Health

(ATLANTA) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a new dashboard Friday that tracks COVID-19 in wastewater samples across the country.

The data comes from the federal agency’s National Wastewater Surveillance System, which connects more than 400 sites across 28 states and the District of Columbia.

More than 34,000 samples have been collected representing 53 million Americans, Dr. Ann Kirby, program lead for the CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System, said during a media briefing.

Over the last 15 days, the dashboard shows that 98% of treatment facilities have detected the virus in all of their samples.

However, 70% of all facilities say the amount of virus found in samples has decreased compared to two weeks ago — a sign that COVID-19 cases are on the decline.

Between 40% and 80% of COVID-19 patients shed genetic material from the virus, or viral RNA, in their feces.

When stool is flushed down the toilet, it flows through a drainage system into a treatment facility, where it becomes part of wastewater.

The same tests that are used to determine if someone is positive — what are known as PCR tests — can also detect the virus in wastewater samples.

During the media briefing, Kirby said wastewater surveillance provides public health officials with “a better understanding of COVID-19 trends in communities.”

Because people shed the virus when they are in the early stages of infection, increases in levels of viral RNA in wastewater are often seen before the number of cases rise.

This makes wastewater an early warning system of sorts and helps predict where COVID-19 outbreaks are going to occur.

“These can inform important public health decisions such as where to allocate mobile testing and vaccination sites,” Kirby said. “Public health agencies have also used wastewater data to forecast changes in hospital utilization, providing additional time to mobilize resources in preparation for increasing cases.”

Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said wastewater samples helped predict the omicron wave before it even hit.

“Well ahead of when we knew this omicron wave was creating this massive increase in cases, we saw the signal in the wastewater, and the sort of scale of amount of virus that was detected in wastewater was far greater than any other point in the pandemic,” said Brownstein, who is a member on the board of advisors of wastewater analytics company Biobot.

This is not the first time that wastewater surveillance has been used to track public health concerns.

Several countries overseas have used the tool to monitor polio outbreaks. In many European cities, public health officials have used wastewater surveillance to track opioid use.

Brownstein said wastewater has even been used to track the flu and can continue to be useful when COVID becomes a more seasonal, endemic disease.

“It can be absolutely used to look at early signals of any viral disease,” he said. “I think wastewater can be part of the public health fabric for just general surveillance. While COVID may become more sort of an endemic, seasonal virus, having a window into when we may see surges — especially with new variants — will be super critical.”

However, wastewater surveillance has some limitations. About one-fifth of U.S. households are not connected to a public sewer and use septic systems instead, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

This means wastewater testing would not be able to detect viral spread in 20% of American homes.

Additionally, Kirby said the testing cannot determine if a community is free from infection, so it’s best if it’s used in conjunction with other tools such as case-based surveillance.

But, if Americans do start to see rates of viral RNA in wastewater increase, they can implement the same measures they would use if cases were rising, just earlier.

“You want to take all the same actions: masking, distancing, getting vaccinated if you’re not, testing if you’re feeling sick,” Kirby said. “But with wastewater, you can start doing those a few days earlier and those extra days can really make a difference in the ultimate trajectory of that surge in your community.”

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(BEIJING) — For the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, officials have established a series of rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

This will mark the second Olympics since the pandemic began, which will be held between Feb. 3 and Feb. 20. The Paralympic Games will follow from March 4 to March 13.

China has enforced strict measures to limit the spread of the virus within its borders and there will be no loosening of these restrictions when it comes to the Olympics.

This means no spectators aside from a few local fans, a closed loop system, a rigorous testing program and stringent measures for those who test positive.

ABC News took a closer look at some of the rules that have been established for the Games.

Vaccinate or undergo quarantine

According to the Olympics playbook, all participants must be fully vaccinated at least 14 days before arriving in Beijing to avoid quarantine.

Only certain exceptions will be made if an athlete has a history of allergic reaction to a component of the vaccine or is using any immunosuppression medication.

Games officials also recommend that all participants receive a booster before traveling to China.

Anyone who is not vaccinated has to quarantine in Beijing for 21 days before being allowed in the closed loop system.

Regardless of vaccination status, all athletes and personnel must take two PCR tests at least 24 hours apart within 96 hours of their flight to China.

Closed loop system

Similar to Tokyo, Beijing has implemented a closed loop system in which athletes, coaches and their staff will undergo daily screening and testing.

Additionally, buses and trains designated for the Games will specifically move participants to the opening and closing ceremonies, training venues, competition venues, victory ceremonies and the Olympic Village, where most of the athletes are staying.

“This is to ensure there is no contact with the general public or anyone outside of the closed loop,” according to the playbook.

Minimizing physical interaction

The playbook also offers guidance for how athletes can minimize contact with each other while in the closed loop system.

Officials recommend athletes avoid hugs and handshakes and stay away from enclosed spaces or large crowds.

Individuals are also required to keep 2 meters (6 feet) from athletes, and athletes must keep 1 meter (3 feet) from each other.

Mask-wearing will be enforced at all times except “when training, competing, eating, drinking, sleeping, when alone, or during interviews, stand-ups and live presentations,” the playbook states.

Criteria for testing positive

Games officials said they are expecting more COVID-19 cases to emerge.

During a press conference last month, Dr. Brian McCloskey, chair of the Olympics medical expert panel, said the goal is “zero spread” not “zero cases.”

Because of this, Beijing has adjusted its rules regarding the threshold for when someone is considered to be positive with a figure known as the cycle threshold (CT) value.

After a sample is collected, it is isolated and undergoes multiple amplification cycles in an effort to detect viral RNA, or genetic material.

The CT value is the number of cycles needed before RNA is found, at which point the machine stops working. The higher the number, the less infectious a person is considered.

Previously, participants had to meet a CT value of 40 to be considered positive for COVID-19. Now they will have to meet a standard of 35.

What happens when participants test positive?

Any athletes who test positive will immediately be removed from the Games and the Olympic Village.

Symptomatic participants will be taken to a designated hospital while those who are asymptomatic will be in an isolation facility.

Sick individuals will not be allowed back into the closed loop system until all symptoms clear and they test negative twice in a row with two tests taken 24 hours apart.

Few spectators

There will be very few spectators in the stands to watch the athletes compete in the Games.

No fans from other countries are allowed to attend and only spectators who are selected will be allowed to watch the events in person.

“In order to ensure the safety of all participants and spectators, it has been decided that tickets should not be sold anymore but be part of an adapted program that will invite groups of spectators to be present on site during the Games,” according to an announcement released on Jan. 17.

Leaving China

All athletes and personnel will be transported to Beijing Capital International Airport using transportation services designated specifically for the Games.

Close contacts of anyone who has tested positive will be able to leave China as long as they test negative within the last 24 hours.

No more than 24 hours before leaving China, travelers will be required to fill out the online Customs Health Declaration form to show to airport officials and/or gate agents before boarding flights.

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(NEW YORK) — For Christmas two years ago, Jessica Harvey Galloway was gifted a home DNA test kit by her parents, mom Jeanine Harvey and her dad, John Harvey, who goes by Mike.

They never expected that the test they used from Ancestry.com would indicate that Jessica was not at all related to Mike, who is of Italian descent.

“We got the results and logged on. There’s Irish, English, German, Welsh, French all these things. And there’s no Italian Sicilian. I mean nothing,” Jessica recalled on “Good Morning America.”

Nearly 30 years ago, the Harveys turned to Dr. Nicholas J. Spirtos, a doctor at Summa Health System’s Akron Campus in Ohio to help them on their journey to becoming parents. With the help of IVF, the couple conceived a daughter.

But according to the family, the DNA test showed Jessica’s biological father was someone else entirely — a complete stranger to the family.

“It revealed a trauma that I never could have imagined. It’s taken every ounce of my power to remain strong for myself and my family as we try to move forward,” Jeanine Harvey told “GMA.”

“Learning that your entire reality isn’t what you believed it to be is hard to explain,” Mike Harvey added. “It’s like waking up in someone else’s life.”

Now, the Harveys are suing Summa Health and Dr. Spirtos, alleging they were the victims of medical malpractice, negligence and a breach of contract, among other claims, according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by “GMA.”

The Harveys are being represented by Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise, LLP of Cleveland. One of their lawyers, Adam Wolf, told “GMA,” “You can’t go back in time and change things. All we can do at this point is demand accountability and demand regulation and oversight so that we don’t have more people in the Harvey situation.”

“We are aware of an allegation that has been made claiming in 1991 a patient was artificially inseminated with the semen from a person who is not her husband,” Summa Health said in a statement to “GMA.” “We take this allegation seriously and understand the impact this has on the family. At this point, we have not met with the family or conducted testing of our own. Given the very limited information that we have and the amount of time that has passed, it remains our hope that the attorneys representing the family will work with us to make that next step a priority.”

As for Jessica, who said she has always been passionate about her genealogy and father’s Italian heritage, she hopes to move past the shocking news.

“My priority going forward is focusing on my family, regardless of DNA or blood,” she said.

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(ATLANTA) — Gay and lesbian adults are more likely to have been vaccinated against COVID-19 than heterosexual adults, federal officials said Thursday.

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found 85.4% of gay and lesbian Americans above age 18 had received at least one vaccine dose as of October 2021.

By comparison, 76.3% of heterosexuals reported receiving at least an initial dose by the same date.

Additionally, gay and lesbian adults were more likely to be concerned about COVID-19 and to believe in the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

“We know that the prevalence of certain health conditions associated with severe COVID-19 illness, such as cancer, smoking, and obesity, are higher in LGBT populations, and access to health care continues to be an issue for some people in the LGBT community,” Dr. A.D. McNaghten, a member of the CDC’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Team and corresponding author of the study, told ABC News. “We wanted to see if vaccination coverage among LGBT persons was the same as non-LGBT persons.”

For the survey, CDC researchers collected data from the National Immunization Survey Adult COVID Module between Aug. 29, 2021 and Oct. 30, 2021.

The data also showed that bisexual and transgender adults had similar vaccination rates to heterosexual adults with 72.6% of bisexual adults fully vaccinated by the end of October, as were 71.4% of transgender adults.

When it came to race/ethnicity, gay white men and lesbian white women had higher rates of vaccination at 94.1% and 88.5%, respectively, receiving at least one dose compared to heterosexual white men and women at 74.2% and 78.6%, respectively.

Hispanic gay men also had higher COVID vaccination rates at 82.9% compared to 72% of Hispanic heterosexual men.

However, Black and Hispanic lesbian women had lower rates of vaccination at 57.9% and 72.6%, respectively, compared to Black and Hispanic heterosexual women at 75.6% and 80.5%, respectively.

McNaghten said the disparity between the percentage of white gay men with at least one vaccine dose and Black lesbian women with at least one dose is “alarming.”

The survey also found that gay, lesbian and bisexual adults were more likely to believe in the safety and protection of vaccines than heterosexual adults.

A total of 76.3% of gay and lesbian adults said they were “completely” or “very” confident in the safety of COVID vaccines, as did 70.4% of bisexual adults. Comparatively, only 63.9% of heterosexual adults said they felt the same way.

Additionally, 90.8% of gay and lesbian adults and 86.8% of bisexual adults said COVID vaccines are “very” or “somewhat” important to protect themselves compared to 80.4% of heterosexual adults.

Transgender and nonbinary adults, on the other hand, were confident about vaccine protection but not safety, with 83.2% saying they believed vaccines were necessary to protect against COVID, but only 62.8% saying they believed the shots are safe.

The researchers found 56.8% of gay and lesbian adults and 51.3% of bisexual adults were “very” or “moderately” concerned about COVID compared to 48.1% of heterosexual adults.

The authors note there are limitations of the study including that participants self-reported their vaccination status and potentially selected a sexual orientation category they didn’t identify with because they didn’t see an option that fit them.

But McNaghten says it is vital to make sure the LGBT population is vaccinated. She added that further studies are needed to figure out why there are differences by gender and race/ethnicity among gay and lesbian men and women.

“Additional research could help determine if these differences are associated with socioeconomic or health care access issues, and if there are factors influencing vaccine uptake or vaccine hesitancy within specific groups,” she said.

In the study, the authors said it is important to include sexual orientation and gender identity when collecting data on vaccination status to help eliminate disparities.

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(NEW YORK) — Millions of Americans have purchased rapid COVID-19 tests online or at local stores and signed up to receive test kits through a free government program.

Unlike conventional, lab-processed PCR tests, which may detect infection earlier in the course of illness but can take days to get a result, at-home rapid tests can let you know if you are likely contagious in less than 15 minutes. Many specialists see them as a crucial tool in the off-ramp to the pandemic — assuming Americans know how and when to use them.

Public health specialists say rapid tests are good for a range of scenarios, including testing after symptoms and to lower the risk of passing the virus to others, including children not yet eligible for vaccination or those at higher risk for severe illness.

“In the last two months alone, I’ve used home testing for all three of the major indications: experiencing COVID symptoms, after a known COVID exposure and prior to a gathering indoors with higher-risk individuals,” said Dr. Alok Patel, clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at Stanford University.

Test if you have symptoms

“Ultimately, if you’re noticing something has changed and are experiencing unusual symptoms, that’s a good reason to test yourself,” said Dr. Todd Ellerin, director of infectious diseases at South Shore Health in Weymouth, Massachusetts.

Symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, congestion, sore throat, muscle aches, fatigue, headaches, vomiting and diarrhea. Several COVID-19 symptoms overlap with the common cold or the flu and the only way to really know the difference is through testing. So if you have symptoms, stay home and be sure to test.

Test to protect others

Even if you do not have symptoms, testing is helpful after possible or known exposures, before indoor or large gatherings, prior to travel or when seeing high-risk or immunocompromised individuals.

“I use tests before I gather unmasked with friends and family who are at high risk of hospitalization if they develop COVID-19. I am particularly cautious around people receiving cancer treatment and relatives living in assisted-living facilities,” said Dr. Alyssa Bilinski, assistant professor of health policy at Brown School of Public Health.

Some schools with children too young to be eligible for vaccinations require weekly rapid tests Monday mornings before starting the week. Other schools allow vaccinated students to return after a known exposure using rapid tests to make sure they remain negative in a program called “test to stay.”

Test if you’ve been exposed

“If you are asymptomatic but have been within 6 feet of an individual with COVID-like symptoms or a positive test for a combined total of 15 minutes or more during a 24-hour period, you should get tested,” said Dr. Jay Bhatt of Family Christian Health Center near Chicago.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have an online Coronavirus Self-Checker that can help you decide when to test.

Vaccination status should not affect testing decisions or interpretation of results. “With omicron’s higher rates of breakthrough, testing broadly applies to everyone regardless of vaccination status,” said Dr. John Brownstein, epidemiologist at Harvard University.

Taking a test and interpreting results

Make sure your at-home test is authorized by the Food and Drug Administration and follow the manufacturers’ instructions exactly, from storage to sample collection to expiration. So far, FDA-authorized over-the-counter rapid tests use nasal swabs, but do not require you to go very deep into the nose. Some require mixing solution and/or dropping three, four or six drops on a card, but they are all designed for adults who are not health care workers.

Rapid tests are very reliable if they come back positive, but if they record a negative, a confirmation PCR test may be necessary at least 24 hours later. So if you test positive, especially if symptomatic, it is safe to assume you have COVID-19 and should quarantine according to CDC guidelines.

In contrast, negative results can be less accurate and should be interpreted with a tiered approach.

If you are symptomatic but test negative, a false negative is possible. Negative tests should also be interpreted with caution if you’ve had a known COVID contact or possible exposure, like travel.

In this scenario, it is critical to do serial tests at least 24 hours apart. Follow your test’s specific instructions. Rapid test results can change quickly, so a negative test is only trustworthy for eight to 12 hours. If quarantining is not feasible while you serially test, mask and distance as best as possible.

You can consider PCR testing if you need more definitive results, although if you’ve previously had COVID-19, a PCR test can be positive for up to three months afterward.

“If I have symptoms and my rapid test is negative, I will do a PCR. If I am asymptomatic and an initial rapid is negative, I will test for two more days in 24-hour intervals and continue masking and distancing as best as possible. If I have to be with someone who is high-risk or immunocompromised, I would get a PCR test before being around that individual,” said Bhatt.

The Biden administration has purchased 1 billion rapid tests and any household in America can order a set of four tests at no cost through covidtests.gov. Tests are also available at many pharmacies and online stores. Insurance companies are required to reimburse each family member for up to eight OTC rapid tests per month, but consumers must initially lay out $10 to over $30 per test.

“If we’re hoping to test as many people as possible, home testing cannot be cost-prohibitive,” said Dr. Simone Wildes, an infectious diseases specialist at South Shore Health.

While using at-home tests is a new skill we are all learning, the key is to take a thoughtful, stepwise approach based on your risk factors, exposures, symptoms and possibility of transmission.

“Do your due diligence just like you check the weather. Before we go outside, we check to see if we need a raincoat or an umbrella and grab equipment to protect ourselves from exposure,” said Dr. Darien Sutton, an emergency medicine physician and ABC News contributor.

“We should think of this virus in the same way,” he added.

Nitya Rajeshuni, M.D., M.S., a pediatrics resident at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday relaunched the federal government’s cancer “moonshot” initiative, with the goal of cutting the death rate from cancer in half over the next quarter-century.

“We can end cancer as we know it,” Biden said during an event at the White House.

The initiative is personal for Biden, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015 and who first launched the initiative as vice president.

“I committed to this fight when I was vice president,” Biden said Wednesday. “It’s one of the reasons why quite frankly why I ran for president. Let there be no doubt, now that I am president, this is a presidential, White House priority. Period.”

After the Obama presidency, Biden and wife — and now first lady — Jill Biden founded a nonprofit foundation dedicated to finding a cure for cancer.

In 2016, Congress authorized $1.8 billion in funding for the government’s moonshot initiative over seven years. There’s $410 million left for the next two fiscal years.

In addition to cutting today’s age-adjusted death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years — after it has fallen by about 25% over the past 20 years — the initiative will aim to “improve the experience of people and their families living with and surviving cancer,” the White House said.

“It’s bold,” Biden said. “It’s ambitious. But it’s completely doable. Just as we harnessed the size to develop cutting edge COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, we’ll bring a fierce sense of urgency to the fight against cancer.”

On Wednesday, Biden said he was “announcing a call to action for cancer screening and early detection.”

More than 9.5 million cancer screenings were missed in the U.S. because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House said.

“We have to get cancer screenings back on track,” Biden said. “And make sure they’re accessible to all Americans.”

But the pandemic has also led Biden to set “very ambitious goals,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters Tuesday.

“The scientific advances that we saw from the COVID-19 pandemic, from the response to it, also points to things that are possible today,” the official said.

One example, according to the White House, is that the relaunched initiative will aim to “study and evaluate multi-cancer detection tests, like we did for COVID-19.”

The cancer “moonshot” initiative will have a coordinator in the White House, and the White House will form a “cancer cabinet” of officials from across the federal government. The initiative will involve the private sector, foundations, academic institutions and others, too.

Other goals, according to the White House, include increasing equitable access to screening and prevention — with at-home screening, mobile screening, and community health networks, as well as “accelerating efforts to nearly eliminate cervical cancer through screening and HPV vaccination, with a particular focus on reaching people who are most at risk.”

There will be a White House cancer “moonshot” summit, as well as a White House roundtable conversation series, they said.

The president also called on Congress to approve funding for a research project he has proposed to be housed at the National Institutes of Health, called “Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H),” which would try to develop breakthroughs for several diseases.

Biden was joined Wednesday in the White House’s East Room by about 100 members of the cancer community, including patients, survivors, researchers, advocates, caregivers, members of Congress and others, according to senior Biden administration officials.

During his remarks, the president drew on his own family’s experience navigating a cancer diagnosis, articulating many of the challenges people around the country face after hearing they have cancer.

“Despite all the progress,” Biden said, “there’s still a sense of powerlessness, guilt that maybe you’re not doing enough because you don’t know enough.”

The first lady and Vice President Kamala Harris. whose mother was a breast cancer researcher, also spoke.

ABC News’ Molly Nagle contributed reporting.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday will relaunch the federal government’s cancer “moonshot” initiative, with the goal of cutting the death rate from cancer in half over the next quarter-century, according to the White House.

The initiative is personal for Biden, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015 and who first launched the initiative as vice president.

After the Obama presidency, Biden and wife — and now first lady — Jill Biden founded a nonprofit foundation dedicated to finding a cure for cancer.

In 2016, Congress authorized $1.8 billion in funding for the initiative over seven years. There’s $410 million left for the next two fiscal years.

In addition to cutting today’s age-adjusted death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years — after it has fallen by about 25% over the past 20 years — the initiative will aim to “improve the experience of people and their families living with and surviving cancer,” the White House said.

“Taken together, these actions will drive us toward ending cancer as we know it today,” the White House said.

On Wednesday, Biden and the first lady will also announce “a call to action on cancer screening to jumpstart progress on screenings that were missed as a result of the pandemic, and help ensure that everyone in the United States equitably benefits from the tools we have to prevent, detect and diagnose cancer,” according to the White House.

More than 9.5 million cancer screenings were missed in the U.S. because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House said.

But the pandemic has also led Biden to set “very ambitious goals,” a senior White House official told reporters Tuesday.

“The scientific advances that we saw from the COVID-19 pandemic, from the response to it, also points to things that are possible today,” the official said.

One example, according to the White House, is that the re-launched initiative will aim to “study and evaluate multi-cancer detection tests, like we did for COVID-19.”

The cancer “moonshot” initiative will have a coordinator in the White House, and the White House will form a “cancer cabinet” of officials from across the federal government. The initiative will involve the private sector, foundations, academic institutions and others, too.

Other goals, according to the White House, include increasing equitable access to screening and prevention — with at-home screening, mobile screening, and community health networks, as well as “accelerating efforts to nearly eliminate cervical cancer through screening and HPV vaccination, with a particular focus on reaching people who are most at risk.”

There will be a White House cancer “moonshot” summit, as well as a White House roundtable conversation series, they said.

On Wednesday, Biden will speak at an event in the White House’s East Room, joined by about 100 members of the cancer community — patients, survivors, researchers, advocates, caregivers, members of Congress and others — according to a senior administration official. The first lady and Vice President Kamala Harris (whose mother was a breast cancer researcher) will also make remarks, the official said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Nearly two years into the coronavirus pandemic, children ages 5 and under are one step closer to being eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Pfizer on Tuesday asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine for kids ages 6 months to 5 years old.

The FDA will now review the data, bring it before its expert advisers and potentially authorize the vaccine in the coming weeks before sending it to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for final approval.

“Ultimately, we believe that three doses of the vaccine will be needed for children 6 months through 4 years of age to achieve high levels of protection against current and potential future variants,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement. “If two doses are authorized, parents will have the opportunity to begin a COVID-19 vaccination series for their children while awaiting potential authorization of a third dose.”

Here are nine questions answered about the COVID-19 vaccines and kids as families seek to make the best decisions.

1. What is the science behind the COVID-19 vaccine?

Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use mRNA technology, which does not enter the nucleus of the cells and doesn’t alter human DNA. Instead, it sends a genetic “instruction manual” that prompts cells to create proteins that look like the outside of the virus — a way for the body to learn and develop defenses against future infection.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses an inactivated adenovirus vector, Ad26, that cannot replicate. The Ad26 vector carries a piece of DNA with instructions to make the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that triggers an immune response.

This same type of vaccine has been authorized for Ebola and has been studied extensively for other illnesses and for how it affects women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.

Neither of these vaccine platforms can cause COVID-19.

2. What is the status of vaccine eligibility for kids?

Children ages 5 and older are now eligible to receive Pfizer’s two-dose vaccine.

Children ages 12 to 15 are also eligible to receive a Pfizer vaccine booster shot.

Pfizer has submitted data to the FDA for a two-dose vaccine for kids under five, with the expectation that data will soon be available to make it a three-dose vaccine, which will likely be more effective. The company announced in December that it would amend its ongoing clinical trials for children under age 5 to add a third dose.

The two other vaccines currently available in the U.S., Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, are currently available only for people 18 years and older.

Moderna filed for emergency use authorization with the FDA for its vaccine in adolescents in June but is still awaiting a decision.

Johnson & Johnson announced in April that it had begun vaccinating a “small number of adolescents aged 16-17 years” in a Phase 2a clinical trial.

As of April, the trial was enrolling participants only in Spain and the United Kingdom, with plans to expand enrollment to the U.S., the Netherlands and Canada, followed by Brazil and Argentina.

3. Why do kids need to be vaccinated against COVID-19?

While there have not been as many deaths from COVID-19 among children as adults, particularly adults in high-risk categories, kids can still get the virus and they can also transmit the virus to adults.

A total of 11.4 million children have tested positive for the virus since the onset of the pandemic. Child COVID-19 cases have “spiked dramatically” during the omicron variant surge, with more than 3.5 million child cases reported in January.

According to the CDC, unvaccinated 12- to 17-year-olds had an 11 times higher risk of hospitalization than fully vaccinated adolescents.

“We know that COVID does not spare kids,” ABC News medical contributor Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital, said in December. “Maybe it’s less severe than their adult counterparts but we also know that the virus has had real significant impacts on morbidity and mortality in kids.”

“We also know that kids play an important role as vectors of spread,” he said. “And especially in light of increases we’re seeing right now, with increases of cases in kids in record numbers, infections among kids further perpetuate community transmission and further create risks for those who would be the most vulnerable of the virus.”

4. Do kids experience the same vaccine side effects as adults?

Adolescents experienced a similar range of side effects to Pfizer’s vaccine as seen in older teens and young adults — generally seen as cold-like symptoms in the two to three days after the second dose — and had an “excellent safety profile,” Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in August.

None of the children in Pfizer’s clinical trials of kids ages 5-11 experienced a rare heart inflammation side effect known as myocarditis, which has been associated with the mRNA vaccines in very rare cases, mostly among young men.

5. Is there data showing COVID-19 vaccines are safe for kids?

The CDC released three studies in December showing COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective for children.

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

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

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

6. How effective are the vaccines in children?

Pfizer announced in late March that its clinical trials showed the vaccine was safe and 100% effective in children ages 12-15, similar to the 95% efficacy among adult clinical trial participants.

Marks confirmed on May 10 that after a trial with more than 2,000 children, Pfizer found no cases of infection among the children who had been given the vaccine and 16 cases of infection among the children who received a placebo.

No cases of COVID occurred in the 1,005 adolescents that received the vaccine, while there were 16 cases of COVID among the 978 kids who received the placebo, “thus indicating the vaccine was 100% effective in preventing COVID-19 In this trial,” said Marks.

7. Do kids get the same dose of the vaccines as adults?

In Pfizer’s clinical trial, children between 6 months and 5-years-old received two doses of 3-microgram shots, a tenth of the dose given to adults, three weeks apart.

Kids ages 5 to 11 are given a 10-micrograms dose of the Pfizer vaccine, one-third of the adolescent and adult dose. Like with adults and adolescents, the pediatric vaccine is delivered in two doses, three weeks apart.

For 12-to-15-year-olds, the FDA has authorized the same dosing as adults with the Pfizer two-dose vaccine.

The FDA and CDC have recommended the Pfizer booster shots now available for kids ages 12 and older be administered five months after the primary vaccine series.

8. Could COVID-19 vaccines impact puberty and menstruation?

There is currently no clinical evidence to suggest any of the COVID-19 vaccines can have long-term effects on puberty or fertility.

9. Where can kids get vaccinated against COVID-19?

Vaccines are accessible at pediatricians’ offices, children’s hospitals, pharmacies like CVS, Walgreens and Rite-Aid and school and community-based clinics.

Parents can search for appointments at Vaccines.gov to find a local provider.

ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik, Anne Flaherty, Eric Strauss, Cheyenne Haslett and Jade A. Cobern, MD, a member of the ABC News Medical Unit, contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — For many parents of unvaccinated toddlers in the U.S., a return to normalcy amid the COVID-19 pandemic seems out of reach.

Many have been forced to take time off work or change their schedules to provide care for their children due to school shutdowns. Rebecca Sanghvi, a public school teacher in Washington, D.C., has a 5-year-old daughter, who is vaccinated, in kindergarten and a 2-year-old son in daycare.

Working from home is not possible for her, so she juggles the house responsibilities with her husband, who’s able to shift remotely when needed. She said it’s been exhausting to cope with the pandemic while balancing her job and parenting responsibilities.

“I do think that there’s not enough attention on the difficulties that the families who can’t do that are facing with kids being quarantined, taking time off work, often unpaid,” Sanghvi said.

Mask mandates have been lifted in many parts of the country and in-person events have resumed, but many parents feel that until their kids are vaccinated, they can’t move on from the first stages of the pandemic.

Vaccines for kids under 5 are still unavailable — though Pfizer said approvals could come in the next few weeks — and currently, there are nearly 20 million kids under 5 years old in America, according to the Children’s Defense Fund.

“People don’t realize that if you have a young child, you’re still stuck in March 2020, and that we haven’t really evolved for these young children,” Deborah Schoenfeld, a mom of three in Maryland, said.

The recent surge in COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant has taken an even bigger toll on parents of young children. Sanghavi said the reality others have been living in, where vaccinations are widely available and daily life is looking close to “normal” again, is drastically different to hers.

“We are living in this reality that I think a lot of people aren’t, and it makes these choices that we have to make with regards to risk, but also the sacrifices we have to make with regards to our work and our child care, that much more difficult, because it is really a situation that that not everybody is in anymore,” she said.

Some schools and daycares across the country have reopened despite the rise in cases, leaving young unvaccinated students with higher risks of getting contaminated, and consequently, bringing the virus home.

These surges in schools have left parents — like Anagha Phadkule — struggling to find ways to care for their children while working full-time jobs.

Phadkule is from Portland, Oregon, and works in a hospital, while her husband works from home. Their 3-year-old son, Aroosh, had to spend most of his time home after his daycare shut down twice in January due to COVID-19 outbreaks among the staff.

Her son’s unvaccinated status leaves Phadkule worried about his safety.

“It feels like a very reckless time to push your toddler into daycare and be like, ‘OK, whatever happens, happens,'” Phadkule said.

The frequent school shutdowns have led some parents to change their routines permanently. Schoenfeld, for example, made the decision to keep her son at home after his daycare was shut down several times over the past few weeks.

“My childcare situation has gotten increasingly hard. I almost feel like in 2021 it was easier. They were still figuring out what to do with COVID, but there weren’t so many cancellations and quarantines,” Schoenfeld said.

Other parents, who don’t have many options left, find themselves taking their kids to work in hopes to juggle both responsibilities. But the move has proven to be more stressful than expected.

“Sometimes, [my husband] was busy and I had to take even my kids to work for showings, for times that I had appointments with different clients … I had an issue with a client where she told me that it was unprofessional for me to show up with my kids,” Eddie Suarez, who has a 3-year-old, said.

Brigid Schulte, director of The Better Life Lab and Good Life Initiative at New America, said many parents are feeling “unheard” and “invisible,” as they don’t think their struggles are being considered.

“We’re talking about real existential threats to family survival right now — at a time when so many families thought that we had rounded the corner,” Schulte said. “This is hitting everybody. This is sort of an equal opportunity exhaustion, disruption, uncertainty and a disastrous situation for so many families.”

So what is the solution? Many parents believe the authorization of vaccines for children 5 and younger will change things for the better.

“I’d rather them take their time and … make it right, make it safe. I don’t want to feel like this push in this rush to get it done if it’s not ready yet,” Schoenfeld said. “But I don’t want to be like a hostage or prisoner waiting for the vaccine, like I need child care. That’s going to work for us right now … or something needs to, because this cannot continue. It’s too hard.”

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(NEW YORK) — On the cusp of the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States is battling back the biggest surge of the virus yet with the omicron variant.

Cases, even while receding in some places, are near record levels. And daily deaths, while lower than the peak of last winter, are still averaging more than 2,000 nationwide.

Despite pitched battles over masks and vaccines, life appears somewhat normal in many respects — kids are going to school, people are going into work and large indoor gatherings and events are being held.

So, while it may be hard to imagine, many experts suggest 2022 could be the year COVID becomes an endemic disease, meaning it is always circulating within the population but at low rates or causing just seasonal outbreaks.

During a press conference Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said the U.S. can get “sufficient control” over COVID-19 so it “does not disrupt us in society, does not dominate our lives, not prevent us [from doing] the things that we generally do under normal existence.”

This is because the virus will start running out of people to infect as people become immune and follow mitigation measures such as mask-wearing and testing if they have symptoms.

“We have the tools with vaccines, with boosts, with masks, with tests and with antivirals,” Fauci said.

As an endemic disease, COVID-19 would shift from becoming a global health emergency to a virus that the world learns to live with.

Public health experts say many societal changes are needed for a time when the virus circulates but is not as disruptive, such as targeted testing, more vaccination, better treatments and allowances for staying home when you’re sick.

“We really need to be shifting our thinking to how do we live with this virus rather than can we make it completely go away,” Dr. Timothy Brewer, a professor of epidemiology at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, told ABC News. “So I think we need to sort of move into the mode of minimizing the impact of the virus as much as possible in terms of health, economic and social disruption — recognizing this virus is going to be there.”

People who are sick will be advised to stay home or wear masks in public

When the virus does become endemic, experts say people will be advised not go into school or work while sick and instead stay home, unlike before the pandemic.

If you have to leave the house, it could remain common to wear a mask on public transit or in indoor spaces.

“It will become a culture of if you’re sick you stay home,” Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, told ABC News. “Don’t come to work, don’t go to school, don’t send your kids to school. There will be more of an appreciation of the collective responsibility that we have for each other.”

Currently, federal law does not require employers to provide paid sick leave to employees although some states, such as California, New York and Washington, have laws requiring it.

Antivirals may become more common in doctor’s offices and hospitals

In addition to vaccines, some antiviral treatments, from Pfizer and Merck, have come out in the past several months, specifically for those who test positive or had symptoms recently developed.

Studies have shown that these antivirals can help prevent hospitalization, especially those who are at high risk of severe illness.

Experts stress that even after the emergency phase is over, antivirals should not be considered a substitute for vaccines, but rather an extra layer of protection, specifically for at-risk groups.

“The distribution of antivirals is really important in terms of making sure immunocompromised people and people with disabilities have that sort of protection,” Abdulah Shihipar, a public health researcher at Brown University, told ABC News.

Brewer agrees and says he thinks the treatments for COVID-19 will be similar to those for HIV in that they will get better and better over time.

“HIV is no less pathogenic today than it was 40 years ago but the difference is we have very effective treatments, we have excellent antivirals against HIV,” he said. “So I think as antivirals become available that they will play a very important role” in combating COVID-19.

Shihipar says he hopes the federal government comes up with a long-term plan for distribution whether that means a program people can sign up for to get cheap subsidized drugs, setting up at pharmacies, delivering it to rural areas and so on.

Testing will be more strategic such as just screening people with symptoms

Currently, the U.S. has a model based on two types of testing: diagnostic for symptomatic people to see if they are positive for COVID, and preventive for asymptomatic people to make sure they are not infected before participating in activities or seeing others.

But in a world in which COVID-19 is more seasonal of a virus, experts say the country will have to shift to more focused testing, particularly focusing on the symptomatic.

“Now we kind of test just to test everybody, it should be more focused,” said El-Sadr. “For people who are symptomatic, if you have symptoms, it is a good idea to get tested, absolutely. So I think focusing on people who are asymptomatic will be very important.”

Right now, an average of 1.7 million tests is being administered per day in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts say that, during peaks, a minimum of 2 million is needed to keep up with demand. Supplies have been short in some cases as manufacturers ramp up production of at-home tests and omicron redefines infection levels in the country.

El-Sadr also says testing can be used for specific high-risk activities such as eating indoors with family members who are unvaccinated or having a social gathering with someone who is immunosuppressed as opposed to generally for indoor gatherings.

“We have to think of what is the strategic use of testing,” El-Sadr added.

Brewer believes testing programs currently in place at schools, such as students testing before returning and then undergoing weekly testing, won’t work in the long run.

“It’s logistically and financially too cumbersome and expensive and slow,” he said. “Given that we know up to 40% or more of people can be asymptomatic when infected and we know asymptomatic people can spread disease, we just kind of need to operate under the assumption that anyone is potentially infected and do things like hand hygiene and vaccination rather than relying on a testing strategy.”

Improved ventilation standards in workplaces and schools could be implemented

Experts say that improving indoor air quality will be one of the most important tasks, specifically as states begin to roll back mandates and mitigation measures.

Making sure indoor air is being recirculated will lower rates of cases and prevent outbreaks.

Shihipar says the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had standards for health care settings (which have since expired) that need to be expanded to all workplaces.

“We need to change the way we deal with indoor air, like how do we properly ventilate these spaces — not just for COVID but for flu and all these other diseases,” he said. “How do we make the air cleaner so that the disease spreads less?”

He continued, “We need emergency temporary workplace standards from OSHA. One for all workers would actually regulate employers to make their workplaces safe in terms of ventilation, in terms of capacity.”

Shihipar added that he’d like to see the government giving each teacher a certain number of portable air filters for their rooms and the governments and setting up clear standards of air regulation for school districts.

We may need annual COVID vaccines

Experts have suggested that annual COVID-19 vaccines, just like the flu shot, could become a reality in a world where the virus is endemic to keep antibody levels high.

They could even be adapted to combat variants just the flu shot is manufactured to combat which strains researchers think will be the most dominant.

Brewer said it will depend on two factors: how long immunity lasts after vaccination and how much the virus changes.

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