Health

Isabel Pavia/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — Advisory committees of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are meeting Tuesday and Wednesday to review the first-ever application for an over-the-counter birth control pill. At a joint meeting, the Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee and the Obstetrics, Reproductive, and Urologic Drugs Advisory Committee will discuss whether pharmaceutical company Perrigo […]

Jill Connelly/Bloomberg via Getty Images (ATLANTA) — As the U.S. moves into a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the public health emergency ending May 11, it also signals the end of some COVID data sharing. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it would be transitioning certain COVID metrics […]

Jackyenjoyphotography/Getty Images (ATLANTA) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday it is changing the way it does surveillance of COVID-19 in the United States as the emergencies related to the virus come to an end. In January, the Biden administration told Congress that it would let the COVID-19 national emergency and the […]

Lindsey Ulin (NEW YORK) — Following a mid-air scare, a doctor is calling for the Federal Aviation Administration to make policy changes and for Southwest Airlines to stock lifesaving epinephrine auto-injectors aboard passenger planes. Lindsey Ulin, an internal medicine resident physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, was on vacation in March and traveling […]

Jackyenjoyphotography/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday it is changing the way it does surveillance of COVID-19 in the United States as the emergencies related to the virus come to an end. In January, the Biden administration told Congress that it would let the COVID-19 national emergency and […]

SONGPHOL THESAKIT/Getty Images (GENEVA) — The World Health Organization on Friday said it was downgrading COVID-19 and no longer characterizing it as a global health emergency. The U.N. health agency first declared the coronavirus to be an international crisis on Jan. 30, 2020. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the change during a media […]

Phillip Faraone/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — Christina Applegate is opening up about how multiple sclerosis has taken a toll on her life. The actress, who is known for her roles in Dead To Me, The Sweetest Thing and Anchorman, said having MS “f—ing sucks.” “With the disease of MS, it’s never a good day,” she […]

TAMI CHAPPELL/AFP via Getty Images (NEW YORK) — While COVID-19 ebbs — and many of the pandemic-era policies on surveillance data and funding wind down with it — the nation’s public health leaders warned senators on Thursday that a return to “normal” should not mean forgetting the hard lessons learned over the last three years. […]

Courtesy of Angela Maske (WASHINGTON) — Angela Maske was a college freshman in Washington, D.C., when she first had trouble getting a prescription for birth control pills. Her Catholic-affiliated university wouldn’t prescribe the medication to students as a sexual contraceptive, so Maske spent three months looking for another doctor’s appointment. More recently, her telehealth provider […]

Images By Tang Ming Tung/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against omicron infection fell to less than 20% after six months, according to a new analysis published Wednesday. Researchers from Italy and the United States looked at some of the most common vaccines used around the world, including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Sinovac. […]