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A microwaved burrito can feel like a godsend at the end of a long day. But hundreds of ready-made meat items from Caesar salad with bacon to frozen chicken tikka masala are being recalled this week. While the products are sold by a number of different brands, the meat comes from the same source: BrucePac, an Oregon-based company that supplies pre-cooked proteins to restaurants, schools, and other institutions in addition to grocery stores.
The USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service says it detected listeria during routine testing of finished products containing BrucePac poultry. Listeria is a bacteria that can cause a rare but serious infection, especially among people who are pregnant, over 65 or have weakened immune systems.
Learn more.
Plus: Dead bugs and dripping ceilings: Report finds many issues at the Boar's Head meat factory that had a listeria outbreak |
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Get Informed with the NPR Politics Podcast NewsletterWashington smarts, essential election context, and clear breakdowns delivered right to your inbox. Join the NPR Politics Podcast newsletter, where you'll stay on top of the campaign trail - with concision, sanity and confidence - every week. |
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In many parts of the country, pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens are basically a part of the landscape, like gas stations or fast food joints. But that may be changing. Both chains are on a multibillion-dollar cost-saving spree — closing hundreds of locations and cutting thousands of jobs, as NPR’s Alina Selyuk reports. And CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch just stepped down Friday.
Retail sales of non-medical products have sagged for years. Meanwhile, the companies say it’s gotten harder to make money from prescriptions, because health insurers have gained the upper hand. For instance, for a time, Walgreens got kicked out of insurance networks used by millions of people, who simply went elsewhere to get their medicine at the lower in-network prices.
Find out about all that’s ailing Walgreens and CVS, and their plans to stay in business.
Plus: You can pan for gold at Wall Drug in South Dakota. It's also the only pharmacy in town.
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I typically come down with three or four colds or other respiratory viruses around the year. But during COVID lockdown times, I don’t think I had any. It’s not hard to see why – I didn’t go anywhere indoors except the grocery store and wore a mask when I did, as did everyone around me.
Isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, on a global scale, appears to have pushed one type of influenza virus out of existence, as Sara Boden reports. There have been no confirmed flu cases caused by the Influenza B/Yamagata lineage since spring 2020. And the Food and Drug Administration decided not to include it in this year’s flu shot. This would be the first documented instance of a virus going extinct due to changes in human behavior, said Dr. Rebecca Wurtz, an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota.
There’s still plenty of other strains of flu going around and making people sick, and the absence of B/Yamagata won’t change the experience of getting this year’s flu shot, which the CDC recommends to everyone over 6 months old.
Here’s more about the decline of Influenza B/Yamagata, plus how the FDA made the choice to leave it out of this year’s vaccine.
ICYMI: No needles required: The FDA approves an at-home flu vaccine |
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Medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro, originally developed for Type 2 diabetes, have exploded in popularity among people trying to lose weight. A new study suggests these drugs may also help with drug and alcohol addiction, as NPR's Maria Godoy reports.
Researchers found that people addicted to alcohol who had a prescription for Ozempic or similar medications had a 50% lower rate of binging on alcohol, compared to people who were not on the medications. And people with opioid use disorder who were taking the medications had a 40% lower rate of overdose.
The active ingredients in Ozempic (semaglutide) and Mounjaro (tirzepatide) both work by mimicking hormones in the body that help regulate blood sugar and make you feel satisfied after eating.
So how might they work on drugs and alcohol addiction? It appears they affect the brain's food-seeking impulses and may also curb cravings for addictive substances, says Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, the clinical director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
Learn more about the new study, and the evolving research on Ozempic and similar drugs for addiction.
And: A controversial but effective treatment for meth addiction gains ground |
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| Correction: We published a story in last week’s newsletter about how a misplaced arm position can skew blood pressure readings. In the newsletter, we described the correct positioning as “Arm supported, with the blood pressure cuff placed at about heart level on the forearm.” That was incorrect. The blood pressure cuff should be placed on the upper arm, above the elbow. |
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We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism online.
All our best,
Andrea Muraskin and your NPR Health editors |
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