(NEW YORK) — The monkeypox outbreak continues to grow globally with over 14,000 cases in the U.S. alone, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Rosamund Lewis, the World Health Organization’s Technical Lead for the monkeypox outbreak, spoke with “ABC News Live” Thursday about the latest updates and what health agencies are doing to combat the spread.
ABC NEWS: Thank you so much for your time tonight, Dr. Lewis. Big picture is the World Health Organization’s thinking about declaring monkeypox a pandemic.
LEWIS: At the moment, the situation is that there are 38,000 cases of monkeypox in the world reported.
It certainly is a concerning figure that the number of cases continues to rise. On the 23rd of July of this year, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern. This is under the international health regulations, and it is the highest level of alert the WHO can already declare. So, we are on alert and doing everything possible.
ABC NEWS: So focusing a little bit on the U.S., [which] accounts for about a third of all cases worldwide. Why do you think that is?
LEWIS: There are a number of countries that have concerning situation. So, at the moment there are other countries in the Americas that are also seeing steep increases in the number of cases. And part of that may be the spread of the virus. Another component may be increasing access to testing. There are countries in Europe that began their outbreak earlier and they are already beginning to see some sort of leveling off of the new cases being reported.
ABC NEWS: Dr. Lewis, when you speak about control, 98% of the cases have been among men, almost all of whom are men who have sex with other men. How can you balance the need to warn gay men that they’re at higher risk without stigmatizing them?
LEWIS: It’s a really fine line to walk and it’s a really most important question, so thank you for that. It’s the most important work that any public health agency can be doing right now and working with community organizations of people who are affected by this outbreak. Contributing to stigma is not a solution and not for anyone. Because what happens with that is it actually undermines the outbreak response. Contributing to stigma, in any way, may drive people away from testing, [and] drive people away from seeking vaccines. They may even drive people away from seeking care. And so in that way, the outbreak can continue to spread.
ABC NEWS: To your point that all segments of the population feel supported, we would like to do a quick rapid fire round through some of the common questions that people may have. I hope you’re okay with that. First up, can the virus be spread among people with no symptoms?
LEWIS: This is something we don’t know yet. We do know that people can have infection without symptoms, but it is not yet known whether they can spread it at that time. That’s another area that we’re monitoring very closely.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Can you get infected twice?
LEWIS: This has occurred. People have been infected more than once. We don’t know yet how often this might happen.
ABC NEWS LIVE: And what are the first signs of infection?
LEWIS: So the first symptoms have been fever, feeling unwell, backache, muscle aches, and then followed by a rash. And now we’re seeing right now sometimes that is flipped around. Sometimes people are having a rash and then followed by fever or other symptoms, and the rash can be milder or can be more severe. We are basically seeing a whole range of how this disease can present right now.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Lastly, Dr. Lewis, with schools starting across the globe, there is a concern about cases starting to spread more among children. What do people need to know in that context?
LEWIS: So this pattern, as you described, has been very consistent. And the folks who are at higher risk and need to figure out what information, they need to protect themselves are people who are having predominantly multiple sexual partners.
It doesn’t have to be only men. It can be other groups who may be having active sexual activities with people that they don’t know so well or in situations where they’re multiple partners at once. So this could happen on a college campus, for example. Obviously, we’re talking about young people here.
The risk to children is really quite low at the moment because the spread in general population has not really manifested; it’s not taken off. We have seen some children exposed in different ways, but the numbers are really very small at the moment. Usually, that happens in a household setting and that is typical. That is very common.
It’s always been known that people can transmit through hugging, kissing, whether that be household members who also share towels, for example. And so historically, for monkeypox, that has been described as the mode of transmission-close proximity in the household.
(NEW YORK) — Some of New York City’s area have less than 60% of kids fully vaccinated against polio, according to data from the city’s Department of Health.
Just last week, officials found traces of the poliovirus in the city’s wastewater system. Officials believe the virus has been in the system since April.
This comes after an unvaccinated Rockland County man tested positive for polio and displayed symptoms of paralysis.
According to the DOH data, the Williamsburg, Battery Park City and Bedford-Stuyvesant/Ocean Hill/Brownsville zip codes all report a vaccination level under 60% for children 6 months to 5 years of age.
The Brooklyn neighborhoods that show low vaccination rates in young kids are linked to the Hasidic Jewish populations that have become increasingly adamant against vaccinations, experts say.
The overall New York City polio vaccination rate for that age group is 82.6%, according to the DOH.
Experts say the rates in low-vaccinated neighborhoods are alarming because unvaccinated populations will allow a greater spread, opening the way for more severe cases.
Adam J. Ratner, director of pediatric infectious diseases at NYU Langone Health, told ABC News that 75% of those infected with polio have no symptoms. Another 20-25%, he said, will experience mild symptoms such as fatigue or low fevers. Less than 1% of polio cases are paralytic, according to the CDC.
Because of the rarity of the Rockland County case, experts believe many individuals must have been infected in the area to lead to the paralytic case.
“When we see one case of paralysis, that very likely means that several hundred people have actually been exposed and infected with the polio virus,” Roy M. Gulick, chief of the Weill Cornell Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases, told ABC News.
New York state has some of the strictest vaccination requirements for schools across the nation. In 2019, the state eliminated all nonmedical exemptions for required vaccinations in schools, including the three-dose vaccination for polio.
So, how are so many young children in New York City unvaccinated?
Experts say there are two main factors: the COVID-19 pandemic and the spread of misinformation.
The pandemic had multiple effects on vaccination status, according to experts, including the fact that kids weren’t physically in school, so vaccination enforcement was essentially paused, and that parents weren’t taking their kids to the doctor for routine checkups and immunizations due to lockdowns.
Ratner said that despite the harsher requirements established in 2019, many communities are still playing “catch-up,” particularly because parents faced less pressure to take their kids to the doctor for routine vaccinations during remote learning.
Part of why today’s parents are not so worried about getting their kids vaccinated is because people have forgotten how terrible the virus actually is, Ratner and Gulick both said.
Practically all adults in the U.S. are vaccinated against polio because their parents watched the destruction of rampant polio in the 1950s, Gulick said.
“People may have heard of it, but others will have not,” Gulick said. “It’s the older people who remember it well, about how transmissible it was, the fear of getting polio and the dreaded complications in terms of paralysis.”
Parents today take the vaccine for granted, Gulick said. The other part, though, is misinformation.
“I’m thinking specifically of Orthodox Jewish communities in in Brooklyn, where there are some Orthodox Jewish groups that have very high levels of vaccine hesitancy,” Ratner said. “I think that the Orthodox Jewish community has unfortunately been directly targeted by anti-vaccine groups that have spread misinformation in the community, which is unfortunate.”
Walter Orenstein, a polio expert at Emory University and former director of the United States’ National Immunization Program, told ABC News that these communities have been plagued by anti-vaccination groups spreading allegations of danger with vaccines.
Orenstein said it’s all about finding “the right messenger to give the right message” when it comes to battling misinformation.
“We need to work with them, to better understand what vaccines are, how they work and all the efforts that are made to assure they’re not only effective, but safe before they’re made available,” Orenstein said.
Ratner said it’s essential for parents to understand that it is a dangerous choice to not vaccinate their kids against polio, both for those children and for their communities.
If these low-vaccinated communities do not decide to start vaccinating their children, paralytic cases will increase, Ratner said.
(NEW YORK) — A Spanish “stonehenge” has reemerged amid the country’s devastating drought, officials said.
The historic marvel, officially called the Dolmen of Guadalperal, has only been visible four times, according to officials.
Experts believe the striking circle of dozens of megalithic stones has existed since 5000 BC. However, it was first discovered by German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier in 1926 before it became flooded in 1963 due to a rural development project under Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.
Now, the structure sits in a corner of the Valdecanas reservoir located in the country’s central province of Caceres.
As Spain faces its worst drought in 60 years, officials say the water level in the reservoir has dropped to 28% capacity.
“It’s a surprise, it’s a rare opportunity to be able to access it,” archaeologist Enrique Cedillo from Madrid’s Complutense University told Reuters.
The structure itself has an unknown creator, experts say.
Dolmens are vertically arranged stones that usually support a flat boulder or capstone, according to the New World Encyclopedia. How they became erected, however, remains a mystery.
Because it is common to find human remains near or in dolmens across Europe, it is believed that the structures served as tombs, New World Encyclopedia said.
The dolmen was last visible in 2019, when Europe was facing a drought, NASA said. This 2019 drought was the first time the entire structure became visible since it was flooded in 1963, according to NASA.
A petition by Asociación Raíces de Peraleda was posted on Change.org in 2019 to have the structure moved from the reservoir. As of Thursday, it has over 45,000 signatures.
“It is a megalithic dolmen of great value that is now, for the first time, and who knows if it will be the last, fully accessible,” the petition reads.
The petition continues to read that the association launches a “voice of alarm” to officials to move the dolman, in order to “rescue” it and take “advantage of the current circumstances since it is still well preserved.”
The petition states that the structure is deteriorating, as the rock has become porous and is cracking in some areas. It warns that if the structure is not moved, it may not be strong enough to move in the future.
The Iberian peninsula where the dolman lives is at its driest in 1,200 years, with winter rains expected to diminish further, a study published by the Nature Geoscience journal stated.
(FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that state officials have criminally charged 20 people for voting while ineligible during the 2020 general election. The alleged fraudsters are now being arrested, DeSantis said, the highest-profile move yet by the newly minted Florida office tasked with policing voting.
Flaunting the Office of Election Crimes and Security, rolled out in early July, DeSantis said during a press conference that the individuals were convicted of murder or felony sex offenses, which by Florida law stripped them of their right to vote.
“Yet they went ahead and voted anyways. That is against the law, and now they’re going to pay the price for it,” DeSantis said at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale.
The announcement comes just days before the state’s primary election on Aug. 23. Some voting rights groups have spoken out against the introduction of the new voting office, suggesting it might intimidate voters and slow turnout at the polls.
DeSantis said the “real protections for voter integrity” will be “live” on the ballot on Aug. 23, when voters hit the polls to cast their ballots in Florida’s primary election.
“Our new election crimes office has sprung into action to hold individuals accountable for voter fraud. Today’s actions send a clear signal to those who are thinking about ballot harvesting or fraudulently voting. If you commit an elections crime, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.
Those charged now face third-degree felonies, up to a $5,000 fine and a maximum of 5 years in prison.
DeSantis said during the press conference that some local prosecutors might be slow to uptake and litigate election crimes. But now, with the election policing unit, Attorney General Ashley Moody and the state office, which was approved earlier this year by the GOP-controlled legislature, can bring the cases directly.
“As elected leaders, it is incumbent on us to ensure free and fair elections and instill confidence in the voting process,” Moody said at the press conference on Thursday.
“No voting system can stand without the backing and confidence of the people it serves, and thanks to Governor DeSantis, we are reinforcing that trust, and Florida’s elections system will serve as the standard-bearer for the rest of the nation.”
DeSantis’ announcement also comes on the heels of news that Andrew Warren, a Democratic Tampa Bay-area state attorney who was suspended by DeSantis earlier month, would be suing him.
Moody was also present at a press conference held by DeSantis earlier this month when the governor announced the suspension of Warren, who said he would not prosecute abortion crimes.
Warren announced on Wednesday that he’s suing the governor, claiming his removal from office violated his First Amendment rights. Warren called his suspension “political theater” on the part of DeSantis, who has long been seen as a potential contender for the White House in 2024.
On Sunday, DeSantis traveled to Arizona to speak at a Turning Point USA conference in support of Donald Trump-backed Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters and GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake. He visited Carlsbad, New Mexico earlier in the day– both appearances part of a larger tour of battleground states ahead of a hotly contested midterm cycle. DeSantis will resume a national rally tour on Friday in Pennsylvania.
DeSantis also said on Thursday that his Office of Elections Integrity and Security is looking into other classes of fraud and is slated to pursue people who cast multiple ballots in the state, as well as “illegal aliens.”
“There are investigations ongoing into people that have voted in two different jurisdictions. And I imagine you are going to see prosecutions on that,” DeSantis said.
“We also have folks who are voting who are illegal aliens who are not citizens of the united states. And as we know in Florida’s constitution, the only people eligible to vote are U.S. citizens and we think it’s really important that we do that.”
Democrat gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist called the press conference a “voter intimidation event.”
“This is about playing politics, intimidating Democratic voters, and his desire to run for president, not securing elections,” he said in a statement.
Crist’s primary opponent, Nikki Fried, also fired back at DeSantis following his announcement.
“Ron DeSantis went to Broward County today for one reason and one reason only — to intimidate voters and suppress turnout in the most Democratic counties in Florida,” she said in a statement.
(WASHINGTON) — A teenage suspect was arrested in Washington, D.C., on Thursday in connection with a mass shooting that killed one person and wounded three others, police said.
The 15-year-old boy, who lives in the northwestern part of the U.S. capital, was taken into custody by members of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force. He was then transported to a juvenile processing center where he was charged with first degree murder while armed, according to the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, which did not release the suspect’s name.
The charge stems from a deadly shooting that took place in Northwest D.C. on the night of June 19 during a music festival called Moechella, which was calling for racial and social justice while celebrating Juneteenth, the federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Police said they were ordering organizers to shut down the large event when suddenly gunshots rang out in the area. Police said they located a 15-year-old boy, a woman and two men, including a Metropolitan Police Department officer, who had all been struck by gunfire.
The victims were rushed to area hospitals for treatment. The 15-year-old boy, identified as Chase Poole, ultimately died from his injuries, while the three other victims were treated for non-life threatening injuries, according to police.
Poole is one of 856 children ages 12 to 17 who have died from gun violence so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks shootings in the United States from more than 7,500 law enforcement, media, government and commercial sources. Another 216 children who were 11 years old or younger have died from guns in 2022.
In a statement on June 21, Moechella organizers called the shooting a “senseless tragedy” and expressed their condolences to the victims and their families.
“Moechella has always been a peaceful demonstration of our constitutionally protected right of assembly and free speech under the 1st amendment,” the organizers added. “The purpose of this demonstration has always been to speak out against the social inequities plaguing Washington, D.C., like gun violence, like the lack of resources for the underserved community, police brutality and the need for D.C. statehood.”
Police said the Juneteenth shooting remains under investigation and that a reward of up to $25,000 is being offered for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible.
Anyone with information about the case is urged to call the Metropolitan Police Department at 202-727-9099. In addition, information may be submitted anonymously to the department’s text tip line by sending a text message to 50411.
ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The designated press area at a recent Doug Mastriano event in Indiana County was a small, roped-off square tucked into the back corner of an airport hangar where the Republican nominee to be Pennsylvania’s governor spoke to a crowd of more than 100 people in fold-up lawn chairs.
There were no audio jacks, as are typically provided at campaign events to route high-quality sound to TV cameras, and no risers to give reporters a clear view of the stage. The five journalists in the press area left enough room for only about five more.
The scene in moderately populated Indiana County, roughly 60 miles east of Pittsburgh, is emblematic of much of the campaign for Mastriano, a right-wing state senator who has shunned the news media, relying instead on small events, Facebook, conservative press and campaign volunteers to project his message.
“It’s like an underground network,” Patricia Poprik, the Republican chair in Bucks County, told ABC News.
That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, Poprik said: “I can tell you: My county’s got a huge, huge amount of volunteers.”
Indeed, interviews this month with more than a dozen voters, Republican leaders and campaign workers depict an extensive grassroots movement that has energized conservatives around a candidate that had been seen by many — including some Republicans — as flawed and too extreme for the governor’s mansion, which he will reach only by defeating state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat.
With about three months to go before Election Day, Shapiro holds a nine-point lead in the race, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average. His campaign touts its own bottom-up prowess, citing an app the campaign says has pulled in hundreds of volunteers and thousands of accounts that have joined the official pro-Shapiro group on Facebook.
“While Josh is campaigning across the Commonwealth, bringing people together around his positive vision for Pennsylvania’s future, Doug Mastriano continues to be defined by his dangerous extremism,” Manuel Bonder, a spokesman, said in a statement.
Some Republican experts consider Mastriano’s chances in November slim, but certainly not zero.
Nationally — and particularly before the overturning of Roe v. Wade brought the issue of abortion access back on the ballot — there had been many indicators this year that voters soured on the Democratic majority in Washington, including concerns about President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy.
“I think Mastriano is a terrible candidate,” said Josh Novotney, a Philadelphia-based Republican consultant, “but I think he actually has a shot of keeping it very close, and in a crazy situation actually winning.”
Mastriano, an Army veteran who won his state Senate seat in a 2019 special election, is staunchly anti-abortion, introducing a bill soon after taking office that would ban the procedure after six weeks. (The bill has not yet been brought to the floor for a vote.)
Tom Wolf, the incumbent Democratic governor, has vowed to veto any legislation that restricts the right to an abortion. Mastriano, meanwhile, has suggested he would sign his bill into law as well as similar ones that arrive at his desk.
“January 22, 1973 was one of the darkest days in American history. On that day, seven justices of the Supreme Court ruled that the right to life could merely be reduced to a decision of convenience,” he said in a statement this spring, referring to Roe, the decision that granted a constitutional right to abortion which was overturned by the Supreme Court this summer.
Mastriano has also called climate change “fake science,” said gay marriage should “absolutely not” be legal and argued that LGBTQ couples should not be allowed to adopt. His campaign did not respond to questions asking whether he still holds these positions.
Perhaps most notoriously, at least to his critics, Mastriano also attended then-President Donald Trump’s rally outside the White House preceding the Jan. 6 insurrection and was reportedly among a group of people who appeared in a video from that day walking through police lines at the Capitol — although he denied that he breached the security barriers, saying he and his wife left when the violence began.
“I join with all patriotic Americans in condemning what occurred in the Capitol,” he said in a statement at the time.
He was also a “point person” in the scheme to send alternate Pennsylvania electors to Washington, according to The New York Times, although Poprik — one of the “fake” electors — told ABC News that she “never saw Doug at anything for the electors.” Separately, sources told ABC News last week that he was set to be interviewed by the House Jan. 6 committee.
GOP voters overwhelmingly favored Mastriano in the crowded field and he won the May primary by more than 20 points.
Despite the qualms of other Republicans, he has also impressed party officials with his grassroots approach, which he carried into the general election against Shapiro.
“It is one of the best ground campaigns I’ve ever seen,” Randy Degenkolb, the chair of the Indiana County Republican Committee, told ABC News. “I’ve been in politics a long time and on a county level, this is a really energized grassroots group.”
“He’s not trying to do a top-down campaign where it’s all marketing and politics and commercials,” added Degenkolb. “He’s really doing community events, person to person, keeping it real and keeping it fairly low-budget, which is really driving the grassroots campaign to do as much as they can to support him.”
Glenn Geissinger, the Republican chair in Northampton County, a swing county, recently told ABC News that there were “easily” at least 100 Mastriano volunteers in the county, an effort he called “exceptional.”
“We have a constant request for his stuff,” he said.
Don Clark, a 72-year-old who makes and distributes Mastriano lawn signs in Indiana County, told ABC News that he believes Mastriano is “fighting for the people.”
“The other [candidates] are fighting to pad their pockets,” he said.
Along the way, Mastriano’s campaign has kept the media at arm’s length. A video posted to Twitter in May shows a man appearing to prevent a Washington Post reporter from entering a venue hosting a campaign event. The man does not identify himself in the video or answer when asked if he works for the campaign.
ABC News was not restricted from accessing the event in Indiana County or speaking to voters there — but has not received a response to multiple messages it has sent the campaign this month.
When reached by phone, Dennis Zappone, a coordinator for the campaign in Montgomery County, told ABC News, “I don’t really know if we’re permitted to even be talking to the news media.”
“You have a lot of media folks who have basically been hostile in the past to either the senator or conservatives,” Sam DeMarco, the Republican Party chair in Allegheny County, suggested when asked why he thinks Mastriano rejects many traditional news outlets.
“He’s going to focus on taking his campaign and his message to the voters,” DeMarco said — and Mastriano wouldn’t be the first to try.
Yet, some supporters and party leaders who spoke to ABC News said they hope Mastriano will open up to the press this fall.
“I think he has to,” said Tom Eddy, the Erie County Republican chair. “You’ve got to be able to work with those people. Because if he doesn’t, I have to believe he’s not going to get any good press.”
“It might be helpful,” acknowledged Pat Jonner, a supporter in her late 60s, as she left the Indiana event. “But he’s done quite well just working closely with local people who are involved in campaigns throughout the state.”
(NEW YORK) — A new report is shining a spotlight on potential privacy concerns loopholes in apps that collect women’s personal health information following the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
Abortion is now nearly banned in at least 15 states as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision on June 24 to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe ruling — which legalized abortion at the federal level — and send the issue back to the states.
A report released Wednesday by the Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization that advocates for online privacy, concluded that among 25 popular reproductive health apps, most apps were found to have very vague privacy policies surrounding how they will share data with law enforcement.
Eighteen of the products earned Mozilla’s label of “*Privacy Not Included” meaning users’ data may not be secure, and eight failed to meet the foundation’s “minimum security standards.”
Among the apps examined by Mozilla’s staff researchers were pregnancy apps, period trackers and wearables, all products that collect personal reproductive information like weight, birth plans, pregnancy journals and doctors’ appointments.
Only one app – Euki – was ranked in Mozilla’s “Best of” category. The app Natural Cycles earned a commendable mention by Mozilla.
Other wearables and apps that ranked near the top of Mozilla’s list include Garmin, Apple Watch, Whoop Strap 4, Oura Ring and Fitbit.
Caltrider said the privacy policies of the reproductive health apps researched were similar to the privacy policies of apps used for things like sharing recipes and photos.
“Anything that you share is no longer secure and that’s just an expectation that you should have if you share something with these apps and it’s not stored locally,” Jen Caltrider, a co-author of the report and the lead of Mozilla Foundation’s *Privacy Not Included online guide, told ABC News. “If the app collects information about your sexual activity, your sexual orientation, your moods, symptoms, pregnancy, your due date, any of it, just expect that that that information is no longer yours to control.”
Pregnancy and period-tracking apps have millions of users every month who utilize the technology to better understand and help control their reproductive health. The apps can tell you when to expect your next period, if you might be pregnant and how far along you are, when you are the most fertile for conceiving and what sorts of symptoms you usually experience.
Reproductive health apps’ ability to share data with law enforcement is of particular concern for women who live in states where abortion has been limited or banned, according to Caltrider.
“What we found was most companies had fairly vague statements, that it was hard to tell whether companies would voluntarily disclose data to law enforcement if they came asking,” said Caltrider. “Unfortunately there were a number of companies where we just couldn’t tell what their data sharing plans were, and that worries us.”
Leah Fowler, a research assistant professor at the University of Houston Law Center, told ABC News that consumers should not expect the health data they enter on apps to be protected in the same way it would be at a hospital or doctors’ office.
“When we think about data in a consumer context, it doesn’t have any of those special protections we tend to expect in other health contexts, like going to the doctor,” said Fowler, whose research focuses on health law and policy. “The information you might give an app when you’re playing Candy Crush or Angry Birds in many ways isn’t different than the type of data you’re giving an app in a health context, even if it feels particularly intimate and can become quite intimate when you’re talking about period and fertility trackers.”
Both Caltrider and Fowler said that period tracking, pregnancy and fertility apps can be smart, useful tools to use, as long as users do their own research.
“I think that each individual consumer has to do a cost-benefit analysis of how useful they find the product and the types of risks they may be exposed to depending on where they live,” said Fowler. “And I think that there are lots of products available that will allow them to use what are ultimately very useful, very popular tools without exposing them to as much risk. For example, one that might store data locally on your phone or that doesn’t participate in third-party data sharing.”
Consumers should be able to find an app’s privacy policy when they download the app on their phone, according to Caltrider.
She said to be wary of privacy policies that are either too short or too long, adding, “If companies can’t clearly articulate what data they’re collecting, how they’re using that data, who they’re sharing that with, it’s a flag.”
Both experts said another red flag warning is if a company uses the word “sell” or “share” in its privacy policy, meaning they can sell and share your information.
And if you go to download an app and can’t find the privacy policy, Caltrider said she would advise not downloading the app.
In addition, Caltrider said that apps made by companies based in Europe tend to have tighter privacy restrictions than do companies based in other locations, including the United States.
“I do encourage people to at least look and see if they have a privacy policy,” said Caltrider. “If you don’t want to read the whole thing, do a search and see if they have the word sell in there and talk about selling your data. See if they do targeted, interest-based advertising with third parties.”
She continued, “There are some little tells that will let users know oh, this company is treating my data more like a business asset and using it for purposes beyond just providing the service.”
Statements from companies
ABC News reached out to all of the companies listed in Mozilla’s report. Here are the responses we received.
Sprout
“It appears [the Mozilla Foundation] incorrectly stated the app does not have a Privacy Policy. It has always been and is freely available since the launch of the app on the app’s product page on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store — a Privacy Policy is required by Apple and Google and can be viewed in the corresponding app privacy and data safety sections. Customers can also access our Privacy Policy within the app and on our website: https://sprout-apps.com/privacy-policy.html.
Our Sprout Pregnancy app has always been privacy focused and is one of the only pregnancy apps on the market that does not require an account to use the app (no username or password) and the app data is only backed up to the user’s personal iCloud or Google Drive account.
We have also responded to Mozilla’s questions and you can contact them for additional information.”
Euki
“We are pleased that Euki is being recognized in this way. Our ultimate goal remains getting Euki to anyone who can benefit from a comprehensive, inclusive and of course secure app for sexual and reproductive health. Access to abortion services is essential health care, a critical part of our human rights, and abortion access must be protected. Euki can help and we want to ensure that it gets in the hands of anyone who can benefit from its unique features and privacy protocols.
Natural Cycles
“At Natural Cycles we have always been committed to protecting our user’s data as a regulated medical device and we’re fully supportive of Mozilla’s mission and assessment. We are of the mindset that every app – even if they have strong privacy protections like ours – should be working even harder to protect data on their user’s behalf. I can confirm our team is working rigorously to ensure that not only is Natural Cycles the most scientifically-backed fertility app, that we have the strongest data protections too.”
Clue Period & Cycle Tracker
“You can find Clue’s stance about privacy here from the co-CEOs: Data is power, and responsibility: what we believe as Clue’s Co-CEOs and here: Patient Data Privacy at Clue: A statement from the Co-CEOs.
Whoop Strap 4
“At WHOOP, our mission is to unlock human performance. We exist to improve the lives of our members, not invade them. We have invested heavily, and will continue to invest, in features and security to protect the privacy and security of our members’ data. We believe this should be the standard for all companies providing wearable devices and health tracking technology.”
Flo Ovulation & Period Tracker
“We understand that our users place trust in our technology to keep their sensitive information private, and the responsibility we have to provide a safe and secure platform for them to use. This is why Flo has never, and will never share any health data with any company but Flo. We will never make user data the source of our revenue because that would go against our core promise to our users.
In March 2022, Flo completed an external, independent privacy audit which confirmed Flo’s own practices are consistent with its publicly stated privacy policy. Beyond this, the independent audit specified, “From both a governance and operational perspective, Flo was able to demonstrate a commitment to the privacy and security of its users’ data and has devoted appropriate resources and personnel to ensuring it maintains those commitments.”
In an effort to further protect reproductive health information of our users, Flo recently announced the launch of ‘Anonymous Mode.’ Flo already uses security best practices, including encryption of all data and passcode protection, however this new feature deidentifies data on a deeper level by removing personal email, name and technical identifiers. In the event that Flo receives an official request to identify a user by name or email, Anonymous Mode will prevent Flo from being able to connect data to an individual, meaning Flo would not be able to satisfy the request.
Beyond this, we provide security measures designed to protect individual user data and privacy rights. As of last week, Flo is now the first period & ovulation tracker to achieve the ISO 27001 certification, the internationally recognized standard for information security. This certification affirms that Flo protects users’ data at the highest standard possible.
Flo remains committed to ensuring the utmost privacy for our users. Some of the additional measures we take include: – Data Encryption: Data is transferred to our servers in an encrypted form. – Data Separation: Personal user data (that can be used to identify an individual person, e.g., e-mail) is kept separately from data logged in the app (e.g., specific user inputs). This measure helps to prevent users from being identified. – Rigorous Supplier Due Diligence: We only work with suppliers who meet our minimum privacy and security standards – Regular Privacy Risk Assessments: We undertake regular risk assessments on all processing activities to ensure risks are identified and removed.
“We are very happy that Mozilla is [doing] audits like this. Personal privacy is something we take very seriously, and we are positive for all efforts that highlight the importance of privacy.
Not so happy about not performing better than what we did but when reading the audit, it clearly states that we at Preglife take privacy very seriously. Our privacy policy is well written, easy to understand, and I am confident that our wish to keep our user’s privacy secure shines through. The fact that we allow simple passwords is unfortunate but true. We don’t deny that. However, it is on our “to-do list” and something that we were about to fix within the coming weeks. But in the light of this audit and the increased need for privacy for our U.S. users, we will make this our top priority, meaning we will fix this ASAP.
In the audit Mozilla were unable to verify if we use encryption or not — but we do. All personal data that is transferred from the app is encrypted. All databases are encrypted.
Also stated in the audit, we allow users to use Preglife without creating an account. If you use Preglife in that way you never have to worry about any data loss since all data is stored locally on your handset. The downside is that if you lose your phone or if it breaks you risk losing valuable data. However, in the light of current events in the U.S., some users may feel that is a risk they are willing to take to be totally ‘off the grid.'”
Glow Nature & Glow Baby
“We strongly disagree with Mozilla’s review and we are working closely with Mozilla on their rating process, including sending them all the legal facts to address their concerns and claims.
We do not share personal data with anyone and will never sell user’s data. It’s simply against our core values. We have an extensive set of features and internal protocols that protect user data. We have also implemented 3rd party annual privacy and security assessments to ensure our platform provides the highest level of data protection for our users. Every single employee at Glow is required to go through privacy and security-related training.
Our number one goal is to build the best products for our users and doing anything that violates their trust would go against our values. Even in the case where we have been asked to provide information to law enforcement, we have always examined those requests in extreme detail and take action ONLY when it is protecting our users. We will continue to uncompromisingly protect our users’ privacy and personal health information. Period.”
ABC News’ Laryssa Demkiw, Michela Moscufo, MaryAlice Parks, Jeca Taudte, Sony Salzman and Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — After federal prosecutors unsealed charges Wednesday against a Missouri man who allegedly sent a voicemail threat to an Arizona election official last year, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer confirmed the death threat and expressed confidence in the Justice Department task force on elections, despite the group’s indictments remaining in the single digits more than a year after it was formed.
“The reality is that all prosecution agencies receive gazillions more referrals than they have the capacity to investigate. So it is, perhaps, a result of shifting priorities within the department,” Richer told ABC News in a phone interview Wednesday. “It is an allocation of resources gain, and that’s not to say that they didn’t care about it previously, but this could signal a shift in priorities.”
Launched last year to address the rise in threats against election workers and officials, the task force, as of Aug. 1, has charged just four federal cases and joined one other case that was charged prior to its establishment. Richer’s case brings the total to six, with one conviction.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr. said at the beginning of August that agents have reviewed over 1,000 so-called hostile contacts, and only a fraction of those, approximately 11%, met the threshold for a federal criminal investigation, amounting to roughly 100 probes. Though the task force has faced criticism for not more aggressively prosecuting threats against election officials, Richer advised patience.
“I have great respect and patience, and even admiration for law enforcement that treads carefully and doesn’t bring something unless it is in the interest of justice in doing so,” Richer said. “Here, we’re complaining about people not operating within the confines of the law. They have to operate within the confines of the law.”
In the case involving Richer, Walter Hoornstra, 50, of Missouri, faces one charge of communicating an interstate threat and another count of making a threatening phone call, with the charges coupled carrying out a maximum of seven years in prison and $500,000 in fines.
“You call things unhinged and insane lies when there’s a forensic audit going on. You need to check yourself,” Hoornstra allegedly said on May 19, 2021, in a voicemail targeting Richer. “You need to do your [expletive] job right because other people from other states are watching your ass. You [expletive] reneg on this deal or give them any more troubles, your ass will never make it to your next little board meeting.”
A lawyer for Hoornstra did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Richer, a Republican who was elected as Maricopa County Recorder in 2020, said threats multiplied when he started pushing back on election fraud claims amplified by former President Donald Trump and Arizona State Senate President Karen Fann. Fann, notably, hired the Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based cybersecurity firm, which had no experience auditing elections, to oversee a widely-criticized review of results in Maricopa County as Trump’s false claims gained popularity with Arizona supporters.
“This was one of the first fever pitch moments,” he told ABC News, recalling receiving the voicemail. “And it was because the county started pushing back against some of the allegations.”
Last May, days before Hoornstra’s alleged threat, a “war room” account Richer alleges was run by the Cyber Ninjas Firm publicly and falsely claimed, without evidence, that Maricopa County had deleted election files unlawfully. When Trump amplified the false claim of deleted files to his base in a written statement, Richer rebuked him on Twitter — calling the former president’s comments targeting the state’s election “unhinged.”
“We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country,” Richer said in a tweet.
“We decided it was time to start pushing back against this because this was spilling over outside of what we had seen as the usual course of crazy politics,” Richer recalled to ABC News. “We had people quite literally calling for the heads of some of our IT members, for doing nothing.”
Richer is far from the only Arizona election official to be targeted.
Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democratic nominee for governor, was the target of an alleged bomb threat from Massachusetts man James W. Clark, 38. Prosecutors on the DOJ task force charged Clark in July with one count of making a bomb threat, one count of perpetrating a bomb hoax and one count of communicating an interstate threat. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
“Election officials across the country are being threatened regularly for doing their jobs,” Hobbs said in a statement last month confirming she was the target of the threat. “It’s unconscionable and undermines our democracy. This harassment won’t be tolerated and can’t be normalized. We thank the FBI for their persistence on further investigating this incident.”
Richer continues to criticize the so-called audit and its supporters for dredging up “very real-world consequences for me, for the board, for our collective offices,” over an allegation that was “facially ludicrous.”
“The whole endeavor was supposed to be towards improving confidence, but I think it has damaged it, in fact,” he said.
He said he still gets thousands of negative messages a day.
Still, he called his job “worthwhile.”
“Most people don’t get to work, wake up and say, ‘I’m going to be part of one of the most meaningful conversations in the world right now.’ And I’m going to do it with people I like,” he said. “So yeah, that’s pretty lucky.”
ABC News’ Alexander Mallin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Three men were charged Thursday in connection with the 2018 death of notorious mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, federal prosecutors announced.
Bulger was allegedly bludgeoned to death in federal prison, according to prosecutors, by Fotios Geas, 55, also known as “Freddy,” and Paul J. DeCologero, 48, known as “Pauly.” Both are charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. A third man, Sean McKinnon, 36, is charged with making false statements to a federal agent and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Bulger was transferred to United States Penitentiary Hazleton in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, and shortly thereafter was murdered at the federal prison on Oct. 30, 2018.
Bulger, the leader of Boston’s Winter Hill gang, was on the run for 16 years before being caught by federal authorities, and later tried and convicted. Before being moved to a West Virginia lockup, the 89-year-old was housed in federal prison in Florida.
Geas is still incarcerated at USP Hazelton, according to prison records, and is serving a life sentence for a separate crime. DeCologero is no longer being held at USP Hazelton but remains housed in the federal prison system, and McKinnon was on federal supervised release at the time of the indictment and was arrested Thursday in Florida.
Bulger, who was serving a life sentence, was moved to West Virginia for no real reason, according to a lawsuit filed by his family.
He had suffered multiple heart attacks and was confined to a wheelchair, a source familiar with his condition told ABC News, leaving his attorneys puzzled over how Bulger’s medical condition suddenly improved so much that he was able to move prisons.
“Mr. Bulger’s physical/medical condition was fraudulently upgraded to effectuate a transfer and place to Hazelton on or about Oct. 29 or Oct. 30, 2018,” attorneys Hank Brennan and David Schoen wrote in an administrative claim against the Department of Justice, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News and was filed in 2019.
“To be clear, we do not believe that the transfer to Hazelton and placement in general population was simply dangerous, negligent, reckless and irresponsible; we believe it was also intentional and part of conspiracy among BOP, DOJ employees and others to intentionally cause Mr. Bulger’s serious injuries and death,” the complaint said.
Bulger’s death inside the federal prison is just one high-profile death that has not seen resolution, another other being the suicide of Jeffery Epstein in a Manhattan lockup.
The Bureau of Prisons has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK)– Thousands of migrants seeking asylum who endured a 2,000-mile journey over several days, with little to no belongings or family, aboard buses sent from Texas now find themselves facing challenges establishing their new lives in New York City.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, since early May, has been sending busloads of migrants out of Texas to cities with Democrat leaders, including New York City and Washington, D.C. The Republican governor says he started the busing programs in response to the Biden administration’s immigration policies which he claims inadequately secure the border, forcing states like his to bear the brunt of migrant waves.
Many of the migrants are still arriving almost daily in the Big Apple, including 18-year-old student Brayan Amaro, who began his journey alone in his home country of Venezuela.
“The journey was terrible; going through all those countries was terrible because there was extortion, you had to pay . . . you had to pay all the police,” Amaro told ABC News. “There was not one of them that wasn’t corrupt…”
“I’m still a boy who’s very young. I hope to have better opportunities here,” Amaro said. “If I can keep on studying. All of that.”
Amaro says this will be his opportunity to “get ahead and be a better person than in Venezuela.” Migrants arriving from Texas at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan are greeted by volunteers from aid groups, nonprofits and the city’s immigration office.
“Many of them are seeking asylum at the border,” Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, told ABC News. “Instead of people being taken at a place of their choice, or what would be the most logical place for their claim to be processed, they’re being sent to New York and D.C., where they may not have any family, where they may not have a lawyer that they would choose to be represented by.”
Nonprofit organizations continue to step in and distribute resources to welcome migrants arriving with their few belongings.
Ariadna Phillips, the founder of South Bronx Mutual Aid, and a group of volunteers lead efforts to secure transportation for migrants.
“This is just regular people here in New York banding together to make sure that, you know, our friends that are coming in are feeling safe and welcome and appreciated,” Phillips told ABC News.
For many migrants like licensed nurse Joana Alvarez, New York City is not the final destination.
“I have my mother and my father. Look, it was for them, I came for them,” Alvarez said in Spanish.
Like Amaro, Alvarez made the journey through Venezuela to Texas’ border on her own. With Phillips’ support, Alvarez is set to board another bus headed for upstate New York, where she will stay with a host family that she has yet to meet.
“In New York, we have what’s called the right-to-shelter city, where if anyone comes to our city, we have a moral and legal obligation to provide shelter, and we’re doing that every day,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told ABC News.
Abbott’s busing operation led to the arrival of more than 6,000 asylum seekers in New York City alone, according to Adams. The high demand placed unforeseen strain on the city’s social services, calling for the opening of 13 emergency shelters to house the incoming migrants.
Adams said this “crisis calls for coordination” between the two administrations, but they have still been unable to collaborate on the issue.
In New York City, overwhelming support is being traced back to nonprofits, which are bearing the brunt on the unprecedented migrant influx and the decreased availability of resources and services.
A mother from Colombia, now based in the South Bronx with her four children, arrived on a bus from Texas a few days ago. The bus ride, she said, was “a little hard,” with not even a bathroom for her children to use.
“We lasted three days in the bus with hunger, with thirst,” the mother told ABC News in Spanish.
With the help of one organization, she’s been able to make strides toward opportunity and stability for her new life with her family in New York City.
“To be able to give a, offer a good future for my kids,” the mother said in Spanish. “So that in that same way we’re able to support other people who arrive here as well, just like how they have supported me.”
