Governors from 11 states sent a letter to the Biden administration urging it to implement a federal policy ahead of a January 2025 deadline to help fight opioid deaths.

Gun violence has surpassed the opioid epidemic as the nation's top public health concern, according to an Axios-Ipsos poll released May 18. 

The United States and the European Union have launched a joint health taskforce to expand research and collaboration efforts in three key areas: cancer, global health threats and global health architecture.

All four women who were injured in a May 2 shooting at Northside Hospital Medical Midtown in Atlanta have all been discharged from the hospital, according to a May 16 report from ABC affiliate WSB-TV. 

Boston-based Mass General Brigham has drawn criticism from disability advocates and community members over how it's handling masking at its hospitals, radio station GBH 89.7 reported May 17.

A survey of more than 2,500 U.S. adults found more than 70 percent feel the nation's healthcare system fails to meet their needs in some way, Time reported May 16. 

While the public health emergency may be over, the COVID-19 virus has and likely will continue to change the healthcare landscape. Here are four recent updates about the virus and its continued effects across the public health spectrum:

The FDA launched a 'rumor control' hub May 16 aimed at combating widespread misinformation about vaccines, medicine, science and health trends.

Do you have access to a gun? Do you live with anyone who has acces to a gun? Clinicians at the University of Michigan's psychiatric emergency department are asking these hard questions as part of an initiative to reduce gun violence — one gun and one family at a time. 

Weekly emergency department visits nationwide for mental health conditions and drug overdoses among adolescents, have fallen by 10 percent, but levels are still slightly increasing for adolescent female patients specifically, according to a May 12 report from the CDC. 

In February, the CDC issued a warning against a brand of eyedrops linked to dozens of severe eye infections in the U.S. But the bottles were causing infections months before that. 

The CDC on May 11 released details about the nation's first two cases of a drug-resistant form of ringworm caused by an emerging pathogen known as Trichophyton indotineae.

The CDC is investigating new mpox cases, with some of the infections happening among vaccinated individuals, the agency said May 10. 

The CDC published updated masking recommendations for healthcare facilities days before the nation's May 11 COVID-19 public health emergency expiration.

In the last decade, 152 million infants worldwide were born preterm — and while preterm birth rates are not changing, death rates from preterm birth complications are on the rise, according to a May 9 report from the World Health Organization. 

The bacteria that caused a massive infant formula shortage in 2022 may soon be added to a federal watch list of diseases, according to a May 9 report from NBC News affiliate WSMV.

Chicago is seeing an increase in mpox, drawing concerns from some experts about the potential for a nationwide resurgence of the virus this summer, according to a May 8 report from NBC News.

A rare fungal outbreak at a Michigan paper mill has infected more than 100 people, and health officials are still searching for the source of the fungus. 

Six days out from the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration, hospitalizations and deaths are down and the CDC has released details about what will change in its surveillance of the virus going forward. The major changes? Reporting cadence will shift, three surveillance reports will be discontinued and the agency will launch a redesigned data tracker.

COVID-19 has dropped to the fourth leading cause of death after being the third in 2020 and 2021, a May 5 CDC report found. On the same day, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency.