Health

(NEW YORK) — Health care providers that serve the transgender community in Alabama are struggling to make sense of a new bill moving quickly through the state legislature.

The Vulnerable Child Protection Act would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth in the state.

Pediatric endocrinologist Hussein Abdullatif, who provides gender-affirming care for trans youth, said the legislation leaves many questions: Will trans youth be able to continue seeing their physicians? Will they be able to receive their medications?

“I worry about my patients,” Abdullatif told ABC News. “They already are showing a great deal of anxiety related to what’s going to happen.”

Abdullatif says it is not only his transgender patients’ physical health but also their mental health that is of concern. He said he has seen firsthand the way discrimination and lack of care can affect his trans patients.

“I do know of a kid who already attempted three times suicide — not because of law, of course, because they haven’t passed it yet — but because of resistance by the mother of the child to the idea of being transgender,” he said.

The bill states that anyone who provides gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy or physical gender-affirming surgeries to anyone under 18, could be convicted of a felony and face up to 10 years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Shay Shelnutt, called gender-affirming health care, “child abuse.”

“We don’t want parents to be abusing their children. We don’t want to make that an option, because that’s what it is, it’s child abuse. This is just to protect children,” Shelnutt said on Feb. 23 on the state Senate floor.

Yet experts say the notion of gender-affirmation as child abuse as well as language used in the legislation — for instance — the claim that people can experience “permanent sterility, that result from the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures” are forms of misinformation.

Debunking myths about transgender health care and gender-affirmation

The bill refers to “minors” and “surgical procedures” but in Alabama, gender-affirming surgeries aren’t allowed until a patient reaches the age of legal majority for medical decisions, which is 19.

“When lawmakers attempt to practice medicine with a life without a license, they realize quickly that there was a lot more they didn’t understand than what they thought they did,” said Morissa Ladinsky, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Pediatrics.

The bill’s language also makes claims about mental health and gender affirmation which some experts say are false.

“Individuals who undergo cross-sex cosmetic surgical procedures have been found to suffer from elevated mortality rates higher than the general population. They experience significantly higher rates of substance abuse, depression, and psychiatric hospitalizations,” the legislation reads.

However, research from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention found higher rates of substance abuse, depression and suicidal ideation were linked to stigma, discrimination and victimization experienced by this population.

Research shows that people who have gender-affirming surgery had significantly lower odds of psychological distress, tobacco smoking, and suicidal ideation compared with trans people with no history of gender-affirming surgery.

As for hormone therapy and puberty blockers, physicians say gender-affirming care comes after long discussions between parents and their children, as well as between families and their physicians.

Puberty blockers provide an individual and their family time to determine if a child’s gender identity is long-lasting, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Trans youth may face stress and anxiety from puberty development, including breast or facial hair growth, that does not align with their gender identity. Puberty blockers can help offer relief from that stress, experts say.

If an adolescent child stops taking the treatment, puberty resumes.

“It’s harmless and it’s not something that locks you in a certain decision that you cannot leave,” Abdullatif said.

Hormone therapy, which induces male or female physical changes, also helps address the needs of transgender teens in affirming their identity.

The legislation also makes the claim that puberty blockers can cause infertility or other health risks.

According to Ladinsky, these potential side effects only present real risks after puberty and are not a risk to youth taking puberty blockers.

Gender-affirming youth care is supported by several national medical organizations such as the American Medical Association, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

“The worry is that we will have an epidemic of suicide because of a bill that calls itself the [Vulnerable Child Protection Act],” said Abdullatif.

Bills seen by advocates as anti-trans have also been proposed in past Alabama legislatures, as well as in states including Idaho and Arkansas. Arkansas is currently facing lawsuits against its bill that was passed into law last year despite the governor’s veto, and bans gender-confirming treatments for transgender youth.

“This is a government overreach,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson said at the news conference in April 2021.. “You are starting to let lawmakers interfere with health care and set a standard for legislation overriding health care. The state should not presume to jump into every ethical health decision.”

Ladinsky says it keeps her up at night to think about the patients who are just now understanding their gender identities.

She said she worries youth will believe “my state has made the choice to erase me.”

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(NEW YORK) — Inside hundreds of pharmacies across the country, high-risk Americans who test positive for COVID-19 have been told they will soon be able to find and fill a prescription for oral medication directly at the store.

The new White House “test to treat” program, touted as a one-stop shop for antiviral pills from Pfizer and Merck, aims to create a free and streamlined approach to get sick people the lifesaving care they need, when they need it.

Although Pfizer and Merck’s COVID-19 pills were authorized in December, scarce supply has made them difficult to access.

Major pharmacies have already begun ordering their new “test to treat” supply directly from the federal government, and anticipate being able to start as early as this week. CVS will offer end-to-end access to the pills at their nearly 1,200 MinuteClinic locations as soon as this week, spokesperson Matthew Blanchette told ABC News, while a Walgreens spokesperson said patients will be able to get the antiviral pills at “select stores” where provider partners are available to assess and prescribe medication.

The idea is for everyday Americans to be able to visit their local pharmacy for a rapid test, and if positive, “you can be treated right there on the spot,” said Dr. Simone Wildes, an infectious disease expert from South Shore Health.

As clinic doors open to this new initiative, however, numerous puzzle pieces must align to ensure the smooth rollout the president has hoped for.

“We’re leaving no one behind or ignoring anyone’s needs as we move forward,” President Joe Biden said of the plan during his State of the Union address last week, emphasizing his administration has “ordered more pills than anyone in the world has.”

The program’s promised scope hinges on sufficient participating locations and drug supplies.

And in a development that could jeopardize the program’s future, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced this week that COVID-19 funding would be stripped from an upcoming government funding and Ukraine emergency aid package — an element hotly contested by some members.

Without this additional pandemic funding, the White House has warned there could be “dire” consequences: the U.S. could run out of pill supplies by the end of the summer.

The government has so far purchased 20 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill, Paxlovid, although it’s not expected to be widely available until later this spring.

And there are other hurdles. Test to treat’s reach is bounded by the requirement that there must be a prescribing health care provider on site, a feature at a fraction of the tens of thousands of pharmacies in the country.

Some pharmacy groups have chafed against the required authority, like a nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant, who must prescribe the pills on-site.

“We were anticipating something that would really have an impact on the pandemic and on patients being able to access medications and instead we’re underwhelmed with the missed opportunity of what this could have been,” said Michael Ganio, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ senior director of pharmacy practice and quality.

While the plan is a step in the right direction, “further action is needed” to enhance equity and access, National Association of Chain Drug Stores’ President and CEO Steven Anderson said, adding that the current test-to-treat plan “does not leverage fully the health and wellness professionals and access points in America’s pharmacies.”

Conversely, the American Medical Association called the plan “well-intentioned” but that it “oversimplifies challenging prescribing decisions by omitting knowledge of a patient’s medical history, the complexity of drug interactions, and managing possible negative reactions.”

The drugs are not appropriate for everyone. Merck’s Molnupiravir, for example, is not recommended during pregnancy or for minors, while Pfizer’s Paxlovid runs the risk of negatively interacting with other commonly prescribed drugs, including medicines that manage heart conditions and cholesterol, and those with severe kidney or liver problems.

Another issue, doctors say, is that patients will need to start taking the pills within days of developing symptoms, which means participating stores need to be convenient enough to access quickly, and with enough rapid tests to diagnose in time.

To connect patients with convenient pickup sites, the government is developing a website to help people find a site near them, set to launch later this month.

“The biggest issue is making sure that you get seen and diagnosed rapidly because you’ve got a five-day window of opportunity for Paxlovid to be optimally effective,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an infectious disease physician.

“If you’re a high-risk individual, you want to make the diagnosis as quickly as possible,” said Dr. Todd Ellerin, director of infectious diseases at South Shore Hospital. “And then make contact with a health care provider.”

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(NEW YORK) — A group of kidney donors is going to great heights to educate others about being a live organ donor.

The Kidney Donor Athletes, a national organization working to educate and change the perception around live organ donation, is doing so through their “one kidney climb.” This year, on March 10, which marks World Kidney Day, the group of 22 kidney donors are climbing to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

“The purpose of this climb is to show people around the world that it’s possible to thrive on one kidney,” Tracey Hulick, founder of Kidney Donor Athletes, told ABC News’ Good Morning America.

Hulick and the rest of the climbers are part of 22 separate donation chains. When someone donates to a stranger on behalf of someone they know, it sets off a chain reaction and an opportunity for many more lives to be saved. The donors who are taking part in the climb have different reasons for donating.

“Growing up, I had a classmate who passed away because he couldn’t find a bone marrow donor,” Samantha Carreiro of Dover, New Hampshire, said. “In that moment, I kind of just knew that given the chance to help somebody eventually in my life, I would do so.”

Carreiro eventually donated a kidney to a spin instructor at a gym she belonged to for years. She learned that he needed a kidney and knew this was something she was supposed to do.

For Steve Wilson of Katonah, New York, he was inspired to become a kidney donor after learning about his high school acquaintance’s daughter, who received a life-saving kidney transplant from a woman in their hometown.

He said he was “excited” for the recipient and her parents and was deeply moved by the “ultimate act of selflessness” from the donor. Wilson said he later donated his kidney to a 53-year-old woman in Seattle.

“It’s a way to leave an imprint on the world, to make somebody’s life better, to give somebody else a second chance at life,” Wilson added. “To see their children grow up and maybe their grandchildren.”

Patients need kidney transplants if theirs start to fail and are no longer able to rid the body of toxins, according to the University of Chicago Medicine. Patients can become tired, lose their appetite, become nauseous and wind up ill.

There are approximately 97,000 people on the National Kidney Transplant List, and more than 3,000 are added to the list each month. However, many patients spend years on the waiting list because there aren’t enough organs available, according to the University of Chicago Medicine.

The National Kidney Foundation notes that 13 people die each day while waiting for a life-saving kidney transplant.

Through their climb, the Kidney Donor Athletes are hoping to get the message out there that it’s possible to live on one kidney, and they hope to inspire others to donate, too.

“Something that’s important to all of us is to normalize kidney donations,” Patty Graham, a Kidney Donor Athlete from Boulder, Colorado, said. “We’re not heroes, we’re normal people. We lead normal lives. In fact, all the donors — I know our lives are even better and more enhanced after donation.”

“What is life if we’re not helping each other?” Carreiro added.

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(NEW YORK) — Despite being among the first eligible for COVID-19 booster shots, many nursing homes are struggling to boost residents and staff, experts say.

Nationally, about 72% of residents are boosted in each nursing home, according to data from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

But in about one-third of U.S. states, booster rates for residents are less than the national average among nursing homes, and three states have yet to crack an average of 60% of residents boosted in each facility.

Booster shots have been shown to be more protective against omicron and other COVID-19 variants. And nursing home residents continue to be among the most vulnerable people in terms of potential for severe illness and death — nearly 151,000 people in nursing homes have died since the beginning of the pandemic, CMS data shows.

While significantly higher than the 44% of Americans who have received a booster, experts say levels in nursing homes are lower than they’d like to see. Ideally, they should match the rate of vaccination — currently 87% of residents fully vaccinated per facility.

When it comes to booster uptake among nursing home staff members, the numbers are even lower than residents.

Only about 39% of staff members per facility have received booster shots, the CMS data shows, and more than half of states have rates below the national average of nursing homes.

“People may feel like, ‘Well, you got two shots and there’s no value’ or even ‘You had two shots and you had COVID already,'” Dr. Cindy Prins, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions, told ABC News. “I think we need to remember that our immunity can wane, especially in our older folks, and they need to keep getting that renewed protection and the booster will give them that.”

In three states, less than 60% of nursing residents are boosted on average

It’s well known that nursing home residents are among the highest at risk for severe COVID-19 complications due to their ages, likelihood of underlying conditions and the fact that they live in congregate settings.

“The other caveat to understand is that, in those that are over the age 65, sometimes it’s a little more difficult for them to develop responses to vaccines,” so getting a booster helps them mount an immune response, Dr. Katherine Baumgarten, medical director for infection prevention at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, told ABC News.

Yet some nursing homes have been struggling to boost their residents. In three states — Florida, Arizona and Nevada — not even 60% of residents per facility on average have been boosted.

Florida has the lowest rate in the country at about 55%. By comparison, South Dakota has the highest rate at 87.56%.

The Florida Department of Health did not reply to ABC News’ request for comment on why rates are low.

“It’s absolutely something to be concerned about. That’s unacceptable,” Dr. David Grabowski, a professor of healthcare policy at Harvard Medical School, told ABC News. “With omicron and with potential new variants, having the most vulnerable individuals — these residents in nursing homes that have been the hardest hit by the pandemic — to have them not fully protected is really unfortunate.”

A February 2022 preprint study from France found nursing home residents who received a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had high levels of neutralizing antibodies against infection from the delta and omicron variants for at least three months.

Prins said she believes part of the reason booster uptake is low among the resident population in some states is because boosters were not promoted as much as the initial vaccines.

“In Florida, the initial vaccines were very much promoted for our older population,” she said. “It was very strongly put out there that seniors were first and they were going to get vaccinated.”

Prins continued, “But I didn’t see that same messaging with the booster. We haven’t placed the same emphasis on it at the state level that we did with that initial vaccine campaign for seniors.”

There are other theories for why the booster rate among nursing homes residents is lower than public health experts would like it to be.

Grabowski said the initial vaccine rollout was centralized, with the federal government partnering with CVS and Walgreens to distribute the shots to nursing homes.

“When it came time to do the booster rollout, this was really left up to the nursing homes to handle the booster clinics,” he said. “They do a flu vaccine every year for staff and residents and there was some thought that they could do this. Some did but there was also some really slow rollout that highlighted the haves and have nots across nursing homes.”

Grabowski continued, “Nursing homes were dealing with a lot during that period, and this was not something that was prioritized in those facilities and we’ve seen those low rates.”

Booster rollout has been slow among staff

Experts say it’s not just the elderly population in nursing homes who have been slow to get boosted — it’s also staff members.

According to CMS data, 12 states don’t even have an average of 30% of staff with boosters per facility. Florida is once again the state with the lowest rate at 24.52% while California has the highest rate at 68.58%.

Prins said it is possible the low booster rates for nursing home staff are partially due to many being ineligible for a third dose because they completed their vaccine series less than five months ago.

But she believes “that does not cover the extent of that lower booster rate” and said the low numbers are “concerning.”

“When you have this kind of facility, the virus gets brought in obviously, and it’s coming in with the people who are most mobile and most often there and that’s going to be your staff members,” Prins said. “[The low number] is absolutely a worry because that puts residents at high risk.”

Since the omicron wave, weekly cases and deaths in nursing homes have declined drastically. However, during the week ending Feb. 20, 2022, there were 620 resident deaths, the highest number since the week ending Jan. 2.

Mandates may be the only way to increase booster rates

The experts say there are a few ways to try and drive booster rates up in nursing homes.

Grabowski said for residents, it would help for the booster rollout to be more centralized with clinics set up by the federal government rather than left up to individual facilities.

However, he believes it will take mandates for booster rates among staff to rise dramatically. As of Tuesday, five states require COVID boosters for nursing home workers: California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Mexico and New York.

“The mandates are important here,” he said. ‘I think with boosters, with staff, it’s probably going to take mandates to make sure they go forward with the booster.”

The doctors add that, in addition, it could help to do sit-downs with small groups of nursing home staff to address their concerns and explain why boosters are beneficial. Baumgarten suggested this could include dispelling the ideas that boosters are ineffective or that they don’t reduce the risk of breakthrough infections.

“Nursing homes are a vulnerable population and we want to protect those who are vulnerable,” she said. “Everything that we can do to prevent them from being exposed or at risk for developing COVID important for us to do. If it’s simple enough to get a booster — which it is, they’re readily available, side effects are minimal — we should do that to help protect those around us.”

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(NEW YORK) — Pfizer announced Wednesday it is launching a clinical trial to study the effectiveness of its COVID-19 antiviral pill in young children.

The treatment, Paxlovid, was authorized in December 2020 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use in patients aged 12 and older who have mild-to-moderate symptoms and are at increased risk of severe illness.

The new trial is planning to enroll 140 children between ages 6 and 17 who will be split into two groups.

One group will weigh between 44 and 88 pounds and the other groups will weigh more than 88 pounds.

The group that weighs more than 88 pounds will be given the dose currently authorized for teens and adults while the group that weighs less will be given a smaller dose.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 11 million children under the age of 18 in the United States alone have tested positive for COVID-19, representing nearly 18% of reported cases and leading to more than 100,000 hospital admissions,” Mikael Dolsten, chief scientific officer and president of worldwide research, development and medical at Pfizer, said in a company statement.

“There is a significant unmet need for outpatient treatments that can be taken by children and adolescents to help prevent progression to severe illness, including hospitalization or death,” Dolsten said.

Children under age 6 will not be included in this study, but Pfizer said research is ongoing to determine the best dose for the youngest of children

Pfizer’s pill was hailed as a game-changer because it was the first COVID treatment that did not require an infusion, making it more convenient to give to patients.

The pill is made up of two medications: ritonavir, commonly used to treat HIV and AIDS, and nirmatrelvir, an antiviral that Pfizer developed to boost the strength of the first drug.

Together, they prevent an enzyme the virus uses to make copies of itself inside human cells and spread throughout the body.

Paxlovid is currently given as three pills twice daily over the course of five days.

Clinical trial data showed the pill reduced the risk of hospitalization and death for COVID patients by 89% within three days of the onset of symptoms compared to a placebo.

According to clinicaltrials.gov, the pediatric trial has three locations including Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas.

ABC News’ Sony Salzman contributed to this report.

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(BALTIMORE) — A Maryland man who earlier this year became the first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig has died, according to the University of Maryland Medicine, where the transplant was performed.

David Bennett, 57, died on March 8, according to University of Maryland Medicine. The hospital did not say what caused his death, noting only that his “condition began deteriorating several days ago.”

“After it became clear that he would not recover, he was given compassionate palliative care,” the hospital said in a statement. “He was able to communicate with his family during his final hours.”

Bennett, a father of two, suffered from terminal heart disease and was deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant because of his severe condition, University of Maryland Medicine said in January, at the time the transplant was announced.

On New Year’s Eve, University of Maryland Medicine doctors were granted emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration to try the pig heart transplantation with Bennett, who had been hospitalized and bedridden for several months.

Bennett said at the time that he saw the risky surgery as his last option.

“It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” he said the day before the surgery, according to University of Maryland Medicine. “I look forward to getting out of bed after I recover.”

Pig hearts are similar in size to human hearts and have an anatomy that is similar, but not identical.

Xenotransplantation, transplanting animal cells, tissues or organs into a human, carries the risk of triggering a dangerous immune response, which can cause a “potentially deadly outcome to the patient,” University of Maryland Medicine said at the time of the transplant.

Dr. Bartley P. Griffith, a professor in transplant surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and the doctor who surgically transplanted the pig heart into Bennett, said he is “devastated” by his death.

“He proved to be a brave and noble patient who fought all the way to the end. We extend our sincerest condolences to his family,” Griffith said in a statement. “Mr. Bennett became known by millions of people around the world for his courage and steadfast will to live.”

Bennett’s family said in a statement they are “profoundly grateful” to Griffith and the rest of the medical team that performed the transplant on Bennett, who had been a patient at University of Maryland Medicine since October 2021.

“Their exhaustive efforts and energy, paired with my dad’s insatiable will to live, created a hopeful environment during an uphill climb. Up until the end, my father wanted to continue fighting to preserve his life and spend more time with his beloved family, including his two sisters, his two children, and his five grandchildren, and his cherished dog Lucky,” the family said in a statement. “We were able to spend some precious weeks together while he recovered from the transplant surgery, weeks we would not have had without this miraculous effort.”

“We have felt the prayers of the world during this time and humbly ask that those prayers continue to be offered on behalf of the medical teams, technology companies, research labs, grant writers and innovative initiatives of the future,” the family continued. “We hope this story can be the beginning of hope and not the end. We also hope that what was learned from his surgery will benefit future patients and hopefully one day, end the organ shortage that costs so many lives each year.”

Experts said at the time of Bennett’s transplant, that though it is groundbreaking, it does not minimize the ongoing need for human organ donations.

Around 110,000 people in the United States are on the organ transplant waiting list, and more than 6,000 patients die each year before getting a transplant, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

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(NEW YORK) — Officials in every U.S. state and jurisdiction have now ended, or announced an end, to their indoor universal masking requirements.

Over the last month, states from coast to coast have moved to end mask mandates as coronavirus cases have plummeted. By the end of March, there will be no more statewide or school mask mandates in effect.

Although some districts may opt to still mandate mask use, many schools have already decided to drop the requirement.

On Tuesday, Hawaii, the nation’s lone indoor mask holdout, became the last state to end its universal mask mandate, effective March 25 at 11:59 p.m.

“We’re committed to moving the state forward and learning to live with COVID,” Gov. David Ige said during a press conference.

Although the Hawaii Department of Education wrote in a press release that face coverings will still be required indoors in Hawaii schools, State Epidemiologist Sarah Kemble later clarified in a press conference that the department’s recommendations are “guidance” for schools to take into consideration, as they create their own policies and requirements.

Officials in Washington, D.C., also announced on Tuesday that they are recommending that most people no longer wear masks indoors or outdoors at educational facilities, unless COVID-19 community levels are high.

If COVID-19 community levels are medium, people who are immunocompromised or at higher risk for severe COVID-19 are encouraged to wear a mask, or respirator, indoors, the new guidance states.

However, for many students, the change will not go into effect immediately, as D.C. public school officials said on Tuesday that they are still considering next steps.

“For the immediate future, masks are still required indoors at all DC Public Schools for students, staff, and visitors. We will engage our union partners on next steps and continue to communicate with the DCPS community about any decisions that are made,” Lewis Ferebee, chancellor of D.C. public schools, wrote in a tweet following the announcement.

The moves came shortly after Puerto Rico announced that it too would drop its universal requirement on Monday.

In addition, on March 11, Oregon and Washington will end their universal and school mask mandates, while California will also drop its school mask requirement.

The mass ending of mask requirements comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its recommendations for mask use and unveiled their new plan for determining COVID-19 risk in communities.

Under the new risk levels, approximately 90% of the U.S. population now lives in areas deemed to have low or medium threats to their local hospitals, and thus can stop wearing masks.

“Americans in most of the country can now be mask-free,” White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said in a briefing on the plan last week.

Many health officials have cautioned, however, that should there be a viral resurgence, mask requirements may have to return.

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(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — There is growing pushback among the health care community over Florida’s decision to advise against vaccinating healthy children for COVID-19, with an increasing number of health officials coming forward to strongly criticize the move.

On Monday, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo announced his state would become the first in the country to make such a formal recommendation.

“The Florida Department of Health is going to be the first state to officially recommend against the COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children,” Ladapo said at the end of a 90-minute roundtable discussion in West Palm Beach, Florida, hosted by Gov. Ron DeSantis, aimed to close the curtain on the “COVID theater once and for all.”

However, criticism swiftly followed, coming from many of the nation’s leading health officials.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, and its Florida chapter, called the decision “irresponsible,” reasserting that the COVID-19 vaccine is still the nation’s “best hope for ending the pandemic.”

“The Surgeon General’s comments today misrepresent the benefits of the vaccine, which has been proven to prevent serious illness, hospitalizations and long-term symptoms from COVID-19 in children and adolescents, including those who are otherwise healthy,” American Academy of Pediatrics Florida Chapter President Lisa Gwynn said in a statement Monday.

“The evidence is clear that when people are vaccinated, they are significantly less likely to get very sick and need hospital care. There is widespread consensus among medical and public health experts about the life-saving benefits of this vaccine,” Gwynn said.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, alongside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have also been vocal in their support of pediatric COVID-19 vaccinations, stressing to parents that real-world data has demonstrated that vaccines are safe and effective at protecting children against severe disease, as well as against potential long-term consequences from the virus.

“Children can get sick from COVID, and some get very sick,” AAP President Dr. Moira Szilagyi said. “The virus is still circulating in Florida. … It is irresponsible to advise parents not to vaccinate their children against this virus.”

The Infectious Diseases Society of America also issued a strong statement in opposition to the move, which the organization described as “disturbing.”

“The Florida Surgeon General’s decision to recommend against COVID-19 vaccination for healthy children flies in the face of the best medical guidance and only serves to further sow distrust in vaccines that have proven to be the safest, most effective defense against severe COVID-19 disease, hospitalization and death,” Dr. Daniel P. McQuillen, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America said in a statement on Tuesday, further suggesting that Florida’s decision “put politics over the health and safety of children.”

“Vaccinating eligible children against COVID-19 not only protects them, but it also protects their classmates, friends and vulnerable family members from a virus that has left nearly 1 million people in the United States dead in its two-year wake,” McQuillen added.

Among the other voices in the chorus of concerns is Dr. David R. Nelson, president of UF Health and senior vice president for health affairs at the University of Florida, where Ladapo is a professor.

In a statement released Tuesday, Nelson pointed to the widespread support for COVID-19 vaccinations in children among health experts.

“UF Health and the UF College of Medicine note that while children are generally at lower risk than adults for more serious consequences of COVID-19, the risk is not zero, and the vaccine has been shown to be safe and effective, with a very low risk of adverse outcomes,” Nelson said.

Nelson noted that although at times, there can be a “significant disagreement” in the public discourse surrounding COVID-19, “the principle of scientifically sound, evidence-based medical decisions” remains critical.

“Vigorous intellectual discussion around competing opinions is at the heart of the marketplace of ideas we celebrate and is a time-honored way to advance truth. That is no less the case here,” he wrote.

Nelson also underscored the fact that Ladapo’s role as the state’s surgeon general is entirely separate from his faculty position at the University of Florida College of Medicine.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki also denounced the state’s decision, telling reporters that Florida’s decision was “absolutely not” a good policy.

“It’s deeply disturbing that there are politicians peddling conspiracy theories out there and casting doubt on vaccinations, when it is our best tool against the virus and the best tool to prevent even teenagers from being hospitalized,” Psaki said during a press briefing Monday.

However, the Florida Department of Health doubled down on their support of the surgeon general’s announcement, telling ABC News in a statement that “healthy children likely have no benefit from receiving the currently available COVID-19 vaccine.”

“It is essential for health care practitioners to analyze existing data on the COVID-19 vaccine alongside parents when deciding to vaccinate children,” Ladapo said in a statement Tuesday. “Based on currently available data, the risks of administering COVID-19 vaccination among healthy children may outweigh the benefits. That is why these decisions should be made on an individual basis, and never mandated.”

ABC News’ Dr. John Brownstein and Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Two studies published Monday show how COVID-19 infection is associated with higher rates of brain tissue abnormalities.

These effects were subtle and it’s possible many of the people who experience them will heal on their own without medical intervention. But these findings could help explain the cognitive decline experienced by some COVID-19 survivors.

Because the studies evaluated patients who became sick with COVID-19 before vaccines were widely available, it’s not clear if this tissue damage happens among vaccinated people. Experts are hopeful vaccines would offer some protection against neurological damage, as they do help reduce the risk of other types of tissue damage.

The first study, published Monday in the journal Nature, looked at more than 400 people ages 51 to 81 who tested positive for COVID-19 from the U.K. Biobank study, comparing MRI scans taken prior to infection against those taken an average of five months after infection.

Researchers from the University of Oxford found that even people with mild COVID-19 symptoms had signs of slightly reduced brain size and subtle tissue damage — especially in the region of the brain associated with sense of smell.

“The fact that this study demonstrates a loss in brain volume over several months is concerning and could imply accelerated brain aging,” said Dr. Leah Croll, a vascular neurology fellow at New York University Langone Health.

Added Croll, “We need more time to understand what this actually means for patients. There is not enough meaningful clinical data here to know if the imaging findings truly match up with changes in cognitive functioning.”

The second study, published in Neurology, found evidence of damaged neurons and glial cells, which are fundamental cells in the brain.

Researchers from Northwestern Medicine studied 64 people, some of whom had been hospitalized with COVID-19, and others who hadn’t been hospitalized but later experienced long-haul symptoms.

They didn’t use MRIs, but rather looked for biomarkers, or molecular signatures, of brain damage.

“There were two markers of brain damage, or rather a marker of direct damage to nerve cells and another marker that indicates there is increased inflammation in the central nervous system or brain itself,” said Dr. Barbara Hanson, a researcher at the Northwestern Medicine Neurology COVID-19 research lab.

The study found evidence of brain inflammation that correlated with symptoms of anxiety reported by COVID-19 long-hauler patients.

Researchers hope the finding will bring some relief to COVID long-haulers, who often express frustration that their neuropsychiatric symptoms are dismissed.

According to Hanson, about a third of people with COVID-19 develop some form of long-COVID symptoms — many of them neurological symptoms like decreased memory, headache and dizziness.

Hanson predicted that COVID-19-related neurological symptoms could become even more prevalent in the decade to come.

But two years into the pandemic, it’s not clear yet if people will grapple with lifelong symptoms, or if they will eventually heal, experts said.

“It’s too soon for us to know if this damage will last or if people can recover from it over time,” Croll said.

Dr. Pooja Sharma is a family medicine resident at Emory University in Atlanta. Sony Salzman is the coordinating producer of ABC’s Medical Unit.

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(NEW YORK) — New York City dropped several of its COVID-19 mandates on Monday, including mask and vaccine requirements.

Restaurants, bars and other indoor public areas — including gyms and entertainment venues — will no longer be required to ask people for proof of vaccination under the “Key to NYC” vaccine passport program.

Additionally, masks will be optional for public school students aged 5 and older.

When announcing the changes Friday, Mayor Eric Adams said it was time to drop restrictions because COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are declining and more than 75% of New York City residents are fully vaccinated.

“Two years ago, we were the epicenter of the COVID virus, and two months ago we became the epicenter again under omicron,” he said during a press conference in Times Square. “New Yorkers stepped up. They heard the call and they responded. We did the masking, we did the social distancing, we did the vaccinations and boosters shots.”

Although he acknowledged “COVID is still here,” he said “we are beating it back” and added that the next phase of the pandemic response will focus on reviving New York City’s economy.

“The overall restriction is being removed. This is about giving people the flexibility that is needed to continue to allow not only safety, but we have to get our economy back on track,” Adams said. “It’s time to open our city and get the economy back operating.”

However, other COVID restrictions will remain in place.

Any settings with children under age 5, including daycares, will still require masks, and K-12 schools will still have daily screenings to check for any students exhibiting symptoms.

In addition, anyone using public transit — including trains, buses, taxis and ride-share services — must wear masks.

Some indoor businesses have said they will keep their mask and vaccine requirements in place.

The Broadway League, which operates all Broadway theaters, said its guidance on masks and proof of vaccination for audience members will last until at least April 30, 2022.

Adams also said Friday the city will neither be lifting its municipal employee vaccine mandate nor reinstating any unvaccinated workers who were fired.

“The overwhelming number of New York City employees did the right thing, and it sends the wrong message,” he said. “We can’t send the wrong message that, when we say something, we’re going to change and vacillate.”

The city is currently recording a seven-day rolling average of 569 COVID cases, the lowest seen since October 2020, according to NYC Open Data.

Additionally, the test positivity rate has also dropped by nearly half from 2.65% to 1.41% over the last 28 days, data from the city’s Department of Health & Mental Hygiene shows.

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