Health

(NEW YORK) — Mia Mainville was at a Denver bar surrounded by friends when she said a stranger put drugs in her drink on New Year’s Eve.

“I was not able to focus on anybody, I was not able to have full control of my body,” Mainville told ABC News’ Good Morning America.

Mainville said she was taken to the E.R. by ambulance where doctors told her that hospital toxicology tests are not able to detect certain illicit drugs, including some that are frequently used to spike drinks, and instead referred her to the Denver Police Department.

“The officer had told me that because I had told him I wasn’t assaulted, that there wasn’t a reason for them to file a report,” said Mainville.

Many date rape drugs, which are any type of drug used in a rape or a sexual assault, can make you feel drunk without consuming alcohol and can affect memory. Nearly 11 million women in the United States have been sexually assaulted while drunk or drugged, according to the Office on Women’s Health.

Mainville is not the only woman who is speaking out, several other women are claiming that police are not taking their cases seriously, according to reports from ABC affiliate KMGH-TV.

“I had about 70 women reach out to me telling me about the same thing had happened to them,” said Mainville.

Women like Colleen Mitchell, who said she believes she was drugged at a Denver bar in December.

“I contacted the police,” said Mitchell. “They told me that basically no crime has occurred since I made it home safe and that no assault occurred.”

Denver police told ABC News it has launched an internal investigation into how both Mainville and Mitchell’s cases were handled, adding, “If an individual believes they have consumed a substance that caused them to become unconscious… They should report the incident to the police.”

“There’s not an antidote for date rape drugs that is widely available to the public,” said Dr. Stephanie Widmer, an ABC News medical contributor and toxicologist. “So it’s really important to seek medical care right away, particularly if you don’t know what you’ve been exposed to.”

How to stay safer in social situations

According to the Office of Women’s Health, some ways to stay safe at places like bars or parties include:

• Be aware of drinks in punchbowls or other containers that can be easily “spiked”
• Don’t accept drinks from other people
• Open your drink yourself
• Don’t drink anything that smells strange
• Don’t drink more than you want to
• Get help right away and find a friend who can help you get to a safe place
• Look out for your friends and ask them to look out for you

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(NEW YORK) — In the wake of the Golden Globes last week, several celebrities said they have tested positive for COVID-19.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Michelle Pfeiffer are among the names who revealed they contracted the virus falling the awards show.

In response, the Critics Choice Awards, which was held on Sunday, announced that all attendees would be required to submit a negative COVID-19 test before entering the venue, according to Deadline.

Public health experts said the news of actors and actresses falling ill is not surprising due to the relaxed regulations and people gathering indoors.

“This is sort of a window into what our future holds,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor. “I mean, this is not unexpected. You have indoor gatherings during a time when a lot of virus is circulating, whether it’s cold or flu, and proximity without masking and especially if there was also no testing requirements.”

He continued, “It’s not surprising that you’re going to have active transmission of viruses, one of the many respiratory viruses that are circulating now.”

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, weekly COVID-19 cases have topped 400,000 for the last six weeks, which are figures not seen since late September although the overall number has declined from last week.

Meanwhile, weekly COVID-19 deaths are trending upward with 3,907 reported as of Jan. 11, CDC data shows, although some of this may be due to reporting lags over the holidays.

Additionally, CDC data shows that while flu cases are declining the cumulative hospitalization rate of 54.4 per 100,000 is 1.8 times higher than the highest figure recorded at this point in the year dating back to the 2010-11 season.

It is well known that infected individuals can expel droplets that move throughout an entire indoor space and even linger after a person leaves the area.

What’s more, with lack of ventilation — be it high-efficiency particle arresting filters or open windows — and people gathered closely together with no masks, Brownstein said it’s no wonder people contracted COVID.

“We sort of have to decide collectively, as a society, what we want to do to keep transmission down,” he said. “Obviously, we know mitigation strategies help and then we recognize that we still have a lot of vulnerable people that are succumbing to COVID.”

Brownstein added, “But I think the idea of testing pre-gathering is still a very good idea, so it makes sense that the Critics Choice Awards used that as a tool to help limit the amount of risk of transmission at the event.”

Brownstein said this doesn’t mean that every event will turn into a super-spreader or that it signals trouble for the U.S. Rather, Americans shouldn’t let their guard down.

“As much as people want to assume that we’ve moved on from the pandemic, the pandemic hasn’t yet moved on from us,” he said. “We’re still dealing with events where that super-spreading can occur and there’s a bivalent vaccine out there that can lower your risk of severe illness and help reduce your risk of severe consequences and deaths from this virus.”

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(NEW YORK) — A blood test under study may soon be able to help many patients with colon cancer decide whether they need chemotherapy after surgery, or if they can safely skip it.

The results, which oncologists described as promising, were published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Currently, many patients with surgically removable colon cancer are automatically given additional chemotherapy, but doctors can’t perfectly predict who will or will not benefit from this. Although the blood test may need to be studied further before it becomes part of standard medical care, oncologists see it as a promising tool that could help many patients safely skip chemotherapy — and its harsh side effects.

“Potentially, worldwide, we’re talking about millions of people,” said Dr. Alok Khorana, director of the gastrointestinal malignancies program at the Cleveland Clinic, who was not involved with the study. “Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers in the country, affecting both men and women. Worldwide, it’s also very common and is rising in many countries where in the past, it was not that common.”

The blood test, sometimes called a “liquid biopsy,” detects small fragments of genetic material called circulating tumor DNA (or ctDNA), which are shed by the cancer into the blood stream.

In the recently published study, researchers looked for the presence of this genetic material in more than 1,000 patients who had undergone surgery to remove stage II, III, and IV colon cancer. A positive test suggests there are still residual cancer cells in the body. This study showed that patients with positive tests likely need additional chemotherapy, whereas those with negative tests might be able to safely skip the taxing and toxic treatment.

“What the study showed was that the people who had the liquid biopsy, or ctDNA, being positive after surgery, had an extremely, extremely high chance of recurrence…10 times higher risk compared to people who were ctDNA negative,” said Dr. Suneel Kamath, a gastrointestinal oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic, who was also not involved with the study. “What’s interesting too was that was by far the strongest factor. We use a lot of other factors, like how progressive the tumor is and how many lymph nodes are involved.”

Currently, oncologists use other clues — such as the characteristics of the tumor itself — to help them gauge which patients need additional chemotherapy. But this new study suggests the blood test would be more accurate, Kamath said.

“Even though we’ve been relying on those for many decades, all of those were far, far less predictive of who was going to have their cancer return,” Kamath said.

Still, experts said, more research is needed before this test becomes a standard part of medical care.

“The impact of this individual paper should be taken into the context of other papers that have recently come out and are ongoing…It has a meaningful impact in allowing us to not only identify high-risk patients, but also showing that giving them chemotherapy after the surgery is beneficial,” said Khorana.

A June 2022 trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine also showed that ctDNA can be safely used to guide chemotherapy decisions in stage II colon cancer. This study shows that there is also benefit for stage III and stage IV cancers.

And more research studies are ongoing.

“The findings of this study are provocative, but not sufficient to just yet change clinical practice,” Khorana said, “although I foresee that that’s going to happen very, very soon in the near future.”

He added, “I would encourage patients to join those trials because that is the best way to find out…whether drugs work or not, and whether tests work or not.”

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(NEW YORK) — Actor Tyler James Williams is fresh off his first Golden Globe win for his role as Gregory Eddie on Abbott Elementary. While the actor celebrates a high point in his career, he said he is also celebrating his low points, revealing his journey living with Crohn’s disease.

“Imagining the worst thing that could possibly happen is one of my best qualities,” Williams recently told Men’s Health.

The actor opened up to the magazine about living with Crohn’s disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease that affects the lining of the digestive tract. He said he first discovered he had the disease in his early 20s while he was trying to put on muscle weight to land a TV role.

“I was really pushing my body to the limit. By the time December hit, it just crashed. Everything shut down,” Williams told Men’s Health.

Williams reportedly underwent emergency surgery to remove 6 inches of his lower intestine, but his intestines were unable to heal back together and sent him into septic shock, a life-threatening condition caused by an infection.

“The last thought I had was, ‘This could be it. If this is it, I’m not happy. I worked a lot. I did a lot of things. I didn’t enjoy any of this. This can’t be it,'” said Williams, who began his career as a child sitcom star in Everybody Hates Chris.

Williams said his brother Tyrel is also living with the disease. The actor said he turned to focus on a healthy lifestyle that included giving up alcohol, coffee and processed meat — all of which trigger Crohn’s disease flare-ups.

“I had to learn how to stop making a dramatic change happen really quickly and learn how to have a better relationship with my body,” Williams said. “The important thing for me, and those like me, to remember is that longevity is a big part of the game. If you can’t [stay strong] and be healthy, there really is no point.”

What is Crohn’s disease?

More than half a million Americans are living with Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel condition that can lead to persistent diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss and malnutrition. If left untreated, the disease can potentially lead to life-threatening complications, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

There is currently no cure for the disease, but it can be treated into remission with medicines, bowel rest and surgery to decrease inflammation and prevent flare-ups of symptoms, according to the NIDDK.

Crohn’s disease can develop at any age, but is more likely to develop in people between the ages of 20 and 29, who may have a family member with the disease and those with other risk factors like smoking, the NIDDK said.

To diagnose the disease, doctors typically use a combination of tests, including a physical exam and lab tests.

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(NEW YORK) — Raven Sutton is making history as the first deaf contestant on Netflix’s The Circle.

She hopes her stint on the hit reality show can not only empower the Deaf community, but also change the perspective of viewers who may never have seen a deaf person on their TV screens before.

“There are a lot of hearing people who have this misperception of us, about what the Deaf community is or what the disabled community is,” Sutton said in an interview with Good Morning America. “So they put us in this box, in this isolated view, that we can’t enjoy life. And that’s just simply not true.”

In The Circle, which Netflix calls a social experiment, contestants communicate solely through a “voice activated social media platform” in an effort to become the most popular among the group and win $100,000.

Sutton said she joined the show because, as a fan, she had seen how accessible the show could be for a deaf contestant.

Sutton used American Sign Language on the show, and her interpreter and best friend Paris translated aloud for the audience and for the voice activated system.

Using ASL, her native language, was not only important because it’s what she’s most comfortable with — she also wanted deaf viewers to feel seen.

“I wanted to use my language for my community … Paris was there to interpret for you all, for hearing people who don’t know sign language,” she said. “The accommodation is for you.”

Sutton continued, “[Deaf people] want to see someone like themselves use their language on TV. We’re always used to reading captions on TV, and all the shows. But when you have a chance to see someone who looks like yourself, who uses the same language as you, we’ve got many people that were so excited to see themselves on screen.”

Twenty-six percent of Americans have a disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and yet media advocacy group GLAAD found that only 3.5% of characters on broadcast scripted series have disabilities.

Being on The Circle allowed Sutton to give viewers a nuanced portrait of the Deaf community, she told GMA. Sutton is a dancer who loves to party, laugh and flirt – and makes sure people know she’s proud of her Deaf culture.

She reigned over The Circle kingdom a couple of times on the show as an influencer, becoming one of the most popular players among the competition.

“This is why I say you’ve got to normalize deaf people on TV. You’ve got to, and it cannot be related to their deafness,” Sutton said. “It’s not about me as a deaf person. I’m just playing the game, and I just happen to be deaf.”

Audiences see Sutton living in the apartment, messaging and laughing with her friends, and “doing all the normal things that other people do” in The Circle.

“I’m living my life,” she said. “That’s important for me to show, like, ‘Wow oh, she’s deaf. Yes, she has a disability, but so what?'”

Sutton has received a lot of questions online about why she didn’t use a keyboard to participate in the competition, or why she didn’t speak aloud herself.

In a tweet on Jan. 3, she responded to those questions.

“Yall do know that since I am the first Deaf contestant on #TheCircleNetflix that there is going to be a huge number of Deaf people watching right? Why would I play the game with just a keyboard?” she wrote. “I’m using ASL for my community. And Paris is helping YOU understand. Simple.”

Those types of inquiries are nothing new for Sutton. Throughout her life, she said, she’s battled questions about being a dancer, as well as whether she was lying about being deaf, among other things.

“Because of the things that I can do, they said, ‘Well, deaf people can’t dance, they can’t speak. It’s impossible for them to listen to music,’ and they denied me of my identity,” she said. “But obviously, I’m in the Deaf community … and I see not only myself, but other deaf people doing the same things I’m doing, if not more.”

Now, her role on the show appears to have sparked conversation about deafness. Sutton said the feedback demonstrates the importance of media representation — so people without disabilities can learn about and fight the stigma against deaf and disabled people.

As Sutton awaits the reaction from viewers as the season finale nears, she hopes fans take away that “just because I’m deaf, [it] doesn’t mean I don’t have a lot of similarities [with] everyone else.”

“It doesn’t mean that I don’t flirt, that I can’t be thirsty over a guy,” she said, laughing. “It doesn’t mean that I don’t dance, that I don’t twerk or shake my ass. It doesn’t mean that I can’t be strategic, that I can’t play a game for money. It doesn’t mean that I can’t be authentically myself.”

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(NEW YORK) — Amid a flu season that started earlier than expected there’s also been a higher number of strep A cases in children this year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an advisory warning last month about the increase to make sure clinicians and public health authorities know how to identify and treat the infection.

While each disease can turn into a serious case on its own, in rare cases, the two can infect people, particularly children, at once and lead to severe, or even fatal, complications, according to health experts.

A 5-year-old boy from Greenville, Michigan, died on New Year’s Eve after testing positive for the flu and then developing strep A, according to ABC News Grand Rapids affiliate WZZM.

Public health experts said influenza can weaken the immune system, which can then make people — including children — susceptible to secondary infections.

“Influenza is a respiratory virus, meaning it infects the nasal passages, the passages of the back of your throat, and then the lining of the lungs,” Dr. Lori Handy, an attending physician in the division of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told ABC News. “Anytime those areas are particularly irritated, they break down some of your normal immune defenses that would protect against secondary bacterial infections and the bacteria really take advantage of that breakdown and go ahead and enter your body.”

There are several pathways by which the immune system response can breakdown as a result of flu infection. One Yale University study found flu triggers an increase in levels of serum glucocorticoid, a steroid hormone, which suppresses the immune system.

Dr. Sam Dominguez, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, said there is also evidence the flu can decrease macrophages, a type of immune system cell that destroys bacteria and other organisms, or that the virus allows bacteria to adhere better to respiratory cells.

“That allows bacteria to gain entry into the body more easily and so that’s an advantage that the bacteria can utilize if you had an influenza infection,” he told ABC News.

Although it’s not incredibly common to see children with this type of co-infection, doctors said they do see cases every year.

Dominguez said he and his colleagues in the hospital are “definitely seeing more cases this year than last year.”

Children’s hospitals and health agencies across the U.S. have been observing an increase in cases of invasive group A strep infections among kids.

Strep A typically causes about 1,500 to 2,300 deaths in the U.S. every year, according to the CDC.

The CDC told ABC News it has seen childhood strep A infections in late 2022 return to levels seen during pre-pandemic years, and that it is monitoring the situation.

“CDC issued a health advisory on Dec. 22 to notify clinicians and public health authorities about an increase in pediatric invasive group A streptococcal, or iGAS, infections. The advisory highlights the importance of early recognition and appropriate treatment of these diseases,” the CDC said in its statement.

“It’s too soon to say whether iGAS case numbers are rising beyond what we would normally expect from GAS seasonal patterns, pre-pandemic. The overall number of iGAS cases is relatively low and iGAS infections are rare,” the statement continued.

The experts stressed the importance of making sure parents get their children vaccinated against the flu if they haven’t done so already.

As of Dec. 24 — the latest date for which data is available — 47.5% of all children have received a flu vaccine, according to CDC data.

“The influenza vaccine is very good at preventing severe disease in terms of saving you from getting hospitalized or dying of influenza and then, second of all, it prevents you from getting the secondary bacterial infections on top of that,” Dominguez said.

While young children and children with underlying health conditions are at higher risk for severe flu disease or hospitalization, even relatively healthy children can develop complications.

“While parents may feel like, ‘My child generally doesn’t get sick, I’m going to skip vaccine this year,’ we see generally healthy children get severely ill both from influenza and then complicated bacterial infections after,” Handy said. “So, we really need everybody to be vaccinated to keep everybody out of the hospital, and also just reduce transmission within the community. So, it’s about both protecting yourself but then protecting all of those people you come in contact with.”

They also recommended that families follow the same advice offered throughout the course of the pandemic including thoroughly washing your hands, staying home when sick and speaking to your primary care doctor.

ABC News’ Emma Egan, Nicole Wetsman and Dr. Nicole McLean contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — The New York City nurses’ strike finally ended after the hospitals and the employees reached a tentative agreement early Thursday morning.

More than 7,000 nurses at Montefiore Bronx and Mount Sinai Hospital — two of the city’s largest hospitals — walked off the job for three days as they argued for better pay, safer staffing and better working conditions.

The hospitals and the New York State Nurses Association, which represents the nurses, said the tentative deal meant nurses would be returning to work.

“This is a historic victory for New York City nurses and for nurses across the country,” Nancy Hagans, NYSNA president, said in a statement. “Through our unity and by putting it all on the line, we won enforceable safe staffing ratios at both Montefiore and Mount Sinai where nurses went on strike for patient care.”

The statement continued, “Today, we can return to work with our heads held high, knowing that our victory means safer care for our patients and more sustainable jobs for our profession.”

Although the striking nurses have argued for fair compensation, one of their biggest grievances is the nurse-to-patient ratio, which measures how many patients a nurse is responsible for, at a hospital, arguing that their contract did not address these ratios.

Under the agreement at Montefiore, new safe staffing ratios will be implemented in the emergency department. This will come with new staffing language and financial penalties if safe staffing levels are not met in all units.

Also included are a 19.1% compounded wage increase, a commitment to creating 170 new nursing positions and lifetime health coverage for eligible retired nurses.

Montefiore will also develop nurse student partnerships to recruit local Bronx nurses so they can stay as union nurses at the hospital.

“We came to these bargaining sessions with great respect for our nurses and with proposals that reflect their priorities in terms of wages, benefits, safety, and staffing,” Dr. Philip Ozuah, president and CEO of Montefiore Medicine, said in a statement. “We are pleased to offer a 19% wage increase, benefits that match or exceed those of our peer institutions, more than 170 new nursing positions and a generous plan to address recruitment and retention.”

Meanwhile, Mount Sinai did not reveal what was in the agreement reached between hospital administrators and nurses, saying in a short statement “our proposed agreement is similar to those between NYSNA and eight other New York City hospitals. It is fair and responsible, and it puts patients first.”

Mount Sinai previously told ABC News that it had also offered a 19% compounded wage increase to nurses during negotiations.

However, the nurses said Mount Sinai agreed to safe nurse-to-patient ratios that will be firmly enforced so there will be enough nurses to care for patients, and that the ratios will take effect immediately.

Gov. Kathy Hochul visited the striking nurses outside Mount Sinai Thursday morning and commended them for reaching a deal so they could return to work.

“So these individuals [who] are angels here on Earth can get back to saving lives, and helping the most vulnerable people in our society, those who enter these doors sick,” she said. “The city can take a sigh of relief, as well as continue to applaud and champion the men and women who were walking in the doors behind us this morning.”

ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway and Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.

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(GENEVA) — The World Health Organization said Wednesday China is “heavily underreporting” the number of COVID-19 deaths as a wave of infections sweeps the country.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has not posted a daily briefing on COVID-19 to its website since Jan. 8 and has reported just 37 deaths since the “zero COVID” policy was lifted on Dec. 7 for a total of 5,272 deaths since the pandemic began.

According to data from Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, China has seen nearly 18,000 deaths since the pandemic started.

“WHO still believes that deaths are heavily underreported from China, and this is in relation to the definitions that are used but also to the need for doctors and those reporting in the public health system to be encouraged to report these cases and not discouraged,” Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO Health Emergencies Program said during a press conference in Geneva.

Ryan praised many of China’s measures to reduce the burden of disease including administering antivirals early in the course of infection and expanding designated beds in intensive care units but called for more reporting.

“We are working ever closer with our colleagues in China to try and understand better the transmission dynamics, but we still do not have adequate information to make a full comprehensive risk assessment,” he said.

Throughout most of the pandemic, China implemented very strict measures, including widespread lockdowns, quarantines in government buildings and mass testing in an attempt to prevent outbreaks.

However, after large outcries and growing public resentment over the disruption to daily life, Beijing eased the restrictions and reopened its borders.

Public health experts have said that under-vaccination and large swaths of unprotected vulnerable populations in China will lead to hundreds — if not thousands — of deaths.

The WHO has said that it has not detected a variant of concern in China, but cases have skyrocketed.

In response, Japan and South Korea have enacted entry requirements for people traveling from China.

Japan has restricted flights from China to certain Japanese cities but is allowing visitors from China provided they show proof of a negative COVID-19 test. Meanwhile, South Korea is also requiring proof of a negative COVID-19 test and stopped issuing short-term visas at its consulates in China through January.

In retaliation, China stopped issuing new short-term visas to both countries and said the rule will remain in place until the “discriminatory” entry restrictions are lifted.

ABC News’ Joseph Simonetti contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Black men and women are more likely to die from prostate, uterine and breast cancer compared to other races, according to new data from the American Cancer Society.

That’s despite vast improvements in cancer death rates overall in the United States. Rates of cancer deaths have declined by 33% overall since 1991, according to the group’s annual report on cancer trends. The analysis projects that 609,820 people will die from cancer in 2023.

Advancements have been made to raise public awareness about the importance of cancer screening and make healthcare resources more readily available to under-represented populations in the U.S., according to the report. However, racial disparities still persist despite these advancements.

Gaps in survival are particularly notable for prostate cancer. The death rate for prostate cancer among Black men was two to three times higher than those in every other racial group, according to the new report.

“Disparities are profound,” said Dr. Karen Knudsen, chief executive officer at the American Cancer Society, at a press briefing Thursday.

Experts say the reasoning behind those disparities isn’t entirely clear. “A higher incidence of genetic changes associated with more aggressive disease may be one cause. However, other causes—such as reduced access to healthcare and higher uninsured rates—are equally important,” said Dr. Paul Corn, interim chair of genitourinary medical oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Overall, prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men. Since 2014, rates have increased by 3% per year after two decades of decline. This means 99,000 more cases of prostate cancer are being diagnosed compared to what would be expected if the number of cases remained stable.

In addition, doctors are catching cases of prostate cancer at more advanced stages, making them harder to treat. “We are not catching these cancers early enough to have an opportunity to cure men of prostate cancer,” Knudsen said.

Racial disparities are also pronounced in breast and uterine cancer. Black women are 40% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women, and have the highest death rates from uterine cancer, according to the recently released report. These rates persist even though Black women have a lower likelihood of being diagnosed with uterine cancer, and a 4% lower breast cancer incidence compared to white women.

There has been limited success in development treatment strategies to improve life expectancy for women with uterine cancer, which ranks 24th in National Cancer Institute research funding. The new report highlights the importance of directing more resources to uterine cancer research, said Dr. Jolyn Taylor, assistant professor of Gynecologic Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Still, there’s been major progress in addressing other types of cancer. There was a 65% decrease in cervical cancer rates in women between 2012 and 2019, according to the report, which shows the impact of the HPV vaccine. That vaccination can prevent cancers caused by the HPV virus, which includes cervical cancer.

The American Cancer Society also says it’s taking steps to tackle rising rates of prostate cancer. Today the organization announced the launch of an initiative called IMPACT — Improving Mortality from Prostate Cancer Together. The initiative will include research, patient support, and advocacy programs, according to a statement. The organization aims to “reduce death rates from prostate cancer in all demographics and disparities for Black men by 2035,” Knudsen said in the statement.

Jennifer Miao, MD, is a fellow physician in cardiology at Yale School of Medicine/Yale New Haven Hospital and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(NEW YORK) — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the incoming chair of the committee focused on health, on Tuesday called out Moderna for looking at a more-than-quadruple spike of its COVID-19 vaccine prices.

“How many of these Americans will die from COVID-19 as a result of limited access to these lifesaving vaccines?” Sanders wrote to Moderna’s CEO, Stéphane Bancel. “In the midst of a deadly pandemic, restricting access to this much needed vaccine is unconscionable.”

“I am writing you to reconsider your decision and refrain from any price increases,” he urged.

Sanders’ letter was in response to recent comments from Moderna’s CEO that the company was considering raising prices for its COVID-19 shots to $110-130 per dose, once vaccines move into the private market. That’s up from the $26 per dose now, which is what the vaccines cost under the current government contract.

Pfizer, too, has said that it plans to increase its prices to somewhere between $110-130 per dose.

In a statement to ABC News, Moderna maintained that its “COVID-19 vaccines and boosters will continue to be available at no cost for the vast majority of people in the United States.”

“While we are still in discussions with stakeholders on the price of our COVID-19 vaccines, Moderna is committed to pricing that reflects the value that COVID-19 vaccines bring to patients, healthcare systems, and society,” a company spokesperson said.

A Pfizer spokesperson referred ABC News to an investor call in the fall in which company officials stressed that they believed the majority of people would not have to pay out of pocket but that the increased price of the vaccine matched its value.

For the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has purchased bulk quantities of vaccine and distributed them for free to Americans. But without more funding, which Congress has not been able to agree upon, the government plans to move vaccines and COVID-19 treatments to the private market, where they will be covered by insurance or paid for upfront by uninsured patients.

The move to the commercial market could happen as soon as this fall but depends on when the federal supply of vaccines runs out.

Sanders, in his letter to Moderna on Tuesday, disagreed with the vaccine companies’ assessments that the majority of people wouldn’t feel the price increase.

He argued that it will cost taxpayers billions of dollars because Medicaid and Medicare will continue to pay for vaccines, as mandated by the CARES Act, but will now have to do so at much higher price.

He also wrote that people on private insurance could see premiums go up as companies try to offset the rising cost of vaccines. Private insurance companies also have to continue to cover vaccines because of the CARES Act — though it’s not clear to what extent.

The biggest impact will be felt by uninsured people, who will have to pay outright for vaccinations, Sanders wrote.

He called the consideration to raise prices “particularly offensive” because Moderna developed its COVID-19 vaccine in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, a government agency, and was given $1.7 billion by the government to develop its mRNA vaccine.

“In other words, you propose to make the vaccine unaffordable for the residents of this country who made the production of the vaccine possible. That is not acceptable,” Sanders wrote.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was asked Wednesday morning if the federal government had the ability to work with vaccine companies on the cost increase and said it was largely up to the manufacturers.

The pricing “is something that is within the hands of those manufacturers and the distributors,” he said.

“We will do everything we can to make sure that the cost of a COVID vaccine remains affordable,” he added.

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