(NEW YORK) — With vaccine immunity waning, and concerns over a fall surge growing, officials from Moderna announced on Wednesday that data from its study on Omicron-containing bivalent booster, revealed that it offers superior antibody response against omicron — one month after injection — compared to the company’s current vaccine.
Moderna Chief Medical Officer Dr. Paul Burton told ABC News that he believes the company’s “highly effective” updated COVID-19 bivalent vaccine could be a “turning point” in the nation’s fight against the pandemic.
“The data are definitely better than I had even hoped,” Burton told ABC News in an interview. “Given the magnitude of effect — that seven-fold increase in antibody levels — we could for the first time, be at a vaccine that is truly effective with once yearly dosing because we know those antibody levels will decay.”
Moderna plans to file its data with the Food and Drug Administration “as quickly as possible,” and should the vaccine be authorized, the company will be ready to supply the shots to “as many people around the world as possible,” Burton said.
“These are very important data. It’s an important announcement. And I think it has the potential to be a real turning point in this latter part second half of the pandemic,” Burton said.
The announcement comes as the U.S. continues to battle a secondary surge from omicron subvariants amid waning immunity, relaxed attitudes by many towards mitigation measures and fatigue and skepticism about vaccination and booster shots.
After more than a year of persistent efforts and messaging from federal and local authorities, just under 71% of the eligible population aged 5 and over is fully vaccinated and less than half who have completed their primary series have had their first booster dose.
Burton said the company hopes this new vaccine could, for the first time, provide a roadmap for annual COVID-19 vaccinations, rather than shots every few months.
“I believe that we will be able to get to this once yearly dosing now because we have high levels now. That will probably even increase and mature over time, potentially giving people protection over a full year. We could finally get to that once yearly protection, so I think it’s really important,” Burton said.
The variant adapted vaccine, which contains omicron mRNA, was found to be highly effective against omicron, Burton said. The company reported that this new bivalent vaccine combines the original shot and the omicron mRNA together in a single shot.
“The original vaccine gives great protection against delta and other variants that we’ve seen still recently, and that really caused significant disease. Omicron does cause significant disease. It’s definitely not mild, but it’s super infectious. You need to combine the two together,” Burton explained.
Although it is still unknown how well the new vaccine will be able to prevent infections and severe illness, Burton said he is confident that the vaccine will “definitely prevent hospitalization and death.”
“It’s highly effective,” Burton said, adding that the safety profile is also “very robust,” and “reassuring.”
Should another variant of concern emerge, one drastically different than omicron and the already existing variants, scientists at Moderna will be prepared to reevaluate and readapt the shot to address the new threat.
“If something again really drastic occurs, Well, we’ll have to look at that. But I would say again, what I think we’ve been able to show here, is that we can adapt very quickly. We were able to make this new booster in weeks and get it into testing. I think we can even speed that up now. So, I think we were well prepared for that,” Burton said.
Burton said he remains worried about the growing population of “unprotected” and “under-vaccinated” Americans, who will be vulnerable to more severe disease.
“But by the fall, here, and around the world, we’re gonna have many people who are unvaccinated and under- vaccinated and they’re going to be very vulnerable,” Burton said. “By Autumn, we know that waning occurs. Even people who got boosted in the new year, come the autumn of this year, they’re going to have low levels of antibody. They’re going to be unprotected, under-vaccinated and they’re going to be very vulnerable.”
The sentiment of booster fatigue among some Americans is another concern for Burton, he said.
“The fatigue and just the eagerness of all of us… to kind of put COVID behind us has led to apathy and a real reduction in boosting,” Burton said.
As Moderna also prepares for the FDA to consider authorizing its pediatric vaccine for children under 6 years old, Burton said he hopes the youngest Americans will also have access to this updated shot as well, in the fall, once they receive their primary series.
“I think the issue for the littlest kids is that they have no protection right now, they have had no primary vaccination they’re under protected,” Burton said. “I would propose that parents, caregivers get their little kids vaccinated now, They’ll be ready to go back to school with Moderna. We know that two doses will give them protection… I think it’s likely that they will need an additional boost at some point. And I would propose, and I think we all would imagine, that this is then the booster for them to get in the autumn of this coming year.”
The company is conducting studies to look into safety and efficacy of the shots in young children, and scientists are expected to have data later in the year, Burton said.
(NEW YORK) — Despite a rather unpleasant bout with COVID-19 this past January, Jennifer McDonnell was relieved to think that she, and her family, could finally return to normal life, with a potentially strong immune protection stemming from both vaccination and a past infection.
“We had been cautious, but once we [got COVID-19] we thought, ‘We’re good,’” McDonnell, who lives in Illinois, told ABC News. “We were vaccinated, boosted. We had natural immunity. We thought that we didn’t need to wear a mask.”
However, four months later, McDonnell was met with an unwelcome surprise, when she awoke in the middle of the night to a high-grade fever and a sore throat.
“I felt so terrible. I was so sick,” McDonnell said.
Because of her previous coronavirus infection just a few months earlier — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends testing for those who develop symptoms within 90 days of recovering — McDonnell thought she must have caught the flu, or perhaps come down with strep throat. But when her tests came back negative, her doctor decided to test her for coronavirus.
“When he told me that I was positive for COVID-19 again, I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” McDonnell said. “I thought you know six months, I’m good. I don’t need to wear a mask. We were at like a whole bunch of sporting events… at parties without masks, no social distancing — nothing — we thought we had time.”
Now, three weeks after testing positive, McDonnell said that she still does not feel like herself, with this second round of COVID-19 feeling “way worse” than the first.
Although she was shocked to find herself positive again, data reveals that McDonnell is not alone. The phenomenon of reinfection — which the CDC defines as a person who was infected, recovered, and then later became infected again — has become increasingly reported over the last year, at first during the delta variant surge, and then during subsequent omicron surges.
Reinfection, spurred in part by more transmissible variants, waning immunity and relaxed attitudes towards effective mitigation measures like masks, mean that getting the pandemic under control is that much harder, even if cases are generally not severe, experts said. It also indicates that notions of “protection,” both from natural infection and vaccination, held up earlier in the pandemic have changed. Similar to a common cold, it is possible to become infected multiple times.
ABC News contacted officials from health departments in all 50 states, and found that although data is still largely unavailable, a growing number of people do appear to experience reinfection with COVID-19.
1.6 million recorded reinfections
More than 1.6 million cases of reinfection have been reported across 24 states since data collection began, according to an ABC analysis and compilation of state provided data.
New York, Maine and California, have all reported over 200,000 reinfections respectively, while Michigan and North Carolina have confirmed over 100,000 reinfection cases each.
States reported that an increasing proportion of people had been reinfected two times, with some people facing reinfection three, four and on very rare occasions, even five times. Definitions of reinfection vary by state.
Although health officials stressed that reinfections are likely significantly undercounted due to lack of reporting and home testing, overall, reinfections still represent a small share of the total number of cases reported across states.
The percent of cases confirmed as reinfections varies widely by jurisdiction, but a handful of states that provided the data reported a range of between approximately 4% and 15% of cases, the highest reported being in Utah.
“I believe that virtually everyone will be infected at some point in their lives, and most people multiple times. We see plenty of patients with reinfection, though it is a really hard number to quantify,” Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center, told ABC News.
‘Reinfection does happen’
In May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledged that despite some protection against infection provided through prior infection and vaccination, cases of reinfection are possible and even can occur within 90 days of an initial infection.
“Studies suggest that reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 with the same virus variant as the initial infection or reinfection with a different variant are both possible,” the CDC wrote.
Symptoms during reinfection have been found to be less severe than during the initial infection, the CDC wrote, but some individuals may still experience more severe forms of disease.
It is also unclear how many people, who became infected during the omicron surge, have become reinfected by the same variant or subvariant of omicron.
“Although rates of reinfection might change as new variants emerge, vaccination remains the safest strategy for preventing future [COVID-19] infections, hospitalizations, [long-COVID-19] and death,” officials said.
Isolation and treatment are still recommended for people who experience reinfection.
Doron explained that it can be difficult for physicians to tell the difference between a true reinfection and a “re-positive,” which she described as people staying positive on PCR tests for months at a time, or the occurrence of new symptoms while residual viral RNA is leftover in the nose, which can cause people to think they have tested positive again.
“The frequency of false positive test results is under-appreciated, so I often repeat the test in patients who are presenting with what appears to be a reinfection within a relatively short period of time — like 6 months — and frequently that repeat test is negative, but when it’s positive, we don’t have a way to know if the earlier one could have been a false positive,” Doron explained. “Reinfection does happen.”
Reinfection is more likely to happen to an individual when a different and more immune evasive variant is circulating, health experts said. The most recent examples were first the delta variant, and in the months that followed, the omicron variant.
“Although the increased ability to evade existing COVID-19 immunity began with the delta variant, it was omicron that took things to a whole new level,” Dr. Maureen Miller, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, told ABC News. “The problem is compounded by the waning protection afforded by vaccination, previous infection or a combination of the two. Sadly antibodies wane in a period of three to six months.”
In New Jersey, unvaccinated people were 1.7 times more likely to become reinfected than vaccinated people, and 7.3 times more likely to become reinfected than vaccinated and boosted people.
With BA.2 subvariant, BA.2.12.1, on the rise, and other omicron sub variants, BA.4 and BA.5, looming behind, Miller said that there are growing concerns that emerging variants will be able to continue to evade immunity to an even greater degree.
“Each new variant and subvariant and sub-subvariant is going to have different ability to break through prior immunity, and prior immunity from vaccination and infection is so variable between individuals,” Doron explained.
Although reinfection likely will occur more frequently, Miller added that thus far, the current surge has not been accompanied by the high levels of hospitalizations and deaths though “both will be unacceptably high as we move through this latest wave.”
Although the latest COVID-19 variants have been shown to be more transmissible and better at evading vaccines, thus far, they have not been found to be more severe.
A shifting definition of protection against infection from COVID-19
McDonnell said that she feels that many people, like her, have a false sense of protection after the first infection.
Further, she said, “nobody [where she lives] wears a mask. If you have a mask on, people look at you like, why are you wearing a mask? Because they dropped all the mandates,” adding, “everyone just assumes it’s over. It’s not.”
How long people are truly protected against reinfection, following a COVID-19 diagnosis, is still a major question on the mind of many scientists, Doron said.
“If I just had COVID, for how long can I drop the precautions before I need to start to be careful again because I am at risk of reinfection? The answer is not very clear,” Doron explained.
In addition, the definition of “protection” against COVID-19, through natural immunity or vaccination, has changed frequently throughout the pandemic. In the initial months after the vaccine rollout, federal officials widely touted that vaccination largely protected against all forms of infection — mild, severe and death — as well as re-infection.
“The science demonstrates that if you are fully vaccinated, you are protected,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a press briefing in May 2021, following the agency’s decision to drop its mask recommendation for fully vaccinated people.
Breakthrough infections — vaccinated people getting COVID-19 — were exceedingly rare, let alone reinfections.
Soon after, the delta variant emerged and new data was released, regarding the risk of breakthrough infections and the possibility of transmission between fully vaccinated people. Although protection against severe disease and death appeared to remain relatively steady, it became evident that people could not be unequivocally protected against infection following vaccination or infection.
In the early days of the pandemic, reaching herd immunity was frequently discussed by public health experts as a critical long-term goal in achieving national protection against COVID-19 and returning to normalcy.
However, this past March, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who had also often pointed to the importance of herd immunity, published a perspective paper in the Journal of Infectious Diseases in which he said that achieving “classical herd immunity” may not be achievable.
“There are significant obstacles to achieving complete herd immunity with COVID-19,” Fauci and his co-authors wrote. “Neither infection nor vaccination appears to induce prolonged protection against SARS-CoV-2 in many or most people.”
‘We will never eradicate or eliminate COVID-19’
The seemingly never-ending cycle of infection and reinfection can be perceived as daunting as the nation pushes to move on to a phase of the pandemic in which people are truly able to return to their normal lives.
“Remember, ‘flatten the curve’? We have not reached a threshold where enough people have a level of immunity that we can consider COVID-19 to be under control. As long as there is not enough immunity, it gives the virus a chance to mutate even more,” Miller said.
Although the U.S. is in a “much better” position than it was at the onset of the pandemic, in terms of immunity, Miller stressed that Americans must still be responsive to the rising and falling COVID-19 waves that will “continue to infect and reinfect us until we can achieve a level of control, where our health care systems are not periodically overwhelmed and deaths from COVID-19 become a much less common occurrence.”
Doron noted that the best ways for people to protect themselves against reinfection remain the same: stay up to date on vaccination, wear a high-quality mask in crowded indoor spaces, particularly if you are at increased risk.
“We will never eradicate or eliminate COVID-19. We’ll have to settle for controlling it. We’re not there yet,” Miller added.
(WASHINGTON) — Amid new pressure for gun control on Capitol Hill, lawmakers on Wednesday will hear what’s expected to be dramatic testimony from a fourth grader trapped in a Texas classroom for more than an hour as a gunman killed 19 of her classmates and two of her teachers.
Miah Cerrillo, who emotionally described to CNN smearing herself with her classmate’s blood and playing dead as the Uvalde rampage unfolded, is expected to describe the horror she experienced to the House Oversight Committee in a recorded video.
The 11-year-old girl is expected to be in the room with her parents when the video is played, a committee aide told ABC News.
The committee also will hear from other families traumatized by the massacres in Uvalde and in Buffalo, New York, that killed a total of 31 people just 10 days apart.
Also testifying are Felix Rubio and Kimberly Rubio, the parents of Lexi Rubio, a 10-year-old girl killed in Uvalde; Zeneta Everhart, the mother of Buffalo shooting survivor Zaire Goodman, who was shot in the neck while working at the store; and Roy Guerrero, a Uvalde pediatrician who treated the victims.
Guerrero told ABC News’ Mireya Villarreal and James Scholz on the eve of his testimony that the community is “strong” but they need more than “thoughts and prayers.”
“We need people to step up,” he said. “We need this to stop, basically. And I figured that if I didn’t take that step forward and take that initiative, I’d just kind of be sitting back doing nothing and not reaching my full potential with my obligation to these children.”
A second panel appearing before the House committee Wednesday includes various officials and advocacy group leaders: Buffalo police commissioner Joseph Gramaglia; Greg Jackson, Jr., the executive director of the Community Justice Action Fund; Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association; and Nick Suplina, senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety.
ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott spoke exclusively with Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, on the eve of the committee’s hearing on the gun violence epidemic.
“It will break your heart to hear their stories and to know that it’s senseless and that it could be prevented,” Maloney, D-N.Y., told Scott Tuesday evening in a preview of what to expect today when survivors and families testify.
Maloney said the survivors and families reached out to her committee and insisted on traveling to the nation’s capital to share their experiences just mere weeks after witnessing horror — hoping to change the hearts and minds of lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
“They wanted to tell their stories. They’re hoping that their stories will change the minds of some of the members of Congress so that we can find solutions,” Maloney said.
“We were saying maybe it would be too difficult,” she said, referring to Miah Cerrillo, of someone so young wanting to appear before Congress. “But she felt strongly and her parents supported her wish that she be able to testify and tell her story.”
“She felt very, very strongly that her story — she didn’t want the loss of her teachers, the loss of her friends, but also the quick thinking that she had to play dead to smear blood all over herself to save her life. It’s an incredible story,” Maloney added.
The hearing comes as negotiations continue on gun control. A bipartisan group of lawmakers, led by Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, are trying to reach a compromise this week on incremental measures like expanded background checks, incentives for states to implement red flag laws and funding for mental health programs.
Senate Democrats are looking for at least 10 Republican votes to get to the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster. If they don’t reach that mark, they risk continuing a 30-year trend of inaction on gun reform even in the wake of such tragedies as Sandy Hook, Las Vegas and Parkland.
Murphy provided an update on the talks during an appearance on ABC’s The View on Tuesday, stating he’s never seen this much public pressure for elected officials to act and he’s hopeful Republicans are “picking up this sense of urgency.”
“While we are very different in our views, we do both agree that we are not willing to do anything that compromises people’s Second Amendment rights,” Murphy said. “We are focusing on keeping weapons out of the hands of dangerous people.”
President Joe Biden made an impassioned plea last week for more, including a ban on assault weapons like the AR-15 used in the Uvalde shooting, but most Republicans in Congress remain opposed to any gun restrictions.
“We spent hours with hundreds of family members who were broken, whose lives will never be the same,” Biden said in an address from the White House. “They had one message for all of us. Do something.”
Maloney said she feels there is a new air of urgency to get gun control legislation on Biden’s desk in light of the Uvalde mass shooting, and she’s hopeful Republicans will change their minds when they hear the witnesses speak firsthand.
“Absolutely, there’s a sense of urgency, and tomorrow we will be debating gun safety laws on the floor and voting. So, hopefully, their testimony will have an impact on the votes of these members of Congress,” Maloney said Tuesday.
In a letter to Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the House will vote Wednesday afternoon on the Protect Our Kids Act, the gun control package assembled after the mass shootings in New York and Texas.
In all, 19 young children and two teachers were killed by a gunman wielding an AR-15-style assault weapon at Robb Elementary School on May 24. Funerals for the victims are continuing until June 25.
In Buffalo, 10 Black people were fatally shot in a Tops grocery store on May 14. The Department of Justice is investigating the shooting as a “hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism.”
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard from the son of one of the Buffalo victims as part of a hearing on domestic terrorism.
Garnell Whitfield Jr., the oldest son of Ruth Whitfield, an 86-year-old woman killed in the shooting, held back tears as he urged lawmakers to take action or “yield their positions” in Congress.
“You expect us to continue to just forgive and forget over and over again. And what are you doing?” he said. “You’re elected to protect us, to protect our way of life.”
(NEW YORK) — Racial and ethnic minorities in the United States continue to be disproportionately burdened by cancer, a new report suggests.
Published by the American Association for Cancer Research on Wednesday, the report found that Black, Hispanic, Asian and Indigenous patients are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer and die from the disease compared to white patients despite overall rates of cancer incidence and mortality declining.
“If we’re going to eliminate disparities, we have to do our jobs much better than we have been doing them,” Dr. Lisa Newman, chair of the AACR Cancer Disparities Progress Report 2022 Steering Committee and chief of the section of breast surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, told ABC News.
The findings also showed Hispanic patients have a mortality rate from liver cancer nearly double that of white patients.
In addition, American Indian/Alaskan Native patients have an 80% higher incidence rate of kidney cancer than their white counterparts.
There has, however, been improvement. Differences in overall cancer death rates among racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. have narrowed over the last two decades.
Specifically, cancer mortality rates between Black and white patients have declined from 26% in 2000 to 13% in 2019.
“There is room to be optimistic that we will conquer this problem, but the disparities still exist, and they exist to varying degrees in different cancers,” Newman said.
The report also examined disparities on the basis of gender identity, neighborhood income and urban vs. rural settings.
Results showed transgender men are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with cancer compared to cisgender men.
Newman said LGBTQ patients may not seek care for their cancers due to fears of discrimination and, by the time they do seek care, their cancers are in advanced stages.
“We have to make sure that the health care system is set up, so the LGBTQ community is comfortable coming in and getting their cancers diagnosed and treated,” she said. “Concerns related to implicit biases are very real. Discrimination is very real, and we have to respect those concerns are out there for appropriate reasons.”
Previous studies have shown that lack of trust in the health care system is one of the reasons why people from different backgrounds may not seek care for cancer or other illnesses.
The report also found that mortality rates were 12.3% higher for all cancer types in low-income counties compared to counties with higher incomes. For stomach cancer in particular, mortality rates were 43% higher.
When it came to rural areas, individuals had 17% higher death rates from all cancers compared to Americans living in urban areas, with 34% higher rates for lung cancer and 23% higher rates for colorectal cancer.
Experts say these disparities have only been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A recent JAMA study noted that breast cancer screenings dropped by 6% and cervical cancer screenings by 11% during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Screening rates were lower amongst people of color and lower socioeconomic class, highlighting existing barriers to care which were heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to the new barriers to screening.
“COVID-19 has caused millions of people to put off their cancer screenings [and] delay seeking care for symptoms … resulting in a huge increase in numbers of people being diagnosed with cancer this year and next year as well as more people being diagnosed at later stages,” Dr. Carol Brown, a gynecologic cancer surgeon and senior vice president and chief health equity officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, who was not involved with the report, told ABC News.
She continued, “This effect is even more pronounced in groups at higher risk for disparities with cancer outcome.”
This was also supported by a recent study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society, which noted that there was a 3.2% increase in the number of cancer-related deaths during the first year of the pandemic.
To close the gaps, the authors of the report recommend making sure clinical trials include a diverse group of patients and that researchers separate data regarding cancer incidence and death rates into not just broad categories but also subpopulations.
“We need culturally tailored cancer screening awareness strategies for different populations in the U.S., especially for individuals from racial and ethnic minority groups or unique communities such as the LGBTQ[IA]+,” Dr. Dan Theodorescu, director of Cedars-Sinai Cancer, who was involved with the report, told ABC News.
He added, “Another important example are the different breast cancer incidence rates in Asian sub-populations compared to other Asian ethnicities and white women. We don’t often have conferences focusing on the cancer burden of a specific population, but perhaps the time is now to start.”
Many cancer centers such as MSK and Cedars-Sinai have dedicated teams to help increase access of minorities in clinical trials such as the Endometrial Cancer Equity Program and increase awareness about screening in the communities they serve through community engagement and outreach programs.
“We can address these disparities related to lack of trust by developing a diverse workforce of cancer clinicians and researchers who reflect the people who we are trying to help,” Brown added.
(UVALDE, Texas) — The families of four students injured in the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting is suing the suspected gunman’s estate and want answers about how he gained access to the school.
Attorney Thomas J. Henry filed a lawsuit on behalf of the families in a Texas district court on Monday.
On May 24, Salvador Ramos, 18, allegedly killed 19 children and two teachers at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School. The victims represented in the lawsuit are among 17 kids injured during the shooting.
Henry and his team are leading an investigation examining the shooting, how the suspected gunman was able to buy an AR-15 and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and how he entered the school.
“This initial lawsuit will allow us to discover evidence and possibly add other parties to the lawsuit, if necessary,” Henry said in a press release. “The discovery process will focus on the school system, law enforcement, social media, and gun and ammunition manufacturers.”
The plaintiffs suffered severe injuries to the face, leg, back and other parts of the body, resulting in having them undergo multiple surgeries, as well as experience mental trauma stemming from watching their classmates and teachers die, according to the lawsuit. The parents are seeking $100 million in damages.
“He intentionally injured these young children, stole their innocence, and forever changed their lives,” the lawsuit says.
Henry’s firm will also investigate Ramos’ past to see if he had a violent history.
The suit may be one of many stemming from the shooting that rocked a Texas community and reinvigorated the debate about gun control in the U.S.
Alfred Garza, the father of Amerie Jo Garza, one of the children killed in the Uvalde shooting, hired Connecticut lawyers who successfully sued the manufacturer of the gun used in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, according to a news release.
Garza’s attorneys filed a letter last week requesting documents from Daniel Defense, the manufacturer of the gun used in Robb Elementary School.
“We have to honor her and make sure we do good. From this day forward, I want to live my life for my daughter,” Garza told ABC’s World News Tonight anchor David Muir.
Through her attorney, a Robb Elementary School teacher, who the Texas Department of Public Safety falsely accused of leaving a school door open that allowed the gunman to enter the school, filed a petition for information on Daniel Defense, ABC News reported.
President Joe Biden called for Congress to lift the immunity that protects gun makers from being held liable in a speech from the White House on June 2.
“We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. And if we can’t ban assault weapons, then we should raise the age to purchase them from 18 to 21, strengthen background checks, enact safe storage laws and red flag laws. Repeal the immunity that protects gun manufacturers from liability, address the mental health crisis,” he said.
Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Representatives of the social media app Yubo said on Tuesday that the platform is adding new safety features and updating its usage guidelines following news that the accused Robb Elementary School gunman allegedly used the app to send disturbing messages that appear to have gone unnoticed in the days leading up to the deadly shooting.
“The devastating events of 24 May in Uvalde, Texas, brought to light systemic issues in society that need to be addressed,” Yubo CEO Sacha Lazimi said in a statement Tuesday. “In the days since, we have been working to accelerate safety developments in our pipeline and further expand the scope of existing safeguards across our platform.”
Yubo representatives said that since the Uvalde shooting, they have updated the app’s risk-detection policy, enhanced its user-reporting capabilities and introduced audio-moderation technology for live streams that they say will allow for “comprehensive automatic moderation across the platform.”
ABC News previously reported that in the days and weeks before the Uvalde shooting, accused gunman Salvador Ramos appeared to have sent concerning messages — including claims about intentions of violence at school — to numerous young people he met online through the Yubo app. One user told ABC News she tried to report Ramos to Yubo — but that “regardless of how many times he was reported … he would still come back.”
The shooting, on May 24, left 19 students and two faculty members dead, making it one on of the deadliest school shootings in the nation’s history.
Representatives of Yubo also said Tuesday the platform has developed a new “combined-signals risk detection algorithm” that will help provide context around potential risks on its platform by assessing “a combination of signals including keywords, emojis, and images.”
Yubo representatives previously told ABC News that the company was “fully cooperating with law enforcement on their investigation.”
“We remain shocked and deeply saddened by this recent tragedy. Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and all who have been impacted,” they said.
Yubo, which was launched in 2015 by a French company, was listed in 2019 by Seventeen magazine as one of the seven best dating apps for teenagers.
(BERLIN) — At least one person was killed and 12 others were injured when a car plowed into a crowd of pedestrians in a popular shopping district in Berlin on Wednesday morning, police said.
“It is not yet known whether it was an accident or intentional action,” the Berlin Police said in a statement via Twitter.
The incident took place along the busy shopping street Tauentzienstrasse in the west of Germany’s capital. The alleged driver of the vehicle was detained at the scene, according to police.
A police spokesperson told ABC News it was unclear whether the incident was terror-related. Further details were not immediately available.
The scene was near the Breitscheidplatz, a public square in Berlin where 13 people were killed after an extremist deliberately drove into a Christmas market in 2016.
(NEW YORK) — Old Navy’s 2022 Flag Tee collection is here, just in time for the Fourth of July.
The retailer recently revealed its latest version of the popular T-shirts, and this year’s lineup includes the brand’s first Spanish language design.
The new inclusive designs were co-created with the company’s Project WE artists, Manuela Guillén, Monica Ahanonu and Edward Granger. Each tee represents the artists’ unique vision of the country.
Guillén, a first-generation American artist born to Cuban and Salvadoran immigrant parents, designed the Spanish language tee. Her design includes the words “para todos,” which translates to “for everyone” in English. This phrase reflects her belief that the flag symbolizes inclusion for all who wish to call the U.S. home.
“America is for everyone, no matter what,” Guillén said in a statement. “This place is for all of us. That’s from my heart.”
This year’s Flag Tee collection also features nods to five U.S. territories in addition to the 50 states, as well as the new phrase “United States of All.”
The unique lineup includes pieces for women, men, children and pets.
(BERLIN) — A car plowed into a crowd of people in a popular shopping district in Berlin on Wednesday morning, police said.
“A man is said to have driven into a group of people,” the Berlin Police said in a statement via Twitter. “It is not yet known whether it was an accident or intentional action.”
The incident took place along the busy shopping street Tauentzienstrasse in the west of Germany’s capital. The alleged driver of the vehicle was detained at the scene, according to police.
Further details on the incident were not immediately available.
The scene was near the Breitscheidplatz, a public square in Berlin where 13 people were killed after an extremist deliberately drove into a Christmas market in 2016.
(NEW YORK) — Good extra virgin olive oil has long been hailed for its associated health benefits — and now, some social media feeds are overflowing with users encouraging others to hop on the trend of taking a sip first thing in the morning. But nutrition specialists ABC News spoke to say the true benefit is likely achieved by adding EVOO as a complement to your meals.
“Olive oil has plant compounds in it that are very beneficial for human health. I would recommend people add it to their food rather than just taking a shot of it,” Liz Weinandy, lead dietitian at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told ABC’s Good Morning America.
“Many foods like tomatoes, carrots and dark leafy greens have fat soluble nutrients in them, meaning they are absorbed better with some fat,” Weinandy added. “Olive oil can be that carrier to getting these nutrients into our body.”
Nutrition expert and registered dietitian Maya Feller told GMA that she was initially “floored” by “the benefits of actually taking olive oil” when she attended a Mediterranean Diet roundtable at Yale with a focus on olive oil shortly before the onset of the pandemic.
As for what’s happening on TikTok and Instagram, with people swigging a spoonful of high-quality olive oil, Feller said she personally supports the concept with some significant caveats, like looking at your overall diet and speaking to a professional.
“It’s interesting because it probably is like one of one of the few social media things where I’m like, ‘yeah, totally, it’s great,'” the Brooklyn-based nutritionist said. “I always give the caveat that it has to be individualized. If you’re going to incorporate anything into your pattern of eating or what you’re doing on a regular basis, you need to talk to a dietician or a qualified health professional.”
Additionally, Feller said she would not consider using a “cheap oil” without traceability for this trend.
“I wouldn’t take it [unless] it’s really high quality extra virgin olive oil and well sourced,” she said.
“There is research to show the microorganisms in our gut can break down the beneficial compounds in olive oil and improve our gut health,” Weinandy said. “This is important because we know there are a lot of functions the gut microbiome plays on our overall health.”
Some of the health associations with olive oil as part of a complete diet that Feller has reviewed, including from an Italian study on the Metabolic and Vascular Effect of the Mediterranean Diet, show that the healthy plant nutrients called phytochemicals could potentially play a part in helping to fight cancer and heart disease.
“What I really love about olive oil are its mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids,” she said. “Those are the type of fatty acids that are associated with a decrease in inflammation.”
“There are several studies showing those who consume more olive oil have a lower risk of some cancers like colon cancer, better cognition and a healthier heart. Olive oil alone won’t give us a clean bill of health but along with an overall healthy diet that includes many nutrients from whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes and lean proteins, it is a winning ticket,” Weinandy explained. “This is one reason the Mediterranean diet has so many health benefits, because it includes olive oil as the main source of fat.”
A person’s lifestyle and amount of consumption of alcohol or tobacco also influence cancer risks.
Weinandy added that, “with that in mind, I would remind people olive oil is still fat and the calories can add up fast. Too many calories can still cause weight gain so balancing that out is key.”
“When people talk about gut health and the gut microbiome, it seems like there are some components in olive oil that actually are beneficial when we’re thinking about [gastrointestinal] health, and that they help to actually enhance and stimulate the diversity of the bacteria that’s in the gut and especially the good bugs that are in the gut,” Feller said.
Another caveat Feller said to take into account with this or any trend, is that “our patterns of eating are built over time and not a standalone moment.”
“Consuming a majority of added sugars, salts, and synthetic fats, a capsule of olive oil in the morning and evening, may not be used to mean elicit the response that people want,” she clarified. “It has to be thought about in the whole person, whole body context.”
Gut health expert Dr. Will Bulsiewicz, a gastroenterologist and author of Fiber Fueled, told GMA that while there are some health benefits associated with olive oil “consumed in moderation as a part of an overall healthy dietary pattern” he thinks this particular trend misses the mark on the true hero of gut health — fiber.
“Fiber is the fuel that empowers our gut microbes for better health,” he said. “I don’t understand why we would build our morning around food that is devoid of fiber when we could be opting for avocado toast.”
“We should bear in mind that olive oil, like any other oil, is the most calorie dense food on the planet. For example, one pound of kale has about 100 calories. One pound of olive oil has around 4,000. Gram for gram, the kale is packing far more nutritional value. And this is most noticeably true in the fiber content,” he added. “The fiber content of oil is highly predictable — it’s zero. You won’t find any fiber in oil.”
“As dietitians,” Weinandy said, “we encourage people to eat olive oil, we mean to include this as a healthy fat in our diet. Use it to sautee foods, as salad dressing, in place of butter on vegetables or with bread. The idea is to eat it in moderation and to use it in place of less healthy fats like butter or coconut oil.”
So while the TikTok trend may be on the mark as far as some benefits of olive oil, she reminded those curious about it that “ingesting a large amount at one time, like a shot glass full every morning, is really not necessary.”
“Large amounts of fat — any type of fat — can cause some gastrointestinal discomfort in some people,” Weinandy said. “Besides, who wants to drink a glass of olive oil every morning from an enjoyment perspective? Even if you like the taste of plain olive oil, it isn’t as enjoyable as eating it on foods.”
