3 billion birds have been lost in U.S. and Canada since 1970

What's new: In a study published Thursday in Science, scientists found that "we're losing species of birds, abundances of birds, much faster than we thought ... almost three billion or one-third since 1970," co-author Peter Marra tells Axios.

• The biggest driver is habitat loss caused by humans for agriculture and urbanization. This is something policymakers can still restore, for the most part, says Marra, former director of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC) and now director of the Georgetown Environmental Initiative (GEI).
• Marra urges people to take action in "the voting booth" and "not stand for the repeal of things that protect our water and land."
• People also need to remove threats to birds by reducing lawn areas that don't provide bird habitat, minimizing light pollution and avoiding the use of harmful pesticides. Outdoor cats have also played a significant role.

The bad news: The study, which uses a combination of standardized surveys by bird enthusiasts and data from radar, finds the abundance of birds has fallen in diverse areas since 1970.

• 12 bird families — including sparrows, warblers, blackbirds and finches — have 90% of the total accumulated loss.
• Grassland birds have been hit the hardest, showing a 53% reduction (more than 720 million) in population.
• Shorebirds, which often reside in sensitive coastal habitats, "were already at dangerously low numbers and have lost more than one-third of their population," the press release states.
• Radar measures over the past decade show the volume of spring migration dropped 14% over that period.

The good news: The study also notes prior actions taken to protect certain species have worked, with waterfowl and raptors in particular becoming more abundant.

• With wetland protections and hunting regulations, waterfowl like ducks, geese and swans have restored their populations, Marra says.
• And due to endangered species protections and the removal of DDT-based pesticides, raptors like the bald eagle have become more plentiful.

What they're saying: "Studies like this do suggest the potential of a systems collapse,” Richard Gregory, a professor at University College London who wasn't part of this study, told the Washington Post. "These birds are an indicator of ecosystem health. And that, ultimately, may be linked to the productivity and sustainability of agricultural systems.”

The bottom line: Marra says it isn't too late to restore habitats and restore a healthy ecosystem in North America.

Of note: Sponsors of the study include American Bird Conservancy, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Environment and Climate Change Canada, GEI and SMBC.

Go deeper: Listen to Science's podcast on this topic and check out a new multimedia website describing the issue and advocating action, called 3BillionBirds.org.

Yes, but: Spacewalks are notorious for their complexity, so it's still possible that Koch and Meir's walk could change or be cancelled if something unexpected happens between now and October 21.

Details: The spacewalk is 1 of 5 planned to swap out batteries, with 5 others planned for later in the year to repair an astrophysics instrument on the outside of the station.

• The first spacewalk in the series is scheduled for Sunday. Koch and NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan are expected to start the walk at 7:50 a.m. ET.

Background: The spacewalk comes after NASA canceled an all-female spacewalk in March due to spacesuit availability.

• That particular issue shouldn't be a problem this time, however, with two spacesuits configured for use by the women.

The latest: New York's health commissioner announced Thursday morning that "there are no longer any active cases in New York State associated with the initial measles outbreak from October 2018."

• But the commissioner added that New York health officials remain "vigilant" and are currently investigating several other new cases that are unrelated to the outbreak that just ended.
• 1 of the new cases is a person who just returned from overseas to Rockland County, which had declared in September that its initial outbreak had officially ended. Because this new case was "imported" from someone traveling in another country, this is not considered to be part of the same outbreak.
• Several other New York cases were reported in Nassau (2), Monroe (2) and Putnam (1) counties, according to the health commissioner.
• Meanwhile, the CDC says 31 states reported 1,243 individual patients, 131 of whom were hospitalized and 65 of whom suffered complications, including pneumonia and encephalitis. No one died in the U.S.

"The end of the New York state measles outbreak is a credit to the great work by local and state health departments, community and religious leaders, and other partners. However, this outbreak is a grave reminder that we need heightened vigilance around measles as well as other vaccine preventable diseases, and we continue to address the myths and misinformation driving these outbreaks."

What they're saying: Peter Hotez, professor of pediatrics and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, tells Axios that America's measles elimination status isn't as important as "the fact that we remain highly vulnerable" for 2 reasons.

1. There are "at least 100 geographic pockets in the U.S. where a high percentage of kids are not being vaccinated, together with measles cases now regularly imported from Europe where measles is even more widespread," Hotez says.
2. During the first and second quarter of next year, "we’ll again hit peak measles transmission season. [The] bottom line [is] nothing has really been done to combat the anti-vaccine movement in America, and we’re just as vulnerable to measles epidemics as we were this time last year."

What's next: The CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services are expected to have further information on the measles outbreak on Friday.

• The Pan American Health Organization’s regional verification commission will meet in the coming months to look over the U.S. data from this year and likely 2018 to make the final determination on the U.S.' elimination status, the CDC spokesperson said.
• PAHO declared recently that the U.K., Albania, the Czech Republic and Greece had lost their measles-free status.

Go deeper:

• Anti-vax movement targets Maine law on vaccine exemptions
• New measles cases decline in U.S., but the outbreak isn't over yet
• Measles in U.S. creeps back toward endemic status

Details: In the letter published Oct. 2 in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers reviewed lung biopsies from 17 patients, "all of whom had vaped and were suspected to have vaping-associated lung injury," the Mayo Clinic said.

• Lipids, fatty substances found in mineral oils were suspected as a possible cause of the lung injuries associated with vaping, but the researchers in this study found no evidence of this causing the tissue injury.

"While we can't discount the potential role of lipids, we have not seen anything to suggest this is a problem caused by lipid accumulation in the lungs. Instead, it seems to be some kind of direct chemical injury, similar to what one might see with exposures to toxic chemical fumes, poisonous gases and toxic agent."

Go deeper: U.S. investigates fatality from vaping as lung-related illnesses rise