(WASHINGTON) — Could you live on Mars for an entire year? Or, could you at least pretend?
NASA is on the search for four people to live in a 1,700-square-foot habitat, created by a 3D-printer, at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to simulate a year-long stay on Mars.
Applications to participate as part of the crew are being accepted through Sept. 17, 2021 for the one-year mission that starts in late 2022.
According to NASA’s website, finalists will undergo medical evaluations, psychological testing and psychiatric screening to determine suitability for the physically and mentally demanding isolation mission.
“The CHAPEA missions are designed to collect critical health and performance data to characterize risks associated with going to Mars,” said Shaneequa Vereen, public affairs officer for the Human Health and Performance Directorate at the NASA Johnson Space Center. “These analog missions will entail a good number of the challenges associated with a Mars mission, such as a Mars-realistic spaceflight food system, time-delayed communication, crew isolation and confinement, and resource restrictions.”
But NASA isn’t looking for just anyone to join this mission. The qualifications are intense and applicants must have a Master’s degree in a science, engineering or math field or pilot experience.
Additionally, only U.S. residents between the ages of 30 and 55 with no dietary or physical health issues will be eligible. Motion sickness? Sorry, but no can do.
“Living on Mars is going to entail a large number of challenges,” Vereen added. “By conducting analog missions we are able obtain data that enables us to better characterize risks before sending astronauts all the way to Mars.”
The Mars Dune Alpha experiment will be carried out in three phases, with the first beginning next fall. The exploration trip will also be complete with spacewalks and ready-to-eat space food. There will even be an area to grow plants and other vegetation.
(WASHINGTON) — Fines for unruly behavior during flights have soared in 2021, with the Federal Aviation Administration reporting Thursday that it has proposed more than $1 million in penalties this year alone.
The FAA has received almost 4,000 reports of aggressive behavior from airlines since the beginning of 2021.
Airline crews have reported incidents in which visibly drunk passengers verbally abused them, shoved them, kicked seats, threw trash at them, defiled the restrooms and in some cases even punched them in the face.
The agency said 71% of the reported incidents involve passengers who refuse to comply with the federal mask mandate.
The FAA had hoped its zero-tolerance policy for in-flight disruptions, which could lead to fines as high as $52,500 and up to 20 years in prison, would be enough to deter potential offenders, but they’ve still seen hundreds of incidents per month.
In-flight tensions are unlikely to wane as the mask requirement for planes was extended just this week from September into January.
Two weeks ago, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson urged airport police to arrest more people who are unruly or violent on flights.
“While the FAA has levied civil fines against unruly passengers, it has no authority to prosecute criminal cases,” Dickson told airport executives.
He said they see many passengers — some who physically assaulted flight attendants — interviewed by local police and then released “without criminal charges of any kind.”
“When this occurs, we miss a key opportunity to hold unruly passengers accountable for their unacceptable and dangerous behavior,” he said.
The agency has looked into more than 682 potential violations of federal law so far this year — the highest number since the agency began keeping records in 1995. But it is unclear how many people have actually paid the FAA’s proposed fines.
Those on the front lines, the nation’s flight attendants, are bearing the brunt of the violence.
They are increasingly turning to self-defense training to learn how to defuse situations as well as protect themselves and their passengers.
“I think people are just kind of just at a tipping point with the pandemic,” Robin Gilinger, a flight attendant, said. “And when they’re up in the air at 35,000 feet, there’s no one to stop them. There’s no police officer on the corner they can go to. It’s just the flight attendants.”
Gilinger recently attended a crew member self-defense training course taught by federal air marshals in West Orange, New Jersey.
The courses had been paused amid the pandemic, but now they’re back up and running with four times the amount of classes and double the number of attendees as before.
“We’re not here to beat our passengers. We’re here to stop the unrest that has precipitated through this pandemic,” Gilinger said. “And this provides really good, basic tools, not just for the aircraft.”
While this type of training is free, flight attendants must come on their own time and pay for their travel and lodging. The head of the country’s largest flight attendant union is now pushing for the course to be federally mandated.
(FRANKFORT, Ind.) — The two people shot dead Wednesday at an NHK factory in Frankfort, Indiana, were employees of the company — a grandmother and granddaughter who were arriving for their shift, according to the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office.
The alleged suspect, 26-year-old Gary C. Ferrell, was an employee at the factory is in custody, authorities said.
Ferrell is believed to have finished his shift before shooting 21-year-old Promise Mays and 62-year-old Pamela Sled, Clinton County Sheriff Rich Kelly said at a press briefing Wednesday evening.
The sheriff’s office said 911 calls came in at 4:15 p.m. local time. Shortly after, it warned residents to avoid the area due to the “active scene.”
When deputies showed up, Ferrell jumped in a car and drove away from the scene, but was tracked down by police about a minute later, authorities said. Ferrell crashed his car after a high-speed pursuit and was taken into custody. He was not injured in the minor accident, Clinton County Sheriff Richard Kelly said.
An investigation is ongoing and the sheriff had no information on a motive. Kelly said they could not provide other information about the relationship between Ferrell and the victims.
The shooting took place in the parking lot of NHK Seating of America in Frankfurt, Indiana. The plant manufactures seats and seating parts for a Subaru plant in nearby Lafayette.
“Please avoid the area of our new NHK,” the sheriff’s office wrote shortly after the incident began. “This is an active scene.”
(CLINTON COUNTY, Ind.) — Two people are dead following a shooting in a parking lot outside a factory in Indiana, according to the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office.
The alleged suspect is in custody, authorities said.
Both victims were women, law enforcement said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon, and all three were employees at the plant.
The sheriff’s office said the call came in at 4:15 p.m. local time. Shortly after, it warned residents to avoid the area due to the “active scene.”
The suspect jumped in a car after the shooting and drove away from the scene, but was tracked down by police about a minute later, authorities said. The suspect crashed his car and was taken into custody. He was not injured in the minor accident, Clinton County Sheriff Richard Kelly said.
An investigation is ongoing and the sheriff had no information on a motive. Authorities were still working to contact the next of kin of those who were killed and will not release information on the victims until they do so.
The shooting took place in the parking lot of NHK Seating of America in Frankfurt, Indiana. The plant manufacturers seats and seating parts for a Subaru plant in nearby Lafayette.
“Please avoid the area of our new NHK,” the sheriff’s office wrote shortly after the incident began. “This is an active scene.”
ABC News’ Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — The family and attorney of a Black man shot to death by a security guard, allegedly over a dispute about loud music, are demanding Kroger and the third-party security guard company it employed to also face charges.
Alvin Motley Jr., 48, was at a Kroger gas station in Memphis, Tennessee, with his girlfriend on Aug. 7 when Gregory Livingston, who is white, allegedly approached him about the volume of music coming from their car. After the initial argument between Motley and Livingston, Motley walked toward the security guard holding a beer can and a lit cigarette asking Livingston, “Let’s talk like men,” according to the affidavit. Shortly after, Livingston shot Motley in the chest, prosecutors said.
Motley’s attorney Ben Crump and the Rev. Al Sharpton said Wednesday that Kroger must be charged alongside Livingston and Allied Universal for facilitating the contract that resulted in the death of Motley. Livingston has been charged with second-degree murder.
“Kroger, you can’t pass the buck saying that this is an issue for the Motley family or the security company. It’s an issue for your company. … You have a duty to provide safety and have qualified employees and contractors who won’t kill Black people over loud music,” Crump said.
Crump and Sharpton called on the civil rights community to play loud music in front of Kroger grocery chain stores across the country in protest of Motley’s death.
A Kroger spokesperson said in an email statement that after an internal review of the incident, Kroger made the decision to end its relationship with Allied Universal Security in Memphis.
“We are deeply saddened, extremely angry and horrified by this senseless violence. At Kroger, nothing is more important to us than the safety of our associates and customers, and our hearts are with the Motley family and we stand with them in their calls for justice,” a Kroger spokesperson told ABC News.
When asked, Kroger did not respond specifically to Crump’s comments. Allied Universal has not responded to requests for comment from ABC News.
Crump and Sharpton said the shooting was racially motivated.
“I cannot imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and these were young white men listening to rock and roll or country music, nobody would say it was justified to kill them,” Crump said at Wednesday’s press conference. “So if you can’t justify killing them over music, you can’t justify killing us over hip hop music.”
Livingston’s attorney, Leslie Ballin, told ABC News that the shooting was neither racially motivated nor about loud music.
“Let it be known that we do not agree that this incident was about loud music,” Ballin said. “I don’t know of any facts that would lead to the conclusion that this event was racially motivated. If there are such facts, I’m ready to be educated.”
The surveillance footage at the Kroger gas station allegedly captured the incident but has not yet been released to the family or the public. Ballin said he objects to the release of any evidence, including the video footage, in fear that it could contaminate a potential jury pool.
Livingston’s attorneys requested their client’s $1.8 million bail be reduced, claiming the amount is excessive and therefore unconstitutional.
“My son was truly my best friend and I’ll forever hold him in my thoughts,” Alvin Motley Sr. said during the press conference before his son’s memorial Wednesday. “I just want justice for my son.”
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 623,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 59.4% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing Wednesday. All times Eastern:
Aug 18, 6:50 pm
J&J looking into booster of its single-dose vaccine
Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday it is “engaging” with the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health authorities on a booster of its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine.
The company said it “will share new data shortly regarding boosting” with its vaccine, which one study suggests provides immunity for at least eight months.
The statement comes after the Biden administration said Wednesday it is preparing to roll out booster shots of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines to more Americans next month.
Aug 18, 6:29 pm
California to require proof of vaccination or negative test for large indoor events
People attending large-scale indoor events in California soon will be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test, state officials announced Wednesday.
The new rules apply to indoor events with more than 1,000 people beginning Sept. 20. Tests must be administered within 72 hours of the event.
Currently, attendees have to self-attest to either having the vaccine or a negative test to attend events with more than 5,000 people.
Health officials pointed to the highly transmissible nature of the delta variant in updating the rules.
Aug 18, 5:11 pm
Biden will issue memo to block Republican anti-mask efforts in schools
President Joe Biden plans to issue a memo to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona Wednesday to counter the Republican governors who have blocked mask mandates in their states.
“Some state governments have adopted policies and laws that interfere with the ability of schools and districts to keep our children safe during in-person learning, with some going as far as to try to block school officials from adopting safety protocols aligned with recommendations from the CDC,” according to a fact sheet released by the White House Wednesday.
Biden’s memo will ensure the department of education “is doing everything it can to prevent anything from standing in the way of local leaders and school leaders taking steps to keep all students safe in full-time, in-person learning, without compromising students’ health or the health of their families or communities,” the fact sheet continues.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Aug 18, 5:16 pm
Biden to announce nursing homes must require employee vaccination to get federal funding
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plans to require nursing homes participating in Medicare or Medicaid to have all workers be vaccinated for COVID-19, a Biden administration official confirmed to ABC News Wednesday.
The new rule, which will impact more than 15,000 nursing homes and 1.3 million workers, will go into effect in late September. Nursing homes that don’t comply could lose federal funding.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Aug 18, 2:33 pm
NYC restaurant owners sue city over indoor vaccine mandate
A group small businesses in New York City is suing the city on the grounds that its new indoor vaccine mandate will severely impact their “business, life savings, and livelihood,” according to a lawsuit filed in Richmond County Supreme Court Tuesday.
The plaintiffs also took issue with the fact the the mandate does not permit medical or religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccination.
New York City’s first-in-the-nation mandate, which went into effect Tuesday, applies to everyone 12 and older and includes nearly every public indoor activity, from gyms to bowling alleys to movie theaters to concert venues and more, according to the city.
The plaintiffs include Deluca’s Italian Restaurant in Staten Island, Pasticceria Rocco in Brooklyn and Staten Island Judo Jujitsu.
Aug 18, 12:36 pm
All but 2 states reporting high community transmission
All but two states — New Hampshire and Vermont — are reporting high community transmission, according to federal data.
U.S. hospitalizations are now at the highest point in over six months, with more than 91,000 COVID-19 patients currently in hospitals, according to federal data. More than 11,200 patients are being admitted to the hospital each day, the most since January.
Pediatric COVID-19 related admissions per capita have climbed to the highest point of the pandemic and are now nearly six times higher than on July 4.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Aug 18, 11:53 am
Delta likely contributed to vaccine’s waning protection: Murthy
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy announced at Wednesday’s White House briefing, “Having reviewed the most current data, it is now our clinical judgment that the time to lay out a plan for COVID-19 boosters is now.”
Murthy said protection against mild disease has decreased, likely a combination of waning vaccine protection over time and the strength of the delta variant, and that the administration is “concerned” that protection could continue to erode.
“Even though this new data affirms that vaccine protection remains high against the worst outcomes of COVID, we are concerned that this pattern of decline we’re seeing will continue in the months ahead, which could lead to reduced protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death,” Murthy said.
“That is why, today, we are announcing our plan to stay ahead of this virus by being prepared to offer COVID-19 booster shots to fully vaccinated adults 18 years and older,” Murthy said. “They would be eligible for their booster shot eight months after receiving their second dose of the Pfizer or Modern mRNA vaccines.”
The boosters are set to begin Sept. 20, but Murthy emphasized that this is pending FDA authorization and also reiterated that does not yet apply to J&J recipients.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslet
Aug 18, 11:27 am
How New York City botched COVID-19 response: Report
New York City botched its COVID-19 response, according to an investigation conducted by Scott Stringer, the city’s comptroller, who released findings from his inquiry Wednesday.
According to Stringer, key emergency response agencies, including the health department and the NYPD, were intentionally excluded from communications and decision-making “when time was of the essence.”
The comptroller also described persistent confusion about the chain of command between agencies and a significantly delayed response to the pandemic.
Officials waited until late February to even begin planning for a worst-case scenario, despite knowing about the impending crisis in January. Stringer called on the mayor, as well as the future mayor, to conduct a thorough review of the city’s emergency planning process.
“We cannot erase the mistakes of the past,” he said. “But we can make sure we are prepared for future emergencies.”
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Aug 18, 11:14 am
mRNA vaccine efficacy dropped ‘significantly’ among nursing home residents: CDC
A new CDC analysis found that Pfizer and Moderna vaccine efficacy dropped “significantly” among nursing home residents from March to July, as the delta variant became the predominant strain in the United States.
Researchers analyzed weekly reports from thousands of nursing home facilities in the U.S. and found that mRNA vaccines were roughly 75% effective against preventing any infection in late winter/early spring of 2021, early in the mass vaccination rollout and prior to the emergence of the delta variant. By summer of this year, effectiveness against any infection had dropped to 53%.
Crucially, this doesn’t mean vaccines aren’t working for nursing home residents, but the significant drop in effectiveness from March to July may support the use of booster doses for them, according to the CDC report.
A second analysis found that the mRNA vaccines are holding up well against hospitalizations for COVID-19. The research, which was conducted across 21 U.S. hospitals, found that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines remained between 84% and 86% effective against potential hospitalizations from March to July of this year. A third analysis, conducted in New York State, found that all three authorized vaccines remained more than 90% effective at preventing hospitalization from early May to late June.
-ABC News’ Sony Salzman, Eric Strauss
Aug 18, 11:06 am
Leading public health officials lay out plan for boosters
The U.S. is prepared to offer booster shots for all Americans beginning the week of Sept. 20, top health officials announced Wednesday. Starting eight months after a person’s second dose, they are eligible for a booster.
“At that time, the individuals who were fully vaccinated earliest in the vaccination rollout, including many health care providers, nursing home residents, and other seniors, will likely be eligible,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC; Janet Woodcock, acting FDA commissioner; Dr. Vivek Murthy, surgeon general; Francis Collins, director of the NIH; and Anthony Fauci, director of the NIAID, said in a joint statement.
The data behind the decision is expected to be released at 11 a.m. EST during the White House COVID briefing, but public health officials said it’s clear that vaccines are waning over time and “we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease.”
With regard to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, officials stressed that more data will be released in the next few weeks. “We will keep the public informed with a timely plan for J&J booster shots,” they said.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Aug 18, 10:09 am
El Paso mask mandate goes into effect after judge blocks Abbott
A mask mandate in El Paso, Texas, which, took effect at 12:01 Wednesday, requires people 2 and older to cover their faces in indoor public spaces. Failure to comply with the new rule is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of $500.
The mandate comes after a judge blocked Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order late Tuesday night, which had forbid masks mandates in the state of Texas. The news comes also within hours of Abbott, who is fully vaccinated, testing positive for COVID-19.
Aug 18, 8:33 am
CDC advisory committee to discuss extra vaccine doses, booster shots
An advisory committee to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet next week to discuss additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including booster shots.
The meeting is scheduled for Aug. 24.
Aug 18, 5:21 am
New Zealand confirms 1st case of delta variant in growing cluster
New Zealand’s first instance of COVID-19 transmission in six months has been identified as the highly contagious delta variant.
“We are dealing with a delta variant,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced during a press conference in Wellington on Wednesday. “Our case has originated in Australia.”
The case, which was detected in the community on Tuesday, prompted New Zealand to immediately impose a nationwide lockdown. More community cases have emerged since then, with the cluster growing to 10 by Wednesday afternoon, according to data from New Zealand’s Ministry of Health.
Ardern said genomic sequencing has linked the initial case to an outbreak of the delta variant in neighboring Australia’s New South Wales state.
“Now, the job we have is to work through how and when it got here,” she said.
It’s the first time that the island nation of 5 million people has confirmed the presence of the delta variant, which was initially identified in India last October. At least 148 countries around the globe have reported cases of the delta variant, according to the World Health Organization.
It’s also the first time in more than a year that New Zealand has had a snap level four lockdown, the highest level of restrictions.
In total, the country has reported 2,936 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including 26 deaths, according to health ministry data.
Aug 18, 3:55 am
Chicago reinstates indoor mask mandate amid rising cases
Everyone in Chicago who is 2 years of age and older must wear a face mask indoors starting Friday, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Chicago health officials announced the reinstatement of the indoor mask mandate on Tuesday, after the Windy City saw its daily average of newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases surpass 400 — a metric that moves the city from “substantial risk” to “higher risk.”
“With the highly transmissible delta variant causing case rates to increase, now is the time to re-institute this measure to prevent further spread and save lives,” Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said in a statement. “We continue to track the data closely and are hopeful this will only be temporary and we can bend the COVID curve, as we’ve done in the past.”
During a press conference Tuesday, Arwady noted that other COVID-19 metrics, such as the city’s test positivity average and hospitalizations, remain at “lower risk.”
“A high case count does not automatically translate to a high hospitalization count and a high death count,” she told reporters, “and we’re hopeful that having the mask in place for everybody will get us through delta while we keep working on getting folks vaccinated.”
Masks will be required citywide in all indoor public settings, including bars, restaurants, gyms, hair salons, private clubs and common areas in residential buildings. As with previous mask mandates, the face coverings can be temporarily taken off for certain activities that require their removal, such as eating and drinking or for facials and beard shaves.
Masks can also be removed by employees in settings that are not open to the public, such as office cubicles, so long as the individuals are static and maintaining at least 6 feet from others. The face coverings remain mandatory on public transportation as well as in educational, health care, correctional and congregate settings.
The new mandate does not include capacity limits at public places, and masks will remain optional in outdoor settings.
“We are not anticipating, at this point, adding additional business restrictions. However, we’re watching what happens with these metrics,” Arwady told reporters. “Our goal is to remain open but careful.”
Aug 17, 11:40 pm
‘What we’re dealing with now is completely different,’ says pulmonologist who lost 3 patients in week
An Alabama doctor is seeing young, healthy patients die from COVID-19 amid the surge of the delta variant.
Dr. Jenna Carpenter, a pulmonary care physician at Marshall Medical South in Guntersville, Alabama, has lost three patients under the age of 40 in the past week from complications related to COVID-19, she told ABC Huntsville, Alabama, affiliate WAAY.
“The young man I lost this week was perfectly healthy,” she said. “He wasn’t overweight. He did not have any known medical issues and that was a tragedy.”
The worst phone call the physicians have to make is to inform family members that their loved one has taken a turn for the worst, Carpenter added.
“In our heart we know this is going to be the last time these folks talk to their families,” she said.
The state currently has more ICU patients than beds, and frontline workers are also getting sick from the highly contagious variant, WAAY reported.
“Last week we were down to 35 or 40 ICU beds. Now we are down at the single digits,” Dr. Don Williamson, a former state health officer who is now the president and CEO of the Alabama Hospital Association, told the station. “It doesn’t matter if it is six or two, we could even be negative ICU beds.”
Aug 17, 9:26 pm
Mass vaccine site for booster shots opens in Detroit
Detroit has opened a mass vaccine site for boosters at its convention center.
The TCF Center has played an integral role for Detroit residents during the pandemic, first acting as a mass testing site, a field hospital and eventually a mass vaccination site.
It is currently the only location in the city to get a third booster shot.
(HILLSBOROUGH, Fla.) — Just a week into the school year, some 8,400 students in and 307 employees of the Hillsborough County Public Schools district in Florida have been isolated or quarantined as districts across the state grapple with COVID-19.
Hillsborough is the seventh-largest school district in the U.S., with more than 213,000 students.
In total, there were 1,695 COVID-19 cases among students and staff, according to the Tampa-area district’s COVID-19 dashboard.
The district is requiring masks for students, but parents can opt-out their children. To date, at least 28,000 parents have opted out, district officials told ABC News.
The district has scheduled an emergency school board meeting Wednesday to discuss how to respond to the crisis.
District officials said they’re providing PPE and sanitation stations for each classroom, and have installed MERV-13 filters at each school.
“As we work to create the safest environment for our students and staff, we also must abide by the governor’s executive order, as well as emergency rules from the Department of Health and state Board of Education. This requires our district to preserve a parent’s right to choose to wear a face covering in school,” a spokesperson for the district told ABC News. “The Governor has been clear that if school districts do not abide by this order, they could face financial consequences.”
Last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an emergency order giving parents the final say over masks for kids in school. At a press conference last month, he said Florida students shouldn’t be “muzzled,” adding, “We need them to be able to breathe.”
Elizabeth Devolder pulled her two children, who are in fifth and second grade, out of school to voluntarily quarantine them due to the “terrifying” rising number of virus cases.
“Although they were not immediately exposed, and they’re not required to quarantine, I felt like why do we have to wait for our kids to get sick before we take action?” she said to ABC Tampa affiliate WFTS.
The district is offering face-to-face instruction as well as virtual classes for the 2021-22 academic year.
The Bay Area of Florida has seen an uptick in virus cases. In Pinellas County, 361 cases among students and staff have been reported this school year, while in Sarasota 227 have been reported and in Manatee that figure stands at 480, according to those districts’ respective dashboards.
Mounting COVID-19 cases in schools are a rising concern as communities head back to in-person learning, especially as children under the age of 12 are not yet eligible for vaccines.
Florida currently has the country’s highest COVID-19 case rate. The state reported 151,415 new cases from Aug. 6 to Aug. 12 and 286 deaths, with a new-case positivity rate of 19.3%, according to its latest weekly COVID-19 report. And cases among children are up, with over 31,700 new cases reported last week among those 19 years old or younger.
(HILLSBOROUGH, Fla.) — Just a week into the school year, over 10,000 students and staff in the Hillsborough County Public Schools district in Florida have been isolated or quarantined as districts across the state grapple with COVID-19.
Hillsborough is the seventh-largest school district in the U.S., with more than 213,000 students. As of Wednesday, 10,384 students and 338 staffers are isolated or under quarantine, the district told ABC News.
In total, there were 1,805 COVID-19 cases among students and staff, according to the Tampa-area district’s COVID-19 dashboard.
The district is requiring masks for students, but parents can opt their children out. To date, at least 28,000 parents have opted out, district officials told ABC News.
The district held an emergency school board meeting Wednesday to discuss how to respond to the crisis.
In the heated gathering people shared points both for and against a mask mandate.
One mother of a student yelled, “Have any children died?” as a result of the virus. Some people in the audience shouted back that children have. Parents against masks argued that face coverings prevent kids from smiling at each other and communicate with their peers and teachers.
A wife of a teacher said during the meeting that her husband is immunosuppressed and suggested the district enforce masks just as they enforce girls adhere to a dress code that bans spaghetti straps. One high school student told the anti-maskers, “This tiny piece of cloth is not taking away your freedom. … Grow up.”
District officials said they’re providing personal protective equipment and sanitation stations for each classroom, and have installed MERV-13 air filters at each school.
“As we work to create the safest environment for our students and staff, we also must abide by the governor’s executive order, as well as emergency rules from the Department of Health and state Board of Education. This requires our district to preserve a parent’s right to choose to wear a face covering in school,” a spokesperson for the district told ABC News. “The Governor has been clear that if school districts do not abide by this order, they could face financial consequences.”
Last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an emergency order giving parents the final say over masks for kids in school. At a press conference last month, he said Florida students shouldn’t be “muzzled,” adding, “We need them to be able to breathe.”
Elizabeth Devolder pulled her two children, who are in fifth and second grade, out of school to voluntarily quarantine them due to the “terrifying” rising number of virus cases.
“Although they were not immediately exposed, and they’re not required to quarantine, I felt like why do we have to wait for our kids to get sick before we take action?” she told Tampa ABC affiliate WFTS.
The district is offering face-to-face instruction as well as virtual classes for the 2021-22 academic year.
The Bay Area of Florida has seen an uptick in virus cases. In Pinellas County, 521 cases among students and staff have been reported this school year, while in Sarasota there have bee 227 reported and in Manatee that figure stands at 480, according to those districts’ respective dashboards.
Mounting COVID-19 cases in schools are a rising concern as communities head back to in-person learning, especially as children under the age of 12 are not yet eligible for vaccines.
Florida currently has the country’s highest COVID-19 case rate. The state reported 151,415 new cases from Aug. 6 to Aug. 12 and 286 deaths, with a new-case positivity rate of 19.3%, according to its latest weekly COVID-19 report. And cases among children are up, with over 31,700 new cases reported last week among those 19 years old or younger.
(NEW YORK) — A former employee of convicted swindler John Ruffo has come forward with a rare home video showing the wanted fugitive before he disappeared more than 20 years ago.
The VHS video recording, which was filmed in 1995, shows Ruffo talking and strumming a guitar while socializing at the home of Jodylynn Bachiman, a family friend who worked for Ruffo as an office assistant at his New York City computer firm in the 90s.
The U.S. Marshals, who have been hunting Ruffo for almost three decades, say the video shows Ruffo at a time when he was committing one of the largest bank frauds in U.S. history.
The Marshals’ manhunt for Ruffo is the subject of a new season of the ABC News podcast, “Have You Seen This Man.” The podcast tells the story of his swindle and tracks the global search for Ruffo, which has been re-invigorated in recent months as the Marshals have followed new leads in the decades-old case.
Ruffo was arrested in 1996 after authorities say he negotiated more than $350 million in loans for a bogus business project. He pleaded guilty to a raft of federal charges in 1998 and received a 17-year sentence. But on the day he was scheduled to report to prison, he vanished.
The Marshals consider the newly uncovered video recording of Ruffo to be significant, even if it comes from before his escape, because it offers a rare chance to see and hear the man who now sits on the agency’s Top 15 Most Wanted list. The only other known videos of Ruffo do not include his talking at length, according to the Marshals.
Senior inspector Chris Leuer, who is overseeing the case with Deputy U.S. Marshal Danielle Shimchick, told ABC News, “a home video is something we rarely receive.”
“It can provide us with a ton of information about our fugitive as their guard isn’t up,” Leuer said. It’s just them acting normal in a safe environment.”
Bachiman said she found the video while searching through old belongings.
“[Ruffo] would always come over and play the guitar. Always. And my son loved it,” she said.
Bachiman spent several years working for Ruffo’s firm. She was arrested in 1996 when the FBI first exposed the scheme, but was later cleared of any charges or allegations of wrongdoing.
“Now looking back, it’s traumatic,” Bachiman said, of that time. “It haunts you no matter how much time goes by.”
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 622,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 59.3% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing Tuesday. All times Eastern:
Aug 17, 8:28 pm
2 Florida school districts found in violation of state’s ban on mask mandates
Two school districts in Florida were found to have violated state law by mandating masking-wearing in schools during an emergency hearing held by the Florida State Board of Education Tuesday.
Alachua County Public Schools and Broward County Public Schools were non-compliant with Florida Department of Health Emergency Rule 64DER21-12 and are now subject to punishment and the potential withholding of state funding.
More than 600 students in Alachua County have been quarantined since the start of the school year just six days ago, Dr. Carlee Simon, superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools, said during the meeting.
Superintendent of Broward County Public Schools Vickie Cartwright said school administrators were concerned about the number of cases that are happening in Broward County as the delta variant spreads, especially since there were only five pediatric ICU beds available in Broward County as of Tuesday morning.
“We argue that we are exercising our constitutional responsibilities to protect our students and staff,” Simon said. “We believe this is, in quote, reasonable and necessary to achieve a compelling state interest.”
All Board of Education members present at the emergency meeting voted that both school districts were in violation of the law, which “protects parents’ right to make decisions regarding masking of their children in relation to COVID-19.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has issued in an that the board has the right to withhold state funding to schools that they find are “unwilling or unable to comply with the law.”
No punishment was specified for the schools during the emergency meeting.
-ABC News’ Victoria Arancio
Aug 17, 8:13 pm
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott not experiencing symptoms after positive COVID-19 test, he tweeted Tuesday.
As you may have heard, I have Covid.
Right now I have no symptoms such as fever or aches and pains.
Thanks for the well wishes from around the country.
I will remain engaged every day to govern the great state of Texas.
Aug 17, 6:52 pm
Hundreds of patients waiting for hospital beds in Texas
Patients in one region of Texas are experiencing extraordinarily long waits for hospital beds as COVID-19 continues to spread through the state.
Patients in southeast Texas, which includes Houston and the surrounding areas, are waiting in ambulances, hallways and more holding spaces for hospital beds to free up, Houston officials announced at a press briefing Tuesday.
Of the 678 patients holding in area emergency rooms with general admission orders, 265 of them have been infected with the virus, according the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council.
The ratio of patients who tested positive with COVID-19 is even worse for ICU admissions. Of the 112 patients in holding area emergency rooms who need an ICU bed, 75 have the virus, according to SETRAC.
-ABC News’ Gina Sunseri
Aug 17, 4:57 pm
Texas governor tests positive
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has tested positive for COVID-19, his office announced.
The governor is fully vaccinated and has no symptoms, his office said, adding that he’s been tested daily.
Abbott is receiving Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment, his office said.
“Everyone that the Governor has been in close contact with today has been notified,” his office said.
Abbott has banned mask and vaccination mandates in Texas.
According to The Houston Chronicle, the governor gave a speech Monday night to a crowd of about 600 people where there was little social distancing or mask-wearing.
Aug 17, 4:29 pm
Hospitalizations could reach 32,800 per day by Sept. 1: Forecast
The U.S. could see as many as 32,800 hospitalizations per day by Sept. 13, according to the COVID-19 Forecast Hub at U Mass Amherst, which is used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The low end of the forecast is 9,000 per day.
Currently, more than 11,249 patients are hospitalized with COVID-19 each day in the U.S., up from a daily average of 8,300 last week.
These forecasts suggest Florida, Louisiana and Texas hospitalizations may improve in coming weeks while other states, like California and New York, may see more hospitalizations.
-ABC News’ Brian Hartman
Aug 17, 4:08 pm
Mask mandate for US travel extended into January
The mask mandate for travelers on planes, trains and buses will be extended into January, according to a Department of Homeland Security source.
-ABC News’ Sam Sweeney
Aug 17, 9:03 am
Biden administration ships 1st of 500 million vaccine doses to Rwanda
The Biden administration on Tuesday will ship the first 188,370 doses of a 500 million dose commitment of the Pfizer vaccine to Rwanda, according to a senior administration official. The 500 million dose pledge was announced at the G7 summit in June and the contract the U.S. negotiated with Pfizer identified late August as the goal for initial shipments.
The U.S. is also sending 300,000 additional U.S. surplus doses to Rwanda Tuesday, making this first total shipment 488,370. All the doses will be distributed through Covax, the World Health Organization’s vaccine-sharing initiative.
Aug 17, 4:56 am
US reports over 200,000 new cases in a day for 3rd time this month
There were 209,988 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the United States on Monday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
It’s the third time this month that the U.S. has reported more than 200,000 newly confirmed infections in a single day.
Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins data shows an additional 683 fatalities from the disease were registered nationwide on Monday, down from this month’s peak of 1,889 new deaths on Aug. 13.
A total of 36,888,978 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 622,321 have died, according to Johns Hopkins data. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
Aug 17, 4:38 am
Bangladesh extends COVID-19 vaccines to Rohingya refugees
Bangladesh has launched a COVID-19 vaccination program for Rohingya refugees housed in one of the world’s largest and most densely populated camps in Cox’s Bazar, according to a press release from the World Health Organization.
The campaign, led by the Bangladeshi government with technical support from the WHO and other partners, is initially targeting nearly 48,000 Rohingya refugees who are 55 and older. It’s part of Bangladesh’s national deployment and vaccination plan to ensure equity and fair allocation of vaccines across the country.
“Bangladesh is demonstrating what WHO has been advocating for — equitable access to vaccines,” Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director of the WHO South-East Asia Region, said in a statement Monday. “Inclusion is key to protecting vulnerable populations like the refugees, for safeguarding their health and that of their host communities and societies.”
More than 1 million Rohingya — a stateless ethnic group who predominantly practice Islam — are sheltering in crowded camps in Bangladesh after fleeing persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Aug 16, 11:38 pm
Biden admin expected to recommend boosters for all Americans
The Biden administration could soon be urging Americans to get a booster shot eight months after completing their original vaccination, a source familiar with the discussions told ABC News Monday.
Federal health officials and experts are currently coalescing around the idea that all Americans should receive a booster, the source said. Those booster shots could be rolled out as soon as mid to late September — pending Food and Drug Administration authorization.
The announcement, first reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post, could come as soon as this week.
The new timeline for the booster shots in a significant shift for the administration, which previously had been non-comital on when boosters for the majority of Americans would be needed.
Aug 16, 10:20 pm
El Paso sues state of Texas over ban on mask mandates
The city of El Paso has filed a lawsuit challenging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates in the state to allow for local protective measures to be ordered in the county.
Starting Wednesday at 12:01 a.m., a local health authority order will mandate that all individuals over the age of 2 wear some form of face covering while in public indoor spaces.
The parents of children under the age of 10 will be responsible for appropriately masking their children while outside their home, city officials said.
The order comes after El Paso City-County Health Authority Dr. Hector Ocaranza recommended masks at all indoor facilities in the county.
A face covering is not required on those who are eating or drinking or anyone who has trouble breathing, has a medical condition or disability that prevents wearing a face covering.
