Walgreens Boots Alliance — whose namesake chain is one of the largest retailers in the U.S. and an iconic brand in the drugstore sector — has reached a deal to be taken private.
Why it matters: The company has been struggling to keep up with nimbler retailers, rising medical costs, labor demands and digital pharmacy alternatives.
The mRNA vaccines that helped to end the COVID pandemic — and stoked a considerable amount of vaccine skepticism and misinformation — are now a target of legislators in some conservative-led states.
Why it matters: The efforts risk further politicizing science and illustrate how the pandemicexperience we all want to put in the rearview continues to drive policymaking.
There were fewer pedestrian deaths on U.S. roads in the first half of 2024 compared to a year prior, but nearly 50% more than a decade ago, a new projection finds.
Why it matters: Cities worldwide are trying to reduce pedestrian deaths — so many of which are utterly avoidable — though "Vision Zero" programs, lower speed limits, "traffic calming" road design and more.
The big picture: A federal judge last month required the HHS to restore webpages and datasets that had been altered or taken offline to comply with executive orders that Trump issued on DEI and gender identity, but several links are broken and the pages are not easy to locate through web searches.
LGBTQ+ youth across the U.S. continue to experience high rates of mental health challenges — yet they face significant hurdles to accessing mental health care, according to a new report from the Trevor Project.
The big picture: Even as the percentage of LGBTQ+ adults in the U.S. continues to climb — bolstered by younger generations entering adulthood — young people in the community face persistent high rates of bullying, discrimination and restrictive policies.
If Congress cuts Medicaid funding to states to help extend tax cuts, dental care for adults could be one of the first casualties as legislators and governors re-sort priorities and try to make do with less.
Why it matters: All states cover some level of dental services for people over 21, but the generosity of benefits varies, and states already tend to cut or eliminate adult dental benefits when budgets are tight.
The H5N1 bird flu strain has infected humans and other animals in every continent except Australia, and scientists say it could serve as a model for other countries.
The big picture: The continent has seen small outbreaks of other strains of avian influenza in recent months and managed to "close those down," said professor Catherine Bennett, an Australian infectious diseases' epidemiologist, in an email Monday.
