Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Americans will likely have one more COVID-19 vaccine to choose from after the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday.
The two-shot vaccine was authorized for use in people 18 years and older.
Novavax is the fourth COVID-19 vaccine to receive emergency use authorization in the U.S. by the FDA. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now expected to review data on the vaccine before providing its recommendation for authorization.
“Authorizing an additional COVID-19 vaccine expands the available vaccine options for the prevention of COVID-19, including the most severe outcomes that can occur such as hospitalization and death,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert M. Califf said in a statement on Wednesday. “Today’s authorization offers adults in the United States who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine another option that meets the FDA’s rigorous standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency use authorization.”
The FDA said it had determined that the Novavax vaccine met the criteria for authorization, and that the data showed that the potential benefits of the vaccine outweighed any potential risks.
“The American public can trust that this vaccine, like all vaccines that are used in the United States, has undergone the FDA’s rigorous and comprehensive scientific and regulatory review,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
Some health experts have suggested that some hesitant Americans may be more inclined to get the Novavax vaccine, as it is based on a more traditional protein-based technology, one already used for the flu vaccine and other shots, while Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine platforms use more modern genetic technology.
The company applauded the agency’s decision to authorize the vaccine for emergency use.
“Today’s FDA emergency use authorization of our COVID-19 vaccine provides the U.S. with access to the first protein-based COVID-19 vaccine,” Stanley C. Erck, president and chief executive officer of Novavax, said in a statement. “This authorization reflects the strength of our COVID-19 vaccine’s efficacy and safety data, and it underscores the critical need to offer another vaccine option for the U.S. population while the pandemic continues.”
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that the Biden administration had secured 3.2 million doses of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine will be made available for free to U.S. states and jurisdictions.
If the CDC signs off on use of the vaccine, the shots could be made available shortly thereafter.
To date, approximately two-thirds of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to federal data. However, more than 26.5 million American adults remain completely unvaccinated.
(NEW YORK) — For the first time since May, COVID-19-related hospital admissions are forecasted to increase again in the U.S., as highly infectious omicron subvariants continue to spread, according to updated forecasting models used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The models show that nearly 40 states and territories are currently projected to see increases in new hospitalizations over the next two weeks. States in the South, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, are expected to see the greatest increases in hospitalizations.
Nationally, between 3,200 to 13,800 daily confirmed COVID-19 hospital admissions are expected to be reported on Aug. 5. As of Wednesday, the U.S. is reporting nearly 5,800 virus-related hospital admissions each day, according to the CDC.
Hospitalization levels have already been increasing, with nearly 40,000 virus-positive Americans currently hospitalized, according to federal data. Totals are more than double the level they were at this time last summer, when the delta surge was beginning to emerge, and a growing number of COVID-19 positive people are also showing up to emergency departments, data shows.
In the South, where many states are forecasted to see notable increases, hospital admissions have risen by more than 20% in the last week.
Although the overall total remains significantly lower than at the nation’s peak, when more than 160,000 patients were hospitalized with the virus, hospitalizations are still at their highest point since early March.
The forecast also predicts that virus-related deaths will have either a stable or an uncertain trend in the next four weeks.
Even so, more than 5,700 deaths are still expected to occur nationally over the next two weeks. Texas, Oklahoma and California are projected to see the largest death tolls in the weeks to come.
“Deaths are still around 300, but hospitalizations are ticking up. This is something you don’t want to panic about, but we really need to pay attention to it because there are things that we can do to blunt that,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, a senior adviser to the president on the pandemic, told CNN on Wednesday.
Fauci and other federal health officials have been raising the alarm about omicron subvariant BA.5, which they say has been causing a resurgence of infections.
The U.S. is currently reporting more than 118,000 new cases a day, marking the country’s highest daily infection average since mid-February.
Fauci said the current reported case total is likely a “gross underestimate” as the majority of Americans are testing with home kits and not reporting their results to their local jurisdictions.
BA.5 is now the dominant variant in the U.S, accounting for an estimated 65% of new cases in the country. Scientists say it does appear to have a transmission advantage over the original omicron strain, although they do not believe it is more severe than prior strains.
“[BA.5] is certainly the most immune evasive. What we’re seeing is people who were previously infected getting reinfected at high rates, people who were vaccinated last year having a ton of breakthrough infections. It’s something we’re paying a lot of attention to,” White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America Wednesday.
However, Jha said the vaccines and boosters are still helping blunt the impact of severe disease.
(NEW YORK) — The richest person in the world said he wanted to own one of the most popular social media platforms — until he said he didn’t.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday moved to terminate his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. In response, Twitter sued Musk on Tuesday to force him to complete the deal.
The standoff marks the latest chapter in a monthslong saga that began in January when Musk started investing in Twitter.
Musk reached an acquisition deal with Twitter in April, but over the weeks since, he has raised concerns over spam accounts on the platform, claiming Twitter has not provided him with an accurate estimate of their number. Twitter has rebuked that claim, saying it has provided Musk with information in accordance with conditions set out in the acquisition deal.
In May, when Musk said the deal was on “temporary hold” over bot concerns, Dan Ives, a managing director of equity research at Wedbush, an investment firm, told ABC News the grievance could serve as a pretext for Musk to renegotiate or abandon the deal amid a market downturn that had proven especially pronounced for tech stocks.
Over the course of the saga, Musk has been cast as a suitor, critic and now legal adversary of Twitter, where he boasts more than 100 million followers. Below is a timeline of Musk’s bid to acquire the social media platform.
Late January – Musk begins investing in Twitter, according to information filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in April.
March 14 – Musk’s stake in Twitter reaches 9.2%, making him the largest shareholder in the company, according to a securities filing.
April 4 – In a securities filing, Musk discloses his stake in Twitter. Based on the price of Twitter shares at close of the previous trading day, his stake was worth $2.89 billion. Twitter shares rise more than 27% on the announcement.
April 5 – Twitter announces Musk will join the company’s board of directors.
“He’s both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need on @Twitter, and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said on the platform. “Welcome Elon!”
April 10 – Musk says he will not join the Twitter board after all.
“There will be distractions ahead but our goals and priorities remain unchanged,” Agrawal said in a statement announcing Musk’s choice. “The decisions we make and how we make them remain in our hands, no one else’s.”
April 14 – Musk offers to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share, valuing the company at about $43 billion, according to a securities filing. The offer amounts to a 38% premium above where the price stood a day before Musk’s investment in Twitter became public.
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”
April 15 – Twitter adopts a poison pill provision to prevent the Musk acquisition. A poison pill allows current stockholders to purchase additional shares at a discounted price, diluting the shares owned by Musk and making it more expensive for him to buy the company. In an announcement, Twitter said the poison pill will be triggered if any individual or entity acquires at least 15% of the company’s shares.
April 21 – Musk says in a securities filing that he has garnered commitments of about $46.5 billion in financing for a possible Twitter acquisition.
April 25 – Twitter accepts Musk’s offer to acquire the company and values the deal at $44 billion, according to an announcement from the company.
MORE: Twitter says it will sue Elon Musk to complete the $44B merger he just rejected and is “confident” it will prevail
April 29 – Over a three-day period after Musk and Twitter reach a deal, and he sells about $8.5 billion worth in Tesla stock to help finance the bid.
May 4 – Musk secures more than $7 billion in financing for the deal, including commitments from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and cryptocurrency exchange Binance, according to a securities filing.
May 6 – In a pitch deck for investors, Musk says he will quintuple Twitter’s revenue by 2028, increasing annual earnings to $26.4 billion, the New York Times reports.
May 10 – Musk says he would reverse Twitter’s ban of the account that belongs to former President Donald Trump. The remarks from Musk were made virtually at an auto conference.
May 12 – Twitter announces a temporary hiring freeze, pending Musk’s acquisition; and two top executives leave the company.
May 13 – Musk tweets that the Twitter deal is “temporarily on hold,” citing concern over what he says is the prevalence of bot and spam accounts on the platform.
Along with his tweet, Musk posts a Reuters report about a public filing from Twitter earlier in May that said fake accounts made up less than 5% of users on the platform. Apparently skeptical of the finding, Musk says he wants “details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.”
Roughly two hours later, Musk says he’s “still committed” to the deal.
At the time, market analysts told ABC News the worry over fake accounts could serve as a pretext for Musk to bargain a lower price for the acquisition or abandon the effort altogether.
May 26 – Twitter shareholders bring a class-action lawsuit against Musk over alleged stock manipulation tied to the tumultuous acquisition process. At the time, Twitter’s stock had fallen more than 12% since Musk announced his bid.
June 6 – Musk threatens to pull out of the deal if Twitter doesn’t provide additional information about the prevalence of bots on its platform. In a statement, Twitter said it had been sharing information with Musk “in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement.”
July 8 – Musk moves to terminate his acquisition of Twitter, pointing to the issue of fake accounts.
“Mr. Musk has sought the data and information necessary to ‘make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform'” and did not receive it, a securities filing said.
In an email on disclosed in a securities filing on Sunday, an attorney representing Twitter rejected Musk’s effort to abandon the acquisition. “The purported termination is invalid,” the attorney wrote, arguing that Musk had “knowingly, intentionally, willfully, and materially breached the Agreement.”
“As it has done, Twitter will continue to provide information reasonably requested by Mr. Musk under the Agreement,” the attorneys added.
July 12 – Twitter sues Musk in Chancery Court in Delaware to force him to complete the deal.
“Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests,” Twitter said in the lawsuit. “Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.”
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
If permitted to abandon the deal, Musk may be forced to pay a $1 billion termination fee.
Shares in Twitter were up more than 7% in early trading on Wednesday morning.
(NEW YORK) — Popular social media platform TikTok on Wednesday announced plans for a rating system aimed at protecting young users from inappropriate content.
The move comes after sharp criticism from lawmakers and advocates in recent months over the prevalence of harmful posts on the app, especially those that appear in the feeds of young users.
The rating system, called “Content Levels,” will categorize videos based on the age-appropriateness of their material, preventing users under 18 from seeing certain content deemed mature, the company said. The system will be launched in the coming weeks and operate like similar approaches in the film and gaming industries, TikTok added.
“We want to play a positive role in the lives of the people who use our app, and we’re committed to fostering an environment where people can express themselves on a variety of topics, while also protecting against potentially challenging or triggering viewing experiences,” the company said.
In February, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, both Democrats, sent a letter to TikTok saying its “algorithm of ‘nonstop stream of videos’ increases the likelihood that viewers will encounter harmful content even without seeking it out.”
The letter followed an investigation from The Wall Street Journal in December that found the platform surfaced tens of thousands of weight loss videos to a dozen automated accounts registered as 13 year olds within a few weeks of their joining the app.
Since last year, TikTok has been testing solutions that prevent users from seeing a flood of content focused on sensitive topics like dieting and sadness, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. In addition to the ratings system, the company is readying to launch a feature that will recognize and limit such sensitive topics from appearing in a user’s feed, it said.
In general, scrutiny over the harmful effects of content on social media, especially for young people, has intensified since leaks from whistleblower Frances Haugen last year revealed that an internal Facebook study had shown damaging mental health effects of Instagram for teen girls.
In September, Facebook suspended plans to offer a version of Instagram for kids.
The following month, officials from Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube told lawmakers they would work with them on proposals to help protect young users from harmful content on their platforms.
A bipartisan Senate bill introduced in February aims to tackle the harmful effects of social media for young people through a variety of measures, including mandatory privacy options that would allow users to disable addictive features and a tool for parents to track time spent on apps. So far, eight senators have signed on in support of the legislation.
A separate bipartisan Senate bill would fund a study of the effects of social media. Six senators have formally supported the bill.
(LOS ANGELES) — Gavin Newsom has never been afraid to throw an elbow.
During the surge of the COVID-19 delta variant, California’s Democratic governor sat on the glossy sound stage of The Late Late Show with James Corden, surrounded by Christmas lights, and slammed Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis over what Newsom called his lax coronavirus policies.
“California’s example versus Florida? It’s not even close in terms out of the outcome if you care about life, and you care about the economy,” Newsom told Corden, adding later that “clearly” DeSantis was running for president to scoop up the Trump-aligned Republican vote, pointing to DeSantis’ policies as a “litmus test” to win attention from conservative-aligned news networks.
His criticism of DeSantis is one of many made over the course of the pandemic, but Newsom’s recent $105,000 advertising buy that ran in Florida, certainly an unusual move for a politician who is running a reelection campaign of his own, has spun the question of presidential aspirations toward Newsom.
During an interview with ABC News’ Zohreen Shah prior to the ad placement, Newsom, 54, insisted he had no White House ambitions, although several unaffiliated California-based political advisers told ABC News that claim doesn’t totally hold water, and the ad campaign was a foolproof way to elevate his profile and test public appetite as President Joe Biden’s stock with Democrats continues to dive.
On Wednesday while in Washington to accept an award on education, Newsom told reporters he emphatically supported a Biden reelection bid.
Still, during his remarks, he continued to speak out on national issues, criticizing what he called Republican efforts to regulate topics in the classroom: “I don’t want to sugarcoat it. Education is under assault … And we have an obligation, moral and ethical obligation, to call out what’s going on as it relates to the suppression of free speech,” he said.
Picking a fight across state lines is “very vintage” Newsom, consistent with his appetite to be a part of the national conversation in elevating California above other states, said Jessica Levinson, a California-based legal expert and former president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission.
“He’s always talking about California as a nation-state. And I think he fancies himself the executive of a nation-state in some ways. And he really wants to put a stake in the ground and say California is different and better and therefore, I am different and better,” said Levinson.
His vision of his state as a shining “city on a hill” is clear from his Florida ad, in which he urges residents of the Sunshine State to “join the fight” against Republican leaders or “join us in California, where we still believe in freedom,” a clear knock at DeSantis’ “free state of Florida” mantra.
Levinson said Newsom has a penchant for wanting to be a beat ahead, almost defiant, of national Democrats on key issues, as when he began issuing same-sex marriage licenses as mayor of San Fransisco in 2004 to the chagrin of conservatives, and testing the waters with a high-profile attack on DeSantis is part of that calculus.
“And if that means my political career ends, so be it,” Newsom said nearly a decade ago.
But that defiance propelled him to the governor’s mansion, and now, possibly, if the tide shifts in his direction, toward the White House.
The idea that Newsom wouldn’t run for president is “total bull—,” said Levinson, who explained that he likely sees himself as the kind of lawmaker who could “fill a leadership vacuum” if given the opportunity.
And members of Newsom’s party may be looking for candidates to fill that vacuum as well. New polling from The New York Times/Siena College shows that nearly three-quarters of the Democratic party want a new nominee at the top of the ticket. Even more bleak for the White House, 94% of Democrats under 30 said they’d prefer a fresh face.
Dan Schnur, a veteran strategist in California who worked on Sen. John McCain’s presidential bid and former Gov. Pete Wilson’s team, told ABC News that Newsom’s toe-dip into the national news-cycle is great political posturing, given the uncertainty of the Democratic leadership.
“Whether Newsom runs in two years, or in 2028, he’s now a part of that conversation. If Biden, 79, decides not to run again, Newsom is ready to pounce. And if Biden does run for reelection, Newsom certainly can lay the groundwork for four years after that,” Schnur said.
Biden has made it clear he intends to run for reelection with Vice President Kamala Harris by his side, but slipping approval numbers and concerns over age and health are determinate factors that, coupled from pressure from within his own party, could force him to reconsider.
Some of that pressure has come from Newsom himself. A day after Politico reported the contents of a leaked Supreme Court draft that would overturn Roe, Newsom slammed Democrats for not taking decisive action to codify access to abortion with a biting exclamation: “Where the hell is my party? Where’s the Democratic Party?”
“Why aren’t we standing up more firmly, more resolutely?,” Newsom questioned. “Why aren’t we calling this out? “This is a concerted, coordinated effort and yes, they’re winning. They are, they have been … We need to stand up, where is the counter offensive?”
And casting himself as a hero is what Newsom does best, said Rob Stutzman, a Republican strategist who worked for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“Where Newsom thrives is when he’s able to be in contrast to a Republican that he can lead a progressive coalition against,” said Stutzman. “He’s going to go after the guy he perceives as the Republican frontrunner.”
Stutzman pointed out that national focus will once again be on states and governors partly due to decisions handed down by the Supreme Court on guns and abortion access. He pointed to the spotlight of Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, too, who is lauded for his response to the deadly July 4 Highland Park shooting outside Chicago.
On Tuesday, weeks after the shooting, Florida Democrats announced Pritzker will keynote the state’s leadership gala this weekend. Biden was the keynote speaker at the same event in 2017.
Stutzman says another theory floating around California is that Newsom may also be laying the groundwork to succeed veteran Democratic Sen. Diane Feinstein, who is 88-years-old. She’s yet to formally announce she’s retiring, and has chided suggestions that her age limits her performance in any way.
It’s likely that Newsom’s team would have placed the ad in Florida regardless of Biden’s standing, said Schnur, “but the fact that so many Democrats are disappointed that Biden wouldn’t be combative right now just makes it even better for Newsom.”
“This is the best hundred thousand dollars a California politician has ever spent,” said Schnur.
In this way, experts agreed, Newsom is able to occupy a space in the Democratic party that puts him in contrast to those in Washington who are seen as slow, ineffective, but positions him in a less-radical space than Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
As Newsom is expected to win his bid for reelection after beating back a recall attempt, there’s little to keep Newsom from leaving the state to campaign for other Democrats outside of California as DeSantis has done for down-ballot Republicans.
Seen from every angle, Newsom’s strategy here would appear to be a winning one, and allows him to keep all potential political options on the table.
“If he’s going to lock horns with DeSantis all of a sudden, is this a preview [for the 2024 election?,” said Stutzman. “If this was a Week One NFL game, is this a preview of the Super Bowl? People can imagine it. It’s plausible.”
(NEW YORK) — A family alleges American Airlines tried to force them to pay roughly $30,000 to change their itinerary after the airline switched the family’s return ticket to leave from an airport in another country, according to a complaint filed by the family with the Department of Transportation and American Airlines.
Sam Taussig also claims his family was forced to charter a plane at their own expense to another island in order to return to the United States on American Airlines.
American involuntarily changed the family’s flights multiple times over the course of several months after the family purchased their tickets in January for their summer vacation, Taussig said. It wasn’t until July 4 when Taussig said he wanted to ensure his family was sitting together for their upcoming trip that he noticed not only was the family not together, but their flight was leaving from St. Lucia instead of Saint Vincent. There are no scheduled flights or ferries between St. Lucia and Saint Vincent.
“I called American Airlines thinking this must be some sort of clerical error and spent nearly three hours with the American Airlines customer service teams learning that I have, in fact, been bumped and seven of the nine family members were bumped to another flight departing from a different country at a different airport because of an oversold situation,” Taussig said in an exclusive interview with ABC News.
Taussig said he did receive an email from the airline that there had been a change to his flight, but he said the airport change notification was in tiny, fine print.
Advertisement
“American Airlines was not very apologetic at all. They blamed me, the customer, for not catching this sooner,” Taussig said. “American Airlines offered a couple of different, I think, absolutely insane solutions where they said, well, we’ll have to split up part of your family and put most of you on a flight a week later, if not longer. And to do that, we’re going to charge you change fees, reissuing fees, certain other fees, which were not clear to me, and new fares, which totaled about $30,000 to get all of us back. And we’d be stuck on the island for a week with no offer of compensation for hotels or meal vouchers or anything like that.”
The airline ultimately found a flight leaving a day later from Barbados and asked him to pay thousands in fees, he said. Taussig said he refused to pay the fees, but was forced to book a private charter flight to get his family to Barbados.
“We researched a private charter to get us to a third country, Barbados, where American Airlines might be able to get us out the next day from our original departure day, where they then told us that it would be $3,000 in change fees to make that happen. And [American told us] we should be so lucky because this whole situation was putting the company out $3,000, even though they originally bumped us for an overbooking situation. So all in all, where we are today is out a couple of thousand dollars. On our dime, we’re flying to yet a different country to meet American Airlines to get back to the U.S.,” Taussig said.
In a statement to ABC News, American Airlines said: “We are concerned by the experience our customer is reporting. A member of our team has reached out to discuss their travel.”
“In this situation, there was obviously a significant change by the airline and the person could get an involuntary refund. And if they could construe it as being bumped, which is a little unclear, then they would also be entitled to bump in compensation. Now, in the United States, that means if it’s one to four hours, you get 200% of the one-way fare up to $775. If it’s all or four hours difference in delay from the original flight, you can get 400% of the one-way fare up to a maximum of $1,550,” Paul Hudson, president of Flyers Rights, a nonprofit dedicated to advocating for airline customers, told ABC News.
Taussig says he’s grateful he discovered this error before the family plans to leave for their vacation later this week, and says American Airlines still has not provided any compensation.
Taussig said he hopes his story fosters change at the airline and serves as a warning to other travelers.
“I hope American Airlines uses this as an opportunity to learn about the inefficiencies and arbitrary decisions that are just crazy for passengers and how their customer service agents either can’t or are unwilling to solve this situation. I hope American learns from this,” Taussig said. “I tell fellow passengers, fellow travelers, really pay attention to those schedule changes. Try to invoke your rights for travel waivers. Call the airline to make sure that you are flying out of the correct place at the correct time, that you’ll make your connections and get to where you’re going or where you’re coming home to on time and all together.”
The Department of Transportation says consumer complaints against airlines are soaring, up more than 300% compared to pre-pandemic levels. DOT regulations say passengers are entitled to a full cash refund if an airline cancels or makes a significant change to a ticket.
(NEW YORK) — Amtrak has announced an extreme heat warning for the Northeast region, signaling that trains running between New York and Philadelphia might experience delays.
“This is a typical protocol for warm summer months,” a spokesperson for Amtrak told ABC News.
High temperatures cause the rails and overhead wires to expand. The service is affected because the trains have to travel at lower speeds to avoid accidents.
A rail temperature of 131 degrees Fahrenheit, for example, requires the train to slow down to 100 mph or less, where an Amtrak train would usually travel between 125 and 150 mph.
With extreme heat also comes the risk of rails warping, which can cause train derailments, rolling black outs and subsequent service disruptions, according to Nick Bassill, a meteorologist at the University of Albany who regularly works with state governments and utility companies.
A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation wrote in an email to ABC News that “one issue that receives attention during summertime is ‘sun kink’ which is a track buckling condition that can occur during extended periods of extremely high temperatures where continuous welded rail is in use.”
A train derailment in the San Francisco bay area this May was due to “a rapid increase in ambient temperatures,” according to local transit authorities.
During the record-breaking heatwave in the Pacific Northwest last summer, in which temperatures reached 115°F, roads buckled and power cables melted. Amtrak announced delays in service during that period.
A 2019 article in the publication Transport Policy estimated that delays in the U.S. rail network due to temperature could cost between $20 and $60 billion by 2100.
Paul Chinowsky, professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, laid out three possible solutions in an interview with ABC News.
The first is upgrading the rails to be more temperature resistant, which Chinowsky said is already being enacted in Great Britain and France. In this case, the steel mix is changed to be less brittle, said Chinowsky.
The obstacle is that the United States has over 140,000 miles of rails, compared to 10,000 miles in the U.K. and 18,000 in France.
“We have started that a little bit, but not nearly at the rate that’s keeping up with the rising temperatures,” said Chinowsky.
Another option, which is already being implemented in the U.S., is a system of heat sensors which provide localized information about when and where trains need to slow down.
It enables a “more accurate analysis,” Chinowsky said, so that the train slowing could be targeted for a set number of miles and hours.
That way, “you don’t have to shut down the whole Northeast corridor,” he said.
A final opinion Chinowsky mentioned was planting trees, or using some other natural solution, to create shade. This could be implemented around train stations, Chinowsky said, although this planning is “still in the very early stage.”
“We’re not even in the worst part of the summer yet,” said Chinowsky. “So we’ll keep seeing [delays]. It’s going to get worse as we go along.”
(WASHINGTON) — Scientists at the nation’s top health agencies are looking into expanding vaccine eligibility so that more Americans can get a second booster shot during the latest COVID-19 wave, White House officials said on Tuesday.
“I know that the [Food and Drug Administration] is considering this, looking at it. And I know [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] scientists are thinking about this and looking at the data as well. The decision is purely up to them,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID coordinator, said at a briefing with reporters on Tuesday morning.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the White House, said conversations about booster eligibility have been going on for a while. But he also reiterated that the final call lies with the FDA and CDC.
“We always talked about it, it’s not something new, but we all recognize what the lines of authority are and that’s what we’ll be depending on,” he said.
In May, FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks told ABC News that internal discussions were underway about second boosters for all adults.
Currently, everyone over 5 is eligible for an initial booster shot at least five months after their initial vaccination series. Everyone over 50 is recommended to get a second booster shot four months after their first, as is anyone who is immunocompromised.
But officials were clear on Tuesday that despite the potential for opening up second boosters to a wider population, there has been very low uptake among the older Americans who are already eligible — a problem because they are the most vulnerable to the virus.
“For people who are 50 years of age or older, my message is simple: If you have not gotten a vaccine shot in the year 2022 — if you have not gotten one this year — please go get another vaccine shot,” Jha said. “It could save your life.”
Jha also pushed people to start testing before gathering at big events, getting treatment like Paxlovid or monoclonal antibodies if infected with COVID and upping their use of face masks.
BA.4 and BA.5, the latest dominant COVID strains to spread in the U.S., are substantially more evasive of prior immunity, both from infection and from vaccines. Together, they currently account for around 80% of cases.
“The vaccine effectiveness against severe disease, fortunately for us, is not reduced substantially or at all compared to other omicron subvariants,” Fauci said Tuesday.
Jha said the White House was closely monitoring the subvariants and their impact.
“We’re encouraged that serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths have remained relatively low based on the level of infections. That’s not by coincidence, by the way. It’s not random,” Jha said, going on to tout “our successful vaccination program, our efforts to get people boosted and our incredibly focused effort on making sure that treatments and testing are widely available.” (The administration had faced criticism last year that testing wasn’t easily accessible nationwide.)
Still, Jha noted Tuesday that hundreds of people — far too many — were dying every day.
“We are experiencing about 300 to 350 deaths a day. That is unacceptable. It’s too high. And we will continue to use the infrastructure we have built and the tools we have to lower suffering and death as we manage BA.5,” he said, “and it is clear that with every American doing their part, we can get through the BA.5 infections together.”
What Americans can do to protect themselves
While Jha, Fauci and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky were all clear in their recommendations on Tuesday for the public to get up-to-date on their vaccines and boosters to fend off variants, the reality is murky for many Americans who have recently had COVID.
The CDC’s guidance is that people can wait up to three months after infection to get a shot — but reinfection with BA.5 could happen sooner than three months. Because the omicron subvariant is still new, there’s a lot scientists are still scrambling to learn.
“The overall principle is that we know immunity wanes with coronaviruses, whether that is infection or vaccination, and so if you’ve been infected or vaccinated and your time comes for a boost, that’s when you should go and get the boost,” said Fauci, who recently recovered from COVID.
“And I might say myself, having been someone who’s been vaccinated and infected, when we get the next round of having vaccines available, months later, I will be in line to get another boost after that,” he added.
The other factor many Americans are weighing is the new, omicron-specific vaccine that will be available beginning in October. Officials were adamant that anyone who gets a booster now will again be able to get one in the fall. But booster fatigue or hesitancy to get boosted twice within a span of a few months might prevent people from making that decision.
To that, officials said the benefit was worth it.
“People say, ‘Well, why do I want to get a prototype vaccine booster now, when I’m gonna have a variant-specific vaccine in four months or five months?'” Jha said.
“The biggest thing, and the data on this is very clear, is if you’re over 50, that extra booster dramatically lowers your risk of getting into the hospital, going into the ICU and dying. And there are very few things we do in medicine that have the kind of benefit that we see from that extra shot,” Jha said.
“And let me be clear: If you get vaccinated today, you’re not going to be ineligible to get the variant-specific vaccine as we get into the later part of fall and winter. So this is not a trade off,” he said. “We’ve got plenty. It’s a great way to protect yourself.”
(NEW YORK) — As U.S. policymakers walk a tightrope in an attempt to dial back sky-high prices while averting an economic recession, new inflation data on Wednesday showed a significant acceleration of price hikes.
Prices rose even faster in June, jumping at the highest rate in four decades and prolonging a bout of inflation that has strained household budgets nationwide, according to data released by the federal government.
The consumer price index, or CPI, stood at 9.1% in June, a significant increase from 8.6% in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is the largest 12-month increase since December 1981.
On a monthly basis, the consumer price index rose 1.3% in June, far outpacing the 1% rise seen in April, according to the bureau.
The new data arrives as the Federal Reserve pursues a series of rate hikes that aim to tackle inflation by slowing down the economy and slashing demand. The moves, however, risk tipping the economy into a recession.
The high inflation figure could spur the Fed to seek a more aggressive approach to raising interest rates. The new inflation data comes days after employment data showed stronger than expected hiring last month, suggesting that employers remain undeterred by borrowing cost increases from the Fed.
“The million dollar question is how hard the Fed has to apply the brakes,” Hernan Moscoso Boedo, an economist at the University of Cincinnati, told ABC News.
Inflation data that shows continued acceleration of inflation “will put more pressure on the Fed to increase the interest rate more than expected, and that increases the possibility that the U.S. is going to enter a recession,” Moscoso Boedo added.
President Joe Biden, in a statement on Wednesday, called the new inflation data “unacceptably high” but downplayed the report as “out of date.” Gas prices, which made up almost half of the monthly increase in inflation, have declined since last month, Biden said. “Those savings are providing important breathing room for American families,” he added.
Over the past month, the national average gas price has decreased about 35 cents, reaching $4.65 a gallon, according to data from AAA.
But more needs to be done to bring down inflation, which remains “the most pressing economic challenge,” Biden said.
“Tackling inflation is my top priority,” he added. “We need to make more progress, more quickly, in getting price increases under control.”
At a Fed meeting last month, just days after the release of inflation data for May, the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate 0.75%, its largest rate hike since 1994. The increase brought the interest rate to a range of 1.5% to 1.75%
At a meeting later this month, the Fed is expected to raise the interest rate again. Fed officials are considering a 0.50% or 0.75% hike at the next meeting, according to minutes from the past meeting that were released July 6.
(NEW YORK) — More than 300 damaging storm reports came from Maine to Arkansas, as severe storms moved through.
More than 100,000 people in Virginia and Maryland were left without power on Tuesday night, as storm damage left its mark on homes, power lines and cars. Particularly, fallen trees were captured smashing into cars and parts of homes.
Heavy rains, up to 4 inches in some areas, caused flooding into Wednesday morning in the Dollywood theme park area in Tennessee.
Officials reported that over a dozen people were rescued Tuesday night after flash flooding in Greenbrier Campground in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
The Gatlinburg Fire Department responded to a call just before 11 p.m. that 14 people were trapped at the campground due to flooding, officials said.
Throughout the night, the Sevier County Emergency Management Agency continued to monitor the situation, first posting at 11:10 p.m. that anyone in the Greenbrier Island area and anyone downstream of Pigeon River should seek high ground, due to rapidly rising water with recent heavy thunderstorms.
As reports emerged of displaced people in the area, a temporary evacuation shelter was opened at Pittman Center Elementary School around midnight, SCEMA said.
At 2 a.m., SCEMA said that the water was continuing to recede, but that roads and low-lying areas were expected to remain submerged for the next several hours.
Farther south and out West, this summer’s extreme weather continues to manifest in dry, scorching heat.
Texas cities including Austin, San Antonio and Tyler, saw record-high temperatures on Tuesday, coming in at 109, 105 and 106 degrees, respectively.
For Wednesday, Austin is set for a heat index of 110 degrees.
According to the National Weather Service, the heat isn’t going anywhere, and will likely spread to the Midwest, the Great Lakes and parts of the East by next week.
For Phoenix, the heat will also stay steady through the end of the week, forecasted at 112 and 113 degrees for the end of the week.
Heat alerts have been issued for Nevada, Idaho, Utah and Montana.
Heat advisories have been issued for much of Texas, as well as in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Colorado and parts of Montana.
An excessive heat warning has been enacted in the Salt Lake City area.
Out West, the extreme heat coupled with dry weather, maintains the region’s fire risk.
The Washburn Fire continues to burn in southern Yosemite National Park as it reaches 3,516 acres burned and is 17% contained.
Hot and dry weather will continue in the area.
Red flag warnings have been issued for dry lightning and gusty winds, making the perfect circumstances for fire, from northern California to Nevada, including parts of southern Colorado.
To add to the eastern floods, southern heat and western fire, the Gulf Coast may be hit with tropical moisture and heavy rain.
Flash flooding from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, may come as rains could reach half a foot in a short period of time on Wednesday.
As the weather across the U.S. remains extreme, remember to stay safe in life-threatening situations such as high temperatures. Learn more about hot weather safety here.
