(NEW YORK) — The Department of Homeland Security is urging schools to stay vigilant Friday amid unfounded threats of violence spreading on social media.
“DHS is aware of public reporting that suggests possible threats to schools on December 17, 2021,” the agency tweeted Friday morning. “DHS does not have any information indicating any specific, credible threats to schools but recommends communities remain alert.”
In New York City, the NYPD said Thursday the department was aware of “posts circulating on TikTok concerning a potential school shooting on Friday,” but there was “no credible information to suggest this threat is specific to any school in New York City.”
The NYPD said it was sending extra resources to NYC schools as a precaution.
Other schools have closed due to the threats. In Wisconsin, the Platteville School District said it canceled school Friday due to a potential threat of violence.
In California, the Los Angeles Unified School District said classes will be in session Friday despite the threats.
“There is no reason to believe our schools are in any danger,” the district said Thursday.
Santa Monica police said they’ll be highly visible at schools Friday even though there aren’t specific threats.
The FBI’s Los Angeles field office said, “While we continue to monitor intelligence, we are not aware of any specific threats or known credible threats to schools in the Los Angeles region at this time.”
TikTok said it’s “working with law enforcement to look into warnings about potential violence at schools even though we have not found evidence of such threats originating or spreading via TikTok.”
The DHS said it’ll continue to monitor the threats and asked people to report suspicious activity to law enforcement.
ABC News’ Josh Margolin, Luke Barr and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — For centuries the world has been fascinated by serial killers. Who are they? What makes them tick? What do they choose to kill?
To try to answer those questions the authorities turned to one woman: Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess.
Now a celebrated criminal psychologist, forensic nurse and researcher, Burgess began her seasoned career researching and gathering data about victims of sexual assault and the lasting trauma in rape victims.
In the early 1970s at Boston College, Burgess met Linda Lytle Holmstrom. The two began working together and set up a program at Boston City Hospital. Their goal was to meet with as many rape victims as possible.
“[Holmstrom] had wanted to study rape, but hadn’t had any success in finding rape victims,” Burgess said. “It’s no different now than it was back then. They really are hidden. They’re really silent.”
Holmstrom’s and Burgess’s deep dive eventually led to procedures that focused on a victim’s response to rape. But for Burgess, this important initial research provided her with the structure and knowhow to dig into something much deeper.
An “aha” moment happened during a small conference in Worcester, Massachusetts. Holmstrom and Burgess were focusing their research solely on victim impact while another colleague presented information about perpetrators. At that moment, Burgess was struck with the power of putting the two together.
She describes the moment in her new book, “A Killer By Design”: “I realized if I wanted to fully understand the nature of a crime, I’d have to see both the victim and the perpetrator as two halves of the same story.”
These findings were first published in the American Journal of Nursing as “The Rape Victim in the Emergency Ward.”
And then the FBI called.
Supervisory Special Agent Roy Hazelwood had read her article and he wanted her to present a lecture on her research to FBI personnel at Quantico.
“That was a frightening moment for me,” Burgess told ABC News. “And then I thought, ‘I’ve never really talked to a bunch of males before. It’s always been female nurses. So he made arrangements and the rest is history.”
Thus began Burgess’ work with the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit (“BSU”) — the “Mindhunters” popularized over the last several years by a Netflix series loosely documenting their work.
“BSU was a cast of outsiders,” Burgess explains in her book. “They were the rogue agents, the idealists with big ideas, and they wouldn’t let the limits of convention or bureaucratic traditions stand in their way.”
And because she was an outsider to the FBI with a nonconventional background, FBI agents saw Burgess as an ally. Eventually she was introduced to two agents, John Douglas and Robert Ressler, who were working on an extremely unique side project: interviewing serial killers.
“Of course the content was fascinating,” Burgess said, recalling the first time she listened to the interview tapes. “It became clear to me that they had a wonderful opportunity to get all kinds of information. But they didn’t have a plan. And that’s where I came in and suggested that they really needed to have some kind of methodology to it.”
And so she set out to do just that. Initially, there was a lot of distrust in the profiling process. But once Burgess’ evolving methodology began to show results, everything changed.
Over the next two decades, Burgess worked with the BSU to develop and create a criminal profiling framework that revolutionized the way criminals were identified, interviewed and tracked. Through her continued work, Burgess and BSU agents were able to analyze some of the nation’s most notorious offenders, including Henry Louis Wallace (“The Taco Bell Strangler”), Dennis Rader (“The BTK Killer”) and Ed Kemper (“The Co-Ed Killer”).
“The work alone stands by itself,” said Steven Matthew Constantine, who began working with Burgess as a cowriter for her book. “But the fact that she was one of the very few women in the FBI at the time to be doing this type of work and be trusted to do that type of work, I think that’s really impressive. And I think it’s an important piece of history that needs to be shared.”
He went on, “It was sort of funny when we first started. I remember asking Dr. Burgess, ‘How did you deal with this?’ It’s definitely very disturbing to know it’s out there and still goes on. I tried to take on a little bit of her mentality of looking at it as data and information. If you can get to the bottom of it and you can parse all this information quickly, hopefully that’s preventing future victims.”
When asked if Burgess believed the perpetrators she interviewed and studied were monsters, she said no. Instead, she described the violent offenders as atypical and remarked on the importance of trying to understand the mind of a person who commits serial assaults or homicides.
“I think, as the book says, it’s a quest to understand,” said Burgess. “Because if we can understand [perpetrators] and how early [their tendencies] started, maybe we could stop it or intervene or do something.”
(NEW YORK) — Breonna’s Garden is an augmented reality app memorializing Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old who died in her own apartment on March 13, 2020 when police unleashed a barrage of 32 shots.
A self-professed CEO and founder of a “cryptomedia” company who is known online as Lady Pheonix told ABC News that she created the app. The founder, who asked that her real name be withheld for privacy reasons, said she was inspired to help Ju’Niyah Palmer, Breonna Taylor’s sister, through her greiving process.
The app has a 3D rendering of Taylor in a garden surrounded by tulips — the late medical worker’s favorite flower, according to Palmer. It features a montage of Taylor’s life. The app’s users can also share voice memos that turn into crystal flowers which play their messages.
Lady Pheonix says that the app’s users are sharing their own stories of grief and loss.
“At first I was a little standoffish,” Palmer told ABC News about being approached with the idea for the app. She said that she was wary of a stranger messaging her “out of the blue” on an Instagram live. But her mom convinced her to hear out Lady Pheonix’s idea, she said.
“I actually fell very in love with it,” said Palmer of the augmented reality project.
“The greatest kind of healing and well-being happen in nature,” Lady Pheonix told ABC News about using the setting of a garden in the app. The tulips in the app also have a special significance: Palmer said her sister wanted a house and a garden to plant tulips everywhere.
Lady Pheonix said that tulips are also a way to contrast beauty with what she called the “tragedy” of Taylor’s story. “The tulip was held in beauty, and Brianna’s story … is held in tragedy. For me, I wanted to invert that and focus on the beauty,” she said.
People use the Breonna’s app to overlay her virtual memorial with her physical memorial in the Miami garden.
Palmer said that she struggled with PTSD after her sister’s shooting, and while she got help from a therapist and medication,she said the app helps her feel like she could still talk with her sister.
“It feels like in the moment I do get to be able to visualize her as if she was here in the moment for me,” said Palmer.
Breonna Taylor’s sister, Ju’Niyah Palmer, Kenneth Walker and Tamika Palmer stand in mourning in a garden honoring Breonna Taylor and anyone else who needs to grieve.
Palmer said that she hopes the garden app reaches more people in the coming years.
Lady Pheonix said that she hopes every hospital and every major city will have a physical garden to accompany the Breonna’s Garden app as places for quiet reflection and healing.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 803,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 61.2% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dec 17, 11:53 am
UK reports highest daily cases ever
The United Kingdom reported 93,045 new cases in the last 24 hours, breaking a daily record for the third day in a row.
The total number of cases over the last week now stands at 477,229, a 38.6% increase from the previous week.
-ABC News’ Guy Davies
Dec 17, 11:39 am
Rockettes canceled due to breakthrough cases
Friday’s four Radio City Rockettes shows have been canceled due to breakthrough COVID-19 cases in the New York City production.
Plans for future shows haven’t been determined.
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Dec 17, 11:35 am
CDC studies find schools can test kids rather than quarantine
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday endorsed a practice in schools called “test-to-stay,” which allows unvaccinated kids and staff to test instead of quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19.
The CDC says the practice can be employed in addition to other mitigation measures, such as vaccination and at least 3-feet of physical distance among students wearing masks.
The new guidance follows two studies out of Los Angeles County, California, and Lake County, Illinois. Both studies found no significant transmission in school when test-to-stay was used.
The studies were conducted before the omicron variant was detected in the U.S.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Dec 17, 11:01 am
Hospitals stretched thin in Wisconsin, Michigan
In Wisconsin, only 4% of ICU beds are available.
“This is getting really scary,” Dr. Jamie Hess, an emergency physician at the University of Wisconsin, told ABC News.
“We’re really reaching a crisis point where we have more patients to take care of then we have beds in the hospital or staff to care for them,” Hess said.
Michigan has been struggling through a similar surge for nearly three months, with the state reporting more than 6,500 new cases each day. On average, more than 500 patients are being admitted to hospitals each day.
“Where we are right now feels a lot like the first surge back in March of 2020,” Erin Dicks, a nurse manager at MICU Henry Ford Hospital, told ABC News. “We don’t have enough beds to be able to manage this.”
Dicks said so many patients are young.
“I think one of the biggest frustrating pieces for my staff is that they look at this as, this is preventable — people don’t have to die here,” Dicks said.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 17, 9:01 am
Harvard joins list of universities mandating boosters
Harvard University will require boosters for all eligible members of the community, school officials said Thursday.
Earlier this week, Harvard warned of an increase in cases, saying the rise can be contributed to social events following the Thanksgiving break.
Omicron is likely already on campus, university officials added.
Harvard joins a growing list of colleges and universities moving to require third doses next semester for those eligible. Other schools include Stanford, NYU, University of Notre Dame, Syracuse, Smith College and Wellesley College.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 17, 8:13 am
Illinois reports highest case number of the year
In Illinois, 11,858 new cases were reported on Thursday — the highest daily case number of all of 2021, ABC Chicago station WLS reported, citing state health officials.
Illinois confirmed its second omicron case Wednesday, detected in a suburban Chicago resident. That person is asymptomatic and vaccinated, WLS reported.
Dec 16, 8:52 pm
CDC recommends opting for Pfizer or Moderna over J&J when there’s a choice
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has signed off on its advisory committee’s recommendation that people who have a choice should get an mRNA vaccine, either Pfizer or Moderna, over the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The updated recommendation comes after a review of new CDC data on rare blood clots linked to the J&J vaccine.
“Today’s updated recommendation emphasizes CDC’s commitment to provide real-time scientific information to the American public,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “I continue to encourage all Americans to get vaccinated and boosted.”
Dec 16, 7:54 pm
Omicron now makes up nearly 100% of strains found in Orlando wastewater samples
The new omicron variant makes up nearly 100% of the strains found in wastewater samples in Orlando, Florida, officials said Thursday.
“It escalated rapidly,” Orange County Utilities spokeswoman Sarah Lux told ABC News.
In its first test for the variant last Thursday, the department found no evidence of omicron in the community’s wastewater, she said. On Saturday, it represented about 30% of the strains found in the samples, and by Tuesday, nearly 100%.
“So, we’re talking about zero to nearly 100 in a matter of a week,” Lux said.
All parts of the county are seeing an increasing presence of the omicron variant, she said. The southern area, home to the theme parks, has seen the highest amount of virus remnants, followed by the eastern area, which is home to the University of Central Florida.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 16, 3:53 pm
CDC committee recommends opting for Pfizer or Moderna over J&J if given choice
The CDC’s advisory committee recommended Thursday that people who have a choice should get an mRNA vaccine, either Pfizer or Moderna, over the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine after a review of new CDC data on rare blood clots linked to J&J.
The vote was unanimous.
The rare blood clots are not a new safety concern and the vaccine has already become far less common in the U.S. after it was given an FDA warning label about the clotting condition. But more data that confirmed a slightly higher rate of clotting cases and deaths than was previously reported caused the CDC and FDA to take another look at the data this week.
The CDC has confirmed nine deaths and 54 cases from the severe clotting event, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia.
There could also be more cases and deaths because TSS is under-diagnosed and could be underreported, the CDC said.
The clotting is more common among women in their 30s and 40s but has been seen in adult men and women of all ages.
The experts said J&J should not be taken off the shelves and is still far more beneficial than not getting any vaccine at all.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Dec 16, 3:22 pm
Several Northeast states nearing peak levels
Maine and New Hampshire are now averaging more new cases than at any other point in the pandemic, while daily cases in Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island are nearing peak levels, according to federal data.
Five of those states — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont — have the highest full vaccination rates in the country.
In Florida, which has been largely spared from the latest COVID-19 wave, daily cases have increased by 92% over the last two weeks, according to federal data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 16, 2:47 pm
NYC cases have tripled in the last month
COVID-19 cases in New York City have tripled in the last month, officials warned Thursday.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a six-point plan to fight the surge, including increasing testing capacity, doubling down on business inspections and distributing 1 million KN95 masks and 500,000 rapid home tests.
“We need to stop this variant,” the mayor said. “This variant moves fast. We need to move a lot faster.”
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Dec 16, 8:04 am
Omicron will be dominant variant in US ‘very soon,’ Fauci says
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, warned Thursday that omicron will become the dominant variant of the novel coronavirus in the United States “very soon.”
“It has an extraordinary ability to transmit efficiently and spread,” Fauci, the chief medical advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden, told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview on Good Morning America.
“It has what we call a doubling time of about three days and if you do the math on that, if you have just a couple of percentage of the isolates being omicron, very soon it’s going to be the dominant variant,” he explained. “We’ve seen that in South Africa, we’re seeing it in the U.K. and I’m absolutely certain that’s what we’re going to be seeing here relatively soon.”
Fauci, who is also the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged Americans to “absolutely” get vaccinated against COVID-19, if they haven’t already, and to also receive a booster shot when they become eligible.
“At this point, we don’t believe you need an omicron-specific boost,” he added. “We just need to get the boost with what you got originally for the primary vaccination.”
Dec 16, 6:14 am
France to ban non-essential travel with UK over omicron surge
France announced Thursday that it will ban non-essential travel to and from the United Kingdom due to the country’s surge in cases of the omicron variant.
Starting Saturday, France will require people to have “a compelling reason” to travel between the two countries. Travel for tourism or work will not be allowed. French citizens, however, can return to France, according to a statement from the French prime minister’s office.
All travelers from the U.K. will be required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken less than 24 hours before departure. Upon arrival in France, they must self-isolate for a week, but that period can be ended after 48 hours if they test negative for COVID-19 again.
The new rules apply to people regardless of their vaccination status.
“Faced with the extremely rapid spread of the Omicron variant in the United Kingdom, the Government has chosen to reinstate the need for an essential reason for travel from and to the United Kingdom, and to strengthen the requirement for tests on departure and arrival,” the French prime minister’s office said in the statement Thursday. “The Government is also calling on travelers who had planned to visit the United Kingdom to postpone their trip.”
Dec 16, 4:24 am
Indonesia confirms 1st case of omicron variant
Indonesia announced Thursday its first confirmed case of the omicron variant.
The case was detected in a janitor who works at the COVID-19 Emergency Hospital of Kemayoran Athletes Village in Jakarta, according to a statement from Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin.
The hospital’s cleaning staff are routinely tested and the results for three people were positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 10. Those samples were then sent to a genome sequencing lab, which identified the omicron variant in one of the samples on Wednesday, according to the statement.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Health has also identified probable cases of omicron among five travelers who were in quarantine — two Indonesian citizens who had just returned from the United Kingdom and the United States, and three foreigners from China. Their test samples are being sequenced and the results will be known in a few days, according to the statement.
The health minister urged Indonesians “not to panic and to remain calm,” and to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they haven’t already.
“The arrival of new variants from abroad, which we identified in quarantine, shows that our defense system against the arrival of new variants is quite good, we need to strengthen it,” Sadikin said. “So it’s normal to stay 10 days in quarantine. The goal is not to make it difficult for people who came, but to protect the people of Indonesia.”
Dec 15, 4:46 pm
Forecast: US could see up to 845,000 deaths by early January
Forecast models used by the CDC suggest weekly death totals and hospital admissions will rise over the next four weeks.
The U.S. could reach a total of 845,000 deaths by Jan. 8, according to the forecasts from the COVID-19 Forecast Hub at UMass Amherst.
The COVID-19 Forecast Hub team monitors and combines forecasting models from the nation’s top researchers. They then create an ensemble, usually with a wide cone of uncertainty. Nicholas Reich, a biostatistician who runs the forecasting model, told ABC News Wednesday that he doesn’t think the forecasts included omicron in their predictions because the majority of data isn’t publicly available yet in a format that can be easily incorporated into a model.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 15, 4:20 pm
US cases up 45% in the last month
The U.S. is now reporting nearly 118,000 new cases each day — up by 45% in the last month, according to federal data.
Daily COVID-19-related hospital admissions have leapt by 46% in the last month.
Maine and New Hampshire are now averaging more new cases than at any other point in the pandemic, according to federal data.
New Hampshire currently holds the nation’s highest case rate, followed by Rhode Island, Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
(PLAISTOW, N.H.) — Since the start of the school year, some teachers in New Hampshire said they’ve been on edge due to a new policy that they said punishes those who teach about oppression in America’s past and present.
“If you raise a generation without a moral backbone to recognize oppression, to recognize exclusion, to recognize a racial supremacy, then you raise a generation that will be amoral when they become the leaders,” said Ryan Richman, a teacher in Plaistow, New Hampshire.
“We’ll have no sense of right or wrong, because we have deemed that even looking at ourselves in the mirror and recognizing that the realities of the past are criminal.”
The legislation says educators cannot teach that someone’s race, sex, gender identity or other social status is inherently superior to someone else, or that someone is inherently racist or sexist, among other restrictions. Teachers can be reported by fellow teachers, parents or others and disciplined for potentially violating this policy.
Some educators, teachers union members and parents have filed suit, saying that the vague language limits their ability to teach on racial and gender-based oppression, and may impede on discussions about U.S. history and literature.
“We’re supposed to be engaging and challenging students to think about the wider world, helping them connect to ideas and expand their horizons,” said Deb Howes, president of the union American Federation of Teachers in New Hampshire. “They need to allow for honest teaching, history, current events and literature too.”
She added, “You could lose your career because you say something wrong or someone thought you said something wrong.”
In the lawsuit, AFT-NH is joined by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, “teachers in the New Hampshire Public Schools” and “parents or guardians of children in the New Hampshire public schools.”
This new law is one of many that have popped up across the country and have been touted by conservative activists targeting “critical race theory” in K-12 schools. However, critical race theory is a discipline taught at the college and graduate school levels, according to law experts and academics.
It analyzes U.S. legal systems and how they have been shaped by racism and continue to impact the progression of racism in America. Educators across the country have told ABC News that critical race theory is not part of their curriculum.
New Hampshire state Representative Jess Edwards, who co-sponsored the bill, said that legislators saw what was going on across the country concerning critical race theory.
GOP lawmakers said it makes classrooms feel divided or children feel bad about their race. Supporters of this law and similar legislation, including Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Texas state House Rep. Steve Toth, also claim that some lessons on race can make white students feel guilty or offended.
“I think just our experience with our fellow legislators, made us realize that something bad is going on in society,” Edwards said.
The legislation does not mention “critical race theory” — a strategic choice to avoid inflammatory arguments against the policy, Edwards said.
He said New Hampshire legislators found a parent who has been trying to oppose critical race theory in schools individually, and said the school was “not really interested in listening to his position.”
Edwards said that some schools were rolling out materials “along the line of: Minorities will always be oppressed in this nation, whites will always be oppressors.”
A national conservative organization, Moms for Liberty, tweeted in November that it would offer $500 to the first family in New Hampshire who successfully filed a complaint.
Moms for Liberty has not responded to ABC News’ requests for comment.
“It’s very chilling,” Richman said. “You have this messaging coming down from the commissioner of education, restricting what we’re allowed to talk about the kinds of lessons that we’re allowed to talk about, what our students are allowed to talk about and the kinds of honest discussions that we can have about race and inequality and power. And then it’s snowballed.”
According to the New Hampshire Department of Education, the Commission for Human Rights and the Department of Justice, the law does not prohibit teachers from teaching U.S. history, and they are allowed to teach students historical concepts related to discrimination.
The policy also states that nothing in it “shall be construed to prohibit discussing, as part of a larger course of academic instruction, the historical existence of ideas and subjects identified in this section.”
However, the lawsuit argues that teachers have been targeted and intimidated due to this growing controversy about race and gender-inclusive education in schools under the guise of student protection.
“Teachers, including a Plaintiff in this action, have been made the subject of online harassment, obscenities and vicious attacks as a direct result of the climate of political intimidation created by and with the facilitation of various Defendants,” reads the lawsuit.
Some educators argue that not only are their jobs on the line because of New Hampshire’s new policy, but the education and future preparedness of their students are also at risk.
“If we’re not teaching them that, then they are ill-prepared to deal with the world around them,” Howes said. “They won’t understand why things are working or not working in the larger society, and they won’t be able to either change things that aren’t working or support things that are. They’ll have a harder time making their way through life.”
In a message to students, Richman added: “We see you. We see your value, and we see that you have the right to have the conversation about race, about injustice, about history that you deserve, and we are going to fight for you so that you can be the kind of leaders that our country deserves.”
(NEW YORK) — The devastating twisters that tore through the South and the Midwest this weekend marked the deadliest tornado outbreak in the U.S. in a decade.
Here’s a closer look at the tornadoes by the numbers:
90 lives lost
At least 90 people were killed across five states: 76 in Kentucky; six in Illinois; four in Tennessee; two in Arkansas; and two in Missouri.
Victims’ ages in Kentucky range from a 2-month-old to a 98-year-old.
This was the deadliest tornado outbreak in the U.S. since May 2011, when more than 170 people were killed.
35 confirmed tornadoes, 44 reported tornadoes
There were at least 44 reported tornadoes across nine states: Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio and Alabama.
Of those, 35 were confirmed tornadoes.
163.5 miles
A continuous tornado path — an EF-4 — spanned 163.5 miles, tearing through Kentucky with winds up to 190 mph.
This now holds the record for the longest continuous tornado track on record in Kentucky.
Over 1,000 homes destroyed
The storms ripped out entire blocks. Beshear said Sunday, “We’re going to have over 1,000 homes that are just gone.”
“I don’t think we’ll have seen damage at this scale ever,” he said.
The governor, choking up, spoke about the destruction in Dawson Springs, a town of fewer than 3,000 residents where he said his father grew up. Beshear said his grandparents’ home is still standing but “one block up and left or right is just gone, just flattened.”
700 FEMA workers
Over 700 FEMA workers were on the ground processing claims as of Thursday, Beshear said.
74,000 meals and 1,500 tarps
FEMA so far has provided Kentucky with 74,000 meals, 18,500 blankets and 1,500 tarps, White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky, Melissa Griffin, Dan Peck and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 803,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 61% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 17, 8:13 am
Illinois reports highest case number of the year
In Illinois, 11,858 new cases were reported on Thursday — the highest daily case number of all of 2021, ABC Chicago station WLS reported, citing state health officials.
Illinois confirmed its second omicron case Wednesday, detected in a suburban Chicago resident. That person is asymptomatic and vaccinated, WLS reported.
Dec 16, 8:52 pm
CDC recommends opting for Pfizer or Moderna over J&J when there’s a choice
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has signed off on its advisory committee’s recommendation that people who have a choice should get an mRNA vaccine, either Pfizer or Moderna, over the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The updated recommendation comes after a review of new CDC data on rare blood clots linked to the J&J vaccine.
“Today’s updated recommendation emphasizes CDC’s commitment to provide real-time scientific information to the American public,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “I continue to encourage all Americans to get vaccinated and boosted.”
Dec 16, 7:54 pm
Omicron now makes up nearly 100% of strains found in Orlando wastewater samples
The new omicron variant makes up nearly 100% of the strains found in wastewater samples in Orlando, Florida, officials said Thursday.
“It escalated rapidly,” Orange County Utilities spokeswoman Sarah Lux told ABC News.
In its first test for the variant last Thursday, the department found no evidence of omicron in the community’s wastewater, she said. On Saturday, it represented about 30% of the strains found in the samples, and by Tuesday, nearly 100%.
“So, we’re talking about zero to nearly 100 in a matter of a week,” Lux said.
All parts of the county are seeing an increasing presence of the omicron variant, she said. The southern area, home to the theme parks, has seen the highest amount of virus remnants, followed by the eastern area, which is home to the University of Central Florida.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 16, 3:53 pm
CDC committee recommends opting for Pfizer or Moderna over J&J if given choice
The CDC’s advisory committee recommended Thursday that people who have a choice should get an mRNA vaccine, either Pfizer or Moderna, over the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine after a review of new CDC data on rare blood clots linked to J&J.
The vote was unanimous.
The rare blood clots are not a new safety concern and the vaccine has already become far less common in the U.S. after it was given an FDA warning label about the clotting condition. But more data that confirmed a slightly higher rate of clotting cases and deaths than was previously reported caused the CDC and FDA to take another look at the data this week.
The CDC has confirmed nine deaths and 54 cases from the severe clotting event, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia.
There could also be more cases and deaths because TSS is under-diagnosed and could be underreported, the CDC said.
The clotting is more common among women in their 30s and 40s but has been seen in adult men and women of all ages.
The experts said J&J should not be taken off the shelves and is still far more beneficial than not getting any vaccine at all.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Dec 16, 3:22 pm
Several Northeast states nearing peak levels
Maine and New Hampshire are now averaging more new cases than at any other point in the pandemic, while daily cases in Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island are nearing peak levels, according to federal data.
Five of those states — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont — have the highest full vaccination rates in the country.
In Florida, which has been largely spared from the latest COVID-19 wave, daily cases have increased by 92% over the last two weeks, according to federal data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 16, 2:47 pm
NYC cases have tripled in the last month
COVID-19 cases in New York City have tripled in the last month, officials warned Thursday.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a six-point plan to fight the surge, including increasing testing capacity, doubling down on business inspections and distributing 1 million KN95 masks and 500,000 rapid home tests.
“We need to stop this variant,” the mayor said. “This variant moves fast. We need to move a lot faster.”
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Dec 16, 8:04 am
Omicron will be dominant variant in US ‘very soon,’ Fauci says
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, warned Thursday that omicron will become the dominant variant of the novel coronavirus in the United States “very soon.”
“It has an extraordinary ability to transmit efficiently and spread,” Fauci, the chief medical advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden, told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview on Good Morning America.
“It has what we call a doubling time of about three days and if you do the math on that, if you have just a couple of percentage of the isolates being omicron, very soon it’s going to be the dominant variant,” he explained. “We’ve seen that in South Africa, we’re seeing it in the U.K. and I’m absolutely certain that’s what we’re going to be seeing here relatively soon.”
Fauci, who is also the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged Americans to “absolutely” get vaccinated against COVID-19, if they haven’t already, and to also receive a booster shot when they become eligible.
“At this point, we don’t believe you need an omicron-specific boost,” he added. “We just need to get the boost with what you got originally for the primary vaccination.”
Dec 16, 6:14 am
France to ban non-essential travel with UK over omicron surge
France announced Thursday that it will ban non-essential travel to and from the United Kingdom due to the country’s surge in cases of the omicron variant.
Starting Saturday, France will require people to have “a compelling reason” to travel between the two countries. Travel for tourism or work will not be allowed. French citizens, however, can return to France, according to a statement from the French prime minister’s office.
All travelers from the U.K. will be required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken less than 24 hours before departure. Upon arrival in France, they must self-isolate for a week, but that period can be ended after 48 hours if they test negative for COVID-19 again.
The new rules apply to people regardless of their vaccination status.
“Faced with the extremely rapid spread of the Omicron variant in the United Kingdom, the Government has chosen to reinstate the need for an essential reason for travel from and to the United Kingdom, and to strengthen the requirement for tests on departure and arrival,” the French prime minister’s office said in the statement Thursday. “The Government is also calling on travelers who had planned to visit the United Kingdom to postpone their trip.”
Dec 16, 4:24 am
Indonesia confirms 1st case of omicron variant
Indonesia announced Thursday its first confirmed case of the omicron variant.
The case was detected in a janitor who works at the COVID-19 Emergency Hospital of Kemayoran Athletes Village in Jakarta, according to a statement from Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin.
The hospital’s cleaning staff are routinely tested and the results for three people were positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 10. Those samples were then sent to a genome sequencing lab, which identified the omicron variant in one of the samples on Wednesday, according to the statement.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Health has also identified probable cases of omicron among five travelers who were in quarantine — two Indonesian citizens who had just returned from the United Kingdom and the United States, and three foreigners from China. Their test samples are being sequenced and the results will be known in a few days, according to the statement.
The health minister urged Indonesians “not to panic and to remain calm,” and to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they haven’t already.
“The arrival of new variants from abroad, which we identified in quarantine, shows that our defense system against the arrival of new variants is quite good, we need to strengthen it,” Sadikin said. “So it’s normal to stay 10 days in quarantine. The goal is not to make it difficult for people who came, but to protect the people of Indonesia.”
Dec 15, 4:46 pm
Forecast: US could see up to 845,000 deaths by early January
Forecast models used by the CDC suggest weekly death totals and hospital admissions will rise over the next four weeks.
The U.S. could reach a total of 845,000 deaths by Jan. 8, according to the forecasts from the COVID-19 Forecast Hub at UMass Amherst.
The COVID-19 Forecast Hub team monitors and combines forecasting models from the nation’s top researchers. They then create an ensemble, usually with a wide cone of uncertainty. Nicholas Reich, a biostatistician who runs the forecasting model, told ABC News Wednesday that he doesn’t think the forecasts included omicron in their predictions because the majority of data isn’t publicly available yet in a format that can be easily incorporated into a model.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 15, 4:20 pm
US cases up 45% in the last month
The U.S. is now reporting nearly 118,000 new cases each day — up by 45% in the last month, according to federal data.
Daily COVID-19-related hospital admissions have leapt by 46% in the last month.
Maine and New Hampshire are now averaging more new cases than at any other point in the pandemic, according to federal data.
New Hampshire currently holds the nation’s highest case rate, followed by Rhode Island, Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
(NEW YORK) — The holiday travel rush is well underway and experts are predicting U.S. airports and roadways will be nearly as busy as they were pre-pandemic.
About 109 million travelers are expected to take to the roads and skies for Christmas and New Year’s, according to AAA, which represents more than 90% of the 2019 pre-pandemic travel record of 119 million.
The bulk of travelers, 100 million, are projected to drive to their destinations.
But the airports are bracing for crowds as well. Friday is already estimated to be the third busiest day to fly to your winter getaway, according to travel booking app Hopper, with 2.4 million available seats.
Here’s what you need to know if you’re traveling this holiday season:
Prices at the pump
With 100 million drivers expected on the roads from Dec. 23 to Jan. 2, according to AAA, all eyes are on gas prices.
While prices are still relatively high — up by 45% compared to last year — they are dipping slightly.
The national average price of gasoline is down 10 cents per gallon since Thanksgiving, according to GasBuddy, and the national average on Christmas is projected to decline from today’s $3.32 to $3.25 per gallon.
GasBuddy predicts prices at the pump will continue to fall into the new year.
Delays on the road
The roadways will be busy with major metro areas across the country estimated to see more than double the delays than on a normal day, according to transportation analytics company INRIX.
INRIX says drivers in New York City, for example, are “likely” to experience more than three times the delays.
Roads are expected to be the most congested the afternoon and evening of Thursday, Dec. 23, the morning and evening of Monday, Dec. 27, and the afternoon and evening of Sunday, Jan. 2
“Early morning travel in general has seen a decrease, likely due to more people working from home,” AAA spokesperson Ellen Edmonds told ABC News, “and therefore, leaving early in the morning is the best bet.”
Crowds at the airport
The Transportation Security Administration is prepared to screen near pre-pandemic travel volumes over the winter holidays with Dec. 23 and Jan. 3 projected to be the busiest days.
U.S. airlines are gearing up, with AAA saying they will see a 184% increase in passengers from last year.
United Airlines expects around 8 million people to fly on their airline from Dec. 16 to Jan 3, more than double the number of fliers compared to last year, and even more people than they saw over Thanksgiving.
They’ve added more than 200 daily domestic flights to meet the demand.
Delta Air Lines is prepared to fly the most people over the holidays since before the pandemic began with at least 7.8 million fliers from Dec. 17 to Jan. 3.
“Christmas is going to be one of the busiest times to travel this year,” Hopper economist Adit Damodaran told ABC News. “I would expect it to be very busy. Certainly if you’re at the airports it’s going to feel like pre-pandemic levels of traffic. We’re expecting about 2.2 million travelers a day on average going through TSA checkpoints.”
Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson is projected to be the busiest airport over the Christmas holiday, according to Hopper, with peak congestion on the morning of Thursday, Dec. 23. Atlanta is followed by Los Angeles and Denver as the three busiest airports for the holiday week.
(MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.) — The prosecution wrapped up its arguments in the trial against Kim Potter, who fatally shot 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in April. In its case, the state is zeroing in on Potter’s training as a Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police officer.
Police officers and use of force experts have been called on the stand one-by-one to analyze Potter’s actions.
She is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter in his death. Potter has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Wright was pulled over for an expired registration tab and a hanging air freshener in the rearview mirror, police said.
Potter said she meant to grab her stun gun but accidentally shot her firearm instead when she and other officers were attempting to arrest Wright, who had escaped the officers’ grip and was scuffling with them when he was shot. He then drove away, crashing into another vehicle shortly after.
Prosecutors argued that regardless of her intent, Potter acted recklessly and negligently. She should have known the difference between her handgun and her stun gun, given her more than 20 years of experience on the force, they said.
They are also arguing that Potter should not have used her stun gun in such a situation since it’s against department policy.
Prosecutor Matthew Frank highlighted portions of the training materials that said a stun gun should not be used simply to stop fleeing suspects or on suspects who are operating vehicles. Wright was in the driver’s seat of his car when he was shot.
The defense maintained that Potter’s actions were a mistake but argued that Potter was within her rights to use deadly force on Wright since he could have dragged another officer with his car.
Sgt. Mike Peterson, a special agent for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, took the stand as a state’s witness. He testified that officers should usually take bystanders, nearby officers, and the scene in the background into account when deciding to use a weapon.
Expert: Unreasonable use of force
Use-of-force expert Seth Stoughton, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, testified that Potter’s use of deadly force was inappropriate.
“The evidence suggests a reasonable officer in Officer Potter’s position could not have believed it was proportional to the threat at the time,” Stoughton said on the witness stand.
Stoughton testified that deadly force would have been inappropriate even if Potter believed another officer was in the car — because it could have posed a risk to nearby officers and Wright’s girlfriend.
He said any reasonable officer wouldn’t have decided to use a stun gun instead of a firearm if they thought there was an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm.
In an analysis of the incident, he also said that “a reasonable officer in that situation would not have believed” those threats existed.
How Brooklyn Center officers are trained
Using pages from the manufacturer’s and the department’s training materials as evidence, Frank showed the jury that the dangers of mixing up a stun gun and a handgun are discussed at length in the training and certification process.
Potter was trained to keep her stun gun on the holster of her less-dominant side, performing a cross-draw where the dominant hand reaches across the body for Taser, according to former Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon.
“The policy was: opposite side of your duty firearm,” said Brooklyn Center officer Anthony Luckey, who also testified that Brooklyn Center officers had extensive training on pulling out their firearms and their stun guns. “That way, officers do not get their firearms confused with their Tasers.”
He confirmed that officers practice drawing the stun guns, go through slideshow lessons and perform continuous hands-on training regarding their weapons. In addition, they also go through training as not to confuse their weapons.
Sam McGinnis, a senior special agent with the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, led the jury through the Brooklyn Center department’s training procedures for using stun guns.
On the witness stand, he showed the jury how “spark tests” are done. He did one with his own device, which generated a loud buzz for five seconds as electricity arced across the electrodes.
Based on department policy, spark tests are supposed to be done at the beginning of every shift to ensure their stun guns are working.
McGinnis testified that Potter didn’t test her stun gun on the day she shot Wright or the day before.
She did run the check six out of her last 10 shifts. McGinnis testified that he was unsure of how compliant the department’s officers were with the policy.
Stun gun versus firearm
McGinnis testified about the differences between stun guns and firearms, as well as how they’re supposed to be used. He said that the holsters on Potter’s duty belt require an officer to make specific, deliberate actions to release the weapons.
For instance, the Taser holster has a lever, while the handgun holster is closed with a snap.
“Once the Taser is inside of the holster, it’s retained there by that security mechanism and can’t be brought out again until that is pushed and the Taser’s released,” McGinnis said.
The Taser is a bright yellow color and weighs just under a pound, McGinnis testified. Potter’s handgun was black and weighed over 2 pounds. The Taser and firearm both have different triggers, grips and safety mechanisms that are necessary before they can be used, McGinnis testified.
The stun gun has a laser and LED lights that display before it is fired, and he demonstrated the effects before the jury. The handgun does not have these features.
Stoughton also testified that the dangers of “weapons confusion” are well known.
The defense said it plans on introducing testimony about traumatic incidents, police work and action errors, which defense attorney Paul Engh said will be “about how it is that we do one thing while meaning to do another.”
The defense has cited “action errors” as a reason for Potter to reach for her firearm when meaning to grab her stun gun.
“[Testimony] will tell you in times of chaos, acute stress decisions have to be made when there is no time for reflection,” he said during the opening statement. “What happens in these high catastrophic instances is that the habits that are ingrained, the training that’s ingrained takes over. In these chaotic situations, the historic training is applied and the newer training is discounted.”
Engh said that stun guns have only been available in the last 10 years to the department and this is a brand new stun gun, “whereas, by comparison, Potter has 26 years of gun training. And an error can happen.”
Stoughton said he knew of “fewer than 20” cases since stun guns entered law enforcement departments in the ’90s. Stoughton said stun gun manufacturers have taken several steps to prevent errors, and it’s become a vital part of officer training.
(MAYFIELD, Ky.) — Workers at the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory where eight people were killed by tornadoes last weekend filed a class-action lawsuit against their employer late Wednesday night.
The factory was destroyed when tornadoes tore through nine states, leaving 89 people dead.
The lawsuit, filed in the Graves Circuit Court in Kentucky by Elijah Johnson and 109 other “similarly situated employees,” alleges that the candle factory required them to continue working, even with the threat of an expected dangerous tornado.
One employee claimed she was threatened with disciplinary action if she went home early on the night tornadoes were expected.
The candle factory allegedly threatened to fire any employees that left because of the expected tornado, just hours before it destroyed the factory, the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit claims the factory showed “flagrant indifference to the rights of Plaintiff Johnson and to the other similarly situated Plaintiffs with a subjective awareness that such conduct will result in human death and/or bodily injuries.”
Workers were allegedly not informed of the danger of the incoming tornado nor did supervisors tell them what was “really going on,” according to the court filing.
Mayfield Consumer Products CEO Troy Propes said the company is establishing an emergency fund to assist employees and their families.
The employees are seeking a jury trial, compensation, punitive damages and legal fees, all with interest.
“Management at that factory caused, oversaw, and facilitated a shirking of decency with regard to duties of care, and faithful employees are now injured or dead, two weekends before Christmas,” Attorney William Davis said in a statement released on Tuesday.
Propes told ABC News that the company is conducting an independent review of procedures separate from an investigation by the governor’s office and will review methods and procedures to see that they were properly followed.
In previous news reports, the factory denied that workers were threatened.
“It’s absolutely untrue,” Bob Ferguson, a spokesman for Mayfield Consumer Products told NBC News. “We’ve had a policy in place since COVID began. Employees can leave any time they want to leave and they can come back the next day.”
Ferguson told NBC News that managers and team leaders undergo a series of emergency drills that follow guidelines of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
“Those protocols are in place and were followed,” he said.
He denied that managers told employees that leaving their shifts meant risking their jobs, according to NBC News.
A spokesperson for Mayfield Consumer Products did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
