Shots - Health News NPR's online health program.

Tuesday

Rosalind Pichardo, who founded Operation Save Our City in Philadelphia, sprays a container of Narcan during a demonstration Sept. 8 at the Health and Human Services Humphrey Building in Washington, DC. Health officials held the event to mark the availability, without a prescription, of the opioid overdose-reversal drug. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein hide caption

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AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

An overdose drug is finally over-the-counter. Is that enough to stop the death toll?

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Sunday

EIS officer Arran Hamlet walks into the Government Meadows site to conduct environmental sampling for norovirus. Mia Catharine Mattioli/CDC hide caption

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Mia Catharine Mattioli/CDC

Saturday

Clarence DeMar in 1932. Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection hide caption

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Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection

A study of this champion's heart helped prove the benefits of exercise

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Friday

Advisors to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recommended a new RSV vaccine to protect newborns by immunizing their moms late in pregnancy. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,/AP hide caption

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National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,/AP

Thursday

Health advocates and community members gathered in Washington D.C. in mid September to push the Biden administration to take additional action on medical debt in an event hosted by nonprofit Community Catalyst. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Community Catalyst hide caption

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Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Community Catalyst

Medical debt could soon be barred from ruining your credit score

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Ozempic, approved by the Food and Drug Administration for Type 2 diabetes, is racking up blockbuster sales because many people are taking it to lose weight. As more people try it, reports to the FDA about possible side effects are rising. Mario Tama/Getty Images hide caption

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Mario Tama/Getty Images

As Ozempic use grows, so do reports of possible mental health side effects

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Anti-abortion demonstrators gather outside Planned Parenthood's Water Street Health Center in Milwaukee on Monday, Sept. 2023. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin began offering abortions at the clinic that day after not doing so for more than a year. Margaret Faust/ WPR hide caption

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Margaret Faust/ WPR

The California company iHealth is one of 12 U.S. manufacturers getting an investment from the federal government to provide free tests by mail to people ahead of the winter COVID season. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

About 12 million Americans qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid, and they face relentless red tape accessing health care. A bipartisan fix that could help them is in the works. Getty Images hide caption

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Getty Images

Wednesday

Orange County Superior Court Presiding Judge Maria Hernandez says CARE Court will resemble the county's other collaborative courts, like her young adult diversion court, where compassion and science drive her decisions. April Dembosky/KQED hide caption

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April Dembosky/KQED

At new mental health courts in California, judges will be able to mandate treatment

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Tuesday

A study of nearly 300,000 people in the U.K. found that people who maintained at least five of seven healthy habits cut their risk of depression by 57%. Maria Stavreva/Getty Images hide caption

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Maria Stavreva/Getty Images

These habits can cut the risk of depression in half, a new study finds

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Monday

Dr. Terry Vester examines Charity Hodge at Vester's clinic in LaFayette, Alabama. Vester and her husband are the only primary care doctors in the community. Arielle Zionts/KFF Health News hide caption

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Arielle Zionts/KFF Health News

Just two doctors serve this small Alabama town. What's next when they want to retire?

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Sunday

Pesky Pete Barron holds the leaves of poison ivy illustrating how it grows in clusters of three leaves. Jesse Costa/WBUR hide caption

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Jesse Costa/WBUR

Poison ivy is poised to be one of the big winners of a warming world

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Saturday

Thursday

Sharon Hudson (left) has advanced Alzheimer's. But she smiles and giggles when her daughter, Lana Obermeyer, visits at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Syracuse, Nebraska. Tony Leys/KFF Health News hide caption

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Tony Leys/KFF Health News