Health

(NEW YORK) — As the nation’s COVID-19 resurgence reaches its highest point since mid-February, daily hospital admission levels and new COVID-19 related deaths in the U.S. are projected to continue increasing over the next four weeks, according to newly updated forecast models used by the CDC.

The forecast now predicts that nearly every U.S. state and territory is projected to see increases in new hospitalizations over the next two weeks.

Models also show that about 5,300 deaths will occur over the next two weeks. California, New York, Georgia and Florida are projected to see the largest death tolls in the weeks to come.

In the weeks after the U.S. surpassed 1 million confirmed COVID-19 related deaths, models estimate that a total of 1,010,800 fatalities will be recorded by June 11.

The projected increases come as infection rates continue to rise across the country, with a growing number of COVID-19 positive patients, once again, entering hospitals and requiring care, federal data shows.

There are now more than 24,300 virus-positive Americans currently receiving care in the U.S. — the highest total since mid-March, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Although totals remain significantly lower than during other parts of the pandemic, when there were more than 160,000 patients hospitalized with the virus, more than 3,000 virus-positive Americans are entering the hospital each day — an average that has increased by 18.7% in the last week, and approximately doubled in the last month.

Admission levels are now on the rise in every region of the country, and the number of virus-related emergency room visits are now at their highest point since February.

Pediatric hospital admissions have also increased by about 70% over the last month.

Nationally, new infection rates have reached their highest point in nearly three months. An average of 94,000 new cases are being officially reported each day, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. In the last six weeks, new cases nationally have nearly quadrupled.

In the last week alone, the U.S. has reported nearly 660,000 new cases.

President Joe Biden’s new coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Ashish Jha, acknowledged during a White House press briefing on Wednesday that the U.S. is currently seeing “a lot of infections,” which he said is largely the result of highly infectious omicron subvariants spreading across the country.

“Right now, [there are] some areas of increased infection and hospitalization in the Northeast and Eastern corridor as well as in the Upper Midwest,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on Wednesday. “But we’ve seen with prior increases, different waves of infection have demonstrated that this travels across the country and has the potential to travel across the country.”

The Northeast remains the nation’s most notable COVID-19 hotspot. Many of the states with the highest case rate per capita over the last week — Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, and New York — are located in the Northeast. Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Hawaii, have also all seen high case rates.

According to the CDC’s community levels, 32% of Americans live in an area with a medium or high COVID-19 community level. Since the prior week, an additional 8% of the US population is living in a county with the medium or high COVID-19 community level, Walensky reported.

The high community level suggests there is a “high potential for healthcare system strain” and a “high level of severe disease,” and thus, the CDC recommends that people wear a mask in public indoor settings, including schools.

Officials noted that with more at-home COVID-19 tests now available, most Americans are not reporting their results to officials, and thus, infection totals are likely significantly undercounted.

“We know that the number of infections is actually substantially higher than that. It’s hard to know exactly how many but we know that a lot of people are getting diagnosed using home tests,” Jha explained.

However, even with the rise in infections and hospitalizations, Jha stressed that the U.S. is “in way better place than where we were two years ago,” thanks to key tools such as vaccines, therapeutics and testing access.

“We’ve got to keep using [those tools] as the virus evolves and as the virus continues to do what it’s doing,” Jha said, noting that he remains concerned about the U.S. outlook for the fall and winter, as he reiterated his call for Congress to approve $22.5 billion in COVID-19 funding.

“There’s a range of models out there of what we might see in the fall and winter,” Jha said. “We have got a plan for a range of scenarios…we have to plan for a scenario where we don’t get any more resources from Congress. I think it’d be terrible. I think we’d see a lot of unnecessary loss of life, if that were to happen. But we’re looking at all the scenarios, and planning for all of them.”

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(NEW YORK) — For millions, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant working from home, seeing friends and family less and other changes to life as they knew it.

In many cases, it also meant dealing with the virus either themselves or with a loved one.

Restrictions came and went and widespread vaccination and boosters brought the promise of a return to normalcy, especially as the omicron wave subsided.

But for some, the pandemic has meant one thing — isolation with no end in sight.

Sara Anne Willette, an Iowa resident who has common variable immunodeficiency, said she has spent more than 750 days in lockdown since the pandemic began.

For her, staying inside is a life-or-death decision. Her common variable immunodeficiency means she has low levels of protective antibodies and is constantly at an increased risk of falling seriously sick.

“If there’s anyone in the country who’s suffered the most from lockdown, it’s us because nobody else will do what’s necessary so that we don’t have to live in lockdown,” Willette said.

Before COVID-19, Willette had long been taking the health precautions that were implemented nationwide during the pandemic: She wore masks, avoided busy shopping times and only went out of the house for special occasions.

She fell ill often and easily, whether it was from a day in the office as a data analyst or a big family gathering. So when the pandemic began, she knew she, her husband and her son would have to isolate entirely.

As safety precautions are being abandoned across the country two years later, her husband has been told to go back to work in person. She says their livelihoods — literally and professionally — are now at stake.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed their guidelines for indoor masking in February, with about 90% of Americans no longer advised to wear face coverings inside. The CDC now bases mask recommendations on local levels of COVID-19 cases.

Simultaneously, most states have dropped COVID-related restrictions in recent months. Hawaii became the final state to uphold an indoor mask mandate and many places have dropped mask recommendations for all but the youngest students.

For those who’ve been stuck inside for two years, the change in restrictions has left them wondering: when will their isolation end?

“I’m happy to protect myself, but then the ability to protect ourselves gets taken away,” she said, referring to the CDC’s easing recommendations and a nationwide shift toward “normalcy.”

Tinu Abayomi-Paul, 49, who is immunocompromised due to previous episodes of cancer, said her two-year lockdown was no match for the change in COVID-19 policies. When Texas state-sponsored homeschooling expired, her son went back to a school with no COVID-19 restrictions, she said.

“Seven-hundred fifty-seven days in isolation, I don’t care. I’ll do it for the rest of my life if that’s what’s necessary. But don’t expect me to choose between poverty that leads to death or infection that leads to death,” said Willette. “My only direction is ‘dead.'”

“It’s like the first day they came back, I got sick,” Abayomi-Paul said. “I got way sicker than I’ve been in decades.”

Her son brought back COVID-19 in February and she now has pneumonia months later. The infection also triggered her chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL, a type of cancer affecting her white blood cells, which help fight infection, she said, so she’s now re-treating her cancer.

“People will go to marathons and wear ribbons for people with cancer, but a mask is too much to ask. It’s ridiculous,” Abayomi-Paul said.

Charis Hill, 35, who has a systemic inflammatory disease and take immunosuppressive medications, has said they have also been isolating for the past two years from their home in California.

They had to decide whether or not to get a surgery done and if the hospital would be taking the necessary precautions to make them feel safe.

“I had a really upsetting experience with a medical provider who refused to wear her surgical mask correctly,” they said.

They had the surgery done, but not without concern.

“From that point up to the day of surgery, I was not focused on surgery at all but more focused on fighting for my rights as a disabled person of having a safe health environment,” they said.

Fears about the coronavirus continue to ripple among cautious Americans. According to a report by health research organization KFF, even with most local and state restrictions lifted, 59% of people surveyed reported limiting their behaviors, with 42% doing some but not all their pre-pandemic activities.

Seventeen percent said they do very few of their normal activities.

However, 27% say they have essentially returned to life as it was before the COVID-19 pandemic and 14% of respondents have not changed their behavior.

Those who spoke with ABC News urged leaders to continue to recommend or require precautions in public.

For them, a return to normal isn’t possible until COVID-19 subsides and the outside world proves safe for even the most vulnerable.

“We do not do anything. And it’s devastating,” said Dawn Gibson, a Michigan woman with the inflammatory disease ankylosing spondylitis, ​a condition where the bones in the spine can fuse over time. She said she’s missed work conferences, baby showers, other important life events — all to stay alive and healthy.

“I feel like I live in a parallel universe. And life and culture and society and just everything about being alive is in the other one. I have never felt more forgotten in my life,” she said.

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(NEW YORK) — As the baby formula shortage continues to impact parents and children across the country, there is renewed interest in donor breast milk, or donor human milk, with some considering it as another option in addition to formula.

The Human Milk Banking Association of North America said it has seen an “unprecedented” number of calls to its member milk banks from people inquiring about donor milk, especially in Texas, Illinois and California.

“In the height of this formula shortage crisis, we are absolutely seeing a surge in demand and inquiries from families who are stressed and wondering if donor milk is a safe option for them to explore,” Lindsay Groff, the organization’s executive director, told ABC News’ Good Morning America.

“I suspect as this goes on, that demand will only continue to rise as people are desperate to find safe alternatives for their babies,” Groff said.

The Human Milk Banking Association is an umbrella organization with 28 member milk banks in the U.S. The group comprises a number of community and nonprofit milk banks affiliated with hospitals, including the University of California Health Milk Bank.

Dr. Lisa Stellwagen, a newborn specialist and the executive director of the UC Health Milk Bank, said the center had seen an uptick in calls, especially in May.

“We’ve had an outpouring of milk donors, of women who want to donate milk to help other people,” Stellwagen said Monday, adding that orders, meanwhile, had risen “another 10-20%” in the past week alone.

There are various reasons why a parent or caregiver may consider donor milk. Oftentimes, it is a necessity for premature babies in the neonatal intensive care unit who may be too sick to breastfeed or whose parent may be sick themselves or otherwise unable to provide breast milk.

“Breast milk really does have the ideal nutritional components for a baby,” Dr. Alexa Mieses Malchuk, an assistant professor of family medicine at the UNC School of Medicine and a family physician, told Good Morning America. “High protein, high fat, all of the nutrition that a baby could possibly need is contained within breast milk.”

Breast milk also contains “very helpful antibodies that the lactating person will pass on into their milk that can help protect babies from different illnesses,” Malchuk said.

“And there are also things like lower incidence of allergies, lower rates of obesity,” she added.

Parents and caregivers should consult their baby’s pediatrician or health care provider before changing a child’s diet in any way or adding donor milk into their feeding schedule.

Donor milk at milk banks is often reserved for premature babies, NICU patients and what the UC Health Milk Bank refers to as “the most fragile newborns.”

“We always prioritize the most medically fragile infants and that will never change,” Groff said.

Families with children who are in the NICU or hospitalized can ask doctors and health care providers to see if it may be available through the hospital directly.

“Milk donors are screened, the milk is often pasteurized, you can be sure and confident that it’s been stored properly. So that is the absolute safest way to get donor breast milk,” Malchuk said.

“I think a lot of people have this misconception that … it’s not safe, that it could transmit infection and that the processing takes out all the good stuff, which is not true,” Stellwagen added. “We think of it like blood. It has nutrients but it also has all this biology and in that biology, are cells and viruses and bacteria. So once we accept the milk from an approved donor, then we actually analyze it for nutrients. We put milk from multiple mothers together, and then we put it in bottles and we cap it, and then we heat pasteurize it.”

If bacteria does survive the pasteurization process, which is very uncommon, all of the milk is discarded, according to Stellwagen.

“So it has these rigorous steps of making sure that it’s nutritionally good for the baby, that it’s pasteurized, that there’s no bacteria in there,” she said.

Donor milk can also go to other babies and children who may need it at home.

“Anytime a baby needs breast milk and the parent who would normally be the one who’s lactating is unable to do so, I say go ahead and look into donor breast milk,” Malchuk said.

Hospitals and nonprofit milk banks have rules and processes in place to ensure babies receive safe and nutritious donor breast milk. Like with any bodily fluid, there are safety risks to consider when it comes to donor milk, and parents and caregivers need to be aware of and understand the risks.

Risks can include contaminants, infectious diseases, drugs, and if not processed and stored properly, donor breast milk can become dangerous to consume.

There is currently no federal regulation for donor breast milk. Democratic U.S. Reps. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Kim Schrier of Washington introduced the Donor Milk Safety Act in April, which would require the Food and Drug Administration to establish safety standards for human milk. It is currently awaiting action in the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Some have sought to obtain donor milk through for-profit milk banks and informal channels, such as family members, friends, communities and parenting groups. However, experts say people should be extremely cautious when exploring unregulated options and have repeatedly warned against it.

The FDA has explicitly recommended against feeding infants human milk that has been “acquired directly from individuals or through the Internet,” and strongly suggests consulting a healthcare provider before feeding a baby milk from a source other than the mother, as there are possible serious safety risks if the milk is not adequately screened.

Breast milk acquired from an individual or online source may have been exposed to infectious diseases, and may be contaminated with illegal drugs or prescription drugs. Also, if human milk is not handled and stored properly it could become unsafe to drink.

“The American Academy of Pediatrics is pretty firm about not recommending informal milk sharing,” said Stellwagen, who also serves as policy chair for the AAP’s section on breastfeeding. “You want a milk bank that is operating with strict, rigorous controls for safety and quality.”

As a starting point, Malchuk suggests families and caregivers ask trusted sources for recommendations and check guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on breastfeeding, prescription medications and vaccinations, as well as resources like the InfantRisk Center.

There are “no guarantees” when it comes to donor milk outside of an accredited milk bank or hospital, Malchuk added.

For lactating people who want to donate milk

Those seeking to donate extra breast milk should contact a local milk bank to see if they’re able contribute, Groff said.

“We are in another time of major demand and so we are asking healthy lactating people to step up,” she said. “If we can increase the amount of donors that are screened, and that can donate their milk, then we can move beyond the need of the medically fragile and start to help more babies in the community.”

At the UC Health Milk Bank, Stellwagen said the process begins with the potential donor answering a questionnaire, as they would when donating blood.

“We are going to ask during our screening process a rigorous list of questions similar to when you donate blood, about your health and your lifestyle. Do you have any risk factors for blood-borne pathogens like HIV or hepatitis? Do you use any prescription medications? You’re not allowed to smoke tobacco, you’re not allowed to use cannabis products,” she said.

“A lot of medications are fine, things like insulin … but other medications may lead to a woman not being able to donate.”

The milk bank then contacts the donor’s physician to ensure there are “no concerns” and that “prenatal labs were fine,” according to Stellwagen. “And then we send [the prospective donor] for a blood test that we pay for, and we check again for blood-borne pathogens, HIV, hepatitis, that sort of thing.”

If they pass that step, Stellwagen said, they can donate.

“The average donation is about 600 ounces of milk,” she added.

At the end of the day, Malchuk said the decision to go with donor milk will vary with each family.

“Donor breast milk is a great alternative but again, it just depends on what sort of resources are available to you and what you feel is best for your family,” she said.

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(NEW YORK) — A growing movement is calling on Black women to do something long held out of their reach as the country faces an ongoing pandemic, racial conflict and a growing political divide — to rest.

Tricia Hersey of Atlanta is one woman behind that movement. In 2016, the artist and theologian founded The Nap Ministry, a collective that examines the power of rest through collective nap sessions, lectures and community workshops, prioritizing rest as radical resistance, particularly for Black women.

“This culture has made it so that we are not living in a human way anymore,” said Hersey. “We’re so disconnected and disembodied from our bodies.”

Hersey said the ministry is designed to combat what she describes as the “unsustainable,” “machine level pace” required by the world today.

“Everything is go-go-go, be-be-be, keep going, keep going, never stopping,” said Hersey. “I think that increases the risk of mental health issues when we don’t allow our bodies and minds enough time to just kind of settle into what is right now and to actually make space for a new way.”

For Black women in particular, according to Hersey, the pressure to persevere and at least appear OK while suffering can contribute additional stressors to already difficult situations.

Rooted in racist antebellum stereotypes, the trope of the perpetually “strong Black woman” harms Black women’s mental health in its inherent dismissal of the effect any hardship may have, according to Hersey.

“‘Strong Black woman,’ to me, allows so much time for abuse and manipulation, for not resting, for burning yourself out,” she said. “So the ‘strong Black woman’ has never been anything I’ve ever related with. I want rest. I want ease. I need help.”

Hersey said she sees the trope of the “strong Black woman” as one reason Black women in particular struggle with mental health.

Women overall are more likely to experience depression than men, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and for Black women, burnout and stress are also “rampant,” according to research analyzed by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Black women, like all Black Americans, are also less likely to have access to mental health care, data shows. Only one-in-three Black Americans who need mental health care receives it, according to the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

In addition to socioeconomic disparities and a lack of inclusive research on mental health, the APA identifies stigma, distrust and limited access to diverse and culturally competent health providers as barriers to care for Black Americans.

For Mental Health Awareness Month, ABC News’ Janai Norman led a Good Morning America digital roundtable conversation on what many consider the taboo topic of mental health for Black women, exploring how racial injustice and the “strong Black woman” trope impact mental health.

Black women speaking out to change the conversation

For Ianne Fields Stewart, a New York City-based activist and storyteller, being given the power to rest was a transformative experience.

“Your work has been a massive part of how I’ve done my own healing,” Fields Stewart told Hersey during the conversation.

Fields Stewart, who identifies as transgender and uses the pronouns she/they, said that while growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, the myth of the strong Black woman was the “model of womanhood” she tried to emulate and follow.

Now, she said she no longer believes that “every Black woman must be a strong Black woman,” but wonders what spaces are left for Black women to hold.

“The problem is that I don’t think we’ve yet decided what Black women can be in this space that’s left behind,” said Fields Stewart, adding separately, “Do we have space for soft Black women, for emotional Black women, for Black women who aren’t really good at their jobs, but are great as people and human beings … or even that we don’t have to talk about black women in terms of what we can contribute, but as far as we are just being?”

Fields Stewart, an actor and founder of The Okra Project, which works to provide meals to Black trans people, said when the pandemic began two years ago, it forced her to think about the spaces she held.

“I was someone who defined myself by what I did, and suddenly when the pandemic struck, I didn’t have an industry anymore,” she said of her acting profession. “I didn’t have anything to ground me.”

The experience, according to Fields Stewart, made her question the weight of the pressure she was under.

For Hersey, the start of the pandemic was a time to embrace what she called the new “slowed down, not normal.”

Hersey noted that, pre-pandemic, mental health in the Black community was already in “crisis.” The pandemic motivated her to expand her work with The Nap Ministry to reach more people.

“[I] really wanted people to see this as a beautiful opportunity to take space to listen to our bodies, to really take account of what’s really happening,” she said. “Because we don’t have a chance to do that in our lives.”

Theresa Taylor Williams, a New York-based psychotherapist, said she had seen firsthand the ways in which the changes brought about by the pandemic, including, for some, the ability to rest, had impacted her clients, including Black women.

“I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve had to turn people away, because I can’t physically handle the number of people that are trying to get appointments with me,” she said. “The one question that was common amongst most of all of my new clients was, ‘Tell me when I’m gonna feel like myself again,’ and that’s the question that has been so hard to answer.”

As a Black woman herself, Taylor Williams said she had seen the downside of the “strong Black woman” stereotype.

What she called the “Superwoman complex” can distract from larger issues that affect self-esteem and mental health overall, she said.

“If we think about what allows us to go beyond, to be able to think and explore and daydream about ‘what could I be,’ we have to be comfortable right where we are,” said Taylor Williams. “We have to be mentally healthy right where we are.”

Fields Stewart said she wants the conversation around mental health and rest to be something all Black women have access to.

“These are conversations and these are ideas and these are luxuries that should be given to every Black woman,” she said.

“When we talk about mental health … it does not care what clothes you wear, it does not care about any of that,” she said. “Your mental health is your mental health and we have to be able to have that conversation amongst all of us.”

Hersey said she hopes people take away from the conversation a desire to move toward a more mindful, even leisurely, way of life as a way to protect Black women’s space.

“The systems of grind culture, of capitalism, of patriarchy, of white supremacy, we can disrupt these systems by just being in these moments of joy and holding ourselves and space to love and care and rest,” she said. “And when we do that, collectively, I think things begin to shift.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

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(NEW YORK) — One out of every six deaths in 2019 were attributed to pollution, according to a new estimate published in The Lancet Planetary Health.

The analysis, led by an international team of scientists, indicates that pollution played a role in 9 million deaths globally in 2019 — the year before the COVID-19 pandemic. This impact on health is higher than malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, drugs or alcohol. Experts said it’s not clear how the global pandemic will impact the analysis moving forward.

Despite improvements made in water pollution in recent years, a rise in air and chemical pollution means the death rate has been relatively unchanged since 2015. Air contamination alone contributed to an estimated 75% of the reported deaths.

“Air pollution is similar to smoking cigarettes. It damages the lungs, preventing us from absorbing oxygen we need for life,” said Dr. Keith Martin, executive director of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health and co-author of the paper.

Another primary concern is the growing numbers in chemical and heavy metal pollution, particularly lead poisoning. High concentrations of lead in the blood can cause problems with the heart, kidneys and cognition. This type of pollution arises from batteries and electronic waste, such as computers.

According to the World Health Organization, The Lancet report’s estimates of deaths from lead and chemical pollution are in line with 2019 WHO estimates.

“They are like little trojan horses, those particles, they have toxic chemicals, lead… carcinogens, and once that gets into the bloodstream, it’s like a guided missile” said Dr. Philip Landrigan, director at the Global Observatory on Planetary Health at Boston College and co-author of the report.

The U.S. and other high-income countries have made some strides to combat pollution, such as through the Clean Air Act. Many low- and middle-income countries are facing the brunt of the effects, accounting for most of the deaths reported. But experts say pollution doesn’t know borders — and pollution in one country can lead to health consequences on a global scale.

“Both climate change and pollution are global problems that require global solutions, and it is in the vital interest of people in the U.S. to help make this transition happen globally with all deliberate speed,” Dr. Robert Dubrow, professor of environmental health at the Yale School of Public Health.

The scientists who led the recent analysis hope the report will spur politcal action. Proposed avenues for change include standardizing monitoring of pollution levels, investing in research, strengthening pollution control partnerships and highlighting this issue in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Transitioning the use of fossil fuels — coal, oil and gas — to clean, renewable energy sources are ways the researchers propose society could level improvements. Individually, researchers call for people to limit their carbon footprint, such as limiting meat consumption, avoiding waste, or walking or biking as a means of transport when possible.

“Addressing pollution is a political choice. We must all advocate at all levels of government and in our communities to scale up known interventions that reduce our dependence on fossil fuels… and engage in source control for dangerous chemicals and heavy metals,” Martin added.

As the world is faced with worsening air quality and rising chemical contamination levels, experts believe that deaths due to pollution will continue to rise in the coming years if interventions are not made.

“There are incredible projections which have concluded the deaths from ambient air pollution could double in number by 2050 if we don’t take aggressive measures to do something about it,” Landrigan said.

Dubrow said switching to non-polluting renewable energy sources should be an “urgent public health priority.”

Dr. Rebecca Fujimura is a Family Medicine resident physician at MedStar Health/Georgetown-Washington Hospital Center and is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(WASHINGTON) — With the Supreme Court’s looming decision that could overturn Roe v. Wade, doctors are voicing concerns about the well-being of adolescents in states where abortion is likely to become illegal.

Although teen pregnancy has been on the decline since 1991, pediatricians say abortion remains an important option for girls under 18 who become pregnant.

Most girls get their first period between the age of 10 and 15 years old, and most teens report being sexually active before they turn 18.

Despite their capacity to become pregnant, teenage girls are often left out of a national conversation about abortion, said Chez Smith, the CEO of Gyrls in the HOOD, a non-profit organization in Chicago committed to improving reproductive health outcomes for adolescent girls in urban neighborhoods.

“It’s like they shouldn’t be having sex anyways, so they’re not even part of the conversation, but they are a part of the conversation,” Smith said.

Teen pregnancy rates have improved thanks to contraception, sex education and community outreach. But “when something improves, doesn’t mean it ceases to be a necessary focus,” said Dr. Charis Chambers, a fellow at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

In 2020, females ages 15-19 accounted for just under 5% of U.S. births, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But disparities still exist, with Hispanic and Black/Non-Hispanic teens each accounting for more than twice as many births each year as teenage white girls, HHS reported.

Motherhood can be related with positive experience, much like any mother, Chambers said. Teens “tend to be in awe of what the body is capable of,” she said. The challenges, however, “are really plentiful, and in a lot of cases, outweigh the triumphs,” she said.

For teens, accessing resources and navigating the healthcare system for themselves and their new baby can be extremely daunting.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only about 50% of teenage mothers receive their high school diplomas by age 22.

The emotional burden of childbirth can also take a toll. Adolescent mothers are twice as likely as their adult counterparts to suffer from postpartum depression, according to a report in the journal Pediatrics. Teenagers are also at high risk for developing generalized depression and anxiety, the report said.

The pregnancy itself is not without risk. As Chambers explains, pre-term labor, premature rupture of membranes — which increases the risk for infections like chorioamnionitis — and delayed labor occur most commonly with younger moms and older moms. Other medical conditions, like preeclampsia and even postpartum hemorrhages can also occur. Maternal death during childbirth is also a very real risk.

But becoming a mother as a teenager doesn’t only affect the mother. Children of teenage mothers are more likely to have lower school achievement, drop out of high school, give birth as a teenager and face unemployment as a young adult.

Despite the litany of short-term and long-term effects of becoming a mother as a teenager, the decision to terminate a pregnancy can also be challenging.

“There can be profound grief,” Chambers said.

Battling the stigma of being a teenage mom and the stigma of having an abortion, the ultimate decision to terminate can be very lonely.

“They feel a little traumatized or guilty or shameful,” Smith added.

Medical and surgical abortions are also not without risks, including the risk of bleeding or infections.

Some girls, Smith says, become more responsible after terminating a pregnancy. The experience changes them because they don’t want to be in that situation again and know they don’t have the resources or supports to care for a baby right now, they make different decisions around sex and contraception, according to Smith.

Both Smith and Chambers agree that for teenagers, prevention is the best strategy. But when prevention is no longer an option, the ability to seek safe abortion is even more important. Smith adds that reversal of Roe vs Wade, which would limit options for pregnancy termination in many states, would be particularly detrimental for the teenagers that she serves.

“It’s an invasion of that sacred space where the doctor and the patient are making decisions together,” said Chambers. It is in that space that a woman brings her specific experiences, hopes, fears, and goals and uses that context to make the very difficult decision to terminate a pregnancy if that is the decision she chooses, she said.

The teenage mind is still developing, with impulse control being one of the last parts of the brain to fully develop, so elimination of safe options may make young girls go to desperate, dangerous measures, Chambers said.

“They are gonna find a way to do it – Google, YouTube, performing it on each other,” Smith said.

“Abortions will always be done,” Chambers agreed. “It’s a matter of making it harder for disenfranchised patients – those typically with lower socioeconomic status, lower health literacy and limited access to healthcare – including teenage girls, who are still children themselves.”

Chidimma J. Acholonu, M.D. M.P.H., is a pediatric resident physician at the University of Chicago and a contributor to the ABC Medical Unit.

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(LONDON) — Several people in England have tested positive for monkeypox, according to the U.K. Health Security Agency.

Officials announced Monday four more cases of the rare disease have been detected, bringing the total to seven.

The most recent infections do not seem to be connected to the first case confirmed May 7 in a person who had recently traveled to Nigeria.

But the most recent four cases had not traveled to a region where monkeypox is endemic, raising the possibility that the virus could be circulating within the U.K.

Additionally, the most recent people to test positive self-identified as gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men, leading health authorities to advise people in those groups to watch out for rashes or lesions.

“This is rare and unusual,” Dr. Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser for UKHSA, said in a statement. “UKHSA is rapidly investigating the source of these infections because the evidence suggests that there may be transmission of the monkeypox virus in the community, spread by close contact.”

What is monkeypox?

Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by the monkeypox virus.

It was first identified in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in crab-eating macaque monkeys that were being used for research, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The first case among humans was recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970, and the illness has since spread to several other nations, mostly in central and western Africa.

How monkeypox is transmitted

Monkeypox can transmit from animals to humans when an infected animal — such as a rodent or a primate — bites or scratches a person.

The CDC said humans can also be infected when hunting wild animals or preparing bush meat for consumption.

The disease can also spread from person-to-person via large respiratory droplets in the air, but they cannot travel more than a few feet so two people would need to have prolonged close contact.

What are the symptoms?

The incubation period for monkeypox is between seven and 14 days, and symptoms are generally mild, according to the CDC.

The most common symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue and muscle aches.

In more severe cases, patients can develop a rash and lesions that often begin on the face before spreading to the rest of the body.

Most people recover within two to four weeks. Although there have been no cases of death reported in the U.S., monkeypox has led to death in as many as 1 in 10 people in Africa who contract the disease.

Monkeypox detection in the U.S.

Very few cases of monkeypox have been identified among Americans.

According to the CDC, the disease does not naturally occur in the U.S. and infections are usually identified among people who recently traveled to countries where monkeypox is more commonly found.

In 2003, 47 confirmed and probable cases were reported among six U.S. states, the first human cases reported outside of Africa.

All the infections occurred after coming into contact with pet prairie dogs, which in turn became infected “after being housed near imported small mammals from Ghana,” the CDC stated.

Since then, just two other cases have been detected in the U.S., both associated with travel.

In July 2021, a case was confirmed in a Texas resident who had recently returned from Nigeria and in November 2021, another case was found in a Maryland resident who had also traveled to Nigeria.

Treatment and prevention of monkeypox

Currently, there are no specific treatments available for monkeypox. Antivirals typically used for smallpox have been shown to be effective in lab studies and in animal trials.

One vaccine has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in those aged 18 and older at high risk for monkeypox or smallpox.

ABC News’ Sony Salzman and Rashid Haddou contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized a booster dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 years old, at least five months after completion of a primary series, officials announced Tuesday.

“While it has largely been the case that COVID-19 tends to be less severe in children than adults, the omicron wave has seen more kids getting sick with the disease and being hospitalized, and children may also experience longer term effects, even following initially mild disease,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert M. Califf said in a statement Tuesday.

“The FDA is authorizing the use of a single booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for children 5 through 11 years of age to provide continued protection against COVID-19,” he added.

Pfizer asked the FDA in April to authorize its booster vaccines for younger children, after it submitted data that indicated their shot was safe and generated a strong immune response in children ages 5 to 11.

“Vaccination continues to be the most effective way to prevent COVID-19 and its severe consequences, and it is safe. If your child is eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine and has not yet received their primary series, getting them vaccinated can help protect them from the potentially severe consequences that can occur, such as hospitalization and death,” Califf said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must still formally recommend the booster dose before shots can go into arms. That is likely to happen by the end of the week.

The benefits of the booster dose outweighed any known and potential risks and a booster dose can help provide continued protection against COVID-19, officials said, noting that with immunity waning, boosting is more important than ever.

“Since authorizing the vaccine for children down to 5 years of age in October 2021, emerging data suggest that vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 wanes after the second dose of the vaccine in all authorized populations,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, adding that the benefits of the booster dose outweighed any known and potential risks and that a booster dose can help provide continued protection against COVID-19.

In January, the FDA authorized the use of a booster dose in adolescents ages 12 through 15. Since authorization, 3.7 million adolescents ages 12 to 17 have received a booster dose.

The push to get children boosted comes despite a continued lag in vaccinating children, despite renewed increases in pediatric COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.

To date, just 43.6% of eligible children, ages 5 to 17 years old, have been fully vaccinated, according to federal data. An even smaller portion — less than 30% — of children ages 5 to 11 years old have been full vaccinated, and would thus, ultimately be eligible for a booster shot.

Overall, 25.7 million children over the age of 5 — about half those eligible — remain completely unvaccinated, including 18.2 million children ages 5 to 11.

Last week, more than 93,000 additional child COVID-19 cases were reported, an increase of about 76% from two weeks ago, according to a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. This marks the fifth consecutive week of increases, and the highest weekly total since late February.

Pediatric hospital admission rates have increased by 57% in the last month, according to CDC data, and on average, about 163 virus-positive children are entering hospitals each day.

Overall numbers remain significantly lower than during other parts of the pandemic. However, many Americans who are taking at-home tests are not submitting their results, and thus, experts say daily case totals are likely significantly higher than the numbers that are officially reported.

Nearly 13.2 million children have tested positive for the virus since the onset of the pandemic, and children represent about a fifth of all reported cases on record.

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(NEW YORK) — The baby formula shortage in the U.S. has grown rapidly since February, quickly impacting countless families in multiple states, but especially those who rely on special formula for their babies and children.

The deepening crisis prompted Kayzie Weedman, a 30-year-old mom of two, to share her experience in a TikTok video that has already been viewed over 1.4 million times.

Weedman, who works as an interior designer, told Good Morning America Monday that she started noticing a formula shortage at the end of last year and it has only worsened in the past six months.

“We started noticing the shelves weren’t as stocked as they usually were in December of 2021. And then every month there on, it got worse and worse and worse,” Weedman said. “Probably the last two months is when it’s become like, the shelves are bare, empty, and nothing left and maybe in the last three weeks, every time I go, it’s completely empty. There’s nothing there. It’s pretty much just distilled water and that’s all that’s on the shelves.”

Weedman’s daughter, Palmer is just 5 months old and relies on a special baby formula that’s made without cow’s milk protein. Her formula is part of Similac’s Alimentum hypoallergenic formula line, made by Abbott Nutrition.

“She was on a formula that had the milk protein in it and she had a reaction and that is what caused the doctors to have me get her tested,” Weedman said about learning that her youngest child had a cow’s milk protein allergy, or CMPA.

When a child has a milk protein allergy, their body mistakenly considers the protein as a foreign invader and the child can experience various symptoms that range in severity, including difficulty breathing, hives, nausea, diarrhea or even life-threatening anaphylaxis, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“When she has reactions, first, she gets a really bad rash. She’ll get boils on her face that turn into scabs, and it’s a very severe form of eczema. She gets wheezing. She has some problem going to the bathroom. So a lot of things happen when she has that milk protein,” Weedman explained.

“We don’t have an option to have any other formula on the shelf. So we can’t just go and get whatever’s left on the shelf,” she continued. “We have to have her prescription formula or the hypoallergenic formula.”

Abbott, the largest U.S. producer of baby formula, recalled some Alimentum products in February after reports of bacterial infections that caused two deaths were linked to the company’s Sturgis, Michigan, manufacturing plant. The recall and ongoing supply chain issues due to the pandemic have severely limited the stock of baby formulas, including special formulas like nutrient-enriched, hydrolyzed and hypoallergenic formulas.

Abbott and the Food and Drug Administration announced Monday evening that a plan to restart the Sturgis facility had been agreed upon and Abbott said it hopes to resume production within two weeks. However, it will still take six to eight weeks for new formula products to hit store shelves.

But Weedman and other parents haven’t been able to wait weeks for new formula products to get restocked.

Weedman said her daughter Palmer needs to have five bottles of Alimentum formula per day and that Palmer can usually go through one can of Alimentum in about a week.

The Michigan mom said the formula shortage has made her feel angry, frustrated, sad and nervous for other parents. She considers herself one of the lucky moms, who can use their social media platform to ask for and receive help. Weedman said she now has enough supply for Palmer for the next three months and is now working to pay it forward to other parents and kids in need.

“I have actually been able to facilitate swapping of formula for a lot of moms,” Weedman told GMA. “Some moms will say, ‘This formula didn’t work for me. Can you reach out to your followers and see if it’ll work for them?’ So I’ve actually shipped a lot of formula to different moms so that we can all help each other out because that’s really all we can do.”

For parents struggling to find formula, Weedman suggested asking as many people as possible.

“Reach out to your friends and family, anyone who’s not in your city,” Weedman said. “Have them look for your can and if they do have your can, pick up one, pick up two, you know, we don’t need to pick up 10, but just support other moms and if you know someone who’s formula feeding, see what can they have, pick it up if you can, and we all have to support each other.”

“Social media can be a scary but amazing place. … I’m really lucky for social media because it got me the cans I need so my daughter doesn’t starve,” Weedman added.

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(NEW YORK) — By spring of 2021, Rashelle Chase-Miller knew she’d have to make some hard decisions.

Schools in Portland, Oregon — including her son Leo’s charter — were reopening in-person. But Chase-Miller, herself born and raised in the City of Roses, had reservations. For decades, she’d watched the schools — especially in her historically Black neighborhood — fall into disrepair.

In particular, she worried about ventilation. Vigorous air flow and filtration are crucial for preventing outbreaks of the COVID-19 virus. Yet, an August 2021 inspection by the city’s schools found every assessed facility had at least one room with inadequate ventilation.

Chase-Miller had another reason to be worried: Leo, who is 9 years old, has cerebral palsy and asthma. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that puts him at higher risk of severe COVID. Leo catching the virus would also put her elderly parents, who live close by and are both older than 65, at risk. Not to mention, her 4-year-old daughter Luna, who is too young to be vaccinated.

“For families like mine,” Chase-Miller told ABC News, “ventilation in school is a huge deal.”

Many parents are facing a similar situation.

As society plows forward seeking normalcy, almost all schools are back in-person. Yet the persistence of SARS-CoV-2 means that schools’ ability to stay open depends upon their ability to stop outbreaks.

That’s where school infrastructure — namely, ventilation and filtration systems — come in.

Amid myriad proven COVID-19 prevention measures — masks, vaccines, contact tracing — one of the most powerful tools to prevent transmission is a good ventilation system that frequently recirculates fresh air. Especially now that individual mask and vaccine mandates are all but gone, and individual vigilance is, by and large, waning.

But even before the pandemic, many schools were battling crumbling infrastructure, with a June 2020 report from the Government Accountability Office finding that over 40% of schools — an estimated 36,000 nationally — had deficient ventilation systems.

These systems are playing an increasingly pivotal role: the White House’s most recent National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan included them as a top priority to prevent future shutdowns. Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency issued guidance for the first time on the importance of ventilation in the long-term COVID fight too; the CDC has also described it as one of the core “tools in the mitigation toolbox” against the virus.

But even as billions of dollars in federal funding have been allocated to schools, expensive ventilation upgrades have remained low on the priority list for many schools with tight budgets.

For students who attend these schools, it may mean greater exposure to the virus compared to peers who attend schools that have already invested in new ventilation systems. And pediatricians and teachers worry these kids — who are often already living in communities with a higher burden of COVID-19 — may continue to fall behind.

“People have decided the pandemic is over — but that doesn’t mean we can abandon any sense of caution,” Chase-Miller said. “Especially [given] that the things we’re asking for are things we should have had already.”

Ventilation amid the pandemic’s next phase

Ventilation is not merely a form of “hygiene theater,” Chase-Miller said.

As individual-level precautions dissipate — masking made optional, vaccination rates plateauing — systems-level solutions to ensure healthy kids don’t breathe in the particles expelled by hollering, hacking and yawning sick classmates are crucial for prevention.

Functional ventilation systems can reduce potentially infectious viral aerosols by up to 50%, Elliott Gall, associate professor at Portland State University, told ABC News. He added that combining these ventilation systems with portable filters could reduce the number of particles by up to 90%.

Previous research has linked improved ventilation to reduced rates of airborne infections in schools and other enclosed settings (like prisons, office buildings and nursing homes).

As such, ventilation is “often the difference between schools getting open and staying open,” Tracy Enger, director for the EPA’s Indoor Air program, told ABC News.

But even the agency acknowledges that school facilities are lagging. The average American school building is over 50 years old, the agency said. In poorer communities, like the Philadelphia School District, buildings are pushing triple digits in age, Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, told ABC News.

“Many school facilities were not built and have not been renovated to be consistent with today’s building standards,” EPA wrote in a statement to ABC News.

Lacking transparency and accountability

In Portland, that means shoddy ventilation may leave infectious particles looming.

An internal inspection by the district found that every one of the 94 assessed schools had at least one room with inadequate ventilation rates. Communal spaces like libraries and gyms often had the lowest ventilation rates.

Leo’s school — KairosPDX — was excluded from the inspection because while the school’s property is publicly owned, it’s privately operated, Ryan Vandehey, media relations representative for the district, told ABC News.

As a parent, “that means you’re flying blind,” Chase-Miller said.

The district disputes Chase-Miller’s concerns.

“We absolutely believe that our students are breathing clean air that exceeds all existing regulatory standards,” Vandehey told ABC News.

The district purchased filters and portable air purifiers, Vandehey added, alongside other infrastructure investments made during the pandemic.

Most districts lack any transparency at all.

According to the GAO, as of June 2020, 38 of 49 states had not conducted a state-level facilities condition assessment in the past 10 years. Of those that did, public access to the information is often limited — if it’s available at all.

Jordan, in Philadelphia, says he has never seen any such reports. In response, his union started collecting its own data. Yet, when issues with facilities were raised with the district — like black mold in some schools, from tables to cabinets to library books, due in no small part to poor ventilation — they were frequently met with silence, Jordan said.

“More often than not, we get a follow-up call from the person who submitted to complaint to say nobody’s investigated the problem,” he said.

Christina Clark, a communications officer for the district, cited a 2021 webpage on “the facts about ventilation” — which referenced pandemic-era investments of more than $160 million in school buildings among other initiatives like purchases of pricey non-FDA approved air purifiers using hazardous technology that has been banned in California — as an indication of the district’s commitment to the issue. That level of investment is 10% below the district’s annual spending on facilities since 2017, despite the district having received $1.1 billion in pandemic relief funds.

Clark did not provide a comment on Jordan’s specific allegations.

Fearing for the “new normal”

Advocates fear that the lack of accountability will hit vulnerable communities the hardest.

Most schools depend on property taxes for funding facilities improvements, according to the GAO — meaning that poorer districts face greater budgetary constraints as a result.

In Pennsylvania, that means poorer schools have thousands of dollars less per pupil than do richer districts, according to an ongoing lawsuit by six districts against the state’s Department of Education (DOE) — putting them far below the state legislature’s own standards.

It also means the expensive and arduous ventilation upgrades simply don’t happen in places like Philadelphia’s public schools, Jordan said. And without any sense of how bad ventilation currently is, he doesn’t know if — or when — they ever will.

In contrast, rich districts in Pennsylvania, like Lower Merion, raise millions above their targets. In June 2021, the district held a “topping out” ceremony for its new middle school — complete with multiple gymnasia and a theater with retractable seating.

The Pennsylvania DOE could not be reached for comment regarding the budgetary disparities between districts or the lawsuit.

“When we send students to schools that are not well-maintained,” Jordan said, “it’s a subtle way of saying to the children that we really don’t value you as much as students from other communities.”

The “tale of two cities” is similar in Portland, Chase-Miller noted.

Some rooms in the city’s public schools can’t even open their windows while neighboring districts — like Lake Oswego — spend lavishly on everything from unit ventilators to new-age “ionization units” that zap viral particles.

For Chase-Miller, all of this means a higher COVID risk for Leo. And if it’s a higher risk for Leo, it’s also a higher risk for his classmates, their parents and their communities — communities that have already endured the worst of the pandemic.

“I’m preparing myself for the fact that he’ll probably get it at some point,” Chase-Miller said. “But obviously I want the school to be as safe as possible and to take every precaution.”

She added, “Because he deserves that, and so does every other kid.”

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