HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

June 20, 2018 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Gene therapy reverses rat’s paralysis (BBC)
• Remember Last Year’s Hepatitis A Outbreak? This Year It’s So Much Worse. (Huffington Post)
• Vitamin D associated with lower risk of breast cancer, UCSD-led study finds  (San Diego Union Tribune)

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

• Two senators want Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to answer for Alexa’s eavesdropping (Washington Post)
• Judge approves AT&T merger with Time Warner, a ruling that may reshape how we pay for streaming  (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Hands off my data! 15 more default privacy settings you should change on your TV, cellphone plan, LinkedIn and more. (Washington Post)
• How you can unsend that Snapchat message you accidentally sent to your ex (Washington Post)

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

HEALTH

Gene therapy reverses rat’s paralysis (BBC)

The team at King's College London used gene therapy to repair damage in the spinal cord of rats. The animals could then pick up and eat sugar cubes with their front paws. It is early stage research, but experts said it was some of the most compelling evidence that people's hand function could one day be restored.

Remember Last Year’s Hepatitis A Outbreak? This Year It’s So Much Worse. (Huffington Post)

A severe but localized hepatitis A outbreak in San Diego last fall has morphed into outbreaks across multiple states ― the latest arising in Missouri, Kentucky and Indiana ― with no signs of the virus slowing down. Cases of hepatitis A in the United States have nearly doubled since this time last year, even as public health officials have worked to stem the tide of infections through vaccine campaigns and community education.

Vitamin D associated with lower risk of breast cancer, UCSD-led study finds  (San Diego Union-Tribune)

… Women with the highest levels of vitamin D in the blood had 20 percent of breast cancer risk as those with the lowest levels.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Two senators want Amazon's Jeff Bezos to answer for Alexa's eavesdropping (Washington Post)

How often do Amazon Echos misinterpret commands? Two senators want to know.

Judge approves AT&T merger with Time Warner, a ruling that may reshape how we pay for streaming  (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A federal judge approved the $85 billion mega-merger of AT&T and Time Warner on Tuesday, a move that could usher in a wave of media consolidation while shaping how much consumers pay for streaming TV and movies…The Trump Justice Department had sued to block the $85 billion merger, arguing that it would hurt competition in cable and satellite TV and jack up costs to consumers for streaming TV and movies.

Hands off my data!  15 more default privacy settings you should change on your TV, cellphone plan, LinkedIn and more (Washington Post)

Default privacy settings often aren’t very private. Our tech columnist is back with Round 2 of his clickable guide to improving your privacy on all sorts of devices and online services.

How you can unsend that Snapchat message you accidentally sent to your ex (Washington Post)

Now you can soon retract that message you regret sending before your contact sees it.