WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government’s auto safety agency plans to require that within three years all new passenger cars and light trucks include potentially life-saving automatic emergency braking and meet stricter safety standards. Last week’s announcement by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration represents the agency’s latest move toward regulating electronic systems that take [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pfizer received full approval last week for its COVID-19 pill Paxlovid that's been the go-to treatment against the coronavirus. More than 11 million prescriptions for Paxlovid have been dispensed since the Food and Drug Administration allowed emergency use in late 2021. The emergency status was based on early studies and was intended [...]
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allowed one of the nation's largest wholesale drug distributors to keep shipping highly addictive painkillers for nearly four years after a judge recommended it be stripped of its license for its "cavalier disregard" of thousands of suspicious orders fueling the opioid crisis. The DEA did [...]
The nation’s surgeon general is warning there is not enough evidence to show that social media is safe for children and teens — and is calling on tech companies, parents and caregivers to take "immediate action to protect kids now." While young people's social media use is "near universal,” its true impact on mental health [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is strengthening a rule aimed at controlling and cleaning up toxic waste from coal-fired power plants. A proposal would for the first time require safe management of so-called coal ash dumped in hundreds of older landfills, “legacy” ponds and other inactive sites that currently are unregulated at the [...]
SALISBURY, Md. (AP) — Thousands of women living in rural, eastern Maryland have few options when they're looking for someone to deliver their babies. The local hospital doesn't have an obstetrics doctor on staff so most women in this region, flanked by sprawling farm fields and antique stores, turn to the Chesapeake Health Care clinic. [...]
WASHINGTON — Widespread loneliness in the country poses health risks as deadly as smoking a dozen cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said this week in declaring the latest public health epidemic. About half of adults say they’ve experienced loneliness, Dr. Vivek Murthy said in a report [...]
WASHINGTON — Days out from a surgery and with a young son undergoing chemotherapy, Kyle McHenry was scrambling to figure out if his Florida family will still be covered by Medicaid. One form on the state's website said coverage for their sick 5-year-old son, Ryder, had been denied. Another said the family would remain on [...]
DETROIT (AP) — The number of people killed on roadways decreased slightly last year, but government officials said the 42,795 people who died is still a national crisis. Estimates by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed that the number of fatalities dropped 0.3 percent from the 42,939 killed in 2021. Traffic deaths declined slightly [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators earlier this week cleared another COVID-19 booster dose for older adults and people with weak immune systems so they can shore up protection this spring — while taking steps to make coronavirus vaccinations simpler for everyone else. The Food and Drug Administration said anyone 65 or older can opt to [...]