Health

(NEW YORK) — After over 50 years working in public service, Dr. Anthony Fauci is stepping down at the end of the month, though he’s not retiring. Fauci told ABC News he wants to do something outside of federal work while he still has the health, vitality and drive to do so.

And as he gets ready to leave as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and as President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor, one of the things that worries him the most about the state of science and medicine in the U.S. is misinformation.

“Misinformation and disinformation is really hurting so many things, including people’s trust in science,” Fauci told ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent Jen Ashton at the NIH lab. “It becomes very difficult to get people to fully appreciate the truth of what’s going on — which will ultimately impact how we respond, in this case, to a pandemic, like COVID-19.”

Some of that misinformation directly centered around Fauci. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when officials first introduced mask mandates and stay-at-home guidelines, Fauci was a target for conservatives opposed to public health measures. He was falsely accused of wanting to “microchip” Americans with vaccines, of lying to Congress, and trying to amass political power.

Just this past weekend, new Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted Fauci should be prosecuted.

Fauci faced threats starting in 2020, and health department leaders were worried enough about the risk that he got a beefed-up security detail.

“It’s preposterous, how someone who’s done nothing but encourage the population of this country and the world to abide by good public health practices — like getting vaccinated, and keeping up to date on your boosters, and to be careful, such as with indoor congregate settings — that person, i.e. me, all of a sudden becomes the object of vicious attacks,” he said.

Fauci said the most upsetting aspect is the threats to his family.

“What really bothers me is harassing my children and my wife. Give me a freaking break,” he said.

The COVID-19 vaccine is one of the major targets of disinformation, and Fauci was intimately involved in the process. The National Institutes of Health partnered with Moderna on developing an mRNA vaccine, despite the fact that there had never been an approved mRNA vaccine and that Moderna had never put a product on the market.

Fauci said there was some pushback within the government around that decision. But he was confident it was the right call.

“A lot of people, as you might imagine, were saying, ‘Well, why are you doing this? This has never been proven before,'” he said. “And yet, because of the confidence we had in the science, we went with it, and it turned out to be the right choice.”

COVID-19 vaccinations saved more than three million lives in the U.S., according to data released Tuesday from the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit that researches the healthcare system

There’s also been swirling misinformation in and around conversations about the origins of the coronavirus. Scientists may never have a clear-cut answer, and if they ever find one, it could take years, Fauci said. But right now, the data strongly suggests a natural origin for the virus, likely in a bat, he said.

Still, he said he has an open mind about the possibility the virus escaped from a lab — even though he thinks the preponderance of evidence so far suggests that’s not likely.

He said that one of the challenges of getting clear answers is the complexity of the relationship between American and Chinese scientists.

“The hostility and the accusatory nature of it, unless that changes dramatically, I don’t think we’re going to get the information that we need,” Fauci said.

Despite the backlash around public health officials’ actions at the start of the pandemic, Fauci said it’s hard to say if officials should have done anything differently.

“We were dealing with a moving target, where things were different from January, to February, to March, to April, to a year later,” he said. “To have a redo would be to have a magic wand and say from day one, we knew everything we needed to know about the virus.”

The misinformation and attacks aren’t why Fauci is leaving public service — he said he tries to just tune it out.

But the challenges around health misinformation aren’t going away. Twitter said last month that it would stop enforcing its COVID-19 misinformation policies, even as cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the disease in the United States climb.

That’s one reason why Fauci said he might consider joining social media. Without the pulpit of the federal government, he might need to find another way to communicate with the public.

“I do want a venue, or a forum, to be able to express some ideas,” he said. “I wouldn’t rule it out.”

Republican lawmakers have promised to call Fauci back on the record to defend the government’s response to the pandemic. Fauci, who has testified before Congress hundreds of times over the past decades, said he welcomes the opportunity.

“It’s a little bit dicey now because there’s such a degree of divisiveness that’s non-productive,” he said. “All of a sudden … it became normalized to just say things that were completely not true. I hope we get back to differences that are constructive, and part of the greatness of our country.”

Watch Dr. Ashton’s interview with Dr. Fauci on GMA3, Tuesday, Dec. 13 (check local listings) and on ABCNL Prime at 7 p.m.

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(NEW YORK) — COVID-19 hospitalizations among seniors are at least three times higher than any other age group, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of Dec. 7, new hospital admissions per 100,000 for those aged 70 and older sits at 6.93 per 100,000.

The next highest rate is among those between ages 60 and 69, which sits at 2.21 per 100,000, as of Dec. 6.

When looking at rates for younger age groups, the disparity is even greater. Among those aged 17 and younger, the new hospital admissions rate is 0.28 per 100,000.

It comes on the heels of data from the CDC showing that more than 90% of COVID-19 deaths, as of Dec 7, have occurred among those aged 50 or older.

“It sort of really highlights both that this virus is still around and is causing significant illness in our communities, impacting our most vulnerable population, which is the elderly population,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.

Brownstein said the rising hospitalization rates showcases the lack of booster shots received by the older population.

Although the majority of seniors aged 65 and older are fully vaccinated at 93.8%, only a little more than one-third have received an updated bivalent booster dose, according to CDC data.

“The reason we haven’t seen an uptake in this population is probably multifactorial,” Brownstein said. “There’s likely misinformation or misunderstanding about the benefits of boosting.”

He continued, “You know they may have gotten the original vaccine and then the virus, so they feel like they’re [protected]. Additionally, we don’t have the same level of messaging we once did about vaccines.”

Brownstein said there is already evidence that COVID hospitalizations are trending upwards, which could continue with the upcoming holiday season as more people gather indoors — potentially unmasked — and travel.

Additionally, hospitals are feeling the crush of an early respiratory season with both flu and RSV cases filling up emergency rooms and hospital beds — and also mostly affecting seniors.

Data from the CDC shows that as of the week ending Dec. 3, the latest date for which data is available, adults aged 65 and older are being hospitalized for RSV at a weekly rate of 3.5 per 100,000.

What’s more, over the same period, for flu, senior citizens are being hospitalized at a weekly rate of 18 per 100,000, also higher than any other age group, according to the CDC.

Brownstein stressed the importance of making sure seniors are boosted, especially ahead of the holiday season, but also that they received their primary series if they haven’t already.

According to the CDC, as of Sept. 25 — the latest date for which data is available — unvaccinated seniors aged 80 and older are dying at the highest rate of 14.16 per 100,000 followed by unvaccinated seniors aged 65 to 79 at 5.68 per 100,000.

“Vaccination really remains the cornerstone of the response,” Brownstein said. “Trying to improve education and access, combatting misinformation and getting information out ahead of the holiday season.”

He added that although it’s important for this group to get the shots themselves, the rest of the community also needs to do the same, particularly because children can unknowingly pass the virus to their parents or grandparents.

“Ultimately we need to do what we can to protest our most vulnerable, the ones who may not be able to mount a good immune response to vaccines,” Brownstein said. “Of course, we also need to be appropriately cautious, making sure we’ve acting responsibly.”

 

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(NEW YORK) — Dr. Santosh Pandipati has seen up close the impact of climate change on his personal and professional life.

“I’ve taken care of patients who’ve had to flee wildfires,” the San Francisco-based physician told ABC News. “The same wildfires that led to the terrible air quality that my family and I had to breathe.”

“We understand that excess heat exposure, air pollution, particulate air pollution, especially, has adverse impacts on pregnancy outcomes and not just pregnancy outcomes,” said Pandipati, who is a maternal fetal medicine specialist in the Bay Area and has been researching the connections between climate change and health for the past five years.

Studies have found that high ambient temperature can increase the risk of preterm births and that ambient air pollution can decrease birth weight in some populations.

When speaking with new and expectant mothers, Pandipati said he leans on the studies’ findings when he discusses the spread of infectious diseases, heat and air pollution avoidance as well as disaster readiness.

“This is a topic that’s unfortunately going to impact your family,” he said. “It’s going to impact everyone’s family.”

A scientific review published in 2015 found a relationship between climate change exposure and several adverse pregnancy outcomes including eclampsia, preeclampsia, cataracts, low birthweight, preterm birth and hypertension.

A study published in 2020 found that heat exposure may have attributed to an estimated 25,000 early births per year between 1969 and 1988.

“There are significant mental health harms: anxiety, depression [and] PTSD,” Pandipati added. “We also understand that the offspring, the babies, are at risk for lower birth weight, stillbirth [and] premature birth.”

Pandipati and another researcher, David E. Abel, predict climate change and extreme weather events may be linked to increase anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders and effect women disproportionately. Research has shown that in addition to lower birthrates and preterm births, climate change can be linked to an increase in the likelihood of stillbirths due to extreme heat.

Esther McCant, a Miami-based doula, told ABC News she regularly gives her clients information about climate change and specifically how it might impact their pregnancies. A doula assists pregnant women by offering information, as well as emotional and physical support during labor.

The advice she gives expectant mothers, based in part on guidance from the Western States Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, include hurricane preparation, the importance of hydration, how to manage extreme heat as well as tips for getting government and employer support.

In one example she gave, she evacuated from Florida to Georgia along with her expectant client and their respective children when Hurricane Irma hit Florida in 2017.

Her client was “already dealing with issues with her housing,” McCant told ABC News, and “didn’t feel safe to stay in her home.”

During the experience of evacuating, McCant realized, “that pregnancy is not often seen as a special circumstance to pay attention to during a hurricane,” she said.

For McCant, it’s a part of her work that she is expanding. “I’m actually working on training other doulas about climate change,” she said.

Despite the obstacles to climate change reduction, Pandipati is hopeful.

“We are not too far gone,” he said. “We absolutely still have the ability to mitigate and reduce the impact that we have had and to course correct.”

“I think this is an opportunity for the health care community to really speak up,” he said. “I think we can do it. It just takes the right will, and I think we can find that will.”

 

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(NEW YORK) — Justice Brooks is 19 years old and a majority of his lifetime has been spent searching for a bone marrow donor.

“I always knew that I had a medical condition and that … my life was a little bit different,” Brooks told Good Morning America.

Brooks was diagnosed with sickle cell disease when he was 11 months old. His mother Raychelle Brooks said she knew early on that something was not right.

“My child was so swollen, his face was glassy, and when I touched him, he moaned,” said Raychelle Brooks. “I was crying because my touch would make him cry louder.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sickle cell disease is made up of a group of inherited red blood cell disorders, when abnormal protein in the blood causes red blood cells to become hard, sticky and like a C-shaped farm tool called a “sickle.” As a result, the blood cells will get stuck and clog blood flow, causing severe pain.

Dr. Michelle Schoettler is a pediatric hematologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and treats patients with the disease. She said many of her patients report pain outside of the widely-used 1 to 10 pain scale.

“Many of my patients would say they have pain at 11 – beyond the scale,” said Schoettler.
To help continue to raise awareness of the bone marrow registry, GMA is partnering with Be The Match in our “One Match, Second Chance” series from September 20 through February 20 to continue to raise awareness and to help save lives. Learn how to take the first step to sign up to become a donor today.

Raychelle Brooks is the mother of Justice Brooks.

Brooks nearly came close to having a life-saving bone marrow transplant last summer, but because his donor wasn’t a perfect match, there was a complication that stopped the process.

“While I was going through the process, I caught a lung infection and they had to stop it immediately,” said Brooks.

After years of waiting, Raychelle Brooks said that moment felt like when the “Earth stopped moving.”

“I normally am very strong for my baby, but I couldn’t even look at him. It took everything out of me. It was hard to breathe,” said Raychelle Brooks. “I’ve never felt so hopeless in life. But I was so happy he pulled through.”

Sickle cell disease is most common among those of African American descent, occurring among about 1 out of every 365 Black or African-American births, according to the CDC.

Only 7% of the 9 million U.S. donors in the match registry are African American, according to Be The Match.

“If you are a Caucasian – from European descent, you have an 80+ percent chance of finding an excellent match in the registry. And if you are Black or African American like Justice, your chances are much lower – 30 percent,” said Schoettler.

As Brooks gets older, his chances in finding a successful bone marrow transplant decreases even further.

But there is still hope. This fall, NBA Celtics star Marcus Smart became an advocate for “Be The Match,” to help spread the word of people like Brooks.

Smart said the cause “hits home” because he lost his oldest brother and mother to cancer.

“So for me to be able to join and educate people and get that notice out there, that we need this to increase when it comes to getting matches,” said Smart.

Brooks and Smart were able to meet up and discuss ways to further raise awareness for the registry.

“It’s just really great to see the work that he’s doing and continuing to stay positive with everything he’s going through in life,” said Smart. “To this day we still check up on each other.”

Brooks said he’s grateful for how far he’s come, but continues to look at the future.

“I’ve just made a bunch of memories. I’ll never forget these things, so I really appreciate Marcus,” he said. “I feel hopeful that one day I’ll have that perfect match.”

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(NEW YORK) — A couple of months ago, the mpox outbreak seemed poised to overwhelm the United States. Cases were, in some instances, doubling every week with no signs of slowing down.

However, the outbreak has taken a dramatic turn in the right direction.

The average number of daily cases has fallen to six, as of Dec. 7, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What’s more, the Biden administration announced last week it would let the emergency declaration expire in January.

Public health experts told ABC News that the combination of people changing their behaviors and a strong vaccination campaign helped beat back the disease.

“This really, I think, is a good success story of patients, and really the general public, taking steps to protect themselves,” Dr. Dana Mazo, an infectious diseases specialist and clinical associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health, told ABC News. “For patients, hearing what the data is, hearing what the recommendations were and really doing what they could to protect themselves and their communities.”

Vaccine rollout

Currently, the JYNNEOS vaccine, a two-dose vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration to prevent smallpox and mpox, is the only vaccine being used in the U.S.

Data from Africa has shown two doses of JYNNEOS are at least 85% effective in preventing mpox infection.

To increase the number of JYNNEOS doses available, the FDA authorized a proven strategy in August to inject the vaccine intradermally, just below the first layer of skin, rather than subcutaneously, or under all the layers of skin.

This allows one vial of vaccine to be given out as five separate doses rather than a single dose.

Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told ABC News that during the early weeks of the outbreak, there were concerns around vaccine supply, so only those with limited or suspected exposures were recommended for vaccination.

“But then as the supply was expanded through the intradermal dosing, it became more feasible, especially in those cities where there were the highest numbers, to broaden vaccination to people potentially at risk, and even without known exposures or suspected exposures,” he said. “And I think that did play an important role.”

As of Dec. 6, more than 1.1 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in the U.S., CDC data shows.

Public changing their behaviors

The experts said another reason for the decline is that Americans who were the most at-risk changed their behaviors.

“The most important [factor] was really effective messaging by public health authorities in close collaboration with affected communities, to help educate people about mpox in a way that wasn’t stigmatizing,” said Kuritzkes.

He continued, “And in order for people to be able to both recognize the signs and symptoms of infection, and then not only get treatment for themselves, but take appropriate measures to prevent transmission to others, but also ways in which people if not yet exposed and not yet infected, could minimize their chances of becoming infected with mpox.”

The outbreak has primarily been concentrated in men who have sex with men, a group that includes people who identify as gay, bisexual, transgender and nonbinary, although health officials have said anyone — regardless of sexual orientation — is at risk if they have direct contact with an infected patient.

But this group listened to doctors’ advice on how to lower their risk and followed suit, experts said.

A joint survey from the CDC, Emory University and Johns Hopkins University found about one-half of gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men reduced their number of sexual partners, one-time anonymous partners, and reduced use of dating apps.

“So really, people responded to the data that was coming out saying that this bulk of the transmission is from casual sexual encounters, and really changed their behavior,” Mazo said.

Not taking foot off the gas

Experts told ABC News even if the number of cases has substantially declined, it doesn’t mean that the threat of mpox has been eliminated.

“I would be cautious about claiming victory, I think it would mean that we were really successful in bringing this epidemic to a close, but we need to remain vigilant,” Kuritzkes said.

They also encourage Americans to get vaccinated against mpox if they are at risk.

Although the disease does not spread through airborne droplets but rather from close, personal, often skin-to-skin interactions, including hugging, touching and prolonged face-to-face contact, the risk is still higher as Americans gather together for the holidays.

Vaccination “is still important, especially because we will see what happens, in the wintertime, when people perhaps are going to be inside more and sort of sharing spaces, again, holiday parties, other things,” Mazo said. “I would still recommend to my patients who are at risk to consider vaccination and discuss vaccination with them, because it would be the best way to protect themselves.”

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(LONDON) — Racism and discrimination must be acknowledged as public health threats in the fight to address global health disparities, according to a new study.

As part of the four-paper series published in The Lancet medical journal Thursday, researchers from countries around the world, including the U.S., U.K., Brazil and India, carried out a major review of scientific literature and used data from hundreds of articles in recent years.

The tendency among health professionals has been to explain unequal health outcomes on either genetics or economic conditions, according to the study’s authors. But in order to tackle racial health inequities, racism and discrimination themselves should be classified as public health threats globally, the authors say.

“Racism has always been a public health threat,” Alexandre White, assistant professor of sociology and the history of medicine at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, told ABC News. “It has emerged time and time again, especially over the last 10 to 15 years.”

Research into the intersection of race and health disparities has advanced in recent years, particularly in the U.S. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention almost every two in three pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. A 2020 report found that non-Hispanic Black women experienced a higher pregnancy-related mortality rate — a disparity placing them nearly three times more at risk of dying due to pregnancy-related causes compared to non-Hispanic white women.

The report’s authors also found evidence of disproportionate impact from the pandemic, vaccine inequality and climate change on minority groups.

“This study is tremendously important [as] it sheds light on the fundamental role that racism, xenophobia and forms of discrimination actually play on health, both from a structural level and generational level over time,” White said. “But also fundamentally since the COVID-19 pandemic we’ve seen the ways in which, especially racism and xenophobia, affects who gets sick, how seriously and why.”

The study also reports that racial biases in health care can lead to a stress response — affirming previous studies that found discrimination, whether overt or covert, can lead to chronic stress responses which can affect human neurological and immune systems. That chronic stress response can lead to lower life expectancies and is associated with other health complications such as anxiety, depression and heart disease.

“It’s not only because of racism at the individual interpersonal level,” Dr. Abi Deivanayagam, a public health doctor, researcher, activist and one of the study’s authors, told ABC News. “It’s racism in the way that our society is structured. And that’s very real. And it’s really important that we acknowledge this in a medical journal like The Lancet so that health people recognize that this is something this is our duty of care to patients. And our care really has to go beyond the individual to making sure that our systems are safe for our patients.”

Although discrimination against minority groups comes in different forms around the world according to such factors as race, ethnicity and religion, a pattern of worse health outcomes for minority groups can be seen globally.

According to Deivanayagam, the study has drawn two major conclusions.

“One thing is that there is evidence globally that shows that racism, xenophobia and discrimination affect a range of different health outcomes, and that this is embedded across different levels of society and that it affects people across the course of their lives ranging from COVID-19, to vaccines, to actually getting health care access,” she told ABC News. “The second thing is that we need to get to the root cause of this. And the way we do that as health professionals is to recognize that racism, xenophobia and discrimination are actually a public health threat.”

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(NEW YORK) — Céline Dion’s public announcement that she has a neurological disease is shining a spotlight on the rare condition known as stiff-person syndrome.

In a taped video message shared to her Facebook and Instagram pages on Thursday, the iconic singer, 54, said, “Recently, I have been diagnosed with a very rare neurological disorder called the stiff-person syndrome, which affects something like 1 in 1 million people.”

What is stiff-person syndrome?

Dr. Leah Croll, an assistant professor of neurology at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, sees and treats patients with neurologic diseases that affect the brain, spinal cord or peripheral nerves, including stiff-person syndrome.

Croll agreed with Dion’s statement that stiff-person syndrome is not common, calling it an “exceptionally rare disease.”

“It occurs only in about one to two people per million,” Croll told ABC News’ Good Morning America.

Who can get stiff-person syndrome?

Croll explained that people between the ages of 20 and 50 tend to be diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome, and although rare, it can appear in children and older adults too.

Overall, women are “two to three times” more likely to have stiff-person syndrome than men.

“We think it’s because this disease may have an autoimmune component, and in general, women are higher risk for autoimmune diseases,” Croll said. “But this is theoretical. We’re not totally certain as of yet.”

What are the symptoms of stiff-person syndrome?

In her video, Dion revealed some of the symptoms of stiff-person syndrome she has experienced.

“While we are still learning about this rare condition, we now know this is what has been causing all of the spasms I have been having. Unfortunately, these spasms affect every aspect of my daily life, sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal chords to sing the way I am used to,” she said.

Croll said other symptoms that can indicate someone has stiff-person syndrome include rigidity and stiffness of certain areas of the body causing unsteadiness, slower movements and difficulties walking, something Dion said she has had in addition to difficulties singing.

“Typically, patients will present with stiffness in the muscles of the trunk, neck and back, and also … the shoulders and the hips. In some cases, patients may have the disease that only implicates maybe just one limb, so like just one leg is affected,” Croll said.

“The key here is that this stiffness would be so profound that it impairs someone’s ability to move normally,” Croll added. “And the most common symptom for these patients is going to be difficulties with walking.”

Croll also noted that people with stiff-person symptoms can also develop other conditions like anxiety and phobias as a result of their physical symptoms.

What treatment is available for stiff-person syndrome?

There are treatments to address the symptoms of stiff-person syndrome available but there is currently no cure for the chronic and progressive condition.

“Most patients, as a first line, will be given medications that are meant to help relax the muscles. And in some patients, their doctors may also choose to pursue certain therapies that are meant to modulate the immune system,” Croll said. “It’s important though, to point out that these are therapies that are meant to lessen the severity of symptoms or potentially slow the progression of symptoms, but we don’t have a therapy available that specifically targets this disease.”

As stiff-person syndrome is rare, there has not been sufficient research and Croll said there are currently no major clinic trials for the disease.

Does stiff-person syndrome affect life expectancy?

Doctors do not currently know whether stiff-person syndrome impacts an individual’s life expectancy, according to Croll, who said some patients have lived a few years after diagnosis while others have gone on to live for decades.

The bottom line

Croll cautioned that stiff-person syndrome is not commonly seen in the general population but advised that individuals concerned about symptoms they’re experiencing can start a discussion with their primary care provider who can also provide a referral to a neurologist.

“This is a very rare condition that most people should not worry about. But anyone who is experiencing symptoms in their muscles that are interfering with their ability to move normally would benefit from consultation with a neurologist to work that up,” Croll said.

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(NEW YORK) — Across the country, parents are searching for solutions as demand for pediatric medications surges while over-the-counter medications, and a popularly prescribed antibiotic, are in reported short supply.

Aselyn Schott, a mother from Colorado, said her 5-year-old daughter was prescribed amoxicillin for an ear infection. She said her doctor warned her it would be difficult to find.

“I was just running down the line, ‘Nope, we don’t have it. Nope, we don’t have it,'” Schott told Good Morning America. “And nobody was really giving me a suggestion as to what to do so I just kept calling and calling.”

Oral amoxicillin is the most common antibiotic prescribed in primary care practices and it’s used to treat some bacterial infections in children, such as bacterial ear and lung infections, according to the National Library of Medicine. It does not treat infections due to viruses.

The Food and Drug Administration added amoxicillin, specifically amoxicillin oral powder, to the drug shortage list on Oct. 28, 2022. There is currently no estimate of when supply of the drug will increase.

The FDA’s most recent update on flu antivirals says there isn’t an official shortage of Tamiflu, although “we are aware that there may be localized shortages where demand is especially high.”

In a statement to ABC News, Walgreens said “although demand for pediatric and adult OTC medications have increased, Walgreens is prepared and able to continue meeting the needs of our customers and patients. We are working with our diverse set of suppliers and distributors to ensure our patients have the products they need most.”

CVS said, “We’re currently seeing increased demand for cold, flu and pain relief products. We’re committed to meeting our customers’ needs and are working with our suppliers to ensure continued access to these items. In the event a local store experiences a temporary product shortage, our teams have a process in place to replenish supply.”

Erin Fox, the senior pharmacy director at the University of Utah Health, said very few over-the-counter drugs are truly in shortage, but some drugs many not be in the right place at the right time. She said if you are concerned about getting a prescription medication, ask your doctor for a written prescription instead of submitting it electronically or ask for a different formula or dosage that is less in demand.

“There are substitutes, there are chewable amoxicillin tablets that some children can use. There are also different strengths of liquid,” Fox said to ABC News. “Maybe just go right back to the prescriber and say, ‘Hey, I’m striking out, is there another strength? Or even is there another medicine?'”

For Schott, she said she tried 18 pharmacies before finding one pharmacy that could fill the prescription for her daughter.

“I was relieved just to hear those words, ‘We have it in stock,’ but that pharmacy was about 45 minutes away from me, so I was really nervous because they couldn’t hold it for me,” said Schott. “I was nervous that it was going to run out by the time that I even got there.

“Once I got there and had it in hand. It was just like a big sigh of relief and I actually gave her a dose of medicine right in the car,” she said.

What can worried parents do?

•     Visit different pharmacies and reputable medication retailers: Medications could be found by visiting different pharmacies and reputable medication retailers, by ordering online or in-person.
•     Check back later: Stores can likely resolve the empty shelf problem once they place new orders.
•     Generic alternatives: For over-the-counter drugs, your favorite brand name may not be available, but a generic is a safe alternative (i.e., If the Tylenol brand is not available, use generic acetaminophen).

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(WASHINGTON) — Dr. Peter Marks, the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine chief, said he is well aware that COVID-19 booster uptake might be low for the latest shot, authorized by the government on Thursday morning for young children over 6 months old, but he told ABC News that he’s hopeful increased access may also lead to some kids getting greater protection against the virus ahead of the winter, when infections can be more likely.

The updated bivalent booster that targets multiple newer strains of the virus, will likely be available early next week for the youngest children, Marks said in an interview. That age group is the last to become eligible for the new booster.

So far, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less than 10% of kids under 5 have gotten their initial COVID-19 vaccines — which means there’s a very small pool of children who are even eligible for boosters. But Marks hopes that those vaccinated children will soon get their boosters, and unvaccinated children will be encouraged to get their first series.

“The whole point of today’s action was to ensure that those parents who have decided to take advantage of the fact that we do have a vaccine that can help prevent the worst outcomes from COVID-19, such as hospitalization and death … could have the benefit of having the most up-to-date version of the vaccine, which is the bivalent vaccine,” Marks said.

“Hopefully this is also an opportunity that the 90% of parents who have not vaccinated their children in this age range will consider doing so. Because not being vaccinated at all puts one at risk for the worst outcomes from COVID-19,” he added.

Under the new authorization, children under 6 who received the Moderna vaccine can get a bivalent booster at least two months after their first series of shots.

For children under 5 who received the Pfizer vaccine, it’s slightly different: Kids can get the newly authorized bivalent booster in place of the third shot in the Pfizer series for young kids. And going forward, any young child who gets the three-shot Pfizer series will get two primary shots and then the bivalent booster.

On a larger scale, vaccine uptake for the youngest age group has traditionally been far lower than other groups throughout the pandemic.

And even for older age groups, booster uptake has been very low over the three months that bivalent shots have been on the market.

According to the CDC, just under 13% of people over 5 years old have gotten a bivalent booster. The rate is highest for people over 65, for whom around one-third have been boosted.

Everyone over age 12 became eligible for bivalent boosters in September, so long as it had been three months since their last vaccine. Then in October, the eligibility expanded to everyone over age 5.

And now, in December, babies as young as 6 months old are eligible as well.

Public health officials have long hoped that the arrival of cold weather and flu season would give people a natural push to get up-to-date on both their flu vaccines and their COVID-19 boosters.

But that bump in COVID-19 shots hasn’t quite materialized, Marks acknowledged, and he’s not sure that uptake will budge all that much over this winter season — despite his avid recommendations.

“I don’t quite fully understand why there’s significant hesitancy to get the bivalent boosters. I think I’m the first to acknowledge that these vaccines are not perfect. They’re not going to give you 100% protection against COVID-19. And perhaps because people have heard, ‘Well, I got the booster but I got COVID,’ there’s some skepticism there,” Marks said.

But inoculation will still cut down on the chances of contracting the virus and keep people out of the hospital, he said.

“Even if it’s not perfect — it’s the best you can do,” Marks said. “I will repeat something that has done me well to date, which is perfection is the enemy of good.”

Marks particularly encouraged getting vaccinated and boosted ahead of the winter season, when he predicted that cases were likely to go up and hospitals could be strained from the combination of heavy RSV and flu cases.

Already, wastewater surveillance systems across the country have begun to pick up upticks in COVID-19 cases, and Marks called the increasing slope of cases “disturbing.”

“From what I can see happening over the recent past, I think the good news is, we’re not likely to see the number of deaths that we’ve seen in previous winters. The part that is concerning is that we could see a large number of cases,” he said.

“We’re also seeing hospitalizations rise significantly and deaths, which had been declining, are starting to increase again. Once people see that, my guess is that will drive them to potentially consider this,” Marks said. “Though I wouldn’t wait for that.”

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(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles County said Thursday it is holding off on issuing an indoor mask mandate amid rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

During a press conference, LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said the county had moved into the “high” COVID-19 community transmission category, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but it would be sticking with its “strong recommendation.”

Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer left the option of a mask mandate on the table, but if and only if 10% of county hospital beds are filled with COVID patients.

Right now that number is only 6.9%, and the rate of increase has slowed in the past week. Ferrer said it’s not a forgone conclusion that the county will reach that critical level during the current surge.

“Being at a high community level does not mean returning to the more restrictive and disruptive measures that we used at earlier times in the pandemic, before we had good access to vaccines, boosters, testing and therapeutics,” she said at the conference.

This is a reversal from previous policy in the county that moving into the CDC’s “high” transmission level would spur a mandate. The changing guidance comes as the health department has dangled the prospect of an impending mask mandate for weeks in a row for the second time this year.

“We do ask that while we are in surge everyone ages two and older wear a mask in indoor public spaces,” Ferrer said.

As of Wednesday, Los Angeles County is recording more than 5,000 daily cases, the highest number recorded since Aug. 1, according to an ABC News analysis of health department data.

It’s also an 80% increase from the 2,805 cases recorded just two weeks ago on Nov. 23, the analysis found.

However, officials have previously stated that the true number of cases is likely much higher due to people testing positive and not reporting their results to the department or not testing at all.

What’s more, a total of 1,293 people are hospitalized with the virus as of Wednesday, a figure not seen since July 18, according to the analysis.

Masks continue to be compulsory indoors at healthcare and congregate-care facilities, at business where required and for anyone who has been exposed to COVID in the last 10 days.

Officials have stressed the importance of being vaccinated and boosted to prevent infection and severe disease, especially as the holiday season approaches.

As of Nov. 27 — the latest date for which health department data is available — 73% of all residents are fully vaccinated but the percentages vary widely by age.

Seniors aged 65 and older have the highest rate with 92% fully vaccinated while children between ages 6 months and 4 years have the lowest rate with just 6% fully vaccinated.

ABC News’ Matthew Fuhrman contributed to this report.

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