Month: November 2022

Enlarge / Parents work on their computers while their son entertains himself at their home in Boston in April 2020. (credit: Getty | Boston Globe)

Respiratory illnesses are raging this fall, slamming children particularly hard. Cases of influenza-like illnesses are off to a startlingly strong and early start this season. RSV—respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-uhl) virus—continues to skyrocket. A stew of SARS-CoV-2 variants is still simmering in the background. And the rabble of usual cold-season viruses, such as rhinoviruses and enteroviruses, is also making the rounds.

RSV national trends. (credit: CDC)

With the surge in infections, children's hospitals around the country have reported being at capacity or overwhelmed, as Ars has reported before. But another effect of the crush of viruses is a squeeze on the workforce. As The Washington Post first reported Tuesday, the US broke its record last month for people missing work due to childcare problems—such as having children home sick and childcare facilities or schools shuttered due to staffing shortages and sickness.

Outpatient respiratory illness visits. (credit: CDC)

In October, more than 100,000 employed Americans missed work for childcare-related problems, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is more missing workers than in any other month in recent records, including the entirety of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which many childcare facilities and schools closed down for extended periods. At the height of pandemic-related shutdowns in 2020, the number of Americans missing work for childcare problems only reached the low 90,000s.

Enlarge / Parents work on their computers while their son entertains himself at their home in Boston in April 2020. (credit: Getty | Boston Globe)

Respiratory illnesses are raging this fall, slamming children particularly hard. Cases of influenza-like illnesses are off to a startlingly strong and early start this season. RSV—respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-uhl) virus—continues to skyrocket. A stew of SARS-CoV-2 variants is still simmering in the background. And the rabble of usual cold-season viruses, such as rhinoviruses and enteroviruses, is also making the rounds.

RSV national trends. (credit: CDC)

With the surge in infections, children's hospitals around the country have reported being at capacity or overwhelmed, as Ars has reported before. But another effect of the crush of viruses is a squeeze on the workforce. As The Washington Post first reported Tuesday, the US broke its record last month for people missing work due to childcare problems—such as having children home sick and childcare facilities or schools shuttered due to staffing shortages and sickness.

Outpatient respiratory illness visits. (credit: CDC)

In October, more than 100,000 employed Americans missed work for childcare-related problems, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is more missing workers than in any other month in recent records, including the entirety of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which many childcare facilities and schools closed down for extended periods. At the height of pandemic-related shutdowns in 2020, the number of Americans missing work for childcare problems only reached the low 90,000s.

Enlarge / Nvidia's RTX 4090. (credit: Sam Machkovech)

A few weeks ago, some early adopters of Nvidia's new flagship RTX 4090 GPU began reporting that the cards' power connectors were overheating and melting their plastic casing, sometimes causing damage to the outrageously fast and expensive GPUs.

For Nvidia's part, the company is still looking into the failures. "We continue to investigate the reports, however we don't have further details to share yet," according to an Nvidia rep talking to KitGuru earlier this week. But the YouTubers at the Gamers Nexus channel have been conducting their own in-depth research, and in short, they believe that the problems are mostly being caused by improperly seated power connectors. "Foreign-object debris" inside the connector can also cause problems, but Gamers Nexus believes this kind of damage is much rarer.

The failure that Gamers Nexus was able to re-create in its labs involved connecting the 12VHPWR power connector to an RTX 4090 without inserting it fully and then bending the cable to one side, making the connection even worse. After just a few minutes of testing, the loose connection's high power resistance generated heat above 250° Celsius, causing smoke and visible bubbling as the connector melted in its socket.