More than 100,000 people died from drug overdoses in the U.S. in 2021, more than in any other year on record, according to provisional data released by the National Center for Health Statistics Wednesday.
Why it matters: The grim milestone, a 15% increase from overdose deaths in 2020, occurred during the coronavirus pandemic, which also killed over 415,000 in the country that year and almost 1 million in total so far.
More than four in 10 hospitals have seen staffing shortages limit their ability to discharge patients because of a lack of post-acute care, according to a survey provided exclusively to Axios by CarePort Health, a care coordination software company.
A week after the maker of a controversial Alzheimer's drug announced it would largely stop marketing it, Congress is readying legislation that tinkers with the pathway used by the FDA to approve the drug, but avoids making large-scale changes.
Why it matters: Aduhelm's approval created heightened scrutiny around whether the FDA's "accelerated approval" process is being used appropriately. But as the drug fades largely into the background, so are the calls for stringent reforms.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has removed the Sackler name from an education center following years-long controversies over the family's role in the opioid crisis.
Why it matters: The Sacklers made billions from the sale of highly addictive opioid painkillers and were embroiled in several litigation battles until March, when they reached a $6 billion settlement with U.S. states.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Tuesday that it is "doing everything in our power" to improve the supply of baby formula.
Driving the news: The nation's baby formula shortage has intensified in recent weeks due to supply chain issues and a recent recall of Abbott Nutrition products.
Over half of young women aged 18-29 say they would get an abortion if they had an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy — even if it were illegal, according to a new Generation Lab flash poll first provided to Axios.
Why it matters: Last week's news that the Supreme Court is prepared to overturn Roe v. Wade has raised questions on what access would look like without a federal right to an abortion. Even in states where they remain legal, abortions could be harder to access because those clinics could be flooded with patients from states that have cracked down.
The firearm homicide rate in the U.S. reached its highest level since 1994 during the first year of the COVID pandemic, with significant racial and class disparities, according to a CDC report published Tuesday.
Driving the news: 2020 saw a historic rise in homicides in the U.S., and the upward trend continued into 2021.
China's "zero-COVID" strategy isn't sustainable given the virus' ever-evolving nature, World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a media briefing Tuesday.
The big picture: Tedros said WHO officials have spoken to Chinese experts about the policy. The extreme measures have saved lives, but they've also led to food shortages, a lack of workers and movement restrictions, writes Axios' Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian.
Between 5.3 million and 14.2 million people could lose their health coverage when temporary pandemic-inspired reforms to Medicaid expire at the end of the public health emergency, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis.
The big picture: Democrats who hoped they'd enact transformational health legislation with control of the White House and Congress could instead face a historic jump in the U.S. uninsured rate.
If the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, it could begin a ripple effect that subsumes many other facets of reproductive health care — a reflection, in part, of decades' worth of medical advances that make the subject much more complicated than it was 50 years ago.
Why it matters: Striking down the federal right to abortion could impact how people prevent becoming pregnant, how families grow and how miscarriages are managed.
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