Health

(NEW YORK) — Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic over two years ago, people have reported lingering effects of COVID-19, including hair loss.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a board-certified OBGYN and ABC News’ chief medical correspondent, is among them, experiencing lingering hair loss after testing positive for COVID-19 in January.

“Now that it’s just over three months, roughly, later is really when I started to notice a major change,” Ashton said. “The two things that I noticed were loss of volume, really really like almost nothing for me to hold onto when I put my hair up in a ponytail, and then breakage.”

Ashton, who was vaccinated and boosted when she tested positive for COVID-19, has shared her hair loss journey on Instagram, where commenters thanked her for bringing awareness to the issue.

According to Ashton, it’s estimated that over 20% of people who have COVID-19 experience some form of hair loss.

Here are some questions answered about COVID-related hair loss, from why it happens to how it can be treated:

Why does COVID-19 hair loss happen?

It is not uncommon for people to experience noticeable hair loss a few months after recovering from a high fever or an illness, according to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD).

While researchers are still looking into exactly how having COVID-19 can impact a person’s hair, the early research shows that the virus somehow infects and affects hair follicles, according to Ashton.

Hair follicles anchor hair into the skin, and each one goes through three phases: The anagen phase, when the hair grows; the catagen phase, when hair growth slows and the follicle shrinks; and the telogen, or shedding, phase, when old hair falls out and new hair begins to grow.

While most hair loss, or hair shedding, occurs in the telogen phase, COVID-19-related hair loss appears in the anagen phase, when the hair is beginning to grow, according to Ashton.

“This is relevant because it affects what the timeline is by which someone could start to notice hair loss following COVID-19,” Ashton said. “Hair loss after COVID can begin as early as 18 to 47 days after infection.”

With the more common type of hair shedding, telogen effluvium, most people start to see shedding two to three months after an illness, according to the AAD.

Is anyone more susceptible to COVID-19 hair loss?

The risk factors for COVID-19 hair loss are still unknown, and there is also no known way to specifically prevent this type of hair loss, according to Ashton.

“We don’t know yet who is more at risk,” she said. “It does appear that if you experienced more severe COVID-19, you are more likely to experience this, but you can experience this with mild COVID-19 illness as well.”

Does COVID-19 cause permanent hair loss?

Ashton said it remains to be seen whether hair loss due to COVID-19 is permanent.

She added that it looks “promising and encouraging” that most people will see hair regrowth and correction.

“We still don’t know what percentage breakdown will regain, or regrow, their hair, but the bottom line is it takes time,” Ashton said, noting that people should expect a timeline for regrowth of anywhere from three months to one year.

What are treatment options for COVID-19 hair loss?

While there are no known ways to prevent hair loss with COVID-19, there are many ways to treat it, according to Ashton.

She recommends first “resting your hair,” which means taking a break from stressors like heavy-handed brushing and pulling and not using tools like hair dryers and curling and straightening irons.

Ashton said that, for her, resting her hair also means wearing more hats and headscarves.

“I just think it’s super easy,” she said. “No one cares how dirty your hair is. No one cares what your hair looks like.”

Ashton also recommends limiting the use of hair products that contain alcohol as an ingredient because alcohol will dry out hair further. Instead, she recommends using a hair mask product, or going more natural by using coconut oil or olive oil to moisturize the hair.

Ashton has also been wearing hair extensions occasionally but stresses those can damage hair further.

“They can pull on your hair and actually forcibly detach your hair, so dermatologists are very kind of cautionary before they recommend that any woman use hair extensions,” she said. “I am experimenting with them, but we’ll see. I don’t foresee them as too heavy in my rotation.”

After her consulting with her dermatologist, Ashton said she began supplementing her diet with a protein powder to increase her daily protein intake, which will help lessen hair breakage.

While there are many supplements on the market promoting hair regrowth, Ashton said that, from a scientific standpoint, it’s unclear if those supplements get results any different than simply adding a daily prenatal vitamin or multivitamin to your diet.

And finally, Ashton stressed the importance of checking with a medical provider to rule out other medical causes of hair loss, like thyroid function.

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(WASHINGTON) — Amidst the nation’s latest resurgence in COVID-19 infections, new forecast models used by the CDC show that daily hospital admission levels and new virus-related deaths in the U.S. are projected to continue increasing over the next four weeks.

The forecast comes as a growing number of COVID-19 positive patients are entering hospitals and requiring care each day, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are now more than 20,000 virus-positive Americans currently receiving care in the U.S., the data shows — the highest total number of patients hospitalized since mid-March. On average, more than 2,500 virus-positive Americans are entering the hospital each day — a total that has increased by 18.1% in the last week. This also marks the highest number of patients entering the hospital in nearly two months.

However, totals remain significantly lower than during other parts of the pandemic when there were more than 160,000 patients hospitalized with the virus in January.

The forecast also predicts that about 5,400 deaths will occur over the next two weeks. California, New York and Florida are projected to see the largest death tolls in the weeks to come.

A new ABC News analysis this week showed a growing proportion of COVID-19 deaths are occurring among the vaccinated. In August 2021, about 18.9% of COVID-19 deaths were occurring among the vaccinated. Six months later, in February 2022, that percent of deaths had increased to more than 40%.

Comparatively, in September 2021, just 1.1% of COVID-19 deaths were occurring among Americans who had been fully vaccinated and boosted with their first dose. By February 2022, that percent of deaths had increased to about 25%.

Health experts said vaccines and boosters continue to provide significant protection against severe disease. However, waning immunity re-emphasizes the urgency of boosting older Americans and high-risk Americans with additional doses.

During an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci acknowledged there has been an increase in the number of vaccinated people who are dying of COVID-19, many of whom are elderly, immunocompromised or have underlying conditions.

“As long as you have vulnerable people in the population, even though the unvaccinated are going to be much more at risk, even vaccinated with underlying conditions and a high degree of susceptibility to severe disease will account for those deaths,” he said.

The other group of Americans, who are becoming severely ill and dying, is still the unvaccinated, Fauci said. He stressed that a large proportion — about a third of Americans — have not been fully vaccinated, while about half of eligible Americans are still unboosted with their first dose.

Fauci said that in order for the U.S. to move into an endemic phase, the prevalence of the virus across the country has to come down.

“What we’re hoping for is that when the level comes down, it stays in a well-controlled level, and those people who’ve been vaccinated and boosted even though they might get infected, they won’t get a severe disease that would lead to hospitalization, and tragically in many cases, to deaths of individuals,” Fauci explained.

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(WASHINGTON) — A major producer of the abortion pill in the U.S. says it has ample supply if demand suddenly soars in the wake of a Supreme Court decision and that it’s working with federal regulators to make the drug available in pharmacies by the end of the year.

“We are prepared for any surge,” said the spokesperson for Danco Laboratories, which manufactures the brand-name drug Mifeprex.”Our supply is stable and plentiful.”

Mifeprex, along with its generic version, is quickly taking center stage in the abortion debate, as several states move to outlaw its use while others try to expand access.

Here’s what to know about the abortion bill:

What is Mifeprex?

A single 200-mg tablet, Mifeprex is the brand name for the drug mifepristone that is used to end a pregnancy up to 10 weeks. Packed in a blister foil pack inside an orange box, the single tablet induces an abortion by blocking the hormone progesterone.

The pill is typically taken with misoprostol, which causes cramping and bleeding to empty the uterus.

Medical experts say a doctor would not necessarily be able to tell if the woman took the drug or if she miscarried unless she told them.

Mifeprex has been on the market for 22 years, and the FDA regards it as a safe drug for most women. While the number of abortions has declined in recent decades, use of the drug has steadily increased. Now, about half of abortions in the U.S. are medication abortions, rather than a surgical abortion.

While opponents refer to mifepristone as a “chemical abortion,” doctors and drugmakers say that is not a term they use.

How do women get it?

To obtain the drug legally, a woman has to get a prescription from a certified provider.

It’s currently not available through U.S. pharmacies, although Danco Laboratories says it’s working with the Food and Drug Administration so that pharmacies would be allowed to carry the drug by year’s end.

The FDA allows the drug to be prescribed through a telehealth appointment and mailed to her home. However, at least 19 states have enacted laws requiring that the clinician be present physically when administering the drug.

The average cost for women is about $400-$500, a price that includes the consultation with a doctor and follow-up care. But the pill itself only costs about $50. It has a five-year shelf life before it expires.

Who makes it?

For nearly two decades, Danco Laboratories (pronounced DANK-oh) operated as the nation’s sole legal provider of abortion pills in the US, distributing its Mifeprex to all 50 states and territories.

In 2019, a generic version of the drug manufactured by a company called GenBioPro was approved by the FDA.

A third company, Corcept Therapeutics, uses mifepristone to produce an FDA-approved drug for patients with Cushing’s Syndrome. But that drug, called Korlym, which uses a much higher dose of the drug, is not prescribed for abortions.

Both Danco and GenBioPro withhold general information about their companies from the public, including the names of officials, where its facilities are located or production estimates. A spokesperson for GenBioPro could not be reached, while Danco said they do so for security reasons and to protect the privacy of their team members, as well as to safeguard proprietary information.

The FDA said it does not divulge this information either, citing laws aimed at protecting trade secrets and a concern for potential attacks on employees.

“The FDA concluded that there is a risk that individuals associated with the development, marketing and distribution of mifepristone for medical termination of early pregnancy may become the targets of threats of harm or violence,” the agency told ABC News in a statement. “Therefore, the agency does not disclose the names or locations of such individuals.”

Danco will only disclose that the company’s headquarters is located in New York City, while the drug itself is produced out of facilities in Europe that are inspected by U.S. federal officials.

The spokesperson described the company as modestly profitable and said it no longer needs to rely on private investors as it had early on in its tenure.

What happens if Roe v. Wade is overturned?

The Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights, predicts that there are 26 states certain or likely to quickly ban abortion — including medication abortion — “to the fullest extent allowed” by the Supreme Court.

Abortion foes say their goal will be to ensure the drug doesn’t cross state lines.

Still, it’s not entirely clear how easy it will be for states to block a drug that can be obtained through a telehealth appointment and discretely mailed to someone’s home, including from online-based international organizations.

European-based Aid Access, for example, says it relies on a pharmacy in India to mail mifepristone to women in the US without approval by the FDA, despite warnings by the FDA that unregulated drugs can put women’s health at risk.

The result is an untested, complicated legal landscape.

“If there’s a telehealth abortion, that doctor could be in California. That doctor could be in the Netherlands. And in both of those cases, you’re going to have a very hard time getting that doctor into your courtroom,” said Mary Ziegler, a professor at Florida State University College of Law who specializes in the legal history of reproduction and abortion.

ABC News’ Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.

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(ATLANTA) — Parents are being asked to look out for symptoms of hepatitis in their kids as an unexplained outbreak of cases in children continues across the United States.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health alert Tuesday aimed at educating parents on symptoms.

“Hearing about severe liver disease in children can be concerning. If you have any questions about your child’s health, call your child’s healthcare provider,” the CDC wrote, adding that parents should be aware of the symptoms associated with liver inflammation, including fever, fatigue, nausea, and jaundice, which is yellowing of the skin.

Hepatitis means inflammation of the liver. It can be caused by heavy alcohol use, toxins, some medications and medical conditions and is often caused by a virus, according to the CDC.

Here are five things to know about the CDC’s alert on hepatitis and kids and the outbreak.

1. The latest hepatitis outbreak in kids is global.

In April, researchers in the United States and Europe announced they were investigating small clusters of the cases emerging across the globe.

As of this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) says more than 340 probable cases of hepatitis in children have been reported in 20 countries.

In the U.S., there are at least 109 confirmed cases with five deaths in over 25 states and Puerto Rico, according to the CDC.

2. The cause of the outbreak remains unknown.

The cause of the reported cases of hepatitis in children in the U.S. remains unknown, according to the CDC.

“We do not know and are investigating what role other factors play in this illness, such exposure to toxins or other infections that the children might have,” the agency wrote in its latest health alert, also adding it is “not unusual” for the cause of hepatitis cases in children to remain unknown.

Some of the children who have had hepatitis also had adenovirus type 41, a type of virus that can cause severe stomach illness in kids, according to the CDC.

Adenoviruses are different types of viruses that can cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to acute bronchitis, pneumonia, pink eye and acute gastroenteritis, or inflammation of the stomach, according to the CDC.

3. The hepatitis vaccine is not protectant against this latest outbreak.

Hepatitis viruses are the most common cause of hepatitis in the world, including hepatitis A, B, and C, but they’ve been ruled out in the latest outbreak.

The strain of hepatitis seen in this vaccine is not one covered by the hepatitis vaccine that kids receive, according to Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News chief medical correspondent.

“These cases of hepatitis are none of those [covered by the vaccine], so it’s really mystifying public health officials at this point,” Ashton said Wednesday on Good Morning America.

4. The hepatitis outbreak does not appear to be COVID-19-related.

Health officials do not believe the current outbreak in pediatric cases is linked to the novel coronavirus or the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Ashton.

“I just spoke to the CDC director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, this morning,” Ashton said. “She wanted me to emphasize that the majority of these cases have been in children ages 2 to 5. These children, as we all know, are not eligible for the COVID vaccine, so this has nothing to do with the vaccine.”

5. Parents should call their pediatrician if symptoms appear.

The CDC has advised parents to be on the lookout for symptoms in their kids including fever and fatigue, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, joint pain, jaundice — a yellowing of the white part of the eyes or the skin — or a change in the color of urine or stool.

If any of those symptoms are present, parents should call their child’s pediatrician as quickly as possible, according to the CDC.

The agency also urges parents to make sure their child is up to date on all vaccinations and follow safety protocols, like washing hands often, avoiding people who are sick, covering their coughs and sneezes and avoiding touching the eyes, nose or mouth.

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(NEW YORK) — On wheels across the Mississippi Delta region, a group of three women is pulling up their sleeves and reaching underserved communities with free reproductive and sexual health care services.

Dr. Caroline Weinberg founded Plan A, a mobile health clinic, to offer free sexual and reproductive services, including mammograms, pap smears, contraception and STD testing, to patients regardless of insurance status, income or location. The first clinic opened in April 2021, providing health care services on wheels to the Mississippi Delta region.

“Something we have to accept [is] that we can’t solve every problem; like we can’t buy a mammogram machine, we can’t have a colonoscopy on-site, we can’t do surgery,” Weinberg said. “But we can add what we can, and if we’re able to get the resources to pull it off, then we just kind of expand whatever ways we can.”

The staff behind the clinic hopes to provide health care services to underserved communities across the area. By providing services around reproductive and sexual health care, Juliet Thomas, Plan A’s community health worker, hopes to destigmatize the conversation around those topics.

“It is [considered a taboo] when you talk about sex, birth control or anything like that’s really not talked about,” Thomas said.

Weinberg said she built the clinic on the belief that Roe v. Wade would one day be overturned. While the clinic does not offer abortions, Weinberg said they play a role by offering preventive measures to avoid pregnancies.

“I built the organization on the assumption that [Roe v. Wade] was kind of destined to be overturned,” she said. “Roe v. Wade being overturned in really any capacity doesn’t directly impact our day today, but it has an incredible impact on the community that we serve.

“As we seek to empower women and give them the options to kind of move forward with their reproductive health in whatever direction it is, that’s more challenging because their options are limited within the state.”

To fit the needs of the community, Plan A has expanded its operations to add primary care services like blood pressure screenings as well as COVID-19 vaccines. A 60-minute drive from where the mobile clinic is parked, Plan A has a brick-and-mortar clinic in Louise, Mississippi, to offer additional services to a broader community.

Mississippi is one of 12 states to not expand Medicaid since the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 — a critical source of revenue for hospitals and a safety net for poor Americans. The federal government covers 90% of the costs for Medicaid, leaving 10% to be covered by the state.

Although at least eight expansion bills were proposed in the 2022 legislative session, not one was debated.

For Brock Slabach, chief operations officer of the National Rural Health Association, the issue with expanding Medicaid is around the arguments of federal involvement in state policy.

“The reason that they’ve given for their lack of participation in the costs that the federal government giveth and the federal government taketh away,” Slabach said. “At some point, if the federal government decided not to fund 90% of the cost of the expansion, then they would be stuck holding the bag in terms of the dollars it would cost to cover that expanded population.”

If expanded, the American Rescue Plan would provide an additional $600 million per year to the state and qualify more than 225,000 Mississippians.

The roadblocks, however, lie within its own government — with Gov. Tate Reeves and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn being two of Medicaid’s fiercest critics.

“I just don’t think Medicaid expansion is realistic, personally, I’m not for it,” Reeves said during a January interview with WAPT. “I don’t see that as a way forward in Mississippi. We need to be looking at ways to get people off Medicaid, not put them on Medicaid.”

But their stand on the issue is not what the majority population thinks. According to a Millsaps College and Chism Strategies poll, some 60% of voters believe that Medicaid should be expanded.

Patients like Lisa McCarty, who was formerly uninsured, sought the services of Plan A to access contraceptives.

The care and staff made McCarty a loyal patient. Without Plan A, McCarty told ABC News, she would be struggling with paying the doctor’s bill — or even have another child.

“Everyone knows each other and we’re so small here that it’s uncomfortable because you feel like, ‘OK, well, hey, this person may know what’s going on with me and I’m, you know, I don’t feel comfortable,’” McCarty said.

Now with insurance, McCarty said she will continue visiting Plan A, in part because of the wide variety of services outside reproductive health that are offered by the clinic.

As the clinic continues to expand, Desiree Norwood, Plan A program coordinator, hopes to reach more underserved communities across the state.

“I’m very excited because I know that there’s so much more great work that Plan A is going to do for the area, and I feel hopeful. Often the Mississippi Delta is looked at as one of the unhealthiest places, but we’re determined to change the narrative “

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(NEW YORK) — As the nation looks ahead to a possible post-Roe v. Wade world in which abortion is banned in multiple states, medical experts warn there could be wide-ranging health and financial complications for women.

As soon as next month, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority of justices is poised to overturn abortion rights established by Roe v. Wade, according to a draft opinion leaked to Politico.

If Roe is overturned, nearly half of the nation’s 50 states are prepared to ban or heavily restrict abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights organization.

One of the most immediate impacts on women’s health would be maternal health, given that the United States already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, according to Dr. Ana Langer, director of the Women and Health Initiative and a professor of public health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

According to Langer, for some women, “simply continuing a pregnancy is more risky than having a safe abortion.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 700 women die each year due to pregnancy or delivery complications within the first year after giving birth in the U.S., which continues to have the highest maternal mortality rate among developed nations.

Black women in the U.S. die of maternal causes at nearly three times the rate of white women, according to the CDC.

The disproportionate rate at which women of color are impacted by pregnancy complications is one reason abortion rights advocates say abortion bans disproportionately impact that population, many of whom are already impacted more greatly by poverty, lack of health care access and racism in the health care system.

“The same folks that are impacted by inequities in maternal health outcomes — Black women, indigenous folks, LGBTQ communities, young people, those living on low incomes — are the same ones that are going to be deeply impacted and more brutally enacted by restricting access to abortion care,” said Dr. Jamila Perritt, a board-certified OBGYN in Washington, D.C., and president and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health. “It’s a double hit.”

In 2018, the most recent data available, two people in the U.S. died due to abortion-related deaths, and both deaths were related to legal abortion, according to the CDC.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) calls abortion “an essential component of women’s health care.”

In instances of pregnancy complications like preeclampsia, placental abruption, placenta previa and cardiac conditions, abortion can often be the only measure to save the mother’s health, according to ACOG.

“There can be things that develop during a pregnancy that can be dangerous, and it can be dangerous for them to continue those pregnancies,” said Dr. Krishna Upadhya, vice president of quality care and health equity at Planned Parenthood. “Not having access to abortion means they will have to continue those pregnancies, no matter the consequences.”

Abortion is a common medical procedure that can be similar to the care a woman gets when she has had a miscarriage, according to Upadhya. She said limiting or banning access to abortion care could also complicate miscarriage care in legal and medical ways.

“When we ban abortion, that also means we prevent or we reduce the opportunities for doctors to know how to provide this care, and then that puts at risk people who need related care,” said Upadhya, adding, “I’m also concerned that people who experience a miscarriage or other pregnancy complication could be questioned about their pregnancy outcome with potential legal implications and that’s a whole other unnecessary problem that people could face as a result of overturning Roe.”

Medical experts including Upadhya and Langer say they also worry what the overturning of federal abortion rights by the Supreme Court could do for other aspects of women’s reproductive and overall health.

For many women, access to abortion care also means access to overall health care like well-woman exams, prenatal care, contraceptive care, treatment for sexually transmitted infections, HIV testing, Pap smears and screenings for breast and cervical cancers. At Planned Parenthood, for example, abortion care accounts for just 3% of the services they provide, according to the organization’s 2019 annual report.

“Planned Parenthood’s motto is care no matter what, so we provide a full range of sexual and reproductive health care,” said Upadhya. “We are doing everything we can to provide all of that care because we know people need that care.”

Another point of concern for women’s health advocates is what the fall of Roe v. Wade could mean for the future of birth control access.

Based on the leaked draft opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, it’s not a far leap to imagine the Supreme Court taking on contraception, according to Kate Shaw, an ABC News contributor and constitutional law professor at Cardozo School of Law.

“A lot of the logic in this opinion suggests that other Supreme Court rulings are quite vulnerable to being revisited and possibly overturned by this Supreme Court that seems really emboldened to torch longstanding precedents because there are the votes to do it,” said Shaw, citing one of the cases as Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a Connecticut law that made it illegal to use birth control devices or to advise about their use.

Experts say in addition to the immediate health complications for women, restricting access to abortion care has also been shown to have socioeconomic impacts on women, which can trickle down to, again, impact their health.

One frequently-cited study, The Turnaway Study, followed nearly 1,000 women who sought abortions in 21 states. The five-year study concluded that, “receiving an abortion does not harm the health and wellbeing of women, but in fact, being denied an abortion results in worse financial, health and family outcomes.”

Specifically, the study — led by researchers at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), based at the University of California San Francisco — found that women who were denied abortions were at nearly four times greater odds of a household income below the federal poverty line; had three times greater odds of being unemployed; had an increased likelihood of not being able to cover basic necessities like food and housing; and were more likely to stay with violent partners, putting themselves and their children at risk, according to the study brief.

The study also found women who were denied abortions were more likely to face greater mental health struggles and were less likely to complete advanced degrees.

“When we put restrictive laws in place like this, that ignore a person as a whole and ignore all of the complex decisions that go into deciding to become pregnant and parent,” said Dr. Jennifer Conti, a California-based OBGYN and abortion care provider. “We create dangerous situations where they have to choose between continuing a pregnancy and sometimes worsening their own medical conditions or worsening their own financial, economic decisions.”

In remarks Wednesday at a U.S. Senate hearing, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen described how access to abortion can change the course of not only a woman’s life, but society’s circumstances, too.

“Roe v. Wade and access to reproductive health care, including abortion, helped lead to increased labor force participation,” she said. “It enabled many women to finish school. That increased their earning potential. It allowed women to plan and balance their families and careers, and research also shows that it had a favorable impact on the well being and earnings of children.”

If Roe v. Wade is overturned and, as a result, as many as two dozen states potentially ban or restrict abortion access, experts like Perritt, of Physicians for Reproductive Health, predict both the socioeconomic and health divides in this country will become even greater.

Already, in states like Texas, where abortion is heavily restricted, there are high rates of maternal and infant mortality and poverty, data shows.

And Texas’ ban on most abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, instituted last year, has not slowed the rate of abortions but rather has required people seeking abortion care to travel out of state, according to research from the University of Texas at Austin.

“We know what happens when you eliminate access to abortion at the state level. It means that people who have resources, people who have the ability, will travel to get care if they can, but most people cannot and will not,” said Perritt. “What we’ll be faced with is folks that are seeking care outside the formal medical system, and also folks who will be forced to carry pregnancies to term that they cannot and do not want to carry.”

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(NEW YORK) — Comedian Amy Schumer revealed Monday that she is taking the COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid as part of her overall care package as she recovers from the infection.

Paxlovid is a Food and Drug Administration-authorized treatment given as a series of pills over five days that can dramatically reduce the risk of severe illness. The U.S. government has purchased millions of doses in an effort to expand access to the drug for everyday Americans.

But in a series of social media posts, Schumer rhetorically asked if she is eligible for Paxlovid considering she is also taking the antidepressant, Lexapro. Although experts say it’s safe to take Lexapro and Paxlovid at the same time, they say Schumer’s posts raise awareness of an important issue: Paxlovid works, but it should be used with caution.

“Paxlovid is very important and has really been a game-changer as it’s the first oral antiviral that’s been authorized by our FDA and recommended by the CDC for high-risk patients with COVID 19 symptomatic infection…and has been shown to decrease hospitalization and death by close to 90%,” said Dr. Todd Ellerin, director of Infectious Disease and Chief of Medicine at South Shore Health.

But the drug shouldn’t be used at the same time as many common prescription drugs, including some medications to treat mood disorders, heart conditions, high cholesterol, hypertension, migraines and many others. A full list of drugs that can react with Paxlovid can be found on the FDA Fact Sheet.

According to Ellerin, anyone taking a prescription medication should speak to their pharmacist or doctor before taking Paxlovid.

In some circumstances, people can stop taking their existing medication for five days while they take Paxlovid. In other cases, a doctor might be able to adjust drug doses, or recommend an alternative to Paxlovid, such as Remdesivir or a monoclonal antibody to help reduce the risk of severe COVD-19.

Paxlovid contains two drugs, Nirmatrelvir and Ritonavir and experts warn that Ritonavir in particular can cause unsafe reactions with a long list of medications. Paxlovid can inhibit the ability to break down other medicines within the body, leading to an unsafe buildup of those medicines when recently taken.

Ellerin says people shouldn’t feel discouraged from seeking Paxlovid to ease COVID-19 symptoms, but anyone with questions should speak to a healthcare provider first.

“Your pharmacist can be really helpful,” said Ellerin. “If they say you have to be careful with these meds, then you want to speak to your provider.”

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(NEW YORK) — A growing proportion of COVID-19 deaths are occurring among the vaccinated, a new ABC News analysis of federal data shows.

In August of 2021, about 18.9% of COVID-19 deaths occurred among the vaccinated. Six months later, in February 2022, that proportional percent of deaths had increased to more than 40%.

Comparatively, in September 2021, just 1.1% of COVID-19 deaths occurred among Americans who had been fully vaccinated and boosted with their first dose. By February 2022, that percentage had increased to about 25%.

Experts said the increase in breakthrough deaths is expected with more Americans reaching full vaccination status.

“These data should not be interpreted as vaccines not working. In fact, these real-world analyses continue to reaffirm the incredible protection these vaccines afford especially when up to date with boosters,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.

In addition, many vulnerable Americans are more than one year out from their primary vaccinations and have yet to receive booster doses.

To date, more than 220 million Americans have been fully vaccinated, 100 million of whom have received their first COVID-19 booster. However, about 91.5 million eligible Americans — about half of those currently eligible — have yet to receive their first booster shot.

The increase in breakthrough deaths comes as a growing proportion of older Americans enter the hospital for COVID-19 related care.

Last summer, after more vulnerable, older populations had been vaccinated, the share of Americans ages 65 years and older in the hospital had dipped to a pandemic low — with younger populations representing the largest age groups of people in need of care. However, throughout the omicron surge, the average age of those in the hospital with COVID-19 has steadily gotten older again.

More than 90% of seniors have been fully vaccinated, but a third of them have yet to receive their first booster shot. Even with overall high vaccination rates in older populations, in recent months, during the omicron surge, 73% of deaths have been among those 65 and older.

Health experts said vaccines and boosters continue to provide significant protection against severe disease. However, waning immunity re-emphasizes the urgency of boosting older Americans and high-risk Americans with additional doses.

“This trend in increased risk among the elderly further supports the need for community wide immunization. Older populations, especially those with underlying conditions, continue to be at great risk of severe complications, especially as immunity wanes. The best way to protect them is to make sure everyone around them is fully immunized,” Brownstein said.

All Americans over the age of 50, immunocompromised people over the age of 12, and people who received two doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, are currently eligible for a second booster.

Approximately 10.5 million people in the U.S. have received their second booster dose.

“Given the fact that immunity is waning, we’ve got to get people boosted,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told GBH News’s Boston Public Radio on Monday.

In February, unvaccinated adults were 10 times more likely to die of COVID-19 compared to vaccinated individuals and five times more likely to require hospitalization, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Compared to fully vaccinated and boosted adults, unvaccinated people were about 20 times more likely to die of COVID-19 and seven times more likely to require hospitalization.

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(NEW YORK) — ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff and his cameraman Doug Vogt were covering the Iraq War in 2006 and embedded with U.S. and Iraqi forces when an explosion nearly killed them.

Woodruff and Vogt were severely injured and rushed to the hospital in Baghdad, the place where Woodruff met the medic who he says helped save their lives, Sgt. Dave Williamson, including by giving them pharmaceutical-grade fentanyl to manage their pain.

Once in the trauma bay, Williamson and his surgical team were able to treat Vogt and Woodruff.

“We knew that [Woodruff and Vogt] were in, in serious, serious, serious dire straits … we just needed to get a tube in your throat and have you breathing off machines,” Williamson said.

Due to the severity of Woodruff’s injuries, Williamson injected him with multiple drugs, including fentanyl. Williamson said he had complete control over the drug, and he knew that it was the kind of opioid that would manage Woodruff’s pain.

“Our go-to drug was fentanyl. So at the time the fentanyl that we had was given in micrograms and it was glass vials,” Williamson said. “We had a very solid understanding of what it is, what it’s capable of doing and also how dangerous it was.”

Fentanyl was developed in 1959 to be used for chronic pain, anesthesia as well as sedation, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The drug, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.

Although fentanyl and other opioids are intended for patients suffering from extreme pain, they are also powerfully addictive and carry strong warnings about the potential for harm.

Today, medical experts say illicit versions of the drug are driving the opioid crisis and contributing to one of the leading causes of drug overdoses in America.

Originally made for sedation during surgery, fentanyl rapidly began infiltrating the illicit drug market. Considered to be one of the most powerful opioids ever created — Mexican cartels are pouring tons of fentanyl over the U.S. border every year, according to the DEA.

Woodruff and Vogt safely returned to the U.S. and, as the war began to wind down, Williamson left the military. The effects of the war, however, stayed with him for years after his return and he was soon diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“You’re looking for anything to numb the pain. Even though it may not be physical pain, it’s something that just doesn’t go away,” Williamson said. “It just stays with you and it just gnaws and you’re trying to emotionally cope with everything that happened over the course of 18 months for 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, and you don’t have time to deal with it then, and now you’re home or you’re out of the Army and now you’ve got time to process it.”

Now at home and away from the conflict, the medic who administered opioids to numb his patients’ pain, developed an addiction to them.

“They prescribed me Percocet,” Williamson said about a surgery he had shortly after returning home. “And I rifled through those Percocet like it was nobody’s business and then I just wanted to do it more and more and more and more and more,” he said.

Williamson was then introduced to OxyContin by a close friend, making his addiction even worse. He would often buy the drug on the street and, before realizing it, the spiral descended from painkillers to meth and even heroin.

“So it’s just this sense of loneliness, of solitude and, before you know it, it’s spiraling out of control,” Williamson said.

His wife, Jessica Williamson, also suffered from opioid addiction. Jessica said she had her first contact with the drug after a car wreck when she was 17. She was prescribed painkillers to help her recovery.

“OxyContin came around and that was a huge problem for me, that was really when things got pretty bad for me,” Jessica said.

The couple began struggling to access OxyContin due to its high price, so they found themselves turning to the streets and using cheaper drugs, such as heroin.

One night, the couple says they believe the pills they got from a dealer were laced with fentanyl — the same extremely powerful opioid Williamson had used to treat Woodruff’s nearly fatal injury.

“We’re sitting in this parking lot and David did his and immediately was, you know, nodding out and was in and out. And I thought, ‘Wow, he did too much.’ Then I started throwing up, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I did too much.’ But I knew that I hadn’t done more than what I normally do. And I was sick. I mean, it was scary. It was very scary,” Jessica said.

The couple said they would not knowingly take fentanyl. They both believe that without their years of building a tolerance to opioids, those pills would have easily killed them.

The couple’s turning point, however, was when their 3-year-old son witnessed what they had been hiding for years.

“One of the things that was a turning point was when my 3-year-old walked into my room when I was shooting up and I screamed at him to shut the door,” Dave Williamson said.

“And I mean… “Is this what I’m going to do when he’s 30?”

Williamson then decided to join a program to seek treatment for his opioid dependency.

With the help of therapy and support groups, the Williamsons said they have stopped using opioids, and their hope is to keep drugs out of their lives forever.

“Once you’re an addict, you’re always an addict. It’s just that we don’t have the want or the need or the desire to chase it anymore,” Williamson said.

“We both see how our lives were then and we see where our lives are now and we like where we’re at now and we know how slippery of a slope it is.”

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(NEW YORK) — Martin’s drinking started early.

In elementary school, his father would offer swigs of Budweiser in the car during their daily pilgrimage from Pomona to Hollywood, California to pick up his mother from cosmetology class, he told ABC News.

Decades later, after churning through dozens of jobs, Martin — who spoke under the condition of anonymity to protect his privacy — found himself in the pandemic’s crosshairs.

Seven days into a gig as a short-order chef, in March 2020, his restaurant shut down and the 44-year old began quarantining with his family. Martin said he tried desperately to abstain from drinking  — he adored helping his arthritic mother with chores around the house — but the pandemic only deepened his underlying alcoholism.

“All I ever knew about how to spend my time was to get drunk,” Martin told ABC News, “and I had more of my time than ever before.”

In September, his family kicked him out. Two months later, he was passing out cold on the street, he recalled.

Americans had been drinking more for years ahead of the pandemic. But as COVID forced people to lock down, these patterns only intensified.

New research shows that deaths caused by alcohol shot up, too. And younger Americans — people in their late 20s, 30s and early 40s — were the hardest hit.

Struggling to cope with pandemic stressors

That extra glass of merlot was driven in part by people’s attempts to cope with unprecedented circumstances, Anusha Chandrakanthan, a psychiatrist at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, told ABC News.

“Social isolation, along with fear of the unknown, have always been major triggers for our patients,” Chandrakanthan added.

At the same time, alcohol became easier to get than ever, said Sara Polley, who directs youth continuum services for Hazelden Betty Ford, a national addiction treatment organization that also runs residential centers.

Relaxed alcohol-delivery laws meant people could order merlots, stouts or vodka to their homes across the country. There, they could pour uninhibited by open tabs or last calls, Polley added.

Heightened stressors, plus ease of access, led to Americans purchasing alcohol at the greatest rate in decades, according to IWSR, an alcohol research organization.

By winter 2021, hospitals around the country reported that alcohol-related admissions increased up to 50% compared to prior years. Hospitalizations leapt higher still during intermittent stay-at-home orders.

Increases in deaths particularly high in young adults

New data now shows that alcohol deaths, which are defined as those where alcohol use disorder is a cause of death on death certificates, have skyrocketed as well.

A study published this week found that deaths rates surged by 25% in 2020. They stayed high in 2021 — 21% above the pre-pandemic baseline — a figure equating to tens of thousands of deaths.

The research builds on data from March that likewise showed increases in alcohol-related deaths. It also reinforced another finding: young adults were hit the hardest.

The observation may reflect a sea change in how younger Americans view alcohol, Aaron White, chief of epidemiology and biometry at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, told ABC News.

“Our kids are, on average, drinking less,” he told ABC News, “but they’re drinking alone more when they do — and they’re drinking in combination with drugs.”

Drinking alongside drugs can be particularly deadly. Historically, one out of every seven opioid deaths also involve alcohol. As opioids overwhelm the country, deaths involving both are only accelerating.

The toll may be higher than we know

And bad as the alcohol death data look, they may actually underestimate the toll, White told ABC News.

Since death certificates rely on examiners’ judgment, not all may screen for alcohol or attribute the death to alcohol if it’s detected.

White points to gaps between death certificates and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data as evidence: about 10,000 deaths due to drinking and driving captured by NHTSA — fully 90% — were not reflected on death certificates in 2020.

“We know for certain that deaths due to alcohol are undercounted,” White told ABC News, “so, the question is, what’s the true number? And really, we have no idea.”

Will the trend continue?

Whether the mortality spikes are a blip or a trend remains up for debate.

Some experts, like Polley, are hopeful they’ll resolve “as peoples’ lives get slowly but surely back to normal,” she told ABC News.

Others are more concerned.

“All the data says to me that we’re fraying at the edges,” White told ABC News.

At Hazelden Betty Ford, admissions to its residential programs — including its center for young adults — have reached record highs in 2022.

“I don’t see anything to say we’re moving in a better direction,” White told ABC News, “at least, not yet.”

Martin, for his part, is hopeful the pandemic can mean a new beginning.

“That popping sound of that first beer, it used to literally be music to my ears — but not anymore,” he told ABC News.

He found a rare room at a rehab in Long Beach, and he said he’s been faithfully attending AA meetings.

“Now, I just want to see a new me,” he told ABC News, “a me that’s old, sober, and can be there for my mom.”

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