This year, it’s more important than ever that you get your flu vaccine early for seasonal influenza. With Covid-19 still active and a potential resurgence over the fall and winter, you need all the protection you can get. While the seasonal flu vaccine will not protect you from Covid-19, it will help ensure that hospitals and healthcare providers don’t get overwhelmed by a double whammy, or what some are calling a “twindemic.”
Every industry has their own jargon and set of acronyms used by insiders. Sometimes they are technical terms or language that people use to describe a precise process, a part, or a concept; sometimes, they are slang that develops among colleagues in an organization or an industry over time. But industry-specific terminology can be confusing, misunderstood, or even off-putting to outsiders. Think about the last time you tried to communicate with a car mechanic, a computer tech, or some other specialist and you couldn’t understand what they were telling you. It can be frustrating!
Nobody wants to pay more than they must for auto insurance, but when bad or risky driving leads to tickets, it can add big bucks to the amount you pay for insurance over several years. Danielle Ling has a story in PropertyCasualty360 about which moving violations raise your car insurance rates the most. Note that these are averages – in some states and with some insurers, costs can be much higher. And these are just the costliest violations. Ling says that even lesser offenses like speeding in a school zone can increase annual rates by more than $300.
In early April, we noted that there has never been a crisis or emergency that criminals won’t try to exploit and we posted a roundup of fraud schemes: Be on your guard for coronavirus scammers, skimmers & phishers! It’s time to update that list. Criminals are only getting smarter and more sophisticated about capitalizing on our coronavirus fears and the way we’ve adjusted our lives. Here are reports on some of the newer scams that authorities are seeing, along with tips on how to avoid being victimized.
During pregnancy, expectant mothers often have questions about the best way to stay safe while driving. Common questions include whether seat belts are safe, how to best position the steering wheel, and if airbags are safe or if they should be disabled. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to the rescue – they answer these and other questions in a downloadable quick guide: If You’re Pregnant: Seat Belt Recommendations for Drivers and Passengers
Worried about if the pandemic is affecting your credit? Here’s good news to help you monitor your credit status: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, the three major credit rating bureaus, are now offering free weekly online reports through April 2021. Normally, you are entitled to one report per year for free, so this is a great tool and it’s important that you take advantage of it.
Last year was the fifth year in a row that 10 or more weather and climate disasters in the US logged at least $1 billion of associated losses. If you think 2020 threw everything it had at us and will now ease off, think again. While we all have our hands full with navigating the new realities of life under Covid19, nature is relentless and doesn’t slow down. Most Americans agree. According to a recent survey by American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), 61% or respondents said they were likely to be personally affected by a natural disaster in the next three to five years. Almost one in five said that prospect was highly likely.
Things are looking much more positive and festive in New England for July 4 than they were a month ago for Memorial Day, but Covid19 is still looming so we all still need to be safe and careful. We worked hard to bring our numbers down, but we can see from some other parts of the country, things can spiral downward quickly if we don’t keep our guard up.
It’s National Lightning Safety Awareness Week. It’s good timing because July is the month with the most cloud-to-ground lightning strikes.
Let the men in your life know how much they mean to you by encouraging them to get healthy! June is Men’s Health Month, a time to encourage and support all the men in our lives to get health screenings and checkups. Why? Quite simply, the founders of this initiative say that “men live sicker and die younger.” The dedicated month is sponsored by the Men’s Health Network (MHN), a national non-profit whose mission is to reach men, boys, and their families where they live, work, play, and pray with health awareness and disease prevention messages and tools, screening programs, educational materials, advocacy opportunities, and patient navigation.
