The Food and Drug Administration said regulators had examined 201 commercial dairy samples, including milk, cottage cheese and sour cream, and had so far not found evidence that potentially infectious virus was on grocery shelves.
Several lawmakers questioned whether the company had become so large β with tentacles in every aspect of the nationβs medical care β that the effects of the hack were outsize.
Andrew Witty, the chief executive of UnitedHealth Group, acknowledged before the Senate Finance Committee that hackers had found a weakness in its cybersecurity that forced the shutdown of a vast billing and payments system.
The proposal had been years in the making, in an effort to curb death rates of Black smokers targeted by Big Tobacco. In an election year, the presidentβs worries about support among Black voters may have influenced the postponement.
Public health groups supporting the ban of menthol cigarettes cited years of data suggesting that the cigarettes, long marketed to African American smokers, make it more palatable to start smoking and more difficult to stop.
The C.D.C. maintained Wednesday that the risk for the public was still low, with no changes in the genetic makeup of the virus that would allow it to spread more easily to or between humans.
Scientists say that the presence of viral fragments in milk, which is pasteurized, isnβt cause for alarm, but that the bigger problem is the ongoing uncertainty about the size and scope of the outbreak.
As record heat enveloped the nation, the rate of emergency room visits increased compared with the previous five years, a sign of the major health risks of high temperatures.
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