Home caretakers and personal aides, who are overwhelmingly Latinas and Black women, are among the worst-paid workers in the U.S., even as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the value of their care.
Why it matters: Most home health aides have no benefits, like Medicaid, and earn $10 to $13 an hour on average, which they say barely covers the cost of traveling to and from their house calls.
The Food and Drug Administration approved Amgen's Lumakras drug as the first treatment for adult patients with a common form of lung cancer.
Why it matters: Non-small cell lung cancer with a specific mutation in a gene known as KRAS has been considered to be resistant to any sort of drug treatment, per the FDA. Lumakras was able to shrink the tumors of between 36% and 58% of patients studied.
Feeling stigmatized, threatened or discriminated against correlates with structural heart abnormalities in Latinos, according to a preliminary study.
Why it matters: Experts increasingly recognize the negative effects of discrimination on physical wellbeing, and the American Medical Association has identified racism as a public health threat.
The Transportation Security Administration on Friday screened nearly 2 million people across the U.S. as the Memorial Day weekend kicked off, setting a new air travel record since the start of the pandemic.
The big picture: TSA spokesperson Mark Howell told Axios in April that the agency had been preparing for a surge in summer travel since the beginning of the year. The agency said in February it was looking to hire 6,000 new officers by Memorial Day.
Many corporate boards made mid-pandemic changes to the intricate formulas that determine CEO pay, with directors declaring that COVID was an extraordinary event beyond executives' control, AP reports.
Why it matters: As a result, pay packages rose last year for CEOs of the biggest companies, even though the pandemic sent the economy to its worst quarter on record.
A team of researchers has collected an atlas of unique microorganisms found in the world's subways.
The big picture: While each city has its own unique microbial profile, they possess a distinct urban microbiome that reminds us that we share space not just with our fellow commuters, but vast numbers of bacteria and viruses.
The Biden administration filed a motion in federal court on Friday to dismiss a lawsuit looking to prevent the import of Canadian prescription drugs, which have lower prices because the country limits how much drugmakers can charge.
The state of play: By moving to toss the U.S. drug companies' lawsuit, the White House is siding with Florida and New Mexico, states that are applying to import Canadian prescriptions, Politico reports.
President Biden’s proposed 2022 budget lifts a decades-old ban on federal funding for most abortions.
The big picture: Presidential budgets rarely survive intact even with broad support within the party, but they are a reflection of a given administration’s priorities.
Why it matters: COVID-19 is a global pandemic, but the experience of it has been fractured by where people live, their race, their age, where they work and what their politics are — creating a challenge for those tasked with memorializing it.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that vaccinated adolescents don't need to wear face masks if they attend camps this summer, and younger unvaccinated campers can generally go maskless when outdoors.
Why it matters: This spring's evolving public health recommendations have made it difficult for camps to plan programming, the Washington Post reports. The updated guidance aims to standardize the guidance.
The federal government said Friday that it is legal for companies to require workers to get coronavirus vaccines. Companies can also offer unlimited rewards to workers to get vaccinated, as long as the employer doesn’t administer the vaccine.
Why it matters: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission finally cleared legal questions tied to how employers can increase the country’s vaccination rates.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) on Friday repealed Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin's (R) executive order that banned statewide mask mandates one day earlier, calling her action an "an abuse of power."
The big picture: While Little — who is expected to seek re-election — never issued a statewide mask mandate, some were put in place in counties, cities and schools. McGeachin, who recently announced her own gubernatorial campaign, issued the order on Thursday without informing Little's office.
The European Medicines Agency on Friday recommended the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for children between the ages of 12 and 15.
Why it matters: The decision "offers younger and less at-risk populations across the continent access to a COVID-19 shot for the first time during the pandemic," AP writes.
The New York Knicks will only sell playoff tickets to vaccinated fans if they advance past round one, the team announced Friday, though it did not say how it would verify if a fan has been vaccinated.
Why it matters: The team hosted the Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden for games one and two and welcomed more than 15,000 fans each game, making them the largest indoor events in New York City since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the team said.
United Kingdom health regulators on Friday authorized the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for people 18 and older.
Why it matters: The J&J is the fourth vaccine to receive approval in the U.K., which has experienced one of the world's best vaccine rollouts. 58% of people in the U.K. have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 36% are fully vaccinated, according to Bloomberg's tracker.
The Department of Homeland Security on Friday said "there will be no federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.”
Why it matters: Earlier Friday, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Friday told ABC's "Good Morning America" that the U.S. is "taking a very close look" at the possibility of requiring vaccine passports for international travel.
Driving the news: Nearly a third (32%) of unvaccinated adults polled by KFF, including 44% of those identified as being in the "wait and see" group, said they'd be more likely to get a shot it received full approval.
Taxpayer bailouts and massive gains from Wall Street investments helped Ascension — the largest tax-exempt hospital system in the country — glide through the coronavirus pandemic.
Why it matters: Dominant hospital chains like Ascension really haven't had to worry about their financial status during the pandemic, unlike smaller hospitals and safety-net systems, in part because those chains already accumulated massive rainy day funds over the years.
Only about 2% of college athletes who recovered from COVID-19 were later diagnosed with myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, according to a new study published Thursday in JAMA Cardiology.
Why it matters: The study, with some of the most comprehensive data yet on the cardiac condition connected to COVID-19, reveals its prevalence is less than previously recorded.
For those who haven't been convinced to get a vaccine yet, companies have begun offering everything from date nights to tropical vacations to coax Americans to get the shot.
Why it matters: The giveaways are just the latest examples of increasingly lucrative rewards, including Ohio's $1 million lottery prizes, aimed at luring the hesitant.
