Health

(NEW YORK) — Late last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signaled it expects to have the updated COVID vaccine available by mid-September, along with a likely recommendation that everyone should get the latest booster shot, according to U.S. health officials.

The announcement comes as COVID hospitalizations increased for the sixth consecutive week, according to CDC data released Monday. For the week ending Aug. 19, hospitalizations rose by 18.8% to 15,067 — similar to levels seen in April. Still, COVID metrics remain at historic lows, public experts have said.

But at least one expert is urging the country to take COVID more seriously — Dr. Deborah Birx, who served as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator under former President Donald Trump.

Birx spoke to ABC News’ podcast “START HERE” about why she says the government is living in “a bit of a fantasy world” when it comes to the COVID-19 response. Birx also explains why she believes that next month’s vaccine booster is coming weeks too late and is arguing that seasonal booster shots should be made available more quickly. She also addressed criticism she didn’t combat misinformation from Trump during her time in the White House.

BRAD MIELKE: Dr. Deborah Birx is here, you remember that she served under President Trump as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordination Director in 2020. You probably remember her standing alongside Dr. Anthony Fauci, explaining what Americans should and shouldn’t be doing when we were all so confused.

Dr. Birx, thank you so much for being with us.

DEBORAH BIRX: Happy to be with you.

MIELKE: Hey so, let’s get right into it. How serious is this COVID surge that we’re seeing right now, in your eyes?

BIRX: Well, I loved your introduction, because you laid it out perfectly. So, what does it mean when someone recommends a fall vaccination? It means that you’re ignoring the summer wave. And we’ve had the summer wave in 2020, 2021, 2022 and now 2023. It is predictable. It’s what COVID does. It has been persistent, but we’ve had these waves, and so we’ve never gotten to zero. The hospital admissions have never gone to zero.

Now we’re living in this, a bit of a fantasy world, where we’re pretending that COVID is not relevant. But I can tell you, if you can hear my voice and you know two or three people who have COVID, that means that 5 to 10% of your friends already have COVID. That means that there is a lot of COVID out there, and we’re not testing for it and we’re not telling people to get tested.

And thank goodness you tested and protected your wife, because that’s what it’s going to come down to now, we all have to enhance our responsibility to protect those in our family.

MIELKE: As far as the boosters, then? This booster shot. Are these boosters coming too late?

BIRX: Well, the important thing is, this is the booster that would have been appropriate for the summer wave. This booster is most likely not going to work with the winter wave, because we already have a pretty significant escape mutant or escape variant out there that’s beginning, just like the current variant, began like eight weeks ago. We are already beginning to see some evidence of a new variant for which the vaccine probably is not well matched. So, the whole point of doing mRNA technology was to be able to switch out –

MIELKE: These are the mRNA vaccines that you can tailor make?

BIRX: Yes. So right now, we should be making the vaccine against this very new variant, the b2.86, so that it is ready in January to really combat what we know will be the winter wave. Now, what’s interesting is this summer wave and each summer wave seems to be coming about two weeks later, and that resulted in our winter wave last year being in January rather than primarily December. And so we should expect that late December, early January wave. And so we should be making vaccines right now for that wave.

MIELKE: Why aren’t we? ‘Cause I feel like the mRNA vaccines were supposed to be this game changer, where like, yeah, now when something happens we can bust out a new one within weeks. But it still seems like the flu shot, like get your flu shot once a year.

BIRX: Exactly, and what a mistake that is. Because let’s remember, the protection against infection is extraordinarily short-lived. And so the protection from either prior infection or the vaccine is short-lived. In some cases, maybe as short as four weeks. In other cases, it may be 3 to 6 months. But we know across the board, natural immunity and vaccine-induced immunity against infection wanes substantially in three to six months.

And so if you are living with immunosuppressed individuals or if you have people in your household over 70, your vaccination and their vaccinations need to be at a different rate than the general population.

And so right now we should be making the b2.86 variant vaccine to be ready in December to immunize people over 70 and those with immunodeficiencies, because this is the only way we’re going to ensure that those that are most susceptible – we know precisely who those are, it hasn’t changed since 2020 – and to make sure that we have testing in those households so that they can protect their family members, that we tell them when the surges are coming. I mean, we have totally ignored this wave.

Finally, hospitalizations. Huge mistake to measure hospitalizations as really your sole surveillance, because by the time you see hospitalizations in your area, the virus has been circulating for four to six weeks.

MIELKE: Right, for somebody to have gotten COVID and then for it to progress to the point where they go into the emergency room, by then, the entire community might have it.

BIRX: Correct.

MIELKE: Well then, and I should say, it’s not clear these boosters won’t work against these oncoming variants, you’re just saying [the oncoming variants] weren’t part of these clinical trials, so we don’t know. We also don’t know for a fact that this variant will take over.. But I guess my question still remains – Why? Why aren’t more boosters being cranked out? And if it’s a political concern, where maybe the administration is thinking, “Ugh, no one wants to take more shots, COVID is a political liability for us. Let’s just do it once a year like the flu.” Is that the reason?

BIRX: I think we wanted to make it like flu, because that was easier. But it’s never going to be like flu. It stays with us in between the waves. We have a summer wave. We have a winter wave. It makes people much sicker than flu. Many more people die from it than flu. And by the way, flu does not have this level of long COVID and these long side effects that we see with COVID. So let’s just all agree it’s not flu. It will never be flu. Following it and surveying for it like we do for flu will never be adequate in this country.

I believe, if the federal government said to the private sector, “We need better monoclonal antibodies, we need more antivirals, and we need a vaccine against the new variant that’s coming,” the private sector would do it like they did four years ago. It’s not that they need guarantees from the government that they would pay for it, because now insurance is paying for it.

So what the federal government needs to do is lay out the plan that says, “We’re not done with COVID, COVID’s not done with us. 250,000 Americans died in 2022. We’ve got to do a better job in 2023. And this is part of our better job.”

MIELKE: The CDC says it currently has no plans, there’s no talk about bringing back mask mandates of any kind. We’ve talked about vaccines, antibodies, testing. Is that the right call in your eyes to not make masks part of the conversation going forward?

BIRX: You know, not only should it be part of the conversation, but it should be very clear when there is the need to use it and what families should be alerted to using it. But let’s be clear, a lot of our elderly, particularly those in memory care, really can’t mask. And that means the people around them need to test and mask.

I’m all for not mandating, but educating. But then you have to give people the tools and the data that they need in order to make their decisions and empower them to make the decisions that’s right for their family. And we’re just not alerting people to when they need to worry.

MIELKE: So it sounds like, Dr. Birx, like you’re saying, like this is something to take seriously. We haven’t really taken it seriously enough. There are people living in what you kind of described as like a fantasy world, where we’re just acting like COVID doesn’t exist because it’s just been too long. And then that should stop. But then I got to imagine I’m going to hear a listener screaming into their phone as they listen to this, “Dr. Birx, you stood next to President Trump as he was saying misinformation, outright misinformation about COVID. Why didn’t you step in front of him at the microphone right then? Why is this the line coming from you now that you no longer have this official capacity?”

BIRX: Because my line was coming through the whole time. I’ve known Dr. Fauci for a long time. Dr. Fauci was the outside voice, and I was the inside voice. Someone had to be inside the White House making sure that resources were made appropriately to expand testing, to expand monoclonal and develop vaccines, and that was part of my role. We each had a role to play. If you’re referring to the bleach episode

MIELKE: I’m thinking about using disinfectant and bleach in your veins.

[The so-called “bleach episode” refers to when then-President Donald Trump said at a press conference, “And I then I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning?”]

BIRX: So I did speak up at the end of that. What never is shown is [Trump’s] back was turned to me, and he was speaking to the DHS scientist. He was not facing me. And if you people asked me, would you have run up to the microphone? I was active-duty military. That is not within my repertoire.

Did I make sure that President Trump, NIH, FDA and CDC were alerted and that the next day President Trump said it wasn’t true and that he was joking? Yes, that’s what I could get done.

I think getting that 45 days to slow the spread, getting tests out there, getting vaccines out there and getting monoclonal [antibodies] out up there were very important. Were we all perfect? We were not.

I think my biggest regret is not letting Americans know how important they were in preventing that original COVID spread to get beyond the 12 metros that it was in, into the other 25 metros. That was all prevented by Americans really being proactive, and I think because we never called that out, people felt disempowered. And the one thing you want to do in a pandemic is really empower people that they know that their individual actions make a huge difference at the population level.

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(NEW YORK) — COVID hospitalizations are continuing to increase in the United States, according to data updated Monday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hospitalizations rose for the sixth consecutive week, this time by 18.8% during the week ending Aug.19 to 15,067 — similar to levels seen in April of this year.

However, COVID metrics remain at historic lows, public health experts have said. Hospitalization numbers this week are about 2.5 times lower compared to the same time last year and about 5.5 times lower compared to this week in 2021.

Additionally, hospitalizations during the peak of the omicron wave in winter 2021-22 stood at more than 150,000.

Deaths slightly increased, with about 1.7% of all deaths being due to COVID last week, according to CDC data. However, COVID fatalities are similarly at record lows. Experts have warned that because deaths are a lagging indicator, cases could rise in the next few weeks.

Dr. John Segreti, an epidemiologist and the medical director of infection control and prevention at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, told ABC News that a percentage increase may seem frightening, but the absolute numbers are rather small.

“Looking at that graph [of] hospitalizations, even though it’s on an upward trend, that’s still lower than it was last year at this time,” he said. “The fact that the numbers are going up fairly slowly, I think is a good sign.”

CDC data shows that all the circulating subvariants are related to XBB, an offshoot of the omicron variant. EG.5 currently makes up a plurality of cases in the U.S. at 20.6%, data shows.

There is a newer variant circulating known as BA.2.86. A total of 13 cases have been identified globally, including three in the U.S., according to the open global genome sequencing database GISAID.

Experts have previously told ABC News that it may be more transmissible, but there are no indications that it causes more severe disease, something echoed in a CDC risk assessment issued last week.

It comes as several institutions say they are reinstating mask mandates, at least temporarily, amid rising cases and hospitalizations.

Morris Brown College, a historically Black college and university in Atlanta, said masks would be required for at least 14 days in a letter written to faculty, staff and students by President Dr. Kevin James last week.

Additionally, Lionsgate, the entertainment company, told ABC News in a statement last weekend that certain employees at headquarters were being required to wear masks again by the LA County Department of Public Health “due to a cluster of COVID cases.”

Segreti said his hospital and others in the Chicago area are starting to discuss whether or when they will reinstitute mask mandates, but he’s unaware of any that have so far.

“We’re struggling to figure out what metric to use to determine if and when to resume masking, and there’s no perfect metric for that, especially since the end of the public health emergency declaration, the data we’re getting isn’t nearly as complete as it was before that,” he said.

Rather than a metric, the hospital is considering using a time frame, such as between November and March, to require masking, but no decisions have been made yet.

He said hospitalizations could continue to increase but the fact that enough Americans have immunity through previous infection, vaccination and boosters, means fewer people who contract COVID will be hospitalized.

“The question is, where will the peak be? Are we at the peak?” Segreti said. “It doesn’t seem like we’re at the peak right now, but the slope of the of the line is not like it was with omicron. So, if it happens, it’s going to happen fairly slowly.”

Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies are targeting newer variants ahead of a possible uptick in numbers during fall and winter.

The CDC’s advisory committee is expected to meet on Sept. 12 to discuss new boosters targeting new COVID subvariants, making them likely to be available by mid-to-late September.

In an interview with Start Here, Dr. Deborah Birx — an advisor to former President Donald Trump during the pandemic — said she believes next month’s vaccine booster is coming weeks too late and that seasonal booster shots should be made available more quickly.

“This is the booster that would have been appropriate for the summer wave,” Birx said, adding that she predicts that by the time the shot is distributed, we may be primed for a variant that has already passed us.

ABC News’ Brad Mielke contributed to this report.

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(NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas) — For years, Jessica Jordan of North Richland Hills, Texas, lived with debilitating pain. Her daughter, 18-year-old Brooke Lyle, remembers her mom tried to “hide the pain a lot,” but, as she told Good Morning America, she knew “something was wrong.”

“I could hardly walk. I was in a lot of pain, like everywhere,” Jordan, a mom of five, recalled to GMA. “Finally, when I was diagnosed, my body was already shutting down and it affected my kidneys because it’s a very aggressive disease if you don’t catch it right away. I did almost die when I got diagnosed but treatment and everything worked pretty good.”

That disease, Jordan explained, is granulomatosis with polyangiitis, a rare autoimmune disease she says she was diagnosed with about 12 years ago. According to the National Institutes of Health, it causes swelling and inflammation of the body’s blood vessels, and can limit blood flow to organs such as the lungs and kidneys, damaging the organs.

Jordan said that’s what happened to her. “It slowly started affecting my kidneys and then they started me on dialysis,” she said, adding that doctors told her early on that she would eventually need a kidney transplant.

The family came up with a plan to have Jordan’s twin brother, Alfred Daniel Tucker, donate a kidney to her, but that changed after he died unexpectedly on Aug. 13, 2021 from COVID-19, which also affected his organs.

When her uncle passed and her mom began dialysis treatment, Lyle said decided to donate one of her kidneys to her mom.

“I just was like, ‘OK, I’ll do it’ and that was it,” Lyle said. “I did all this research and I was like, ‘OK, I am gonna do it’ because obviously, I’m going to think about all of the terrible things that are gonna happen for doing this but there really isn’t that much I’m giving up that’s worth giving up my mom.”

At first, Jordan said she was against Lyle giving her one of her kidneys because she felt she was too young and had a long life ahead of her.

“I was like, ‘Oh, there’s no way because I know it’s a big surgery.'” Jordan said. “Maybe if she was older and already had children, I’d feel more comfortable, I guess. But I didn’t do that much research on an 18-year-old ’cause I never thought I would have an 18-year-old, and especially my daughter. But that’s one thing you have to do, of course, is just do your research.”

But Jordan eventually accepted the offer after both she and Lyle consulted their doctors and health care team.

“I would not have put my daughter in any situation that I thought it was gonna affect her later,” Jordan said. “We both spoke to counselors and they did talk to her without me to make sure she wasn’t pressured into it or anything like that, which was awesome. And I told her from the very beginning that even at the point of surgery, they even told her that if she wanted to back out, that she could.”

Lyle said she grew more comfortable with her decision as she learned more about the donation process.

“I think what really helped me be at ease with this decision was that there’s a super-low [number] of people that have died from complications of being a donor,” the high school senior said.

The mother-daughter duo both underwent successful surgeries at Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas on June 14. Jordan, who will have to take anti-rejection medication continually, now has three kidneys, while Lyle has one.

“She’s healthy and I’m healthy and the doctors just tell me I got such an awesome kidney,” Jordan said. “Right away, it started working and I feel it. I feel great.”

Nearly 114,000 people across the U.S. are currently waiting for an organ transplant, with just over than 95,800 of them waiting for a kidney, according to the most current data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

Jordan and Lyle say their message to others is to “be a donor.”

“A lot of people aren’t aware. You can live with one kidney,” Jordan said. “If you can donate now, do it. If not, donate when you pass on, give life to someone else. Because you will live on like that or at least a little part of you will.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration on Tuesday unveiled the first 10 prescription drugs that will be subject to price negotiations with Medicare, marking a milestone for Democrats in their yearslong push to lower rising health care costs.

The list includes Jardiance, Xarelto, Januvia, Farxiga, Entresto, Enbrel, Imbruvica, Stelara, Fiasp and NovoLog.

President Joe Biden, in a statement, said the medications are “among the most common and costly prescriptions that treat everything from heart failure, blood clots, diabetes, arthritis, Crohn’s disease — and more.”

“For far too long, Americans have paid more for prescription drugs than any major economy. And while the pharmaceutical industry makes record profits, millions of Americans are forced to choose between paying for medications they need to live or paying for food, rent, and other basic necessities,” Biden said. “Those days are ending.”

The impact won’t be immediately felt, however, as the negotiations will occur this year and next with the new prices becoming effective in 2026.

The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program is a result of the Inflation Reduction Act, one of Biden’s key legislative victories. It allows the government to directly broker with drug manufacturers for the first time in the history of the program, which provides health insurance coverage to 65 million people, including 57 million seniors.

Biden will deliver remarks in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday afternoon to mark the occasion. There, the White House said he will be joined by a Medicare beneficiary who relies on prescription medications to treat chronic conditions.

Medicare enrollees taking the 10 drugs selected for negotiation paid a total of $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs for the medications in 2022, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Under the Inflation Reduction Act, the federal government can select up to 15 more drugs for negotiation in 2027, another 15 drugs for 2028 and up to 20 more drugs each year after.

President Biden, in a nod to his 2024 reelection message, said taking on “Big Pharma” is part of his “Bidenomics” vision of building the economy from the middle out and bottom up.

“Let me be clear: I am not backing down,” Biden said on Tuesday. “There is no reason why Americans should be forced to pay more than any developed nation for life-saving prescriptions just to pad Big Pharma’s pockets.”

The drug industry, in response to the announcement, hit back on the program.

“Giving a single government agency the power to arbitrarily set the price of medicines with little accountability, oversight or input from patients and their doctors will have significant negative consequences long after this administration is gone,” Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) President Stephen J. Ubl said in a statement.

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(NEW YORK) — With one delivery, Graham and Stephanie Freels became first-time parents, times five.

Stephanie Freels, 27, gave birth on June 4 to five babies — four girls and one boy — delivered via emergency cesarean section.

Over the weekend, she and her husband and their five infants returned to their home in Washington state for the first time as a family of seven.

“It’s amazing having them at home,” Stephanie Freels told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “And it’s so nice not having them go back and forth to the NICU.”

The “Freels Five,” as the quintuplets have been nicknamed, came into the world as a surprise after Stephanie and Graham Freels said they struggled with infertility for around five years.

The couple said they learned in late December that they were pregnant after undergoing an ovulation induction and several rounds of intrauterine insemination, or IUI.

Just after the New Year, they learned they were going to become first-time parents to not just one but five babies.

The news upended the plans the couple had made to move from Stephanie Freels’ parents’ home into their own apartment.

“At the beginning of December, we told her parents that we were moving out and we had a lease signed at a small apartment,” Graham Freels told GMA, adding that they then had to quickly cancel the lease. “I called up the landlord and I said, ‘I think we’re about to have a lot of kids, and I don’t think that apartment is going to work for us anymore.'”

The quintuplet pregnancy upended the state the Freels lived in too after Graham Freels researched doctors for higher order multiple pregnancies and chose to use an expert in Phoenix, Arizona.

In March, the Freels relocated temporarily to Phoenix so they could be cared for by Dr. John Elliott, a maternal and fetal medicine specialist, who they said helped them keep a positive “can-do attitude” about the prospect of having five babies at once.

Graham Freels said he continued working his full-time job remotely in Phoenix, while Stephanie Freels took on the full-time task of managing her quintuplet pregnancy.

She said she did that while also battling hyperemesis gravidarum, a form of “extreme, persistent nausea and vomiting during pregnancy,” according to the National Institutes of Health.

“I think that was the hardest part of pregnancy for me, that I had to try to meet that [calorie] goal,” Stephanie Freels said. “I didn’t really consistently eat solid foods until I was about 23 weeks pregnant.”

The Freels said their medical team told them another goal was to carry the pregnancy to at least 34 weeks, but in early June they went to the hospital when Stephanie Freels was 27 weeks pregnant, because she was experiencing abnormal pain and swelling.

At the hospital, she said she learned she was already six centimeters dilated and in labor.

Andrea Hassler, nursing director of women and infant services at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital, where Stephanie Freels gave birth, told GMA the medical team had about one hour in the middle of the night to mobilize for the delivery.

Hassler said the Freels arrived at the hospital around 10 p.m. local time and the babies were delivered less than three hours later.

“It was upwards of 20 people in the delivery room because each baby has its own team of nurses, respiratory therapists and physicians to help transition them after birth,” Hassler said. “And then Stephanie had her own team on the obstetrical side as well to ensure that she was safe during the delivery as well.”

The quintuplets — Adelyn, Eliana, Linnea, Fisher, and Harper — each weighed around 2 pounds at birth, according to Hassler. Though they spent several weeks in the neo-natal intensive care unit, she said the quintuplets had a “pretty uncomplicated course” medically after being born so early.

“As expected, they did need some respiratory support in the beginning,” Hassler said. “And then it was really a focus on being able to have those babies grow outside of mom’s womb up into the healthy babies that you see today.”

Fisher, the only boy, was the last of the quintuplets to be discharged from the NICU and went home Aug. 19.

Graham Freels said that in the last two weeks of having most of the quintuplets at home, they had gone through over 250 diapers and counting.

The quintuplets are fraternal, not identical, so they are able to tell the babies apart, he noted.

Now that they are back home in Washington, the “Freels Five” and their parents are all living at Stephanie Freels’ parents’ home again, where there are plenty of hands to help.

Both Graham and Stephanie Freels said they are beyond thankful for the family and friends who are helping with the babies, as well as strangers who have stepped up to help by sending money, cooking meals and offering their well-wishes.

The couple also said they are extremely thankful for the nurses and doctors who have cared for them and their babies for the past year.

“They truly are just amazing people and just the amount of care they put into taking care of not only our babies, but every single baby they’re working with,” Graham Freels said of the medical staff. “They’re doing amazing things.”

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(NEW YORK) — Semaglutide, the active ingredient in drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic, is also effective at reducing symptoms of heart failure, new research shows.

A study published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine followed over 500 patients who were both overweight and had a specific type of heart failure known as heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

Over the course of one year of taking weekly injections of semaglutide, the patients not only lost weight but also had significant reductions in symptoms of heart failure and saw an improvement in their ability to exercise, according to the study.

Heart failure, or congestive heart failure, happens when your heart doesn’t pump enough blood to meet the needs of your body, according to the National Institutes of Health. It impacts more than 6 million adults in the United States, meaning an accessible treatment for the condition could have widespread impact. About half of patients with heart failure have the specific kind this study looked at.

Likewise, the potential success of semaglutide in improving heart health could transform the compound’s popularity even further.

Interest in semaglutide has surged over the past year for its role in helping people lose weight.

Obesity is a condition that affects nearly 42% of the population and is associated with over $170 billion in medical costs in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Novo Nordisk, the company that funded the most recent study, makes both Wegovy and Ozempic, the two most popular drugs that have semaglutide as the active ingredient.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Ozempic as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes — a chronic condition in which the body doesn’t respond well to insulin — alongside diet and exercise if other medications cannot control blood sugar levels well enough.

Although Ozempic is not explicitly approved for chronic weight management, it can be prescribed off-label and used safely for people who are obese.

Wegovy is essentially the same injectable drug as Ozempic prescribed at a higher dosage. The FDA has specifically approved Wegovy for patients with severe obesity, or who are overweight and have one or more weight-associated conditions like high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

Both drugs work by slowing down movement of food through the stomach and curbing appetite, thereby causing weight loss.

Earlier this month, Novo Nordisk released preliminary results of a study that found Wegovy also helped lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes, according to the company.

Wegovy lowered the risk of major cardiovascular events by 20% in a clinical trial that included over 17,000 adults ages 45 and older who have a history of cardiovascular disease and are overweight or obese, according to the Novo Nordisk-funded study.

As a result of the trial’s findings, Novo Nordisk said it plans to file for a “label indication expansion” for the drug, meaning it could be available beyond obesity, and with greater insurance coverage.

Without insurance coverage, the cost of medications like Wegovy and Ozempic can run more than $1,000 a month.

 

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(NEW YORK) — Just weeks into the new school year, districts in multiple states are canceling in-person classes for several weeks due to respiratory viruses, including COVID-19, among students and staff.

Two school districts in Kentucky — Lee County School District and Magoffin County Schools — said they were closing due to “widespread illness.”

LCD canceled classes on Tuesday and Wednesday and switched to virtual classes on Thursday and Friday.

“We’re seeing a lot of illness being reported consistent with COVID and influenza,” Scott Lockard, public health director for the Kentucky River District — which includes Lee County — told ABC News. “Lee County had a surge of cases and attendance dropped below the threshold needed to stay open, so they closed.”

He said there’s been an uptick in positive COVID-19 cases but the true number of infections may be higher due to at-home test results not being reported to the health department.

Lockard said there is a concern that cases could increase heading into the fall and winter and encouraged people to get vaccinated with the flu and new COVID booster to prevent others from getting sick.

“Stay home when you’re sick,” he said. “Previously it was a seen as a badge of courage, ‘Oh I haven’t missed a day of work in 40 years. I went to work sick.’ We don’t want to see people saying that. We want, ‘I had symptoms, so I stayed home because I’m considerate of my coworkers.'”

Meanwhile, Magoffin County Schools announced it would be closed Thursday and Friday and classes would be remote.

Pete Shepherd, director of the county’s Public Health Department, told ABC News there were reports of illnesses including COVID, strep and stomach viruses during the first two weeks of school.

During the third week, COVID cases kept increasing and attendance fell to 83% on Wednesday, leading to the decision to close the school.

Shepherd said Monday and Tuesday there were a combined 40 cases of COVID in the county reported by doctors, mostly among children. Additionally, he said many parents called the department to let them know their child was sick.

“The good news is the symptoms have not been as severe,” Shepherd said. “The kids are not as sick. Small temperature, feeling bad, flu-like symptoms.”

He added that because precautions related to COVID-19 have been relaxed, including masking, he expected there will be “a lot more flu cases” compared to seasons during the pandemic where there were few to no cases.

In Texas, Runge Independent School District — located on Karnes County, 50 miles southeast of San Antonio — told parents in a letter that it would be closing from Aug. 22 through Aug. 29 and canceling all extracurricular activities due to COVID cases, according to ABC affiliate KSAT.

“The safety and well-being of our students, staff, and community is a top priority,” superintendent Hector Dominguez Jr. said in a statement.

The district did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. On the district’s website, the COVID tracker shows 10 active cases in Runge ISD as of Aug. 21, all among staff.

According to the latest report from Texas Health and Human Services, new probable and confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state have increased 29% in recent weeks.

COVID hospitalizations have also increased by about 10% from 992 to 1,096, but it’s not been linked to a rise in deaths with COVID fatalities decreasing in the state.

Nationally, COVID hospitalizations increased for the fifth consecutive week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the week ending Aug. 12, hospitalizations rose from 10,370 to 12,612, CDC data shows. Despite the increase, it’s still among the lowest hospitalizations recorded since the pandemic began.

 

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(NEW YORK) — Although lunch boxes and insulated containers to ensure temperature control have largely taken the place of brown paper bags at lunchtime, there are still a few easy-to-follow food safety practices that every parent or guardian should keep in mind before sending students off to school this fall.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, school and work lunches can become dangerous if not kept at ideal temperatures — hot food must remain hot, while cold foods must be kept cold — otherwise, bacteria can multiply and make a person sick when they finally eat it.
Easy protein-packed breakfast ideas, dietitian-backed grocery shopping tips

Food safety tips, best practices for school lunch

USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service public affairs specialist Kenneth King recently shared his top tips for caregivers to “make the food safety honor roll” in a blog post for the agency. Check out his suggestions to implement in your own kitchen this school year.

Keep cold foods cold and hot foods hot

The USDA recommends using an insulated lunch box to keep food safe.

“Paper bags are risky because they don’t allow for proper cooling of food. Always use at least two cold sources like frozen gel packs, frozen juice boxes, or frozen water bottles to keep foods cold,” he wrote. “Foods that sit out at room temperature are at risk of entering the ‘Danger Zone,’ which is between temperatures of 40 and 140 degrees F, where bacteria can multiply quickly and cause illness.”

By that same logic, King said hot foods like soups or stews should be stored in an insulated container to keep the food hot at 140 F or above until lunchtime.

Easiest lunchbox prep tips and tricks for back to school

While a thermos is more commonly used for hot soups, pasta and stews, it can also be used for cold dishes like salad.

For best results, rinse out a thermos with very hot water to heat it before adding hot soups or rinse it out with ice water to chill the thermos before adding cold things.

Meal prepping tips

“If preparing lunch the night before school and refrigerating overnight, take the bag or lunchbox out just before leaving home,” King wrote. “Pack just the amount of perishable food that can be eaten at lunchtime. That way, there won’t be a problem about the storage or safety of leftovers.”

Four rules for school lunch food safety

Because food is particularly susceptible to contamination in a variety of ways, including the potential spread of germs during the prep and packing process, here are four ways to ensure safe handling and storing to reduce the risk of foodborne illness.

Clean: Wash hands with soapy water for 20 seconds before touching food. If your hands have a cut or sore, wear gloves while prepping the meal.

Separate: Keep raw meats separate from ready-to-eat food.

Cook: Use a food thermometer in the thickest point to check that meat and poultry are fully cooked to a safe internal temperature — 165 F for poultry, ground and stuffed meats, and 145 F for seafood, steaks and roasts.

Chill: Refrigerate or freeze foods promptly when first purchased. Discard any foods that are left at room temperature for over two hours.

Additional expert advice to avoid foodborne illness

According to the National Library of Medicine and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, higher risk foods include undercooked red meats and poultry, eggs, unpasteurized cheese, dairy products, raw sprouts, and raw fish or shellfish.

The symptoms of foodborne illnesses vary, but typically include “stomach problems or stomach upset, including nausea, vomiting, and/or diarrhea,” the institute states. “Foodborne illnesses may be severe and fatal. Young children, older adults, pregnant women, and people who have a weakened immune system are especially at risk.”

To avoid cross-contamination during prep work, health experts advise washing cutting boards and utensils with hot water and soap after preparing each food item and separating meat, poultry, and seafood from other foods.

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(NEW YORK) — The updated COVID vaccine should become available in mid-September, along with a likely recommendation that everyone should get the booster shot, U.S. health officials said this week.

The timeline was laid out by officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration in a briefing with reporters.

“Vaccination is going to continue to be key this year because immunity wanes and because the COVID-19 virus continues to change,” a CDC official said. “For those reasons, vaccines remain the best protection against hospitalization and death. And in the case of the COVID vaccines they also help reduce the likelihood of ‘long COVID.'”

Only 56 million Americans – about 17 percent of the population – have received an updated booster, according to the CDC. That’s compared to the close to 81 percent of Americans who completed the primary doses.

The good news is that 97% of individuals in the U.S. ages 16 and over have protective immunity from COVID-19 either through vaccination, prior infection or both. That immunity has translated into fewer hospitalizations.

While COVID hospitalizations in the U.S. have been on the rise in recent weeks, levels are still three times lower than the same time last year – and six times lower than in 2021 after the first vaccines rolled out.

An FDA official told reporters that it’s likely that older individuals and those who are immunocompromised might need to get more than one vaccine, similar to current recommendations. Many health care providers recommend that people 65 and over get a second dose a few months after the initial shot to boost immunity.

Officials also will be recommending annual flu shots for the general population and RSV shots for certain vulnerable populations.

The CDC panel (ACIP) meets Sept. 12. While this can change, it suggests the FDA is working toward approval Sept. 11.

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(NEW YORK) — Health officials are urging the public to plan ahead when it comes to scheduling their vaccinations, as this year may look a little different than previous seasons.

With fall approaching, public health officials are spreading the word about newly approved vaccines and immunizations that can help protect against seasonal viral illnesses.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospitals are now feeling the burden of the so-called “tripledemic” of COVID, flu and RSV.

This year, adults in the U.S. can expect to see flu shots and updated COVID boosters at their local pharmacy or at their doctor’s office. In addition, new immunization options will be available for RSV — a virus that kills thousands each year.

RSV is a viral infection that leads to mild symptoms for most people, but it can be deadly for the oldest and youngest members of society young children and senior citizens.

Now, adults over 60 will be able to get vaccinated to reduce the risk of RSV. Similar to flu vaccines, the new RSV vaccines are available at major pharmacy retailers including CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people 60 and older speak with their doctor before receiving the vaccine.

“We used to not have anything good when people get sick,” Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told ABC News. RSV “was an undercover disease…now it’s even more important to get vaccinated.”

Meanwhile, babies will also have a new option to reduce their risk of RSV. A new immunization called Beyfortus was recently approved for infants younger than 8 months who are entering their first RSV season. Some high-risk infants may be eligible for a second shot the following year.

“We’re incredibly excited to see an RSV vaccine on the market this fall for those greater than 60 and thinking about risk benefit in combination with their primary care provider, as well as a longer acting monoclonal antibody to protect those who are youngest from this disease,” Dr. Anne Zink, the president and chief medical officer for the Alaska Department of Health, told ABC News.

In addition, a third type of RSV immunization might also be available this year, pending CDC sign-off. It’s a vaccine that will be given during pregnancy, with the idea of passing immunity to newborns. The CDC is slated to meet within weeks to discuss their recommendations for this vaccine — one of the final regulatory steps before this vaccine hits pharmacy shelves.

In addition to protections against RSV, there is an updated COVID booster expected to protect against newer variants that are circulating this season.

The COVID vaccine is set to target newer variants in the U.S. and is expected to offer protection against severe disease and death, with experts saying older adults and immunocompromised people would benefit the most.

“I think I can predict with 100% certainty that people within the high-risk groups: 65 and older, immunocompromised, pregnant will be recommended for the [COVID] vaccine. There is some debate regarding young and healthy adults, children and adolescents and recommendations will come out in September,” said Dr. William Schaffner, Professor of Infectious Disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Experts say the upcoming vaccine schedule will be simpler than in past seasons.

“This is a simplification from the vaccine recommendations of the past few years […] because on the COVID vaccine front, we will now likely have one vaccine shot that’s going to be recommended every year. That’s a simplification from random boosters that have been recommended at various times prompted by the changing variants of COVID. So, we’re looking forward to a much more simplified regimen and that’s what’s coming down this fall,” Dr. Joseph Kanter, a state health officer at the Louisiana Department of Health, told ABC News.

Meanwhile, seasonal influenza still kills between 12,000 to 52,000 people every year, according to the CDC. Each year, scientists update the flu vaccine to be a better match for currently circulating variants — and this year is no different.

Most Americans — even babies — are eligible for flu shots, with current medical guidance recommending an annual shot for everyone 6 months and older.

In terms of timing, experts say the best time to get a flu shot is before Halloween, but it’s not too late to get the vaccine later in the season.

Experts agree it’s safe to get a COVID booster and a flu shot at the same time — and this may be the most convenient option for many Americans.

Because the RSV immunizations are new, experts say for now it’s best to talk to your doctor about the best time to get RSV shots.

Some experts predict that flu and RSV will return to “normal” pre-pandemic levels this year — though they caution that the tripledemic can make the situation unpredictable.

“Predicting the behavior of seasonal respiratory viruses is a hazardous occupation, but with 100% assurance, all three viruses will be active, exactly how severe we don’t know. But most of us kind of anticipate that these viruses will revert to their more conventional seasonal behavior. and for this we are prepared,” Schaffner said.

Evgeniya Jenny Rakitina, MD, MSGM, Internal Medicine Resident at NYU Langone, a member of ABC News Medical Unit.

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