People over 50 may want to think twice before they join the pickleball trend. A new study shows an increase in eye injuries from the popular sport including corneal abrasions, bruises, hyphema (bleeding in the eye) and even orbital fractures. Actually, this is easy to prevent if you wear eye protection but most pickleballers don’t. Other prevalent injuries include sprained ankles, wrist fractures, shoulder strains, and hip injuries from those slips, dives, and sudden pivots that the over-50 body just isn’t as eager to make anymore. So why is the sport so popular? Maybe because, as one unnamed friend confided in me, it’s apparently rife with extramarital affairs. That’s just my conjecture. I have never played pickleball. The post Pickleball Eyes appeared first on Redacted.

The CDC says that last year’s flu season was “high” in severity and the worst on record since the 2017-2018 season. But why was it so bad? Could it be because last year’s flu vaccine did not have the flu strains that made Americans so sick. Bingo! The 2024–2025 flu vaccine targeted these strains: A/Victoria/4897/2022 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus A/Thailand/8/2022 (H3N2)-like virus B/Austria/1359417/2021 (B/Victoria lineage)-like virus But the strains that actually caused the majority of infections were newly drifted versions of H3N2, plus a strong showing of H1N1, which, while included, had already evolved enough to dull the vaccine’s punch. The CDC notes that the flu death rate was high and that most child flu deaths were in children who had not received the vaccine. That suggests those children may have survived had they been vaccinated but that’s impossible to prove, especially if the vaccine didn’t match the fatal strain. Still, the CDC recommends the flu vaccine to prevent this year’s flu season from being “high severity.” But how do we know that the 2025–2026 flu vaccine will be any better at preventing this year’s strains? We don’t. In fact, we can be fairly certain it won’t. The strains in that vaccine were chosen based on what was circulating last spring. So what are we to make of this? Well, basically, the flu vaccine is like the pumpkin spice latte: it shows up every fall, whether it works or not. The post The CDC Warns About the Flu, but the Vaccine Missed It (Again) appeared first on Redacted.

The World Health Organization is using AI to track us all. What are they looking for? The next pandemic, of course. The new WHO tracking software is called Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources 2.0 (EIOS). They say they need it for “pandemic preparedness.” It will automatically scan and analyze social media to detect possible outbreaks. They’ll also be tracking for “ongoing events, whether they are linked to conflict, climate change, or new and re-emerging pathogens.” In short: it’s not just disease surveillance. It’s narrative surveillance wrapped in the language of “global health security.” Since 2020, the WHO has been warning about “infodemics,” which it describes as an overabundance of information, even accurate information, that makes it difficult for people to “adopt behaviors” the WHO deems necessary to protect public health. So how much do you want to bet they’ll be using this AI surveillance to define and then censor the “infodemic”? The WHO says EIOS is already active in more than 110 countries and is offered “free of charge” to member states. But can they just spy on the populations of WHO member states? They’re not supposed to — but by presenting it as “free of charge,” they get implied consent. And they’ve quietly expanded their ability to do this under the new International Health Regulations (IHR). Since their pandemic treaty collapsed, you can bet they’ll use the power they didn’t get at the negotiating table through the back door of “health security.” The post The WHO Is Using AI to Spy on You appeared first on Redacted.

Sunday was a bloody day in the so-called ceasefire in Gaza. At least 45 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes and at least 2 IDF soldiers were also killed. Some reports claim that the IDF soldiers were killed after driving over an unexploded bomb in the Gaza Strip, prompting Israel to retaliate against Palestinians and blame Hamas for the explosion. Once the strikes ended, the IDF announced that it had “begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire, in line with the terms of the agreement,” adding that it would “continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and respond firmly to any violation of it.” Israel also reportedly began cutting off aid to Gaza, but the Trump administration intervened, urging them to reverse the move. Aid deliveries are expected to resume on Monday. CNN calls this the “first major test” of the ceasefire and declared that both sides survived it. Fifty people died. That is a successfully passed test? The post “Ceasefire” Turns Deadly in Gaza appeared first on Redacted.

President Trump declared that Hamas and Israel have agreed to the first phase of his peace plan. It is unclear if the final agreement includes all 21 points of his original proposal from last week. He does say that the Israeli hostages will be released “very soon” but made no mention of the Palestinian hostages currently held by Israel. The initial does call for Israel to release the “250 life sentence prisoners plus 1700 Gazans who were detained after October 7th 2023.” That number does not include the roughly 4,000 Palestinians already in Israeli custody prior to October 7 due to their illegal practice of “administrative detention” – meaning their wellbeing remains a question mark. President Trump says that “Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps.” In the original plan, that line was about half-way between the border and the coast of the Gaza Strip. Haaretz also reports that the IDF is preparing for a withdrawal but they have had no official instructions other than “the one published by U.S. President Donald Trump on social media, which does not provide sufficient clarity regarding the full implications of the proposed deal.” That would be almost comical if it weren’t so critical for the lives of civilians on both sides. Will this peace deal hold? Well here is one positive sign. When President Trump has announced peace deals in the past. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu immediately puts a caveat on the plan. He did not do that on Wednesday. He appeared to indicate that he is on board and will comply. The post Trump Declares Peace in the Middle East appeared first on Redacted.