Your happy hour is safe, for now. Despite distressing reports in the New York Post this weekend, a rep from the Department of Health tells us that rumors that Commissioner Thomas Farley wants to ban happy hours from the city are "completely untrue." Phew! more ›

When Four Loko was pushed to remove caffeine from their formula, we wondered: is it even worth drinking anymore? Apparently the answer is no. Senator Klein and Commissioner Farley can stop worrying about removing the drinks from bodega shelves, because everyone realized that without the caffeine high they were just drinking jolly ranchers dissolved in malt liquor, and that's disgusting. more ›

Camel's new Williamsburg cigarettes aren't even in stores until January, and they're already causing a stink. The tobacco company R.J. Reynolds is paying homage to the neighborhood as part of some new campaign targeting hip, young creatives who want to be on the fast track to killing themselves. So edgy! more ›

It seems as though Mayor Bloomberg had a serious case of the Fridays this morning during an appearance on a radio show. Or maybe he went out for drinks after last night's storm, and was hungover. Either way, Bloomberg and Health Commissioner Thomas Farley appeared together on John Gambling's WOR-AM radio show to discuss the proposed smoking bans, and what ensued was a veritable "Who's on First" routine, with the Mayor confusing Farley's name with former Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden, as well as NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman. more ›

With city health officials marking their calendars for a possible swine flu resurgence this fall, plans are now being laid to dole out the soon-to-be-ready flu vaccine. The NY Daily News reports today that children, pregnant women, and health care workers are top priority for the vaccine, the supply of which is expected to be "ample." Says Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley: "It's on track. We're told it may be available in mid-October." He explains that the first shots will go to kids, possibly even via "special immunization clinics in schools," since kids tend to be little walking disease vectors, spreading flu among themselves and bringing it back home to their families. Farley also adds that the city will need more than a million doses to avoid vaccine shortages, though his office has since clarified that number "wasn't based on data or calculations" and that "the city has no real idea of how much H1N1 vaccine is coming, or when." more ›

If swine flu makes a comeback this fall, city officials want to be prepared. They've been conducting a postmortem review of the spring's swine flu outbreak as they come up with plans for a possible "second wave," plans which the NY Times reports are focusing on preventing city ERs from being swamped. City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley says the spring outbreak caught hospitals off-guard: "The thought that there would be large numbers of people in emergency rooms hadn’t been well thought through, so that’s one thing we need to address." So, in order to stop everyone with a stuffy nose from heading to the nearest ER, officials are considering a daily "public messaging system" that would give updates on vital swine flu information, not unlike the way winning lottery numbers are announced. Other swine flu countermeasures—like closing schools or even mandating staggered work hours—are also being readied in the event the virus comes back with a vengeance. At this point, Dr. Farley says it's basically a waiting game: "If you look at the history of new strains of influenza...almost all of them have had a second wave. It doesn’t necessarily occur within the next six months; it might occur a couple of years later. But almost all returned." more ›