Health

(WASHINGTON) — Hundreds to thousands of calls come in to the Disability Information and Access Line (DIAL) each week from disabled people across the country with questions about COVID-19, vaccinations, testing spots and more.

As one of the first call centers to focus specifically on the needs of disabled people, the federally funded hotline continues to pick up speed, filling a service previously unmet, according to the line’s director Sara Clark. The more people know about it, she says, the more calls they’re fielding.

“It’s important for people with disabilities to know that they can turn to a trusted source for accurate information,” Clark said.

DIAL was created in May 2021 and serviced and supported by national disability advocacy groups.

The call center has since been inundated with requests to assist disabled people in getting vaccinated, finding vaccination sites, in-home vaccination availability, educating callers about vaccine information, and overcoming physical or systemic barriers to accessing the vaccine and booster shots.

“Now that the word about us, it’s showing us that there’s a lot more people that have needed this but didn’t necessarily know about it,” Clark said.

The CDC reports that disabled adults were more likely to endorse the vaccine as protection against COVID, but are more likely to report difficulties in getting vaccinated than did adults without a disability.

Some 82.4% of disabled people have at least one dose of the vaccine, compared to 85.3% of non-disabled adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among disabled adults over the age of 65, the gap in vaccination widens to about five percentage points.

“The disability community didn’t have a national call center until DIAL was created,” said Sandy Markwood, the CEO of the national disability and elderly advocacy organization USAging. “It focuses primarily on COVID but people are also calling looking for supportive services, which are needed now more than ever.”

The effort was funded by the U.S. Administration for Community Living and the CDC but is being run by USAging and other disability advocacy networks such as the National Disability Rights Network, the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities and more.

Some 61 million adults in the United States live with a disability, the CDC reports — that’s about 1 in 4 adults who have some type of disability.

Curt Decker, the executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, said the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted some of the ways that ableism in policies and procedures has impacted access to healthcare and safety for disabled people.

He said that the disabled community is often “left behind” in disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic is just the latest example of this.

“You’ve really got to think through all the different populations, different needs and design your programs to meet that whole range of people,” said Decker. “Surprise, surprise — here comes a pandemic and we didn’t initially plan how our response is going to impact these very vulnerable populations.”

Disabled people have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic: “the increased risk of poor outcomes from the disease itself, reduced access to routine health care and rehabilitation, and the adverse social impacts of efforts to mitigate the pandemic,” the CDC reports.

The pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing oppression on the disabled community. The World Health Organization notes that disabled people are more likely to be older, poorer, and have comorbidities — all of which increase the risk of severe consequences from the virus.

“The disability community is very diverse, with all kinds of disabilities,” Decker said. “Unfortunately, we’ve discovered that there are some people that are just not thinking about the population and what their needs are.”

Markwood says that the lack of access to reliable information and vaccination sites has hampered vaccination efforts among this demographic.

“There was a lot of misinformation about what the impact of vaccines would be on people who had disabilities,” Markwood said.

For people with intellectual disabilities and for people who are immunocompromised to some degree, advocates say that the fear of vaccination, lack of understanding of medical jargon, and lack of communication from doctors on individual health impacts was greatly unaddressed.

Many of the people calling DIAL’s hotline, Clark says, are just looking for information and insight.

“Maybe the initial question would be: ‘where can I get vaccinated?'” Clark said. “Then, it’s the ‘how’ of getting there, getting the transportation. In some cases, people need assistance with getting into the appointment, waiting there, knowing what to expect next, and the peer support that our Centers for Independent Living offer.”

Then come the issue of physically accessing the vaccine.

“If a person is using a wheelchair, will they be able to get to the vaccination site?” Clark said. “If it’s a person who has sensory issues, they might get overwhelmed with a lot of people or a lot of noises or a situation they’re not used to.”

She added, “If they’re trying to get into a spot that you know, wasn’t wheelchair accessible or they they’re a person who needs American Sign Language, but they’re not able to communicate with people there — they could also call us. We’ve trained and prepare people for that.”

Some people with disabilities live in group homes or detention facilities, some cannot verbally communicate, some need transportation or communication assistance, Decker and Markwood said.

Some people are homebound or are under the guardianship of someone who may be against vaccines, they added.

Many factors create hostile or challenging scenarios for the vaccination rollout among disabled patients: if vaccination spots are difficult to travel to or navigate; if at-home vaccine administration is hard to come across; if a care provider or guardian is not adequately relaying accurate information or if medical information is not being understood or if websites and call centers are not disability-friendly.

“We actually went into a group home in one state where the residents wanted to be vaccinated, and the provider wouldn’t do it — so we had to get a mobile unit out there from the local health department could give them access to the vaccine,” Decker said.

CDC states that reducing these barriers to vaccine scheduling and making vaccination sites more accessible “might improve vaccination rates among persons with disabilities.”

The CDC has started acting on this by funding the Administration on Community Living’s efforts to connect with the aging and disabled — which includes backing DIAL.

Considering the ever-increasing demand for DIAL’s services, there is still a clear need for resources to address the needs that are holding disabled people back from vaccination access.

“[Call center users] are so happy that there’s someone to answer the phone because so often they call places and it’s just an automated message,” Clark said. “They are really just happy and grateful that there is someone at the other end of the line that can listen to them and hear their needs and not only hear their needs, but also point them in the right direction.”

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(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 824,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 62% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.

 

Dec 31, 5:13 pm

People infected with omicron variant have reduced risk of hospitalization: Study

A report published on Friday by the U.K. Health Security Agency found that people who were infected with the omicron variant had a reduced risk of requiring hospitalization, as compared to people who were infected with the delta variant.

The risk of hospital admissions among those with omicron was about half of that for delta, researchers found.

Individuals who had a booster dose were also found to have a “substantial reduction” in the risk of hospitalization, compared to those who are unvaccinated.

Researchers noted that these lower risks do not necessarily correlate to a reduced hospital burden during a COVID-19 surge, particularly given the higher growth rate and immune evasion seen with omicron.

Preliminary analyses also estimated a lower risk of hospitalization among omicron cases in school-aged children 5 to 17 years old, compared to delta cases in the same age group.

-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Dec 31, 4:24 pm

Rep. Ayanna Pressley latest lawmaker to test positive

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., is the latest lawmaker to test positive for COVID-19. Pressley announced the news Friday afternoon, saying she was experiencing “relatively mild ” symptoms and isolating.

She also took the opportunity to say she was vaccinated and boosted and advocate for others to do the same.

“Vaccines save lives,” she said in a statement. “With this unprecedented pandemic continuing to rage, I am deeply grateful for the scientists, researchers, and frontline healthcare workers who have worked tirelessly to develop vaccines that are safe and effective, and ensure that our communities are protected.”

Pressley, who has garnered national attention as a member of “The Squad” alongside Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, is one of more than a dozen members of Congress to test positive in the past two weeks. Illinois Rep. Chuy Garcia announced Thursday that he had also tested positive for a breakthrough case and was experiencing mild symptoms.

Dec 31, 2:24 pm

COVID surge continues in New York, single-day case record broken

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases continues to surge in New York. The state is reporting more than 76,000 positive cases over the last 24 hours, marking another single-day record for the state.

“We’re breaking records every day,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday at a COVID-19 briefing.

Meanwhile, nearly 8,000 New Yorkers were in the hospital with the virus on Thursday, an increase of more than 500 from the previous day.

Hochul announced that students in the State University of New York and City University of New York systems will need to receive their booster shot by Jan. 15, or whenever they are eligible for the extra shot. The requirement affects roughly 2.3 million students across the state.

The governor also said she is extending the mandate that businesses require either masks or vaccines, by two weeks, to Feb. 1.

Hochul pushed the importance of vaccines, especially for 5 to 11-year-olds, only 28% of whom have received their first dose, according to Hochul.

“We are not going to leave any stone unturned in terms of finding out how we can get parents to do the right thing for their children,” she said.

In a piece of encouraging news, the number of hospitals in the state with less than 10% capacity has dropped from 35 to 21, according to Hochul, who signed an executive order in November that required hospitals with such limited capacity to pause non-essential surgeries.

-ABC News’ Will McDuffie

Dec 31, 12:40 pm

Texas governor requests federal COVID-19 aid

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has requested resources for federally-supported COVID-19 testing locations, medical personnel, as well as additional federal allocations of monoclonal antibodies.

“Detecting COVID-19 and preventing COVID-related hospitalizations are critical to our fight against this virus,” Abbott said in a press release Friday.

Texas has seen more than 104,000 confirmed COVID cases in the past week, with a 22.30% testing positivity rate, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronaivrus Research Center. The center also reports that the state has a 58.45% vaccination rate.

Dec 31, 10:47 am

US breaks weekly COVID-19 case record

The United States has recorded 2.2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases over the last week, setting a grim record as the highest number of cases confirmed in one week.

The previous record was set just a few days earlier from Dec. 22 to Dec. 29, when the U.S. confirmed 1.9 million COVID-19 cases. Before that, the previous record totaled 1.75 million cases from Jan. 5 to Jan. 11 at the start of 2021.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — COVID-19 has touched all corners of the world — and fear, anxiety, and grief have followed in its wake. The pandemic has taken a toll on the mental health and well-being of many, due to the climbing death toll, the social isolation, the constant internal monologue for some asking “do I have the virus?” and more, experts say.

Mental and physical health are intertwined and sometimes stress can manifest itself physically, according to experts. So if you’re having migraines, have missed a period, lost hair, or had other irregularities in your daily life, it may be due to pandemic stress, they said.

“Think about it like erosion,” said Craig Sawchuk, a psychologist at the Mayo Clinic, in an interview. “It just leads to wear and tear across time.”

However, there may be other underlying causes for these issues. Ailments that someone experiences during a stressful time should not solely be attributed to stress, and the Mayo Clinic recommends that symptoms be evaluated by a medical professional.

According to psychology experts, when people are under mental stress, there is a fight or flight response from the central nervous system.

Sawchuk said the body uses a high amount of energy to deal with whatever the threat may be, which is why people can experience a rush of adrenaline, an elevated heart rate, increased blood pressure, heavier breathing and tense muscles.

Because of the amount of energy needed to tackle what’s causing stress, vital organs, muscles, and systems steal resources from other non-essential systems in the body, said Kory Floyd, a professor of communication and psychology at the University of Arizona.

“The mind is saying to itself, ‘those systems are important, but they’re not important if our survival is at stake.'” Floyd told ABC News. “When you pull resources away from those systems, they don’t function optimally, which is why we end up with stomach aches or why we end up having a hard time getting pregnant, why we end up with a headache or having a difficult time sleeping.”

When that acute stress lasts for long periods of time — like a pandemic that is almost two years old — it can cause trouble for the less essential systems of the body and disrupt their functions.

“It’s almost like that sympathetic nervous system volume knob has just been cranked this entire time,” Sawchuk told ABC News. “It’s causing other systems to shut down, like digestion and reproduction. This is where you get things like missed periods, low sex drive … hair loss and skin-related problems because we’re not getting into a restoration mode.”

Stress begins to deeply affect people physically. It may look different on every individual, experts say, but some symptoms are more common than others.

“The body can only produce so many symptoms,” Sawchuk said. “When we look at each individual, they may tend to express their distress or experience that stress in different ways. So for some people, it may show up in their skin,” such as acne or psoriasis.

Sawchuk added, “For other people, it may show up in terms of just being exhausted.”

The clinical psychologists interviewed by ABC News say they’ve seen an increase in reports of headaches, migraines and sleep disruptions among patients during the pandemic.

Chronic stress can also cause digestive issues and stomach-related problems. Low sex drive and missed menstruation cycles — that are not caused by pregnancy — may also be signs that stress is starting to disrupt one’s reproductive systems.

One study in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment found that short-term stress-related cases of alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss, increased following the start of the pandemic, and researchers expected the number to continue to rise. Other psychiatry-related dermatologic diseases were also expected to rise, including psoriasis and chronic hives.

Aches and pains in the body, especially tension in the jaw and neck may also be due to stress.

Cindy Ackrill, an editor at the American Institute of Stress, says there is no shame in taking steps to alleviate stress and better one’s mental health. These issues won’t be reversed in the blink of an eye, Ackrill says, and there are simple ways to start the process towards healing.

“The first thing is to notice what tends to rev you up and what tends to calm you down,” Ackrill said. “You can start to balance those out again — what depletes your energy, what re-energizes you — so that you can strategize to put those back together in the immediate feeling of stress.”

Experts say leaving stress-related issues unchecked can lead to serious, long-term health problems. If you may be exhibiting symptoms of chronic or intense stress, seek help.

“Look for tiny little differences you can make,” Ackrill advised. “Going to bed five minutes earlier, spending five minutes on the phone with a friend. Look for tiny little shifts you can make that don’t feel like a lot of work.”

Ackrill added, “We live in a world that’s very stressful and we are all on a journey together to figure out how to do it.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) – New Year’s Eve celebrations for 2021 were significantly scaled back due to COVID, with hopes of larger celebrations to mark 2022. But with case numbers surging, are this year’s festivities safe?

It depends what your plans are, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“What I would suggest people do not do is to go to very large, 50 to 60 person parties where people are blowing whistles and all that sort of thing and celebrating and you don’t know the vaccination status of the people in that environment. That would be a risky situation that I would recommend against,” he said in an ABC News Live interview.

With COVID cases surging, many cities are heading Fauci’s advice.

New York City’s celebration will be larger than last year’s but still extremely scaled back. Only 15,000 masked and fully vaccinated attendees will be allowed to watch the ball drop in Times Square — a quarter of the number normally in attendance.

Other cities have gone even further. Atlanta canceled its annual Peach Drop, Annapolis canceled the in-person portion of its celebration and Seattle’s New Year’s firework show is only available for viewing online or on television.

Paris, London, Berlin and many other cities have also canceled large-scale in-person events.

Sydney Australia, known for being the first place to ring in the new year, will have a celebration only accessible to a limited number of vaccinated ticketed guests.

So how can you celebrate?

“If you’re vaccinated and you’re boosted and you want a family gathering in your home with other vaccinated and boosted people, although the risk is not zero, the risk is very low,” Fauci said.

It might not be the party some had expected, but according to World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, changing your plans could save a life.

“An event canceled is better than a life canceled,” Ghebreyesus said. “It’s better to cancel now and celebrate later, than to celebrate now and grieve later.”

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(NEW YORK) — With questions swirling about how well rapid COVID-19 tests work when it comes to detecting the omicron variant, leading scientists are now reassuring the public that they do work, and have a valuable role to play in the ongoing pandemic.

Among them is Dr. Bruce Tromberg, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the NIH, and the top scientist in charge of Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics. RADx, a new government-funded NIH program, was tasked with rapidly increasing the nation’s testing capacity and studying how tests perform when faced with new variants.

“The tests are an essential component of what we need, especially in the time of very rapidly expanding omicron,” Tromberg said.

While PCR tests are very effective at detecting the presence of even small amounts of virus, rapid tests have become a quick and easy way to determine if a person is contagious. In a Tuesday announcement, the Food and Drug Administration said rapid tests do detect the omicron variant, but in a laboratory setting they did not perform as well as they have with earlier variants.

The FDA announcement, described by one expert as a kind of curveball, lacked specific numbers and sparked confusion and dismay among some experts and Americans who have been using rapid tests to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 to loved ones over the holidays.

Dr. Michael Mina, a vocal advocate for increased rapid testing use and the chief science officer for eMed, told ABC News, “There is no reason and no data to support that the tests are less able to detect omicron virus.”

News from the FDA about rapid tests’ ability to detect omicron comes on the heels of the Biden Administration’s announcement that the U.S. will have 500 million at-home rapid tests available starting January.

But Tromberg said Americans should “absolutely not” be discouraged from using rapid tests based on this FDA announcement, which was based on preliminary laboratory studies on live virus samples combined from multiple patients and run on a relatively small number of rapid test brands.

Those tests showed a potential dip in effectiveness, but, “It’s not like they fell off the map,” he said. The FDA also said more clinical studies are needed.

Preliminary studies conducted in a lab can off​er clues, but are not as reliable as real-world studies done on real people. Those real-world clinical studies are currently being conducted, and results should be available shortly, Tromberg said.

He expects clinical studies to show the tests are working at an acceptable level.

“We already know that the clinical performance is better than this laboratory benchtop performance, just in our early studies that we’re getting.”

“I have confidence that the tests that we have on our shelves can pick up omicron,” Tromberg said. “There will be different levels of performance, we need to really work through all of those and understand them for every test.”

One reason rapid tests might perform differently is because of the increased infectiousness of the new variant, said Mina.

“Is it that the test is less sensitive, or is the virus more infectious?” he said.

“Omicron is more infectious, and therefore, it is possible that people can start spreading the virus hours or a day before they are testing positive, but after that, the test will still work when people are most infectious just as they have been working throughout the entirety of the pandemic,” Mina said.

Even if some rapid test performance is diminished, Tromberg said, “They still can be extremely powerful and effective at interrupting the chain of transmission of the virus.”

The FDA has authorized 43 rapid antigen tests including at least a dozen at home versions.

Several testing companies have said their tests still work to detect omicron, with Abbott saying Tuesday that the company has tested the popular BinaxNOW rapid test using the omicron variant from live virus and found the test “performed at equivalent sensitivity” compared to prior variants.

But the FDA said tests could be updated if further testing shows updates are needed.

“Studies are underway to confirm the reason for the apparent decreased sensitivity,” FDA spokespersons Stephanie Caccomo said. “Once that is known, adjustments to existing tests can be undertaken by each developer with support from the FDA, if appropriate.”

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(ATLANTA) — COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective for children, according to three new studies released Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

One study, which evaluated the safety reports of more than 42,000 children ages 5 to 11 who received a Pfizer shot, found the side effects from the Pfizer vaccine were mostly mild and temporary. It also found that myocarditis, a heart inflammation side effect that has been associated with the mRNA vaccines in very rare cases, does not appear to be a risk.

A second study, which looked at data from 243 children ages 12 to 17 in Arizona, found the Pfizer vaccine was 92% effective at preventing infection. The study, conducted between July and December when delta was the dominant variant in the U.S., also found that adolescents who developed COVID-19 reported a lower percentage of time masked in school and time masked in the community.

The third study, also conducted when delta was dominant, found that among children ages 5 to 17 hospitalized due to COVID-19, less than 1% were fully vaccinated against the virus.

“I think these studies taken as a whole confirm what we’ve been saying all along, which is that these vaccines are incredibly safe and effective,” ABC News medical contributor Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital, said. “The side effects that were highlighted originally do not appear to be a risk, including myocarditis, and the efficacy is incredibly impressive.”

“Essentially, they provide additional support for the incredible benefit of these vaccines and the incredibly low risk of any adverse events from taking them,” he said. “Hopefully, this provides support to increase uptake of the vaccine, which unfortunately has been slow in our pediatric population.”

Currently in the U.S., less than a third of eligible children — ages 5 to 17 — have been fully vaccinated.

The Pfizer vaccine has been available for children ages 5 to 11 since November, while it was authorized for emergency use in children ages 12 to 15 in May.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer vaccine for people ages 16 and older in August.

The studies showing the vaccines’ efficacy in children comes as the highly transmissible omicron variant of COVID-19 spreads across the country, impacting children, too.

Experts say it’s unlikely that omicron is affecting children differently than prior variants, but rather this new surge is impacting people who are unvaccinated, including children

Last week, nearly 200,000 children in the U.S. tested positive for COVID-19, up by about 50% since the beginning of December, according to new data from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

And federal data shows more than 2,100 children are currently hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 — up by approximately 800 pediatric patients compared to just a month ago.

The increasing numbers are colliding with the holidays as well as cold and flu season and the upcoming return to school from the holiday break.

Brownstein said the data showed it is more important than ever that people eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19 do so, especially children.

“We know that COVID does not spare kids. Maybe it’s less severe than their adult counterparts but we also know that the virus has had real significant impacts on morbidity and mortality in kids,” he said. “We also know that kids play an important role as vectors of spread and, especially in light of increases we’re seeing right now with increases of cases in kids in record numbers, infections among kids further perpetuate community transmission and further create risks for those who would be the most vulnerable of the virus.”

Brownstein and other experts also said families should go back to mask-wearing when in public, especially in indoor spaces like grocery stores, and limit social gatherings during this omicron surge.

“What’s clear is that the protection against COVID has always been about layers of intervention and, so while the vaccines are affording incredible protection, the idea is that vaccines plus additional interventions, especially in the middle of the surge, is still incredibly key,” Brownstein said. “This is why masking continues to be an important tool in reducing community transmission.”

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — As the highly transmissible omicron variant of COVID-19 spreads across the country, children are being impacted, too.

Last week, nearly 200,000 children in the U.S. tested positive for COVID-19, up by about 50% since the beginning of December, according to new data from American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

And federal data shows more than 2,100 children are currently hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 — up by approximately 800 pediatric patients compared to just a month ago.

The increasing numbers are colliding with the holidays as well as cold and flu season and the upcoming return to school from the holiday break.

Amid the uncertainty of omicron, here are five tips for parents from two experts, Dr. Allison Messina, chief of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Dr. Sarah Ash Combs, an emergency medicine physician at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C.

1. Take omicron seriously, especially if your child is not yet vaccinated.

Severe illness due to COVID-19, including the omicron variant, remains “uncommon” among children, according to the AAP and CHA. But experts say young people are not immune from the virus, or from severe illness and death.

“I personally have seen many previously healthy children get really taken out by COVID,” said Ash Combs. “I think as a parent, you just want to do anything you can to prevent putting your kid in that situation, and unfortunately, there isn’t a strong predictor of is your kid going to be the unlucky one who gets harder hit by getting this strain.”

With omicron, experts say the rise in case numbers and hospitalizations among children isn’t because the variant attacks children differently, but more likely due to the fact that most children under age 18 are still not vaccinated.

In the U.S., less than a third of eligible children — ages 5 to 17 — have been fully vaccinated.

Messina said she worries that researchers do not know yet if omicron itself causes milder symptoms or if adults who are contracting the variant are experiencing milder systems because they are vaccinated against COVID-19 or have already had the virus.

“What I worry about is children are relatively unvaccinated, if you look at them as a group, and they may have less of a chance of having and recovering from coronavirus in the past,” she said. “It makes me worry a little bit that children by and large don’t have the baseline immunity that adults do.”

Messina continued, “That’s why when we’re treating omicron in children, we want to treat it seriously because we don’t know if it’s less serious or not.”

Both Messina and Ash Combs said the No. 1 thing parents can do to protect their children is to get them vaccinated and boosted if they are eligible and to make sure that all eligible adults who interact with their kids are vaccinated and boosted, too.

2. Go back to masking in public, especially indoors.

While omicron spreads and COVID-19 cases continue to increase, both Messina and Ash Combs said families should go back to mask-wearing when in public, especially in indoor spaces like grocery stores.

“I would tell parents, yes, go back to those previous measures you used to take, like masking,” said Ash Combs. “I would advocate for sending children to school both vaccinated and in masks because any multi-level protection you can get is better.”

Following coronavirus safety guidelines like hand washing and social distancing is also important for families during this surge, according to Ash Combs.

3. When in doubt, assume COVID-19.

Many of the symptoms of omicron — including sore throat, runny nose, fever and cough — closely mimic those of the flu and common cold.

As a result, according to both experts, the only way to truly diagnose your child is to get them tested for COVID-19.

“To be absolutely safe, especially if it’s a household exposure, or you’re just not sure, getting tested is key,” said Ash Combs. “You want to either get that at a facility or try and get your hands on an at home test if you can, and I recognize that’s hard to do … but if you can, as a parent, it’s good to have those on hand.”

If a parent is not sure whether their child has COVID-19 or a cold, for example, Ash Combs said to assume it’s COVID and follow CDC guidelines to isolate.

“You want to act as that could be a positive COVID case,” she said. “You certainly don’t want to go out and about if you or your child is feeling unwell, you don’t know the status of a test and you still have active symptoms.”

4. Slow down on large gatherings with other families.

If your family is gathering with people outside of your household, the best protection is to make sure that everyone your family will be in contact with is vaccinated, according to Messina, who added that families should also think about slowing down their social calendars.

“In a time like this with omicron when we’re seeing so many cases right now and we really probably haven’t hit our peak yet, this is the time to pay more attention to limiting play dates and limiting large gatherings, at least until case numbers start to drop,” she said. “Be a little bit more cautious.”

Whether or not a parent decides to let their child go on a play date or gather with friends can also depend on their age, according to Ash Combs, who noted that children who are older and vaccinated can have more flexibility to be together.

Like so much of what has happened during the pandemic, Ash Combs said that circumstances can change and parents should adjust accordingly.

“Every situation is going to change so reassess day by day, week by week,” she said. “See where you are at.”

5. Keep up good hand hygiene, but don’t overly stress about washing shared toys, door handles.

The early days of the pandemic saw people sanitizing everything that kids especially were in contact with, but experts say now that we know more about the virus, parents do not need to stress to that level.

“We know that COVID doesn’t seem to be super well transmitted by what we call fomites, those inanimate objects that you touch,” said Ash Combs. “I don’t think we need to freak out the way we did originally in quarantine with our groceries and our mail.”

Experts say it’s always a good idea to teach children good hand hygiene, including washing hands frequently for at least 20 seconds.

According to Ash Combs, one age group parents should be concerned about are young toddlers and infants who may put toys in their mouths, which is why she recommends being more cautious about gatherings of kids that young.

“I’d say play dates from multiple households of little kids who just love to share their saliva and their sneezes and coughs, that’s probably not a good idea,” she said. “But really for the bigger kids who are able to use a tissue and keep their hands to themselves, they don’t need to get super worried if they’re sharing a book or another object.”

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — A real-world study of South African health care workers found that two doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine offer 85% protection against hospitalization from the omicron variant.

Separately, the company announced new data from a laboratory study that shows its vaccine likely also works well as a booster for people who got the Pfizer shots originally.

The lab study specifically tested two types of immune system responses — antibody and T-cell responses — against the omicron variant.

Using the J&J vaccine as a booster raised people’s antibodies and T-cells to levels higher than those seen among people who got a third dose of Pfizer — according to samples taken four weeks after each booster.

The new data adds weight to the argument that mixing and matching vaccine types could be an effective strategy, but the data is limited because it was a laboratory study, not real-world data.

The new findings were described in a press release and submitted to pre-print journals.

“As the Omicron variant has mutated from the original SARS-CoV-2 strain, there is a need to understand how effective currently authorized COVID-19 vaccines remain at protecting against severe disease,” Dr. Dan Barouch, Ph.D., director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at BIDMC, said in a statement. “Our analysis shows that a booster shot of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine generated a robust increase in both neutralizing antibodies and T-cells to Omicron.”

Since its launch, the single-shot J&J vaccine has been dogged by the perception that it is less effective than Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines. And indeed, many experts agree that one dose of J&J isn’t as effective as two shots from the other brands; but when given as two doses, the J&J shot seems to be an effective vaccine.

“While one dose to prevent COVID was always desirable to improve vaccine access and acceptance, we now have irrefutable evidence that two doses provides significantly more protection,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and ABC News contributor. “The second dose triggers the immune system to produce antibodies and memory cells that ultimately yield longer term vaccine effectiveness.”

Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that anyone considering getting vaccinated should get the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, if available, over the J&J single-shot vaccine. This isn’t because the single-shot J&J vaccine — which has been associated with a risk of very rare blood clots — isn’t safe and effective, CDC researchers said, but because the Pfizer and Modern two-shot vaccines appear to work even better. Collectively, this means the risk-benefit analysis is more favorable for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the CDC said.

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(NEW YORK) — Amid a record-breaking surge, the U.S. is now averaging more COVID-19 cases per day than at any other point in the pandemic, according to new data updated on Wednesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Federal data shows the nation is now reporting an average of more than 277,000 new cases a day, shattering the previous record of 250,000 cases per day from last January.
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“These numbers are absolutely staggering, especially considering we are two years into the pandemic,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.

The record average comes after the U.S. reported two consecutive days of more than 430,000 new cases, following soaring demand for tests and a backlog of holiday reporting data.

Over the last month, the U.S. daily case average has tripled, and the nation has reported more than 1.9 million new cases in the last week alone — an average of about three Americans testing positive for COVID-19 every second.

“The combination of the most transmissible variant to date alongside holiday travel and gatherings is a recipe for record-breaking case counts,” Brownstein said, referring to the omicron variant. “These numbers are likely to be a significant undercount given, the shortages in testing and the absence of home test results in official counts.”

Although the significantly high case total is due, in large part, to the country’s latest surge, a number of factors, including data backlogs from the holiday weekend, and a surge in testing demand, may artificially increase the totals.

In addition, more than 30 states are not reporting consistently over the holiday stretch, which can also significantly skew data.

However, on Tuesday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told NPR in an interview that given the shortage in COVID-19 tests right now, ultimately, the official number of positive cases is likely undercounted.

The nation’s latest surge is widespread, with every state in the country currently experiencing high community transmission. In June, no states were reporting high community transmission.

Hospitalizations are also on the rise, according to federal data, albeit about two-thirds the levels experienced last winter.

Across the country, more than 84,000 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 — up by 40,000 patients in the last seven weeks. On average, more than 9,400 Americans are being admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 every day, up by nearly 20% in the last week.

With increased demand in testing and a renewed strain on the hospital system, the federal government has deployed surge teams to help to support the national COVID-19 response, from vaccinations, to testing, to clinical care.

More than 13,000 National Guard members have been activated in 48 states to support the nation’s COVID-19 response, including vaccinations, testing and clinical care.

On Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News’ Whit Johnson that it is difficult to know exactly when the country’s latest surge will peak, given the fact that so many Americans remain unvaccinated.

“It’s going to get worse before it gets better — that’s for sure. We don’t expect things are going to turn around in a few days to a week. It likely will take much longer than that, but that’s unpredictable,” Fauci said.

At this time, 89 million Americans remain completely unvaccinated, and less than a third of fully vaccinated people have been boosted.

 

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(STATESVILLE, N.C.) — A North Carolina mom is celebrating after losing over 200 pounds, half of her original weight.

Tiesha Robinson, of Statesville, North Carolina, said she lost the weight even after struggling with it for her entire life.

“I can’t think back of when I haven’t had to lose weight or when I wasn’t trying to lose weight,” Robinson, 35, told Good Morning America. “Obesity runs in my family and then also I made a lot of wrong food choices.”

The push to lose weight came on strong for Robinson after she experienced two family tragedies, the death of her beloved aunt in 2016 and then the death of her son’s father in 2018.

“I didn’t want my son to have to go through that pain again if I could prevent it,” she said. “So that was kind of my motivation to save myself so that I could be here for my son.”

Speaking of her aunt’s death in 2016, Robinson said: “My aunt was kind of like everyone’s hero, like the backbone, so to watch her struggle to live was a turning point. It really made me realize that even though I’m strong and I try to be here for everyone, I have to show up for myself because if I’m not here, then I can’t help anyone.”

In 2017, one year after her aunt’s death, Robinson said she hit her highest weight of 416 pounds.

In 2019, after her son’s father died, Robinson began tracking her food using WW, formerly known as Weight Watchers.

“I didn’t know that I would be as successful as I am, but I knew I had to try,” she said of WW. “I knew I couldn’t give up because if I gave up on me, it would be like I’m giving up on my son, and that wasn’t an option, so I just had to throw away all the excuses and all the distractions.”

Robinson said WW’s method of tracking food showed her how to balance what she was eating and “now just indulge in everything that I wanted in one day.”

“I was able to balance healthy choices and just learn a new healthy lifestyle,” she said. “It saved my life by just learning how to eat healthy, be healthy, stay active.”

In the past two years, Robinson said she has lost 208 pounds and changed her life. Her weight loss transformation is featured in People magazine’s 2021 “Half Their Size” issue, available on newsstands now.

She said she is now more “mindful” and in control of her diet, and has taken up hobbies like Zumba, walking and writing poetry that she turns to instead of food.

Robinson said she and her son, now 15, joined a gym together just before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but she has since learned to love working out at home, which she said helps her eliminate any excuses.

“I learned to exercise at home and that way I don’t have no excuse,” she said, noting she takes Zumba classes on YouTube or plays a dance game on an Xbox. “If it’s too late, I’m in my house so I can exercise. If it’s early and I have energy, I have the opportunity to exercise.”

Through her weight-loss journey, Robinson said she has learned to “set goals, not limits,” which is the advice she gives to others.

“I will say just refuse to give up on yourself,” she said. “Refuse to give up, learn to adapt and if you mess up, don’t make that an excuse to give up.”

Robinson said she has also learned the importance of celebrating her own accomplishments on her weight-loss journey, instead of waiting for other people’s approval.

Her most important advice, she said, is to just start out on the journey, saying, “In order to finish, you have to start, so just get started and keep going.”

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