(NEW YORK) — Bruce Willis’ family has announced the actor has been diagnosed with aphasia and is “stepping away” from his career due to the diagnosis.
The 67-year-old actor’s wife, Emma Heming Willis; his ex-wife, Demi Moore; and his daughters shared a photo of him on Instagram on Wednesday with a lengthy message on his health.
“To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” their message began. “As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, aphasia is “a condition that robs you of the ability to communicate,” and the disorder can impact one’s “ability to speak, write and understand language, both verbal and written.”
The medical nonprofit says the language disorder “typically occurs suddenly after a stroke or a head injury.”
There are several different types of the language disorder, and the condition “usually occurs suddenly, often following a stroke or head injury, but it may also develop slowly, as the result of a brain tumor or a progressive neurological disease,” according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
The impact of treatment depends on “the cause of the brain injury, the area of the brain that was damaged and its extent, and the age and health of the individual,” according to the NIDCD.
The disorder affects around 2 million people in the United Statues, the National Aphasia Association says, and almost 180,000 Americans are diagnosed with it every year.
The Die Hard actor’s family did not provide further details on his condition but did expression their gratitude for support from his fans.
“This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support,” the message from the actor’s family read. “We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him.”
“As Bruce always says, ‘Live it up,’ and together we plan to do just that,” they added.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden received his second booster shot following his scheduled remarks Wednesday about the state of the country’s COVID response, according to the White House.
Biden’s speech promoted the launch of COVID.gov, a new website the White House is billing as a “one-stop shop” to help Americans get better access to vaccines, tests, treatments and masks — as well as area-specific updates on COVID-19 spread.
The website leads users to locations where they can get vaccines, boosters and masks, and it connects people with another White House website to order free at-home rapid tests.
The president also highlighted that the “Test to Treat” initiative he announced at the State of the Union has already expanded to over 2,000 sites nationwide and now through COVID.gov’s new “Test to Treat Locator,” Americans can readily find pharmacies and community health centers to get tested for COVID-19 and receive treatments if needed.
Notably, many of the COVID response efforts available on COVID.gov are the same things the White House says are in jeopardy of running out in the coming weeks and months if more funding is not approved.
Administration officials for weeks have been ringing alarm bells about the critical need for more COVID funding, warning of the severe consequences for Americans.
Biden on Wednesday sent what a White House official called an “urgent, direct message to Congress” to act swiftly to secure funding for the administration’s COVID response.
Last week, the fund to cover testing and treatment for uninsured Americans ran out of money, leaving people to pay as much as $125 out of pocket if they get PCR testing at labs like Quest Diagnostics, one of the biggest in the country.
The funding to cover the cost of administering vaccines for uninsured people will run out next week.
At the same time, monoclonal antibody treatment supplies distributed to states each week has been cut by 35%. And the U.S. supply could run out entirely by May if funding isn’t secured.
The government says it has enough tests to get to the summer, but if there’s another surge, the country will again be caught flat-footed like it was during the omicron wave.
“You could see, again, a gap in access to at-home testing,” Andrea Palm, deputy secretary of Health and Human Services, told reporters last week.
The White House has said without additional funding, “the results are dire” — one official told ABC News earlier this month, “Simply put, failing to take action now will have severe consequences for the American people.”
The White House has asked for $22.5 billion in immediate aid to keep COVID-19 programs afloat. Congress whittled that request down to $15 billion before cutting it from a spending bill entirely in early March. Since then, the White House has urged Democrats and Republicans on the Hill to come to an agreement, but negotiations remain at a stalemate.
ABC News’ Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will receive his second booster shot following his scheduled remarks Wednesday about the state of the country’s COVID response, according to the White House.
Biden is expected in his speech to promote the launch of COVID.gov, a new website the White House is billing as a “one-stop shop” to help Americans get better access to vaccines, tests, treatments and masks — as well as area-specific updates on COVID-19 spread.
The website leads users to locations where they can get vaccines, boosters and masks, and it connects people with another White House website to order free at-home rapid tests.
The president will also highlight that the “Test to Treat” initiative he announced at the State of the Union has already expanded to over 2,000 sites nationwide and now through COVID.gov’s new “Test to Treat Locator,” Americans can readily find pharmacies and community health centers to get tested for COVID-19 and receive treatments if needed.
Notably, many of the COVID response efforts available on COVID.gov are the same things the White House says are in jeopardy of running out in the coming weeks and months if more funding is not approved.
Administration officials for weeks have been ringing alarm bells about the critical need for more COVID funding, warning of the severe consequences for Americans.
Biden on Wednesday will send what a White House official called an “urgent, direct message to Congress” to act swiftly to secure funding for the administration’s COVID response.
Last week, the fund to cover testing and treatment for uninsured Americans ran out of money, leaving people to pay as much as $125 out of pocket if they get PCR testing at labs like Quest Diagnostics, one of the biggest in the country.
The funding to cover the cost of administering vaccines for uninsured people will run out next week.
At the same time, monoclonal antibody treatment supplies distributed to states each week has been cut by 35%. And the U.S. supply could run out entirely by May if funding isn’t secured.
The government says it has enough tests to get to the summer, but if there’s another surge, the country will again be caught flat-footed like it was during the omicron wave.
“You could see, again, a gap in access to at-home testing,” Andrea Palm, deputy secretary of Health and Human Services, told reporters last week.
The White House has said without additional funding, “the results are dire” — one official told ABC News earlier this month, “Simply put, failing to take action now will have severe consequences for the American people.”
The White House has asked for $22.5 billion in immediate aid to keep COVID-19 programs afloat. Congress whittled that request down to $15 billion before cutting it from a spending bill entirely in early March. Since then, the White House has urged Democrats and Republicans on the Hill to come to an agreement, but negotiations remain at a stalemate.
ABC News’ Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.” Heavy shelling and missile attacks, many on civilian buildings, continue in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, as well as major cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 30, 11:46 am
Zelenskyy warns Norway of Russia’s military buildup in Arctic
Ukraine warned Norway on Wednesday that Russian forces have “amassed in the Arctic region” and will ultimately pose a threat to Europe.
“I think you are experiencing new risks near your border with Russia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address to Norwegian lawmakers via video link from Kyiv. “A number of Russian troops that has no normal explanation has already been amassed in the Arctic region. For what? Against whom?”
“The future of Europe — the whole continent from north to south, from west to east — is being decided right now,” he added. “On our land, on Ukrainian soil, in Ukrainian air, in Ukrainian sea. So that your soldiers do not have to defend NATO’s eastern flank, so that Russian mines do not drift to your ports and fjords, so that your people do not have to get used to the sound of air alarms and so that Russian tanks are not amassed at your border, we must stop the aggression of the Russian Federation together and only together.”
Zelenskyy said Russian forces are continuing to carry out relentless and indiscriminate attacks on his country. Although Ukrainian troops are holding off Russian advances, he warned that “the columns of Russian armoured vehicles are not decreasing.”
“There are no forbidden targets for Russian troops. They attack everything,” he told Norwegian lawmakers. “Ukraine’s losses are enormous.”
-ABC News’ Fidel Pavlenko and Christine Theodorou
Mar 30, 11:18 am
Lavrov meets with Chinese Foreign Minister
During a meeting in China, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi doubled down on increasingly close ties between the two nations despite the invasion of Ukraine.
Wang acknowledged the “Ukraine problem” but stopped short of offering support.
Chinese officials have said repeatedly in the past weeks that they are “not a party” to the conflict but “support Russia and Ukraine in overcoming difficulties.”
-ABC News’ Karson Yiu
Mar 30, 9:55 am
Putin advisers ‘afraid to tell him’ about Russian military performance
U.S. intelligence said it believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is being misinformed by his advisers on his troops’ performance in Ukraine “because his senior advisors are too afraid to tell him the truth,” a U.S. official told ABC News.
Based on declassified intelligence, the official said, “We have information that Putin felt misled by the Russian military. There is now persistent tension between Putin and the MOD [Ministry of Defence], stemming from Putin’s mistrust in MOD leadership. Putin didn’t even know his military was using and losing conscripts in Ukraine, showing a clear breakdown in the flow of accurate information to the Russian President.”
The official continued: “We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisors about how badly the Russian military is performing and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions, because his senior advisors are too afraid to tell him the truth.”
Mar 30, 8:30 am
Poland plans to abandon Russian hydrocarbons by year’s end
Poland announced Wednesday its plan to stop buying Russian oil, gas and coal by the end of 2022.
“Today, we present the most radical plan in Europe to abandon Russian hydrocarbons — oil, gas and coal. This plan is necessary for the recovery of Europe,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a press conference.
According to Morawiecki, Poland “will impose a total embargo on Russian coal in April, at the latest in May.” He said his country has already largely reduced its dependence on oil from Russia and “will do [its] best to abandon Russian oil by the end of the year.” He added that he is also expecting a decline in gas imports in May.
Morawiecki called on other European countries, including Germany, to follow suit. He urged the European Commission “to establish a tax on Russian hydrocarbons so that trade and economic rules in the European single market are fair.”
Mar 30, 8:06 am
Enrollment in Poland’s national guard grows sevenfold
In the Polish village of Zegrze, about 20 miles north of Warsaw, cars line the small street outside a facility belonging to Poland’s Territorial Defense Force (TDF). Officials said interest in training with the TDF has increased sevenfold in the last month, following Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine — creating an unintended traffic backup in the facility’s tiny public parking lot.
The TDF is the fifth military branch of the Polish Armed Forces, behind the Land Forces, Army, Navy and Special Forces. The group is made up of volunteer and part-time privates, and is comparable to the National Guard of the United States.
ABC News got exclusive access into the TDF facility in Zegrze and spoke with several new trainees, all of whom were women. Each one spoke about their underlying interest in the military and wanting to feel confident in protecting themselves and their families. But several said they became motivated to enroll after watching average Ukrainian citizens defend their country. They were inspired to be prepared in the same way.
ABC News’ cameras were allowed to follow a group of trainees — men and women of all ages — as instructors took them into a nearby forest on Tuesday morning. The trainees were clad in army fatigues and their faces were marked with camouflage paint as they crawled along the ground, guns in hand. The training was a grueling, real-life instruction that left them exhausted within an hour.
The program lasts for 16 days, with at least 12 hours of training required each day. At the end, the trainees take a military oath and then are allowed to return home. Many know there is a chance they will soon be called on to help the Polish military as the Russian invasion grinds on in neighboring Ukraine. While they won’t likely see combat, their main objective is to enhance national defense capabilities and protect their local communities.
Mar 30, 7:39 am
Ukrainians attempt to save animals from abandoned zoo near Kyiv
Ukrainians are attempting to rescue exotic animals from an abandoned zoo near the capital.
Vitaly Mukhanov told ABC News that he had volunteered to help bring supplies to Ukrainian soldiers when he came across the Yasnohorodka family ecopark, about 30 miles outside Kyiv. The park appeared to have been damaged by shelling and the animals, including camels and ostriches, were left with no food. Some were injured, while others were dead.
Videos and images Mukhanov took of the scene and posted on Facebook on Monday quickly went viral and he said he was subsequently contacted by the zoo’s owner, who asked if he could help.
In one of the videos, Mukhanov comes across a wounded ostrich. The bird appeared to be taking its last breaths as he gently stroked its head.
“You can see from the images that the animals were in a very bad way,” Mukhanov told ABC News. “The town nearby was liberated from the Russians two days ago, so the owner is now returning to the zoo and they hope to evacuate the animals in the next couple of days.”
Mukhanov said he has since returned to western Ukraine to get more supplies, but he was told that veterinarians were due to visit the Yasnohorodka family ecopark on Tuesday to provide care to some of the animals.
Mar 30, 7:18 am
Explosion rings out near Russian city of Belgorod
A missile hit a temporary Russian military camp near the border with Ukraine late Tuesday, according Russian state-owned news agency TASS.
TASS, citing a source, reported that preliminary data shows the camp, just outside the Russian city of Belgorod, was fired on from the Ukrainian side. However, Ukraine has denied responsibility and instead blamed the incident on Russian error.
Belgorod Oblast Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a statement that blasts occurred in the village of Krasny Oktyabr, about 19 miles southwest of Belgorod. He did not cite a cause of the incident, saying he was awaiting a report from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Video circulating online and verified by ABC News shows an explosion in Krasny Oktyabr on Tuesday night. The cause of the blast was unknown.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk alleged that “an unauthorized detonation of ammunition” took place at a warehouse of the Russian Armed Forces in Belgorod.
“This is an example of typical for Russians neglect of safety precautions and mass use of dangerous ammunition of the Second World War,” Vereschuk said at a press briefing Wednesday.
Belgorod is about 50 miles north of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which Russian forces have shelled heavily in recent weeks.
Mar 30, 6:11 am
Russia bombards Chernihiv hours after claiming to curb assault
Air raid sirens sounded off across almost all of Ukraine overnight and into early Wednesday, hours after Russia said it would scale back its military operations around Kyiv and Chernihiv.
Russian forces bombarded the besieged northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv as well as Khmelnytsky Oblast in western Ukraine, while several missiles were shot down over the capital, Kyiv, according to Vadim Denisenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister. The damage and any casualties were still being assessed Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, the Luhansk Oblast has been under heavy shelling for days, Denisenko said.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed Wednesday that the Russian military continues to withdraw part of its troops from near Kyiv and Chernihiv, and are possibly “regrouping units to concentrate the main efforts in the eastern direction.” However, the General Staff said it believes the real goals of the so-called withdrawal are a rotation of individual units, misleading Ukraine’s military leadership and creating an erroneous idea about Russia’s refusal from the plan to encircle Kyiv.
Mar 30, 5:27 am
Over four million refugees have fled Ukraine: UNHCR
More than four million people have been forced to flee Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the United Nations Refugee Agency.
The tally from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) amounts to just over 9% of Ukraine’s population — which the World Bank counted at 44 million at the end of 2020 — on the move across borders in 35 days.
More than half of the refugees crossed into neighboring Poland, UNHCR figures show.
Mar 30, 3:41 am
Russian authorities may ‘single out and detain’ Americans in Russia and Ukraine, US warns
The United States is warning that Russian authorities “may single out and detain U.S. citizens” in both Russia and Ukraine.
The warning came Tuesday as the U.S. Department of State issued new travel advisories for the two warring countries.
The State Department previously warned Americans in Russia that they could be targets for harassment by Russian authorities. But the latest advisory makes it explicit that U.S. citizens could be “singled out,” “including for detention.”
The State Department has also previously warned Americans against traveling to Ukraine to join the fight against Russian forces, pointing to statements from Russian authorities that anyone detained while fighting will not be considered a lawful combatant. That could mean mistreatment or worse, according to State Department spokesperson Ned Price.
“There are continued reports of U.S. citizens being singled out and detained by the Russian military in Ukraine and when evacuating by land through Russia-occupied territory or to Russia or Belarus,” the latest advisory for Ukraine states.
Both Russia and Ukraine have been on the State Department’s “Travel Advisory Level 4 – Do Not Travel” for months, as tensions ratcheted up and with little to no diplomatic presences on the ground.
(DZHEZKAZGAN, Kazakstan) — NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei returned to Earth Wednesday, after spending a record-breaking 355 days in low-Earth orbit. Vande Hei shared a spacecraft with two Russian cosmonauts as tensions between the Russia and the U.S. continue amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Vande Hei returned in a Soyuz spacecraft with Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov, making a parachute-assisted landing at 7:28 a.m. in Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. The trio had departed the International Space Station at 3:21 a.m. ET.
Vande Hei broke the record for the longest spaceflight by a NASA astronaut by 15 days. The record was previously held by retired astronaut Scott Kelly.
On this spaceflight, Vande Hei completed 5,680 orbits of the Earth and a journey of more than 150 million miles, roughly the equivalent of 312 trips to the Moon and back, according to NASA.
This trip gave Vande Hei a lifetime total of 523 days in space.
“Mark’s mission is not only record-breaking, but also paving the way for future human explorers on the Moon, Mars, and beyond,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in a press release. “Our astronauts make incredible sacrifices in the name of science, exploration, and cutting-edge technology development, not least among them time away from loved ones.”
Nelson added: “NASA and the nation are proud to welcome Mark home and grateful for his incredible contributions throughout his year-long stay on the International Space Station.”
According to NASA, Vande Hei contributed to dozens of studies from the hundreds executed during his mission, including six science investigations supported by NASA’s Human Research Program.
As NASA plans to return to the Moon, under the Artemis program, and prepares for the exploration of Mars, the agency said Vande Hei’s extended mission will provide researchers the opportunity to observe the effects of long-duration spaceflight on humans.
After the crew goes through post-landing medical checks, they will be flown to the recovery staging city in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, on Russian helicopters. Vande Hei will then board a NASA plane to Cologne, Germany, for refueling, prior to his return home.
Shkaplerov and Dubrov will be flown home to Star City, Russia, on a Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center aircraft.
(NEW YORK) — Two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, mental health challenges still impact youth.
But in a new one-hour ABC News primetime special anchored by Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said children have struggled with mental health long before the pandemic.
“The pandemic’s been more challenging for some children,” Murthy told ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton. “If we wanna address this, we’ve got to listen to kids.”
In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics found “soaring rates of mental health challenges among children, adolescents, and their families over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Two months later, Murthy issued an advisory on the youth mental health crisis, emphasizing that mental health challenges are present among children and young adults.
To help young people heal, Murthy has been doing listening tours with youth across the country.
In the ABC News primetime special “24 Months That Changed the World,” Ashton sits down with Murthy and kids at Ida B. Wells Middle School. in Washington, D.C.
“I felt like that little kid in me disappeared and I started worrying about stress,” said Daylan Joya, a student at Ida B. Wells Middle School.
Added student Machi Brooks: “Don’t just treat us like, ‘Oh, you’re a child.’ Treat us like what we’ve been through is as equal to what you’ve been through.”
At a high school in Mason, Ohio, the Hope Squad was created to help students with their mental health.
“Tons of people needed help during the pandemic,” Kaya Rossey, a member of William Mason High School’s Hope Squad, told ABC News.
In one exercise, students role-played how to handle self-harming behavior when they spot it.
Dr. Alok Patel, a physician at Stanford Children’s Health and ABC News contributor, said a “silver lining” of the pandemic is that it’s opened the conversation on mental health.
“One silver lining that has come is the amount of discussion and awareness that has happened to talk about their own mental health struggles,” said Patel.
“24 Months That Changed the World” airs on a special edition of 20/20 on Wednesday, March 30, on ABC. It will air the next day on Hulu.
(NEW YORK) — Joao “Julia” da Silva, a 23-year-old trans woman, was found in Texas on Tuesday after she was last seen by family members leaving her residence in North Bay Village, Florida, on March 24.
North Bay Village police are working with local authorities and family members to coordinate her return. The investigation into her disappearance remains ongoing.
Authorities said da Silva frequents the Miami, Miami Beach and Wilton Manors LGBTQ communities. She was seen in video surveillance at a gas station on Monday night in the South Miami area near Homestead.
“With this video footage, what concerns us is that she did appear disoriented,” said Paul Battaglia, the LGBT liaison officer at the North Bay Village Police Department. “She also did appear alone, which is unusual for her.”
Transgender people are four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violence, according to a study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.
Battaglia said the department is taking the heightened risks against this population into account.
“We understand the statistics. They’re are at a higher probability for violence, self-harm,” he said. “So we did ask those pertinent questions at the initial intake. She does not suffer from any previous mental health history, no depression, no self-harm, because that’s very important to us.”
“That’s all we want, to make sure she is OK,” da Silva’s best friend, Tatiana, told ABC-affiliate WPLG-TV when da Silva was missing. Da Silva’s mother had reportedly flown in from Japan to help with the search.
If anyone has information on da Silva’s whereabouts, the North Bay Village Police Department urges them to reach out to the agency at (305)758-2626.
(NEW YORK) — As Americans continue to file their taxes ahead of Tax Day, the Federal Trade Commission has slapped a lawsuit against a company behind a popular tax filing software.
The FTC announced on Tuesday it is suing Intuit, the makers of TurboTax, over what it calls “bogus advertisements” that mislead taxpayers into believing they can file their taxes for free with the software.
The commission says that in reality, most customers can’t use TurboTax’s free products “because it is not available to millions of taxpayers, such as those who get a 1099 form for work in the gig economy, or those who earn farm income.”
The FTC points out that in 2020 alone, approximately two-thirds of tax filers weren’t eligible to use the company’s free products.
With the deadline for filing taxes just around the corner — Tax Day is April 18 — the FTC has also filed a complaint in federal district court asking that Intuit cease its “deceptive advertising” immediately.
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has pledged to support Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, giving President Joe Biden at least one Republican vote for his nominee.
While Democrats have the votes to confirm Biden’s high court nominee on their own, with Collin’s vote, the White House meets its goal of securing at least some Republican support and shoring up the court’s credibility.
The New York Times first reported the development.
(NEW YORK) — Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, disease surveillance efforts that rely on testing and variant sequencing have been critical tools in the global efforts to fight the virus.
Without these tools, experts said, the spread of COVID-19 could have been exponentially greater, potentially resulting in many more deaths.
“Testing and sequencing have been critical to understanding where the virus is and how it is evolving. This is critical information for response and mitigation efforts,” Dr. Rebecca Katz, professor and director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University, told ABC News.
Surveillance tools have helped health officials make important recommendations throughout the pandemic — including the decision to green light booster doses for extra protection, and decision to pull back on some monoclonal antibody treatments authorized for COVID-19, following concerns that it was not effective against certain variants.
However, as the omicron surge has receded, usage of those key tools, namely testing, has also declined — a choice that has been a source of great concern for health experts as the more transmissible, omicron subvariant, BA.2, spreads across the U.S.
Although some Americans are still getting PCR tests, considered the gold standard of testing, reported testing levels are now at their lowest point in eight months, with numbers dropping by nearly 75% since the beginning of the year.
Lab testing is also key to detecting variants because genetic sequencing, the primary method of detecting new variants, cannot be conducted.
Even wastewater surveillance, which provides some measure of early warning, does not indicate variants present or give a clear indication of the number of cases.
“With reduced testing we have less visibility into disease transmission as well as virus evolution,” Katz said. “Certainly, the decline in testing we are seeing both in the U.S. and around the world is concerning. We are losing our situational awareness.”
Over the last month, the United Kingdom, which has been a global leader in COVID-19 sequencing, reported nearly 200,000 sequences, the highest of any country, to GISAID, the international database that tracks changes in the virus. Throughout the pandemic, the U.K. has been at the forefront of COVID-19 sequencing.
Comparatively, the U.S., which ranks third behind Denmark for sequencing, has reported about 35,000 sequences in the last 30 days.
Getting ahead of the curve
Last week, a new study found that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s program to detect COVID-19 variants in international air travelers, using genetic sequencing, revealed that the first BA.2 case in the U.S. had actually been weeks before it was first reported.
“Earlier detection of new SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest and concern allows researchers and public health officials the needed time to gather information about transmissibility, virulence, and vaccine effectiveness to enable adjustments to treatment and prevention strategies,” the researchers wrote, adding that the surveillance measure could be used as an early warning system for future outbreaks.
Across the globe, BA.2 now accounts for approximately 86% of sequences from the last four weeks, World Health Organization technical director Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove reported earlier this month. She stressed that declines in surveillance could ultimately put the world at risk as the virus continues to spread.
“It’s really critical that we have testing and it’s really critical that we have sequencing … that the systems that have been put in place for surveillance, for testing, for sequencing right now be reinforced, that they are not taken apart, because we need to move on to the next challenge,” Van Kerkhove said.
In order to track new variants, teams have been sequencing the virus’ genetic material to identify its strain, lineage and specific mutations.
“We’ve only just realized the value of these methods for our communities and our health. Instead of fully recognizing this, we’re considering stopping. This is short-sighted,” said Davida S. Smyth, Ph.D., a professor and microbiologist at Texas A&M University, who has been tracking COVID-19 in New York City’s wastewater since the summer of 2020.
Wastewater will continue to be an important tool as a preliminary indicator of COVID-19 trends in the U.S. However, adequate genetic sequencing is also needed in order to identify new variants in the water.
“The only way we can track the virus is through a combination of clinical sequencing and wastewater sequencing,” Smyth said. “Wastewater can in fact serve as an early warning system. Without sequencing, we cannot determine the identity of the virus variants that are circulating and without testing we cannot know how prevalent it is.”
Closing down testing sites
Of additional concern for some experts has been the decision to close down testing sites in favor of at-home testing. From coast to coast, dozens of states have moved to shutter public testing sites.
With at-home tests now widely available, most Americans are also not reporting their results to officials, and thus, experts say that infection totals are likely undercounted.
“The less data we have, the less insight — even predictive insight — we have to create evidence-based public health policy,” Jessica Malaty Rivera, an epidemiologist at the Pandemic Prevention Institute, told ABC News.
In addition, officials are unable to sequence at-home tests, which means potential mutations or new variants could go undetected, experts say.
“The fact is, we’ve never tested enough. And I worry we’ve fallen Into the fallacy of ‘testing less, means less COVID.’ That’s a dangerous approach to this next phase of the pandemic,” Malaty Rivera said.
Funding key
Health officials and experts agree that access to adequate funding will also be essential to the country’s ability to keep the virus under control.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in an interview earlier this month that government funding is essential to the agency’s ability to monitor variants, and study other key COVID-19 issues.
Recognizing that we still do not know everything about COVID-19 will be important, Smyth added, as the virus has frequently proven itself to be erratic and unpredictable.
“I am concerned given that we’ve likely not seen the last of emergent SARS-CoV-2 variants and we’ve likely not seen the last of what this virus can do in response to vaccines and our immune system,” Smyth said. “Without observation and surveillance, we could be blindsided. We’re not out of the woods yet.”
