Health

(FREMONT, Calif.) — When students return to Erin Castillo’s classroom Wednesday, their first day of in-person school in over a year, the high school teacher will be paying attention to more than just how they are doing academically.

Castillo, an English and peer counseling teacher at John F. Kennedy High School in Fremont, California, said she will be focusing more attention than ever this year to her students’ mental health.

“I think there’s a big emphasis [among educators and parents] on learning loss and the academic side, but I don’t think any kids are concerned about that,” Castillo told Good Morning America. “The kids that I’ve talked to, what they’re concerned about, and what I’m concerned about, is the social side of things … their health [amid the coronavirus pandemic] … and just the discomfort of going back to school.”

Castillo went viral two years ago when she shared on Instagram a mental health check-in chart that she uses with students.

Castillo said she created the chart after realizing so many of her high school students were silently struggling.

Her post inspired teachers around the world to make their own versions of the chart for their classrooms. The chart is hanging in Castillo’s own classroom still today as students return.

When using the check-in chart, students are encouraged to grab a post-it, write their name on the back and place it next to the statement that best matches their feelings for the day. The options are, “I’m great,” “I’m okay,” “I’m meh,” “I’m struggling,” “I’m having a hard time and wouldn’t mind a check-in” or “I’m in a really dark place.”

The last two statements merit a check-in with Castillo and a follow-up conversation with the counselor or the school psychologist on campus.

“When I created the chart, I wanted mental health to become part of the school conversation and to be tied into how we do things,” Castillo said. “Students can’t learn nearly as well when they’re struggling with something.”

Students across the United States are entering school this year amid not only their own anxiety and uncertainty but also uncertainty on a national scale amid rising numbers of COVID-19 cases, including among children, and angry debates among adults on whether students should wear masks.

Some school districts have recognized the mental health challenges facing students and have added resources for the new school year. In Castillo’s district, more mental health counselors have been deployed to schools and each school now has a designated mental health lead who receives additional mental health training to take back to their school’s teachers and staff.

“I’m sad that this is the way it finally came up but we’re seeing that shift now of, okay, we really do need to have these [mental health] conversations and we really do need to talk about coping strategies in the classroom,” said Castillo. “I’m definitely seeing it more.”

In addition to the mental health check-in chart in her classroom, Castillo has also created an “affirmation station” for students to recognize each others’ good works.

Each student in Castillo’s classroom has an envelope posted on a board in the “affirmation station.” When students recognize things another student is doing well, they can grab a notecard, write them an affirmation and stick it in their envelope, according to Castillo. Students keep them in their binders. They’ve told me they hang them up in their rooms.

Other mental health tools Castillo said she plans to use this year include giving students mental health-focused prompts to focus on each week, making use of the mini-shredder in her classroom for students to shred negative thoughts and encouraging students to set and reach small, attainable goals focused on self-care and self-love.

And while remote learning was difficult for students and teachers alike, one thing Castillo will miss is being able to use the chat and breakout room functions on Zoom that allowed her to communicate with students one-on-one.

She said her goal is to find ways to help incorporate that anonymity and directness in her in-person classroom.

“I saw a huge uptick in kids asking questions that they wouldn’t normally have asked because they may not have been comfortable,” said Castillo. “Whatever gives students the voice to communicate that they need help or support, I’m all for it.”

Another lesson Castillo said she learned from remote learning is that teachers themselves can set the best mental health example for students.

“We can’t be telling kids, ‘Take time to breathe and take time to focus on yourself, and it’s okay, if you need to ask for help,’ if we’re not doing any of that ourselves,” she said. “I think the more that we take care of ourselves and the more that we’re showing students that we’re doing that the smoother this school year is going to go.”

Castillo and a fellow teacher, Molly Jackson-Schultz, created a free, month-long mental health challenge for teachers to help prepare them for the year ahead.

“It’s a challenge specifically for teachers about focusing on themselves so we can better serve our students,” said Castillo, who noted that the challenge can be done any month. “As teachers, we have a hard time like putting ourselves first, but that’s the way we survive.”

If you are struggling with mental health or know someone in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. You can reach Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 (U.S.) or 877-330-6366 (Canada) and The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(BALTIMORE) — With the delta variant surging, and new data indicating young people can spread COVID more readily than previously thought, many parents with infants and toddlers are now left with questions about how to best protect their child.

Children who are less than two years old cannot safely wear a mask and do not have an option to receive a vaccine against COVID-19 yet. They can’t decide for themselves where they go, who they are around or what is in their environment — that is left up to a parent or caretaker to decide for them.

Scientists are still learning more about COVID-19 risk and transmission among young children under two. The good news is that even when they do get COVID, they seem less likely to become severely sick compared to adults. And there are several concrete steps parents can take to procreate a safe environment for young children.

1. Get vaccinated

Three vaccines, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson, are authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for use for anyone who is 18 years old. Pfizer is authorized for anyone over the age of 12. All three have proved to be safe and effective. Even as the new delta variant takes over as the dominant variant in the United States, these vaccines can still work against it.

Very often, children who are hospitalized with COVID-19 are living in households in which parents are not vaccinated, said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“It’s always tragic when children fall sick with COVID-19,” Offit told ABC News. “This year, these stories are more tragic because they’re preventable.”

2. Make sure everyone around your child is vaccinated

Young children aren’t yet eligible for vaccination, but if every person around them was vaccinated, this creates protection against the virus. Limiting the number of people you encounter who are unvaccinated can help create a safer environment for you and your family that will then offer some protection for your unvaccinated child.

This can be a very hard thing to do, especially if you live in a largely unvaccinated community, but weighing the risk COVID-19 can pose to your child is worth it. It may also be the push some people need to get vaccinated, too.

3. Get vaccinated if you are pregnant or breastfeeding

Vaccines are now recommended for people who are pregnant after a study showed taking a COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy is safe for parent and child. Meanwhile, new research indicates mothers may be able to pass along antibodies against COVID-19 to your baby.

Antibodies are a part of our immune systems that help recognize and fight off infections. When a woman is pregnant, some antibodies can cross through the placenta and are found in babies’ blood up to a few months after they are born. Antibodies can also be passed through breastmilk.

This type of antibody protection for babies is called “passive immunity.” Your baby’s immune system will not be able to make their own antibodies from what is passed through the placenta or breastmilk, but experts say every bit counts, and some protection is likely better than nothing.

4. Social distancing and masking in public

When you and your young child are in public, it may be impossible to know if those around you are vaccinated. Try to maintain a safe distance away from others and wear a mask, especially in indoor areas where there may be many unvaccinated people.

If your infant is in a carrier, a blanket can be draped over the carrier, but make sure that’s only done when the carrier is in your view and the blanket should not be touching the baby. If you can, find a trusted, vaccinated babysitter if you need a night or day out, so you don’t have to bring your more vulnerable baby with you, especially to activities such as indoor dining that carry a higher risk of COVID-19 exposure.

5. Everyone should wash their hands

Every time someone visits your home from outside, make sure the first thing they touch is soap and water to wash their hands, especially before touching your child. In fact, pediatricians recommend this all year round, with or without a pandemic in any home that has a child less than two years old. It is an easy way to prevent the spread of many infectious diseases that can be tough on young children.

Dr. Jade A. Cobern, a pediatric resident in Baltimore entering the field of preventive medicine, is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration is expected to announce, as soon as this week, a plan to roll out booster shots for all Americans who got Pfizer or Moderna COVID vaccines more than eight months ago.

Any plan would be contingent upon getting a green light from federal agencies who say they are still reviewing the data.

Here are five things to know about boosters:

Booster shots could begin as early as mid-September

The first vaccine shots in the U.S. were given out last December — exactly eight months ago — to health care workers and nursing home residents.

It’s expected these same high-risk, high-priority groups would be first in line for booster shots come September, assuming federal regulators agree to sign off.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has already given the green light for a third shot for people who are severely immunocompromised. But this group — patients getting treated for cancer or having experienced an organ transplant, for example — was considered less likely to have developed an immune response in the first place.

Booster shots for the broader public would only be called for if the FDA agrees with vaccine makers and independent studies that immunity is indeed waning.

8 months isn’t a precise measure of when immunity wanes

A person’s immune system is a complicated puzzle, with antibodies in a person’s blood stream as only one piece.

Scientists said they are looking at other clues too, including closely watching COVID-related hospitalizations involving vaccinated people.

Pfizer and BioNTech, which partnered to develop the nation’s first vaccine, said it has early data suggesting that a booster dose anywhere from six to 12 months after the initial vaccination will help maintain a high level of protection. Their data have not been shared publicly yet.

In particular, the company said a person getting a booster between eight and nine months after their primary shot showed higher neutralizing antibody levels against the delta variant, compared to people who received the original two doses.

But Pfizer and BioNTech also said in a joint statement that they are waiting for more data before officially submitting a request to allow for booster shots.

New hospitalization data might hold more clues on vaccine immunity

The number of vaccinated people winding up in the hospital with COVID-related complications is an important clue to how well the vaccines are working.

If a vaccinated person becomes infected with the virus but does not become seriously ill or transmit the virus to others, then the vaccine is still working well. But if health officials start reporting a rising number of hospitalizations involving vaccinated patients, that could signal that immunity among vaccinated populations is beginning to wane.

So far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said boosters aren’t needed, estimating that 97% of people hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated.

But that estimate was based on hospital-reported data from spring, before the delta variant began spreading wildly. The CDC said it’s not ready to release updated numbers yet, but is working on getting a clearer picture of delta’s impact on the vaccines.

The FDA and CDC still have to sign off

Pfizer and BioNTech have submitted early data to the FDA, but are still tracking people who got the vaccine. When those results are finalized, the companies are expected to ask the FDA to green light the third shots.

If the FDA signs off, an independent advisory panel to the CDC will likely convene to discuss what exactly should be recommended to Americans. That would then pave the way for an official recommendation by the CDC, along with advice to doctors and patients on getting a booster.

The FDA and CDC have said previously that booster shots for broader populations aren’t needed yet. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top medical adviser to President Joe Biden, has called the possibility inevitable because of the likelihood that protection would diminish over time.

Less is known about people who got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine

So far, the plan to roll out boosters is focused on Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which rely on similar technology.

Less is known about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which rolled out later than Pfizer and Moderna and has been given to considerably fewer people.

Government officials say more data are expected in coming weeks on precisely how much protection J&J allows — information that will be critical in determining whether J&J recipients might need a boost.

ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett, Molly Nagle, Sarah Kolinovsky, Sony Salzman and Eric Strauss contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(CHICAGO) — The Justice Department has arrested a Chicago pharmacist who allegedly sold 125 real CDC COVID-19 vaccination cards on EBay. 

According to charging documents, 34-year-old Tangtang Zhao is said to have sold the cards to 11 different buyers for $10 each.

He is the second person to face federal charges for selling vaccination cards. Federal authorities are working to put a stop to this trend as more companies require proof of vaccination.

Zhao is charged with 12 counts of theft of government property. A conviction means he could face a max sentence of 10 years per count.

What is still unclear is the position the DOJ may take against Americans who are trying to purchase vaccination cards as a way of falsely claiming vaccination status.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Throughout much of 2020, parents took comfort in a single silver lining the pandemic: The virus seemed to spare young people, particularly children and toddlers, whose symptoms were considerably milder than the adults around them.

The precise reason for this was never quite clear. One theory was that children had fewer “receptors” that could become infected with the virus. Some wondered if kids had better immunity because of frequent exposure to other coronaviruses. Children also were less likely to be burdened by the kind of underlying health conditions plaguing older adults, according to health experts.

But the arrival of the delta variant seems to have changed that equation in just a matter of months. Health officials are warning of the steepest surge in COVID hospitalizations among children since the pandemic began, with rates 4.6 times higher than it was just five weeks ago. Those rates now put pediatric hospitalizations on par with the height of the pandemic.

But are children now at greater risk than they were last year?

Health experts said the research on the impact of delta isn’t solid yet. It’s possible the delta variant is so wildly transmissible that children are facing repeated exposure. It’s also possible that people have grown more careless — abandoning masks and social distancing, with much of the country itching to return to normal.

Dr. Edward Behrens, chief of the division of rheumatology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said a big issue is that people wrongly assumed children were never at risk in the first place.

“It was a comforting narrative that was never true. They [children] always had the potential to be a reservoir for virus,” he said.

While hospitals continue to collect the data, others say they remain alarmed by what they are seeing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID deaths among children this year were twice as high as flu deaths.

“Many of us (in pediatrics) around the country are struck by the fact that we’re seeing otherwise healthy kids are getting sick and requiring oxygen, ending up in the ICU,” Dr. Andrew Pavia, chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Utah, told ABC News.

So while the studies may be inconclusive, “our clinical impression is that (delta) may actually be worse, and that it’s not just a very larger number of kids are getting infected,” Pavia said.

“This summer we’ve seen many more kids with severe symptoms of COVID compared to what we saw last year and then more concerning what we’ve seen this summer is really young children,” Dr. Kenneth Paris, associate professor of pediatrics at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, told ABC News.

In Dallas, that sudden spike meant the city ran out of intensive care beds for children last Friday.

“That means if your child’s in a car wreck, or more likely if they have COVID and need an ICU bed, we don’t have one,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a news conference Friday.

“Your child will wait for another child to die. Your child will just not get on the ventilator,” he added.

Dr. Cindy Bowens, medical director of the pediatric ICU at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, said they are still encouraging parents to bring their children to the hospital if they are sick.

“We will find care for every kid who comes to the hospital,” she said.

Overall, children are still considered significantly less likely than adults to experience bad outcomes from COVID-19. According to an estimate by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, less than 2% of all child COVID-19 cases resulted in hospitalization. ​

Deaths are even more rare — almost extraordinarily so — with less than .03% of cases involving children.

Still, health experts say it’s the wrong approach to assume risk to children is minimal because it’s so much lower than the risk to older adults. That goes for teens and young adults who qualify for the vaccine, too.

“If you are young and healthy, should you be super worried that you’re going to die of this disease? No,” said Dr. David Dowdy, associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “But if your goal is to be reasonably healthy and to avoid the potential for symptoms that could last for weeks or months, it’s definitely a better idea to get the vaccine.”

In other words, “just because it’s not going to kill you, doesn’t mean that you can’t get really sick,” he said.

Dowdy said he’s also not convinced delta’s superpowers are behind the sudden surge in kids getting sick either. He points to the widespread change in behaviors this spring when vaccinations became widely available and people dropped their masks and began gathering again in large groups whether they were vaccinated or not.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, told ABC News anchor David Muir last week: “What is absolutely clear is that more children are getting infected. And as more children get infected, you will naturally see more children get hospitalized.”

Dr. Mark Kline, physician-in-chief of Children’s Hospital New Orleans, said he is alarmed at the number of critically ill children, including infants and toddlers, in his care who are struggling with COVID-19. He said children have become the “collateral damage” of adults who are refusing to wear masks or get vaccinated.

“Children currently have no way out of this pandemic other than through the advocacy and personal responsibility of their parents and all adults,” he said. “So far, we are failing them miserably.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — As parents across the country brace for another school year upended by the coronavirus pandemic, they are also face rising concerns over kids’ safety amid the delta variant and the vulnerability of unvaccinated children.

One of those parents preparing his children for an unpredictable school year is Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and ABC News contributor.

We asked Brownstein, also an ABC News’ contributor, how is he preparing to send his two children, ages 10 and 11, safely back to school in-person later this month.

“My view is still that we will likely be able to keep our kids in person, but this virus has to keep us humble and things might change,” he said. “As long as we recognize it’s not one size fits all, and that we’re flexible and nuanced, I think we can still aim to have a great year for our kids.”

Here are four steps Brownstein said he is taking for his kids’ new school year:

1. I’m having my kids wear face masks.

Brownstein said his children’s school is asking all students, teachers and staff to wear face masks, regardless of vaccination status, which he supports as a way to help keep people safe and allow for in-person learning.

His children are too young to be vaccinated as currently only children ages 12 and older are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.

“We know that there is substantial high transmission of COVID happening around this country right now, and when you have a lot of transmission in the community, that will spill over into schools,” he said. “If parents consider the individual risk of their kids, but on top of that the risk of having to go virtual [learning], it makes sense for them to consider masking their kids, as a way to make sure to preserve the school year ahead.”

Brownstein said his kids were able to do in-person learning last year by wearing face masks, of which he recommends families have a large collection, so kids have continual access to clean face masks.

“We went with cloth masks because our kids had more affinity for them and we knew that they would adhere to it,” he said. “And through the year, we found that our kids were incredibly adherent … and generally speaking, they were able to have a normal school year, despite having this cloth on their face all day.”

2. I’m asking school administrators questions.

Brownstein said he has kept an open dialogue with the leaders of his kids’ school over the past nearly two years of the pandemic.

“What we found is school administrators do have the essential objective of keeping kids safe and keeping the school going and everyone wants that for our kids,” he said. “And the teachers, above all, are looking to keep their classrooms in person, so having conversations with administrators, with teachers about understanding protocols, why decisions have been made and being an active voice in making some of those decisions is critical.”

“Parents can be a really effective advocate for making sure that the kids can have a safe school year ahead,” he added.

Brownstein said some of the questions parents may want to ask include:

• What are the school’s mask guidelines? At what points in the school day can kids take mask breaks?
• When will students gather in indoor settings, like auditoriums, gymnasiums and lunchrooms? What is the masking requirement in those environments?
• What is the school doing to make sure there is adequate ventilation?
• Are there any COVID-19 testing requirements?
• Are teachers and staff required to be vaccinated? What is the status of vaccination among students who are eligible for the vaccine?

3. I’m not stressing about cleaning groceries, surfaces at home.

While many parents were worried about disinfecting everything from groceries to countertops in the beginning of the pandemic, that can be much less of a concern for parents now, according to Brownstein.

“What we now know is that transmission is really driven by respiratory air droplets and aerosols, and the other modes of transmission are just far and away less of a concern,” he said. “If we want to give our kids a normal year and we want to try to get back to normal, we should be aiming to focus on those high-transmission events.”

“That’s why the focus has been on masking and social distancing and ventilation, because those are really the places in which transmission can take place,” Brownstein added. “Some of those other activities I really do think that we can do away with for this year.”

4. I’m staying flexible and optimistic.

Brownstein says he is looking at the return to school in the context of the need to keep kids, families and teachers safe, while keeping in perspective kids’ relative low risk of severe complications from COVID-19, balanced with the need to give kids a fulfilling school year.

“With that balance, we can’t live in fear,” he said. “We have to make sure to be flexible and nuanced as we approach the school year, and recognize that it still might not be a normal year, but we should aim for the most normal experience.”

Brownstein added that he and fellow parents still, “have to be reasonable if things change, if we have to cancel certain activities, and certain types of events can’t take place because of the level of transmission in the community.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed the COVID-19 delta variant as one of its “variants of concern” (VOCs) on June 15. According to the CDC, VOCs can be more contagious, more dangerous, less susceptible to available treatments or harder to detect.

The current VOCs all have mutations in the virus’s spike protein, which acts as a key to break into cells to infect them. And that’s a potential concern because the spike protein from the original version of the virus is what scientists used to design all three authorized vaccines. It’s also what monoclonal antibody treatments latch on to so the virus can’t get into your cells, effectively “neutralizing” the threat. So far none of these mutations have changed the virus enough to undercut the vaccines.

The uncontrolled spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, means the virus is mutating quickly. That’s why many new variants are being discovered in places with the highest infection rates and large numbers of unvaccinated individuals, like the United States, the United Kingdom, India and Brazil.

“Viruses mutate; they change their form all the time,” said ABC News medical contributor, Dr. Simone Wildes, a board-certified infectious disease physician and public health expert at South Shore Health in Weymouth, Massachusetts.

“We’re not just dealing with one virus, we’re dealing with a lot of viruses. Because there’s been uncontrolled replication around the world for the last year and a half, we’ve created variants beyond variants,” said Dr. Todd Ellerin, ABC News medical contributor and Director of Infectious Diseases at South Shore Health.

Thousands of variants exist around the world, but most of them do not change the way the virus acts. Experts are constantly working to figure out which variants we should focus on and how they change how we combat COVID-19. Right now, there are only a handful of concerning COVID-19 variants.

Alpha variant (B.1.1.7)

The alpha variant was first identified in the U.K. and thought to have emerged in September 2020. It spread in Europe before arriving in the U.S. in December 2020 and was the dominant viral strain in American until early June this year.

Compared to the original Wuhan strain, the alpha variant is about 50% more contagious and led to an increase in hospitalizations and deaths in the U.K. However, the alpha variant is susceptible to available vaccines, according to the CDC. Treatments called monoclonal antibodies, which are designed specifically to combat the virus, also still work against the alpha variant.

Beta variant (B.1.351, B.1.351.2, B.1.351.3)

The beta variant was first identified in South Africa in October 2020 before arriving in the U.S. in January 2021. Like the alpha variant, it is about 50% more transmissible than the original strain. It is also better at evading neutralizing antibodies, meaning our defense systems– natural immunity after infection, vaccines, and monoclonal antibodies– have a hard time stopping the virus from breaking into cells. This makes the beta variant more difficult to treat and more likely to cause reinfection or breakthrough infection compared to the original strain. Early studies from South Africa and countries in the European Union report that it might potentially lead to more hospitalizations and death in people under 60.

While beta made up a minority of infections in early 2021, currently, there are now few, if any, documented cases of the beta variant in the U.S.

Gamma variant (P.1, P.1.1, P.1.2)

The gamma variant was identified in Japan in four travelers arriving from Brazil in November 2020, and was found in the U.S. in January 2021. Despite the current spread in Brazil, it only accounts for 1% of infections in the U.S.

Like the beta variant, mutations in the gamma variant’s spike protein make it better at escaping neutralizing antibodies, so people who previously had COVID-19 or are vaccinated may still experience reinfection or breakthrough infection. Studies from the E.U. suggest the gamma variant may cause more hospitalizations and deaths compared to the original strain.

Delta variant (B.1.617.2, AY.1, AY.2, AY.3)

The delta variant was identified in India in October 2020. It gained dominance quickly after it was first reported in the U.S. in April 2021. In fact, delta has now spread so much that it has splintered into several sub variants, referred to as “delta plus.” Delta plus variants have a mutation in the spike protein found in both the beta and gamma variants that may help to evade neutralizing antibodies. While around 13% of infections in the U.S. are from delta plus variants (AY.1, AY.2, and AY.3), it behaves similarly to the delta variant. Collectively, all the delta lineages make up 80-95% of sequenced infections in the country.

Like other VOCs, delta has multiple mutations in its spike protein. What makes delta unique is that it is much more efficient at latching onto your cells and is much more contagious.

“The delta variant is clearly the most contagious variant we’ve dealt with,” Ellerin said. “You ultimately have survival of the fittest … the more ‘fit’ viruses, those with a replication advantage, ultimately win out. Currently, that’s what we’re facing with delta.”

According to the CDC, delta is about twice as infectious as the original strain and estimated to be 60% more infectious than alpha. People infected with the delta variant have been reported to have viral loads 1,000 times higher than other variants. This contributed to the CDC changing its guidance on masks for vaccinated people.

“Masks decrease the likelihood of acquiring COVID-19 and act as source control,” Ellerin said. “Which means if you have it, you are less likely to spread it.”

Studies are still looking at how well vaccines and monoclonal antibodies can neutralize the threat of delta.

“The vaccines are really very effective,” Wildes said. “For those who are on the fence, I think this has really helped me and a lot of people around me to remind them that if you get COVID and you’ve been vaccinated, you’re clearly not as sick as the people I’m seeing in the ICU each day that have not been vaccinated.”

Lauren R. Richter, MD, a pediatrician and pediatric endocrinologist, is a postdoctoral research fellow in biomedical informatics at Columbia University and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(SAVANNAH, Ga.) — Martin and Trina Daniel, married for over 20 years, both died of COVID-19 within hours of each other, leaving behind two teenage children facing an unimaginable loss.

The Daniels met at Savannah State University in the 1990s before Martin Daniel headed to Tuskegee University in Alabama for graduate school, their nephew, Cornelius Daniel, told ABC News.

The couple settled in Savannah, Georgia, where they raised two children: Miles, now 18, and Marina, 15.

Trina was a stay-at-home mom who loved supporting her immediate and extended family while Martin worked as a chemist, Cornelius Daniel said.

“He loved being a chemist,” he said. “One of the reasons I went to Tuskegee was because he went there.”

The Daniels’ niece, Quintella Daniel, added that she went to Savannah State because of her uncle.

“He was just a very motivational person,” she said.

When the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, Quinella, a nurse, headed to New York City, the first U.S. epicenter, calling it “a life-changing experience.”

“You may have a lot of people, 10 or 20 people, waiting for one to die to get on a ventilator,” she said. “I thank God every day that about 35 tests I took there … I never had COVID.”

Martin, 53, Trina, 49, and their teenagers — all unvaccinated — contracted COVID-19 in June, the family said.

Cornelius Daniel said his aunt and uncle were hesitant to get vaccinated in part due to the legacy of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which charted syphilis progression in unknowing Black men from the 1930s to the 1970s.

Martin Daniel had “a stubborn attitude toward vaccines in general,” Cornelius said.

“He trusted the vaccines that had been around for awhile,” like for polio, but felt the COVID-19 vaccines were developed too quickly, Cornelius said. (The quick COVID-19 vaccine development was possible because of decades of prior scientific studies demonstrating safety, as well as an unprecedented multibillion-dollar commitment by the federal government to accelerate research.)

The Daniels eventually came around to the idea and were scheduled to get the vaccine in mid-July — the week after they died, their nephew said. The Daniels’ symptoms hit at the end of June and quickly “spiraled out of control” around July 4.

Martin Daniel died at home on July 6. Trina was hospitalized and died that night, the family said.

“We were already taken aback by his passing, but to have to endure the passing of her … was traumatizing,” Cornelius said.

Miles and Marina, battling COVID-19 while their parents died, went to the hospital on July 7 for treatment. They were released hours later, Cornelius said, but had to quarantine for two weeks while dealing with the loss of both parents.

After a painful month, both teens are “doing well” and “adjusting to the new normal,” Cornelius said.

The family dropped off Miles at college this weekend and Marina is beginning her sophomore year of high school.

Miles and Marina now plan to get vaccinated, Cornelius said, adding that he hopes others who haven’t yet gotten the shot will follow the teens’ lead.

“The only bullets we have right now in our gun are the vaccines,” Cornelius said. “So I would prefer a vaccine over a ventilator every day. Too many families have already experienced the pain that we’re feeling.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(FORT WORTH, Texas) — A Texas mom is urging parents to send their kids to school wearing masks after she says her 11-year-old son was diagnosed with multisystem inflammatory syndrome a month after testing positive for COVID-19.

Angie Abbott said she and her son Cason went to see a doctor on Nov. 8, 2020 because he wasn’t feeling well; he’d been dealing with symptoms like a sore throat. Carson then tested positive for COVID-19, but they were sent home because his condition didn’t require hospitalization. Abbot said she monitored him from home, where he just “wanted to lay around and watch movies.”

Having just lost her fiancé, who she says died from a stroke, Abbot said she became “worried” that his “lethargy” was from depression and called a local pediatrician, who advised her to take him to a hospital.

“He always wanted to sleep and he didn’t feel good,” Abbott, 53, told “Good Morning America.”

In December 2020, Abbott said she twice brought her son to a local hospital in Abilene, but the doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. When Cason’s symptoms worsened, she said she took him to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth.

“Immediately, they knew he had MIS-C,” she said. “His inflammation markers were extremely high with the swelling. He was swollen on the outside of his face, his hands and his feet. He had a rash pretty much all over him. His eyes were really bloodshot and red, and there were dark circles under his eyes.”

“I was scared to death,” Abbott continued. “I didn’t even know what MIS-C was.”

MIS-C is a condition where different body parts, such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes and gastrointestinal organs can become inflamed. While it’s unclear what causes MIS-C, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that many children who have MIS-C had COVID-19. The CDC has recorded 4,404 cases of MIS-C since May 2020.

“MIS-C has a median age of 9 years old,” said Dr. Priscilla Hanudel, an emergency medicine physician in Los Angeles and member of the ABC News Medical Unit. “Masking is crucial to preventing children from developing this severe illness, particularly because ages 11 and under aren’t yet vaccine-eligible.”

The morning after he was admitted, Abbott said Cason wouldn’t wake up and nurses couldn’t get a blood pressure reading on him. They rushed him to the intensive care unit, where he was in “critical condition,” she said.

“The doctor told me that if I would’ve waited until the next morning to drive him to the hospital, he probably wouldn’t have made it,” Abbott said.

Although Cason was released from the ICU and sent home a month later in January, he still has to return to Cook Children’s Medical Center for regular tests and lab work, Abbott said.

“His inflammation markers and several of his labs are way off,” she said. “He now has no immunity because of the MIS-C treatment.”

Treatments for MIS-C work to reduce inflammation in the body and include antibiotics, steroid therapy and intravenous immunoglobulin, which is a blood product made of antibodies, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Cason is now immunocompromised, Abbott said, and dealing with symptoms of MIS-C like fatigue and inflammation. She’s worried he might get reinfected when he returns to school at Wylie West Junior High, where he’ll be a sixth-grader starting Aug. 18.

“We just got released last week from his infectious disease doctor to go back to school wearing a mask,” Abbott said. “So here’s my thing that I’m worried about as a mom: what about these other kids that he’s going to be around? Most of them won’t be wearing masks and will not be vaccinated because they’re under 12.”

After Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning government entities, including school districts, from requiring people to use masks, Cason’s school is one of many that will not be mandating mask use during the upcoming school year.

Abbott said that because of her son’s weakened immune system, Cason won’t be eligible for the vaccine when he turns 12 on Sept. 3. The CDC recommends people with MIS-C delay vaccinations for 90 days from the date of diagnosis.

“It’s the only thing that’s been on my mind,” Abbott said. “It’s not just a daily thing. It’s every moment of every day I’m worried about him. … I feel like we’re going into a war zone without any protection of our own.”

Cason’s school also won’t be offering any form of remote learning, Abbott said. As a working single mother, with no childcare options, she’s unable to pull Cason out of school and homeschool him.

“My child is still sick … it’s very scary to me if my child was to get COVID again,” Abbott said. “I don’t even want to think about what that might look like for us.”

Wylie West Junior High did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ‘GMA’ for comment about Cason’s remote learning.

Abbott is now urging parents to take the virus more seriously and to consider how valuable masks and the vaccine are in containing the spread.

“Be thankful that your world has not turned upside-down like mine has,” Abbott said. “COVID and MIS-C are very real in my home, and [it’s] very devastating the effects that it’s had on my home, so please don’t sit there and say it’s no big deal.”

She added, “If somebody was able to walk in my shoes and go through what I went through with my child, I think there’d be no doubt in their minds that they wanted the vaccine — that they never wanted to be that sick or give that to someone else.”

As for Cason, Abbott calls him a “trooper.”

“He’s a sweetheart,” she said. “He worries more about me getting sad for any time that we get a bad diagnosis or something to be concerned about. He’s never worried about himself ever. He’s never complained about this one time — he feels such a need to be protective of me.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — As the delta variant continues to ravage communities across the country, Hispanic populations in many states have been left behind in the race to get the country vaccinated, according to Salud America, a national Latino-focused research organization.

Health experts say misinformation, fear and a lack of access to vaccination sites have contributed to the lower rates of vaccination — despite the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the Latino community.

According to Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization focusing on national health issues, Black and Hispanic people are less likely than their white counterparts to have received a vaccine, leaving the unvaccinated members of the group at an elevated risk of contracting the virus.

“It’s pretty much life or death if they are choosing not to vaccinate themselves because of myths,” said Arturo Vargas Bustamante, a professor of Health Policy and Management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

Health experts are pleading with people to learn more about the science, unlearn the myths and overcome the fears concerning the vaccine.

Activists, like Frankie Miranda, of the non-profit Latino advocacy group the Hispanic Federation, are also calling on local officials to provide culturally competent information to help stop the spread of coronavirus among Latinos, who may have a mistrust of the U.S. government.

Latinos and the virus

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 70% of adults in the U.S. have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

State-by-state percentages of Latino vaccination rates show the disparities in vaccination — as of Aug. 2, only about 26.9% of Latinos in Alabama have received at least one dose, according to Salud America, which analyzes state and CDC data. In Tennessee, 31.3% of Latinos have had at least one dose. In Texas, it’s 32% of Latinos.

However, more than 90% of Latinos in Vermont and more than 60% of Latinos in Virginia have received at least one dose, Salud America reports.

And in the last two weeks, people of color are being vaccinated more than white people, according to the CDC — which could be attributed to the recent rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths among unvaccinated populations.

Latinos make up 28.5% of overall confirmed cases in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic, the CDC reports.

Bustamante recommended that trusted Latino leaders and figures partner with local governments and health agencies to get the word out about vaccines, their efficiency and the importance of community health to stop the spread.

Miranda blamed the lack of Spanish-language resources and outreach to communities and said that the lack of access and awareness can cause confusion for many.

“It is okay to feel anxious, to feel nervous about it,” said Miranda. “By asking questions or going to a community-based organization in their communities, to ask these questions, many of these worries will go away and they will understand that this is the best way to protect themselves and their families.”

Vaccination misconceptions, myths and fears

“Chisme mata,” said Fernandez, which means “gossip kills” in Spanish. He and other health experts warned against believing posts, articles and memes from non-reputable sources.

One common fear about the vaccine that some people have heard is that there may be unknown long-term effects. But experts, like American Public Health Association President Jose Ramon Fernandez, said that there’s no need to fear long-term effects because they have rarely, if ever, occurred with past vaccines.

The Food and Drug Administration puts each vaccine candidate through a rigorous safety and efficacy process before granting approval. And safety monitoring continues after approval as well.

All three current COVID-19 vaccines granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) by the FDA have undergone three phases of testing, including large trials that lasted several months. The CDC says currently authorized vaccines are safe and effective and Pfizer expects to apply for full approval next month.

“We have over [200] years of experience with vaccines, and there’s no record at all of having long-term effects of a vaccine,” said Fernandez.

Skepticism on the speed of vaccine production, and how quickly it was made available, is also easily explained, according to the CDC.

Other diseases caused by coronaviruses in the past are closely related to the COVID-19 virus. Because researchers had been developing vaccines for those diseases when the novel coronavirus was discovered, the basis for this vaccine was already in the works, according to the CDC.

Combined with billions of dollars funding expedited research and millions of volunteers working on this effort — the vaccine was made faster than normal.

“I know that it’s difficult to feel confident about science, especially right now during the pandemic where the advice given by scientists changes so regularly,” said Bustamante.

“You need to understand that science evolves,” he said. “Knowledge is not one static product. We, as scientists, contribute to science and see how trends evolve over time, and that many times makes us change our guidelines.”

Among the many false narratives about vaccines is they can cause problems with fertility.

“It has been completely debunked,” Fernandez said. “It’s an absolute lie. There’s no evidence anywhere around the world where this has been proven to be true.”

Given substantial data supporting the safety of vaccines, the CDC now strongly recommends that people who are pregnant and considering becoming pregnant to get vaccinated.

Another fear about the vaccine is that there are other cures to COVID-19, or that a healthy lifestyle is sufficient in protecting people from the illness. That is false, said Dr. Ramon Tallaj from SOMOS Community Care, a network of health providers in New York City.

He said that doctors, scientists, and public health experts believe that the vaccine, alongside other COVID-19 safety precautions like masking and social distancing, is the best protection against the virus and drastically protects the infected from severe illness.

“Somebody told me that they prefer the natural immunity … but natural immunity means that 600,000 people die in the United States,” said Tallaj about the growing COVID-19 death toll in the United States. “The only reason why humans live so long now … is because of vaccines and antibiotics.”

Some people are also in fear of getting symptoms after receiving the vaccine and may have to take off work or be disciplined by their bosses, Fernandez and Tallaj said.

But side effects like headache and fevers are temporary, and they don’t happen to everyone. Meanwhile, many employers will give workers a paid day off to rest after getting the shots, so public health officials recommend asking employers what options exist to take time off.

“It’s in their interest to make sure that you’re healthy,” said Fernandez. “Do it for your mother. Do it for your children. Do it for your friends. Do it for your co-workers. Do it for your community.”

And for undocumented immigrants or uninsured Latinos, there is no need to fear — people getting the vaccine will not be asked about their legal status and insurance isn’t needed. The vaccine is completely free and no one will be billed for it.

“As a Latino man, I’m deeply concerned about the health of our community, and I want to do anything I can to make sure that we have access to accurate information to help people make a decision that they will be happy they made down the line,” Fernandez said.

To find more information, and to find Spanish-language guidance on the vaccine, experts recommend heading to the CDC website for more information, or to the CDC’s vaccine finder to look for vaccination sites nearby.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.