National

(NORTH PORT, Fla.) — A police search is underway in a “vast” Florida preserve after the family of Brian Laundrie, the boyfriend of 22-year-old Gabby Petito, who went missing while the couple was on a cross-country trip, said his whereabouts are now unknown, too.

“Be advised that the whereabouts of Brian Laundrie are currently unknown,” an attorney for the family said Friday. “The FBI is currently at the Laundrie residence removing property to assist in locating Brian. As of now the FBI is now looking for both Gabby and Brian.”

Laundrie has not been seen since Tuesday, according to police and the family’s lawyer.

North Port Police said Saturday morning that they are now currently searching for “the vast Carlton Reserve,” a 24,565-acre preserve north of his home in North Port, for Laundrie.

“His family says they believe he entered the area earlier this week,” police said. “More details when available.”

The development was the latest in a case that has grabbed national attention as the couple had been traveling across the country since June in her 2012 Ford Transit van and documenting the trip on social media. Laundrie returned home to North Port, Florida, on Sept. 1 without his girlfriend, according to police.

Petito’s parents reported her missing on Sept. 11 after not speaking with her for two weeks.

In response to the news Friday that Laundrie’s whereabouts were unknown, a lawyer for the Petito family said in a statement: “All of Gabby’s family want the world to know that Brian is not missing, he is hiding. Gabby is missing.”

Petito was last seen on Aug. 24 leaving a hotel room in Utah. The next day, she spoke to her mother, Nichole Schmidt, telling her that their next stops would be at Grand Teton and Yellowstone, Schmidt told ABC News this week.

Schmidt received two text messages from her daughter’s phone in the days after speaking to her, but it was unclear whether they were actually sent by Petito.

Laundrie has been named a person of interest in the case, but he has so far refused to speak to police.

“Many people are wondering why Mr. Laundrie would not make a statement or speak with law enforcement in the face of Ms. Petito’s absence,” the attorney representing the Laundrie family, Steven P. Bertolino, said in a statement Wednesday. “In my experience, intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focuses their attention on in cases like this, and the warning that ‘any statement will be used against you’ is true, regardless of whether my client had anything to do with Ms. Petito’s disappearance. As such, on the advice of counsel, Mr. Laundrie is not speaking on this matter.”

The North Port Police Department said Friday afternoon it had entered the family’s home, where Brian was believed to be staying, to speak with the family “at their request.”

The police later tweeted Friday, “The conversation at the Laundrie home is complete. Once we have the details, a statement will be made. We ask for calm! Please let us work through this and information will be forthcoming.”

It was after that tweet that the family lawyer released the statement saying the location of Brian Laundrie was unknown.

“We’ve been trying to reach the family all week. This is the first time we’ve had communication with them, and now they’re telling us that he’s been gone for essentially the last four days,” Officer Josh Taylor, a spokesman for the North Port Police, said in an interview with “Good Morning America” Saturday.

People had gathered outside the Laundrie home throughout the day Friday, some with bullhorns, chanting “Where is Gabby?” and calling on Brian Laundrie or the family to talk to authorities. Those people were moved from the lawn to the sidewalk as they chanted toward the house.

Brian’s sister, Cassandra Laundrie, spoke to ABC News on Thursday night, saying she had spoken to police about Petito’s disappearance but was mostly learning details from the news.

“Obviously, me and my family want Gabby to be found safe,” she said. “She is like a sister and my children love her, and all I want is for her to come home safe and sound and this be just a big misunderstanding.”

Earlier in the day, the Grand County Sheriff’s Office in Moab, Utah, said Petito and Laundrie did not appear to be connected to the murders of two women at a campground in mid-August. The sheriff’s office said on Thursday it had been in contact with Florida authorities about investigating a possible connection to the double murder.

The two women were last seen leaving a bar on Aug. 13, one day after authorities were called about a disagreement between Petito and Laundrie while they were traveling in Moab.

The couple’s white van had been pulled over after a witness called police about an altercation between the two at the Arches National Park. The couple admitted to arguing and that Petito had slapped Laundrie, according to the report. Both told police that Laundrie had not hit Petito.

There was “insufficient evidence existed to justify criminal charges,” Moab Police Department Chief Bret Edge said in a statement Tuesday.

ABC News’ Alondra Valle, Julia Jacobo and Matt Foster contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A hostess in New York City was assaulted after asking patrons from Texas to show proof of their vaccination status when they entered a restaurant, authorities said.

New York City mandates that those 12 and older seeking to dine indoors show proof of having received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, though enforcement of the policy has largely fallen on front-line hospitality workers.

The incident took place at Carmine’s Italian Restaurant in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan on Thursday evening, according to the New York Police Department. Three women from Texas — a 44-year-old and her 21-year-old daughter, as well as another 49-year-old — tried to enter the restaurant when they were asked for proof of vaccination, according to the police department.

The women then assaulted the 24-year-old hostess and broke her necklace during the attack, police said. The victim refused medical attention.

Authorities have not released the names of the accused, each of whom was taken into custody and given a desk appearance ticket, the NYPD said. The investigation remains ongoing.

“Our goal is to serve our customers great food, offer excellent service and hospitality while keeping our employees and customers safe as we comply with the government-mandated COVID-19 protocols,” a Carmine’s Italian Restaurant spokesperson said. “It’s a shocking and tragic situation when one of our valued employees is assaulted for doing their job — as required by city policies — and trying to make a living.”

“Our focus right now is caring for our employee and the rest of our restaurant family,” the statement added. “We are a family-style restaurant, and this is the absolute last experience any of our employees should ever endure and any customers witness.”

The New York City Hospitality Alliance, a nonprofit trade group representing workers in the industry, called on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to increase awareness of the vaccine requirements for indoor dining, especially to visitors who may be unaware of it, and heighten penalties for noncompliance.

“Assaulting a restaurant worker for doing their job is abhorrent and must be punished,” Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, said in a statement. “We’re calling on the City and State of New York to immediately increase penalties for assaulting restaurant workers in New York City in conjunction with enforcement of Covid-19 protocols.”

Like mask mandates throughout 2020, vaccine mandates have emerged as a hot-button issue in the U.S. even as a global pandemic rages. Despite the urging of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and assurances from health authorities that vaccines are safe and effective, many Americans are still refusing the jab — decisions that likely have contributed to a recent resurgence of virus cases propelled by the highly contagious delta variant.

As of Friday, some 74.2% of the U.S. population 12 years of age and older had received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 63.5% were fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Just last week, the U.S. reached the a milestone: COVID-19 has killed 1 in every 500 Americans.

ABC News’ Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department has announced charges against an Ohio man accused of making threats against a local reproductive health services clinic.

Newly unsealed charging documents allege Carlos Manuel Rodriquez Brime, 25, of making two separate threats via telephone to the Your Choice Healthcare facility in Columbus on April 11.

“My girlfriend is a patient there and I’m going to bring the heat. If she kills my baby, I’m going to kill her,” Brime allegedly said in the first call.

A little over two hours later, Brime called again and made a bomb threat, saying, “My organization will be bringing a bomb to your facility. I suggest you close your doors.”

Brime was charged with one count of violating the FACE Act, which makes it a crime to threaten anyone receiving or providing reproductive health services.

In recent weeks, the Justice Department has vowed aggressive enforcement of the FACE Act in Texas against anyone who levies threats against those seeking abortions or reproductive health clinic workers, after the state’s restrictive law banning most abortions took effect earlier this month.

Brime is also charged with two other counts making threatening statements and making a bomb threat. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, according to the DOJ.

He was arrested Thursday and ordered to remain detained pending further legal proceedings. He has not yet entered a plea in his case and his arraignment is scheduled for next Thursday.

A public defender listed as representing Brime did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

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(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.

More than 670,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.6 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 63.5% 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. All times Eastern:

Sep 17, 11:56 am
125 employees leave Indiana hospital system after refusing vaccine

Indiana University Health, the state’s largest network of physicians, said 125 employees have left after choosing to not get vaccinated.

All workers were required to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 1. Those who didn’t were given a two-week unpaid suspension ending Sept. 14, and those who still didn’t agree to the shot by that point “left the organization,” according to a statement by IU Health.

Sep 17, 11:21 am
Art exhibit commemorating COVID deaths opens to public

An art exhibit commemorating the Americans who died from COVID-19 is opening to the public on Friday.

The exhibit, which will run until Oct. 3, displays more than 660,000 white flags on the National Mall at the base of the Washington Monument.

This is the largest participatory art installation on the National Mall since the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

Sep 17, 10:56 am
Kentucky school district cancels all classes due to increase in cases

Newport Independent Schools in Kentucky has canceled all classes on Friday due to an increase in the number of sick or quarantined students, the district said.

Classes will be virtual on Monday and Tuesday. The district said it plans to return to in-person learning on Wednesday.

Sep 17, 10:44 am
More than 10,000 new deaths reported in US in 1 week

The U.S. recorded more than 10,100 confirmed COVID-19 related deaths in one week, according to federal data. States with some of the highest death tolls are Texas, Georgia and North Carolina.

The U.S. reported more than 1.02 million cases over the last week. This is a major step back in the fight against COVID-19; in June, the U.S. recorded just 80,000 new cases in one week.

Tennessee and West Virginia currently have the country’s highest case rate, followed by Alaska, Wyoming, South Carolina, Montana and Kentucky, according to federal data.

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(WASHINGTON) — On one small, white rectangle is the name of a 29-year-old engineer, on another the name of a World War II veteran, and on a third, that of a 15-year-old — just three of more than 600,000 flags on the National Mall reflecting the devastating impact COVID-19 has had on American lives and the country.

On the grassy expanse near the Washington Monument, the field of flags is being displayed as a part of a chilling exhibition called “In America: Remember.”

Each represents a life lost to the pandemic, and each sits amid a sea of symbolic grief.

This is the second stunning exhibit based on a project trying to capture, the artist said, the “human dignity” behind the mind-numbing numbers.

Back in the fall of 2020, the first featured a then-unthinkable 200,000 flags near RFK Stadium in Washington.

Since then, the scope of the new project has more than tripled as the death toll continues to rise, coming ever closer to the number estimated to have died during the 1918 influenza pandemic, now at more than 667,000 — or one in every 500 Americans.

The exhibit, being unveiled Friday, will stay on the National Mall until Oct. 3.

Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg, the artist, spoke with ABC News as more and more flags were being placed on Thursday.

“It’s really hard to think about the grief that is just embodied by one flag,” Firstenberg said. “And when as you walk amongst 660,000, it’s unimaginable the pain that people have gone through.”

Visitors can stop at a table and personalize a flag with the name of a loved one lost.

Many now also carry messages from across the country submitted on the project’s website, messages to mothers, fathers, siblings and friends. Firstenberg said she hoped it could be cathartic for families not able to hold large funerals or be with family and other loved ones given pandemic restrictions.

Some are to strangers, but fellow Americans.

She recalled one emergency room doctor who traveled to Washington from New York last fall to add the names of 12 patients he lost to COVID.

He then turned around, she said, heading back to start a new shift.

Firstenberg said she hopes the flags, and the sound of them being pulled in the wind, will give visitors “a moment of pause.”

“This is all of our art,” she said, “because it’s when people personalize flags and a complete stranger comes and meets that flag and feels something, senses the grief that is embodied by just that one flag, they created the art, too.”

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(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) — In January, Alaska had the highest per capita coronavirus vaccination rate in the nation. Now, hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, and the state’s largest hospital is rationing care.

Vaccine hesitancy and the delta variant have pushed the state’s fragile and limited hospital system to the breaking point.

Providence Alaska Medical Center, the state’s largest hospital, released a letter to the public Tuesday saying that more than 30% of its patients have COVID-19 and the hospital is rationing treatment.

“While we are doing our utmost, we are no longer able to provide the standard of care to each and every patient who needs our help,” wrote Chief of Staff Kristen Solana Walkinshaw on behalf of the hospital’s Medical Executive Committee. “The acuity and number of patients now exceeds our resources and our ability to staff beds with skilled caregivers, like nurses and respiratory therapists.”

Of Alaska’s 120 ICU beds, 106 were filled as of Thursday — leaving only 14 beds available statewide.

Alaska had a strong initial vaccine rollout, delivering doses to remote areas of the state by helicopters, planes, dog sleds and ferries, with additional support from the Indian Health Service and state tribal health system to vaccinate Alaska Natives. Due to the challenges posed by the state’s vast size, it received vaccine allocations monthly as opposed to weekly, giving it the ability to plan ahead and deliver many doses early on.

But, as in the rest of the country, vaccination rates slowly began dropping off over the summer, stagnating with 56.7% of Alaskans fully vaccinated as of Thursday, according to the state’s coronavirus dashboard.

“In terms of why things went stagnant, it does seem like hesitancy is the main factor behind that,” said Jared Kosin, CEO and president of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association. “It’s not an access issue. The vaccine’s widely available in Alaska anywhere.”

Gov. Mike Dunleavy ended Alaska’s COVID-19 emergency declaration in the spring, and both the state legislature and Dunleavy’s administration have yet to reinstate one even at the pleading of hospitals and doctors.

In a spring mayoral race, Anchorage voters elected Dave Bronson, who has repeatedly said his administration will not enact citywide mask or vaccine mandates.

Bronson reiterated that commitment on Tuesday after an assembly meeting where hospital workers begged for action.

Cases in Alaska have been sharply increasing since August, and the state shattered its new daily case record with 1,068 infections reported Wednesday. As a result, hospitalizations have skyrocketed, reaching all time highs.

And health care experts warn this is only the beginning of a surge that could last weeks.

“It has brought us to the breaking point, and to be totally direct, in many respects we are broken,” said Kosin. “The situation is extremely bleak.”

Alaska runs on a “hub-and-spoke model” of health care, according to Kosin. “If you’re in a more rural area, you’re going to go to clinics, rural hospitals,” he told ABC News. “The idea is, as you need a higher level of care or (have) more needs, you will transfer in, ultimately, to our biggest hub, which is Anchorage.”

Anchorage, the state’s most populous city, is home to the state’s three largest hospitals — some of which offer the only advanced neurological and cardiovascular care in the state. While many people live in rural and geographically isolated areas, those communities still rely on the specialty medical care that can only be found in the city.

As city hospitals have reached capacity and Anchorage residents are forced to remain in their cars or emergency room waiting areas until they can receive care, health care institutions must refuse transfer patients from rural communities, leaving them without what can be lifesaving treatment, Solana Walkinshaw said.

The nearest next option are hospitals in the contiguous U.S. like Seattle, Washington — an over three-hour flight away. Seattle is also experiencing an influx of COVID-19 patients and is trying to help by taking patients from neighboring states like Idaho, which is coping with its most serious surge in cases since the beginning of the pandemic. That leaves very limited options.

Because city hospitals are inundated with COVID-19 cases, they are struggling to provide routine care and emergency services to patients who do not have the virus.

As of Tuesday night, Providence Alaska Medical Center had only a single available bed with 10 admitted patients in need of one, along with patients in the emergency room also waiting for an opening, Solana Walkinshaw said. Three of those patients needed an ICU bed, but the hospital had none available.

Between 80-85% of COVID-19 patients at the hospital are unvaccinated and the same is true of the COVID-19 patients who die, according to Providence Alaska Medical Center spokesperson Mikal Canfield.

The hospital began rationing care Saturday, leaving health care workers to decide which patients get care and which ones have to wait. The staff is demoralized, Solana Walkinshaw said, with some breaking down in tears, sad and frustrated over the situation they find themselves in.

“People are struggling, working as hard as they can and having to make these decisions is probably some of the hardest things people have done in their careers,” she said.

While rural Alaska has experienced a stark increase in coronavirus cases, with some communities seeing the worst outbreaks on record, rural health providers are not being hit as hard with COVID-19 patients, Kosin said.

That’s due to the smaller populations outside of the city, the fact that the COVID-19 patients in the most serious condition are sent to Anchorage and because some of the villages have very high vaccination rates.

The bigger problem for rural institutions is that they are being tasked with caring for non-COVID-19 patients they would typically transfer to Anchorage.

At Tuesday’s city assembly meeting, a group of health care workers from hospitals across Anchorage pleaded for residents to wear masks and get vaccinated.

Leslie Gonsette, an internal medicine hospitalist at Providence Alaska Medical Center, came to testify at the meeting during her hospital shift. One of her patients, who does not have COVID-19 and is vaccinated, was in critical condition and in need of an ICU bed, she said.

“I called my colleagues in the ICU, and I explained, ‘My patient is going to probably die. I need an ICU bed,'” she said. “And the answer I got was, ‘We are doing our best. We do not have a bed.'”

Bronson’s office released a statement after the meeting.

“My administration has been clear since the beginning that we will not mandate masks or vaccines,” it said. “If someone wants to wear a mask or get a vaccination that’s their personal choice. But we will not violate the privacy and independent health care decisions of our citizens in the process.”

Alaska’s health care providers, however, are left worrying about the kinds of choices they will be left with.

“Rationing care will take on a whole new meaning than it does today,” Kosin said. “I think it’s going to lead to the types of decisions you can’t imagine a person having to make.”

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(WASHINGTON) — When President Joe Biden visited Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, he promised a key form of federal aid to those dealing with the lingering effects of the storm, but weeks after landfall getting that financial help has been easier said than done.

The money would go straight into survivors’ bank accounts “so that they can deal immediately with emergencies,” Biden said Sept. 3.

Ida roared ashore near Port Fourchon as a Category 4 hurricane on Aug. 29, wiping out homes and flooding entire neighborhoods. At least 26 people died in Louisiana.

But access to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s critical needs assistance program, designed to provide $500 checks for individuals with lifesaving needs, has been difficult in many of the affected areas.

FEMA defines critical needs as “life-saving and life-sustaining items including, but not limited to: water, food, first aid, prescriptions, infant formula, diapers, consumable medical supplies, durable medical equipment, personal hygiene items and fuel for transportation.”

But weeks after the storm, getting access to those items is still a challenge, and has left some residents who say they have urgent needs confused about why they have not received the federal aid mentioned by Biden.

Melinda Bernard, 34, is among the Ida survivors who has not received the $500 deposit, despite requesting it.

Her family stayed at their home in Houma, Louisiana, when Ida hit as they couldn’t find safe lodging to accommodate them and their pets. They were without power for 15 days, she said.

“Everything was booked. We refused to leave our animals so we stayed home,” she said.

Bernard said she wasn’t anticipating the burden of Ida’s lasting effects, and in an effort to be honest, marked “no” on the FEMA application when asked if she was in immediate need. But as power outages lingered, Bernard was forced to run her generator to power her home, especially because her son, who has asthma, sometimes needs a nebulizer, particularly in hot weather.

Costs added up. Her generator failed and she was forced to replace it.

“Due to the difficulty of finding available gas, we chose to ration the fuel we had,” she said.

In a phone call to a FEMA disaster assistance hotline, a representative told her she couldn’t amend her application, and that she should visit a local food bank for assistance.

A Sept. 14 tweet from FEMA read, in part, “if you are not eligible, this program does not have an appeal process.”

When asked to confirm whether an application marked ineligible can be appealed, FEMA Public Affairs Director Jaclyn Rothenberg said she stood by the agency’s tweet.

Rothenberg said there had been more than 640,000 applications in Louisiana in connection with Ida, and 65% had received critical needs assistance funding.

“Most people are getting the funds they apply for,” she said.

In the Louisiana parish of Tangipahoa, parish President Robby Miller said he applied for the $500 promoted by Biden in the wake of Ida, like many others there. He said on Sept. 15 that he still hadn’t received it, and wasn’t alone.

“I’ve only heard of a handful that have gotten it,” he said.

Miller added that the process of applying for the various forms of aid offered by FEMA confounded him and other parish residents.

“I would say that the messaging and the communication of what is actually available to our citizens, when it will be available, has been rather confusing,” he said.

Danielle Craig, 45, lives in Hammond, on the border of Tangipahoa and Livingston parishes, and was among those displaced by Ida. She and her husband fled their home for nearly two weeks. She said the damage to her community was “unlike anything I have ever seen.”

The widespread destruction in Hammond included roofs ripped from buildings and downed trees lining the streets.

Craig’s husband is diabetic, and needed refrigeration for his insulin, so they stayed with friends for nearly two weeks — wherever they could find electricity.

Water leaked into their damaged home, then black mold began to line the walls and ceilings.

Craig said she tried to apply online for aid from FEMA, but couldn’t confirm her address in its system. When she called, she said a representative told her their home would need to be inspected first. Nobody has showed up, Craig said.

And while she was told she’d receive the $500 promised by Biden, the money hasn’t appeared. After hours on hold, a FEMA representative told her to be patient.

FEMA officials have committed to an equitable process in terms of the allocation of federal aid, and have encouraged applicants who were not offered critical needs assistance to explore other options, including individual assistance.

Rothenberg said FEMA is “improving access to disaster assistance for underserved communities,” including by expanding the criteria for applicants to show they have expenses related to their homes.

Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., announced Sept. 10 that FEMA had granted a 10-day extension to the original deadline to apply for assistance after, his spokesperson said, constituents reported difficulty accessing aid due to long hold times on FEMA phone lines. The new deadline to apply for Critical Needs Assistance is Sept. 22.

But despite the extension, some, like Craig, are still waiting for aid they say they urgently need.

“You can only be so patient after weeks of damage and nobody’s done anything,” she said.

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(NEW YORK) — By early next year, all eligible students attending a Los Angeles public school will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The school district is the largest in the country to mandate the shot — which joins a list of other vaccines already required to attend school that protect against highly contagious diseases.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have vaccine requirements for children to attend school and child care facilities, including laws around allowable exemptions.

Massachusetts became the first state to enact a school vaccination requirement in the 1850s for the smallpox vaccine — the first immunization developed against a contagious disease — according to a publication by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other states followed suit, and by the 1980-1981 school year, all states had vaccination requirements for students entering the classroom, the CDC said.

Children in close proximity with poor ventilation and hygiene practices can lead to “transmission events,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.

“This is why vaccine mandates in schools have been super important,” Brownstein said. “They create a safe environment where you can recognize that you will not have transmission of a wide range of infectious diseases like measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough.”

The mandates have been “very successful” in preventing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, he said.

Thanks to vaccination efforts, many highly contagious diseases that were once common, such as measles, mumps, whooping cough (aka pertussis) and chickenpox, are now rare, while polio and smallpox have been eradicated in the U.S. Routine child vaccination is estimated to prevent 936,000 premature deaths and 419 million illnesses in American children born between 1994 and 2018, according to the CDC.

Vaccine mandates for child care and schools vary by state. All require vaccines that protect against polio, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles and rubella, according to the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), a vaccine education and advocacy organization. Nearly all states require vaccines that protect against mumps, chickenpox, hepatitis B and pneumococcal disease.

Vaccines that aren’t widely required by states include ones for the flu, hepatitis A, rotavirus and HPV, according to IAC. The U.S. stopped routine vaccination for smallpox — which has been eradicated globally — in the 1970s.

“Precedents have been set that you can protect your community by requiring school vaccination requirements,” L.J Tan, chief policy and partnerships officer for IAC, told ABC News.

For the 2019-2020 school year, about 95% of children in kindergarten in the U.S. had received the DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis), MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) and varicella (chickenpox) vaccines, according to the CDC, with roughly 5% exempt from or not up to date on certain doses.

The agency has observed a decrease in vaccination rates during the pandemic, as COVID-19 has disrupted school and routine well visits for many families. There was a 14% drop in public sector vaccine ordering in 2020-2021 compared to 2019, and measles vaccine ordering decreased by over 20%, the CDC reported.

The decline in routine pediatric immunizations has been very concerning for public health experts.

“Whenever we have a decrease in coverage, that could be an opportunity for these infections to reemerge and cause outbreaks — and one of the most obvious, recent examples is measles,” Dr. Flor Munoz, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told ABC News.

In 2019, the U.S. saw its largest measles outbreak in 25 years, with 1,282 cases confirmed in 31 states, mostly among people not vaccinated against the virus, according to the CDC.

It’s especially important that children stay up-to-date on vaccines as many return to in-person learning and routine activities, Munoz said.

“All of these other diseases that are vaccine-preventable can reemerge at any time,” Munoz said. “Vaccination is the easiest way and the best way to prevent any of these potentially serious infections.”

Pediatric COVID-19 rates have reached record levels in the U.S. as students return to school. In the last two weeks, nearly half a million children have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the latest report on pediatric coronavirus cases from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is authorized for people as young as 12 and approved by the Food and Drug Administration for those ages 16 and up. The pharmaceutical company has said it plans to submit vaccine safety data on 5- to 11-year-olds to the FDA by the end of September.

Currently, no state requires the COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12 and older for school entry, though some are mandating it for certain state employees and many colleges are requiring it for students.

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education last week approved a mandate that students ages 12 and up be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 10, 2022, to attend class in-person. At this time, the school district said it is not requiring booster shots, which the Biden administration is planning to be made available as soon as next week for the general public at least eight months after their second dose.

Beyond Los Angeles, nearby Culver City is mandating that public school students get the vaccine this school year, and two San Francisco Bay Area districts are considering the same. More school districts may likely follow suit, creating a “domino effect,” Brownstein said, especially as younger children become eligible to get the vaccine.

“A safe vaccine that can prevent transmission, protect our kids and ensure that they can stay in in-person learning actually makes a lot of sense,” he said. “And there’s historical precedent for doing so.”

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(MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.) — Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murder in George Floyd’s death, pleaded not guilty Thursday for allegedly violating the civil rights of a 14-year-old in 2017.

This indictment alleges that Chauvin deprived the teenager of his right to be free of unreasonable force. The indictment claims that Chauvin held the teen by his throat, hit him on the head with a flashlight and then kneeled on his neck and upper back as the teen was handcuffed and no longer resisting.

The restraint was similar to the one he used on Floyd and resulted in bodily injury for the teen, according to the indictment.

This teenager, like Floyd, is Black.

At least 18 complaints had been filed against Chauvin during his 19-year tenure with the Minneapolis police department, according to department records.

Floyd was killed in May 2020 after he was placed under arrest on the suspicion that he was using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes at a convenience store.

In the Floyd murder trial, prosecutors presented evidence of Chauvin’s history of restraining people by kneeling on their neck or upper back — highlighting eight different incidences to the judge.

In Floyd’s death, Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes. He was sentenced to 22 and-a-half-years in prison.

Judge Peter Cahill rejected Chauvin’s request for a new trial in June.

Chauvin and his fellow former officers Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao have also been charged with violating Floyd’s constitutional rights in ways that “resulted in bodily injury to, and the death of, George Floyd,” according to the federal grand jury indictment.

They all pleaded not guilty.

Lane, Kueng and Thao also face a state trial on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. They have also entered not guilty pleas on these charges.

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(NEW YORK) — Nicholas is stalling over the Gulf Coast, dropping dangerous amounts of rain over areas still recovering from previous storms.

Flash flood watches are in effect through Friday in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

Ten to 11 inches of rain has already inundated Alabama and Mississippi with more rain on the way.

The heaviest rain will be from Mississippi to Alabama to Florida over the next 24 hours.

New Orleans will continue to see showers and a few thunderstorms with another 1 to 2 inches of rain possible.

Slow-moving Nicholas is an especially dangerous threat for Louisiana, which is still recovering from deadly Hurricane Ida and other devastating storms in 2021 and 2020.

As of Tuesday, about 87,000 customers in Louisiana were still without power from Hurricane Ida, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said.

Double state of emergency looks like THIS… a flash flood watch from #Nicholas on top of 17 day old #Ida damage here in LaPlace, Louisiana… pic.twitter.com/K5nu6FEuri

— Ginger Zee (@Ginger_Zee) September 15, 2021

Over 1,000 Louisiana residents remain at shelters in the wake of Ida, he said Tuesday.

The governor requested an emergency federal declaration, which was granted by President Joe Biden.

Before heading to Louisiana, Nicholas first struck the Houston area with over 6 inches of rain, shuttering schools.

In the Houston area, 460,000 customers were without power at the height of the storm early Tuesday, according to CenterPoint Energy. About 300,000 customers saw their power return by Tuesday evening.

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