Oct 21 Health insurance needs to fully cover over-the-counter birth control like condoms, White House says By Amanda Seitz, Associated Press The new rule would expand coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription. Continue reading
Oct 20 Watch 6:28 Overdose deaths involving antidepressants are on the rise. The reason why is complex By John Yang, Veronica Vela, Andrew Corkery For the first time in decades, public health data shows a sharp drop in U.S. drug overdose deaths. But at the same time, numbers from the CDC show that fatal overdoses involving antidepressants have been on the rise for the… Continue watching
Oct 17 Smoking and other tobacco use by teens drop to lowest level in 25 years, CDC reports By Mike Stobbe, Associated Press Teen smoking hit an all-time low in the U.S. this year, part of a big drop in the youth use of tobacco overall, the government reported Thursday. Continue reading
Oct 16 12 million pounds of meat and poultry recalled over possible listeria contamination By JoNel Aleccia, Associated Press The updated recall includes prepared salads, burritos and other foods sold at stores including Costco, Trader Joe's, Target, Walmart and Kroger. The meat used in those products was processed at a Durant, Oklahoma, manufacturing plant operated by BrucePac. Continue reading
Oct 15 RFK Jr. suggests if Trump is elected, he’ll play significant role in agriculture and health policy By Michelle R. Smith, Josh Funk, Associated Press Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist and environmentalist who ran for president as an independent before endorsing Trump, on Monday posted a video on social media that he filmed outside the U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters in Washington. Continue reading
Oct 14 Florida abortion ballot measure under fire by state government By Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press Florida's government is finding fault on multiple fronts with an abortion rights ballot measure that Gov. Ron DeSantis opposes. Continue reading
Oct 12 Watch 5:26 Why hurricanes can cause thousands more deaths in the years after they hit By John Yang, Andrew Corkery, Veronica Vela, Satvi Sunkara, Andrew Chambers The official death toll from Hurricane Milton may not be telling the whole story. New research suggests that lasting damage from storms like Milton could result in thousands of additional deaths in future years, particularly among society’s most vulnerable. John… Continue watching
Oct 09 When hurricanes hit, flooded industrial sites and chemical releases are a silent, toxic threat By James R. Elliott, Dominic Boyer, Phylicia Lee Brown, The Conversation Hundreds of industrial facilities with toxic pollutants are in Hurricane Milton’s path as it heads toward Florida, less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene flooded communities across the Southeast. Continue reading
Oct 09 WATCH: ‘Run, Hide, Fight: Growing up under the gun,’ a documentary on how gun violence changed a generation By Becky Wandel Gun violence the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S., according to 2022 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Earlier this year, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared gun violence in America… Continue reading
Oct 05 Congo begins mpox vaccination rollout nearly two months after WHO declared global emergency By Ruth Alonga, Associated Press The 265,000 doses donated to Congo by the European Union and the U.S. were rolled out in the eastern city of Goma in North Kivu province, where hospitals and health workers have been overstretched, struggling to contain the new and possibly more infectious… Continue reading