HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

December 6, 2017 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Five ways Congressional tax legislation would transform health care (NPR)
• As scarlet fever cases rise, baffled researchers investigate (CNN)
• CVS To Buy Health Insurer Aetna for $69 Billion (NPR)
• Early baldness higher heart disease risk factor than obesity, says study (BBC)
• Tylenol May Help Ease the Pain of Hurt Feelings (NPR)
• Asthma sufferers urged to wear scarves in cold to stop attacks (BBC)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Apple is sharing your face with apps. That’s a new privacy worry. (Washington Post)
• FCC reveals plan to repeal net neutrality, giving Internet providers power to favor websites (Washington Post)
• E-government sounds great, until it's hacked (Jewish World Review)
• Gravity signals rapidly show true size of giant quakes (BBC)
• U.S. scientists take step toward creating artificial life (Reuters)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

HEALTH

Five ways Congressional tax legislation would transform health care (NPR)

Proposed changes to the tax law could eliminate the deduction for medical expenses. Those who use it generally have very high medical expenses, often for a disabled child, a serious chronic illness or expensive long-term care not covered by health insurance.

As scarlet fever cases rise, baffled researchers investigate (CNN)

The age-old killer scarlet fever is on the rise in England and East Asia, according to research published Monday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, and investigators don't know why. “Whilst current rates (in England) are nowhere near those seen in the early 1900s, the magnitude of the recent upsurge is greater than any documented in the last century," said study author Theresa Lamagni of Public Health England, the agency that funded the analysis.

CVS To Buy Health Insurer Aetna for $69 Billion (NPR)

CVS Health Corp will pay $207 for each share of Aetna Inc., in a massive acquisition. CVS plans to expand its low-cost medical clinics to serve Aetna's more than 22 million members.

Early baldness higher heart disease risk factor than obesity, says study (BBC)

A study shows more men with heart disease were prematurely bald or grey than had other characteristics.

Tylenol May Help Ease the Pain of Hurt Feelings (NPR)

Acetaminophen, the world's most popular painkiller, doesn't just dull physical aches, it also has subtle psychological effects, researchers say.

Asthma sufferers urged to wear scarves in cold to stop attacks (BBC)

This can help to warm up winter air before it is breathed in and reduce the risk of an attack.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Apple is sharing your face with apps. That’s a new privacy worry. (Washington Post)

… Now that a phone can scan your mug, what else might apps want to do with it? They could track your expressions to judge if you’re depressed. They could guess your gender, race and even sexuality. They might combine your face with other data to observe you in stores—or walking down the street. Apps aren’t doing most of these things, yet. But is Apple doing enough to stop it?

FCC reveals plan to repeal net neutrality, giving Internet providers power to favor websites (Washington Post)

The FCC has unveiled a plan to repeal net neutrality, or the idea that Internet service providers can't block or favor websites. See what this means for you.

E-government sounds great, until it's hacked (Jewish World Review)

A group of Czech security researchers earlier this year discovered a way to steal identities from electronic ID cards used in a number of countries, known in the cryptography industry as a ROCA vulnerability.

Gravity signals rapidly show true size of giant quakes (BBC)

Researchers develop a new speedy approach to estimate the true size of very large earthquakes.

U.S. scientists take step toward creating artificial life (Reuters)

 In a major step toward creating artificial life, U.S. researchers have developed a living organism that incorporates both natural and artificial DNA and is capable of creating entirely new, synthetic proteins.