Health

Purdue Pharma headquarters; Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images (NEW YORK) — The company and once-prominent family behind the drug OxyContin agreed Thursday to increase their financial contribution to resolve mass opioid litigation. The Sacklers and Purdue Pharma boosted their settlement contribution to $7.4 billion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a prior settlement in June […]

Evgenia Matveeva/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — Moderna has been awarded approximately $590 million from the federal government to help speed up the development of an mRNA-based bird flu vaccine, alongside other influenza vaccines, health officials announced Friday. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a press release that the funding will […]

Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images (SAN FRANCISCO) — A child in San Francisco was recently confirmed to be the third human case of bird flu in the United States in which it’s unclear how the person got infected. Cases have been spreading across the country since April 2024 with 67 confirmed as of Thursday, according to the Centers […]

fstop123/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — Women are now being diagnosed with cancer more often than men in certain age groups, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society. Among adults aged 50-64, cancer rates are slightly higher in women, and women under 50 are almost twice as likely as men in the same […]

Canned cherries made with red dye #3/Photo credit: Linnea Bullion For The Washington Post via Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is moving to ban the use of Red No. 3 dye in food products. The agency said Wednesday it is amending its color additive regulations to no longer allow the […]

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images (LOS ANGELES) — Health care centers and medical facilities remain closed as the devastating California wildfires spread. At least 24 people are believed to be dead and more than a dozen others remain unaccounted for as of Monday morning. Additionally, 105,000 people remain under mandatory evacuation orders and another […]

Apu Gomes/Getty Images (LOS ANGELES) — As devastating wildfires continue to spread across southern California, thousands of structures have been destroyed or damaged and at least five people have been killed. Residents and firefighters have suffered physical injuries, but doctors say the wildfires can also take a heavy mental health toll on civilians and first responders. “I […]

Marko Geber/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — Meta — the company that operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp –announced on Tuesday it was ending third-party fact-checking. Some social media policy experts and public health experts are worried that the end of fact-checking could lead to the spread of medical and science misinformation and disinformation. This is […]

Human Bird Flu Cases in the U.S. as of January 6, 2025. Image by ABC News. Data via CDC. (NEW YORK) — In the nearly nine months since the first human case of bird flu was detected in the United States, the virus has continued to spread. The outbreak infected hundreds of herds and millions […]

Roger Harris/Getty Images (CHINA) — Chinese health officials are reportedly monitoring an increase in cases of human metapneumovirus (HMPV). There is currently no evidence that the outbreak is out of the ordinary or that a new respiratory virus or illness has emerged in China. A spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) said data from […]