of Boston Children's Hospital poetically put it in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal a couple decades ago, "Despite many years of study, from the plains of Salisbury, to the hills of Virginia, to the collegiate environment of Madison, WI, the precise routes rhinovirus takes to inflict the misery of the common cold on a susceptible population remain controversial." That's still true today, doctors say.

There's some evidence that contaminated surfaces are not very important in the spread of colds. In one little study from the 1980s, a dozen healthy men played poker with cards and chips that "were literally gummy" from the secretions of eight other men who had been infected with a rhinovirus as part of the study. Even after 12 hours of poker, none of the healthy volunteers caught colds.

Shu's take home advice? Be methodical in your cleaning of often-touched surfaces (kitchen table, countertops and the like) with soap and water when everybody's healthy, and maybe add bleach wipes or other disinfectant when someone in your household has a cold. But don't panic.

Tan agrees. "Wipe down frequently-touched surfaces multiple times a day," she says. "But you don't have to go crazy and, like, scour everything down with bleach."

You also don't need to do a lot of extra laundry in hopes of eliminating germs on clothes, towels, dishtowels and the like — that can be exhausting and futile. Instead, just try to encourage kids who are sick to use their own towel — and do what you can to give towels a chance to dry out between uses. "Having some common sense and doing laundry every few days — washing your towels every few days and washing your sheets every couple of weeks — is probably good enough," Shu says. "You don't need to go overboard for run-of-the-mill viruses."

Don't fret that there are germs everywhere and you can't touch anything, says Lakdawala. "If I touch something, that -- in itself — is not infecting me," she notes. Instead, it's getting a certain amount of virus on our hands and then touching our own nose, eyes or mouth that can infect us. "If I just go wash my hands, that risk is gone," Lakdawala says.

You can also skip wearing gloves around the house. "People think that they are safe when they're wearing the gloves — and then they touch their face with their gloves [on]" and infect themselves, she says.

Instead, just make it a habit to wash your hands frequently.

Tip #4: Seriously, just wash your hands

"The same handwashing guidelines for COVID also apply for common respiratory illnesses," Shu says. That is: regular soap with warm water, lathered for about 20 seconds.

"The reason why 20 seconds is recommended is because some studies show that washing your hands shorter than that doesn't really get rid of germs." She warns that there hasn't been a whole lot of research on this, and 20 seconds is not a magic number. "But it is thought that anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds is probably good enough to get rid of most of the germs," she says. (Note: No need to drive your family crazy singing the birthday song twice — y'all have options.)

"Wash your hands before you eat, after you eat, after you go to the bathroom ... if you're changing your child's diaper, et cetera.," says Tan. "And if you're going to use hand sanitizer, it has to be at least 60% alcohol."

"Your hands are probably the most important source of transmission outside of someone really coughing or sneezing in your face," Kalu adds.

Tip #5: Don't give up, but do keep perspective

So, what if your beloved child does cough or sneeze in your face? Should you then forget all this stuff and just give in to the inevitable?

Don't give up, says Lakdawala. "Just because you got one large exposure in your mouth and in close range, it doesn't mean that that was sufficient to initiate an infection," she says. Whether you get sick from that germy onslaught is going to depend on a lot of things — the particular virus, whether the sneeze landed in your mouth or nose, whether you've been exposed to some version of that virus before and more.

One tiny positive side effect of the coronavirus pandemic for Lakdawala has been a broader public understanding of "dose-response" in viral transmission. "Just because somebody breathed on you once doesn't necessarily mean that that's what's going to get you infected," she says.

Consider practicing the swiss cheese model of transmission control, Shu says. "Every layer of protection helps — if you find that wearing a face shield is too much, but you do everything else, you're still going to limit your exposure," she says. Just do what works for you and your family.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

A teen gets a dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine at Holtz Children's Hospital in Miami on May 18. Nearly 7 million U.S. teens and pre-teens (ages 12 through 17) have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, so far, the CDC says.; Credit: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images

It's been a little more than a month since adolescents as young as 12 became eligible in the United States to receive the Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19, and nearly all reports have been positive: The vaccine is very effective in this age group, and the vast majority of kids experience mild side effects, if any — the same sore arm or mild flu-like symptoms seen among adults who get the shot.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that everyone 12-years-old and older get vaccinated against COVID-19, and the rollout is well underway: According to the CDC, nearly 7 million U.S. teens and pre-teens (ages 12 through 17) have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, so far.

Still, soon after the FDA authorized the use of Pfizer's vaccine in young people, federal agencies began receiving reports of mild chest pain or other signs of possible heart inflammation (known as myocarditis) in a very small percentage of recently vaccinated teens.

CDC director Rochelle Walensky said at a White House briefing Friday that there have been more than 300 cases of heart inflammation reported among more than 20 million teens and young adults who have received one of the vaccines made by Moderna or Pfizer. She said that in the "vast majority" of cases, the inflammation went away.

An expert advisory committee to the health agency is expected to review the cases in more depth at a meeting Friday.

So, in the meantime, should parents of teens hesitate to have their kids vaccinated against COVID-19? Vaccine experts and the American Academy of Pediatrics say no, don't hesitate. It's good for doctors and patients to be aware that there might be a connection between the mRNA vaccines and heart inflammation, and to report to their pediatrician anything they see in that first week after vaccination. But it is also important, the CDC notes, to recognize that even if this does turn out to be an extremely rare side effect of the vaccine, "most patients who received care responded well to medicine and rest and quickly felt better." And the serious risks of COVID -19 — even for young healthy people — outweigh the risks of any possible side effects from the vaccine. Here are some questions you may have, and what's known:

What exactly is myocarditis?

Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, also being investigated, is an inflammation of the sac around the heart.

Long before the pandemic, thousands of cases of myocarditis were diagnosed in the U.S. and around the world each year, often triggered by the body's immune response to infections. SARS-CoV-2 can trigger it, and so can cold viruses, and staph and strep and HIV. Other causes include toxins and allergies.

Symptoms include chest pain and shortness of breath. It's often mild enough to go unnoticed, but a full-blown case in adults can cause arrhythmias and heart failure that require careful treatment with multiple medications, and several months of strict rest. In a case study of seven teenagers who got myocarditis following vaccination published last week in the journal Pediatrics, all seven got better after routine treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs.

Pediatric cardiologist Dr. Stuart Berger of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, says vaccine-related myocarditis in teens is not all that worrisome. "Although they appear with some symptoms of chest pain, and maybe some findings on EKGs, all of the cases we've seen have been on the mild end of the spectrum," he says.

So, what's the concern?

Several hundred reports about the inflammation have been filed with the federal government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS); that's a repository of reports sent in by health professionals and patients about any health events they spot in the hours or days after vaccinations. Many of the events reported turn out to be coincidental — not caused by a vaccine. The database is just meant as a starting point for further investigation and not proof of cause and effect. But as NPR's Geoff Brumfiel noted this week, "when millions of people are vaccinated within a short period, the total number of these reported events can look big."

That said, anecdotes reported by doctors in medical journals and reports to VAERS suggest that both of the mRNA vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. — the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines — might slightly increase the incidence of myocarditis in young people. In 2003, a report in the New England Journal of Medicine estimated the background incidence of myocarditis to be 1.13 cases in 100,000 children per year.

Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of a Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisory committee says there likely is a causal link between the heart inflammation some doctors are seeing in these teens and the second dose of vaccine. "I think it's real," he says, but hastens to add that the effect is exceedingly small – based on the data collected so far, maybe one in 50,000 vaccinees between the ages of 16 and 39. "And the good news is at least so far it looks to be transient and self-resolving."

Still, maybe I should wait to get my teen vaccinated and see how this plays out?

Uhm, no, according to several vaccine experts contacted by NPR. And this is where a little math comes in handy.

"Take a stadium full of 100,000 people between the ages of 16 and 39, which is the subset that appears to be at greater risk," Offit says. "Vaccinate all of them, and two might get myocarditis." But if you don't vaccinate any of the 100,000, he estimates that about 1,300 would eventually get COVID-19. And those numbers are likely to increase this winter.

About one in 1,000 children who get COVID-19 have gone on to develop a condition called MIS-C (multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children), says Offit, and most of those kids have had some level of myocarditis. In addition, the new coronavirus has directly caused myocarditis in some children and adults. Which of the two stadiums in Offit's metaphor would have more cases of myocarditis — the vaccinated children or unvaccinated kids — is not known precisely. But Offit says he suspects it would be the unvaccinated group. And there's no doubt that 1,000 unvaccinated children would suffer more COVID-19-related illnesses. "A choice not to get a vaccine is not a choice to avoid myocarditis," he says. "It's a choice to take a different risk — and I would argue a more serious one" — of developing a bad case of COVID-19 or long-COVID or COVID-caused myocarditis.

Are the experts advising their own kids in this age group to get vaccinated?

Yes. "I understand people having concerns," says Dr. Judith Guzman-Cottrill. She's a parent and professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the Oregon Health and Science University, as well as the senior author on a small study that came out this month in the journal Pediatrics. In the report, Guzman-Cottrill and her colleagues analyzed the cases of seven boys around the country who developed myocarditis within four days of receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

She and her family recently faced the vaccination decision for her own 13-year-old daughter — and said a whole-hearted yes to the shot.

Guzman-Cottrill suspects there may turn out to be a slightly increased risk of heart inflammation from vaccination in young people, but she and her co-authors note in the Pediatrics report that a direct cause-and-effect connection — even in these seven cases — has yet to be established. And she's impressed that despite the millions of doses that have so far been delivered to teens, no clear and serious post-vaccination problems have shown up. "The emergency departments and urgent care clinics are not filled with teenagers complaining of chest pain," she says.

She's treated unvaccinated teens who developed severe myocarditis from an infection with the COVID-19 virus, and others who developed COVID-19 pneumonia and respiratory failure. Seeing those teens struggle — teens who lacked the powerful immune protection the vaccine provides — was enough for her to suggest vaccination to her daughter, who got her second vaccination earlier this week.

"She saw it as a pathway back to a normal post pandemic life," Guzman-Cottrill says.

And that's where public health comes in. "We really need a highly vaccinated student body when kids return to the classroom this fall," says Guzman-Cottrill, "so we don't see surges in COVID-19 cases."

Joanne Silberner, a former health policy correspondent for NPR, is a freelance journalist living in Seattle.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Reconstructions from the Daynès Studio in Paris depict a male Neanderthal (right) face to face with a human, Homo sapiens.; Credit: /Science Source

It's something that many of us reckon with: the sense that we're not quite as sharp as we once were.

I recently turned 42. Having lost my grandfather to Alzheimer's, and with my mom suffering from a similar neurodegenerative disease, I'm very aware of what pathologies might lurk beneath my cranium.

In the absence of a cure for Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, the most important interventions for upholding brain function are preventive — those that help maintain our most marvelous, mysterious organ.

Based on the science, I take fish oil and broil salmon. I exercise. I try to challenge my cortex to the unfamiliar.

As I wrote my recent book, A History of the Human Brain, which recounts the evolutionary tale of how our brain got here, I began to realize that so many of the same influences that shaped our brain evolution in the first place reflect the very measures we use to preserve our cognitive function today.

Being social, and highly communicative. Exploring creative pursuits. Eating a varied, omnivorous diet low in processed foods. Being physically active.

These traits and behaviors help retrace our past, and, I believe, were instrumental in why we remain on the planet today.

And they all were, at least in part, enabled by our brain.

Social smart alecks finish first

The human saga is riddled with extinctions.

By "human," I don't just mean Homo sapiens, the species we belong to, but any member of the genus Homo. We've gotten used to being the only human species on Earth, but in our not so distant past — probably a few hundred thousand years ago – there were at least nine of us running around.

There was Homo habilis, or the "handy man." And Homo erectus, the first "pitcher." The Denisovans roamed Asia, while the more well-known Neanderthals spread throughout Europe.

But with the exception of Homo sapiens, they're all gone. And there's a good chance it was our fault.

Humans were never the fastest lot on the African plains, and far from the strongest. Cheetahs, leopards and lions held those distinctions. In our lineage, natural selection instead favored wits and wiliness.

Plenty of us became cat food, but those with a slight cognitive edge — especially Homo sapiens — lived on. In our ilk, smarts overcame strength and speed in enabling survival.

Ecology, climate, location and just sheer luck would've played important roles in who persisted or perished as well, as they do for most living beings. But the evolutionary pressure for more complex mental abilities would lead to a massive expansion in our brain's size and neurocircuitry that is surely the paramount reason we dominate the planet like no other species ever has.

Much of this "success," if you can call it that, was due to our social lives.

Primates are communal creatures. Our close monkey and ape cousins are incredibly interactive, grooming each other for hours a day to maintain bonds and relationships. Throw in a few hoots and hollers and you have a pretty complex community of communicating simians.

An active social life is now a known preserver of brain function.

Research shows that social isolation worsens cognitive decline (not to mention mental health, as many of us experienced this past year). Larger social networks and regular social activities are associated with mental preservation and slowed dementia progression.

Entwined in this new social life was an evolutionary pressure that favored innovation. Our eventual ability to generate completely novel thoughts and ideas, and to share those ideas, came to define our genus.

As we hunted and foraged together, and honed stones into hand axes, there was a collective creativity at work that gave us better weapons and tools that enabled more effective food sourcing, and, later, butchering and fire. Effectively sharing these innovations with our peers allowed information to spread faster than ever before - a seed for the larger communities and civilizations to come.

Challenging ourselves to new pursuits and mastering new skills can not only impress peers and ingratiate us to our group, but literally help preserve our brain. New hobbies. New conversations. Learning the banjo. Even playing certain video games and simply driving a new route home from work each day, as neuroscientist David Eagleman does, can keep our function high.

Whether it's honing ancient stone or taking up Sudoku, any pursuit novel and mentally challenging may help keep the neural circuits firing.

We really are what we eat

All the while, as we hunted and crafted in new and communal ways, we had to eat. And we did so with an uniquely adventurous palette.

Homo sapiens is among the most omnivorous species on the planet. Within reason we eat just about anything. Whether it's leaves, meat, fungus, or fruit, we don't discriminate. At some point, one of us even thought it might be a good idea to try the glistening, grey blobs that are oysters - and shellfish are, it turns out, among the healthiest foods for our brain.

The varied human diet is an integral part of our story. As was the near constant physicality required to source it.

On multiple occasions over the past 1 to 2 million years climate changes dried out the African landscape, forcing our ancestors out of the lush forest onto the dangerous, wide-open grasslands. As evolution pressured us to create and commune to help us survive, a diverse diet also supported our eventual global takeover.

Our arboreal past left us forever craving the dangling fruits of the forest, a supreme source of high-calorie sugars that ensured survival. Back then we didn't live long enough to suffer from Type 2 diabetes: if you encountered sweets, you ate them. And today we're stuck with a taste for cookies and candy that, given our longer lifespans, can take its toll on the body and brain.

But humans were just as amenable to dining on the bulbs, rhizomes and tubers of the savanna, especially once fire came along. We eventually became adept scavengers of meat and marrow, the spoils left behind by the big cats, who preferred more nutritive organ meat.

As our whittling improved we developed spears, and learned to trap and hunt the beasts of the plains ourselves. There is also evidence that we learned to access shellfish beds along the African coast and incorporate brain-healthy seafood into our diet.

Studying the health effects of the modern diet is tricky. Dietary studies are notoriously dubious, and often involve countless lifestyle variables that are hard to untangle.

Take blueberries. Multiple studies have linked their consumption with improved brain health. But, presumably, the berry-prone among us are also more likely to eat healthy all around, exercise, and make it to level 5 on their meditation app.

Which is why so many researchers, nutritionists, and nutritional psychiatrists now focus on dietary patterns, like those akin to Mediterranean culinary customs, rather than specific ingredients. Adhering to a Mediterranean diet is linked with preserved cognition; and multiple randomized-controlled trials suggest doing so can lower depression risk.

A similar diversity in our ancestral diet helped early humans endure an ever-shifting climate and times of scarcity. We evolved to subsist and thrive on a wide range of foods, in part because our clever brains allowed us access to them. In turn, a similarly-varied diet (minus submitting to our innate sugar craving of course) is among the best strategies to maintain brain health.

All of our hunting, and foraging, and running away from predators would have required intense physical exertion. This was certainly not unique to humans, but we can't ignore the fact that regular exercise is another effective means of preserving brain health.

Being active improves performance on mental tasks, and may help us better form memories. Long before the Peletons sold out, our brains relied on both mental and physical activity.

But overwhelmingly the evidence points to embracing a collection of lifestyle factors to keep our brain healthy, none of which existed in a Darwinian vacuum.

Finding food was as social an endeavor as it was mental and physical. Our creative brains harnessed information; gossiping, innovating, and cooking our spoils around the campfire.

Researchers are beginning to piece together the complex pathology behind the inevitable decline of the human brain, and despite a parade of failed clinical trials in dementia, there should be promising treatments ahead.

Until then, in thinking about preserving the conscious experience of our world and relationships — and living our longest, happiest lives — look to our past.

Bret Stetka is a writer based in New York and an editorial director at Medscape. His work has appeared in Wired, Scientific American, and on The Atlantic.com. His new book, A History of the Human Brain, is out from Timber/Workman Press. He's also on Twitter: @BretStetka.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The dangerous Delta variant of the coronavirus is spreading so quickly in the United States that it's likely the mutant strain will become predominant in the U.S. within weeks, according to a new analysis.

The variant, first identified in India, is the most contagious yet and, among those not yet vaccinated, may trigger serious illness in more people than other variants do, say scientists tracking the spread of infection.

The Delta variant apparently already accounts for at least 14% of all new infections, according to the research analysis posted online Monday of more than 242,000 infections nationwide over the last six months.

Another reason to get vaccinated

"It definitely is of concern," says William Lee, the vice president of science at Helix, which is under contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help track the variants.

"Just the fact that it's so transmissible means that it's it's dangerous," Lee says, "and so I think you'll see outbreaks of Delta around the country and more people will get sick from it."

Helix launched the study when researchers spotted a drop in the prevalence of the Alpha variant, a contagious strain first spotted in the U.K. that had quickly become the dominant variant in that country and the U.S.

The researchers discovered the drop in relative frequency of the Alpha variant in their spot checks of strains circulating in the U.S. was due to a rapid increase in two other variants: the Gamma variant, first spotted in Brazil, and the Delta variant. The Gamma variant may be slightly better than the original strain at outmaneuvering the vaccines, researchers say.

"It looks like both of them are going to slowly push out Alpha," says Lee, whose study has not yet been peer-reviewed but has been posted on a pre-print server.

How Delta could prompt another U.S. COVID-19 surge

All the vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. appear, in general, to provide powerful protection against all the variants, including Delta. But the rapid spread of the variants is still raising concern because of the large number of people who remain unvaccinated.

"There still are big portions of the country where the rates of vaccination are quite low," notes Dr. Jeremy Luban, a virologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. "And, in fact, the Helix paper shows that this Delta variant is increasing in frequency — the speed at which it's increasing in frequency is greatest in those areas where vaccination rates are lowest."

The Delta variant could trigger yet another moderate surge of infections through many parts of the U.S. because of these pockets of unvaccinated people, according to a recent set of projections from the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub, which is helping the CDC plot the future course of the pandemic.

The projections indicate that infections could start to rise again as soon as some time in July, especially if the vaccination campaign continues to stall.

"For the most part, it's a moderate resurgence," says Justin Lessler, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University who is helping coordinate the hub.

"We're not having massive epidemics at a national level, but we have this kind of continuation of the virus just sticking around and keeping us on our toes," Lessler says. "And in specific places there could be substantial epidemics still."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, leads some of the Biden administration's efforts to expand Medicaid access.; Credit: Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag

The Biden administration is quietly engineering a series of expansions to Medicaid that may bolster protections for millions of low-income Americans and bring more people into the program.

Biden's efforts — which have been largely overshadowed by other economic and health initiatives — represent an abrupt reversal of the Trump administration's moves to scale back the safety-net program.

The changes could further boost Medicaid enrollment — which the pandemic has already pushed to a record 80.5 million. Some of the expansion is funded by the COVID-19 relief bill that passed in March, including coverage for new mothers.

Others who could also gain coverage under Biden are inmates and undocumented immigrants. At the same time, the administration is opening the door to new Medicaid-funded services such as food and housing that the government insurance plan hasn't traditionally offered.

"There is a paradigm change underway," said Jennifer Langer Jacobs, Medicaid director in New Jersey, one of a growing number of states trying to expand home-based Medicaid services to keep enrollees out of nursing homes and other institutions.

"We've had discussions at the federal level in the last 90 days that are completely different from where we've ever been before," Langer Jacobs said.

Taken together, the Medicaid moves represent some of the most substantive shifts in federal health policy undertaken by the new administration.

"They are taking very bold action," said Rutgers University political scientist Frank Thompson, an expert on Medicaid history, noting in particular the administration's swift reversal of Trump policies. "There really isn't a precedent."

The Biden administration seems unlikely to achieve what remains the holy grail for Medicaid advocates: getting 12 holdout states, including Texas and Florida, to expand Medicaid coverage to low-income working-age adults through the Affordable Care Act.

And while some of the recent expansions – including for new mothers -- were funded by close to $20 billion in new Medicaid funding in the COVID relief bill Biden signed in March, much of that new money will stop in a few years unless Congress appropriates additional money.

The White House strategy has risks. Medicaid, which swelled after enactment of the 2010 health law, has expanded further during the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, pushing enrollment to a record 80.5 million, including those served by the related Children's Health Insurance Program. That's up from 70 million before the COVID crisis began.

The programs now cost taxpayers more than $600 billion a year. And although the federal government will cover most of the cost of the Biden-backed expansions, surging Medicaid spending is a growing burden on state budgets.

The costs of expansion are a frequent target of conservative critics, including Trump officials like Seema Verma, the former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, who frequently argued for enrollment restrictions and derided Medicaid as low-quality coverage.

But even less partisan experts warn that Medicaid, which was created to provide medical care to low-income Americans, can't make up for all the inadequacies in government housing, food and education programs.

"Focusing on the social drivers of health ... is critically important in improving the health and well-being of Medicaid beneficiaries. But that doesn't mean that Medicaid can or should be responsible for paying for all of those services," said Matt Salo, head of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, noting that the program's financing "is simply not capable of sustaining those investments."

Restoring federal support

However, after four years of Trump administration efforts to scale back coverage, Biden and his appointees appear intent on not only restoring federal support for Medicaid, but also boosting the program's reach.

"I think what we learned during the repeal-and-replace debate is just how much people in this country care about the Medicaid program and how it's a lifeline to millions," Biden's new Medicare and Medicaid administrator, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, told KHN, calling the program a "backbone to our country."

The Biden administration has already withdrawn permission the Trump administration had granted Arkansas and New Hampshire to place work requirements on some Medicaid enrollees.

In April, Biden blocked a multibillion-dollar Trump administration initiative to prop up Texas hospitals that care for uninsured patients, a policy that many critics said effectively discouraged Texas from expanding Medicaid coverage through the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare. Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the nation.

The moves have drawn criticism from Republicans, some of whom accuse the new administration of trampling states' rights to run their Medicaid programs as they choose.

"Biden is reasserting a larger federal role and not deferring to states," said Josh Archambault, a senior fellow at the conservative Foundation for Government Accountability.

But Biden's early initiatives have been widely hailed by patient advocates, public health experts and state officials in many blue states.

"It's a breath of fresh air," said Kim Bimestefer, head of Colorado's Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.

Chuck Ingoglia, head of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, said: "To be in an environment where people are talking about expanding health care access has made an enormous difference."

Mounting evidence shows that expanded Medicaid coverage improves enrollees' health, as surveys and mortality data in recent years have identified greater health improvements in states that expanded Medicaid through the 2010 health law versus states that did not.

Broadening eligibility

In addition to removing Medicaid restrictions imposed by Trump administration officials, the Biden administration has backed a series of expansions to broaden eligibility and add services enrollees can receive.

Biden supported a provision in the COVID relief bill that gives states the option to extend Medicaid to new mothers for up to a year after they give birth. Many experts say such coverage could help reduce the U.S. maternal mortality rate, which is far higher than rates in other wealthy nations.

Several states, including Illinois and New Jersey, had sought permission from the Trump administration for such expanded coverage, but their requests languished.

The COVID relief bill — which passed without Republican support — also provides additional Medicaid money to states to set up mobile crisis services for people facing mental health or substance use emergencies, further broadening Medicaid's reach.

And states will get billions more to expand so-called home and community-based services such as help with cooking, bathing and other basic activities that can prevent Medicaid enrollees from having to be admitted to expensive nursing homes or other institutions.

Perhaps the most far-reaching Medicaid expansions being considered by the Biden administration would push the government health plan into covering services not traditionally considered health care, such as housing.

This reflects an emerging consensus among health policy experts that investments in some non-medical services can ultimately save Medicaid money by keeping patients out of the hospital.

In recent years, Medicaid officials in red and blue states — including Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland and Washington — have begun exploring ways to provide rental assistance to select Medicaid enrollees to prevent medical complications linked to homelessness.

The Trump administration took steps to support similar efforts, clearing Medicare Advantage health plans to offer some enrollees non-medical benefits such as food, housing aid and assistance with utilities.

But state officials across the country said the new administration has signaled more support for both expanding current home-based services and adding new ones.

That has made a big difference, said Kate McEvoy, who directs Connecticut's Medicaid program. "There was a lot of discussion in the Trump administration," she said, "but not the capital to do it."

Other states are looking to the new administration to back efforts to expand Medicaid to inmates with mental health conditions and drug addiction so they can connect more easily to treatment once released.

Kentucky health secretary Eric Friedlander said he is hopeful federal officials will sign off on his state's initiative.

Still other states, such as California, say they are getting a more receptive audience in Washington for proposals to expand coverage to immigrants who are in the country without authorization, a step public health experts say can help improve community health and slow the spread of communicable diseases.

"Covering all Californians is critical to our mission," said Jacey Cooper, director of California's Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. "We really feel like the new administration is helping us ensure that everyone has access."

The Trump administration moved to restrict even authorized immigrants' access to the health care safety net, including the "public charge" rule that allowed immigration authorities to deny green cards to applicants if they used public programs such as Medicaid. In March, Biden abandoned that rule.

KHN correspondent Julie Rovner contributed to this report.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

A COVID-19 vaccination clinic last month in Auburn, Maine. A drop in life expectancy in the U.S. stems largely from the coronavirus pandemic, a new study says.; Credit: Robert F. Bukaty/AP

A new study estimates that life expectancy in the U.S. decreased by nearly two years between 2018 and 2020, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And the declines were most pronounced among minority groups, including Black and Hispanic people.

In 2018, average life expectancy in the U.S. was about 79 years (78.7). It declined to about 77 years (76.9) by the end of 2020, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal.

"We have not seen a decrease like this since World War II. It's a horrific decrease in life expectancy," said Steven Woolf of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and an author of the study released on Wednesday. (The study is based on data from the National Center for Health Statistics and includes simulated estimates for 2020.)

Beyond the more than 600,000 deaths in the U.S. directly from the coronavirus, other factors play into the decreased longevity, including "disruptions in health care, disruptions in chronic disease management, and behavioral health crisis, where people struggling with addiction disorders or depression might not have gotten the help that they needed," Woolf said.

The lack of access to care and other pandemic-related disruptions hit some Americans much harder than others. And it's been well documented that the death rate for Black Americans was twice as high compared with white Americans.

The disparity is reflected in the new longevity estimates. "African Americans saw their life expectancy decrease by 3.3 years and Hispanic Americans saw their life expectancy decrease by 3.9 years," Woolf noted.

"These are massive numbers," Woolf said, that reflect the systemic inequalities that long predate the pandemic.

"It is impossible to look at these findings and not see a reflection of the systemic racism in the U.S.," Lesley Curtis, chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, told NPR.

"This study further destroys the myth that the United States is the healthiest place in the world to live," Dr. Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (an NPR funder), said in an email.

He said wide differences in life expectancy rates were evident before COVID-19. "For example, life expectancy in Princeton, NJ—a predominantly White community—is 14 years higher than Trenton, NJ, a predominantly Black and Latino city only 14 miles away," Besser said.

Life expectancy in the U.S. had already been declining — albeit slowly — in the years leading up to the pandemic. And the U.S. has been losing ground compared with other wealthy countries, said Magali Barbieri of the University of California, Berkeley, in an editorial published alongside the new study.

The study estimates that the decline in life expectancy was .22 years (or about one-fifth of a year) in a group of 16 peer countries (including Austria, Finland, France, Israel, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) compared with the nearly two-year decline in the United States.

"The U.S. disadvantage in mortality compared with other high income democracies in 2020 is neither new nor sudden," Barbieri wrote. It appears the pandemic has magnified existing vulnerabilities in U.S. society, she added.

"The range of factors that play into this include income inequality, the social safety net, as well as racial inequality and access to health care," Duke's Curtis said.

So, what's the prognosis going forward in the United States? "I think life expectancy will rebound," Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth said.

But it's unlikely that the U.S. is on course to reverse the trend entirely.

"The U.S. has some of the best hospitals and some of the greatest scientists. But other countries do far better in getting quality medical care to their population," Woolf said. "We have big gaps in getting care to people who need it most, when they need it most."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

; Credit: /Rose Wong for NPR/KHN

Claire Lang-Ree was in a lab coat taking a college chemistry class remotely in the kitchen of her Colorado Springs, Colo., home, when a profound pain twisted into her lower abdomen. She called her mom, Jen Lang-Ree, a nurse practitioner who worried it was appendicitis and found a nearby hospital in the family's health insurance network.

After a long wait in the emergency room of Penrose Hospital, Claire received morphine and an anti-nausea medication delivered through an IV. She also underwent a CT scan of her abdomen and a series of tests.

Hospital staffers ruled out appendicitis and surmised Claire was suffering from a ruptured ovarian cyst, which can be a harmless part of the menstrual cycle but can also be problematic and painful. After a few days — and a chemistry exam taken through gritted teeth — the pain went away.

Then the bill came.

Patient: Claire Lang-Ree, a 21-year-old Stanford University student who was living in Colorado for a few months while taking classes remotely. She's insured by Anthem Blue Cross through her mom's work as a pediatric nurse practitioner in Northern California.

Total Bill: $18,735.93, including two $722.50 fees for a nurse to "push" drugs into her IV, a process that takes seconds. Anthem's negotiated charges were $6,999 for the total treatment. Anthem paid $5,578.30, and the Lang-Rees owed $1,270.45 to the hospital, plus additional bills for radiologists and other care. (Claire also anted up a $150 copay at the ER.)

Service Provider: Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs, part of the regional health care network Centura Health.

What Gives: As hospitals disaggregate charges for services once included in an ER visit, a hospitalization or a surgical procedure, there has been a proliferation of newfangled fees to increase billing. In the health field, this is called "unbundling." It's analogous to the airlines now charging extra for each checked bag or for an exit row seat. Over time, in the medical industry, this has led to separate fees for ever-smaller components of care. A charge to put medicine into a patient's IV line — a "push fee" — is one of them.

Though the biggest charge on Claire's bill, $9,885.73, was for a CT scan, in many ways Claire and her mom found the push fees most galling. (Note to readers: Scans are frequently many times more expensive when ordered in an ER than in other settings.)

"That was so ridiculous," says Claire, who adds she had previously taken the anti-nausea drug they gave her; it's available in tablet form for the price of a cup of coffee, no IV necessary. "It works really well. Why wasn't that an option?"

In Colorado, the average charge for the code corresponding to Claire's first IV push has nearly tripled since 2014, and the dollars hospitals actually get for the procedure has doubled. In Colorado Springs specifically, the cost for IV pushes rose even more sharply than it did statewide.

A typical nurse in Colorado Springs makes about $35 an hour. At that rate, it would take nearly 21 hours to earn the amount of money Penrose charged for a push of plunger that likely took seconds or at most minutes.

The hospital's charge for just one "IV push" was more than Claire's portion of the monthly rent in the home she shared with roommates. In the end, Anthem did not pay the push fees in its negotiated payment. But claims data shows that in 2020 Penrose typically received upward of $1,000 for the first IV push. And patients who didn't have an insurer to dismiss such charges would be stuck with them. Colorado hospitals on average received $723 for the same code, according to the claims database.

"It's insane the variation that we see in prices, and there's no rhyme or reason," says Cari Frank with the Center for Improving Value in Health Care, a Colorado nonprofit that runs a statewide health care claims database. "It's just that they've been able to negotiate those prices with the insurance company and the insurance company has decided to pay it."

To put the total cost in context, Penrose initially charged more money for Claire's visit than the typical Colorado hospital would have charged for helping someone give birth, according to data published by the Colorado Division of Insurance.

Even with the negotiated rate, "it was only $1,000 less than an average payment for having a baby," Frank says.

In an email statement, Centura said it "conducted a thorough review and determined all charges were accurate" and went on to explain that "an Emergency Room (ER) must be prepared for anything and everything that comes through the doors," requiring highly trained staff, plus equipment and supplies. "All of this adds up to large operating costs and can translate into patient responsibility."

As researchers have found, little stands in the way of hospitals charging through the roof, especially in a place like an emergency room, where a patient has few choices. A report from National Nurses United found that hospital markups have more than doubled since 1999, according to data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. In an email, Anthem called the trend of increasing hospital prices "alarming" and "unsustainable."

But Ge Bai, an associate professor of accounting and health policy at Johns Hopkins University, says when patients see big bills it isn't only the hospital's doing — a lot depends on the insurer, too. For one, the negotiated price depends on the negotiating power of the payer, in this case, Anthem.

"Most insurance companies don't have comparable negotiating or bargaining power with the hospital," said Bai. Prices in a state like Michigan, where Bai said the UAW union covers a big proportion of Michigan patients, will look very different from those in Colorado.

Also, insurers are not the wallet defenders patients might assume them to be.

"In many cases, insurance companies don't negotiate as aggressively as they can, because they earn profit from the percentage of the claims," she says. The more expensive the actual payment is, the more money they get to extract.

Though Anthem negotiated away the push fees, it paid the hospital 30% more than the average Level IV emergency department visit in Colorado that year, and it paid quadruple what Medicare would allow for her CT scan.

Resolution: Claire and her mom decided to fight the bill, writing letters to the hospital and searching for information on what the procedures should have cost. The cost of the IV pushes and CT scan infuriated them — the hospital wanted more than double for a CT than what top-rated hospitals typically charged in 2019.

But the threat of collections wore them out and ultimately they paid their assigned share of the bill — $1,420.45, which was mostly coinsurance.

"Eventually it got to the point where I was like, 'I don't really want to go to collections, because this might ruin my credit score,'" says Claire, who didn't want to graduate from college with dinged credit.

Bai and Frank say the state of Maryland can provide a useful benchmark for medical bills, since it sets the prices that hospitals can charge for each procedure. Data provided by the Maryland Health Care Commission shows that Anthem and Claire paid seven times what she likely would have paid for the CT scan there, and nearly 10 times what they likely would have paid for the emergency department Level IV visit. In Maryland, intravenous pushes typically cost about $200 apiece in 2019. A typical Maryland hospital would have received only about $1,350 from a visit like Claire's, and the Lang-Rees would have been on the hook for about $270.

Claire's pain has come back a few times, but never as bad as that night in Colorado. She has avoided reentering an emergency room since then. After visiting multiple specialists back home in California, she learned she might have had a condition called ovarian torsion.

The Takeaway: Even at an in-network facility and with good insurance, patients can get hurt financially by visiting the ER. A few helpful documents can help guide the way to fighting such charges. The first is an itemized bill.

"I just think it's wrong in the U.S. to charge so much," says Jen Lang-Ree. "It's just a little side passion of mine to look at those and make sure I'm not being scammed."

Bai, of Johns Hopkins, suggests asking for an itemized explanation of benefits from the insurance company, too. That will show what the hospital actually received for each procedure.

Find out if the hospital massively overcharged. The Medicare price lookup tool can be useful for getting a benchmark. And publicly available data on health claims in Colorado and at least 17 other states can help, too.

Vincent Plymell with the Colorado Division of Insurance encourages patients to reach out if something on a bill looks sketchy. "Even if it's not a plan we regulate," he wrote in an email, departments such as his "can always arm the consumer with info."

Finally, make scrutinizing such charges fun. Claire and Jen made bill-fighting their mother-daughter hobby for the winter. They recommend pretzel chips and cocktails to boost the mood.

Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by KHN and NPR that dissects and explains medical bills. Do you have an interesting medical bill you want to share with us? Tell us about it!

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Moderna says recently completed studies have found its vaccine to have a neutralizing effect against all COVID-19 variants tested, including the delta variant.; Credit: Fred Tanneau/AFP via Getty Images

Studies have found that Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine is effective against several variants of concern, including the delta variant, the biotech company announced.

Moderna said Tuesday that recently completed studies have found the vaccine to have a neutralizing effect against all COVID-19 variants tested, including the beta, delta, eta and kappa variants.

While still highly effective against the delta variant, the study showed the vaccine was less effective against it and certain other variants than against the original strain of the virus.

The antibody response against the delta variant was about two times weaker than against the ancestral strain of the virus.

The news echoes other findings that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are highly effective against the delta variant. A study published this month in Nature found that Pfizer's vaccine was able to neutralize variants including delta, though at somewhat reduced strength.

"These new data are encouraging and reinforce our belief that the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine should remain protective against newly detected variants," Stéphane Bancel, Moderna's chief executive officer, said in a statement. "These findings highlight the importance of continuing to vaccinate populations with an effective primary series vaccine."

The company also said it is developing a booster candidate: a 50-50 mix of its currently authorized COVID-19 vaccine and another messenger RNA vaccine it has developed.

The delta variant is spreading fast

The delta variant is the fast-moving form of the coronavirus that is now found in 96 countries, including the United States.

Last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said the delta variant is "currently the greatest threat in the U.S. to our attempt to eliminate COVID-19," noting that the proportion of infections being caused by the variant is doubling every two weeks.

The delta variant is now infecting at least 1 out of every 5 people who get the virus in the United States. In some sections of the country, the variant is already far more common, particularly in parts of the Midwest and West. At its current pace, the delta variant is expected to be the dominant virus in the U.S. within weeks.

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease expert at the World Health Organization, called the delta variant "incredibly transmissible."

"These viruses are becoming more fit. The virus is evolving, and this is natural," she told NPR's Morning Edition. "It's more transmissible than the alpha variant, so we need to just do all we can to prevent as many infections as we can and do what we can do to reduce the spread."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

People rest while riding a Los Angeles Metro Rail train amid the coronavirus pandemic on April 1, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.; Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Despite the racial reckoning going on in America right now, and despite the fact that attitudes towards race, inclusion and representation are different now than they were 30 years ago, new research from UC Berkeley shows that a large majority of American metro areas are more segregated now than they were in 1990. The new report from Berkeley’s Institute covers a number of topic areas, but among the key findings were from the national segregation report component of the project, which found Los Angeles to be the sixth-most segregated metro area with more than 200,000 people.

Today on AirTalk, we’ll talk with the lead researcher on the new report and a local historian to talk about how we see the findings of the report play out in Southern California.

Guests:

Stephen Menendian, assistant director and director of research at the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, which works to identify and eliminate the barriers to an inclusive, just, and sustainable society in order to create transformative change; he tweets @SMenendian

Eric Avila, professor of history, urban planning, and Chicano/a studies at UCLA

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The US Supreme Court is seen in Washington, DC on July 1, 2021.; Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. Supreme Court ends its spring term today with two final decisions expected to come down, one involving a pivotal voting rights case out of Arizona and the other involving so-called “dark money” and campaign finance. 

Today on AirTalk, we’ll get a summary of the arguments that each side in the two cases will be making, and we’ll look back on the Spring 2021 term overall, as the nine justices will break until the fall.

Guests:

Vikram Amar, dean and professor of law at the University of Illinois College of Law

David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that works with election officials around the country to ensure convenient and secure voting for all voters; he is the former director of the elections program at The Pew Charitable Trusts and a former senior trial attorney in the Voting Section of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division; he tweets @beckerdavidj

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Sherman Institute, built in the Mission Revival architectural style, enrolled its first students on Sept. 9, 1902.; Credit: SHERMAN INDIAN MUSEUM

Earlier this month, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced an effort to search federal boarding schools for burial sites of Native American kids. 

The effort is similar to the one in Canada, which found the remains of up to 751 people, likely mostly children, at an unmarked grave in a defunct school in the province of Saskatchewan.  

We dive into the history of American Indian Boarding Schools, as well as their evolution and what the schools that still exist, including Sherman Institute High School in California, look like today.

Guests:

Brenda Child, professor of American Studies and American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota; she is the author of many books, including “Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940” (University of Nebraska Press, 2000)

Amanda Wixon, curator at the Sherman Indian Museum, which is on the campus of Sherman Indian High School; assistant curator at Autry museum of the American West; PhD candidate in history at UC Riverside where her research is in Native American history, especially federal boarding schools and the carceral aspects of the Sherman Institute

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Facemasks remain worn as firefighter paramedic Jorge Miranda, holding syringe, speaks with Eduardo Vasquez, who has lived homeless on the streets of Los Angeles since 1992, before administering the one-shot Johnson and Johnson' Janssen Covid-19 vaccine as part of outreach to the homeless by members of the Los Angeles Fire Department's Covid Outreach unit on June 14, 2021 in Los Angeles.; Credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

In our continuing series looking at the latest medical research and news on COVID-19, Larry Mantle speaks with UCSF’s Dr. Peter Chin-Hong. 

Topics today include:

• Two weeks after reopening, LA County’s new COVID-19 cases have doubled

• CDC: Infected vaccinated people carry less COVID-19 virus

• Delta variant is now detected in all 50 states

• J&J: “At present, there is no evidence to suggest need for a booster dose to be administered”

• Novavax claims vaccine’s overall efficacy is 89.7%

• Another respiratory virus is spreading in the U.S.

• Curevac’s final trial show shot is far less effective than other vaccines

• Can we now live with the coronavirus?

• Israel scrambles to curb rising COVID-19 infection rates

• Is it time to rethink “one-size-fits-all” approach for masking?

Guest:

Peter Chin-Hong, M.D., infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the UCSF Medical Center; he tweets @PCH_SF

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

A homeless encampment is pictured at Venice Beach, on June 30, 2021 in Venice, California, where an initiative began this week offering people in homeless encampments a voluntary path to permanent housing.; Credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

The majority of unhoused women across the nation — 57% according to recent data — say domestic violence is the direct cause of losing their permanent home. 

In L.A, almost 40% of women who are homeless say they’ve experienced abuse in the last 12 months.

The choice they’ve been forced to make: Stay in danger with their abusers — or escape, with nowhere to go.

“It’s like jumping from a burning building but there’s no net to catch you,” said Nikki Brown, a survivor and advocate.

There are many, complex reasons why survivors become homeless. Shame is one of them. Yet studies show that one in three women experience some form of intimate partner abuse in their lives. So why don’t we talk about it more?

“It's the greatest secret that's super common and nobody wants to admit it,” said Brown. “There are so many complicated circumstances that make it really hard to leave. And when you can't leave, that element of shame and blame is the thing that makes it so hard to talk about.”

Today on AirTalk, we’re learning more about reporter Julia Paskin’s series Pushed Out, on domestic violence and homelessness in Los Angeles. Do you have an experience you want to share? Give us a call at 866-893-5722.

Guests:

Julia Paskin, KPCC producer and reporter who created the “Pushed Out” series; she tweets @JuliaPaskinInc

Amy Turk, CEO of Downtown Women’s Center, which advocates and offers services for women experiencing homelessness and formerly homeless women; she tweets @AmyFTurk

Nikki Brown, staff attorney at Community Legal Aid SoCal, where she has clients that are domestic violence survivors

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Detail of boxes with the U.S. donated Johnson & Johnson vaccine against Covid-19 at Universidad de Baja California on June 17, 2021 in Tijuana, Baja California. ; Credit: Francisco Vega/Getty Images

In our continuing series looking at the latest medical research and news on COVID-19, Larry Mantle speaks with Dr. Annabelle De St. Maurice from University of California Los Angeles/Mattel Children’s hospital.

Topics today include:

• J&J says its vaccine is effective against Delta variant

  • J&J vaccine lasts at least 8 months

• WHO says all vaccines it authorized should be recognized by reopening countries

• White House says it will miss July 4 vaccination goal

• Postpartum depression on the rise during the pandemic

• Experts believe Novavax may play a role in combating vaccine hesitancy

• Delta variant is not driving a surge in hospitalization rates in England

Guest: 

Annabelle De St. Maurice, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics in the division of infectious diseases and the co-chief infection prevention officer at University of California Los Angeles/Mattel Children’s hospital; she tweets @destmauricemd

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Athletes compete during the cycling portion of the IRONMAN 70.3 Steelhead on June 27, 2021 in Benton Harbor, Michigan. ; Credit: Patrick McDermott/Getty Images for IRONMAN

Whether you’re new to running or you’ve finished your tenth triathlon, we want to hear from you about what motivates you and how that translates into pushing yourself physically. 

Guests: 

Mark Remy, longtime runner and writer in Portland, Oregon; creator of humor website dumbrunner.com; he is the author of many books, including The Runner's Rule Book: Everything a Runner Needs to Know--And Then Some (Runner's World) (Rodale Books, 2009)

Sharon McNary, infrastructure correspondent at KPCC; she finished her 11th Ironman Race last week at Coeur d’Alene; she tweets @KPCCsharon

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Copy of the book “Beyond Baseball’s Color Barrier: The Story of African Americans in Major League Baseball, Past, Present, and Future” (Rowman & Littlefield, May 2021)

Most of us are familiar with the story of Jackie Robinson, the first Black player to play baseball in the Major Leagues, and while Jackie’s story is arguably the biggest chapter in the story of how baseball was integrated, there’s plenty more to the story that happened both before and after Jackie broke into the Majors. Author, sports historian and Santa Barbara City College Director of Athletics Rocco Constantino dives into this rich history in his new book “Beyond Baseball’s Color Barrier: The Story of African Americans in Major League Baseball, Past, Present, and Future” where he explores the contributions of major figures like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Satchel Paige as well as the lesser known ones of players like Vida Blue, Mudcat Grant and Dwight Gooden.

Today on AirTalk, Constantino joins Larry Mantle to explore the history of Black players in baseball, their fight for recognition and integration into the Major Leagues and the issues of race that persisted well beyond Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier.

Guest:

Rocco Constantino, author of “Beyond Baseball’s Color Barrier: The Story of African Americans in Major League Baseball, Past, Present, and Future” (Rowman & Littlefield, May 2021); he is a sports historian and the director of athletics at Santa Barbara City College

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Don't fear the 'shrooms.; Credit: /iStockphoto.com

California on Tuesday moved another step closer to decriminalizing psychedelics — amid a debate over whether their prohibition is an outdated remnant of the War on Drugs — after the author removed a substance (ketamine) from the bill that opponents said can be used as a date-rape drug.

The bill would allow those 21 and older to possess for personal use and “social sharing” psilocybin, the hallucinogenic component of so-called magic mushrooms. It also covers psilocybin, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ibogaine, mescaline excluding peyote, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, often called ecstasy).

The bill bars sharing with those under age 21 or possessing the substances on school grounds. It would remove the state’s ban on cultivating or transferring mushroom spores or other material containing psilocybin or psilocybin.

Even if California makes the bill law, the drugs would still be illegal under federal law.

With files from the Associated Press.

Guests:

Scott Wiener, author of SB 519; California State Senator representing Senate District 11, which includes all of the city and county of San Francisco, Broadmoor, Colma, Daly City, and part of South San Francisco; he tweets @Scott_Wiener

John Lovell, legislative director of the California Narcotics Officers Association

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

A fireworks stand, one of about 25 booths that are open for business, advertises on the first day of fireworks sales for Fourth of July celebrations June 28, 2005 in Fillmore, California.; Credit: David McNew/Getty Images

Every year in the days leading up to Independence Day, we’re flooded with public service announcements warning of the dangers and risks associated with fireworks. In LA County, where most fireworks are illegal, it can be even more dangerous as the area’s risk of fire grows. 

Today on AirTalk, we discuss the challenges in enforcing and responding to the use of illegal fireworks and the growing risks. We also want to hear from listeners. What was your Fourth of July experience like this year with fireworks? Do you think more needs to be done to crack down? Join the conversation by calling 866-893-5722.

We reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department, but the department was not able to accommodate our interview request and says updated data is unavailable at this time.

Guest:

Mike Feuer, Los Angeles city attorney; he tweets @Mike_Feuer

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

For two decades now, and counting, the LANDFIRE program continues to assemble the most easy-to-use, intuitive and complete clearinghouse of remote sensing data products for wildland fire managers. 

Restoration of the imperiled sagebrush biome will require tools that assist resource managers in determining which restoration practices are most effective, and when and where restoration efforts will lead to the most ecosystem recovery. New research from USGS and Colorado State University provides biome-wide insights and spatially explicit tools that can inform restoration practices. 

In this third edition of "Eruptions of Hawaiian Volcanoes—Past, Present, and Future," we include information about Kīlauea’s 2018 eruption in the lower East Rift Zone—the largest and most destructive in at least 200 years—and associated summit-collapse events, the eruptions at Kīlauea’s summit since 2018, and the 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa, which occurred after 38 years of quiescence.

From wooden boxes and nets to 3D printers and gene editing, USGS scientists use tools old and new to tackle the tricky problems of bat science

The USGS is pleased to announce the release of new US Topo maps for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These updated topographic maps offer valuable, current geographic information for residents, visitors, and professionals, providing essential resources for communities in these areas.

USGS groundwater and surface water monitoring data contributed to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's (PaDEP) November 1, 2024, declarations of drought watches and warnings for 35 Pennsylvania counties.

Adult Chinook salmon in Alaska and Canada are in trouble, and USGS WFRC scientists are in a race against the clock to find the cause behind their disappearance and a viable solution. A staple in many diets, this salmon species is considered a lifeblood of the region.