(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday announced that it has approved Casgevy, the first CRISPR gene-editing therapy for sickle cell disease, paving the way for thousands of patients in the U.S. to receive a treatment that has been described as a “functional cure” for eligible patients.
The FDA also approved a gene therapy called Lyfgenia. Collectively, these two therapies represent two “milestone” treatments for sickle cell disease, according to the FDA announcement.
Sickle cell disease is a genetic condition that affects approximately 100,000 Americans – primarily Black Americans with African ancestry, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Researchers estimate that roughly 20-25% of those with the disease are sick enough that they would be good candidates for the newly approved treatments, which were approved for people aged and older.
Although historic, the new treatments come with significant hurdles and potential risks. The treatment is difficult to manufacture and requires months of preparation for patients and their families. Patients will need to stay in the hospital for several weeks, and will receive preemptive chemotherapy that can place fertility at risk. Because of this, patients will likely be offered preemptive fertility preservation.
Still, in a world with few options, doctors and patients say this is a historic step forward.
“We’ve had nothing in our field for decades,” said Dr. Sharl Azar, Medical Director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Treatment Center at Mass General Hospital. “So this is part of the reason why this is such a large, seismic shift for us.”
According to the CDC, one out of every 365 Black or African American babies born in the U.S. is born with sickle cell disease, which is characterized by abnormal ‘sickle’-shaped red blood cells that can clog blood flow, causing severe pain episodes, fatigue, infections, stroke and sometimes organ damage and other complications. The average life expectancy for those living with sickle cell disease is roughly 52 years old.
The only cure is a risky bone marrow transplant – an option that is out of reach for most patients because it requires a donor match, typically an unaffected sibling.
The new treatments are technically not a cure in the same way a bone marrow transplant would be.
“What we are calling it is a ‘functional cure,'” said Dr. Haydar Frangoul, Medical Director of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Sarah Cannon Research Institute and HCA Healthcare’s The Children’s Hospital At TriStar Centennial. “I think it is better described by the fact that patients do not have any symptoms.”
Many of the clinical trial volunteers who have already undergone treatment say they have a new lease on life.
“I’m literally a different person,” said Jimi Olaghere, an early clinical trial volunteer for the Casgevy CRISPR trial, who was treated at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville. “Before, my life was me most of the time in bed writhing in pain, not present because of all the pain medications.”
Today, the Atlanta-based father of three says he takes joy in playing with his young children, picking them up and driving them to school.
“After this treatment, I have bounds and bounds of energy that I never imagined I’d ever have in my life,” says Olaghere.
The treatment Olaghere received is made jointly by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics and is the first FDA-approved treatment that uses the genetic modification therapy CRISPR. Often referred to as “genetic scissors,” CRISPR technology allows for easier and more precise gene editing than previous methods. The researchers behind the system won the Nobel Prize in 2020.
Rather than editing out the genetic mutation that causes sickle cell disease, the treatment instead makes another edit that prompts the body to start making healthy red blood cells.
The second FDA-approved gene therapy, Lyfgenia, made by BlueBird Bio, works differently, using a virus to deliver new genetic material. Both treatments significantly reduced pain episodes and the need for blood transfusions among patients who were treated as part of the clinical trials.
(NEW YORK) — Fifteen-year-old Jonathan Lubin, who received the CRISPR treatment as part of a clinical trial at New York Presbyterian, says he wasn’t intimidated by a treatment that would permanently edit his genes.
“I mean, it was pretty cool,” said Lubin. “Maybe the upside would be that I got superpowers! You never know.”
Lubin experienced his first pain crisis at 9 months old. Throughout his childhood, he was in and out of the hospital every few months. His parents were fearful he might die.
Since his treatment more than a year ago, he hasn’t had a pain crisis. He’s been able to enjoy his favorite activities, like basketball, playing the drums, and even swimming – an activity that was always out of reach because the water temperature could trigger a pain crisis.
Doctors say the new approved treatments are the first step toward a more hopeful future for patients with sickle cell disease.
“Well, I am very hopeful and very excited,” said Dr. Frangoul. “CRISPR used to be science-fiction correct five years ago, and now it is reality.”
Frangoul says the scientific advances wouldn’t have happened without volunteers like Lubin and Olaghere.
“The heroes of the story are not the physicians or the basic scientists that discovered this. They are the patients that … showed the world that this could be done,” Frangoul said. “I think they are the heroes.”
(NEW YORK) — The temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel ended early Friday, and Israel has resumed its bombardment of Gaza.
The end of the cease-fire came after Hamas freed over 100 of the more than 200 people its militants took hostage during the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel. In exchange, Israel released more than 200 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Dec 08, 12:16 PM EST
Society in Gaza on ‘brink of full-blown collapse,’ UNRWA warns
“Civil order is breaking down in Gaza” and “society is on the brink of full-blown collapse,” warned Thomas White, director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza.
“The streets feel wild, particularly after dark,” White wrote Friday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
He said some aid convoys have been looted and some U.N. vehicles were stoned.
With Gaza under “constant bombardment” and food and supplies limited, the “UNRWA’s ability to assist and protect people is reducing fast,” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UNRWA, said in a letter to the president of the U.N. General Assembly.
“In my 35 years of work in complex emergencies, I would never have expected to write such a letter, predicting the killing of my staff and the collapse of the mandate I am expected to fulfill,” Lazzarini said. “I urge all member states to take immediate actions to implement an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, enforce international law including the protection of civilians, U.N. staff, U.N. premises including shelters, medical facilities and all civilian infrastructure and protect the prospects for a political solution vital to peace and stability and the rights for Palestinians, Israelis, the region and beyond.”
Dec 08, 8:26 AM EST
What we know about the conflict
The Israel-Hamas war has now passed the two-month mark.
In the Gaza Strip, at least 17,177 people have been killed and more than 46,000 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to figures released by Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health and the Hamas government media office.
In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
There has also been a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed at least 257 Palestinians in the territory since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Dec 08, 5:46 AM EST
IDF says 450 targets struck in Gaza over past day amid ‘extensive battles with terrorists’
The Israel Defense Forces said Friday morning that it has struck approximately 450 targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day from the air, sea and ground amid “extensive battles with terrorists.”
“The troops continue to operate to locate and destroy underground tunnel shafts, weapons, and additional terror infrastructure,” the IDF said in a statement.
During operations in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis, Israeli ground troops directed fighter jets “to kill numerous terrorists in a two-hour series of precise strikes,” according to the IDF.
Overnight, Israeli warships “used precise ammunition to strike dozens of terror infrastructure sites used by the Hamas naval forces in the central and southern Gaza Strip,” the IDF said.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir and Morgan Winsor
Dec 08, 4:47 AM EST
Israeli kibbutz confirms death of resident initially thought to be hostage
The remains of an Israeli citizen thought to be kidnapped by the militant group Hamas were identified overnight, ABC News has learned.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced Friday morning that the the number of hostages currently held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip is 137, down from 138.
Be’eri, a kibbutz in southern Israel near the border with Gaza, confirmed Friday morning the death of one of its residents, Dror Kaplun, who was initially believed to be a hostage but was actually killed in the Oct. 7 terror attack. His wife, Dr. Marcel Freilich Kaplun, was also killed in the attack, according to the kibbutz.
-ABC News’ Anna Brund, Jordana Miller and Morgan Winsor
Dec 07, 8:19 PM EST
Video, images show detained Palestinian men stripped down to their underwear
Photos and video circulating online Thursday show dozens of Palestinian men being detained by the Israeli military, many stripped down to their underwear, in the streets of a city in northern Gaza.
In one of the images, dozens of men are lined up against a wall while kneeling with their hands behind their backs and stripped down to their underwear. The same image shows dozens of other men in an Israel Defense Forces truck. ABC News geolocated a sign for a pharmacy captured in the image to the city of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.
A video of the same scene shows a long line of men in their underwear sitting and standing in a line, surrounded by IDF personnel.
When asked about the images and video, the IDF told ABC News that its troops “apprehended hundreds of terror suspects” in Shejaiya, Jabalya and Khan Yunis.
Hamas said in a statement in response to the images that the men were unarmed civilians.
Hani Almadhoun, director of philanthropy for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, told ABC News that several of his family members were detained by the IDF, including his 72-year-old father, brother and 13-year-old nephew.
“They just want the job to feed to provide for their families to make a buck here and there live in a nicer home. That’s all not happening now for them,” he said. “Now they’ve been dubbed as operatives and combatants when they were napping in their homes in the safety of their homes with their kids.”
Almadhoun, who is based in D.C., said he hasn’t heard from them since and doesn’t know how to go about finding information on their whereabouts.
-ABC News’ Emmanuelle Saliba, Kerem Inal, Layla Ferris, Helena Skinner and Victoria Beaule
Dec 07, 6:30 PM EST
Hamas official in Lebanon warns chances of hostage release ‘dwindling’
A senior Hamas official in Lebanon warned Thursday that the chances of another hostage release are “dwindling” and that the detainees will not be returned until “the aggression stops.”
“The chances of their return diminish with the length of the aggression, and their impact may be lost forever,” the official, Osama Hamdan, said in a statement. “The possibilities of their return are dwindling as the aggression goes on and maybe there will be no trace of them forever.”
Nearly 140 hostages are believed to still be held by Hamas, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Dec 07, 4:51 PM EST
White House: Hamas’ refusal to release young women ended cease-fire
During President Joe Biden’s call Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the president noted that “it was Hamas’s refusal to release young women civilian hostages that led to” the end of the multiday cease-fire, according to a White House readout of the leaders’ call.
Biden “reiterated that the [International Committee of the Red Cross] must be permitted to access remaining hostages held by Hamas terrorists,” the White House said, and Biden and Netanyahu “agreed to remain deeply engaged to pursue every possible opportunity to free the remaining hostages.”
Biden also stressed the importance of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Biden “welcomed the recent Israeli decision to ensure that fuel levels will meet requisite needs, but stressed that much more assistance was urgently required across the board,” the White House said.
Biden again noted the need to separate civilians in Gaza from Hamas, the White House said, and the president reiterated his concern about the “extremist violence committed against Palestinians and the need to increase stability in the West Bank.”
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow
Dec 07, 2:40 PM EST
White House: Reports Hamas sexually assaulted hostages are ‘believable’
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said he could not confirm reports that Hamas has sexually assaulted hostages, but he said the reports are “believable.”
“I can’t confirm these individual reports and stories,” Kirby said, calling them “horrific.”
“Sadly, because of who we’re dealing with, we certainly aren’t in a position to disabuse these reports,” Kirby continued. “And the truth is, they’re believable, just on the face of it, because of who these guys are, and what they believe. And because we have heard other accounts from other survivors that have come back and other hostages.”
According to Israeli officials, 138 people are still being held hostage by Hamas. Over 100 women and children have been released.
“We know that Hamas is holding some additional women and children,” Kirby said. “Let’s get the remaining women and children out and get them out from under the jackboot of Hamas and potential sexual violence.”
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow
Dec 07, 2:27 PM EST
Parties ‘not close’ to deal for additional pauses, Kirby says
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told ABC News on Thursday that involved parties are “not close” to a deal for additional pauses to secure the release of hostages.
“Talks are still ongoing, discussions are happening. … I wish I had specific progress to speak to — I don’t,” Kirby said.
“We’re not close to inking another deal on a humanitarian pause,” he said, “nor do I have any news to break here today about the return of hostages.”
“We’re still trying to get as much information as we can about the hostages being held,” Kirby said. “We have some information, as I said before on some of the hostages, because their families are talking to us, and that’s been a terrific source of information and context.”
“We have less information on others,” Kirby added. “But not for lack of trying.”
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow
Dec 07, 1:59 PM EST
‘Promising signs’ in talks to open new Gaza crossing: UN
There are “some promising signs” in the negotiations to open the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into Gaza for humanitarian access, according to Martin Griffiths, the United Nation’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.
“There are promising signs now that that may be able to open soon,” Griffiths said. “If we get that, well, it would be the first miracle we’ve seen for some weeks, but it would be a huge boost to the logistical process and logistical base of a humanitarian operation. It doesn’t mean to say that it will solve the security problems … but it will change the nature of humanitarian access.”
Aid trucks are still crossing daily through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt into Gaza as Gaza’s humanitarian crises worsens, Griffiths said, but many roads along that route have been destroyed, making access difficult.
Dec 07, 11:00 AM EST
More dead than injured arriving at Gaza hospital
For the first time, more dead than injured arrived at Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital on Wednesday, according to Doctors Without Borders.
The hospital has been receiving approximately 150 to 200 injured people per day over the last week. Now, 115 arrived dead at the hospital in 24 hours, Doctors Without Borders said.
“The hospital is full, the morgue is full,” Doctors Without Borders said. “We call on Israeli Forces to stop the indiscriminate bombing of the Gaza Strip and protect civilians and civilian infrastructure. We need a cease-fire now.”
Dec 07, 10:43 AM EST
Egypt intensifies efforts to reinstate truce
Egypt is intensifying efforts with all parties to reinstate the truce between Hamas and Israel as soon as possible, Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service, said Thursday.
Dec 07, 9:00 AM EST
350 killed in Gaza in past day, health ministry says
Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health said Thursday that 350 people have been killed there in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll since Oct. 7 to over 17,000.
Dec 07, 6:28 AM EST
IDF says it’s fighting Hamas throughout Gaza, from Khan Yunis to Jabalya
The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday morning that its “troops killed Hamas terrorists and struck dozens of terror targets” during operations in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip over the past day.
“IDF troops engaged with a terrorist cell that exited from a tunnel shaft, killed two terrorists in combat and struck the shaft,” the IDF said in a statement.
Israeli troops also “conducted a targeted raid on a military compound belonging to Hamas’ Central Jabalya Battalion” during operations in Jabalya in northern Gaza, according to the IDF.
“A number of terrorists were killed as part of the activity,” the IDF added. “Furthermore, the forces located a network of underground tunnels that lead out of the compound, as well as a training area and weapons storage facility in the area of the compound.”
In addition to the ground operations in Gaza, Israeli warships over the past day “struck Hamas military compounds and infrastructure using precise ammunition and firing shells,” according to the IDF.
Dec 06, 9:44 PM EST
Over 80% of people in Gaza have inadequate food consumption, WFP report says
Around 83% of households in southern Gaza suffering from inadequate food consumption, according to a new report from the World Food Programme.
The organization also reported Wednesday that 97% of households in northern Gaza have inadequate food consumption.
As a result, 95% of households are adopting extreme food consumption strategies to cope with food shortages in northern Gaza, the report said, with 82% of households doing the same in southern Gaza.
Dec 06, 5:25 PM EST
US, G7 partners call for opening of Gaza crossings into Israel
The United States and its Group of Seven allies called for crossings from Gaza into Israel to be opened for the transfer of humanitarian aid in a statement released Wednesday evening following a virtual meeting.
“The population is increasingly vulnerable, and with winter approaching, we must continue to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza to meet fully the needs on the ground, including by opening additional crossings,” the G7 leaders said in the statement.
Only the Rafah crossing into Egypt is open, while all of the other crossings into Gaza border Israel and have been closed. The White House provided its readout of the meeting but did not mention this joint call for the opening of additional crossings.
The White House said the leaders “expressed deep regret that Hamas refused to release all of its women hostages and military operations resume.”
“Hamas offers nothing but suffering to the Palestinian people, and it is an obstacle to a better future for them and for the region. We will continue to coordinate our efforts to isolate Hamas and ensure it cannot threaten Israel,” the G7 leaders said in its statement.
Dec 06, 2:26 PM EST
Kids in Gaza share their experiences through art
Children in Gaza are sharing their traumatic experiences from the war through drawings.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it organized the event to help children process their complicated feelings.
The art was displayed in the rubble of a bombed house.
The children’s art included portraits of families and drawings of homes. One showed an injured person in a hospital bed, and another depicted a journalist’s camera and bulletproof vest.
Dec 06, 2:15 PM EST
Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis
Israeli soldiers are fighting for the first time in the heart of Khan Yunis, a city in southern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said.
“The city of Khan Yunis is a terrorist stronghold,” the IDF said. “The entire leadership of the Hamas terrorist organization — both military and political — proliferated in the area of Khan Yunis.”
Israeli troops have eliminated terrorists and their infrastructure in the area, the IDF said. One strike was on a mosque that the IDF said was being used to store weapons.
Dec 06, 1:22 PM EST
UN secretary-general invokes Article 99, calls for humanitarian cease-fire
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday that he’s invoked Article 99 of the U.N. Charter for the first time in his six years as leader.
Article 99 says that the secretary-general “may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”
“Facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, I urge the Council to help avert a humanitarian catastrophe & appeal for a humanitarian cease-fire to be declared,” Guterres said in a post on X.
In a letter to the U.N. Security Council president, Guterres said, “The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region. … The international community has a responsibility to use all its influence to prevent further escalation and end this crisis.”
Dec 06, 12:41 PM EST
IDF encircling Hamas leader’s house: Netanyahu
Israeli forces are now “encircling” the house belonging to Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“It’s only a matter of time until we catch him,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister also said Israel is exerting pressure to allow Red Cross workers to visit the more than 100 hostages still being held by Hamas.
Dec 06, 11:24 AM EST
Biden calls reports of Hamas’ sexual violence against Israeli women ‘appalling’
Editor’s note: This report contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence.
President Joe Biden has blamed Hamas’ refusal to release civilian female hostages for the end of a temporary cease-fire and called reports of women allegedly sexually assaulted by Hamas “appalling.”
“We had a report in the earliest days that Hamas used rape to terrorize women and girls during the attack on October the 7th in Israel,” Biden said, according to pool reports of his remarks Tuesday at a closed-door fundraiser.
“Over the past few weeks, survivors and witnesses of the attacks have shared the horrific accounts of unimaginable cruelty,” he said. “Reports of women raped — repeatedly raped — and their bodies being mutilated while still alive — of women corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them. It is appalling.”
It’s on all of us — government, international organizations, civil society and businesses — to forcefully condemn the sexual violence of Hamas terrorists without equivocation — without equivocation, without exception,” Biden said.
ABC News’ Libby Cathey
Dec 06, 9:02 AM EST
IDF says it struck 250 targets in Gaza over last day amid ‘intensive battles’
The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday morning that its aircraft had bombed “approximately 250 terror targets in the Gaza Strip” over the last day amid what it described as “intensive battles.”
“During these strikes, terrorists from the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations were eliminated, and a number of terrorist infrastructure were destroyed,” the IDF said in a statement.
Israeli soldiers also located “one of the largest weapons depots” in Gaza “near a clinic and a school” in the northern part of the Hamas-controlled territory, according to the IDF.
“The depot contained hundreds of RPG missiles and launchers of various types, dozens of anti-tank missiles, dozens of explosive devices, long-range missiles aimed at central Israel, dozens of grenades and UAVs,” the IDF added. “All of the terrorist infrastructure was found close to civilian buildings in the heart of a civilian population. This is additional proof of Hamas’ cynical use of the residents of the Gaza Strip as human shields.”
Hamas has denied Israel’s claims that it deliberately shelters behind civilians in Gaza.
Dec 06, 7:37 AM EST
US believes eight American hostages remain in Gaza, Kirby says
The United States believes eight Americans are still being held hostage by militants in the war-torn Gaza Strip, according to White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
“We think there’s about eight hostages that are Americans. We know of at least one woman in that group,” Kirby told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.
“We’re doing everything we can to try to get them released,” he continued. “We’re constantly engaged with our partners in the region to try to get this humanitarian pause back in place, so that the flow of hostages can renew.”
Although a temporary cease-fire between Israel and Gaza’s militant rulers, Hamas, ended last week, the U.S. is “still flowing in humanitarian assistance” to civilians in Gaza, according to Kirby.
“And we’re trying to get it up to the level that it was during the pause,” he noted.
When asked about what Israel’s “endgame” might be in its war against Hamas as Israeli troops expand their offensive across all of Gaza, Kirby said: “That’s really something for the Israeli’s to speak to.”
“We obviously want to see Hamas eliminated as a threat to the Israeli people,” he added. “That hasn’t been achieved yet. They’re going after the leadership as best they can. They believe they need to operate in the south. We’ve told them you know we’ll continue to support their military operations but we want to make sure that as they do that they’re factoring in those innocent civilian lives as much as possible.”
Dec 06, 7:16 AM EST
Gaza hospital says it’s ‘besieged’ by Israeli forces
Al-Awda Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip is “besieged” by Israeli forces, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
There are currently 95 employees and 38 patients inside the hospital in the city of Jabalia, north of Gaza City, according to the spokesperson.
Just four hospitals remain operational in the north, according to the Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
Dec 06, 5:32 AM EST
Gaza hospital receives scores of dead, wounded in past 24 hours
A hospital in the Middle Area of the Gaza Strip has seen an influx of dead and wounded arrive at its doors over the last day, according to Palestinian health officials.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health said Wednesday morning that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital has received 73 dead and 123 injured patients in the past 24 hours amid intense bombardment by the Israeli military.
Dec 05, 6:12 PM EST
Over 1,000 Americans and family members seeking to depart Gaza: State Department
More than 1,000 Americans and their family members are still stranded in Gaza, more than a month after the Rafah border crossing first opened to outbound traffic, according to the State Department.
“We know of approximately 1,050 individuals (about 350 U.S. citizens, plus lawful permanent residents and family members of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents) who we are in touch with and who are seeking to depart Gaza,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News, adding it “remains a fluid and quickly evolving situation.”
These figures come a day after State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters that the number of American citizens trying to exit the area stood at 220, and that there were 750 individuals eligible to leave Gaza who had not yet been able to depart.
Dec 05, 3:48 PM EST
State Dept. imposes visa restrictions on individuals ‘undermining peace’ in West Bank
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new visa restriction policy on Tuesday “targeting individuals believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security or stability in the West Bank.”
The policy includes those “committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities,” Blinken said in a statement.
The State Department has already started pursuing initial action against individuals and will designate others “in the coming days,” spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters Tuesday.
The department expects the policy will impact “dozens of individuals and potential their family members,” he said.
During a visit to Israel last week, Blinken said he “made clear that the United States is ready to take action using our own authorities” and that Israel must “take additional measures to protect Palestinian civilians from extremist attacks.”
He added that the U.S. would also continue to engage with the Palestinian Authority to stress that it needed “to do more to curb Palestinian attacks against Israelis.”
ABC News’ Shannon K. Crawford
Dec 05, 3:26 PM EST
Netanyahu says Gaza must be demilitarized through ‘sheer force’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address Tuesday that Gaza must be demilitarized and that he is not ready to accept an international force being responsible for Gaza post-war.
“Gaza must be demilitarized and the only country that can do this and ensure it lasts is Israel,” Netanyahu said. “I’m not ready to close my eyes and accept any other arrangement.”
The prime minister said half of Hamas’ battalions have already been “destroyed.”
Netanyahu also said a tactic of sheer force made sense for bringing home the remaining hostages.
“The only way to bring home the rest of the hostages is through massive military force in Gaza and that’s what we are doing,” he said.
He also criticized those calling for a short war, saying, “I say to our friends who call for a short war, the only way for the war to end quickly is by applying sheer force. So I say stand with us. Stand with Israel. Stand with civilization.”
Dec 05, 1:14 PM EST
State Dept. imposes visa restrictions on individuals ‘undermining peace’ in West Bank
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new visa restriction policy on Tuesday “targeting individuals believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security or stability in the West Bank.”
The policy includes those “committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities,” Blinken said in a statement.
During a visit to Israel last week, Blinken said he “made clear that the United States is ready to take action using our own authorities” and that Israel must “take additional measures to protect Palestinian civilians from extremist attacks.”
He added that the U.S. would also continue to engage with the Palestinian Authority to stress that it needed “to do more to curb Palestinian attacks against Israelis.”
ABC News’ Shannon K. Crawford
Dec 05, 10:43 AM EST
IDF says it has ‘hundreds of testimonies of rape and sex crimes’ from Oct. 7
Israeli authorities say they have collated “hundreds of testimonies of rape and sex crimes” they claim was committed by Hamas militants during the Oct. 7 terror attack.
A document from the Israel Defense Forces details allegations of sexual violence, with “almost all of the testimonies” coming from eyewitnesses and first responders who were present at the scene during or after atrocities, the document states. This is because “virtually all” of the victims of sexual violence were also murdered on Oct. 7, according to the document.
The IDF said the document offers “only a small part of an immense body of information of evidence of Hamas’ sex crimes” and said the evidence “proves beyond all doubt that Hamas and other … terrorists used rape and sexual violence systemically against Israeli women and children,” according to the IDF.
One IDF volunteer quoted in the document described seeing many young women “in bloody, shredded rags, or just in underwear.”
“Our team commander saw several (female) soldiers who were shot in the crotch and intimate areas,” the IDF volunteer said, according to the document.
The IDF alleges that some members of Hamas who were captured and then interrogated also gave testimony that women were sexually abused on Oct. 7.
An Israeli paramedic quoted in the document said they inspected the bodies of two teenage girls who had been murdered. One of the girls “had her pants pulled down towards her knees … and there’s the remains of semen on the lower part of her back,” the document states.
A survivor of the Oct. 7 attack, Gad Liebersohn, quoted in the document said that “for two hours I’m hiding and hearing people getting kidnapped and women getting raped … begging for their lives.”
Hamas, the militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has denied the allegations that its fighters committed sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attack on neighboring southern Israel.
Cochav Elkayam-Levy, the head of Israel’s Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children, has described what she called “widespread rape evidence.”
ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge
Dec 05, 8:57 AM EST
At least two injured after rocket hits Israeli residential building, authorities say
Rocket fire struck a residential building in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Tuesday afternoon, according to Israel’s emergency medical service MDA.
At least two people — a 67-year-old and a 60-year-old — were wounded by shrapnel while standing in the parking lot next to the building’s entrance, according to MDA, which said its staff provided treatment on site and transported the two victims to a nearby hospital.
Dec 05, 6:55 AM EST
Hospital in northern Gaza under siege, health ministry says
Another hospital in the northern Gaza Strip is under siege by Israeli troops, Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health said Tuesday.
Israeli tanks and snipers have surrounded Kamal Adwan Hospital, where more than 7,000 displaced people are sheltering, according to the health ministry. Israeli troops are allegedly firing at “anyone who moves,” the health ministry said.
The power was also cut from the hospital, according to the health ministry.
Dozens of wounded people as well as the bodies of at least 108 who have died are currently inside Kamal Adwan Hospital, according to the health ministry.
There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces.
Just four hospitals remain operational in northern Gaza, according to the health ministry, as medical services in the besieged enclave struggle to deal with the mounting casualty toll.
Dec 05, 6:28 AM EST
At least 30 killed in airstrike on school in southern Gaza, hospital says
Dozens of people were killed or wounded in an Israeli airstrike that allegedly targeted a school housing displaced families in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning, according to local medical staff.
A spokesperson for Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis told ABC News that it had received scores of patients from the scene, including 30 who had died and dozens who were injured.
There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces.
The strike came on the heels of the IDF’s announcement that it would be expanding its offensive on Gaza’s militant rulers, Hamas, across the entire strip.
Dec 05, 1:38 AM EST
‘Nowhere is safe in Gaza’: WHO
The World Health Organization painted a bleak picture of the situation in Gaza on Monday night and called for Israel “to take every possible measure to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, as per the laws of war.”
According to the latest information from the WHO, there are only 18 functioning hospitals in Gaza, with three only providing first aid and the remainder just partial services.
With an increasing number of Palestinians displaced as the war continues, the WHO says, “syndromic surveillance has noted increases in infectious diseases, including acute respiratory infections, scabies, jaundice, diarrhoea, and bloody diarrhoea. Shelters in the south are also reporting cases of acute jaundice syndrome, a worrisome signal of hepatitis.”
The WHO previously said, “syndromic surveillance systems seek to use existing health data in real-time to provide immediate analysis and feedback to those charged with investigation and follow-up of potential outbreaks.”
The WHO warned thousands are likely to be cut off from health care services due to increased ground operations by Israel in southern Gaza. The open hospitals are operating beyond capacity, with the bed occupancy rate at 171% and intensive care units at 221%, the WHO said, based on data from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
WHO workers called the situation at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis “catastrophic, with the building and hospital grounds grossly overcrowded with patients and displaced people seeking shelter.”
The WHO said in a statement Monday night it has recorded 203 “attacks on hospitals, ambulances, medical supplies, and the detention of health-care workers attacks on hospitals, ambulances medical supplies” between Oct. 7 and Nov. 28.
“This is unacceptable,” the WHO’s statement read. “There are means to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, and they should be instituted.”
(NEW YORK) — Five years into a federal probe of his personal and professional life, President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, is facing additional legal exposure in the coming months after a summer punctuated by setbacks.
U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump-era appointee who has since been elevated to special counsel, has indicted the younger Biden on felony gun charges after a plea deal between the two parties fell apart in a Delaware courtroom in July.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy this week said he would initiate an impeachment inquiry against President Biden over his alleged role in his son’s influence-peddling, despite a dearth of concrete evidence.
Here’s a timeline of Hunter Biden’s legal and political scrutiny.
Dec. 10, 2020
A month after Joe Biden wins the 2020 presidential election, Hunter Biden announces that federal prosecutors in Delaware are investigating his “tax affairs.”
A source with knowledge of the investigation tells ABC News that the tax probe began in 2018, but that the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware waited to notify Hunter Biden’s legal team due to sensitivities around the election.
Investigators are looking into Hunter’s business dealings in China and elsewhere, including scrutinizing whether he may have committed tax crimes stemming from those overseas business dealings, sources tell ABC News.
Dec. 21, 2020
Outgoing Attorney General William Barr says he doesn’t intend to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden, as President Donald Trump and others have suggested.
April 2, 2021
In a new memoir, Hunter Biden addresses many of the topics that emerged as fodder for his father’s political foes during the presidential campaign, including his struggles with substance addiction, his dealings in China, and his seat on the board of a Ukrainian oil and gas firm during his father’s tenure as vice president — a role that later led to then-President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial on charges that Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Hunter Biden’s position on the board. Trump was subsequently acquitted.
The memoir, titled “Beautiful Things,” also offers lurid details as it chronicles the younger Biden’s repeated relapses into drug and alcohol abuse.
March 30, 2022
ABC News reports that the federal investigation into Hunter Biden over his tax affairs has intensified, according to sources.
Sources say a number of witnesses have appeared before a grand jury Wilmington, Delaware, in recent months, and have been asked about payments Hunter Biden received while serving on the board of directors of Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma, as well as about how he paid off tax obligations in recent years.
Nov. 17, 2022
Fresh off the GOP regaining control of the Senate in the midterm elections, congressional Republicans say they’re poised to push ahead with an investigation into President Joe Biden’s family, including Hunter Biden, in the coming session.
Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and James Comer of Kentucky, two high-ranking members expected to helm powerful committees when Republicans take control of Congress in January, pledge to “pursue all avenues” of wrongdoing, calling investigations into the president’s family a “top priority.”
Dec. 21, 2022
Ahead of an expected deluge of Republican probes, Hunter Biden retains high-powered defense lawyer Abbe Lowell to help navigate congressional oversight.
March 1, 2023
Testifying in his annual oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Merrick Garland says that U.S. Attorney David Weiss has been told he has “full authority” to make any charging decisions stemming from the Hunter Biden investigation, even if that would involve bringing a case in a district outside of Delaware.
Garland also says he has pledged to Weiss any resources necessary to conduct his investigation, and has received no reports thus far of the his investigation being stymied in any way by personnel at the main Justice Department.
March 17, 2023
Attorneys for Hunter Biden file counterclaims alleging invasion of privacy in response to a defamation lawsuit brought by Delaware-based computer repairman John Paul Mac Isaac, who they say triggered the infamous laptop controversy in the weeks leading up to the 2020 presidential election.
The counterclaim is in response to an ongoing defamation lawsuit against Hunter Biden and others that was filed in October 2019 by Mac Isaac, who Hunter Biden’s attorney say obtained and later disseminated data from a laptop allegedly belonging to the younger Biden.
April 20, 2023
ABC News reports that a supervisor at the IRS has told lawmakers that he has information that suggests the Biden administration could be mishandling the investigation into Hunter Biden, according to sources.
In a letter to lawmakers obtained by ABC News, the lawyer for the IRS whistleblower says his client is an IRS criminal supervisory special agent “who has been overseeing the ongoing and sensitive investigation of a high-profile, controversial subject since early 2020 and would like to make protected whistleblower disclosures to Congress.”
The letter says that “The protected disclosures: (1) contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee, (2) involve failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of the case, and (3) detail examples of preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected.”
May 3, 2023
ABC News reports that the GOP-led House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena demanding the FBI produce a record related to an alleged “criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national.”
The subpoena seeks an unclassified FD-1023 document, which is generally defined as a report from an informant. The White House denounces the contents of the document as “anonymous innuendo.”
May 16, 2023
Attorneys for the IRS whistleblower inform key members of Congress that their client — along with his “entire investigative team” — has been removed from the probe into the president’s son. The Justice Department defers comment to U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who does not comment on the claim.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announces his intention to initiate contempt of Congress hearings over FBI Director Chris Wray’s refusal to physically turn over the FD-1023 document that Republicans believe is related to President Joe Biden.
June 20, 2023
Hunter Biden agrees to plead guilty to a pair of tax-related misdemeanors and enter into a pretrial diversion agreement that would enable him to avoid prosecution on one felony gun charge, potentially ending the yearslong probe.
According to the agreement, the younger Biden will acknowledge his failure to pay taxes on income he received in 2017 and 2018, until they were paid in 2020 by a third party, identified by ABC News as attorney and confidant Kevin Morris. In exchange, prosecutors will recommend probation, meaning Hunter Biden will likely avoid prison time. For the gun charge, he will agree to pretrial diversion, with the charge being dropped if he adheres to certain terms.
June 21, 2023
U.S. Judge Maryellen Noreika sets a court date of July 26 for Hunter Biden to make his initial court appearance related to the plea deal he has agreed to.
June 22, 2023
The GOP-led House Ways and Means Committee releases transcripts of their interviews with two IRS whistleblowers that they say show that senior Biden administration officials stymied U.S. Attorney David Weiss’ investigation into Hunter Biden. In their testimony, the whistleblowers claim that senior Justice Department officials blocked prosecutors’ attempts to bring charges against Hunter Biden in Washington and California, and refused to grant Weiss special counsel status.
Justice Department officials dispute the claim, saying, “As both the Attorney General and U.S. Attorney David Weiss have said, U.S. Attorney Weiss has full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He needs no further approval to do so.”
June 23, 2023
ABC News reports that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has been given access the redacted FD-1023 document that allegedly contains claims about what Comer calls a “criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.” But Comer tells reporters that reading the document was “a total waste of my time,” as more than half of the document was redacted. Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the Oversight panel, says the Trump-era Justice Department investigated the claims and, “in August 2020, Attorney General [William] Barr and his hand-picked U.S. Attorney signed off on closing the assessment.”
Congressional Republicans have also seized on a July 2017 WhatsApp message in which the younger Biden purportedly threatened a Chinese business associate by invoking his father’s political connections, allegedly writing, “I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight.”
“And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction,” the message continues. “I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”
At the time of the message, Joe Biden’s term as vice president had already ended and he held no political office. But Republicans say the message undercuts President Biden’s claim that he never discussed overseas business endeavors with his son. Ian Sams, a White House spokesperson, reiterates that “the president was not in business with his son.”
Meanwhile, Attorney General Merrick Garland disputes outright the IRS’ whistleblowers’ claim that Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss had requested to be named a special counsel but was turned down, saying, “Mr. Weiss never made that request to me.”
June 26, 2023
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, regarding the IRS whistleblowers’ claim that Garland turned down Weiss’ request to be named a special counsel in the Hunter Biden probe, tells Fox News, “If it comes true what the IRS whistleblower is saying, we’re going to start impeachment inquiries on the attorney general.”
July 12, 2023
ABC News reports that Weiss has pushed back on the IRS whistleblowers’ allegations, writing in a letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham of the Senate Judiciary Committee: “To clarify an apparent misperception and to avoid future confusion, I wish to make one point clear: in this case, I have not requested Special Counsel designation.”
Separately, in an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Christopher Wray is asked by Rep. Matt Gaetz, “Are you protecting the Bidens?”
“Absolutely not,” Wray answers.
July 13, 2023
Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell sends a cease-and-desist letter to Trump’s legal team claiming that Trump’s rhetoric on social media and elsewhere “could lead to [Hunter Biden’s] or his family’s injury.”
“This is not a false alarm,” Lowell writes. “You should make clear to Mr. Trump — if you have not done so already — that Mr. Trump’s words have caused harm in the past and threaten to do so again if he does not stop.”
July 19, 2023
In congressional testimony, the two IRS whistleblowers — 14-year IRS veteran Gary Shapley and IRS investigator Joseph Ziegler, who has previously been unidentified — reiterate their claims that Justice Department officials stymied Weiss’ probe of Hunter Biden.
“It appeared to me, based on what I experienced, that the U.S. Attorney in Delaware in our investigation was constantly hamstrung, limited and marginalized by DOJ officials,” Ziegler says. “I still think that a special counsel is necessary for this investigation.”
July 20, 2023
In an unusual move, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, releases the FD-1023 document containing a confidential FBI informant’s unverified claim that, years ago, the Biden family “pushed” a Ukrainian oligarch to pay them millions of dollars.
The document cites an unnamed source who says that in 2015, Mykola Zlochevsky, the chief executive of Burisma — the Ukrainian energy firm that hired Hunter Biden as a board member in 2013 — claimed that he was “forced” to pay Joe and Hunter Biden $5 million each, apparently in exchange for orchestrating the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor named Viktor Shokin who was purportedly investigating Burisma at the time.
The assertion that the elder Biden, who was then vice president, acted to have Shokin removed in an effort to protect Burisma has been undercut by widespread criticism of the former Ukrainian prosecutor that led the U.S. State Department itself to seek Shokin’s ouster.
A White House spokesperson, responding to the document’s release, says “congressional Republicans, in their eagerness to go after President Biden regardless of the truth, continue to push claims that have been debunked for years.”
July 24. 2023
Under questioning from reporters, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre reiterates that President Biden “was never in business with his son.”
July 26, 2023
Hunter Biden appears before U.S. Judge Maryellen Noreika to formally agree to the plea deal negotiated in June — but during a contentious hearing, Judge Noreika defers the deal after taking issue with the structure of the arrangement.
Noreika requests additional briefings from the parties before she’ll determine next steps. In the meantime, Hunter Biden enters a plea of not guilty.
July 31, 2023
Former Hunter Biden associate Devon Archer testifies before the House Oversight panel, telling legislators that Burisma, through Hunter Biden, benefitted by its association with the so-called “Biden brand” — but that Hunter Biden only provided the “illusion of access” to his father and did not discuss his business dealings with him, according to committee members who participated in the closed-door hearing.
Aug. 3, 2023
House Republicans release the complete transcript of Devon Archer’s testimony before the Oversight panel, which include his recollection that Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone or referenced his father being on the phone in front of business associates “maybe 20 times” in the 10 years that Archer and Hunter Biden were business associates — which included a period when Biden was vice president — but that Joe Biden’s interactions with Hunter Biden’s associates were “not related to commercial business” and that Joe Biden had no involvement with Burisma or took any actions to benefit Burisma or Hunter Biden, according to the fully transcribed interview with the committee.
Archer confirms that he was not aware of any wrongdoing by President Biden, according to the transcription.
Aug. 11, 2023
Attorney General Merrick Garland appoints Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss as special counsel in his investigation of Hunter Biden, after the Trump appointee asked Garland to be appointed special counsel in the case.
Weiss says in court documents filed within minutes of his appointment that plea negotiations have reached “an impasse” and that he intends to drop the misdemeanor tax charges against Hunter Biden in Delaware and instead bring them in California and Washington, D.C., where prosecutors say the alleged misconduct occurred.
Aug. 14, 2023
Attorneys for Hunter Biden say in a court filing that federal prosecutors reneged on the plea deal that would have resolved tax and gun charges against Hunter Biden.
Despite their acknowledgement that the plea agreement on tax charges is “moot,” attorneys for Hunter Biden argue that the second part of the deal — a diversion agreement on a separate gun charge — remains in effect, since it is a separate contract negotiated and entered into by the parties outside the judge’s purview.
Aug. 15, 2023
In court filings, prosecutors for Weiss push back on Hunter Biden’s assertion that they “reneged” on the ill-fated plea deal, and dispute defense counsel’s claim that the diversion agreement on a gun possession charge remains “valid and binding.”
Sept. 6, 2023
Court documents filed by special counsel David Weiss say that Weiss intends to bring an indictment against Hunter Biden by the end of the month, pertaining to the felony gun charge that was previously brought under the pretrial diversion agreement brokered by the two parties.
Hunter Biden’s legal team argues that the pretrial diversion agreement remains in effect.
“We believe the signed and filed diversion agreement remains valid and prevents any additional charges from being filed against Mr. Biden,” says Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden. “We expect a fair resolution of the sprawling, 5-year investigation into Mr. Biden that was based on the evidence and the law, not outside political pressure.”
Sept. 14, 2023
Hunter Biden is indicted by special counsel David Weiss on felony charges that he lied on a federal form when he said he was drug-free at the time that he purchased a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver in October 2018. His legal team maintains that the pretrial diversion agreement from July remains in effect, though Weiss’ team says it’s null and void.
“As expected, prosecutors filed charges today that they deemed were not warranted just six weeks ago following a five-year investigation into this case,” Hunter Biden attorney Abbe Lowell says in a statement. “We believe these charges are barred by the agreement the prosecutors made with Mr. Biden, the recent rulings by several federal courts that this statute is unconstitutional, and the facts that he did not violate that law, and we plan to demonstrate all of that in court.”
Sept. 18, 2023
Hunter Biden files a lawsuit against the IRS over alleged “unlawful disclosures” made by the pair of whistleblowers who accused government prosecutors of mishandling their investigation into him.
Sept. 19, 2023
Hunter Biden’s attorney files court papers seeking to have his client’s arraignment, scheduled for Oct. 3 in a Delaware court, take place via video conference instead of in person.
Sept. 20, 2023
A judge denies Hunter Biden’s effort to avoid appearing in person at his arraignment on federal gun charges, ordering him to appear at a hearing scheduled for Oct. 3.
The same day, Attorney General Merrick Garland, testifying for five hours before the House Judiciary Committee, is grilled by GOP lawmakers about his department’s handling of criminal probes into Hunter Biden and others. Garland pushes back on GOP claims that he’s taken any directives from the White House, saying, “I am not the president’s lawyer. I am not Congress’ prosecutor. The Justice Department works for the American people. Our job is to follow the facts and the law, and that is what we do.”
Sept. 26, 2023
Hunter Biden files a lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani, accusing the former Trump attorney of computer fraud over his role in obtaining and sharing the alleged contents of the infamous laptop. In a statement responding to the suit, Giuliani adviser Ted Goodman says, “I’m not surprised he’s now falsely claiming his laptop hard drive was manipulated by Mayor Giuliani, considering the sordid material and potential evidence of crimes on that thing.”
Oct. 3, 2023
Hunter Biden, appearing in the same Delaware courthouse where his federal plea deal with prosecutors fell apart over the summer, formally enters a plea of not guilty to the three felony gun charges that were part of the original plea agreement.
Nov. 3, 2023
ABC News reports that Hunter Biden is urging the Justice Department to investigate his former business associate Tony Bobulinski over claims that Bobulinski lied to federal investigators during an interview in the weeks leading up to the 2020 presidential election when he alleged that the Bidens had lied to the public about the nature of then-candidate Joe Biden’s involvement in Hunter Biden’s proposed overseas business ventures.
Nov. 8, 2023
Hunter Biden is subpoenaed by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer to appear before the committee, along with his former business associate Rob Walker, President Biden’s brother James Biden, and other members of the Biden family.
Nov. 15, 2023
Hunter Biden’s attorneys file a motion seeking court approval to issue subpoenas to former President Donald Trump, former Attorney General William Barr, and two ex-Justice Department officials for documents they say could shed light on whether the federal gun charges Hunter Biden is facing were the result of “a vindictive or selective prosecution arising from an unrelenting pressure campaign beginning in the last administration.”
Nov. 16, 2023
ABC News reports that special counsel David Weiss is using a Los Angeles-based federal grand jury to pursue the investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax affairs, according to sources. The grand jury has issued a subpoena to James Biden, the brother of President Joe Biden, as part of the probe, a source says.
Nov. 28, 2023
Responding to his subpoena to appear before the House Oversight Committee, Hunter Biden, in a letter from his attorney to Republican lawmakers, says he is willing to testify before the panel — but only in a public forum.
Dec. 7, 2023
Special counsel David Weiss files nine tax-related charges against Hunter Biden, accusing him of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes from 2016 to 2020. The indictment alleges that the younger Biden earned millions of dollars from foreign entities and “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle at the same time he chose not to pay his taxes.”
Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, claims the 56-page indictment includes “no new evidence” and says, “Based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought.”
(NEW YORK) — A Black man whose arrest in Alabama earlier this month went viral on social media is speaking out amid an investigation into the local police department.
“I try to act OK but I am really traumatized. I don’t know how to feel about police now,” Micah Washington told ABC affiliate WBMA in Birmingham, Alabama, on Thursday.
Washington, 24, said he was on his way to pick up his brother on Dec. 2 when his tire “had a real bad blowout.” He said he was on the ground changing the tire when an officer approached him and demanded that he show her his ID.
“I was like, this is not a traffic stop, so why do you need my ID?” Washington said, adding that he gave it to her but continued to question why she needed it.
Cellphone video of the incident, which was obtained by ABC News, appears to show a female officer detaining Washington and using a stun gun on him as she holds Washington against a car.
After she shocks him, Washington begins to cry. She asks him, “You want it again?”
“No ma’am,” he said, according to the video.
Using expletives, the officer then tells him to shut up.
Washington’s attorney, Leroy Maxwell Jr., told ABC News on Thursday that Washington feared for his life during the arrest.
“The only thing that was going on in his mind was George Floyd, George Floyd, George Floyd,” Maxwell said. “Because at one point, [the officer] had her foot on his back while [he was lying] on the ground. And then he was having a hard time breathing. And he was yelling that, and that prompted his brother to start recording.”
The 45-second clip of the incident, which was filmed by Washington’s brother, doesn’t show what led to the arrest.
The Reform Police Department officer involved in Washington’s arrest was placed on administrative leave this week, according to a joint statement released by Reform Police Chief Richard Black and Reform Mayor Melody Davis.
The officer was not named but an arrest affidavit obtained by ABC News identifies her as Dana Elmore. ABC News’ requests for comment to the Reform Police Department were not immediately returned. ABC News’ attempts to reach Elmore directly were not successful.
According to the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office booking records, Washington was arrested on five charges: obstructing governmental operations, resisting arrest, marijuana possession, drug trafficking and ex-felon in possession of a firearm. According to court documents, “ex-felon in possession of a firearm” is not listed.
“It looks like the DA’s office did not pursue that charge,” Maxwell said, claiming that his client is “not a felon.”
Related court records did not show any prior convictions for a felony. Court records also show that the drug trafficking charge against Washington was dismissed.
In a Dec. 4 motion obtained by ABC News, Andrew Hamlin, district attorney for the 24th Judicial Circuit, asked a judge to dismiss the drug trafficking charge, saying that Washington was charged with “trafficking in illegal drugs — fentanyl” but said that further testing “failed to yield a positive result for fentanyl.”
In a Dec. 5 response to the motion, District Judge Lance Bailey dismissed the drug trafficking charge and significantly reduced Washington’s bond from $500,000 to $5,000.
In an arrest affidavit, Elmore claims she found Washington in possession of seven grams of cocaine and fentanyl.
“The claim was that she pulled seven grams of cocaine laced in fentanyl out of his pocket and a gun, so that’s what they charged him with,” Maxwell said. “Once the video came out, all of a sudden, those charges get dismissed because the video clearly doesn’t show her pulling any drugs out of his pants.”
Maxwell said he plans to take legal action on behalf of his client.
“I just want justice,” Washington said, adding, “I would love an apology.”
Police Chief Black and Mayor Davis said in a joint statement that police are aware of the video of the incident, which occurred on Dec. 2, and have asked the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation to investigate.
“The department is in the process of turning over all materials related to this arrest to the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation and has requested a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the arrest,” the statement said.
A spokesperson for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency at the Alabama Bureau of Investigation confirmed to ABC News that the ALEA is investigating the incident.
“On Tuesday, Dec. 5, at the request of the Reform Police Department, Special Agents with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s (ALEA) State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) launched an investigation into a situation involving an officer with the Reform Police Department. Nothing further is available as the investigation is ongoing,” the spokesperson said.
(MANCHESTER, N.H.) — ABC News, partnering with WMUR-TV, announced Thursday it will host a Republican presidential primary debate in New Hampshire next month, just days ahead of its first-in-the-nation GOP primary election.
Held in coordination with the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, the Thursday Jan. 18 debate will take place at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.
The broadcast will come just three days behind the Iowa caucuses, the first electoral test of the GOP primary field, which includes former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
The debate also comes five days ahead of the New Hampshire primary election.
More details about the debate, format, qualifications, moderators, as well as ABC News’ coverage will be announced at a later time.
“ABC News is excited to host this Republican debate with our partners in the nation’s first primary state of New Hampshire,” said ABC News President Kim Godwin in a statement. “Our powerhouse political team has been working hard on this debate to provide our audience with the opportunity to hear from the candidates at this decisive moment in the primary race.”
The first four debates, which aired on Fox, Fox Business, NBC News and NewsNation, were Republican National Committee-sanctioned debates. ABC News’ debate is “subject to RNC guidelines,” according to Chris Ager, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee.
“The New Hampshire Republican State Committee is looking forward to working with our partners at ABC News, WMUR and St. Anselm’s College for a New Hampshire Republican presidential primary debate subject to RNC guidelines,” said Ager in a statement.
CNN also announced on Thursday it will also host GOP presidential debates next month in New Hampshire, along with Iowa.
(LAS VEGAS) — The deceased suspect in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas shooting has been identified as Anthony Polito, 67, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News Wednesday night. Las Vegas police named Polito as the suspect at a media briefing on Thursday.
Polito had applied for a college professorship at UNLV, but was not hired, sources said.
Polito was armed with a Taurus 9 mm handgun during Wednesday’s on-campus attack in which three people were killed, authorities said. The gun was purchased legally last year, authorities said Thursday afternoon.
Sources said investigators have now determined that the victims killed were faculty or staff, not students. Two of those killed were professors, authorities confirmed on Thursday.
During the investigation, authorities determined that Polito had a list of people “he was seeking” at UNLV and faculty from East Carolina University, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Thursday. None of the individuals listed on the list were victims in the shooting, he said.
The suspect was killed in a shootout with police detectives who responded to the scene, authorities said. The gunman fired on police, which is what led them to shoot him, according to preliminary investigative information.
Polito earned a master of business administration at Duke University in 1991, and he received a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Georgia in 2002, according to the universities.
In 2001, Polito started working as an assistant professor at East Carolina University in the College of Business’ Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, according to the university. He resigned from ECU in 2017 as a tenured associate professor.
Detectives have retrieved the suspect’s phone and are examining its contents for clues about what motivated the killer to mount his alleged attack.
Police are also combing his professional writings to determine whether something in those texts could shed light on the events that occurred on the UNLV campus.
Authorities said Thursday the suspect was armed with more than 150 rounds of ammunition
ABC News’ Jenny Wagnon Courts and Kate Holland contributed to this report.
(PONTIAC, Mich.) — Ethan Crumbley is scheduled to be sentenced Friday for killing four of his classmates and wounding others in the 2021 Michigan school shooting.
Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty last year to 24 charges, including first-degree premeditated murder and terrorism causing death.
He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole after a judge ruled that the sentence was appropriate despite his age at the time of the shooting.
The charges of first-degree premeditated murder and terrorism causing death both carry a minimum sentence of 25 to 40 years.
Prosecutors have said there were no plea deals, reductions or agreements regarding sentencing.
Four students — Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; Tate Myre, 16; and Justin Shilling, 17 — were killed when Crumbley opened fire at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021. Six students and a teacher were wounded in the shooting rampage.
Victims will have an opportunity to provide impact statements at the sentencing hearing.
During a hearing to determine whether Crumbley could be eligible for life in prison without parole, Judge Kwamé Rowe highlighted evidence against the teen in which he displayed violence, including Crumbley saying he felt something “between good and pleasurable” when he tortured a baby bird.
“There is other disturbing evidence but it is clear to this court that the defendant had an obsession with violence before the shooting,” Rowe said.
Issuing his decision, Rowe questioned the possibility that Crumbley could be rehabilitated in jail.
“The evidence does not demonstrate to this court that he wants to change,” Rowe said.
“The defendant continues to be obsessed with violence and could not stop his violence in jail,” Rowe added.
Victims of the shooting gave emotional testimony in court during the multiday hearing.
His parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, were also charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter after allegedly failing to recognize warning signs about their son in the months before the shooting.
Both parents have pleaded not guilty and their trial is set to begin on Jan. 23.
During his plea hearing in October 2022, Crumbley admitted in court that he asked his father to buy him a specific gun and confirmed he gave his father money for the gun and that the semi-automatic handgun wasn’t kept in a locked safe.
Days before the shooting, a teacher allegedly saw Crumbley researching ammunition in class; school officials contacted his parents but they didn’t respond, according to prosecutors. His mother texted her son, writing, “lol, I’m not mad at you, you have to learn not to get caught,” according to prosecutors.
Hours before the shooting, according to prosecutors, a teacher saw a note on his desk that was “a drawing of a semi-automatic handgun pointing at the words, ‘The thoughts won’t stop, help me.’ In another section of the note was a drawing of a bullet with the following words above that bullet, ‘Blood everywhere.'”
Crumbley’s parents were called to the school over the incident, saying they’d get their son counseling but did not take him home.
(HEBRON, Ky.) — Two months after Rubi Gomez began working at an Amazon facility in Kentucky, she woke up to a barrage of frantic text messages from her coworkers, she said.
“They were the kind of messages you would get if somebody was in a panic,” Gomez told ABC News.
Managers had confronted employees as they handed out union materials in a parking lot outside the building, checking the same workers’ identification multiple times and alleging that tables set up in the entrance pathway amounted to insubordination, a serious charge that could lead to termination, according to worker testimony and video reviewed by ABC News.
Recounting that hectic day in early November, Gomez said she headed to the scene and took a spot alongside her colleagues, prompting a demand from a manager that she take down the tables. The order frightened Gomez, who said she “wanted to be invisible.” Still, she refused.
The tables violated company policy because they obstructed people entering and exiting the facility, Amazon managers told the workers, the video shows. The workers objected to the claim, saying that their efforts qualified as union activity protected by federal labor law.
Workers kept tabling in support of the union on this occasion and others. Within two weeks, 11 workers had received write-ups telling them that they could lose their jobs if they didn’t stop.
The warnings marked a flashpoint in an alleged surge of anti-union backlash at the facility in recent weeks, workers told ABC News, describing mandatory meetings in opposition to the union, one-on-one questioning of workers active in the campaign, deployment of union-busting employee relations officers, as well as mass emails and text messages sent to employees.
“It’s a massive escalation and it’s meant to have a chilling effect on the union and workplace,” Griffin Ritze, a worker at the facility involved in labor organizing, told ABC News.
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, Amazon Spokesperson Eileen Hards said disciplinary action taken by the company came in response to infractions of company policy.
“These individuals repeatedly refused to follow our policies even after meeting with site managers more than ten times to address the violation and ensure the policies were understood,” Hards said. “This has nothing to do with any cause or group they support, but rather like any employer, we take appropriate action when policies are continually disregarded.”
“We believe employees should have the right to hear, learn about, and discuss important issues that could affect them and their families — and that includes union representation,” Hards added, noting the company believes it can serve employees best by directly responding in the absence of intervention from a union.
“We favor opportunities for each person to be respected and valued as an individual, and to have their unique voice heard by working directly with our team,” Hards said. “The fact is, Amazon already offers what many unions are requesting: industry-leading pay, health benefits on day one, and opportunities for career growth.”
The following account of the unrest at the roughly 4,000-worker facility, located near an airport in Northern Kentucky, draws on interviews with five employees involved in union organizing, as well as audio, video, texts, and messages in the workplace app reviewed by ABC News.
The outcome of the clash between workers and management in Kentucky may hold significance as a bellwether of union activity at Amazon in a moment when the nationwide campaign has encountered difficulty.
Last year, a worker-led independent group unionized a 6,000-employee Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York, the first-ever U.S. union at the company in its history.
Since then, however, the Amazon Labor Union, or ALU, has lost two consecutive union elections at other facilities; and certification of the Staten Island victory remains tied up in legal challenges. A breakthrough in the labor-unfriendly South would indicate a significant resurgence for the ALU.
Workers at the facility began signing up colleagues in support of a union in February, Marcio Rodriguez, an employee at the location, told ABC News.
The union drive, Rodriguez said, featured an array of demands: $30 per hour base pay, fixes for faulty equipment, bolstered safety protections, on-site childcare, overtime pay and non-English translations of workplace materials for the facility’s sizable immigrant population.
Within a month, Amazon started holding mandatory meetings discouraging workers from joining the union, Rodriguez said. “I was in six or seven of them,” he added.
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, Amazon Spokesperson Eileen Hards said such meetings allow the company to inform employees about union-related issues.
“Like many companies, we hold meetings where we talk openly, candidly, and respectfully about these topics and encourage employees to learn more — so they have all the information they need in order to make educated decisions,” Hards said.
Workers used a small table as they signed up colleagues and handed out materials near the building’s entrance, Rodgriguez said. Once or twice each day, management checked workers’ identification badges to ensure that they were employed at the facility and permitted to access the site. But workers were largely left alone, he said.
By October, the union campaign had achieved significant progress, announcing that it had signed up over 1,000 employees, or roughly a quarter of the workforce at the facility.
Amazon’s alleged fight against the union campaign escalated over the ensuing weeks, five workers said.
One day in early November, workers used two large tables for union sign-ups, hanging a banner across the front of the tables that resembled a mock $10 billion check meant to indicate the amount of profit the company had earned in a recent three-month period.
Passersby were asked to place a red sticker on a nearby display board to vote for which workplace improvement they would most like to receive some of those profits, such as the $30 per hour pay floor or on-site childcare.
The frequent identification checks and warnings of insubordination began that day, eliciting the flurry of text messages that brought Gomez to the site, workers said. A manager acknowledged to a group of workers that he had checked their identification five times that day, a video reviewed by ABC News shows.
The company held one-on-one sessions two weeks later alerting each of the 11 workers of a write-up they had received as a result of tabling and the risk of termination if they continued, workers said. Jordan Quinn, an employee at the facility involved in the union drive, said he was walking to the bathroom when a manager brought him into a meeting and asked him questions about his conduct for roughly a half hour.
“I’m kind of scared I could lose my job,” Quinn told ABC News. “That’s the whole thing about intimidation. They want to scare us so we back down.”
The workers have filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency, alleging that the write-ups violate their rights to organize on the job and amount to intimidation. The NLRB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon has policies in place that prevent obstruction of access to promote safety and deliver a positive employee experience, the company said.
Federal labor law protects workers’ right to solicit union support in the workplace while off the clock, the NLRB says.
Last week, the NLRB issued a decision finding that Amazon had illegally retaliated against union workers at its warehouse in Staten Island, New York over their support for the union or participation in union activity. Illegal tactics undertaken by Amazon included interrogating employees, subjecting them to closer supervision and prohibiting them from handing out union literature.
“We disagree with certain decisions within the ruling, but are glad the judge agreed that the terminated individual should not be reinstated,” Amazon spokesperson Mary Kate Paradis told Retail Dive. “We continue to review other parts of the decision and are considering our next steps in light of this ruling.”
Kate Bronfenbrenner, a labor relations professor at Cornell University, said current staff at the NLRB have broadly protected union organizing carried out by employees at work while off the clock but it’s unclear how the board would rule in the dispute over tabling near the entrance of the Kentucky facility.
The tabling at the heart of the dispute at the Kentucky facility appears to have taken place in a non-work area, affording the workers significant protection under federal law, Bronfenbrenner said. However, Amazon my still be within its rights to prohibit union activity in the area if it has not permitted other third party groups to take part in similar activities at the location, she added.
Zooming out from the specifics of that dispute, Bronfenbrenner said, Amazon’s previous posture toward union campaigns leaves little doubt about its approach to the labor drive in Kentucky.
“Amazon is as anti-union as it gets and it has the resources to take it up a notch from everybody else,” Bronfenbrenner told ABC News.
Since the write-ups, workers have held two marches into the management office decrying alleged retaliation against the union. “The more we put ourselves into that setting, the more resilient I feel like we are,” Marisa Krull, one of the employees who received a written warning, told ABC News.
In recent weeks, the company has resumed mandatory meetings with employees discouraging them from unionizing, workers said. On Friday, Rodriguez and Ritze attempted to speak up for the union at one such meeting but were denied entry by an Amazon employee relations officer, according to audio reviewed by ABC News.
“You’ll be eventually asked to come to a meeting but if you haven’t been asked to come to this one, you’re in the wrong meeting,” the officer said, appearing to raise his voice.
“What are you so worked up about?” Ritze asked. In response, the officer said, “You’re right — I’m very worked up.”
Management has also held additional one-on-one questioning with Rodriguez and Ritze for an investigation into alleged violation of the company’s restrictions for workers while off duty, according to audio reviewed by ABC News.
Further spreading its opposition to the union, the company sent a text message on Monday to employees with a hyperlink to a message on the workplace app entitled, “You have the right to say no,” according to a copy of the message.
The message cautioned workers against signing a card in support of the union and urged them to alert human relations if they “ever feel like you are being treated in a rude, disrespectful, harassing bullied or intimidating manner.”
For now, the workers have started signing workers up without a table, they said.
Gomez said she just moved to a new, more expensive apartment counting on income from the job at Amazon. If she loses it, her savings won’t last long, she said. “I would cry a lot,” she added.
At work, however, she continues to talk about organizing with coworkers and wear a union pin, she said.
(LONDON) — A 46-year-old woman has been arrested and charged with murder after a 4-year-old child reportedly drowned in a backyard pool following a two-year investigation into his suspicious death, police say.
The investigation began when police in Mackay, Australia — located in the territory of Queensland approximately 600 miles north of Brisbane — were called to a home on Munbura Road on Aug. 29, 2021, to reports that a 4-year-old had drowned in a backyard pool, according to a statement from the Queensland Police Service.
However, now more than two years after the child’s death, the unnamed 46-year-old woman has been charged with murder after “extensive investigations.”
“After extensive investigations through Operation Tango Anise, detectives will now allege the 4-year-old child died before entering the pool,” said the Queensland Police Service. “Today, December 8, detectives from the Mackay Child Protection and Investigation Unit (CPIU) arrested the woman at a South Mackay address.”
Authorities did not disclose the child’s cause of death but alleged that the pool had nothing to do with how the child died.
The 46-year-old woman was arrested on Friday and has now been charged with one count of murder (domestic violence offence) and one count of misconduct with corpse by interference, according to the Queensland Police Service.
She is expected to appear before the Mackay Magistrates Court later Friday, police said.
The investigation into the child’s death is currently ongoing.
(ATLANTA) — For nearly a month, COVID-19 hospitalizations have been increasing following weeks of decline and relatively low levels throughout the summer, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As of Nov. 25, there were 19,444 weekly hospitalizations due to the virus compared to 15,006 four weeks earlier, data shows.
While this marks an increase of 29.6%, it is lower than the 150,650 weekly hospitalizations at the peak of the omicron wave during the 2021-22 season.
Rates of COVID hospitalizations remain elevated among senior citizens, middle-aged adults and children under age 4, meaning the virus is affecting both the oldest and youngest Americans.
“COVID has not disappeared, although it may have gone from many people’s minds and the top of their attention,” Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told ABC News. “I’m afraid the COVID virus is still very much with us.”
He added, “These omicron variants and subvariants are highly contagious. They’re causing lots of milder illness that does not require hospitalizations. However, there are substantial hospitalizations across the country.”
Vaccine protection waning among seniors
Americans aged 65 and older have the highest rate of weekly hospitalizations of any age group in the U.S., as they have throughout the pandemic, at 13.5% per 100,000 for the week ending Dec. 2, CDC data shows.
Experts said there are multiple reasons for this age group to have high rates of hospitalizations, including age being a risk factor for severe disease and senior citizens having more chronic underlying medical conditions that raise the risk of severe disease.
Another reason is vaccine uptake and waning immunity. While 94.4% of adults aged 65 and older completed a primary series of the original vaccine, 33.3% of adults aged 65 and older have received the updated vaccine, according to CDC data.
“Many people, although they have been vaccinated in the past, have not taken advantage of this updated vaccine,” Schaffner said. “And the protection afforded by the previous vaccinations is now slowly declining. And so, we have a highly vulnerable population whose protection is slowly waning.”
Those aged 50 to 64 have the second-highest rate of weekly hospitalizations by age group at 2.7% per 100,000. Experts said, similarly, this is a group that is starting to see the emergence of chronic underlying conditions that raise the risk of severe illness from COVID.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and an infectious diseases expert at the University of California, San Francisco, said another reason middle-aged and older Americans have higher rates of hospitalization is that the most vulnerable among this group are not receiving treatments like Paxlovid. Reports have suggested that in some states, it’s prescribed in less that 25% of cases.
“It represents a failure of our system to intervene and provide early therapy,” Chin-Hong. “You can’t really just blame vaccinations because there’s a get out of jail card, which is Paxlovid and even remdesivir.”
While only those at risk of severe illness are recommended to take Paxlovid, Chin-Hong said it’s been a relatively underused treatment because some may feel they don’t need the drug or doctors may feel hesitant to prescribe it due to concerns about how the medication interacts with other prescription drugs.
There’s also some confusion about who pays for Paxlovid, Chin-Hong said. While it has been and will continue to be free through 2024 for people with Medicare or Medicaid, people with private insurance may have co-pays associated with the drug now that it will no longer be purchased and distributed by the government.
Young kids also at risk of severe illness
Infants and young children under age 4 have the third-highest rate of hospitalizations by age group at 1.6% per 100,000 for the week ending Dec. 2, CDC data shows.
Although children are less likely to fall severely ill and die from COVID compared to adults, they can get sick enough to be hospitalized.
Schaffner said it’s a fallacy for a parent to think their child does not need to get vaccinated because they are relatively healthy because children can fall severely ill. What’s more, studies have shown that COVID vaccines do decrease hospitalizations among kids.
“It has been very difficult for people to keep two apparently conflicting notions in their mind at the same time,” Schaffner said. “First, everyone knows that children are less apt to be seriously affected by COVID infections than older adults. The alternate concept that is hard for parents to grasp is that nonetheless, young children account for the third most common age group with hospitalizations.”
Chin-Hong said that parents are less hesitant to get their children vaccinated against influenza than against COVID-19. As of Nov. 18, 38.2% of children aged 6 months to 17 years have gotten a flu shot, CDC data shows. Comparatively, 6.9% of children have gotten an updated COVID vaccine as of Nov. 25.
“More than double are getting flu shots,” he said. “So, it’s not that everybody’s saying, ‘No’ to vaccines. They’re being selective.”
While COVID has not followed a traditional seasonal trend like flu, experts say that for all age groups, increases in hospitalizations have occurred during the colder months when people begin to stay indoors, heat is turned up, windows are closed, and holiday gatherings people bring people together — “ideal conditions for respiratory viruses to spread,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
“As people gather for the holidays, it’s crucial to remain vigilant about COVID-19, especially in protecting vulnerable populations like the elderly and infants,” Brownstein continued. “Practicing good hygiene, such as regular hand washing, and staying home if feeling unwell are key. Additionally, ensuring proper ventilation in indoor spaces and considering wearing masks in crowded settings can significantly reduce the risk of transmission.”
The experts also advised the importance of staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations and said it’s not too late to get a shot.
“Seriously, make a plan and do it as quickly as possible,” Schaffner said. “Getting yourself vaccinated and making sure your family members are vaccinated, that’s without a doubt — and I mean, this sincerely — the best present, you can give yourself and give to them this holiday season, and you will help also make your neighborhood and your community safer.”
