The world population has now reached 8 billion

Eight billion. That’s the number of humans estimated to be alive on Earth.

On November 15, the global population reached this landmark, according to a projection from the United Nations.

In addition to being a cause for celebration, “the 8 billion milestone also brings important responsibilities, and highlights related challenges for social and economic development and environmental sustainability,” said Maria-Francesca Spatolisano, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for policy coordination and inter-agency affairs, at a news conference in July.

Though the global population continues to expand, the rate of growth is slowing. Current projections predict the world’s population will peak at about 10.4 billion in the 2080s and remain steady until 2100. Previously, the U.N. had predicted that the world’s population could reach 11.2 billion by 2100, based on the rate of population growth in 2017.

In the coming decades, migration is expected to be the sole driver of population growth in high-income countries, according to the World Population Prospects 2022 report, released by the U.N. in July. What’s more, the populations of 61 countries are projected to decrease by 1 percent or more between now and 2050. In lower-income countries, population growth is expected to still be driven by more births than deaths.

“There is inherent uncertainty in population projections,” said John Wilmoth, director of the U.N. Population Division, at the July news conference. This uncertainty, he said, is in part due to the possible range of trajectories of birth rates, mortality rates and emigration across various countries.

While rapid population growth in developing nations may intensify climate disasters, Spatolisano said, it’s important to keep in mind that “more developed countries — whose per capita consumption of material resources is generally the highest — bear the greatest responsibility for implementing strategies to decouple human activity from environmental degradation.”In January 2020, the U.S. government declared COVID-19 a public health emergency. Now, with coronavirus cases and deaths on the decline, that declaration is quickly approaching a predetermined expiration date.

Set to end on May 11, the public health emergency aimed to curb the coronavirus’ spread. In the pandemic’s earliest days, the declaration imposed temporary measures such as quarantines for people exposed to the virus (SN: 1/31/20). Later, it allowed federal officials to make tests, drugs and vaccines authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration freely available to the public.

“Ending the public health emergency signals that we think we’ve turned a corner in what was a pretty dark time in America,” says health policy researcher Leighton Ku, who heads the Center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. (It’s not the first pandemic-related declaration to end. On April 10, President Joe Biden signed legislation ending the national emergency, which had been issued in March 2020 to waive some requirements for federal health insurance programs, such as to allow coverage of telehealth visits.)

Even as the public health emergency becomes yet another relic of a traumatic period, COVID-19 isn’t going away. More than 1,000 people in the United States died from COVID-19 from April 20 to April 26, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the coronavirus continues to evolve. Although not all new variants are worrisome, some can be (SN: 10/17/22). So it remains to be seen whether now is the time to let our guard down, Ku says.

Tests, drugs and vaccines will remain important tools to control the virus’ spread, and researchers hope to improve our arsenal. Here’s what the end of the public health emergency means for these efforts. Millions of people may lose access to free testing

COVID tests — at-home and lab versions — that were authorized by the FDA over the last three years will remain available. These tests were granted emergency use authorizations, or EUAs, which allow public access to tests that are not formally approved by the FDA. Instead of expiring with the public health emergency, the FDA can decide when it wants to end individual EUAs, and it can still issue EUAs for any new tests that might be developed.

What may change is who pays for tests and diagnostics. It all comes down to insurance.

For those with private insurance, costs will depend on individual insurers. Starting in January 2022, the Biden administration required insurers to pay for eight at-home tests per covered individual per month. Ending the public health emergency means that at-home and lab tests, even if ordered by a physician, are no longer guaranteed to be fully covered.