Month: August 2019

Enlarge (credit: Getty | Sebastien Bozon)

A deadly outbreak of multi-drug resistant Salmonella that sickened 225 people across the US beginning in 2018 may have been spurred by a sharp rise in the use of certain antibiotics in cows a year earlier, infectious disease investigators reported this week.

From June 2018 to March of 2019, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified an outbreak of Salmonella enterica serotype Newport. The strain was resistant to several antibiotics, most notably azithromycin—a recommended treatment for Salmonella enterica infections. Before the outbreak, azithromycin-resistance in this germ was exceedingly rare. In fact, it was only first seen in the US in 2016.

Yet in the 2018-2019 outbreak, it reached at least 225 people in 32 states. Of those sickened, at least 60 were hospitalized and two died. (Researchers didn’t have complete health data on everyone sickened in the outbreak.)

Enlarge (credit: Getty | Sebastien Bozon)

A deadly outbreak of multi-drug resistant Salmonella that sickened 225 people across the US beginning in 2018 may have been spurred by a sharp rise in the use of certain antibiotics in cows a year earlier, infectious disease investigators reported this week.

From June 2018 to March of 2019, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified an outbreak of Salmonella enterica serotype Newport. The strain was resistant to several antibiotics, most notably azithromycin—a recommended treatment for Salmonella enterica infections. Before the outbreak, azithromycin-resistance in this germ was exceedingly rare. In fact, it was only first seen in the US in 2016.

Yet in the 2018-2019 outbreak, it reached at least 225 people in 32 states. Of those sickened, at least 60 were hospitalized and two died. (Researchers didn’t have complete health data on everyone sickened in the outbreak.)

Enlarge / A drone with an Amazon package floats in front of the Amazon logistics center in Leipzig, Germany, 28 October 2014. Amazon did not comment on whether drones will fuel this default one-day speed boost for paying Amazon Prime subscribers' deliveries. (credit: Alamy / dpa Picture Alliance)

Amazon is by far the biggest US online retailer. In the past 20 years it has leapt past its origins as a website you could order books from to become, among other things, the everything store—one-stop shopping for all physical and digital goods from A to Z.

The company's explosive growth is due in part to its sprawling third-party merchant marketplace. Many marketplace merchants are indeed above-board retailers, manufacturers, and resellers. But thousands more sell not only counterfeit items, but also mislabeled, unsafe, recalled, or even banned items that can put consumers—especially children—in serious danger.

The Wall Street Journal identified more than 4,100 such products for sale on Amazon.com during the course of a months-long investigation, and at least 2,000 are toys or medications that fail to include warnings about risks to children.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | MassimoVernicesole)

Phone companies and attorneys general from all 50 US states are touting a new agreement to fight robocalls, but it won't actually do much to help consumers.

The top wireless carriers and home phone providers promised attorneys general from every state and the District of Columbia that they would offer free robocall blocking and take other steps to fight robocalls. But the agreement imposes no legally binding requirements on phone providers. "Failure to adhere to these principles is not in itself a basis for liability," a disclaimer on the agreement notes.

Even if breaking the agreement was a basis for liability, there would be no deadline to comply. "Adherence to these principles may take time for the voice service providers to plan for and implement," the disclaimer also said, while providing no specific timeline for the carriers to fulfill their promises.

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Greetings, Arsians! The Dealmaster is back with another round of deals to share. Today's list is headlined by a couple of deals on Apple's Leather Cases for its iPhone XS and iPhone 8/7 phones. The former is down to $25, while the latter is down to $22.49. Only the black models are discounted, but both prices are as low as we've seen on Amazon. Overpricing is usually the big downside with Apple's first-party cases, but this deal negates that. Otherwise, each case fits its respective iPhone like a glove, and though they aren't the most protective things around, the leather finish feels great.

Elsewhere in the rundown, BuyDig has a big bundle on the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition that includes two months of Xbox Live Gold and six game downloads—including the latest Madden NFL and Gears of War 4—for $229 with an on-site coupon. This deal isn't as much of a showstopper as it sounds: the All-Digital model has no disc drive, it should be cheaper than its $249 MSRP to begin with, and at least one new Xbox console is coming next year. But if you were looking to pick up new Xbox hardware sooner, a $20 hardware discount plus six largely solid games is decent value.

Beyond that, you can find a $50 discount on the entry-level Mac mini, a $30 drop on Amazon's Cloud Cam security camera, a nice price on a gold DualShock 4 PS4 controller, and more deals below.