TIME is reporting that a recent Gallup poll found only 54% of Americans ever drink alcohol, the lowest share on record since the polling organization began tracking the figure in the 1930s. It said the decline is driven largely by younger generations, with Gen Z and Millennials embracing drier lifestyles.
TIME said a new study, reported by its editor at large Jeffrey Kluger, found that Americans ages 50 to 64 are drinking more than they used to, not less. It said a recent poll found 65% of people ages 18 to 34 described alcohol as bad for health, while only 39% of those 55 and older agreed. TIME noted alcohol has been linked to negative health effects, including cancer.
TIME also reported that the Trump Administration says it removed 760,000 people from the federal health insurance marketplace in its latest effort to crack down on fraud. It said the administration claims those enrollments were unauthorized, while Democrats and Republicans have argued over how much fraud exists in the marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act.
In its health and wellness guidance, TIME addressed whether artificial intelligence could replace some doctor's office visits. It cited Dr. Anahita Dua, a vascular surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, who advised patients to treat AI as a knowledgeable assistant that sometimes makes things up. TIME said AI can help patients organize symptoms into a timeline, prepare questions before an appointment, and explain unfamiliar terms afterward, but should not be given authority over high-stakes medical decisions.
TIME said Dua advised against entering full names, birth dates, addresses, Social Security numbers, insurance details, or complete medical records into consumer chatbots, and said AI should not be used in emergencies such as chest pain, difficulty breathing, signs of a stroke, severe bleeding, loss of consciousness, or severe allergic reactions. It said Dua believes AI will change what happens around an appointment faster than it replaces the appointment itself.
TIME also reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration published new rules for using alternative methods, other than animals, to test whether experimental drugs are safe enough to test in humans. It said a new study found that Europe's heat waves over the past few years were worsened by greenhouse gases emitted since the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015.