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Postal Service To Slow Down
Ransomware Attack In Berlin
Back when the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were rolled out to the public, their records of preventing COVID-19 hospitalizations in the first four months were neck-and-neck: 93% and 91% effective, respectively; but the degree of protection diverged after that. When the authors of a study focused specifically on the period 120 days beyond the second dose, they found that the Moderna vaccine remained 92% effective at preventing COVID-19 hospitalizations, but the equivalent figure for the Pfizer vaccine was 77%.
The results of the study, published in the Centers for Disease Control’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, used data collected from 18 states between March and August.
Researchers in the United States have been warning for months that the immunity afforded by COVID-19 vaccines might be waning. The CDC reported that, in late July, close to three-quarters of the 469 people swept up in a Massachusetts outbreak were fully vaccinated, but virtually all of those infections appeared to be mild. The agency has launched several studies aimed at detecting changes in vaccine effectiveness in healthcare workers and others who were vaccinated early.
Postal Service To Slow Down
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced last spring that the United States Postal Service will have longer delivery times for some first-class mail, shorter hours for some post offices, and more expensive postal rates as part of a 10-year reorganization plan to make the USPS solvent.
Effective Oct. 1, as much as 20% of first-class mail traveling across the country may take five days for delivery, while 70% still be delivered in two or three days.
DeJoy said that, if the Postal Service’s long-term financial woes are not addressed, the USPS will “run out of cash and require a government bailout.”
Ransomware Attack In Berlin
The Concord Monitor reported that a ransomware attack shut down Coos County Family Health Services, with Chief Executive Officer Ken Gordon saying that the attack affected essentially all of its systems — phone, computer, and email.
Gordon described abnormalities in the way its systems were running, which led to an examination that revealed the entire system had been compromised. The agency shut down services and focused on preventing further activity on the system.
Coos County Family Health Services operates primary care clinics at 133 Pleasant Street and Page Hill at Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin and at 2 Broadway Avenue in Gorham. It also operates a dental clinic at 73 Main Street in Berlin and it runs RESPONSE sites in Berlin, Lancaster, and Colebrook, addressing the needs of survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.
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