Many Doctors Hold Racist Beliefs About How Black People Feel Pain

Black Americans are prescribed addictive painkillers less often than white Americans are, partly because of racist beliefs dating back to the slavery era.

Congress’s Planned Parenthood Investigation Is Now Targeting Fetal Tissue Company

After months of going after abortion clinics for selling fetal tissues, a Congressional committee is now taking aim at StemExpress, a company that acquires fetal tissue from clinics and sells it to scientists.

The Well That Swallowed DuBois

The tiny town of DuBois, Pennsylvania, is in the middle of a nasty fight over a fracking waste well. After a century of logging, mining, and drilling, the town now faces the environmental harms of the fracking boom — and the economic realities of its inevitable bust.

CDC Reports First Sexual Transmission Of Zika In Same-Sex Male Partners

A Dallas case of Zika was transmitted by anal sex between an infected man and his male partner, federal health officials reported on Thursday.

A Fracking Well In West Virginia Is Leaking Chemicals That Can Affect Fertility

A first study in a federal survey of deep wells that store fracking wastewater finds fertility-lowering chemicals downstream of a West Virginia facility.

FDA Extends Abortion Pill Recommendations To Later In Pregnancy

FDA’s changes to the label on the abortion pill undercuts laws in Texas, Ohio and North Dakota that steered women to surgical abortions.

Attorneys General Will Investigate Energy Firms For Climate Deception

Attorneys General from 18 states and territories joined New York AG Eric Schneiderman in saying they would investigate oil and coal firms for misstatements to investors about the risks of global warming.

Scientists Slam EPA For “Walking Away” From Fracking Pollution Study

Fracking contaminated underground water reservoirs in Wyoming, finds a study by the former EPA scientist who led a preliminary investigation there in 2011. EPA never followed up that investigation.

Zika Arrived In Brazil In 2013, A Year Before The Outbreak

A genetic analysis of the Zika virus suggests it arrived in Brazil at least a year ahead of the outbreak. Nobody knows why it took so long to spread.

FDA Strengthens Warnings About Addictive Painkillers

“We know that there is persistent abuse, addiction, overdose mortality and risk,” an agency official said.

Zika Mosquito May Spread Through U.S. This Summer — But That Doesn’t Mean Zika Will

Scientists estimate June through September will bring the widest spread of the mosquitoes that carry Zika. But the virus itself isn’t likely to spread in the U.S., experts say, because of air conditioning and other mosquito-control efforts.

If A Pregnant Woman Gets Zika In Her First Trimester, Microcephaly Odds Are 1 In 100, Study Finds

“I would take this as a low end estimate of the risk,” one scientist said.

Feds To Doctors: Stop Prescribing Addictive Painkillers For Chronic Pain

New CDC guidelines tell doctors to stop prescribing opioids to most chronic pain patients. “Almost all opioids on the market are just as addictive as heroin,” the CDC director said.

In The 1930s, Scientists Measured Black College Students To Define The “Negro Race”

During the Depression, the historically black Tuskegee University invited scientists to come to campus once a year and measure students’ bodies and faces. Tuskegee President Booker T. Washington extended the first invite.

Zika Panic Spreads Among Pregnant Women

Pregnant women in Brazil and elsewhere have lots of questions, and no good answers. “Pregnant women are almost forgotten,” one Brazilian woman said. “All the advice is to not get pregnant.”

Birth Defects, Miscarriages Seen In Pregnant U.S. Women With Zika

Of nine pregnant U.S. women with Zika infections, two miscarried, one delivered an infant with microcephaly, and two had abortions because of brain abnormalities, federal officials reported Friday.

Confronted By Black Lives Matter, Hillary Clinton Recants Remarks On Discredited “Superpredator” Theory Of Crime

A Black Lives Matter activist called out Hillary Clinton for “super-predator” remarks she made in the 90s. The super-predator theory of crime played into a mass incarceration movement, and it was “always bullshit,” says one criminal justice researcher.

Zika Linked To Stillborn Fetuses, One With Swollen Belly

On Thursday, researchers linked the Zika virus to a stillborn fetus who not only had an abnormally small head, but a swollen belly. It’s the first suggestion that Zika could cause birth defects outside of the brain.

Meet The Brazilian Woman Fighting Zika By Dumping Thousands Of Mutant Mosquitoes Out Of A Van

Every weekday morning, Cecilia Kosmann releases mutant mosquitoes through the window of a van into the sleepy neighborhoods of Piracicaba, Brazil. The insects pass a lethal gene to their offspring, slashing the wild population’s numbers.