Halsey gave fans a glimpse into her world just a few weeks after giving birth to her first child.
Over the weekend, the “Without Me” singer, who welcomed her first child, Ender, with partner Alev Aydin on July 14, shared a series of photos of that mommy life. We see a snap of the baby swaddled in a blanket, several snapshots of the nursery, a picture of a frog, a mushroom-shaped stool and a picture of Aydin kissing their bundle of joy.
She also posted an up-close look at her stretch marks, revealing a tattoo that reads “Baby” just above her pelvis.
“Well….this is what it look like,” Halsey, 26, captioned the post, adding the teddy bear emoji.
Many praised the first-time mom and commended her for embracing her postpartum body.
“Wear those tiger stripes proud mama!! Love to see it,” one user commented.
Another added, “Halsey [you’re] the best mom.”
She then posted a photo of herself still pregnant, wearing a shirt unbuttoned to reveal her huge baby bump.
“My fav belly pic I never posted. Miss it already!” she wrote.
Halsey’s new album If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power will be out August 27.
Danny Sheehan, the eight-year-old boy who went viral over the holidays for his ecstatic reaction to receiving an Aquaman action figure, has died following a four-year battle with cancer. Jason Momoa says he will keep Danny’s spirit alive by dedicating the upcoming Aquaman sequel to him.
Danny’s family announced via the Facebook support group 4TheLoveofDanny that the young Aquaman fan passed away in his sleep just after midnight on Sunday.
Momoa reacted to the sad news Monday and shared a photo on Instagram of the Mansfield, MA-based mural that depicts him and Danny standing side by side dressed as the iconic DC superhero.
“I just found out this heartbreaking news,” the actor expressed. “All my Aloha to this beautiful Ohana.”
Momoa also vowed to dedicate the upcoming Aquaman sequel, currently billed as Aquaman 2, “to you lil angel.”
The Game of Thrones alum later took to his Instagram Story to share a recent photos of Sheehan, writing, “I have no words that could do you justice. All I can say is what a privilege it has been to be your friend. You are as bright as the sun. I’ll always be awestruck by you… You deserved more than to fight childhood cancer with adult treatments.”
Momoa and Sheehan became fast friends in December after the actor watched the boy’s adorable viral video. The two connected over FaceTime where the two bonded over dolphins and, later, Momoa sent Danny a life-sized replica of his on-screen trident along with a generous supply of Aquaman-related goodies. The actor signed the card as “Uncle Aquaman.”
Danny’s mother, Natalie Sheehan, said at the time that the gift meant the world to her son.
Aquaman 2 is slated to arrive in theaters December 2022.
Nick Jonas is giving fans a peek at himself all dressed up for his starring role in the upcoming streaming movie musical production of Jersey Boys.
On Monday, Nick shared a snapshot of himself in character as Frankie Valli, of the legendary group The Four Seasons. He’s shown posing along the actors who play the other members of the group — CJ Pawlikowski as Bob Gaudio, Matt Bogart as Nick Massi, Andy Karl as Tommy DeVito — plus director Des McAnuff.
“The past couple months I’ve been in Cleveland playing my dream role as Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys!” the Jumanji actor captioned the Twitter post. “With our incredible cast and crew, we worked tirelessly to create an amazing musical movie event for you all.”
“Stay tuned for more exciting news,” he teased. It’s not clear as to which streaming service will debut the musical.
In June, Frankie Valli, 87, confirmed that Jonas would play him in the upcoming musical movie while speaking with NBC’s Today show, adding, “I’m really excited about that.”
Jersey Boys, which started out as a Broadway musical and was later made into a 2014 feature film, follows the rise and demise of The Four Seasons, famous for hits like “Sherry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” and “December, 1963 (Oh What a Night).”
Billie Eilish admits she’s not much of a planner and is more of a spur-of-the-moment type of person.
Appearing Monday on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the teen singer gave fans a behind-the-scenes peek of the planning process behind her number-one album Happier Than Ever.
As it turns out, Eilish’s decision to swap her black-and-green hair for platinum blonde locks in time for her new album wasn’t something she’d planned in advance.
“It really just happened,” Eilish explained. “I didn’t know what I was going to do at all, I mean, until recently. Like, almost when the album was over, I didn’t even know what it was going to be called! I didn’t know what the vibe was going to be… I didn’t know what the artwork should be.”
Eilish said the only thing she knew for certain was how the album was going to feel. She explained that everything eventually clicked “one night when I was listening to [torch singer and actress] Julie London and it was raining, and my fire pit was on…it just hit me and I realized how I wanted the album to be portrayed.”
The 19-year-old also talked about directing her own videos, saying she took the plunge because “I feel like when you have your own idea and you know what you want, sometimes it’s just the best way to go about it and just do it yourself.”
Doing it herself also meant no stunt doubles, even for her high octane “NDA” music video. But Eilish said she wasn’t “nervous” to have “25 stunt drivers… zooming past me,” adding that she found the experience “fun.”
She closed out the night by performing her album’s title track, “Happier Than Ever.”
(WASHINGTON) — As the delta variant spreads, posing a heightened risk to everyone who isn’t vaccinated, demand has skyrocketed for a vaccine that will protect young children who are not yet eligible — a group facing more cases than ever before during the pandemic.
And while experts still consider it uncommon for children to get severely sick from the virus, being unvaccinated leaves them more vulnerable. Over 94,000 children were diagnosed with COVID last week, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, and hospitals nationwide are reporting more and more children in their pediatric COVID units.
Here’s what we know so far about when a safe and effective vaccine for children under 12 will be authorized by the Federal Drug Administration:
First shots for young kids expected in late fall, early winter
Pfizer has said it will submit vaccine safety data on 5- to 11-year-olds by the end of September. Moderna has said it will do so in the middle of the fall. It will then be up to the FDA on how quickly it grants the authorization.
In general, federal and industry officials said they expect the first vaccine shots for children ages 5-11 could happen by the end of this year or early 2022. Timing on a vaccine for children younger than 5 is less certain, but officials have said they hope a greenlight for toddlers and infants will follow soon after.
But the precise timing is fluid. Clinical trials are still ongoing, and the FDA has signaled it wants to expand the pool of children signed up as volunteers. A larger pool of volunteers makes it more likely that even the rarest of side effects could be detected before it rolls out nationwide.
The vaccine for children ages 5 through 11 would be the same composition, but a smaller dose. For Pfizer, children under 12 would receive 10 micrograms, while everyone 12 and older receives a 30-microgram dose.
FDA is under extraordinary pressure to move fast.
Some have urged the FDA to move more quickly to authorize the shot because of the toll the delta variant is taking on children. In a recent letter to the head of the FDA, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics said that last week showed the “largest week-over-week percentage increase in pediatric COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic,” at 72,000 pediatric COVID cases in a week, up from around 39,000 reported in the previous week.
“Simply stated, the Delta variant has created a new and pressing risk to children and adolescents across this country, as it has also done for unvaccinated adults,” AAP President Lee Savio Beers wrote in a letter to the acting FDA Administrator Janet Woodcock.
In an effort to speed up the authorization, Beers suggested the FDA authorize the vaccines with the data from the children already enrolled, and then continue to monitor an expanded, second group of children.
In an interview with ABC News Live on Monday, Beers said the AAP was worried that the recent FDA decision to double the children participating in the vaccine trials would delay the timing for a vaccine at a critical time and that “the data is there” with the current cohort for the FDA to act very soon.
“We really think that we need to be approaching the trials in the authorization of the COVID vaccine for children with the same urgency that we did with adults,” Beers said in the interview.
FDA insists it won’t cut any corners
While the FDA insists it won’t cut any corners, according to a government official, requesting more children to participate in the trials isn’t expected to hold up the vaccine authorization process. That’s because parents have been eager to enroll their children to receive the vaccine.
The FDA also isn’t likely to require an extended period of safety data collection for the younger age group, a consideration that the FDA ultimately decided wasn’t necessary so long as more children were enrolled in the trial.
The FDA’s vaccine chief, Peter Marks, has repeatedly defended the FDA’s timeline and decision-making process, saying the agency is going to be thorough.
“Just so everyone understands, we are going to be very careful as we get down to smaller children,” he said in a May event with the group BlackDoctor.org, a health resource that focuses on outreach to African Americans.
“We have to reduce the dose of the vaccine, we’re more cautious about side effects, it takes longer to do the development,” Marks said.
(NEW YORK) — Unvaccinated COVID-19 patients are sharing their stories of battling the dangerous virus and why the experience changed their minds about the shot.
‘This isn’t fun’
Curtis Cannon, a 75-year-old COVID-19 patient at Willis-Knighton Medical Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, spoke to ABC News from his hospital bed on Aug. 5.
Cannon said he was at first skeptical about the vaccine. But now, struggling to breathe and suffering severe chest pains, he realizes how “real” COVID-19 is.
Cannon said he’d tell others who are skeptical: “They need to get vaccinated, because this isn’t fun.”
Cannon said he’ll get vaccinated once he is released from the hospital.
‘I was wrong’
Travis Campbell, an unvaccinated COVID-19 patient, spoke to ABC News from his hospital bed at the Bristol Regional Medical Center Hospital in Tennessee.
“When you feel like you have to fight for your life, you don’t realize that you’re fighting for every single breath all day long,” he said.
The 43-year-old husband and dad said he regrets not getting vaccinated.
“We thought it wasn’t an urgent matter to get the vaccine and I was wrong,” Campbell said.
“I would rather be covered and protected and if something does happen and I have to worry about repercussions of the vaccine versus being buried in seven days,” he said. “I beg you, please see your doctor and make an evaluated decision and protect your family or prepare yourself for your next life.”
‘Have a fighting chance’
Marquis Davis, a 28-year-old husband and father from Florida, died from COVID-19 on July 26, 2021. He wasn’t vaccinated.
Davis had been hesitant to take the vaccine. He told his wife in the hospital that he wanted to get the shot after he recovered.
To honor his memory, his family turned his funeral into a vaccine and testing event.
“This could have been prevented, so let’s get vaccinated so it doesn’t happen to you,” his wife, Charnese Davis, told ABC News.
“At least have a fighting chance. Protect yourself. Protect your family. This is nothing to be to be playing around with,” she said.
‘I never expected to be a widow at the age of 25’
Braderick Wright, a 28-year-old Georgia man who was hesitant to get the vaccine, died of COVID-19 on Aug. 7, 2021, reported ABC Atlanta affiliate WSB.
“He was deep into TikTok conspiracy theories and, for him, he just didn’t want to get [vaccinated],” his wife Brittany Wright told WSB.
“I never expected to be a widow at the age of 25,” she told WSB.
Brittany Wright said her husband’s dying wish was for more people to get vaccinated.
‘Please just get vaccinated’
Lateasa McLean, a 51-year-old in Lincoln County, North Carolina, was hospitalized twice after testing positive for COVD-19.
“My grandson and my granddaughter, they’re wheeling me out and I’m thinking, ‘Is this going to be the last time that I see them?'” she told ABC Charlotte affiliate WSOC.
While in the hospital, McLean said she realized, “I should have gotten vaccinated. And now I’m putting my family through this, for something I could have prevented.”
McLean, who works as a patient representative/patient safety sitter at a hospital, said she plans to get vaccinated.
“I just want everybody to listen to my story and please just get vaccinated,” she told WSOC.
Christina Applegate has revealed she’s been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
The 49-year-old actress revealed the recent diagnosis in a pair Twitter posts early Tuesday.
“Hi friends. A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS,” Applegate wrote. “It’s been a strange journey. But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition. It’s been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some a****** blocks it.”
She continued, “As one of my friends that has MS said ‘we wake up and take the indicated action’. And that’s what I do. So now I ask for privacy. As I go through this thing. Thank you xo.”
The Mayo Clinic describes MS as “a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord.” There is no cure, but there are treatments that can manage symptoms.
(NEW YORK) — Norwegian Cruise Line can now require guests sailing out of Florida to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination, a federal judge ruled after the line sued the Sunshine State over its vaccine passport ban.
“We want to do everything we can to keep COVID off our ships,” Norwegian CEO Frank Del Rio said in an interview on Good Morning America Tuesday. “It’s the best thing to do, the safest way to travel.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said cruise lines would face a $5,000 fine per passenger if they defied the state’s law that prohibits companies from requiring customers and employees to provide documentation of COVID-19 vaccination status.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said Sunday that Norwegian would “suffer significant financial and reputational harms” if it was forced to abide by Florida’s law.
DeSantis’ office responded in a statement to the ruling, saying, “A prohibition on vaccine passports does not even implicate, let alone violate, anyone’s speech rights, and it furthers the substantial, local interest of preventing discrimination among customers based on private health information.”
Florida will now move to appeal the judge’s ruling. Del Rio called the response “disappointing.”
“Here’s a state that depends on tourism and apparently it’s not in their best interests to keep not only our residents safe but our visitors safe so it is very disappointing,” Del Rio said.
Norwegian’s win means it can set sail from Florida on Sunday with a fully vaccinated ship.
Norwegian is requiring all guests and crew to be fully vaccinated at least two weeks prior to departure. Each passenger will also be tested prior to boarding. Unlike other cruise lines that have made exceptions for children, Norwegian is not allowing any unvaccinated child under the age of 12 to board.
Richard Stieff, a travel agent and cruise enthusiast, praised the decision.
“The cruise lines have to do whatever they can to make sure we’re safe and they can’t go through another episode like they did last year when we had ships stuck out at sea with people with COVID on them,” he told ABC News.
Del Rio previously threatened to move the company’s ships out of Florida if it was not allowed to mandate vaccinations by guests.
“At the end of the day, cruise ships have motors, propellers and rudders, and God forbid we can’t operate in the state of Florida for whatever reason, then there are other states that we do operate from, and we can operate from the Caribbean for a ship that otherwise would have gone to Florida,” Del Rio said during an earnings call in May.
Other major cruise lines like Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Carnival told ABC News they are still trying to figure out how the Norwegian ruling affects them.
Last week, some lines announced they will now require pre-boarding testing and masks to be worn in certain indoor areas — even for vaccinated guests.
“We have seen a number of ships report some isolated cases of COVID,” Colleen McDaniel, the editor-in-chief of the website Cruise Critic, told ABC News. “And what we’ve seen is these have been mostly among vaccinated passengers, and certainly the delta variant seems to be having an effect on that.”
Despite at least 95% of guests and crew being vaccinated, Carnival Vista, which departed out of Galveston, Texas, reported a “small number of positive cases” last week — prompting the cruise line to change its policy.
Masks will now be required for sailings Aug. 7 through Oct. 31.
“These new requirements are being implemented to protect our guests and crew while on board, and to continue to provide confidence to our homeports and destinations that we are doing our part to support their efforts to protect public health and safety,” Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy said in a statement. “We expect these requirements will be temporary and appreciate the cooperation of our guests.”
Holland America and Princess Cruises, which are both owned by Carnival Corporation, announced the same new cruising requirements.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 617,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.2 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 58.7% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing Tuesday. All times Eastern:
Aug 10, 8:59 am
Dallas, Austin school districts to require masks
The Dallas Independent School District, the second largest in Texas, said it’s temporarily requiring face masks for all students, staff and visitors as of Tuesday.
It’s not clear how long the mask mandate will last.
In the Austin Independent School District, students, staff and visitors must wear face masks beginning Wednesday.
This comes after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott imposed a ban on mask mandates.
In Houston, Texas’ biggest school district, the board of education will vote this week on a proposed mask requirement, according to ABC Dallas affiliate WFAA.
Aug 10, 8:29 am
Pediatrician warns parents and governors: Don’t ‘underestimate’ the virus
Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the CDC, said parents should not get to choose if their kids wear masks in school.
“Allowing it to be an issue of personal choice is fine if it only affected your child, but it doesn’t. It affects everyone around your child as well,” Besser told “Good Morning America” Tuesday.
“There’s a lot we don’t know about this virus,” Besser said. “I urge parents, I urge schools, I urge governors, not to underestimate what we’re dealing with.”
Aug 09, 7:27 pm
No ICU beds available at top Mississippi hospitals: Official
Mississippi’s top health official warned Monday that the state’s top-level hospitals have no ICU beds left, and things are going to get worse.
Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs cited the latest stats on the growing number of COVID-19 cases, stating there were 6,912 new cases and 28 deaths recorded.
“Keep in mind – this will translate into around 500 new hospitalization in coming days, and we have ZERO ICU beds at Level 1-3 hospitals, and we have
Aug 09, 7:06 pm
Abbott seeks out of state health care personnel to help Texas
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced several measures Monday to curb the state’s growing COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
Health care personnel from other states will be coming to Texas to assist the Texas Department of State Health Services with their recent wave of cases, Abbott said.
The governor sent a letter to the Texas Hospital Association urging them to suspend elective surgeries.
He also announced the health department will open more antibody fusion centers and vaccine sites for residents.
Aug 09, 5:38 pm
Arkansas hospitalizations reach record high, 8 ICU beds left
Arkansas saw its highest number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus since the pandemic began, according to state health data.
The number of hospitalizations rose by 103, its biggest one-day increase, to 1,376, which is five hospitalizations higher than the previous record set in January, the state health data showed.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson tweeted that only eight ICU beds remained in the entire state. He encouraged more people to get a vaccine.
As of Monday, 49.3% of eligible residents in Arkansas have received one vaccine shot, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Aug 09, 4:43 pm
Washington governor issues vaccine mandate for state employees
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Monday that he has ordered that all state employees must be vaccinated or face termination.
Inslee cited increased hospitalizations and cases throughout the state, which have mostly affected the unvaccinated, as the factor for his executive order.
“We do so to protect our vulnerable communities, to prevent further calamity to our state and to be further on the path to recovery,” he said at a news conference.
The deadline for the vaccine mandate is Oct. 18. Inslee’s executive order does provide medical and religious exemptions.
As of Aug. 2, 69.6% of Washingtonians 12 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to the state’s health department.
“We need more people to roll up their sleeves,” Inslee said.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 617,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.2 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 58.7% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing Tuesday. All times Eastern:
Aug 10, 8:59 am
Dallas, Austin school districts to require masks
The Dallas Independent School District, the second largest in Texas, said it’s temporarily requiring face masks for all students, staff and visitors as of Tuesday.
It’s not clear how long the mask mandate will last.
In the Austin Independent School District, students, staff and visitors must wear face masks beginning Wednesday.
This comes after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott imposed a ban on mask mandates.
In Houston, Texas’ biggest school district, the board of education will vote this week on a proposed mask requirement, according to ABC Dallas affiliate WFAA.
Aug 10, 8:29 am
Pediatrician warns parents and governors: Don’t ‘underestimate’ the virus
Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the CDC, said parents should not get to choose if their kids wear masks in school.
“Allowing it to be an issue of personal choice is fine if it only affected your child, but it doesn’t. It affects everyone around your child as well,” Besser told “Good Morning America” Tuesday.
“There’s a lot we don’t know about this virus,” Besser said. “I urge parents, I urge schools, I urge governors, not to underestimate what we’re dealing with.”
Aug 09, 7:27 pm
No ICU beds available at top Mississippi hospitals: Official
Mississippi’s top health official warned Monday that the state’s top-level hospitals have no ICU beds left, and things are going to get worse.
Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs cited the latest stats on the growing number of COVID-19 cases, stating there were 6,912 new cases and 28 deaths recorded.
“Keep in mind – this will translate into around 500 new hospitalization in coming days, and we have ZERO ICU beds at Level 1-3 hospitals, and we have
Aug 09, 7:06 pm
Abbott seeks out of state health care personnel to help Texas
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced several measures Monday to curb the state’s growing COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
Health care personnel from other states will be coming to Texas to assist the Texas Department of State Health Services with their recent wave of cases, Abbott said.
The governor sent a letter to the Texas Hospital Association urging them to suspend elective surgeries.
He also announced the health department will open more antibody fusion centers and vaccine sites for residents.
Aug 09, 5:38 pm
Arkansas hospitalizations reach record high, 8 ICU beds left
Arkansas saw its highest number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus since the pandemic began, according to state health data.
The number of hospitalizations rose by 103, its biggest one-day increase, to 1,376, which is five hospitalizations higher than the previous record set in January, the state health data showed.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson tweeted that only eight ICU beds remained in the entire state. He encouraged more people to get a vaccine.
As of Monday, 49.3% of eligible residents in Arkansas have received one vaccine shot, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Aug 09, 4:43 pm
Washington governor issues vaccine mandate for state employees
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Monday that he has ordered that all state employees must be vaccinated or face termination.
Inslee cited increased hospitalizations and cases throughout the state, which have mostly affected the unvaccinated, as the factor for his executive order.
“We do so to protect our vulnerable communities, to prevent further calamity to our state and to be further on the path to recovery,” he said at a news conference.
The deadline for the vaccine mandate is Oct. 18. Inslee’s executive order does provide medical and religious exemptions.
As of Aug. 2, 69.6% of Washingtonians 12 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to the state’s health department.
“We need more people to roll up their sleeves,” Inslee said.
