Health

(ATLANTA) — Vermont is one of the most vaccinated states in the country and has served as a model for its COVID-19 response throughout the pandemic. But now, the state is experiencing its worst COVID-19 surge yet, with several factors — including its own success — to blame, officials said.

In Vermont, nearly 72% of residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 — more than any other state, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. At the same time, it has the 12th-highest rate of new COVID-19 cases over the last week, state data released Tuesday shows.

Vermont has seen a “significant” increase in COVID-19 cases in the past week, Mike Pieciak, commissioner of the state’s Department of Financial Regulation, said during a press briefing Tuesday.

The seven-day average for COVID-19 cases rose 42% as of Tuesday, according to state data. Vermont does more testing than nearly any other state, though testing only increased 9% during the same period. The statewide positivity rate also increased 30%, with the seven-day average positivity rate just under 4%. The number of new cases increased by nearly 700 in the past week, state officials said Tuesday.

“We just haven’t [previously] seen an increase in terms of that raw number of cases during the pandemic,” said Pieciak, noting there were just over 2,100 cases reported for the week in Vermont, one of the least-populated states in the country.

Case rates in Vermont residents who are not fully vaccinated are nearly four times higher than in fully vaccinated residents, according to state data. Essex County, the least-vaccinated county in the state, is reporting the highest case rates of any county in Vermont, with 1,022 cases per 100,000 people reported from Nov. 2 to 8. In Grand Isle County, which has the highest vaccination rate in the state, that number was 160.

Statewide, those driving the surge include people in their 20s, who are the least vaccinated among Vermont adults, as well as children ages 5 to 11, who are just now eligible to get vaccinated, Dr. Mark Levine, Vermont’s health commissioner, said Tuesday.

There’s no “one simple answer” behind the surge, according to Levine. Though one major factor is the delta variant, experts said.

“Across the United States and in Vermont, we’re seeing the impact of the highly contagious delta variant,” Dr. Jan Carney, associate dean for public health and health policy at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine, told ABC News. “It really is so contagious, it seeks out pretty much every unvaccinated person.”

The delta surge in Vermont mirrors rising cases in the region, as northern parts of the country that were largely spared over the summer are now seeing increases during colder weather. Vermont is one of 22 states, many of them with colder temperatures, that has seen an uptick in daily cases of 10% or more in the last two weeks, according to an ABC News analysis of CDC and Health and Human Services data.

Vermont is also one of 14 states that have seen an increase of about 10% or more in hospital admissions over the last week, the ABC News analysis found. About two-thirds of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Vermont are unvaccinated, with those in the intensive care unit also largely unvaccinated, state officials said this week. COVID-19 patients make up between 10-15% of ICU patients; if that number increases to around 25%, “then the system could be in jeopardy,” Levine said.

Regarding the recent case surge, Vermont may also be a “victim of our success,” Levine said Tuesday, pointing to a lack of natural COVID-19 immunity among unvaccinated residents “because we kept the virus at such low levels throughout the entire pandemic.” Vermont has one of the lowest levels nationwide of people who have developed natural immunity to the virus, CDC data shows.

By the same token, waning immunity among residents who were “efficiently and effectively” vaccinated early on is also likely contributing to rising cases, Levine said. Breakthrough cases among vaccinated residents are up 31% over the past week, according to state data.

The COVID-19 vaccines have proven to be highly effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death. No vaccine is 100% effective, and the waning immunity among residents, especially those who may not have mounted a robust immune response, may be tested by high community spread, experts say.

“You still have pockets of unvaccinated people, even in a highly vaccinated state,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and ABC News contributor. “Unvaccinated individuals are the primary host by which the virus will spread and continue to allow for transmission to take place in the community and ultimately create challenges for those that are vaccinated.”

Changes in behavior, including more travel and indoor gatherings, and Halloween festivities have also helped fuel the surge, state officials said. At Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Halloween parties were blamed for causing an outbreak on campus that led school officials to briefly move classes online and suspend in-person social gatherings through Thanksgiving. Post-Halloween, 87 students have tested positive for the virus, compared to just 11 between Aug. 27 and Oct. 22, according to school data.

“We were doing really well as a community up to the point where there were numerous Halloween parties where students were unmasked and in close contact,” the college’s president, Lorraine Sterritt, said in a letter to students earlier this week.

Statewide, COVID-19 cases are not expected to decrease over the next four weeks, state modeling shows, as hospitalizations are on the rise. Vermont has among the lowest COVID-19 hospitalization rates in the country “thanks to vaccines doing their jobs,” Gov. Phil Scott told reporters Tuesday. But ICU capacity is the “biggest concern at this point” as hospitals are currently “under stress from an increase in patient care for health issues that are not related to COVID,” he said.

Health officials are stressing vaccination and urging residents to get booster shots and vaccinate newly eligible children. Nearly 50% of Vermonters aged 65 and older have gotten a booster dose, while over 30% of children between the ages of 5 and 11 have made an appointment to get vaccinated or already started the process, state officials said Tuesday.

Reaching the remaining unvaccinated adults will also be key, Carney said.

“If there are people who have not yet decided to get vaccinated, I strongly urge them to talk to whoever they seek for their health care and have a conversation,” she said. “Vaccinating as many people as we can who are eligible for the vaccine will help us — in the short-term and in the long-term.”

Maintaining high levels of testing will also help, Brownstein said. “Testing is such an important way for us to identify those who have been exposed and infected and to limit transmission,” he said.

Scott said he isn’t reissuing a mask mandate amid the increase in cases, saying he feels it would be an “abuse of power,” but encouraged residents to “take a few extra precautions,” including wearing masks indoors while in public and getting tested before gatherings.

“If we make smart decisions in the coming weeks, and make an extra effort to protect the vulnerable, we can help reduce hospitalizations,” Scott said. “But it takes all of us committing to these smart, practical choices, starting with getting vaccinated.”

“None of us wants to step backwards,” he added.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — The two largest hospital systems in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have activated crisis standards of care due to an “unprecedented level” of activity during the pandemic, hospital officials announced Thursday.

University of New Mexico Health System and Presbyterian Healthcare Services leaders said in a joint press briefing that they have transitioned to crisis standards of care at their Albuquerque metro hospitals. The move comes as the hospitals are being stretched to the limit in terms of space and staffing due to increasing COVID-19 hospitalizations and a high volume of patients with acute conditions, officials said.

“Currently at UNM today, we’re operating at about 140% of our normal operating capacity, and I’ve had moments where we’ve approached 150%. This really is an unsustainable and unprecedented level of activity that we’ve been able to create,” Dr. Michael Richards, senior vice president for clinical affairs at UNM Health System, told reporters.

The decision means that nonessential medical procedures could be delayed by up to 90 days, and that patients may need to get treated at a different regional hospital, or possibly out of state, hospital officials said.

“We are not triaging and denying care,” said Dr. Jason Mitchell, the chief medical and clinical transformation officer for Presbyterian Healthcare Services. “The decision may be, we don’t have beds in our hospitals — who else can take this patient?”

The announcement comes less than a month after the state’s Department of Health announced a new public health order allowing health care facilities to transition to crisis standards of care amid a delta surge and a shortage of hospital staff. The state is averaging more than 1,450 daily cases and nearly 530 hospitalizations, up from fewer than 700 daily cases and 400 hospitalizations in early October, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The order creates a “more standardized and equitable procedure” for determining patient priority when resources are limited. Crisis standards of care were last implemented in the state nearly a year ago, in December 2020.

Last week, San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington, New Mexico, became the first hospital under the latest order to declare crisis standards of care. State health officials said Wednesday they were in touch with “multiple” hospital systems in New Mexico that were also considering the same.

“Our hospital teams are really stretched thin, and we are seeing way more patients than they thought possible,” Dr. David Scrase, acting cabinet secretary of the state’s Department of Health, said during a press briefing Wednesday. “What it means is if one of the people watching this press conference has a heart attack right now, there’s a good chance that we won’t have an intensive care unit bed for that person here in New Mexico.”

Intensive care unit capacity has dipped into the single digits for the first time during the pandemic, Scrase said, as nearly every county in the state is experiencing high levels of transmission.

“Not very good news with hospitalizations,” he said, urging people to get vaccinated and booster shots and to follow safe COVID-19 practices. “This is a really serious time.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(DALLAS) — The impact of Texas’s near-total ban on abortions is being felt in states as far away as California and Maryland, according to new research.

In the weeks since SB8, which outlaws most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, went into effect, Texas residents have undergone abortions in more than one dozen states and Washington, D.C., according to research from the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights organization.

In addition to traveling to states that border Texas to seek abortion care, residents have traveled to states that are hundreds or thousands of miles away. One abortion provider in Tennessee has had twice as many patients from Texas since September, when SB8 went into effect, than in all of 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

“What we’re talking about is a total disruption of the abortion care network,” said Elizabeth Nash, interim associate director of state issues at the Guttmacher institute. “And if the Texas ban stays in effect and other states are able to follow suit, then we will continue to see a real disruption among abortion clinics across the country.”

The Texas law bans abortion once the rhythmic contracting of fetal cardiac tissue can be detected. That’s usually around six weeks, before some people may even know they’re pregnant.

Most of the abortions performed nationwide are after six weeks of pregnancy.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments earlier this month about SB8, which is enforced by private citizens who are allowed to bring lawsuits against anyone who “aids or abets” an unlawful abortion.

The justices are expected to rule soon on whether abortion rights advocates and the federal government have the ability to sue Texas over the law given the way it’s designed.

In the meantime, abortion rights advocates say they worry that the far distances people are having to travel to seek abortion care means the most vulnerable people, such as those without the financial resources to travel, are being left behind.

Jessica Pinckney, executive director of Access Reproductive Justice in California, said the organization’s Healthline, which helps people with funding and logistics for abortion care, has only seen a small uptick in callers from Texas since SB8 went into effect.

The organization’s clinic partners in California, however, are reporting caring for two to three patients from Texas per day, according to Pinckney.

“This likely indicates that the people who are leaving Texas to access abortion care have the financial means to do so and, potentially, are not calling on Access for financial support,” Pinckney said, adding that her organization is preparing for even more of an influx of people from Texas as abortion care in closer states becomes harder to obtain, whether because of increased restrictions in those states or an increased demand for abortions.

An earlier Guttmacher Institute analysis found that when a person from Texas has to travel out of state for an abortion, it increases the trip by an average of nearly 3.5 hours each way.

The cost of some abortions can range anywhere from zero dollars to $1,500 based on where a person lives and what types of health insurance and financial support programs they may have access to, according to Planned Parenthood.

As the pregnancy progresses, it gets more expensive. Abortion in the second trimester can cost as much as $3,500 — and that is before factoring in costs like travel, child care and time off of work — according to Brigitte Winter, board vice president of the Baltimore Abortion Fund (BAF), a nonprofit organization that provides financial support to people seeking abortion care in Maryland.

“Over the last two years, BAF has seen the barriers to access for the people calling our confidential helpline get significantly steeper — even before the passage of SB8 in Texas — as more people struggle financially due to the ongoing public health crisis, and more abortion patients travel to Maryland from states with restrictive abortion regulations,” Winter said. “Many of our callers will have to call multiple abortion funds, coordinate needs like travel and child care, and do their own fundraising, telling their personal stories over and over again, in order to fully cover the cost of their abortion procedures, sometimes up until the day of their appointments.”

“When callers aren’t able to fully fund their abortion care, they have to reschedule, making their procedures exponentially more expensive and less accessible the longer they have to fundraise,” she said.

Winter said BAF has received only a handful of calls from Texas residents since SB8 went into effect, though she said that does not show the full picture of people likely accessing care.

“Traveling all the way from Texas to Maryland for an abortion procedure is expensive and logistically challenging, especially factoring in costs like air travel, lost wages, hotel accommodations, meals and child care,” she said. “Because we only hear from patients who have a financial need, it is very unlikely that we have spoken to every person coming to a Maryland abortion clinic from Texas since the passage of SB8.”

Nash, of the Guttmacher Institute, said the fallout in other states from SB8 has shown how one state’s abortion law can “have an impact across the entire country.”

She said clinics in states where abortion access is available are reporting being so inundated with out-of-state patients that local residents have to drive somewhere further away for care.

The impact of the Texas law is also being felt as U.S. Supreme Court Justices are scheduled to revisit Roe v. Wade in a separate case from Mississippi set for December.

“This feels like a very precarious time for abortion rights,” Nash said. “In states across the country, there is already very limited access to abortion. To add more patients is a real stressor on this network.”

 

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(BIRMINGHAM, Ala.) — A boy who weighed just 15 ounces at birth has been named by Guinness World Records as the world’s most premature infant to survive.

Curtis Means, of Alabama, was born on July 5, 2020, when his mom, Michelle Butler, went into labor just 21 weeks into her pregnancy and gave birth to twins in an emergency C-section.

Curtis’s sister, C’Asya, died one day after birth, but Curtis survived while being cared for in the Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (RNICU) at University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Women and Infants Center.

Bulter said she remembers praying that one of her twin newborns would survive the premature delivery.

“My prayers have been answered,” Butler told Good Morning America. “I gave God my little girl and he let me continue to be the mother to Curtis.”

Curtis, who was born 132 days premature, was so delicate at birth that Butler said she had to wait four weeks after giving birth to hold her son. At the time, he could fit in palm of her hand.

Curtis would go on to spend the next nine months in the RNICU, where doctors and nurses cared for him around the clock.

Butler, also the mother of two older children, ages 14 and 7, commuted from her house to the RNICU three or four times a week, a three-hour commute round trip, to see her son. On days she could not visit in person, Butler said the nurses would coordinate video calls so she could see Curtis.

“It was ups and downs, good and bad days,” she said. “For a couple of weeks he’d do really well and then he’d get sick and go about five steps backwards.”

Though he had a less than 1% chance of survival at birth, according to doctors, Curtis graduated from the RNICU after 275 days.

Butler took him home on April 6, 2021, where he met his siblings for the first time. They had not been able to visit Curtis in the RNICU due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“I surprised my kids,” said Butler. “They didn’t know we were coming home and they were so excited.”

Six months after that surprise, Butler and Curtis returned to the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Women and Infants Center, where they were surprised by doctors and nurses who presented them with the Guinness World Records certificate naming Curtis as the world’s most premature infant to survive.

Curtis, now 16 months old, now weighs nearly 19 pounds.

He is still on oxygen and is still on some medications, but is continuing to thrive at home, according to Butler.

“He’s a happy baby,” said Butler. “He’ll laugh and smile at you.”

Looking back on Curtis’ long journey since birth, Butler said she would encourage other parents of premature babies to be their child’s “biggest advocates.”

“Us parents are the biggest advocates for our children, so whatever you feel in your heart you go by it,” she said. “And continue to pray.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — More than 22 million infants across the globe didn’t get their first measles vaccine dose last year, according to a joint statement Wednesday from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Two-thirds of those children live in just 10 countries: Nigeria, India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Angola, the Philippines, Brazil and Afghanistan.

Even in countries with high vaccination rates, anti-vaccine sentiment has led to outbreaks in some communities. In 2019, for example, the United States saw the highest number of preventable measles cases since 1992, according to the CDC.

Measles, one of the most contagious viruses in the world, is “almost entirely preventable” through the two vaccine doses, the WHO and CDC said.

Globally in 2019, 19 million infants missed their first dose; this increase to 22 million marks the biggest jump in two decades, which creates “dangerous conditions for outbreaks,” the organizations warned.

Only 70% of kids received their second dose last year, which is well below the 95% threshold needed to protect communities, the organizations said.

The number of measles cases actually dropped in 2020 to 7.5 million, but Dr. Kate O’Brien, the director of WHO’s department of immunization, vaccines and biologicals, warned in a statement, “evidence suggests we are likely seeing the calm before the storm as the risk of outbreaks continues to grow around the world.”

“It’s critical that countries vaccinate as quickly as possible against COVID-19, but this requires new resources so that it does not come at the cost of essential immunization programs,” O’Brien said. “Routine immunization must be protected and strengthened; otherwise, we risk trading one deadly disease for another.”

 

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Pfizer on Tuesday requested the Food and Drug Administration allow all Americans over 18 to be eligible for booster shots, submitting data from a 10,000-person trial that found its third shots to be safe and effective for adults of all ages.

The request from Pfizer comes six weeks after independent panels of experts at the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed the company’s initial request for booster shots and ultimately determined that only Americans over 65 years old or who are frequently exposed to the virus should get a third dose.

That decision, in part, was because experts at the FDA and CDC said they wanted more data on how the third shot might affect young people, and whether they even needed one given the enduring protection from the vaccine against hospitalization and death among that group.

Pfizer’s submission on Tuesday could satisfy that request, providing data on its trial of 10,000 people during the delta variant wave.

People who received a third dose of Pfizer had 95% efficacy against the virus compared to people who received two shots, Pfizer said in a press release on Tuesday. Compared to unvaccinated people, Pfizer projected that efficacy was 98%.

The FDA and CDC have both left the door open to widening booster recommendations out to everyone as more data comes out, and as immunity wanes.

And last week, chief medical advisor to the White House Dr. Anthony Fauci told reporters that he thought boosters for all adults were imminent.

“It will be very likely that everyone will be able to get a booster within a reasonable amount of time,” Fauci said at the White House COVID briefing.

“People who have a primary vaccination are still really quite protected against severe disease and hospitalization,” he said, but said he supported boosters as a way to “stay ahead of the virus.”

Still, there will be a debate among experts over whether boosters are needed for all, which largely centers on whether the U.S. should be boosting to prevent breakthrough infections.

Dr. Paul Offit, an FDA advisory panel member and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, doesn’t think there’s a strong need for boosters as long as the initial two shots protect against hospitalizations and death, which they still do for most young people.

“I think those who benefit the most from a third dose are those who are over 65 years of age. I think those who are over 50, who have a high risk medical condition, will likely benefit from a third dose. And for all others, I think you should consider yourself fully vaccinated with two doses,” Offit told ABC News in an interview on Tuesday.

“But the advantage of a third dose is that you’re less likely to have an asymptotic or mildly symptomatic infection. Where you could still, for example, be contagious,” Offit said.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(GROVELAND, Fla.) — A Florida mom who spent 85 days hospitalized with COVID-19 complications was able to return home to finally meet her newborn baby.

“I got out of the car by myself and walked into my own house and I didn’t think I’d be able to do that,” Paola Gambini, 32, of Groveland, Florida, said of her homecoming. “And now I’m changing my daughter’s diapers and rocking her, and those are things I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do.”

Gambini, a hair stylist, tested positive for COVID-19 in late July, when she was 33 weeks pregnant.

She isolated at home with mild symptoms initially after testing positive, but then was transported to the hospital by ambulance when she began to have difficulty breathing.

“I remember the EMT saying, ‘You’re so lucky you called us. I don’t know that you would have made it,'” said Gambini, who was admitted to the hospital and less than 24 hours later had to undergo an emergency C-section. “I was freaking out wondering if I was going to die, if the baby was going to survive.”

Gambini gave birth to her daughter, Lilliana, on July 30. The baby was born healthy but was soon whisked away as doctors focused on continuing to treat Gambini.

“I remember touching her and she had so much hair. I’ll never forget that moment. All I cared about was making sure she was okay,” Gambini said. “They took her away and were like, ‘OK, now we’re going to take care of you.'”

Gambini, who had no pre-existing medical conditions but had not been vaccinated, was transferred shortly after giving birth to a nearby hospital, Orlando Health Orlando Regional Medical Center.

She was placed on a ventilator, where she remained for two weeks, and then on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, machine, which removes carbon dioxide from the blood and sends back blood with oxygen to the body, allowing the heart and lungs time to rest and heal.

Gambini remained on the ECMO machine for more than 40 days, while her parents, her fiancé, Michael Hazen, and his parents cared for Lilliana.

“My fiancé was able to visit me and there was not one day he missed,” Gambini said. “He was my rock.”

As Gambini’s health began to improve, her medical team worked with Hazen to coordinate a surprise.

On Gambini’s birthday, Sept. 3, she was reunited with her daughter for the first time since giving birth.

“I remember waking up and they sang happy birthday to me and asked if I was ready to see my baby,” Gambini said. “They had balloons and my whole room was decorated.”

Gambini was then able to see her daughter, recalling, “They let me hold her but I was so weak, I didn’t want to drop her. My arms were so weak.”

Gambini said the more she was weaned off medication, the more she saw how long her road to recovery would be, but she was determined to do it in order to go home to Lilliana.

“I remember worrying what quality of life I would have and the nurses told me, ‘You think this is forever? You just have to get up and move and you’ll be back to normal,'” she said. “From then on, every day I was like, ‘What’s the plan? I want to get home to my baby.'”

On Oct. 22, 85 days after she was admitted, Gambini was able to leave the hospital to go home, where she continues to recover.

“COVID really attacked my lungs, so half of my left lung is damaged. I get winded if I walk too fast,” said Gambini, who is still on oxygen. “And I lost 80 pounds so my body is rebuilding its strength.”

Gambini is now able to hold Lilliana, whom she describes as “such a happy baby.”

“We appreciate life on a level that no one else will experience unless you go through something like this,” she said. “We don’t take anything for granted.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The government’s top doctor released a step-by-step toolkit Tuesday morning to help people combat misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines in their own close circles.

“We need people in communities all across our country to have these conversations,” Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said in an interview with ABC News.

“This is not just the government that needs to be engaged in these conversations. If anything, it’s individuals who have people they trust in their lives who have great power when it comes to helping them move our vaccination rates in the right direction,” Murthy said.

The guide provides a road map for vaccinated people to talk to unvaccinated people who have bought into conspiracy theories or lies that spread on the internet about the COVID-19 vaccines.

Over the summer, the surgeon general issued an advisory that called misinformation an urgent public health threat.

The toolkit, which Murthy hopes will be used by health professionals, faith leaders, teachers or parents with children newly eligible for the shot, is the next step in addressing the ongoing problem. November polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that nearly eight in 10 adults have come across false statements about COVID-19 and have either believed them or been unsure if they were true.

“During the COVID 19 pandemic, misinformation has in fact cost people their lives. So we don’t have an option to give up,” Murthy said.

He called for more transparency in the tech industry since misinformation spreads rapidly on social media platforms.

“The companies have done some work to address health misinformation but they’ve not done nearly enough. And it’s not happening nearly quickly enough,” Murthy said.

The information released Tuesday encourages people to talk in person instead of online. One section is even entitled “If you’re not sure, don’t share!”

It includes discussion questions and illustrations explaining why people share misinformation or what a hypothetical conversation around misinformation could look like.

The recommended approach relies heavily on listening, providing empathy and avoiding shame.

“When talking with a friend or family members, emphasize the fact that you understand that there are often reasons why people find it difficult to trust certain sources of information,” it says.

Murthy acknowledged that it may be hard for vaccinated Americans to be empathetic or understanding when many feel angry that unvaccinated Americans have allowed the virus to spread.

“But nobody generally changes their mind when they feel shame and blame, if anything that hardens people in their position,” Murthy said.

He described a conversation he recently had with an unvaccinated man who had seen myths about the vaccines on Facebook. They talked for 30 minutes, he said. Murthy called it an “open, honest conversation” about what the man’s concerns were.

“And I tried to share with him what we knew and what we didn’t know. I tried to be honest about what the science actually tells us,” Murthy said.

“He sent me a note after that saying he made the decision after that conversation to get vaccinated, and ultimately he did get vaccinated,” Murthy said.

“So what we need to do is is to start by listening to people, by being empathetic, trying to understand where they’re coming from, why they may have the beliefs that they do, and then to try to share our own experience with them to try to help them to access credible sources, like their doctor or other people that they actually trust who are credible scientific sources,” he said.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — As first lady Jill Biden prepared to kick off a vaccination campaign for kids ages 5-11 on Monday, over the weekend “Sesame Street” mainstay Big Bird tweeted he received his first dose, encouraging children across the country to do the same.

“I got the COVID-19 vaccine today! My wing is feeling a little sore, but it’ll give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy,” the eight-foot-two canary yellow Muppet wrote on Twitter Saturday.

I got the COVID-19 vaccine today! My wing is feeling a little sore, but it’ll give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy.

Ms. @EricaRHill even said I’ve been getting vaccines since I was a little bird. I had no idea!

— Big Bird (@BigBird) November 6, 2021

President Joe Biden responded to the tweet, writing “Good on ya, @BigBird. Getting vaccinated is the best way to keep your whole neighborhood safe.”

The social media announcement sparked conservative backlash, including from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, accusing Big Bird of being used to for “government propaganda.”

Government propaganda…for your 5 year old! https://t.co/lKUlomnpq1

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 6, 2021

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Pfizer vaccines for children ages 5-11 last week, expanding eligibility to 28 million more Americans.

The tweet from the TV favorite, who is said to be always 6 years old, is part of the administration’s big push to get kids vaccinated against COVID-19 following the Food and Drug Administration’s full authorization of the shot for kids as young as 5 years old. The first lady will visit an elementary school with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Monday to promote the pediatric vaccinations.

Big Bird’s announcement came the same day as the icon participated in a CNN town hall alongside his “Sesame Street” neighbors Elmo and Rosita called “The ABCs of Covid Vaccines,” where they answered kids’ questions about the vaccine with CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta and anchor Erica Hill.

Cruz has received the COVID-19 vaccine himself but says he is against vaccine mandates. The Texas senator continued to criticize Big Bird’s announcement on Twitter.

Big Bird coming over to vaccinate your kids. pic.twitter.com/LQODCO3GKg

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 7, 2021

In response to ABC News’ request for comment, Cruz’s office pointed to previous tweets from the senator encouraging parents to make their own decision regarding their children’s health.

This is not the first time the “Sesame Street” character has weighed in on vaccines for children. After Cruz accused the administration of using Big Bird to spread “propaganda,” a 1972 “Sesame Street” clip showing Big Bird lining up for the measles vaccine began gaining traction online.

Big Bird gets vaccinated, 1972 pic.twitter.com/M2mdmmjZ0N

— Muppet Wiki (@MuppetWiki) November 6, 2021

Newsmax host Steve Cortes joined Cruz in attacking Big Bird, calling the tweet “evil.”

Others came to the Sesame Street character’s defense. Former President Donald Trump’s niece and one of his frequent critics, Mary Trump, defended Big Bird and pointed out Cruz’s vaccination status.

Big Bird is kind, compassionate, empathetic, loving, adored, and vaccinated. Ted Cruz is . . . vaccinated.

— Mary L Trump (@MaryLTrump) November 8, 2021

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(MCLEAN, Va.) — First lady Jill Biden is taking the administration’s push for child COVID-19 vaccinations on the road to Northern Virginia on Monday by visiting a school that is of historic importance in vaccinations in the U.S.

Biden, along with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, will visit Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C.

Franklin Sherman Elementary School was where the first polio vaccine was administered to children in 1954, according to the White House.

The visit is a step in the Biden administration’s push for youngsters to get the jab after the Food and Drug Administration granted full authorization to the vaccine in children ages 5-11, making more than 28 million American kids eligible for the vaccine.

In addition to visiting schools, the administration sent letters to superintendents and elementary school principals across the country on Monday, urging school officials to set up vaccination clinics in their schools.

“Schools play a vital role in providing access to and trusted information on the vaccine,” Health Secretary Xavier Becerra and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona wrote in the letter.

The schools themselves would not administer the vaccines, they would partner with a local vaccine provider, like a community health clinic or pharmacy, to give the shots to students. The schools would have access to federal cash from the American Rescue Plan to help with costs from providing spaces for vaccines and organizing the vaccine appointments.

The letter also asked schools to distribute information fact sheets, social media and emails to families in the schools. Officials said another way schools can help is by fostering community dialogue with existing organizations, like Parent-Teacher Associations.

“Parents rely on their children’s teachers, principals, school nurses, and other school personnel to help keep their students safe and healthy every school year,” Becerra and Cardona wrote in the letter. “The communications you issue – in languages accessible to your parents – will be critical in helping families learn more about the vaccine.”

Officials encouraged schools by pointing out that increased vaccinations could mean fewer cancellations of class and activities given outbreaks.

“Vaccination is the best tool we have to keep our students safe from COVID-19, maintain in-person learning, and prevent the closure of schools and cancellation of valued extracurricular activities,” Becerra and Cardona wrote in the letter.

ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.