US COVID Health Emergency Ends. May 12, 2023, Part 1

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🗓️ 12 May 2023

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

FDA Advisory Board Approves First Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pill This week an FDA advisory board paved the way for the first over the counter birth control pill, with an unanimous decision 17-0. The FDA must accept the recommendation before the pills are available for sale, which is expected in a few months time. If approved, the progestin-only pill would be manufactured by the company Perrigo, under the brand name Opill. Ira talks with Maggie Koerth, science journalist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, about that and more including; Voyager spacecrafts get energy boosts, wild axolotls face extinction, testing airplane waste for COVID-19 and more. US Declares An End To The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Just over three years ago, Alex Azar, then the Secretary of Health and Human Services, issued a declaration of a national public health emergency as a result of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. That declaration kicked off a cascade of nationwide funding, policies, and restrictions aimed at combating the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the three years that followed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates over a million people in the US have died from COVID-19. Yesterday, although the virus is still circulating and people are still getting sick, that emergency declaration finally came to an end, after being renewed over a dozen times. A statement released by the Department of Health and Human Services said “COVID-19 is no longer the disruptive force it once was. Since January 2021, COVID-19 deaths have declined by 95% and hospitalizations are down nearly 91%.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, joins Ira Flatow to talk about where we go from here. Is life back to normal—or is there a new normal? What have we learned from the past three years about responding to future outbreaks? Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Science Friday. I'm Iraflato later in the hour talking with Dr. Anthony Fauci about the government's calling an end to the COVID health emergency.
0:09.9	And how prepared are we for the next pandemic? We're going to be taking your calls. You can talk to Dr. Fauci.
0:16.2	Our number is 844-724-8255. 844-724-8255, or tweet us at SciFRI.
0:25.2	But first, this week, an FDA advisory board paved the way for the first over-the-counter
0:31.9	birth control pill.
0:33.6	It was a unanimous decision 17 to 0 in favor.
0:37.4	The FDA must accept the recommendations before the pill's It was a unanimous decision 17 to 0 in favor.
0:46.1	The FDA must accept the recommendations before the pills are available for sale, which is expected in a few months' time.
0:55.5	Joining me now to talk more about this and other top science news of the week is my guest, Maggie Kerth, science journalist based in Minneapolis. Welcome back, Maggie.
1:02.5	Hi, thanks for having me. Nice to have you. Tell us more, how does it work? Tell us all you know about this pill. Yeah, so this is really something, this is a type of pill that's existed
1:08.9	for a really long time since the late 60s or early 70s. It's called a mini pill, this is a type of pill that's existed for a really long time since the late
1:10.9	60s or early 70s, it's called a mini pill, which is basically a type of birth control that only
1:16.4	has one of the two hormones normally found in standard pills. In this case, progesterone only,
1:22.6	no estrogen. And many pills have been shown to be highly effective, but they're effective
1:27.2	in different ways than typical pills.
1:29.3	So pills with estrogen suppress ovulation, but that only happens for about half the people who take a mini pill.
1:36.3	Instead, mini pills usually work by thickening cervical mucus and thinning the uterine lining.
1:42.3	And that makes it harder for sperm to get to eggs and for fertilized eggs to implant.
1:47.4	And what were some of the risks and benefits that panel weighed while making their decision?
1:53.8	Yeah, so there are some ways that these are better than the standard birth control pills in some ways they aren't.
1:59.2	On the downside to get to that
2:01.1	99% effectiveness that these pills can reach, you have to take the mini pills at not just every
	...

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