archive

December 19, 2012 First responders are trained to rescue, help and save. In Newtown, Conn., many of the police officers, firefighters and EMTs who rushed to Sandy Hook Elementary School last week are struggling to cope with the fact that there was little they could do to help.

Transcript

On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

December 19, 2012 Scientists recently sparked controversy when they made dangerous new forms of bird flu. The National Institutes of Health is about to put in place a new system for reviewing this kind of work in the future.

Summary

December 19, 2012 A study finds that taking aspirin regularly might increase the risk of macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in old age. But the evidence so far doesn't prove it's so.

Summary

December 19, 2012 Gunmen staged new attacks Wednesday on health workers carrying out a nationwide polio vaccination program. On Tuesday, six workers were killed as they went house to house.

Transcript

On Morning EditionPlaylist

December 19, 2012 Myanmar and other parts of Southeast Asia are awash with shoddy and phony malaria drugs. Some fakes are almost indistinguishable from authentic drugs. The counterfeits can be deadly for patients, but they also threaten to undermine major weapons against the disease.

Transcript

On Morning EditionPlaylist

December 18, 2012 More than 100 federally owned primates have been the subject of controversy. In 2010, the National Institutes of Health made arrangements to move some retired chimpanzees back into the research, spurring protests. But the NIH eventually decided to accept an independent assessment that found there is almost no scientific need for chimps in biomedical research.

Summary

December 18, 2012 There are some warnings parents drill into their kids: no drinking, no smoking, don't do drugs. But now that two states have decriminalized recreational marijuana use, those conversations have become tougher.

Summary

December 18, 2012 Global deaths from malaria have dropped sharply in the past decade, thanks in part to powerful drugs called artemisinins. But on the border between Thailand and Myanmar, doctors are starting to see cracks in artemisinin's armor. The medicine is working more slowly, and sometimes not at all.

Transcript

On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

December 18, 2012 Starting in January, the French government will provide contraceptives for girls ages 15 to 18 — without charge and without parental notification. The measure, which passed parliament without debate, aims to reduce teen pregnancies by increasing access to birth control and education.

Transcript

On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

December 18, 2012 In South Africa, drug users are crushing HIV medications and mixing them with marijuana, heroin and other illicit drugs. Public health workers worry that people who smoke so-called whoonga are helping to fuel the rise of drug-resistant HIV.

Summary

December 18, 2012 KHNIn a switch, Medicare began covering smoking cessation counseling for smokers without symptoms of disease back in 2010. Beneficiaries are eligible for up to two four-session smoking cessation counseling attempts a year.

Summary

December 18, 2012 On Tuesday, the National Institutes of Health in Maryland is holding a second day of talks about whether and how to continue funding some controversial scientific experiments. Back in January, virologists agreed to temporarily stop research that was creating new forms of bird flu, because critics argued that the work was too dangerous.

Transcript

On Morning EditionPlaylist