(NEW YORK) — COVID-19 vaccines for kids under 5 have not yet been authorized, but the U.S.’ rollout plan is already in the works.
The federal government is prepping an initial 10 million doses of the under-5 Pfizer formula, which will be ready to go out as soon as the Food and Drug Administration gives their final sign-off, sources familiar with the situation told ABC News.
The new three-microgram doses for this young population will be distributed in maroon-capped vials, according to a preliminary planning chart from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to states and obtained by ABC News.
This is to differentiate that specific formula from the vials for 5- to 11-year-olds, which are orange-capped. The formula for adults and older adolescents will have grey caps (previously it had purple caps, but that color will no longer be used).
A CDC spokesperson confirmed the rollout plans.
Supply of the under-5 vaccine formula is abundant, with enough for all children in the age group, sources familiar with the rollout said. Now, all that is needed is FDA authorization and CDC recommendation.
The Biden administration has promised there will also be enough needles, syringes and kits, for the roughly 18 million children aged six months to 5 years old in the U.S. who will soon be eligible.
States will be putting in their orders this week and next week, sources said, so the government can start sorting out where the doses will ship.
White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said Wednesday that the plan for the vaccine rollout for kids under 5 is “well underway,” and the CDC is working with state leaders to help them prepare.
The new formula for these young children will be available at “thousands of locations across the country, locations that parents know and trust,” Zients said, and the Biden administration is working “closely” with pediatricians, family doctors, children’s hospitals and pharmacies to ensure access.
The Food and Drug Administration’s independent advisory committee (VRBPAC) is set to meet and publicly debate Pfizer’s request to authorize their under-5 vaccine on Feb. 15, after the company submitted that application at the start of February.
(NEW YORK) — Adding more plants to your diet can add years to your life, according to a new study.
Researchers in Norway used computer models to compare a typical Western diet — heavy on animal-based proteins dairy and sugar — with a more ideal plant-based diet that’s heavy on fruits, vegetables, beans and grains and light on animal-based proteins.
According to the models, a 20-year-old who went all-in on the plant-based diet could add 10 years to their life. Even just making a partial change could add six years of life expectancy.
An 80-year-old who started a plant-based diet could add three years to their life expectancy, according to the study, published Tuesday in PLOS Medicine.
“A sustained dietary change may give substantial health gains for people of all ages both for optimized and feasible changes,” the researchers wrote. “Gains are predicted to be larger the earlier the dietary changes are initiated in life.”
The researchers turned their model into a public online tool, Food4HealthyLife, where users can calculate how dietary changes can change their life expectancy.
A plant-based diet is a way of eating that consists mostly or entirely of foods derived from plants, including vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes and fruits.
Plant-based diets typically consist of eating few to no animal foods and is different from vegan diets, which eliminates all animal foods and products, and from vegetarian diets, which eliminate all meat, fish and poultry.
Plant-based diets, often done for health and environmental reasons, also often place an emphasis on whole foods.
Even small changes make a difference when it comes to trying a plant-based diet, according to Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News chief medical correspondent.
“I think when people hear plant-based diet or they hear a definition they get very intimidated. This does not have to be an all-in thing,” Ashton said Wednesday on Good Morning America. “You can make small changes with, let’s say, a meatless Monday or just one meal of every day.”
She added, “Read the labels. Explore those food aisles. There are more plant-based options than ever.”
Plant-based diets have been steadily gaining acclaim for the last several years, often landing atop the annual best diet rankings from U.S. News & World Report.
Here are four questions answered about the plant-based diet trend.
1. What are good things to eat on a plant-based diet?
Brian Wendel, maker of the 2011 documentary Forks Over Knives, places an emphasis on eating whole, minimally processed foods within a plant-based diet.
“For me, the best guide is, does the food still look somewhat like it does when you take it out of the ground? When you cook a potato, it still looks like a potato,” he told GMA in 2020. “The more a food is like that the more you can lean on that in your diet and lifestyle, for health benefits.”
Of course fresh vegetables and fruits are a big part of a plant-based diet, as well as nuts, whole grains and legumes. Seafood and meat products can also, on occasion, be part of a plant-based diet.
Wendel emphasizes eating more than just vegetables on a plant-based diet to ensure you are taking in enough calories.
“Make starchy foods — beans, rice, sweet potatoes, quinoa, chickpeas –- the center of the plate because that has the energy to sustain you,” he said. “And then surround it with vegetables.”
2. What about all the packaged foods advertised as ‘plant-based’?
The emphasis on eating whole foods on a plant-based diet raises the question of what to make of all the packaged plant-based products on the market, from kale chips to meat-free burgers.
“So many diets that are restrictive or have a buzz name have nothing in their description about the quality of their food and that’s something that is really important,” said Deirdre Tobias, assistant professor in the department of nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health. “A lot of these plant-based products might still be highly processed and have a lot of sodium and saturated fats.”
“Be careful about plant-based being used as a marketing tool,” she said.
Tobias recommends being a “savvy shopper” and shopping for your plant-based diet in the produce aisle.
“Make your own plant-based foods because vegetables are there for you,” she said. “You don’t have to be purchasing packaged, processed foods.”
3. Are there any downsides to a plant-based diet?
Not really, according to the experts.
“For heart disease, diabetes, cancer, all of the major chronic diseases, there are no downsides to eliminating meat products from your diet for any of those,” said Tobias. “If anything, the evidence shows that by going plant-based you would be benefiting your long-term survival and reducing the risk of those diseases.”
“Fruits and vegetables, fiber, nuts and legume have also all been proven to be good for weight loss and to keep weight off long-term,” she said.
Is there a way to be plant-based but still eat some meat?
Yes, the definition of plant-based is that your diet is based on plants but allows room for other foods from time to time.
“If you’re not ready to give up meat entirely, still even reducing it to once in a while would have a lot of great benefits,” said Tobias. “The science isn’t there to say a steak or a burger once in a while is horrible for you, it’s the daily consumption that’s problematic.”
One option is the flexitarian diet which encourages people to try alternative meat options, like tofu, but leaves room for flexibility if you can’t quite fully give up meat. The diet was promoted by dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner in a 2009 book that says you can reap the benefits of a plant-heavy diet even if you eat meat occasionally, according to U.S. News and World Report, which ranked the diet No. 2 on its 2022 best diets list.
This plant-heavy diet focuses on adding five food groups — “new meat,” fruits and vegetables, whole grains, dairy and sugar and spices — to your diet, instead of taking foods away.
The “new meat” food group includes tofu, beans, lentils, peas, nuts, seeds and eggs, according to U.S. News and World Report.
4. How do I know if a plant-based diet is right for me?
You’ll know a plant-based diet is working for you if you feel well and you are able to stick to it long-term, according to Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine physician scientist at Harvard Medical School.
“Your body has the answers,” said Stanford. “Pay attention to your body and don’t pay attention to someone else and how they say their body responded.”
The experts also noted there may be some trial and error involved so stay open to finding what works best for you.
(NEW YORK) — A growing number of states are lifting mask mandates in schools, but Education Secretary Miguel Cardona says that prematurely easing restrictions could lead to more issues for in-person learning.
“We have to have our health experts at the table,” Cardona told ABC News Live on Tuesday. “Most importantly, we have to keep our schools open; our students cannot afford another round of disruption.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Delaware Gov. John Carney announced Monday that students will no longer be required to wear a mask in schools by mid-March.
Since a few months after the pandemic hit the United States, local politicians have come under pressure from parents and communities on both sides of the debate over children wearing masks in schools.
“We have people that are very passionate about what they believe,” Cardona said. “We have to remember to engage the perspectives of different parents, teachers.”
Cardona responded to claims of parents who argue that wearing a face mask negatively impacts their child’s learning, by pointing to a likely outcome of lifting restrictions too soon.
“You know what hinders kids’ learning? Being quarantined because they have COVID, or not having a teacher because their teacher has COVID,” he said.
Some experts say it is too soon to end mask mandates in schools because vaccination rates are not high enough among children and new cases are still being reported. Experts are especially concerned for children under 5 who are not yet eligible for the vaccine. Pfizer requested emergency use authorization for children 6 months old to 5 years old on Feb. 1, and a Food and Drug Administration advisory meeting is scheduled for Feb. 15.
“Many of our educators have children under the age of 5 that they go home to,” said Cardona. “We need to make sure our schools are safe for them to work. We have to honor and respect our educators and leaders who have difficult decisions.”
The education secretary said the easing of coronavirus protocols in the classroom are making some educators feel uncomfortable coming to work. Since the pandemic began, there’s been a teacher shortage, due to fears of contracting the virus, remote learning and an overall shift in how our nation’s educators teach and interact with young people.
“It’s been tough to be an educator the last couple years, not only because of the changes that they’ve had to experience in terms of being in-person one day and being fully remote the next, but they’ve been under a lot of pressure,” said Cardona. “There’s strong feelings in the community, oftentimes teachers are being blamed schools are not open.”
He noted that the country has made progress in keeping schools open throughout the last year, stating that in the beginning of President Joe Biden’s term, less than 50% of classes were held in person. Now, all schools have opened their doors, though some are still operating on a hybrid schedule.
Cardona said it’s important for school districts and politicians to remember what has succeeded in keeping students and educators safe in schools.
“What I’m hearing from educators is that they just want to make sure that their work environment is safe for their students,” he added. “But they also understand this pandemic has taken a toll and that we’re ready to move forward, but we can only do so if we protect our students and our staff, including the students who are not yet in our schools, the little ones that parents are going back home to.”
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told lawmakers on Tuesday that the pandemic has had a “devastating” impact on the mental health of America’s young people.
“I’m deeply concerned as a parent and as a doctor that the obstacles this generation of young people face are unprecedented and uniquely hard to navigate and the impact that’s having on their mental health is devastating,” Murthy told the Senate Finance Committee.
Senators expressed bipartisan support for addressing mental health issues among young people, with chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, raising alarm over recent increases in suicide attempts among American youth.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year that emergency department visits for suicide attempts among teen girls were up more than 50% at the beginning of the pandemic, compared to the same period in 2019.
“Millions of young Americans are struggling under a mental health epidemic, struggling in school, struggling with addiction or isolation, struggling to make it from one day to the next. Our country is in danger of losing much of a generation if mental health care remains business as usual,” Wyden said. “And that means the Finance Committee has got to come up with solutions.”
A main issue, Murthy said, is access to care. He said that on average it takes 11 years from the onset of symptoms before a child begins receiving treatment.
Murthy’s main recommendations are to ensure access to “high-quality, culturally competent care,” focusing on prevention with school and community-based programs and developing a better understanding of the impact technology and social media have on young people.
“Currently there is a grand national experiment that is taking place upon our kids when it comes to social media and we need to understand more about what is happening, which kids are at risk, what impact these algorithms and the broader platforms are having on our children,” Murthy said.
He explained that, in addition to the positive effects social media platforms have had on young people, they have also, “exacerbated feelings of loneliness, futility and low self esteem for some youth,” and increased potential for negative messaging and bullying.
“Our obligation to act is not just medical, it’s moral,” Murthy said. “It’s not only about saving lives, it’s about listening to our kids who are concerned about the state of the world that they are set to inherit. It’s about our opportunity to rebuild a world that we want to give them, a world that fundamentally refocuses our priorities on people and community and builds a culture of kindness, inclusion and respect.”
If you or a loved one is experiencing suicidal thoughts, The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support. Call 1-800-273-8255 for help.
(NEW YORK) — Losing weight can be hard and confusing, but a new study has found an easy way to help.
Adding just one hour or more of sleep a night can help boost weight loss, according to the study published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
Participants in the study who underwent a “sleep extension” program for two weeks, sleeping about one hour longer per night, took in about 150 fewer calories per day, which, over the course of the two weeks, averaged a weight loss of nearly two pounds.
Prior to the “sleep extension” program, the participants slept less than 6.5 hours per night, according to the study, which was led by researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Over a three-year period, adding at least one hour of sleep per night could result in a 26-pound weight loss, the study’s authors noted.
“Along with a healthy diet and regular physical activity, healthy sleep habits should be integrated into public messages to help reduce the risk of obesity and related comorbidities,” the study’s authors wrote, noting their study is a first of its kind because it monitored participants in their home environments instead of in a sleep lab, for example.
“The theory here is that sleep can really affect our brain hormones, which trigger hunger, satiety, as well as our behavior,” said ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton, who was not involved with the study. “We know that when we’re sleep-deprived, we tend to make poor food choices.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adults ages 18 and over should get a minimum of seven hours of sleep per night.
Infants and toddlers should get between 11 and 16 hours of sleep per night, depending on age, while elementary school children should get between nine and 12 hours of sleep per night, according to the CDC.
Teenagers should get eight to 10 hours of sleep per night, the CDC advises.
Speaking of the importance of sleep, Ashton said, “This is not a luxury. This is a medical necessity.”
“We know that sleep has been linked with everything from thinking ability, mood and mental health, hormone levels,” she said. “It can decrease high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease if we get adequate sleep.”
A study released last year found that sleeping less than six hours a night in midlife can raise the risk of dementia — the loss of cognitive functioning, like thinking, remembering and reasoning — by 30%.
“This is so important,” Ashton said of getting adequate sleep. “This is on par with our nutrition and our fitness in terms of our health.”
Here are four tips from Ashton to get better, more restful sleep:
1. “Keep a consistent bedtime routine during the week and on the weekends.”
2. “Make your bedroom cold, dark and quiet. That’s the most relaxing sleep environment you can have.”
3. “Limit screen time, which includes the phone, about an hour before you go to bed.”
4. “Avoid caffeine, alcohol and large meals in the one to two hours before you go to sleep. What we’re eating and drinking really matters.”
Read more here for tips on how to get a good night’s sleep.
(WASHINGTON) — The drug overdose epidemic in the United States, now primarily driven by synthetic opioids like ultra-deadly fentanyl, costs the nation roughly $1 trillion a year, according to a new bipartisan congressional report released Tuesday.
“Whether measured in lives or in dollars, the United States’ drug overdose epidemic should shock everyone,” the report reads. “It is unacceptable.”
The report provides a unique level of comprehensive review into the opioid crisis, with particular emphasis on the need to improve mental health services and expand health care access for those suffering from addiction.
A White House Council of Economic Advisers assessment pegged the cost of the opioid crisis at $700 billion three years ago.
The new report derives the new $1 trillion estimate based on the increase in overdose deaths seen since 2018.
Drug overdose deaths have more than doubled in recent years, from about 44,000 in 2013, to more than 100,000 between May 2020 and April 2021. Overdose incidents are responsible for more deaths in the U.S. each year than firearms, suicide, homicide or car crashes, according to the report.
When it comes to understanding the demand for synthetic opioids, the report’s authors wrote: “Authorities are largely flying blind.”
“The United States does not have the data infrastructure to adequately measure the amount of illegally manufactured synthetic opioids consumed in the United States or the number of people who use them,” the report reads.
Tracking fentanyl is difficult, especially when it comes mixed with other substances, including counterfeit pills, which users might not know are fake.
A series of target raids done across the U.S. last year as part of a new crackdown on counterfeit prescription medication resulted in the seizure of 1.8 million fake pills, and authorities saw increases in the number that contained fentanyl, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The number of fentanyl-laced pills seized during the enforcement push at the time was enough to kill 700,000 people.
“The United States has never experienced such a rapid and unprecedented shift in illegal drug markets, especially a shift that is causing so much death,” the report reads.
Rep. David Trone, D-Md., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., chair the bipartisan commission that produced the over 500-page report.
Combating the opioid crisis is personal for Trone, as his 24-year-old nephew died from a fentanyl overdose in 2016. That family tragedy has fueled his continued work on the issue.
“We’ve got to put names behind these statistics, because we’re numbed,” Trone said. “We just hear these big numbers.”
Transnational criminal organizations rely on raw materials sourced from China and trafficking routes through Mexico to maintain an expansive supply chain which has funneled fake versions of Oxycontin, Vicodin and Xanax, or stimulants like Adderall.
“The cartels are entrepreneurs and are phenomenally powerful with $100 billion-plus business and they have really shaped their drug to fit the American market,” Trone said.
A significantly greater level of potency, about 50 times that of heroin, combined with being relatively easy to manufacture, makes fentanyl an attractive product for drug traffickers.
Counterfeit versions of real prescription drugs also create challenges in identifying the scope of the demand and marshaling resources for treatment, according to the congressional report.
“It’s incomprehensible that our government’s reaction has been so inadequate,” Trone said.
The report recommends elevating the head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy to a cabinet level position and empowering the office to analyze trends and respond to threats more quickly.
This week, the DEA announced the launch of a new enforcement initiative aimed at dismantling illicit drug trafficking networks in communities across the country. A majority of the networks already identified by the DEA are known for distributing fentanyl or methamphetamines.
“DEA will bring all it has to bear to make our communities safer and healthier, and to reverse the devastating trends of drug-related violence and overdoses plaguing our Nation,” the agency’s chief administrator, Anne Milgram, said Monday.
But the new congressional report is clear to emphasize the need for a public health solution as well. Methadone and buprenorphine, two treatment medications designed to reduce opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms, are identified as two of the most effective intervention methods.
(NEW YORK) — Several states across the country are considering lifting mask mandates in schools in an attempt to return to some semblance of normalcy.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Delaware Gov. John Carney announced Monday that mask mandates in schools will come to an end in March. Illinois school districts will be deciding whether or not to make masks optional after a judge ruled against the state’s mandate.
Additionally, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order last month allowing parents to choose whether their child will wear a mask in schools, although it was temporarily halted by a judge Friday.
Experts say it is too soon to end mask mandates in schools because vaccination rates are not high enough yet among the school-age population and new cases are still being reported.
“It is not safe at this time for schools to rescind mask mandates [because] even though we do have decent levels of vaccination in the older age groups, as populations get younger, the proportion who are vaccinated gets lower,” Dr. Mercedes Carnethon, vice chair of the department of preventive medicine and a professor of epidemiology and pulmonary and critical care at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told ABC News.
Currently, 22.6% of Americans ages 5 to 11 and 56.4% of those ages 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The proportion of parents who have chosen vaccination for their children is very low and we know that masking works to stop the spread of the coronavirus,” Carnethon said. “Rescinding those mandates where children 5 and up spend their days, I believe we will see rapid spread.”
Proponents of mask mandates say COVID-19 is not an endemic disease yet and lifting mandates will trigger a major rise in cases.
In Wyoming, Laramie County School District 1 — located in the capital of Cheyenne — reported a spike in cases just two weeks after the Board of Trustees voted to end the mask mandate.
First reported by the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, nearly 400 students and 100 staff have tested positive between Jan. 24 and Feb. 4, an ABC analysis of school district data shows.
Similarly, Hopkinton High School in Massachusetts was the first public school in the state to drop masks altogether but reinstituted the mandate after a rise in cases.
Murphy said a drop in COVID-19 infections linked to the omicron variant led him to lift the mask mandate.
“Balancing public health with getting back to some semblance of normalcy is not easy,” Murphy tweeted. “But we can responsibly take this step due to declining COVID numbers and growth in vaccinations.”
Dr. Stanley Weiss, a professor of biostatistics & epidemiology at Rutgers School of Public Health, called it a politically motivated decision.
“Gov. Murphy’s decision is a politically-based one because there is tremendous pressure coming upon everyone to get rid of the pandemic and stop talking about it and stop dealing with it because we’re all tired of this pandemic,” he told ABC News. “It is not scientifically based and I don’t think it is a rational approach based upon what we’re still seeing.”
According to Patch New Jersey, in-school transmission in the state has increased over the past month.
Between Jan. 4 and Jan. 10, there were 11 cases among students and 17 cases among staff. However, between Jan. 25 and Jan. 31, there were 398 cases among students and 57 among staff.
“I have problems with the change in policy,” Weiss said. “Yes, it’s a limited number of cases, but if you look over time, the new outbreaks have been continuing to increase in schools. The number of student cases and staff cases has not declined. It hasn’t gone away.”
In Illinois, some districts have already made mandates optional after a judge ruled school districts statewide cannot require students to wear masks in classrooms.
“If data were driving these decisions, we wouldn’t at all remove mask mandates right now,” said Carnethon. “The school districts in the regions of Illinois that are making this optional appear to be closely aligned with the geopolitical sentiment.”
Carnethon said districts where schools mask mandates are being removed are typically ones with limited testing ability and “limited enthusiasm” for policies such as requiring vaccinations in public spaces.
“These communities continue to be high-district transmission communities. These are the very decisions that are going to prolong the pandemic and lead to far more suffering than we need to have happen,” she said.
Those in favor of ending the mandates in schools say the public health focus needs to shift to learning to live with COVID-19 and more attention should be given to individual choice.
An increase in cases isn’t necessarily a bad thing due to children’s low risk of severe illness, according to some experts. Others, like Dr. Julia Raifman, disagree.
“I think cases are a problem,” Raifman, an assistant professor of health law, policy and management at Boston University School of Public Health who researches state-level policy responses to the pandemic, told ABC News.
She continued, “Cases are a problem because more cases do mean more hospitalizations and deaths. There’s no way around that. More cases mean more missed work and more missed school. More cases mean more people with lingering symptoms. More cases mean more of the unknown health impacts 10 years later.”
Raifman added that school mask mandates should not disappear completely and that one way to keep them in place is to have more outdoor class time for kids because masks are not recommended for outdoors and students and teachers could take a break from wearing face coverings.
She gave the example of Nevada, which has a policy that enacts mask mandates when cases in a county are high.
“If people are really eager for them to end, I recommend that they not end them, that they put in place a data-driven approach that turns on the mask policies when we need them when there are big surges,” Raifman said.
(NEW YORK) — As new cases of COVID-19 decline across the country for the first time in weeks, the debate over face masks for kids is reaching a fever pitch.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat who has imposed some of the strictest pandemic-related mandates in the United States, is expected to announce Monday that the state’s requirements for masks in schools will end the second week of March. The move would follow a decision last month by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, also a Democrat, to rescind his state’s mask mandate for schools.
More than one dozen states and Washington, D.C., currently require face masks in schools, while the Democratic governors of New York and Connecticut have said that they are reevaluating school mask mandates set to expire later this month. Other states, like Texas and Virginia, have banned mandates, according to an analysis by Education Week, an education-focused news organization.
In Virginia, where Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order allows families to opt their children out of mask requirements at school, at least seven school districts have filed a lawsuit against the order.
Last week, in Loudoun County, Virginia, where the district’s school board voted last month to keep its mask mandate, 29 students were suspended for not wearing face masks. Three families are currently suing the district’s school board over its enforcement of the mask mandate despite the governor’s order.
The mask debate has also moved to the courtroom in Illinois, where a judge last week ruled against Gov. JB Pritzker’s school mask mandate after parents and teachers from more than 150 districts filed lawsuits, according to WLS-TV, an ABC station in Chicago.
Studies show that masking in school dramatically reduces the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Fewer outbreaks means schools can stay open for in-person learning. But some parents wonder how masking might interfere with in-person learning.
Karla Alsop, a mom of three in Virginia, blames masks for her daughter’s difficulty with reading. Alsop’s daughter attends a public school in Stafford County, where schools continue to follow a mask mandate.
“She’s saying that she can’t read like a second grader and she’s afraid to go to school. I can’t, as a parent, let that go,” Alsop told ABC News. “This is about parents having the rights to make the best decisions for their kids regarding their health, regarding their education.”
So far, studies show that for most children, masking at school has minimal effect on development and learning comprehension.
Research shows kids also look at body language and eyes for social cues, according to Dr. Erica Lee, attending psychologist at Boston Children’s Hospital.
“That’s something we can still see and still be very expressive with, even if you’re wearing a mask,” Lee said of body language cues.
In Florida, where mask mandates in schools were dropped last fall, Kimberly Lasher continues to send her three daughters, ages 11, 9 and 6, to school wearing masks.
“We just chose to wear masks, I think, to help protect those who maybe aren’t taking the same precautions,” said Lasher. “Perhaps if my daughter is wearing a mask, that can prevent them from spreading COVID to another student or even a teacher and, in our opinion, every little bit helps, for sure.”
According to a poll released last August, 69% of people of supported their local school districts requiring teachers, students and administrators to wear masks in schools at the start of the school year. The same poll, released by Axios/IPSOS, found one in three Americans support state laws prohibiting local governments from requiring masks.
Pediatric cases of COVID-19 surged over the holidays amid the omicron variant but dropped for the first time since Thanksgiving, according to a report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
About 808,000 children tested positive last week, down from a peak of 1,150,000 cases reported the week ending Jan. 20.
The organizations, however, warn that pediatric cases remain “extremely high” and triple the peak level of the delta surge in the summer of 2021.
Though children ages 5 and older are now eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19, more than 28 million eligible children remain completely unvaccinated, according to federal and census data.
Both the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continue to recommend universal indoor masking at schools for all people ages 2 and older, regardless of vaccination status.
Dr. Elissa Perkins, a mom and a Boston Medical Center emergency room doctor with expertise in infectious diseases, said she believes there needs to be a more nuanced approach when it comes to kids and masks.
Perkins told ABC News she was a “very early proponent” of community-wide masking, but said her philosophy began to change as vaccines became more widely available, including to kids.
Most health experts counter that because even vaccinated kids can still transmit the virus, removing mask mandates could pose risks to younger siblings.
“That, for me, was the start of the inflection point when it became time to think about what are we accomplishing with mandatory masks,” she said. “At the same time, masks went from being what were what were initially a short-term intervention to a long-term intervention.”
Perkins continued, “Masks have become a long-term intervention, and we need to examine what the possible downsides might be if we plan to continue them.”
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have heard parents’ concerns and are now studying the potential downstream effects of prolonged masking for children, according to Dr. James A. Griffin, chief of the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
“We do understand that one of the areas where masks do impair children is in their ability to understand what is being said to them,” said Griffin. “The difference between being able to understand a ‘bill’ and a ‘dill’ with the mask on that ‘d’ and ‘b’ sound can be very hard to distinguish without being able to see the lips, so there are challenges … we do recognize.”
Rachel Simmons, a parenting expert and the author of of the bestselling book Odd Girl Out, said if parents are concerned about their child’s struggles due to mask-wearing, they can help their kids cope by creating a plan.
“When our kids have a plan for who they can go see, what they can do when they get stressed out, research tells us they will have the tools to deal with the situation when it comes up,” said Simmons, who also recommends teaching kids mindfulness exercises, like feeling their feet on the ground, and supplying them with something calming, like a fidget toy, note or mint, to use during the day.
For parents who are struggling with how to respond to their child’s school if they don’t agree with the mask policy, Simmons said the best approach is to be a “partner” to the school.
“If you’re difficult to deal with as a parent, it will be harder to get heard,” she said. “So don’t send emails late at night. Be a partner to the school. Show your kids that you can respect someone even when you disagree.”
Simmons added, “And remember, your best way to be heard is if you have other parents standing with you.”
(NEW YORK) — Groundbreaking research by several top American medical centers has identified a COVID pandemic spike in cases of so-called “broken heart syndrome,” a potentially deadly stress-induced heart condition that doctors say is disproportionately impacting women.
“My heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest,” said Mary Kay Abramson, 63, of Brookeville, Maryland, who was diagnosed with the condition last year. “It just felt like the blood just couldn’t get through the heart fast enough.”
An otherwise healthy and active corporate travel agent, Abramson said the episode occurred without symptoms or warning signs and even surprised the doctors trying to diagnose it.
“[My cardiologist] comes up to my head and says, ‘have you been under a lot of stress, because your arteries look fine?'” Abramson said of the hospital bed conversation last year. “So, yeah, a little bit: I’ve been furloughed for three months. COVID is going on. You know, can’t get out and do things. We’re shut down. So, yeah, I have been under a lot of stress!”
It was a classic case of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, or broken heart syndrome, her doctors say. The rare but dangerous form of heart disease is triggered by intense emotional or physical stress when a sudden flood of hormones is believed to stun the heart into pumping less efficiently.
Teams of experts at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins have each been tracking a recent surge in cases, likely spiking substantially during the pandemic, they say. The data is still being gathered and long-term implications examined.
“I don’t know how much we can really blame COVID, or how much of this is that we’re just recognizing more of it,” said Dr. Noel Bairey Merz, director of the Barbra Streisand Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai. “But heart disease is the leading killer of women and all ages, including teenagers, midlife women and older women. This is just a component of that major killer. So it’s really something that needs to be addressed.”
Bairey Merz says cases of broken heart syndrome have risen up to 10 times faster among middle-aged and older women than among younger women and men over the last decade. The disease is most common in this group as well.
Thirty-four-year-old tech recruiter Jenna Pilja of Huntington Beach, California, thought she was mentally prepared to give birth to her first child during COVID but was suddenly overcome last year after an emergency Cesarean section, potentially triggering a broken heart episode.
“Hearing that my son might not have been OK, that certainly could have triggered me, maybe more because of past trauma,” Pilja said. “Despite being on pain medication, I was able to feel some concerning symptoms. I had really bad dizziness and I had the worst headache I’ve ever had in my life.”
Her doctor later diagnosed the episode as a probable case of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Pilja is still undergoing evaluation but is expected to make a full recovery.
“As cardiologists we always think the heart is the most important organ. It’s the brain and the brain controls everything,” said Bairey Merz.
The brain-heart connection is at the center of Dr. Bairey Merz’s research at the Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Institute. ABC News got an exclusive look inside the hospital’s high-tech simulation center where imaging data illustrates how stress can literally break a heart.
“You hear people say, ‘oh, she’s broken-hearted’ or somebody is broken-hearted because they had a breakup… but they may come in with this and it’s a real diagnosis. It was just, like, unbelievable to me,” said Zearlisha Kinchelow, 35, a single mom and nursing student in Kansas City, Missouri, who was diagnosed with a broken heart.
“They just told me I was at 10% heart function,” she said. Her heart function has since returned to normal with therapy and changes to her diet and exercise, she said.
For Elaine Kamil, 75, a pediatric nephrology specialist in Los Angeles, immense grief after the unexpected death of her 31-year-old-son physically took a toll on her heart.
“The pain was severe. I got lucky,” said Kamil, who believes she has had multiple episodes of broken heart syndrome in the past few years. “I think it’s important to make sure that whoever you’re seeing — cardiologists understand Takotsubo [cardiomyopathy] and what the best treatments there are.”
While many hearts heal quickly, Bairey Merz says one in five people who suffers a broken heart will have another attack within 10 years.
“Taking care of yourself is definitely more than, you know, just taking care of your body,’ said Pilja. “It’s really about looking after your mental health and your overall well-being and making sure that you’re taking time to engage in activities that help relax you and help you process your emotions in a useful way.”
Growing evidence suggests doing so is one key to maintaining a healthy heart.
(NEW YORK) — During the Summer Olympics in Tokyo last year, star gymnast Simone Biles shined a light on the mental health struggles many Olympians face when she decided to withdraw from competition.
Now, the United States’ best figure skaters, skiers and snowboarders will be vying for gold medals as they also deal with the strain of a global pandemic for the second year in a row.
“The Olympics present particularly unique challenges for elite athletes,” Dr. Joshua Norman, a sports psychiatrist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told ABC News. “Many of them train their entire life for this one moment and a lot of them are removed from their support systems.”
He continued: “With the isolated experience of being at Olympic Village, with having such intense focus on competition … and particularly in today’s climate with COVID-19 with the athletes being tested multiple times a day and then they’re further isolated out of fear of getting COVID-19, it’s a very unique experience that can place significant physical and mental strain on the elite athletes.”
For the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Team USA has made it a priority to address and protect the mental health of its more than 200 athletes.
What Team USA plans to do
Athletes will have access to therapists and psychiatrists throughout the Olympic Village and venues, ability to attend individual or group therapy sessions and a crisis hotline they can call, Dr. Jessica Bartley, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s director of mental health services, said during a media summit in October 2021.
She said that most of the athletes underwent several mental health screenings.
“The majority of our winter athletes, we actually did some mental health screens around anxiety, depression, eating disorders, sleep, alcohol and drug use over the summer,” Bartley said. “And then we’re going to repeat that. And just trying to keep tabs on them a little bit too.”
Team USA has also compiled a list of counselors whom athletes can contact and will allow free access to wellness apps.
In addition to the pressure of competing, Olympians will have several strict rules in place during the Games including staying within the closed loop system that doesn’t allow outsiders, daily screening and testing, mask-wearing with few exceptions and avoiding hugs or handshakes, according to the Olympics playbook.
Norman said the athletes do what they can to be physically and mentally prepared, but that some of the stringent measures may be hard to handle.
“Certainly, once arriving there and that being such a strange experience — particularly for those who it’s their first time participating in the Olympics — it can be somewhat of an overwhelming experience at times,” he said.
Athletes putting their mental health first
Dr. Leela Magavi, a psychiatrist with several patients who are student and professional athletes, offered some tips for athletes. For example, instead of practicing all day, athletes can take mindfulness walks, write in a journal or spend time talking to family members.
She also recommended that Team USA advocate for athletes expressing their thoughts openly.
“Rather than asking a close-ended question, ‘Are you depressed or anxious?’ ask ‘How are you coping with the anxiety?'” Magavi told ABC News. “When they’re anxious and internalizing those feelings, they don’t sleep as well, they don’t eat as well, they don’t play as well.”
Norman said that it’s important not only for athletes to keep on top of any current treatments, but to have constant communication with their support staff for any new or evolving conditions that may be affecting them.
Biles is not the first athlete to speak out about mental health. Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, has been candid about his struggles with ADHD, depression and even suicidal thoughts.
However, Biles is perhaps the most high-profile athlete to pull out of events to focus on her mental health after she revealed she had “the twisties,” which is when a gymnast loses their sense of where they are in the air.
“Whenever I think about Biles’ decision, she really helped people speak up,” Magavi said. “I’ve had people say, ‘I never thought you could even do that. If you were experiencing something like twisties, that could even say that.’ I do think that her decision did bridge the gap between mental and physical health.”
And it seems like some professional athletes have followed suit.
Prior to the NHL announcing that no hockey players would be traveling to the Olympics due to Beijing’s strict COVID measures, Las Vegas Golden Knights goalie Robin Lehner said he would not be playing for the Swedish national team, citing mental health struggles.
Lehner, who has been open about his bipolar disorder diagnosis, said that after consulting with his doctors, he had made the difficult decision to stay in the U.S. instead.
“Reality is that what [has] been said about how it’s going to be is not ideal for my mental health,” he tweeted Dec. 6. “Took long time to make [a] decision with my psychiatrist and family. My well-being [has to] come first and being locked down and not knowing what happens if you test positive is [too] much of a risk for me.”
The experts commended Lehner for his decision and called it “courageous.”
“It takes an enormous amount of confidence to speak up,” she said. “Athletes are accustomed to internalizing their feelings. When athletes are unable to sleep, eat or function, it’s often tied to a poor sports performance.”
How athletes speaking up removes the stigma
Magavi said that she hopes more athletes speaking out about mental health removes some of the pressure they face.
“Athletes are human beings like you and I,” she said. “Athletes have all kinds of insecurities. They want to win the gold as much as we want them to win it for us. But they also have the right to determine whether they want to play.”
“They are more attenuated with their bodies, their emotions and, if they’re feeling the time is not right, it’s their decision,” she added.
Norman said that athletes speaking up could also remove the stigma around mental health for everyday Americans and help them realize how common mental health conditions are.
“You’re not alone. Folks who are extremely high achieving like Simone Biles, Michael Phelps, a lot of elite athletes, also struggle with mental health conditions,” he said. “I think having folks like that with those types of platforms speaking out, it really helps not only other athletes but folks within the general population that may look up to these athletes. It may help them seek treatment.”
The psychiatrists added that giving Olympians a chance to address their mental health concerns will lead to better performances and, in turn, lead to more medals for the U.S.
“If we come back with healthy, safe players, we may also bring back the gold,” Magavi said. “It’s a win-win situation.”
