Axios

An updated COVID-19 vaccine, reformulated to target a primary variant of the virus, is becoming available at pharmacies around the country.

Why it matters: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends everyone 6 months and older get the updated vaccine.

A Bernie Sanders-led plan to fortify primary care and the health care workforce is drawing swift opposition from hospitals — and stirring dissent on the Senate HELP Committee he chairs.

What's happening: Sanders struck an unlikely alliance with conservative Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, and the pair spent the August recess hammering out a plan unveiled Thursday that would increase funding for community health centers to $5.8 billion per year for three years and take other steps to address a shortage of health care professionals.

Americans in need of urgent care are spending increasingly longer stretches of time in hospital emergency rooms, per recently released figures.

• The median time patients spent in emergency rooms was 2 hours, 40 minutes nationwide based on a 12-month average ending in the third quarter of 2022, according to the latest Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) data.

Major tech companies are throwing their weight behind artificial intelligence in cancer care, lending their technological prowess to legacy institutions and startups trying to navigate a fast-evolving area of medicine.

Why it matters: The explosion in AI has the potential to transform how the medical system researches and treats cancer, but only if the underlying tech is there to support it.

The number of school shootings with casualties in the U.S. hit a new record in the 2021-22 school year and more than doubled from the previous school year, according to recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Why it matters: This is now the second consecutive school year in which the U.S. broke this record.

Members of Gen Z — despite the pandemic, social strife and widespread mental health struggles — are surprisingly optimistic about their future.

Why it matters: Gen Z's view of itself couldn't be more different than everyone else's view of Gen Z.

A renewed effort is underway in Congress to get the government to cover more infertility treatments for veterans and active duty service members.

Driving the news: U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Rick Larsen, Democrats from Washington state, are reintroducing a measure Thursday that would require the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense to expand their coverage for treatments like in vitro fertilization.

Colonoscopies can cost up to nearly 60% more when performed in a hospital compared to an ambulatory surgery center, according to a new analysis from a Blue Cross Blue Shield Association subsidiary.

Why it matters: The report draws on claims data for 133 million Blues members from 2017 through 2022 and underscores insurers' arguments for site-neutral policies that pay the same for some services, regardless of the setting.

There are stark regional differences in the use of xylazine, a powerful veterinary sedative increasingly mixed with illicit fentanyl that can cause skin-rotting wounds, according to a new report from the drug testing lab Millennium Health.

Why it matters: Fatal overdoses involving xylazine, also known as "tranq" or "zombie drug," have skyrocketed in recent years, worsening the nation's drug crisis. And a patchy surveillance system scattered across local and state governments makes it difficult to track xylazine's spread in real time.

The legal challenges to President Biden's drug price negotiation law could be on a collision course with the 2024 election.

Why it matters: Should the Medicare negotiation program survive its first courtroom showdown tomorrow, analysts say drug companies challenging the law could still have several chances to stop the program before next year's election — which could undercut Biden's ability to campaign on his victory over Big Pharma. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) told CBS News Wednesday criminalizing women for having abortions "will not happen in Florida," where he signed into law legislation banning the procedure after six weeks earlier this year.

Driving the news: "We have no criminal penalties, the penalties are for the physician," the Republican presidential candidate said when challenged during the interview on the legislation that's pending due to litigation.