(NEW YORK) — Dr. Susan Hillis, who has spent years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is the lead author of several reports on Covid-related orphanhood and caregiver death, spoke recently about the devastating toll of the pandemic with ABC News’ David Muir, the anchor of “World News Tonight.”
“In the United States, for every four COVID deaths, we have one child left behind, orphaned of their parent or grandparent, caregiver who provided for their needs and nurture,” said Hillis who has a PhD in epidemiology.
Her recent study published in The Lancet in February 2022 includes a real-time Covid orphanhood calculator showing the global impact of the pandemic.
The research was led by the CDC, in collaboration with Harvard, Oxford, Imperial College, USAID, the World Bank, and World Health Organization.
According to the latest data, the number of children globally affected by orphanhood and caregiver death has now surpassed 10 million children — and more than 250,000 children have now lost a parent or caregiver in the U.S.
“It is an extraordinary number of children. That is why, we cannot in good conscience continue to ignore them,” Hillis told Muir.
The February report also compared the number of children whose parents or caregivers died in the first 14 months of the pandemic, 2.7 million children, to those affected in the next six months — and found the number nearly doubled, reaching 5.2 million by October 2021.
The study also shows that children whose parents or caregivers have died are mostly adolescents who have lost their fathers.
The research recommends that care for children must be integrated into every nation’s Covid response plan.
“There is not nearly enough being done, and that’s why it’s so important that all of us begin to ask these questions,” Hillis said, talking about the urgent need to find support for the children impacted by orphanhood.
(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) — Officials have identified a U.S. Army soldier who died after sustaining injuries in a bear attack Tuesday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.
Staff Sgt. Seth Michael Plant, 30, an infantryman from the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was part of a small group training in an area west of the Anchorage Regional Landfill when the attack took place, the base said Thursday.
Plant was “transported to the JBER hospital after the mauling where he was declared dead,” the base said in a statement Thursday.
A second soldier who suffered minor injuries in the attack was treated and released, according to the base.
Plant’s name was initially withheld following the incident pending next-of-kin notification. A native of Saint Augustine, Florida, he joined the active-duty Army in January 2015 after a stint in the reserve component. He had previously served at Fort Benning, Georgia, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina, before coming to JBER in July 2021.
“Staff Sgt. Plant was an integral part of our organization. He was a positive and dedicated leader who brought joy and energy to the paratroopers who served with him,” said Lt. Col. David J. Nelson, 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment commander, said in a statement. “He always had a smile on his face, he always went above and beyond what was asked of him, and he served as an inspiration to all who had the privilege to know him. His loss is deeply felt within our organization and we offer our sincere condolences to friends and family.”
Plant had received numerous awards and decorations during his service, including the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Afghanistan Campaign Medal.
The Army Criminal Investigation Division is investigating the attack, along with the 673d Security Forces Squadron, 673d Civil Engineering Squadron Conservation Law Enforcement Officers, Alaska Wildlife Troopers and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
The 673d Security Forces Squadron responded to the incident, and the area was closed off to the public for recreation.
Alaska Wildlife Troopers were looking for the bear in the wake of the attack. It was unclear what type of bear was involved.
“More information about the attack will be announced as it becomes available,” the base said.
The U.S. Army Alaska Command is headquartered at JBER.
ABC News’ Marilyn Heck and Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.
(DALLAS) — Two suspected gunmen were arrested in connection with a mass shooting at a concert in Dallas last month that left one man dead and 16 people injured, including three juveniles, police said Thursday.
The suspects were identified as Astonial Calhoun, 25, and Devojiea Givens, 26, according to police. They were arrested Wednesday by Dallas police, the U.S. Marshals Service North Texas Fugitive Task Force and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Crime Task Force, officials said.
Both men were charged with felony deadly conduct and were being held Thursday at the Dallas County Jail, pending an arraignment, according to the Dallas Police Department.
Dallas homicide investigators found evidence connecting Calhoun and Givens to the shooting that occurred in the early morning hours of April 3 at the Second Annual Epic Easter Bike Out & Field Party, police said in a statement. The event was billed as a family-fun trail ride and outdoor concert.
During a news conference Thursday afternoon, Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia declined to disclose what evidence led homicide detectives to arrest Calhoun and Givens.
“A preliminary investigation has determined that following a fight that broke out at the event, Calhoun and Givens both fired handguns,” Garcia said. “The preliminary investigation determined Givens and Calhoun shot into the crowd.”
At the time of shooting, Givens was free on bond after being arrested in late January on another deadly conduct charge stemming from an incident in the Dallas suburb of Hutchins, Garcia said.
Garcia said the investigation is ongoing and detectives are working to identify other suspects they allege fired weapons, as well as those involved in the fight that preceded the shooting.
“Our thoughts continue to be with our victims, their families and we have an incredible team of men and women working this case to find those who were ultimately responsible,” Garcia said.
Attorney information for the two men arrested was not immediately available.
Police asked that anyone with video footage or photos of the fight and shooting to upload them to the police department’s evidence collection online portal.
A witness told ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas that the event was “jam-packed” with people and described a chaotic scene as gunfire prompted concert goers to run in all directions seeking cover. The chaos prevented police and emergency vehicle from quickly entering the scene to treat victims.
Police said the organizers of the concert that drew about 2,000 people did not have a permit to hold the event or an emergency plan.
The event’s organizer, Germaud Lyons, who goes by the nickname Bossman Bubba, said in a statement on Facebook April 3 that he was saddened by the shooting and blamed the incident on a higher than expected turnout.
“We took the necessary steps to offer safety by having Dallas Police officers and security personnel on scene. Additionally, emergency officers and vehicles were on standby. However, some things were still out of our control,” the statement said.
The person killed was identified by police as 26-year-old Kealon Dejuane Gilmore. Police said Gilmore was found lying near the stage with a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sixteen other people were injured in the shooting and taken to hospitals in private vehicles or by ambulances, police said.
(NEW YORK) — Delaware officials are calling for an investigation into allegations of racial profiling after Georgia deputies conducted a drug search of a bus transporting female student-athletes at a historically Black university.
The Delaware State University Women’s Lacrosse Team was returning home from a game in Florida on April 20 when officers in Liberty County, Georgia, pulled the bus over for an alleged traffic violation.
Deputies then proceeded to conduct a drug search of the team’s bags in the luggage racks beneath the bus, including with the use of a K9, video and body-camera footage from the scene shows. Nothing illegal was found, authorities and school officials said.
The incident came to light after one of the team’s lacrosse players wrote about the search in the school’s newspaper last week with the headline, “Delaware State Women’s Lacrosse Team Felt Racially Profiled by Police in Georgia.”
The student-athlete also posted a video of the incident that was referenced by Delaware State University President Tony Allen in a message to the school community this week. In the video, a deputy informed the team that they were going to search their luggage.
“If there is anything in y’all’s luggage, we’re probably gonna find it,” the deputy said in the video. “If there is something in there that is questionable, please tell me now because if we find it — guess what? We’re not gonna be able to help you. We are in the state of Georgia. Marijuana is still illegal in the state of Georgia.”
Allen said videos such as this one “clearly show law enforcement members attempting to intimidate our student-athletes into confessing to possession of drugs and/or drug paraphernalia” and called the incident a “trying and humiliating process” for the team.
An incident occurred in Georgia when the Delaware State University Women’s Lacrosse Team was returning home from a game in Florida. Read a message from President Allen in which, again, he says, “We shall not be moved.” https://t.co/IihQ6yV3ptpic.twitter.com/RBC6jZF5C2
— Delaware State University (@DelStateUniv) May 9, 2022
Sophomore lacrosse player Sydney Anderson, who was behind the school’s article and video, told ABC Philadelphia station WPVI there was “a clear indication of racism” in the search.
“If we got pulled over for a traffic violation, there’s no correlation between them checking our personal luggage and violation of traffic,” she told the station.
The team’s head coach, Pamella Jenkins, also charged that it was an incident of racial profiling.
“I definitely felt it by the accusatory tone of the police officer,” Jenkins told WPVI. “And while talking about narcotics, he went straight to marijuana.”
In response to the allegations, Liberty County Sheriff William Bowman said this week that the deputies followed protocol and that there was probable cause for the luggage search due to an alert from the K9.
“At the time, or even in the weeks following, we were not aware that this stop was received as racial profiling,” Bowman said. “Although I do not believe any racial profiling took place based on the information I currently have, I welcome feedback from our community on ways that our law enforcement practices can be improved while still maintaining the law.”
The sheriff’s office this week also released body-camera footage from the incident, which showed deputies interacting with the bus driver and student-athletes and going through their bags.
“Believe it or not, the majority of the drugs and large amounts of money, trafficking children, trafficking anything up and down these interstates, that’s what we look for,” the deputy can be heard telling the student-athletes on the bus. “We’re not saying that it’s even happening here. But however, this is how we start an investigation.”
Prior to conducting the search, the deputy can be heard while in his cruiser saying, “There’s a bunch of dang school girls on the bus. There’s probably some weed. Maybe.”
Bowman said the traffic stop is being reviewed to ensure there were no policy violations.
The university’s president said the school has contacted Delaware officials, including the governor and attorney general, and is “exploring options for recourse — legal and otherwise.”
“We do not intend to let this or any other incident like it pass idly by,” Allen said. “We are prepared to go wherever the evidence leads us. We have video. We have allies. Perhaps more significantly, we have the courage of our convictions.”
He further called for an investigation following the release of the body-camera footage and pushed back against statements from the sheriff’s office, including the claim that no personal items were searched. Bowman later clarified that while the front luggage area was checked, no players were searched.
“It has become abundantly more clear that this incident must be investigated by objective, external authorities,” Allen said in a statement Wednesday. “We continue to push forward toward that objective.”
Delaware Attorney General Kathleen Jennings said Wednesday that she has written to the U.S. Department of Justice about the incident “urging a full examination and I have every reason to believe one will occur.”
(PHILADELPHIA) — A $20,000 reward is being offered in the search for a pair of gunmen caught on security video apparently stalking and then opening fire in broad daylight at a busy Philadelphia gas station, killing a 30-year-old man.
The Philadelphia Police Police Department released surveillance video Wednesday of the brazen ambush shooting in the Mt. Airy section of the city.
The footage captured the two gunmen pulling into the Liberty gas station in a 2009 red Mazda 3 sedan at around 2:30 p.m. Monday and opening fire on the victim as he was pumping gas into his vehicle.
The video shows the suspects’ car with the New Jersey license plate V62-PWX first stopping near the crowded gas pumps and backing up after apparently spotting the victim. The footage showed the car, driven by a third person, parking nearby and the gunmen, both dressed all in black, springing from the rear seat, rushing up to the victim commando-style and unleashed a barrage of gunfire.
Police said one of the gunmen appeared to be armed with an AK-47 rifle and the other looked to be firing a handgun with an extended magazine clip.
“The offenders fired multiple shots at the victim, striking him throughout the body,” police said in a statement.
The victim, identified by police as Brandon Dixon of Philadelphia, was taken to Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.
Police described the shooting as a “brazen act of viciousness” that put multiple innocent bystanders in jeopardy as the gunmen fired wildly at Dixon, who tried to run as he was being shot. The video showed the gunman running back to the four-door Mazda and driving away.
Dixon’s mother, Lisa Dixon, went to the gas station on Wednesday, saying she was “searching for answers.”
“I’m just hurt,” Lisa Dixon told ABC station WPVI in Philadelphia. “I came back here because I just need to be where he was last alive.”
Fighting back tears, she added, “He didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve this. My son did not deserve to die like this.”
(LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.) — A fast-moving wildfire in Southern California that has destroyed more than 20 homes grew to approximately 200 acres as of Thursday morning, according to the Orange County Fire Authority.
The Coastal Fire, in the hills southeast of Laguna Beach, has spread quickly due to a combination of extremely dry brush and winds gusting from 25 to 35 mph.
One firefighter was injured fighting the blaze Wednesday. They were taken to the hospital in stable condition after suffering from a medical condition, Assistant Chief of Field Operations for the Orange County Fire Authority TJ McGovern said at a press conference Thursday.
Winds of 30 mph are common in the coastal hills of Southern California throughout the year, according to the National Weather Service.
However, the record dry start to the year in California is making the region extra vulnerable to wildfires. The first four months of 2022 were the driest start to a year in the state’s history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Gusty winds will continue for coastal Southern California. But these winds will not be unusual and there are no wind alerts for Orange County.
Further up the coast, north of Los Angeles, a high wind watch has been issued for gusts expected to reach nearly 65 mph.
Orange County activated and staffed its Emergency Operations Center with county agency representatives Wednesday afternoon.
Laguna Niguel communities north of the intersection of Flying Cloud Drive and Pacific Island Drive to the intersection of Highlands Avenue and Pacific Island Drive are under a mandatory evacuation order. The area south of Flying Cloud Drive and Pacific Island Drive to the intersection of Pacific Island Drive and Crown Valley Parkway is currently under a voluntary evacuation order, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
An evacuation warning has been lifted for the Balboa Nyes (Portafina) neighborhood in Laguna Beach, and those who chose to voluntarily evacuate can return to their homes, according to the sheriff’s department.
The city asked residents to remain vigilant overnight, but there is no immediate threat to the city of Laguna Beach from a vegetation fire burning in Laguna Niguel, according to the sheriff’s department.
A red flag warning has been issued from New Mexico to Nebraska, where critical fire danger if forecast on Thursday. Winds could gust to 65 mph with bone dry conditions.
FILE photo – Ed Sloane/World Surf League via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Aviation Administration this week revoked pilot certificates for the two men involved in a Red Bull-sponsored plane swap that resulted in a crash last month.
Luke Aikens, the lead pilot for the stunt, had requested an FAA exemption in February from a federal law requiring that aircraft be manned by a pilot at all times. He argued in his request that the planned plane swap was in the “public interest” as it was meant to raise awareness for science, technology, engineering and math fields and encourage students to pursue careers in STEM.
But two days before the stunt, the FAA denied Aikens’ request, saying it “would not be in the public interest and cannot find that the proposed operation would not adversely affect safety.”
Despite the rejection, Aikens and partner Andy Farrington, who is also his cousin, went on to attempt the plane swap on April 24 — while they were being live-streamed online — but they failed, causing one of the single-engine Cessnas to crash. Neither pilot was harmed.
The FAA described their behavior as “careless or reckless so as to endanger the life or property of another,” according to letters to both men dated Tuesday, notifying them of the revocations.
The agency also proposed a $4,932 fine against Aikens for “abandoning his pilot’s seat and operating an aircraft in a reckless manner.”
Red Bull did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday; neither did Aikens nor Farrington.
In a previous statement on social media, Aikens said he would be cooperating with the agency in its review and acknowledged that “as project lead and chief pilot, it was entirely my responsibility to operate within the regulatory framework to ensure a successful outcome.”
He said then that he was aware of the FAA’s denial of his exemption before attempting the swap: “I made the personal decision to go forward … I regret not sharing this information with my team and those who supported me.”
Both pilots must surrender their pilot certificates “immediately,” the FAA said this week. Because of this, both Aikens and Farrington cannot fly legally.
The agency noted, however, that an appeals process is available for the revocations and that Aikens could participate in an “informal conference” regarding the possible fine.
He and Farrington cannot apply for or be issued new airman certificates for one year.
(MIAMI) — A nearly $1 billion settlement in last year’s shocking collapse of a Miami Beach-area condo building was unexpectedly announced during a routine status conference in a Florida courtroom Wednesday afternoon.
Lawyers involved in the class-action lawsuit representing tenants from the oceanfront building in Surfside announced a $997 million settlement had been reached.
Upon the news, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman said he was “speechless.”
“That’s incredible news,” the judge said.
“I’m shocked by this result — I think it’s fantastic,” the judge told the courtroom. “This is a recovery that is far in excess of what I had anticipated.”
Litigation stemming from the catastrophic collapse in June 2021, which killed 98 people, had been moving slowly as the first anniversary approached.
The 12-story residential building partially collapsed around 1:15 a.m. on June 24 at the Champlain Towers South condominium in the beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach. Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex’s 136 units were destroyed, authorities said.
The final victim’s remains were identified more than a month later, on July 26, following a massive search and rescue mission that become a recovery operation.
The victims killed ranged from young children to elderly couples, and included families, longtime Surfside residents and tourists staying in the building.
“Some of the victims can never recover from this loss and we know that,” Hanzman said in court.
The settlement will cover families of those who died as well as survivors, according to lawyers on the case.
The judge said he wants the whole settlement finalized by the one-year anniversary on June 24, with payouts made by the fall. Motions for preliminary approval will be due no longer than a week from Wednesday.
“My goal was to do everything humanly possible to conclude this case by the first anniversary of the collapse,” he said.
All funds for the victims will go through the receivership.
“Today is one of those days in a career that I think we’re going to look back on,” attorney Michael Goldberg, the court-appointed receiver who will oversee the payouts, said in court.
One of the lead attorneys in the case, Judd Rosen, told ABC News that the settlement “represents accountability from a lot of different players.”
“It’s the largest settlement from a single incident in U.S. history,” Rosen said. “The number itself implies significant accountability on what happened.”
Plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit argued that the poor construction and maintenance of Champlain Towers South turned catastrophic with the development of a new luxury tower next door.
“CTS [Champlain Towers South] was an older building in need of routine repairs and maintenance, but it was not until excavation and construction began on the luxury high-rise condominium project next door, known as ‘Eighty-Seven Park,’ that CTS became so badly damaged and destabilized as to be unsafe,” the lawsuit stated. “First, the developers of Eighty-Seven Park improperly obtained the right to build higher and larger than originally entitled, including by buying a public street just a few feet from CTS’s foundation. Then they undertook destructive excavation and site work dangerously close to CTS, sloped their project so that water poured into CTS and corroded its structural supports, and drove sheet piles 40 feet into the ground, causing tremors and vibrations at such high levels that they cracked tiles and walls at CTS and shook the structure.”
Owners and insurers of Eighty-Seven Park had consistently denied any responsibility for the collapse.
Defendants named in the lawsuit included the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association and developers involved in the Eighty-Seven Park project.
The Champlain Condominium Towers South was built in 1981. It was in the process of a county-mandated inspection for commercial and residential buildings 40 years after they’re constructed when the building came crashing down.
In the wake of the collapse, Miami-Dade County inspected more than 500 buildings that were approaching the 40-year recertification deadline to identify any obvious structural concerns.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — What was once unthinkable — is now a reality.
One million Americans have now died from the coronavirus, according to an announcement made Thursday by President Joe Biden, marking a long-dreaded milestone for an incomprehensible tragedy.
“Today, we mark a tragic milestone: one million American lives lost to COVID-19. One million empty chairs around the dinner table. Each an irreplaceable loss. Each leaving behind a family, a community, and a nation forever changed because of this pandemic. Jill and I pray for each of them,” Biden said in a statement. “As a nation, we must not grow numb to such sorrow. To heal, we must remember.”
The president plans to order flags to half-staff in remembrance.
Over the last two years, the deadly virus has kept the nation tightly in its clutch, with wave after wave of the virus washing over with only relatively brief respites in between.
“This unthinkable tragedy will forever appear in the history books,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D. an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
The loss of one million lives is a reality that is still difficult for many to comprehend, and to accept. In some respects, the death toll remains hidden from view.
Experts said the statistic, however massive, does not fully capture the magnitude of the human tragedy.
“It’s one thing to talk about numbers, but then to realize that each one of those numbers represents a grandparent or a spouse or someone with their own unique story that we’ve lost. Already over a million of those stories in you know, in this country alone — it really is a tragedy and a tragedy, in many ways, of unprecedented proportions,” Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News.
But the impact of the deaths extends far beyond the total number of deaths. An analysis published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimated that nine million family members — mothers, fathers, grandparents, siblings and children — may be grieving the loss of a loved one killed by the virus.
Making sense of the numbers
The staggering number of deaths due to COVID-19 is now equivalent to the population of San Jose, California — the 10th largest city in the U.S.
“If you were to tell people that an American city had been wiped off the face of the earth, people would be shocked and horrified. But since this has been a kind of a gradual burn over two years, we’ve gotten so used to hearing the headlines and so tired of having to deal with a pandemic. That sense of horror and devastation has been lost,” Dowdy said.
COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2021, following heart disease and cancer, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of Americans lost to COVID-19 also continues to dwarf the number of deaths from influenza. Between Oct. 1, 2021, and Apr. 30, 2022, the CDC estimated that there have been around 3,600 – 10,000 flu deaths. In the same time frame, more than 280,000 Americans have reportedly died from COVID-19.
Racial and ethnic minorities in the country have also faced increased risk of testing positive, requiring hospitalization and dying from COVID-19. According to federal data, adjusted for age and population, the likelihood of death because of COVID-19 for Black, Asian, Latino and Native American people is one to two times higher than white people.
Many experts believe that the current COVID-19 death count could already be greatly undercounted, due to inconsistent reporting by states and localities, and the exclusion of excess deaths, a measure of how many lives have been lost beyond what would be expected if the pandemic had not occurred.
A recent report from the World Health Organization also found that globally, estimates show there were nearly 15 million excess deaths associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 — more than double the official global death toll count of 6.2 million confirmed virus-related deaths.
‘I really don’t think people understand’
It has been more than two years since Pamela Addison lost her husband, Martin, a healthcare worker, to COVID-19, in the very early days of the pandemic in April 2020, but the grief is still raw.
“The day he died, I was stunned and in shock, and I was thrown into this new life,” Addison said. “I know that [my two young kids] were going to miss a lifetime of moments with their dad.”
After the loss of her husband, the 38-year-old New Jersey teacher found herself a single mother to the couple’s two young children, Elsie, then 2, and Graeme, then 5 months old, overnight.
Martin, a speech pathologist at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey, was just 44 when he became ill with the virus in late March of 2020. Within a matter of weeks, Martin was hospitalized and on a ventilator, and despite numerous interventions and efforts, Martin succumbed to the virus just over a month after he developed his first symptoms.
“Knowing that I wasn’t there when my husband died, I never saw him again after he left that door … that’s something that I will carry with me forever,” Addison said. “I said goodbye on FaceTime and I didn’t even know it was going to be the last time I loved him… I wasn’t able to have a funeral for my husband, and I really don’t feel like people understand just how difficult it is to grieve.”
The loss has deeply impacted the couple’s two young children, who still frequently talk about their father and their longing to hug them.
“I felt so unprepared to make [my daughter’s] pain go away,” Addison said.
A few months after the death of her husband, in an effort to find a community of others who could be experiencing the same grief as she had, Addison founded the Young Widows and Widowers of COVID-19 on Facebook, which now includes hundreds of members.
“When I lost Martin, it was this sense of loneliness,” Addison explained. “Knowing that other people experienced that same sort of inability to be there with their loved one … it gives me some comfort to know that I’m not alone… there are so many people grieving a loss to COVID-19.”
‘A myriad of outcomes that would not have resulted in a million deaths’
In the early days of the pandemic, former President Donald Trump predicted that the U.S. COVID-19 death toll would be “substantially” lower than the initial forecasts suggested.
“The minimum number was 100,000 lives, and I think we’ll be substantially under that number. … So we’ll see what it ends up being, but it looks like we’re headed to a number substantially below 100,000,” Trump said in April 2020.
Similarly, at the onset of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, in his most pessimistic scenario, did not envision the possibility that the number of Americans dead from the virus could ultimately be so staggeringly high, telling CNN in late March 2020 that preparing for one million to two million Americans to die from the coronavirus is “almost certainly off the chart.”
“Now, it’s not impossible, but very, very unlikely,” Fauci said.
The uncertainty of the federal response in the early days of the pandemic has come under repeated scrutiny from public health experts, who say more should have been done to keep the virus at bay.
“To imagine where we were just over two years ago, we lacked the clarity, the preparation and really the political will to properly respond to a viral threat that would bring the world to its knees,” said Brownstein.
On average, more than 300 Americans still dying of COVID-19 every day
Although COVID-19 death rates are significantly lower than they were in the winter of 2021, when more than an average of 3,400 Americans were dying from the virus every day, the death toll is still averaging more than 300 a day, according to federal data.
“We would not tolerate that sort of burden or mortality from a preventable disease in any other situation, and we shouldn’t be tolerating that for COVID-19 either — just because we’ve been dealing with this for a long time,” Dowdy said.
Since the onset of the pandemic, older Americans have largely borne the brunt of the COVID-19 deaths, despite having higher vaccination rates than the overall population. Overall, people over the age of 65 years old account for more than three-quarters of virus-related deaths in the U.S, according to federal data.
More than 90% of seniors have been fully vaccinated, and about two-thirds have received their first booster shot. However, despite high vaccination rates in older populations, in recent months, during the omicron surge, 73% of deaths have been among those 65 and older.
There has also been an increasing rate of breakthrough deaths among the vaccinated, an ABC News analysis of federal data shows.
In August of 2021, about 18.9% of COVID-19 deaths were occurring among the vaccinated. Six months later, in February 2022, that proportional percent of deaths had increased to more than 40%.
Comparatively, in September 2021, just 1.1% of COVID-19 deaths were occurring among Americans who had been fully vaccinated and boosted with their first dose. By February 2022, that percentage of deaths had increased to about 25%.
Health experts said that the risk to the elderly population and waning immunity re-emphasizes the urgency of boosting older Americans and high-risk Americans with additional doses. And it brings into focus once again the deeply political battle over vaccines.
“Even as we hit this unthinkable milestone, the country is still massively divided on the reality of this pandemic and the tools we have to combat it. Not only do these safe and effective vaccines remain hotly debated but so do masks, a non-invasive tool widely recognized as basic personal protection,” said Brownstein.
Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Several homes were destroyed in Southern California Wednesday night as the Coastal Fire continued to spread.
At least 20 homes were burned down in Laguna Niguel and the fire had reached approximately 200 acres, according to the Orange County Fire Authority, which said it had “60 different types of resources battling the flames.”
Evacuation orders have been issued for Coronado Pointe Drive, Vista Court and Via Las Rosa in the Pacific Island area, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said. Voluntary evacuations are in place for Laguna Beach residents in the Balboa Nyes, or Portafina, neighborhood.
OCFA Chief Brian Fennessy said late Wednesday there are no reports of civilian or firefighter casualties. The crews fighting the blaze are starting to get a better handle on the fire and “great progress” is expected into the night and coming days, Fennessy said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and an investigation is underway, according to the fire chief.
Fennessy said the fire started quickly and moved upslope over steep terrain, proving a challenge for hand crews to access. With fuels beds throughout the West being so dry, blazes like the Coastal Fire will “be more commonplace,” he said, adding that when winds couple with dry fuel, “fire is going to run on us.”
Strong winds were blowing embers into the attics of homes making it hard for firefighters to extinguish the blazes, as fires were jumping from house to house within the neighborhood, which is full of multimillion-dollar homes.
Laguna Niguel is south of Laguna Beach and about 25 miles down the coast from Huntington Beach.
