Business

(NEW YORK) — Consumer prices continued to climb in July, further stoking concerns over inflation as the economy rebounds from the COVID-19 shock.

The Consumer Price Index, often looked to as a measure of inflation, spiked 5.4% over the last 12 months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday. This is the same pace reported in June, tying for the highest 12-month increase since August 2008.

The index rose 0.5% in July alone, the BLS said, leveling off somewhat from the 0.9% increase seen in June.

“This month’s increases were comparatively tame relative to what we had seen the last few months, and that’s in large part because the low bar of a year-ago number is starting to drop out,” Greg McBride, the chief financial analyst at Bankrate, told ABC News on Wednesday.

“What I mean by that is in the second quarter of last year, when the economy was on lockdown, price levels actually declined,” he added. “That exaggerated the increase on a year-over-year basis when we looked at it this year.”

McBride said there is no doubt prices are going up and inflation concerns are valid, adding that “there is more evidence that it could prove to be temporary.”

When compared to pre-pandemic data from two years ago, McBride said the annualized rate would fall to 3.1% versus the more concerning 5.4%.

“Think about a baseball player that usually hits 30 home runs a year, and then one year he hit 10 home runs, and then the next year he comes back and he hits 30 home runs again,” he said. “It’s going to look like he tripled his output — he didn’t. He just returned to normal.”

The so-called core index, which accounts for all items except the more volatile food and energy indexes, climbed 0.3% in July and 4.3% over the past 12 months, the latest data indicate. The food index, meanwhile, increased 0.7% in July and 3.4% over the last 12 months. The energy index climbed 1.6% last month, with the gasoline index alone rising by 2.4%.

The prices for used cars, which have been skyrocketing over the past few months amid a chip shortage, leveled off a bit in July. Used car prices increased by 0.2%, a significant reprieve from the 10.5% increase seen in June.

As consumer demand bounced back when the economy began to reopen all at once, many firms, spanning multiple industries, have reported supply chain bottlenecks and issues hiring back workers.

“Labor shortages and supply chain constraints have been a considerable factor in higher prices and underscores the transitory argument,” McBride said. “This debate of is it transitory or is it more sustained is one that’s going to continue through the balance of 2021.”

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell similarly downplayed inflation fears in a testimony before lawmakers in May.

“Inflation has increased notably in recent months,” Powell stated, according to his prepared remarks. “This reflects, in part, the very low readings from early in the pandemic falling out of the calculation; the pass-through of past increases in oil prices to consumer energy prices; the rebound in spending as the economy continues to reopen; and the exacerbating factor of supply bottlenecks, which have limited how quickly production in some sectors can respond in the near term.”

As these transitory factors abate, Powell said inflation is expected to drop back down again.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The Internal Revenue Service is warning taxpayers of ongoing scams related to the child tax credit — with some landing directly in Americans’ email or smartphone.

“Right now we’re seeing scammers trying to take advantage of the American public by attempting to gain information — using phone calls, emails, text messages, through social media — all attempting to target families eligible for this credit,” Jim Lee, chief of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division told ABC News.

The IRS said families who qualify for the child tax credit, which was expanded as part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, would receive monthly payments without taking any further action. Initial eligibility was based on 2019 or 2020 tax returns.

“For tax year 2021, the child tax credit is increased from $2,000 per qualifying child to: $3,600 for children ages 5 and under at the end of 2021; and $3,000 for children ages 6 through 17 at the end of 2021,” according to the IRS.

But several scam e-mails and text messages obtained by ABC News, show what appear to be official documents.

“Economic Impact Payments Status Available Jul 26,” one scam e-mail reads and appears to be written on official letterhead.

Lee said that they are seeing scammers send “thousands of text messages and e-mails every day, hoping that they’ll get people to respond and fall prey to their scam.”

“Once you click on that link, you know, it usually directs you to a fake IRS website where then you’re prompted to enter all of your personal information to claim this child tax credit. And just like that, scammers have all your information,” he said.

In another example, a scam text message purports to be from the secretary of the treasury and asks the recipient to complete an “eligibility form.”

Lee said the IRS never sends emails or text messages requesting them to fill out a form with personal information on it.

In addition to e-mails and text messages, Lee said they are also seeing scammers call people directly and in some cases threaten them with arrest if they don’t pay up.

“The IRS doesn’t leave prerecorded or urgent threatening messages or make aggressive phone calls warning to individuals about a lawsuit or arrests. These are fake. The IRS is not going to ask you for payment using a gift card or wire transfer or painting via a cryptocurrency. It’s another sign of a scheme. And the IRS is not going to call taxpayers asking them to provide or verify financial information so they can obtain the monthly child tax credit payments,” he explained.

For anyone who thinks they may have received a scam message or is a victim, Lee said to visit the IRS.gov website for more information.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(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.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(New York) — Pet adoption rates soared during the pandemic. According to a Rover.com survey from January, 49% of Americans said they got a new dog amid the pandemic.

With travel picking back up, pet parents are looking to bring their fur babies on vacation. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Understand the rules of flying with Fido

Last year, the Department of Transportation revised its rule on traveling with service animals, no longer classifying Emotional Support Animals (ESA’s) as service animals – opening the door for airlines to begin charging for ESA’s.

Currently, most U.S airlines charge customers $125 per flight to bring pets inside the cabin.

Dr. Marie Bucko, a veterinarian, said it’s important to first ask yourself if bringing your pet on your next trip is what’s best for them.

“Your pets are part of the family so it’s understandable that you would want to bring them on a family trip,” Bucko said in an interview with ABC News. “Sometimes it’s not so simple and there’s a lot to think about before bringing pets on vacation with us.”

Bucko said it’s important to take the time of distance of your flight into consideration.

“We certainly don’t want any of our fur babies to get sick on a flight,” Bucko said.

If you feel your pet is up for the plane, make sure your airline will allow them on board.

“Check with the airlines because they may have restrictions on breed and on size and most airlines also require a certificate of veterinary inspection which is like a health certificate more or less,” Bucko said.

If your pet is traveling in the cabin, Bucko said make sure you have an appropriately sized carrier and work on desensitizing your pet to it.

“At the airline or a local pet store you can kind of look into those dimensions and what their restrictions might be,” Bucko said.

2. Pack extra time so your pet can go potty at the airport

Once you arrive at the airport, Bucko said find out where the pet relief areas are located.

“Make sure that you arrived at the airport early enough to exercise your pet bring them to that relief area,” she advised.

After you’ve gone through security, Bucko said its important to let the flight crew know your flying with your pet.

“Your best bet is notifying the flight attendants as soon as you get on that either your pets are with you or they’re in the cargo hold,” Bucko said. “Just having an open line of communication with them as soon as you step onto that flight and say, ‘look I have my pet with me and is there anything that you need from me?’ in order to make this flight easier for all of us.”

3. If you can swing it, some are flying their pets private

Some pet owners are willing to shell out lots of cash to make their pets more comfortable. Luxury Aircraft Solutions, a jet charter company, said in June it saw almost 74% more people traveling with pets than in June 2019.

Daniel Hirschhorn, managing director of Jetmembership.com, said his customers are typically booking charters to move their pets around the country. He said taking your pet on a private jet is more costly than a commercial flight.

“Generally speaking, it’s significantly more expensive to do a private charter, even with those additional fees,” Hirschhorn said. “People spend a lot of money on their pets, they’re part of the family and if they need to get them somewhere they’re willing to pay up.”

Unlike a commercial plane, Hirschhorn said animals don’t need to be crated on Luxury Aircraft Solutions jets.

4. If your pet’s not up to flying, consider taking them on the road

Traveling with a pet by car is more economical for most people. Similar to travel crates, you can also work with your pet to get them used to the car.

“If you don’t often take your pet in the car you can start with short trips to fun destinations like a dog-friendly park or a play area to really get your pet used to riding in a car,” Bucko said.

If your pet gets sick on the road, Bucko said its best to talk with your veterinarian before your next road trip.

“The best piece of advice that I have for you is to talk with your veterinarian about alternate travel suggestions and even medications to keep them comfortable.”

5. Consider pet-friendly destinations for your next vacation

No matter how you decide to get there, make sure your destination will welcome your furry friend.

Emily Kaufman, a travel expert, said she’s seen an uptick in hotels and resorts creating special offers so owners can bring their pets on vacation.

“We don’t want to leave pets behind as we start venturing out,” Kaufman said. “So, we’re seeing new pet owners with new experiences wanting to share those with their pets.”

Most hotels will accept cats and dogs for an extra fee. Kaufman said to look for chains that have dedicated pages for pets on their websites.

“Those places are super welcoming for pets,” Kaufman said. “They usually give you an amenity, kind of a welcome gift, like a guide to where dog parks are in good walking areas.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Adding items to a cart, shipping and restocking the kitchen can feel a bit monotonous. But thanks to Foxtrot Anywhere, a marketplace with a range of grocery and pantry products from new food entrepreneurs, it’s easier than ever to break free from a re-order rut and shop expertly curated selections.

A new era of trendy consumer product goods, especially in the food and beverage space, command attention for authenticity, diversity and quality both in ingredients and the story behind the people making them.

From stocking and supporting women-owned olive oil companies and Persian Ajil trail mix brands to a Brooklyn-based hot sauce line made by a Barbadian American drag queen, Foxtrot Anywhere puts global flavors on the map in more ways than one.

Originally launched as a brick-and-mortar reinvention of a neighborhood corner store with locations in Chicago, D.C. and Dallas, Foxtrot Anywhere now offers unique locally made and sourced goods online for nationwide delivery.

To kick off their new tastemaker series, the company tapped food expert Nilou Motamed to curate boxes that include her must-have picks like women-founded alcohol-free botanical spirits and ethically sourced Chinese teas.

“What they’re doing is a great disruption story. It’s a great evolution of how we consume,” she told “GMA” about Foxtrot’s business model that identifies and promotes new makers to give consumers access to what’s new. “It’s so important for us to understand eachother’s food as a way of understanding each other — it feels so good to be in this moment in our food culture where we can open people’s eyes to the bigger world out there — spotlight flavors from Israel, Tunisia, [Barbados] — we have an opportunity to let them be heard.”

A judge on TV shows “Top Chef” and “Chopped” and the former editor-in-chief at Food & Wine magazine, Motamed said putting together these boxes was particularly rewarding, especially with her intrinsically hospitable nature.

“Creating community around food is really important — so for me to be able to curate an aisle and talk about my favorite things, to turn people on to new products that they might not be aware of and have a dialogue with people at Foxtrot to bubble up the best things they have to know about and be able to deliver it to them in this big moment is so fun.”

The self-proclaimed “obsessive gifter” said she has always enjoyed creating boxes of treats representative of the person she’s giving it to.

Whether it’s a hosting or housewarming gift, Motamed shared her favorite Foxtrot brands, including: “New York Shuk, a Moroccan harissa paste made by a Brooklyn-based couple that I have in my fridge, it’s such a good product and I think a lot of people don’t know about it; Frankie’s 457, which happens to be where I ate all my early post-lockdown meals, and the olive oil is a signature there and that’s on my kitchen counter, so that olive oil is in one of my boxes; [and] Diaspora, which is a female-owned fair trade spice company.”

“There’s such a powerful force for diversity and female empowerment — and each of these boxes is like my big hug to these hard-working artisans who make our lives more joyful,” Motamed said.

Motamed “worked very hard” with Foxtrot to bring back experiential joy of discovering new products to an online platform, using evocative descriptions since shoppers don’t have the benefit of tasting or smelling.

“There’s so many things coming at us,” Motamed said, “it’s hard to know who to trust and where to spend your money. Because products are so well made and in small batches, we want to make sure that when you get it home that you feel as good as you did in the moment. It’s full of craft, everything feels like it’s part of a joyful exploration of the best things happening in the food space.”

Niloofar Mirani founded Ajil trailmix inspired by her father’s Persian cooking, which is also vegan, gluten- and sugar-free. [It’s] “what every Persian family has in their house — it’s salty-sweet with cashews and plump raisins,” Motamed described of the product that she felt particularly connected to as an Iranian immigrant. Mirani spent a year with her father sourcing the highest quality nuts and dried fruit and perfecting their ratios in each bag, Motamed said.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Those who wish to spend a few minutes at the edge of Earth’s atmosphere will now have the chance — if they have $450,000 to spare.

Virgin Galactic, the private space tourism firm headed by billionaire Richard Branson, announced Thursday evening that it was officially reopening ticket sales.

The announcement comes on the heels of a successful test flight last month in which Branson and a crew flew to the edge of space in a mission dubbed Unity 22.

“Leveraging the surge in consumer interest following the Unity 22 flight, we are excited to announce the reopening of sales effective today, beginning with our Spacefarer community,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement Thursday as the company announced second quarter earnings. “As we endeavor to bring the wonder of space to a broad global population, we are delighted to open the door to an entirely new industry and consumer experience.”

“Spacefarer community” refers to customers who already have put down a refundable deposit to be first in line to purchase tickets. The company said it intends to offer three consumer offerings for the private astronaut market: a single seat, a multi-seat package for couples or friends and a full-flight buyout. When the firm initially announced it was selling tickets to space a few years ago, the announced price was $250,000.

Branson’s July 11 suborbital flight took heat from critics for stretching the definition of space as the crew did not go above the Karman line (62 miles above Earth) that is defined by many agencies — but not all — as the boundary between the planet’s atmosphere and space.

Still, video from the trip showed Branson and his crew enjoying a few minutes of micro-gravity and the entire crew was presented astronaut wings during a news conference after their landing.

Branson’s role in much-viewed test flight was as a mission specialist, tasked with testing the customer experience.

“I think, like most kids, I have dreamt of this moment since I was a kid and honestly nothing can prepare you for the view of Earth from space,” Branson said after landing. “It’s just magical. I’m just taking it all in. It’s just unreal.”

Just nine days after Branson’s spaceflight, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos took a similar jaunt via a ride from his private space-faring company Blue Origin. Many saw the back-to-back billionaire spaceflights as ushering in a new era in space tourism that has been propelled by a budding commercial space industry dominated by the ultra-rich.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Spirit Airlines customers should expect hundreds more cancellations in the coming days as the airline works to rebuild its network.

CEO Ted Christie said weather issues coupled with staffing shortages led to mass flight cancellations at the airline this week.

“How we got here really starts with a very challenging, operating month in the month of July,” Christie said in an interview with ABC News. “Weather delays and logistics delays throughout the air transportation system built throughout the course of the month and ate away at all the redundancy that we had in our system.”

By the end of July, Spirit was forced to cancel flights for lack of crew availability, leading to a crew disruption throughout the airline’s network.

“They were in the wrong places at the wrong time,” Christie said. “And we needed to start to build that puzzle back together again. And, unfortunately, that takes our group a lot of time to do.”

The carrier has canceled more than 1,700 flights this week alone. Christie said he expects the cancellations to continue into early next week.

“We are starting to turn the tide here and get our operation back moving again,” Christie said. “There will still be cancellations over the next few days, but we can start to build back to a full operation.”

Amid the breakdown at the airline, passengers were left stranded at airports across the country.

Maria Martinez was stuck in Tampa, Florida, for three days, trying to get home to Detroit.

“We boarded the plane, they de-boarded us out of the plane and then they told us it was canceled,” Martinez told Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ.

“It’s been a terrible week for us, for our guests,” Christie said. “We offer our apology to all of our guests that have been impacted here, and to our team members who are working really hard it’s been a rough week for sure.”

Despite this, Christie said he believes they have “taken care of” their guests and have provided adequate accommodations and vouchers.

“We believe we’ve taken care of our guests at this point, and we think we’re caught up there. We’ve either gotten them reaccommodated on Spirit or another airline or we’ve put them into a hotel or gotten them where they needed to be.”

Christie acknowledged Spirit’s reputation has taken a hit due of the issues. He hopes his airline will learn from it.

“While we strive for perfection in everything we do, in the times that we don’t we are humble enough that we look inside and figure out ways to get better and Spirit has been getting better over the last five years or so, and while this has been a terrible last few days we have to do the same thing here.”

Christie said Spirit will be working over the next few days to not only rebuild its network, but its trust with passengers.

“We have to do everything in our power to earn back their confidence, their business,” he said. “And that starts with building the airline back, making it as reliable as we want it to be.”

ABC News’ Mina Kaji contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — U.S. employers added a higher-than-expected 943,000 jobs last month, the Department of Labor said Friday, and the unemployment rate declined by a fraction of a percentage point to 5.4%.

A recent surge in virus cases in the U.S., propelled largely by the spread of the highly contagious delta variant, casts a shadow over the data collected in the earlier part of the month.

While the latest figures indicate the economic recovery is gaining steam, the unemployment rate still remains well above the pre-pandemic figure of 3.5% seen in February 2020.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — United Airlines announced Friday that all U.S.-based employees will be required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and upload their vaccination card to a company site by this fall.

It is the first major U.S. carrier to mandate vaccines for all employees. Delta Air Lines announced earlier this year that it is requiring all new employees to be inoculated.

United joins a growing list of companies that have mandated vaccines for employees in some capacity: Uber, DoorDash, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Walmart and many more.

The airline’s deadline for employees to upload their vaccine card is five weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced it has fully approved a COVID-19 vaccine or five weeks after Sept. 20, whichever comes first.

“For those employees who are already vaccinated — and for those employees who get vaccinated and upload their records to Flying Together before September 20th — we’ll offer an additional day of pay,” United CEO Scott Kirby and United President Brett Hart wrote in a memo to employees.

The executives added, “We know some of you will disagree with this decision to require the vaccine for all United employees. But, we have no greater responsibility to you and your colleagues than to ensure your safety when you’re at work, and the facts are crystal clear: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated.”

United’s decision comes as fears mount about the highly-contagious delta variant.

“Over the last 16 months, Scott has sent dozens of condolences letters to the family members of United employees who have died from COVID-19,” the executives wrote. “We’re determined to do everything we can to try to keep another United family from receiving that letter.”

Last year, major U.S. airline CEOs pointed to low infection rates among their employees in an attempt to prove that air travel is safe.

“At United, but also at our large competitors, our flight attendants have lower COVID infection rates than the general population, which is one of multiple data points that speaks to the safety on board airplanes,” Kirby said during a Politico event in September.

At the time, the largest flight attendant union in the U.S. that represents United flight attendants among other airlines — the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO — said they saw a little over 1,000 flight attendants across the industry contract the novel coronavirus. That represented less than 1% of the roughly 120,000 flight attendants that were employed at the end of last year, and was lower than the reported general infection rate of 2%.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Some major cruise lines 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,” said Cruise Critic Editor-in-Chief Colleen McDaniel. “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” this week — prompting the cruise line to change their policy.

The positive cases are in isolation, but the new mask-wearing rule will begin immediately on the Vista.

Carnival’s policy will go into effect after Aug. 7 through Oct. 31 for other sailings.

“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.

In addition to masking, all fully vaccinated guests will be required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of their embarkation.

“I think the requirements are going to continue to shift based on how we’re seeing the delta variant affect our day-to-day lives, both at home and also as we travel,” McDaniel said. “I think this is going to stick while we figure out how the delta variant is going to affect us, day to day.”

But some experts don’t believe the new rules will deter future passengers.

“What we have found is that cruise passengers want to cruise and that they want to cruise safely,” Cruise Critic Managing Editor Chris Faust told ABC News. “So no matter what they’re doing, they’re going to be following the cruise line protocols in order so that they can stay safe and feel like they’re having a great vacation.”

Dr. Anne Rimoin, an epidemiology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, recommended people determine what their risk threshold is before deciding to take a cruise in light of the growing number of cases.

“You have to think very carefully,” she said. “Do you have someone in your household, who isn’t vaccinated, that is at risk? Do I have small children that could become infected if I get infected?”

She said to keep in mind how contagious the delta variant is, and that it is easier to get COVID now than it has ever been.

“Vaccinated or not, you have to think about your risk, you have to think about where you are, who you’re around and mask accordingly,” she explained.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.