Health

(SAN DIEGO) — A California girl has beaten the odds to reunite with her twin and return home with her family after a six-month stay at a San Diego hospital.

Charlotte and her twin sister, Olivia, were born to Karla and Joshua Valliere last December, but in January, Charlotte was suddenly admitted to Rady Children’s Hospital with breathing difficulties and a respiratory infection.

At first, the Vallieres didn’t know what was wrong. Olivia was healthy, and although Charlotte had been born with one lung, she hadn’t had any issues after birth.

“Her one lung grew like 1.5 sizes, so it was compensating for the lack of the second one. So [doctors] did run all the studies. She was totally fine — oxygenation, everything 100%, so we were cleared to go after four days in the hospital,” Karla Valliere told Good Morning America. “It was six weeks at home — total bliss. Everything was great … and all of a sudden she started having breathing problems.”

The Vallieres took their daughter to Rady on Jan. 29, and she was admitted and placed on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine, or ECMO.

Dr. Matthew Brigger, chief of the pediatric otolaryngology division at Rady Children’s Hospital, started seeing Charlotte, who was just six weeks old at the time. Charlotte would eventually be diagnosed with tracheal stenosis and complete tracheal rings. This meant she had a birth defect with her airway where the rings in her trachea were abnormal and she had an abnormal narrowing of the trachea, or windpipe. She also had a blood vessel wrapped around her trachea.

“This set of anomalies, with the single lung, with the way the aorta was wrapped around the trachea itself and the trachea being this narrow, is actually fairly rare,” Brigger told GMA.

“We knew that she had a critical airway that if anything were to progress, trying to keep her intubated, that was gonna potentially injure the airway and give us more difficulty in repairing it. So the ECMO was sort of a bridge to surgery,” he continued.

But the surgery was a major one and in order to do it, Brigger and the rest of Charlotte’s doctors had to wait until she was big enough, since she and her twin had been born a few weeks early and therefore, Charlotte was small for her age.

“Initially I [told the parents], ‘Well, if we can get through surgery, I’m gonna give her 50-50,” Brigger said. “[But] I’m thinking more 20% of getting through surgery at the time, just knowing how much that we had to go through.”

Despite the low chance of survival, Charlotte’s surgery was a success.

“Fortunately, Charlotte’s a fighter and we got to do the surgery. She sailed through surgery,” he said.

The Vallieres said that throughout the monthslong stay in the hospital and all the ups and downs, with Charlotte’s complications, multiple surgeries and treatment, they drew strength from their own daughter.

“The thing that I think that I believe got us through was her. She never gave any sign of weakness,” the mom of two said.

After spending 185 days in the hospital, Charlotte was finally discharged on Aug. 1, and her parents and twin sister were there to celebrate and bring her home.

“It was just a lot of emotions and it was just a roller coaster. But now we have them together, so it’s worth it,” Karla Valliere added.

Today, Brigger said he doesn’t anticipate Charlotte needing a second lung at all and her future looks bright.

“Prognosis is very good. She may not be running marathons in the future but she is Charlotte so it’s hard to say. She’s proved people wrong all along. I expect her to be able to live a good life,” he said.

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(NEW YORK) — As demand for monkeypox vaccines increases, the World Health Organization (WHO) has begun to receive preliminary reports on the efficacy of the shots, which suggests there are breakthrough cases occurring, officials said Wednesday.

“We have known from the beginning that this vaccine would not be a silver bullet, that it would not meet all the expectations that are being put on it, and that we don’t have firm efficacy data or effectiveness data in this context,” officials said during a press conference.

Some of the reports of breakthrough cases have been among people who received a prophylaxis vaccine after exposure.

“The fact we’re beginning to see some breakthrough cases is also really important information because it tells us that the vaccine is not 100% effective in any given circumstance. Whether preventive or post-exposure, we cannot expect 100% effectiveness at the moment based on this emerging information,” officials said.

This occurrence of breakthrough infections is not new, officials noted, explaining that a limited study from the 1980s demonstrated that the vaccines offered about 85% protection against monkeypox.

“[The] vaccine is not a silver bullet,” officials said, “that every person who feels that they’re at risk and wishes to lower their own level of risk [has] many interventions are at their disposal, which includes vaccinations where available, but also includes protection from activities where there may be a risk — reducing [the] number of sex partners, avoiding group sex or casual sex, and, specifically, when a vaccine is, in fact, administered, waiting until that vaccine has the time to produce a maximum immune response.”

Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced it would move forward with a plan to increase the U.S. monkeypox vaccine supply by as much as five times, using an injection method that requires less vaccine per shot.

Across the country, federal data shows that more than 634,000 doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine have been shipped to states and jurisdictions as of Aug. 12.

The number of monkeypox cases identified across the globe continues to grow, with the total jumping by 20% in the last week, according to the WHO.

Globally, more than 38,000 cases of monkeypox have now been confirmed, according to the CDC, including more than 13,500 cases in the U.S.

The majority of cases, in the current monkeypox outbreak, have been detected in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. However, health officials have repeatedly stressed that anyone can contract the virus.

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(NEW YORK) — A child in Oregon has tested positive for monkeypox, state health officials announced Wednesday, marking the ninth reported pediatric case in the U.S.

“We have a known connection to a previously diagnosed case,” Dr. Dean Sidelinger, health officer and state epidemiologist at the Oregon Health Authority, said in a press release. “This child did not get the virus at school, child care or another community setting.”

The case has been linked to an adult monkeypox infection that was confirmed last month, officials said, adding that public health authorities received the positive test result on Aug. 15.

Health officials have initiated a case investigation and are conducting contact tracing to determine potential exposures. No additional information on the case will be disclosed at this time, due to patient privacy.

A total of 116 presumptive and confirmed cases of monkeypox have been reported in Oregon, including 112 men and four women.

In total, at least 7 U.S. states and jurisdictions have reported pediatric monkeypox cases.

Earlier this week, health officials in Harris County, Texas, confirmed to ABC News that a presumptive case had been identified in a child under the age of 2.

Officials reported the child has been completely asymptomatic, according to the child’s parents, with no other symptoms other than a residual rash. The child is expected to make a full recovery, and is doing “very, very well,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said during a press conference on Tuesday.

“I understand that it’s a very scary thing, and parents have concerns, and what we need to make sure is to be vigilant and understand the risks, not assume the worst. But this reminds us that this is very real,” Hidalgo said.

The family has also been fully cooperative, and is assisting with contact tracing, though the child has not been in any day care or school settings. Thus far, no one else in the child’s circle has been identified as positive for monkeypox, according to officials.

How this child contracted monkeypox is still unknown, Hidalgo said.

“I understand this is a very, very worrisome for parents, especially as school is starting back up knowing that a child in our community has now contracted or as a presumptive positive for the monkey pox virus. It opens up a lot of questions about how this is spread. It makes people very worried. It makes things very tangible,” Hidalgo added.

Although this is indeed a “rare” case, Hidalgo noted that “we always knew that any person in this community can contract monkeypox. We knew that it was possible for a child to be exposed. Anyone can get this virus, so this isn’t entirely unexpected.”

The news of the positive pediatric case in Texas comes after a child in Martin County, Florida, tested positive for monkeypox, according to state health data. The child in Florida is between the ages of 0 and 4 years old, according to the state health data.

Officials in Maine also announced Friday that they, too, had confirmed a positive monkeypox case in a child. No further information about the case has been released due to concerns over patient privacy, officials said.

“Maine CDC [Center for Disease Control and Prevention] is working to identify any others who may have been exposed and make vaccination available to close contacts,” officials wrote in a press release.

In addition to the cases in children reported in Maine and Florida, two cases have been confirmed in California, as well another two in Indiana, and a case in a non-U.S. resident reported in Washington, D.C.

The majority of cases in the current monkeypox outbreak have been detected in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. However, health officials have repeatedly stressed that anyone can contract the virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously warned that there has been some preliminary evidence to suggest that children younger than 8 years old are at risk of developing more severe illness if infected, alongside pregnant people and those who are immunocompromised.

However, last week, in an effort to protect the youngest Americans, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization that allows health care for children under 18 who are at high risk of monkeypox to be vaccinated.

Across the globe, nearly 32,000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported, including nearly 12,000 cases in the U.S. — the most of any country, according to the CDC. All but one U.S. state — Wyoming — have now confirmed at least one positive monkeypox case.

Monkeypox primarily spreads through prolonged skin-to-skin contact with infected people’s lesions or bodily fluids, according to the CDC. In addition to lesions, which can appear like pimples or blisters, the most common symptoms associated with monkeypox are swollen lymph nodes, fever, headache, fatigue and muscle aches.

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(ATLANTA) — A scathing review of how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention handled COVID-19 has found that its approach toward the pandemic failed to meet the moment of crisis, and offered a series of changes intended to revamp the agency and make it more nimble.

“For 75 years, CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement on Wednesday.

A fact sheet outlining the review, obtained by ABC News and confirmed by the CDC, said that the “need for change came through loud and clear.”

Walensky ordered the review in April after the CDC had come under frequent fire for its muddled and inconsistent messaging on COVID mitigation measures.

During interviews with roughly 120 agency staff and key external stakeholders, the review found that it “takes too long for CDC to publish its data and science for decision making,” that its guidance is “confusing and overwhelming” and that agency staff turnover during the COVID response “created gaps and other challenges for partners,” according to findings obtained by ABC News.

And while Walensky also defended, in part, the overwhelming job of handling the pandemic, the center said the country’s public health infrastructure is “frail.” The review also revealed the CDC’s “operating posture” was “not adequate to effectively respond to a crisis the size and scope” of COVID.

The CDC’s goals going forward will focus on improving “accountability, collaboration, communication, and timeliness” within and outside the agency, the report said.

“As a long-time admirer of this agency and a champion for public health, I want us all to do better and it starts with CDC leading the way,” Walensky said in a statement.

As part of the suggested solutions, Walensky committed to sharing scientific findings and data faster, rather than at the typical speed for academic publication.

“Produce data for action” rather than “data for publication,” said a CDC briefing document summarizing the changes.

The new recommendations also put a large emphasis on improving public health communications to the American people. “The website is not easy to navigate,” the document said.

To spearhead the next steps towards the agency’s overhaul, Walensky intends to appoint former Obama administration Deputy Health and Human Services Secretary Mary Wakefield to oversee the shift and “help implement the vision.”

The review also outlines plans to create a new executive council reporting to Walensky, which will “determine agency priorities, track progress, and align budget decisions, with a bias toward public health impact.”

Walensky did not provide a timeline for the changes, but said she will provide regular updates internally.

“None of these challenges happened overnight,” CDC said in a statement. “The work ahead will take time and engagement at all levels of the organization.”

ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss contributed to this report.

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(GENEVA) — The World Health Organization renamed the two known clades, or lineages, of the monkeypox virus Monday.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the lineages will be referred to going forward using Roman numerals.

“The clade formerly known as the Congo Basin or Central African clade will now be referred to as clade I, while the West African clade will be called clade II,” he said during a news conference.

Subsequent lineages will be named using Roman numerals for the clade and lowercase letters will be used for the subclade.

The WHO has been in talks to rename the virus itself due to concerns about stigmatization.

The decision Monday comes as an outbreak of monkeypox spreads around the world with more than 35,000 cases reported to the global health agency.

In the United States, there are more than 12,600 cases across 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The majority of cases in the current outbreak have been reported during intimate contact among men who have sex with men, a group that includes people who identify as gay, bisexual, transgender and nonbinary.

However, the CDC has warned that anybody is at risk of monkeypox infection if they have skin-to-skin contact with a monkeypox patient or make contact with an infected person’s lesions.

At least eight cases among children in six states and D.C. have been reported as well as one case among a pregnant woman.

To avoid infection, the CDC recommends limiting the number of sex partners, avoiding spaces with intimate sexual contact with multiple partners, using condoms and gloves during sexual contact and being fully clothed when attending events such as festivals and concerts.

Last week, researchers from Sorbonne University and Bichat-Claude Bernard University Hospital in France published a case report of a dog that developed monkeypox after being exposed to its owners, which were diagnosed with the disease.

The CDC has since updated its website to state dogs can be infected by humans. It’s unknown if other pets, such as cats, hamsters, gerbils and guinea pigs, can be infected.

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(NEW YORK) — Since the monkeypox vaccine began being distributed in New York City, the rollout has been plagued with issues.

The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has cycled through several scheduling platforms in a matter of weeks, which have experienced crashes as people tried to book appointments.

Additionally, the demand for the vaccine has far outpaced the supply. Whenever the city has released a few thousand vaccine appointment slots, they have been filled up within a matter of hours, sometimes minutes, officials said.

“My general thought about the rollout is that it is a hard situation,” Dr. Dana Mazo, an infectious diseases specialist and clinical associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health, told ABC News. “The good news is that there has been a high demand, that the high-risk communities are definitely interested in the vaccine. And so that is good.”

“But when there is a limited supply, we are put in a hard situation and all of us feel the difficulties,” she added.

Shortage of vaccine doses

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in mid-July it had ordered nearly 7 million doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine, which is a two-dose vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to prevent smallpox and monkeypox. However, they will not all be available until mid-2023.

As of Tuesday, the Biden administration has shipped more than 630,000 doses to states, according to HHS data. An additional 786,000 doses have been allocated, but it will take several weeks to distribute the doses.

So far, New York City has received more than 77,800 doses, HHS data shows, but local health officials estimate that as many as 150,000 residents may be at risk for monkeypox exposure.

Dr. Bruce Y. Lee, a professor of health policy and management at City University of New York School of Public Health, said there are only so many doses that can be sent to the city and state when other places are suffering from large outbreaks.

“New York City obviously has had the most cases, but then you’ve had a lot of cases in other places like California, Illinois, Florida, for instance,” he told ABC News. “So how then do you determine how much of those vaccines are supposed to be in New York versus the other locations?”

There have been some attempts to try to stretch out the supply. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said it is prioritizing administering first doses to get as many people as possible at least some level of protection.

“If you have received the first dose, you will be contacted about scheduling the second dose in the coming weeks,” the department states on its website. “You can wait longer than four weeks between doses.”

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

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

In theory, this should work because the supply would be quintupled and, for example, 6,000 slots being opened would now increase to 30,000 slots, experts said.

However, there are a few roadblocks. Administering vaccines intradermally is a skill that most health care workers are not trained or experienced in, although it can be taught.

It also would require patients to be told that this way of administering is under emergency use authorization rather than full FDA approval.

“The concern is whenever you do things that are off label or splitting doses you have to make sure you get the same efficacy, you get the same protection,” Lee said. “If you do split doses that basically convert the same amount of vaccine to like multiple doses for a greater number of people, we have to ask ourselves what will be the impact in terms of protection?”

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has not stated whether it intends to adopt this strategy.

Glitchy websites and slots filled within minutes

Another problem that has plagued the rollout is the multiple websites that resulted in crashes and glitches as people intend to access them.

In June, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene partnered with MedRite, a chain of urgent care centers, to operate the appointment scheduling website.

The website was scheduled to launch on July 6, but some people were able to access vaccine appointments before the launch time. Officials quickly took down the portal but, when it went back up again, it crashed.

Next, the department turned to Affiliated Physicians, a health care provider, to schedule vaccine appointments.

The website went live on July 12. Less than half an hour later, the health department tweeted the site was down due to a “high level of traffic.”

Eventually, the department switched over to VAX4NYC, the portal that was used for scheduling COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. Amish Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, said VAX4NYC should have been used from the start.

“[The health department] should have used systems that anyone had been familiar with,” he told ABC News. “That was a tried and tested system and had been working fine rather than contracts with certain companies, where they’ve had glitches.”

He continued, “A new system that people had to learn on the fly when there was such demand, I think is not ideal when you’re trying to be as efficient as possible with a resource that was in a very limited supply.”

During a City Council oversight hearing last week looking at “failures of New York City’s technological response under critical demand,” Matt Fraser, the city’s chief technology officer, said the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene contracts with MedRite and Affiliated Physicians were drafted under the administration of former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“This vendor had been previously cleared by another administration,” he said during testimony. “Our look at this is that it’s a vendor that’s done similar work in the city for this purpose, and unfortunately, it did not work out this time.”

Questions have also arisen over MedRite’s role due to being cited for fraud in the past. In 2016, then-New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman settled with MedRite after paying for fake positive reviews on various websites.

“I would just say that this is an important question to ask: how was the trust established that they would be able to deliver in an emergency situation when they’ve already been deemed a fraudulent company?” Adalja said. “They should have articulated the rationale. ‘This is why we use it, and we know we’re going to use it, or they should have said that upfront’ They should be transparent about their decision-making process.”

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(NEW YORK) — Hearing aids can be sold over the counter in an effort to increase access and lower costs, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday. The move will allow those with mild to moderate hearing loss to directly purchase hearing aids from retailers.

Previously, those with mild to moderate hearing loss needed a prescription to receive a hearing aid, which required a medical exam, possibly by a specialist such as an audiologist.

Not only can this process be costly, but it can also take time, depending on provider availability, experts said.

The news was celebrated by the Hearing Industries Association, a group representing hearing aid manufacturers and other industry stakeholders, which said in a statement the “change will expand access to hearing aids among the estimated 38 million Americans who have perceived mild to moderate hearing loss.”

“In the United States, we see wealthier individuals being able to access hearing aids and individuals who are living at or below federal poverty level struggling to access hearing aids,” Dr. Nicholas Reed, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News.

This ruling came just prior to President Joe Biden signing the Inflation Reduction Act on Tuesday, which proponents claim will further reduce drug prices and keep health insurance affordable for millions of Americans.

When will they be available?

“Americans could see over-the-counter hearing aids available as early as mid-October,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said at an FDA briefing Tuesday.

Califf said the ruling will clarify the regulatory requirements for hearing aids and personal sound devices, also referred to as PSAPs. He said it will take time for manufacturers to ensure that they are meeting these new requirements.

“These actions reflect the FDA’s commitment to safely lowering barriers to access, providing consumers with greater choices to lower prices, and helping to facilitate innovation in hearing aid technology,” Califf said.

Who can use them?

“The new over-the-counter category applies to certain air conduction hearing aids, intended for adults aged 18 and older who have perceived mild to moderate hearing loss,” Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, Director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said at an FDA briefing Tuesday.

Air conduction hearing aids are worn inside the ear or on the ear, with an inside the ear component and amplified sound into the ear canal. In an effort to prevent further hearing loss, these devices will have sound limits.

“Hearing aids for severe hearing loss or for users younger than age 18 will be prescription devices, to assure patient safety as well as effectiveness,” Shuren said.

What are the implications?

“The FDA estimates this rule will save consumers on the order of about $1,400 per individual hearing aid, or almost, or over $2,800 per pair. And that’s the direct savings,” Brian Deese, White House Director of National Economic Council, said at the FDA briefing Tuesday.

While these are just estimates in savings, Deese also believes this ruling will increase innovation and competition in the market.

“The requirement to see a doctor or a hearing specialist was an example of what economists call a barrier to entry. It was a regulation that kept more companies or more innovators from entering the market to compete,” Deese said.

Emma Egan is an MPH candidate at Brown University and a contributor to the ABC Medical Unit.

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(NEW YORK) — Monkeypox and related viruses are known for their ability to transmit between humans and animals, but with increasing global spread, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that household pets may be at risk after a dog in France apparently contracted monkeypox from its owners in July, according to a report published in The Lancet journal.

This is the first reported case of human-to-pet transmission of monkeypox.

“We are still learning what different animal species may be susceptible to infection, and this new case report is important because it shows that dogs are able to get the disease,” Dr. Meghan Davis, associate professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News. The CDC says it’s not clear if other animals, like cats, can develop monkeypox, but recommends that people sick with monkeypox take precautions around all animals to be safe.

Monkeypox cases continue to climb across the globe and in the United States, where more than 12,000 Americans have been diagnosed.

For anyone recovering at home, the CDC said it’s important to stay away from other household members — including pets — or take steps to reduce the risk of household transmission if isolating away isn’t possible.

Isolate away from pets if possible

Monkeypox transmission happens during close contact. With pets, this could be through cuddling, hugging, kissing, licking and sharing sleeping areas or food.

If you are diagnosed with monkeypox and have not yet exposed your pet — meaning you haven’t been in contact with the pet since your symptoms developed — try to find a friend or a neighbor to care for your pet. Your isolation period may last two to four weeks. Once your skin lesions are healed, clean and disinfect your home, including washing your bedding, before bringing your pet back home.

Understandably, this may not be possible for everyone.

Hand hygiene and physical distancing can still help

If your pet stays with you while you are isolated, you can still take steps to reduce their risk of transmitting monkeypox.

“Keep your pets, just keep your distance — and don’t let your pet share your bed — if you are diagnosed with or suspect you have monkeypox,” Davis said.

Echoing guidance given when isolating at home with COVID-19, wash your hands every time you touch your pet, wear a mask and try to keep your skin lesions covered. Maintain your distance and don’t let your pet get into contaminated clothes, towels or sheets.

“Pets that had close contact with a symptomatic person with monkeypox should be kept at home and away from other animals and people for 21 days after the most recent contact,” according to CDC guidance.

Call your vet and try to get your pet tested for monkeypox if your pet shows signs of monkeypox infection after exposure

Though we don’t understand all the symptoms of monkeypox in animals, symptoms could look like lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, fever and pimple-like or blister-like rashes.

If one pet gets sick, try to keep them separate from other pets or people at home — especially from anyone in the household who is pregnant, immune compromised or a child.

Keep caring for your pet, do not abandon or euthanize your pet

Monkeypox exposure or diagnosis is not a reason to consider abandoning or euthanizing your pet, the CDC said.

The CDC also recommends that people should not put a mask on their pets, or clean or bathe their pets with chemical disinfectants such as alcohol, hydrogen peroxide or hand sanitizer. Wash your hands often and clean any contaminated bedding or other pet materials following CDC guidance if your pet gets monkeypox.

Quickly dispose of the pet’s waste — do not just leave it on the ground or in the backyard — using a sealed, dedicated trash can, and contact your local public health department for further details on how to handle the contaminated waste.

Dr. Jade A Cobern, board-eligible in pediatrics, is a part of the ABC News Medical Unit and a general preventive medicine resident at Johns Hopkins.

ABC News’ Sony Salzman and Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Newly updated COVID-19 boosters tailored to target a dominant strain of the virus will be available in the next three weeks or so, assuming the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention work through their processes for authorization as expected.

That was White House COVID coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha’s prediction Tuesday at an event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

In late June, the FDA directed Moderna and Pfizer to make vaccines for the upcoming winter that targeted the more contagious BA.5 omicron subvariant, along with the original COVID strain. That work has been underway and the next step is for the FDA and CDC to review data from the companies, once they’ve received it.

Neither the FDA nor the CDC has announced a timeline.

The rollout was expected sometime in September, but Jha’s estimate on Tuesday was the most specific to date.

“We’re going to know more about this in the upcoming weeks and these vaccines will become available by early to mid-September,” he said, again including the caveat that FDA and CDC need to act before anything can be official.

“But the big picture, bottom line, is these are substantial upgrades in our vaccines,” Jha said. “And those vaccines are coming very, very soon.”

Jha also said that he was hopeful there will eventually be enough vaccine supply for any adult who wants a new booster to be able to get one, despite funding squabbles that forced the federal government to order only enough for the most vulnerable Americans.

“We’re still working on trying to pull more resources from other places. I would like to get to a point where every adult in America who wants a vaccine can get one. I’m hopeful we will be there. We’re not quite there yet in terms of how many vaccine doses we’ve been able to buy,” Jha said.

“What’s really limited us is a lack of resources, but we are pulling from other high-priority items. So my hope is that we’re gonna be able to have this for every single adult in America. We will know more about that in the upcoming weeks I think,” he added.

So far the U.S. has contracted for 105 million doses of the newly-updated boosters from Pfizer and 66 million doses from Moderna, the two leading COVID vaccine manufacturers for the country. Both contracts with Pfizer and Moderna include an option for hundreds of millions of more doses down the line, should the U.S. secure the money.

Between Pfizer and Moderna, if both companies were able to complete their orders, the U.S. would have about 171 million doses of the new shots. But more than 260 million Americans have had at least one vaccine dose already and would theoretically consider getting a booster.

On the other hand, demand for boosters has dropped with each campaign for people to get another shot. About 108 million people have received their first booster shot, for example.

The White House said it had pulled $5 billion to cover the cost of vaccines for this fall and winter. Between the $3.2 billion awarded to Pfizer and the $1.74 billion awarded to Moderna so far, the government has hit that ceiling.

Because fall and winter usually bring a high volume of flu cases, Jha also urged the public to get both their flu shots and updated COVID boosters as soon as they could — or else risk a harsh winter of disease with far looser mitigation efforts than each winter of the pandemic so far.

“Our health care system is going to get into serious trouble unless we are very proactive about preventing it — so if we do nothing and just sort of hope for the best, I think we could end up getting into a lot of trouble this fall and winter,” Jha said.

People can get their flu and COVID shot on the same day, Jha noted, and he said he hopes that next year technology will have improved to the point that there’s a two-in-one combination booster available for both the flu and COVID.

He also emphasized the importance of improving ventilation in businesses and schools, which was also prioritized in the latest CDC guidance issued last week.

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(NEW YORK) — At least eight children in the U.S. have now tested positive for monkeypox, after health officials in Harris County, Texas, confirmed to ABC News that a presumptive case had been identified in a child under the age of 2.

Officials reported the child has been completely asymptomatic, according to the child’s parents, with no other symptoms other than a residual rash. The child is expected to make a full recovery, and is doing “very, very well,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said during a press conference on Tuesday.

“I understand that it’s a very scary thing, and parents have concerns, and what we need to make sure is to be vigilant and understand the risks, not assume the worst. But this reminds us that this is very real,” Hidalgo said.

The family has also been fully cooperative, and is assisting with contact tracing, though the child has not been in any day care or school settings. Thus far, no one else in the child’s circle has been identified as positive for monkeypox, according to officials.

How this child contracted monkeypox is still unknown, Hidalgo said.

“I understand this is a very, very worrisome for parents, especially as school is starting back up knowing that a child in our community has now contracted or as a presumptive positive for the monkey pox virus. It opens up a lot of questions about how this is spread. It makes people very worried. It makes things very tangible,” Hidalgo added.

Although this is indeed a “rare” case, Hidalgo noted that “we always knew that any person in this community can contract monkeypox. We knew that it was possible for a child to be exposed. Anyone can get this virus, so this isn’t entirely unexpected.”

The news of the positive pediatric case in Texas comes after a child in Martin County, Florida, has tested positive for monkeypox, according to state health data. The child in Florida is between the ages of 0 and 4 years old, according to the state health data.

Officials in Maine also announced Friday that they, too, had confirmed a positive monkeypox case in a child. No further information about the case has been released due to concerns over patient privacy, officials said.

“Maine CDC [Center for Disease Control and Prevention] is working to identify any others who may have been exposed and make vaccination available to close contacts,” officials wrote in a press release.

In addition to the cases in children reported in Maine and Florida, two cases have been confirmed in California, as well another two in Indiana, and a case in a non-U.S. resident reported in Washington, D.C.

The majority of cases in the current monkeypox outbreak have been detected in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. However, health officials have repeatedly stressed that anyone can contract the virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously warned that there has been some preliminary evidence to suggest that children younger than 8 years old are at risk of developing more severe illness if infected, alongside pregnant people and those who are immunocompromised.

However, last week, in an effort to protect the youngest Americans, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization that allows health care for children under 18 who are at high risk of monkeypox to be vaccinated.

Across the globe, nearly 32,000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported, including nearly 12,000 cases in the U.S. — the most of any country, according to the CDC. All but one U.S. state — Wyoming — have now confirmed at least one positive monkeypox case.

Monkeypox primarily spreads through prolonged skin-to-skin contact with infected people’s lesions or bodily fluids, according to the CDC. In addition to lesions, which can appear like pimples or blisters, the most common symptoms associated with monkeypox are swollen lymph nodes, fever, headache, fatigue and muscle aches.

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