Gyms in the South Korean capital are about to adopt an unusual Covid prevention strategy: play slower music.

The Health Ministry is implementing a number of new measures as the country continues battling a coronavirus outbreak that has seen daily cases climb steeply since late June.
In the capital Seoul, new rules mean specific workout classes, such as spinning and aerobics, are not allowed to play music that is faster than 120 beats per minute (BPM), since "harsh breathing from intense activities can spatter a lot of saliva," said the ministry in a news release.

Treadmills in gyms are also limited to a speed of six kilometers per hour (about 3.72 miles per hour -- making that roughly a 16-minute mile).The ministry added that they implemented new rules in gyms because it's difficult to properly wear masks or social distance while exercising, especially during group classes, therefore making it more likely for people to become close contacts.

Experts want to know why the agency approved a questionable Alzheimer’s drug but has withheld full approval from Covid vaccines.

Gregg Gonsalves feels guilty. Now a professor at Yale’s School of Public Health, Dr. Gonsalves remembers standing with other AIDS activists outside the Food and Drug Administration headquarters in the 1980s, accusing the agency of murder for not approving medications that might save lives but hadn’t been proven effective in clinical trials yet. “People were dying. We didn’t know what to do,” Gonsalves told me.

The activists demanded an expedited approval process for medications that showed potential with improving immune system markers like CD4 cell levels, while studies on whether the drugs actually prolonged lives were still being conducted. Rapid approval, even before a drug was shown to help, could mean the difference between life and death, they argued.

In 1992, the FDA established precisely this kind of rapid approval process. Now the FDA has used it to approve a controversial drug for Alzheimer’s disease, even as the agency hasn’t fully approved Covid vaccines with far greater evidence of efficacy. Aduhelm, a drug produced by a company called Biogen, reduces a type of brain plaque that is associated with Alzheimer’s—but it’s not yet clear if the medication can help control or halt the disease itself. Thanks to the FDA’s accelerated approval in June, patients can start using the drug to see if it helps while trials continue.

Six months into Biden’s presidency, the FDA is in turmoil; the administration still hasn’t even named a commissioner to lead the agency. The hasty Aduhelm approval shocked observers, in part because the agency has yet to offer full approval to Covid-19 vaccines despite millions of successful and safe vaccinations.

Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that the FDA giving Covid vaccines full approval is “only a technical issue” and that the hundreds of millions of people across the world who have been vaccinated serve as evidence that “the effectiveness and the safety of the vaccines are very high.”