(NEW YORK) — Michael and Jennifer Spaetti of Salisbury, North Carolina, were both vaccinated last spring as soon as shots became available. But when it comes to their 6-year-old grandson who lives with them, they aren’t so sure.
As his primary caregiver, they wonder about long-term side effects. He also hates getting shots, guaranteeing that an extra trip to the pediatrician would be tough emotionally.
“I’m not sure. It just seems like it came out so fast,” said Jennifer Spaetti. “And we’re talking about a child. I feel like it’s different for me, but I just I’m not sure. I don’t think I know enough about it.”
Denise, a mother of two from Columbia, South Carolina, expressed similar concerns. Asked to withhold her last name for privacy reasons, Denise jokes she would feel more comfortable seeing the neighborhood kids get their shots fist, just in case there is some rare side effect that researchers missed.
And as a Black mother, Denise said she worries not enough African American children were represented in the clinical trials.
“My husband is gung-ho,” she said. “And I’m definitely not opposed to it. But I do just want to wait and see … I want to make the best decision as a parent.”
With the first pediatric vaccine for COVID-19 expected to roll out as early as Nov. 3, only 27% of parents with kids ages 5-11 say they will vaccinate them “right away,” according to the latest poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Another 33% of parents with the elementary-aged kids say they want to “wait and see” how it works in others before getting their child vaccinated. And at least two thirds of those parents say they are concerned about potential long-term and serious side effects.
This hesitancy is worrying many health officials, who contend widespread vaccinations in schools will be critical to vaccinate kids ahead of the cold weather to prevent another surge in cases.
They also counter that parents should be much more worried about the virus than the vaccine. Of the 1.9 million kids ages 5-11 who contracted the virus, 8,300 wound up hospitalized. One third of those children hospitalized had no underlying health conditions.
Another concern pediatricians have is that children exposed to the virus are at risk of developing “long-haul” symptoms. While very rare for children, the symptoms such as brain fog, chest pain and debilitating fatigue persist for weeks after exposure.
None of the 2,200 kids who received the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric vaccine last June in the clinical trials has experienced serious side effects, including the myocarditis that’s been seen in a small group of older teen and adult males. Experts say any side effects to a vaccine typically occur within two months of getting a shot.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with independent vaccine and health experts, also have found no evidence that the vaccine could impact a person’s fertility and is safe for pregnant and breastfeeding moms.
The CDC also warns that people shouldn’t count on prior exposure to the virus. In a study released Friday, the CDC found adults with “natural” immunity through infection were more than five times more likely to develop COVID-19 compared to people who were fully vaccinated.
Still, even vaccine experts say it can be nerve-wracking to make a decision for millions of children based on a study involving only a few thousand kids.
The trial also wasn’t as diverse as some experts would like. Of the children participating in the clinical trials, the vast majority of participants – 78% — were white. Six percent were Black, while 21% were Hispanic and 6% were Asian.
Dr. Paul Offit, an adviser to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who voted in favor of authorizing the vaccine at a meeting this week, said he still supports the rollout because he believed the benefits outweigh the risks.
The FDA was expected to authorize the pediatric vaccine as early as Friday, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expected to sign off next week.
“The question is when do you know enough? And I think we certainly know that there are many children between five and 11 years of age who are susceptible to this disease who could very well be sick and are hospitalized or die from it,” said Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
For its part, the White House is planning to launch a social media campaign to urge parents to vaccinate their kids. To increase trust, federal officials also have pushed to make the vaccine for kids – which is a third of the dosage used in adults and comes in a special orange-capped vial — widely available in pediatrician offices and pharmacies, rather than relying on mass vaccination sites.
Still, many parents don’t want to be rushed.
Paul Ekeoha, a father of four kids in Odessa, Texas, says he’s not convinced yet that his kids need it because they seem healthy now and strong. At the same time, he’s not opposed to vaccines for other people and said he is open to changing his mind.
“If my hands are tied, and I don’t have options, I wouldn’t have any objection,” Ekeoha said.
Other parents said they would be keeping a close eye on how the rollout goes for pediatric vaccines.
“Probably what I’ll do is just wait and see how it goes,” said Jennifer Spaetti.
(NEW YORK) — Letitia James, the attorney general of New York whose sexual harassment investigation led to the resignation of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, announced a run for governor Friday, mounting a formidable primary challenge to Kathy Hochul, the state’s first female governor.
James could become the state’s first Black governor and the nation’s first Black female governor.
James announced her candidacy in a video and through a campaign website highlighting her election promises and past work as attorney general.
“New Yorkers need a governor who isn’t afraid to stand up to powerful interests on behalf of the vulnerable,” James said.
Two other Brooklyn Democrats, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, are also interested in the job, along with Long Island Democratic Congressman Tom Suozzi.
In August, James released a report that found Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, including a state trooper on his security detail. Cuomo attacked the report as politically motivated.
New York State Republican Committee Chairman Nick Langworthy called James a “radical left ideologue” who “turned a blind eye to Cuomo’s unethical behavior and corruption … when it suited her needs” in a statement Friday.
As attorney general, James has bolstered her profile with a lawsuit against the National Rifle Association. Her office is also investigating whether former President Donald Trump manipulated the value of some of his real estate holdings for tax and insurance purposes.
“I’ve sued the Trump administration 76 times,” James mentioned in her announcement video. “But who’s counting?”
She previously served in the New York City council and as the city’s public advocate.
(NEW YORK) — As the clock counts down, nearly 80% of New York City municipal employees have complied with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, city officials said.
Nearly all city workers, including police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians, have until 5 p.m. Friday to get at least one dose of the vaccine or be placed on unpaid leave, starting Monday.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has said the city anticipates that many outstanding employees will get vaccinated close to the deadline, and city agencies have been making final pushes to drive up their numbers.
On Thursday, more than 1,000 NYPD members got their first shot, Commissioner Dermot Shea said. As of Friday morning, 80% of the department was vaccinated, Shea said on 1010 WINS radio. He said he believes that the department will be in “good shape for Monday morning,” but will move resources to ensure appropriate coverage.
Prior contingency plans are “being actually scaled-down” as NYPD officials watch vaccination rates rise, with Shea telling Channel 5 on Friday they’re now more concerned about filling “individual shifts” than staffing precincts on Monday.
“We will move resources around. We have had significant increase in people getting vaccinated in the past three days, and that’s the good news,” Shea told Channel 5. “The contingencies are there. New Yorkers should not, should not, be worried about this.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration on Friday said it would make another attempt to end the “Remain in Mexico” protocols, a Trump administration initiative that forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers back into Mexican border towns to await their court dates in the U.S.
The administration has been under pressure from immigrant advocacy groups to end the policy but has met with legal roadblocks.
In a briefing before the announcement, Department of Homeland Security officials told reporters they had reassessed the policy, also known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, and Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas once again determined it was appropriate to end it despite acknowledging its impact in reducing unauthorized migration. One official pointed out that multiple factors can drive migration, but based on the department’s own assessment, the protocols had been effective in deterring border crossing attempts.
“In looking at the data from 2019, there is a fairly clear reduction in encounters at the land border starting around the time that the MPP was implemented across the entire border,” one DHS official said. “That said, you know, correlation is not necessarily causation.”
However, the officials said the humanitarian consequences outweigh the potential benefits of reduced illegal entries. Humanitarian organizations have documented high rates of murder, kidnapping and extortion on top of squalid conditions facing those subjected to “Remain in Mexico.”
A new policy memo to DHS officials dives deeper into the decision-making process by considering potential costs to states as well as potential improvements that could be made to MPP. However, the officials maintained that certain issues with returning migrants back across an international boundary will persist. Immigrant advocacy organizations have been principally concerned with the lack of access to legal services for migrants who are sent back.
“Once individuals are returned across an international border, there’s limited opportunities for the United States to be able to affect their safety and security once they’re in the control of another sovereign nation,” one DHS official said.
The acknowledgment of MPP’s deterrence capabilities is a significant concession for the Biden administration. For months, Republicans have condemned the administration for repealing “Remain in Mexico,” citing the decision as a driving force behind the record number of arrests at the border.
Biden suspended “Remain in Mexico” on his first day in office and Secretary Mayorkas attempted to officially end it in June. A federal judge ordered the Biden administration to reinstate the protocols last August in response to a legal challenge by the state of Texas and Missouri. The Justice Department continues to fight the order and hopes an appellate court will reverse it or remand the decision back to the district court.
Embedded in the district court’s order to reinstate was a suggestion that the administration needs to be capable of either detaining every migrant who attempts an illegal entry or subject them to “Remain in Mexico.” MPP was implemented by the Trump administration in 2019 and, as DHS officials point out, Congress has never provided enough funds to detain every unauthorized migrant.
Much of the administration’s ability continue the practice relies on cooperation from the Mexican government, which was initially opposed to the idea, but has since considered conditions under which it could be reinstated. Talks with Mexican officials are ongoing, DHS officials said.
Depending on whether the Mexican government will agree, the Biden administration is on track to reinstate “Remain in Mexico” by mid-November. Oral arguments are scheduled in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Nov. 2.
(WASHINGTON) — Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans serving on the House Jan. 6 select committee, and one of the most vocal critics of the GOP’s embrace of former President Donald Trump and the “big lie,” announced on Friday he is not running for reelection to Congress next term.
In referencing his first campaign, Kinzinger made the announcement in a nearly five-minute video to supporters and posted to social media.
“I also remember during that campaign saying that if I ever thought it was time to move on from Congress I would, and that time is now, but let me be clear, my passion for this country has only grown. My desire to make a difference is bigger than it’s ever been. My disappointment in the leaders that don’t lead is huge. The battlefield must be broader and the truth needs to reach the American people across the whole country,” he said.
“I cannot focus on both a re-election to Congress and a broader fight nationwide,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — ABC News’ Amy Robach was diagnosed with breast cancer eight years ago, on Oct. 30, 2013.
Following a live mammogram on “Good Morning America” to kick of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Robach, then 40, received a phone call several weeks later, on Oct. 30, telling her she had stage 2 invasive breast cancer.
“It can make me emotional literally thinking about it right now,” Robach said of that phone call. “When I first got diagnosed, it’s just a whirlwind of so many decisions … and it all happens so quickly.”
Very soon after her diagnosis, Robach underwent a double mastectomy, followed by eight rounds of chemotherapy and then breast reconstruction surgery.
She also began to take a daily medication, tamoxifen, that she will continue to take for three more years. The drug, which helps lower the risk of cancer recurrence, can induce symptoms of menopause, like hot flashes, night sweats and menstrual changes, according to the American Cancer Society.
Robach described the treatments she underwent as grueling, and the process of fighting cancer as a long and dark tunnel, one that included mental and physical changes including short-term memory loss and the loss of her hair.
What surprised Robach even more in her cancer journey was what happened once she finished treatment and was declared a cancer survivor.
“You think you’re going to celebrate,” said Robach. “But you’re so sick still. You’re so weak still. All of those chemicals are still in your body.”
Robach said she struggled emotionally and physically as she adjusted from fighting breast cancer to surviving it, noting, “Cancer never leaves you.”
“Once you’re finished with the treatments and the surgeries, there’s a fear that steps in,” she said. “You don’t even have time to really think about it when you’re fighting. When you stop actually fighting with treatments, you then think, ‘Oh no, what’s next? What happens now?'”
Those are questions likely asked by millions of people who have battled breast cancer, the second-most common cancer among women in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But while people and organizations rally around those undergoing breast cancer treatment, it can still be taboo to talk about breast cancer in general, and the struggles that survivors of breast cancer can face in the weeks, months and years after treatment.
“I’ve had so many conversations where if I mention cancer or talk about being a breast cancer survivor, or thriver, people immediately get uncomfortable,” said Robach. “It’s something that nobody necessarily wants to talk about it, and some people feel really uncomfortable knowing what to say next about it.”
Following treatment, Robach and other breast cancer survivors face bodies that can be dramatically different than pre-cancer.
“When you’re fighting for your life, it sounds silly to think about vanity, but it is a part of the cancer journey,” said Robach, who experienced hair loss, changes in her skin tone and scars and the loss of her breasts from her double mastectomy. “Looking at your body, and not recognizing it is a really frightening thing, actually, because it happens so suddenly, and even with reconstruction, things are not the same, they never will be.”
Physically, after finishing chemotherapy, Robach said it took at least one year for her to rebuild her strength, noting that in the aftermath of treatment, “You just feel weak, and you feel scared and you are dealing with all of the aftermath of chemo for months and months and months.”
Mentally, it would take another year for her to feel like she could regain control of her life.
“I would say it took me a full two years before I felt like, ‘OK, how am I going to live my life? What am I going to do with my life?'” she said. “The truth is, I was scared to even plan for a future, to even plan for the next year or five years or 10 years. I felt like it was maybe jinxing my health, jinxing my remission.”
Robach said what has helped her navigate the unknowns of her breast cancer journey has been finding someone she can talk about it with honestly, someone who has walked the same path before.
In Robach’s case, that person has been “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts, also a breast cancer survivor, whom Robach called a “beacon of light.”
“I remember when I finished treatment, she told me this, ‘Be careful. We all want to celebrate the end of chemo. We all want to celebrate the end of surgery, but you should prepare yourself for the next phase of cancer,'” Robach recalled. “When you’re in remission, sure you’re grateful, yes, you’re excited, but there’s a fear. … You always have the threat of recurrence.”
Like many breast cancer survivors, Robach gets blood work done twice each year to check if any cancer has returned in her body, a reminder, she says, that cancer is “something that you live with for the rest of your life.”
“I have a tough time, every time,” she said, noting the days leading up to the test can be filled with “depression” and “fear.”
But the biannual tests have also, in more recent years, become what Robach calls her “biannual reminder to live, and to live out loud.”
In Robach’s case, that has meant climbing mountains, traveling the globe, running marathons, feeling gratitude every day and fighting to become the healthiest version of herself in the years since her diagnosis.
“It makes me feel so joyful to know that I am challenging myself physically, and believing in my body again, trusting in my body, again, investing in my body again, and really doing everything in my power to make sure that if this thing comes back, or even if it’s living in me now, I am in fight mode,” said Robach. “At 48 years old, I’m significantly more healthy than I was in my 20s and 30s.”
“Cancer gave me a reason to be the best version of myself, and that’s what I’ve done,” she said. “You realize that fear can either cripple you or it can motivate you, and it had been crippling me. And I decided to change it, and let that fear be motivating.”
Robach said that after not wanting to do the mammogram on-air eight years ago because she did not want people talking about her breasts, she is now incredibly proud and grateful that she shared her breast cancer battle publicly.
“I would just encourage everyone to tell your story because it does save lives, it does impact lives and it frees you,” she said. “I find talking about it makes it a little bit less painful because you’re releasing it and you can have a shared experience with someone else because there are so many of us out there who’ve been through it. We’re all brothers and sisters in this fight.”
(NEW YORK) — Puerto Rico is the most vaccinated place in America, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 73% of its 3.3 million citizens are fully vaccinated, beating several states like Vermont and Connecticut with high vaccination rates.
The island also has the highest rate of total vaccine doses administered: 154,563 doses per 100,000 people.
Puerto Rico has outpaced several states in the race to the top vaccinated spot in the U.S. despite the odds stacked against it. Not only is it home to a larger population than 21 U.S. states, but it’s also been battered by COVID-19, poverty, climate change and an ongoing financial crisis.
“It’s impossible to talk about the pandemic without the context in which Puerto Rico encountered and faced the pandemic,” Daniel Colón-Ramos, a Yale medical school professor and the president of Puerto Rico’s Scientific Coalition, told ABC News.
“Vaccinations are an individual decision, but it’s an individual decision that has an impact on the collective health and I think this is something that Puerto Rico understood well after Hurricane Maria — how we’re so codependent,” Colón-Ramos said.
Hurricane María uncovered Puerto Rico’s fragile infrastructure that has yet to recover. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the island has a poverty rate of 43.5%, with some municipalities struggling with little to no operational clinics or hospitals for long periods of time. Residents have also been struggling with ongoing power outages triggered by the unstable electric grid.
COVID-19 only exacerbated the weight of these pre-existing structural issues on the territory, Colón-Ramos said.
COVID-19’s toll on Puerto Rico
The island was hit hard by the pandemic. Puerto Rico reported at least 151,432 COVID-19 cases and over 3,200 deaths linked to the virus, according to Puerto Rico’s Health Department. Amid the threat of the coronavirus, the island was the first place in the U.S. to implement the strictest COVID-19 restrictions, including a curfew that lasted over a year.
“Together, we have achieved good results through vaccination efforts and measures that were implemented,” Governor of Puerto Rico Pedro Pierluisi said in a press release written in Spanish. “Although we are doing very well, we still cannot let our guard down and we have to continue to protect ourselves.”
Until recently, the local government prohibited certain businesses from operating between midnight and 5 a.m. and banned alcohol sales after midnight. Some requirements, like indoor mask and vaccine mandates, remain.
Now, Puerto Rico is on a steady decline in COVID-19 cases and deaths, with a positive test rate of 2.43%, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Marieli González-Cotto, a molecular biologist and educator, urges the community to remain cautious and vigilant about their health and safety, even as the virus slows its course.
“People should understand that we still need to take care of ourselves, take care of our communities and really take this one step at a time because [we could regress] and start all over again,” González-Cotto told ABC News.
The method behind Puerto Rico’s successful vaccine rollout
“It was an all-hands on deck type of plan,” Colón-Ramos told ABC News.
The effort to get Puerto Ricans vaccinated included local officials, community leaders, health care providers, Public Health Department officials and scientific experts, according to Colón-Ramos.
TV ads, social media posts and radio commercials were rolled out to educate residents across the island and combat misinformation before it had a chance to spread.
“The information channels were flooded with the right kind of information,” Colón-Ramos said. “The scientific and the health care community got very engaged and proactive in educating people in collaboration with journalists, civic leaders, and public leaders.
“Communities had conversations with the population about concepts from flattening the curve to herd immunity,” he added.
A study by Direct Relief, Facebook Data for Good and the vaccination advocacy organization “Voces Coalición de Inmunización y Promoción de la Salud en Puerto Rico” found that influencers and celebrities were also powerful voices in the effort to educate people on the importance of vaccines.
The research showed that thousands of consumers were more accepting or knowledgeable about vaccines after viewing digital ads and messaging.
“At the very beginning, it was very hard for the people to grasp because it was an ‘info-demic’ — there was too much information out there,” González-Cotto said. “What we focused on was not only putting out the information but also putting it in a way that would be easy for people to understand.”
All educational efforts from public and private sectors towards individuals had a significant impact on Puerto Ricans’ response to the vaccine rollout. Public health policies, like lockdowns, curfews and mandates, helped solidify messaging and protocol across the island, according to Colón-Ramos.
(NEW YORK) — Darien Richardson, a 25-year-old woman in Maine, was sleeping in her apartment when armed intruders burst in and shot her several times in January 2010.
Her boyfriend survived the incident, but after weeks in the hospital, she died the following month due to complications from her gunshot wounds, Portland police said.
Finding her assailant seemed possible when authorities discovered that the handgun used to shoot her was apparently recovered at the scene of another murder, according to her family and news reports. But they were not able to trace it to the person who shot Darien.
“A sad and unfortunate twist in this case is that a little more than a month after Darien and her boyfriend were shot, the same gun was used in a murder on Park Avenue here in Portland,” Portland Police Assistant Chief Vernon Malloch told the Bangor Daily News in 2012. “That case is solved. We recovered the firearm. We know that it’s the same gun that killed both people. Unfortunately, we don’t know where the gun came from.”
The person who pulled the trigger remains a mystery in part due to a major loophole in the nation’s gun background check system: a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) investigation traced the gun back to a private sale at a Maine gun show, where the first owner sold it to someone he didn’t know, without a background check and without any record of the sale, the Bangor Daily News reported authorities said.
Not only did the loophole make the crime harder to solve, but it may also have made it easier for the crime to be committed in the first place.
(NEW YORK) — Some 911 call centers across the country say they are experiencing staffing shortages.
Some centers are struggling with as much as 30% to 50% vacancies, according to reports from the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch.
“We have actually been experiencing much higher staffing shortages throughout the pandemic,” April Heinze, operations director at the National Emergency Number Association, told “Good Morning America.” “It’s actually really starting to kind of take a head.”
For Ashley Bagwell, the mom of 6-year-old Hadlee, experienced the effects of those staffing shortages when she couldn’t get through to 911 earlier this month when Hadlee was having a seizure.
“I was terrified,” said Bagwell, whose oldest daughter also ran to the neighbors to try 911 but they also couldn’t get through. “I remember just screaming, I just said, ‘What do I do? I need them to talk me through what to do.’ It was the scariest moment of my entire life.”
In Lexington County, South Carolina, where Bagwell lives, officials say they are facing challenges when it comes to staffing shortages. Calls like Bagwell’s were not answered “due to a large volume of 911 calls received within a 15-minute period, which overload call takers,” according to officials.
But county officials say dispatchers called back the initial caller within three minutes and there was no answer. And “several other calls were made finally connecting with a caller” 10 minutes after the first call.
Other parts of the country that are seeing staffing shortages include Alabama, where there are 88 dispatcher jobs open across 10 agencies, and Chesapeake, Virginia, where a 911 call center is struggling to hire dispatchers.
“We’re about 30% short of overall staffing,” said 911 coordinator Lt. James Garrett of Chesapeake, who told “GMA” that there are delays in getting to 911 callers. “We’ve seen a drop in our ability to answer 911 calls and within 10 seconds and within 30 seconds, which is some of our standard, we’re not able to be as fast as we were because I don’t have enough and available people to answer those phones.”
Officials say COVID is playing a role in the staffing shortage, but so is burnout and low salaries.
To attract more people to apply for these open dispatcher roles, some states are working on or have passed legislation reclassifying 911 dispatchers as first responders so they can get better benefits. A similar bill is currently in Congress.
In the meantime, as call centers try to keep up with the large volume of 911 calls, dispatchers are urging the public to be patient. They’re also advising folks not to hang up if they don’t get to a dispatcher on the phone right away, otherwise, it will move them back to the end of the queue.
“I just hope no one ever has to experience the terror of this,” Bagwell said. “I just don’t want anyone to have to go through the stress of 911 not answering when your child is unresponsive.”
(NEW YORK) — Remains found in a Southern California desert have been identified as 30-year-old Lauren “El” Cho, a New Jersey woman who was missing for months, authorities said.
Her cause and manner of death are pending toxicology results, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday.
The remains were recovered on Oct. 9 during a search for Cho “in the rugged terrain of the open desert of Yucca Valley,” the sheriff’s department said. Cho was reported missing on June 28 “when she reportedly walked away” from the Yucca Valley home where she was staying, the sheriff’s department said.
The search for Cho was launched this summer and included planes searching the remote mountain terrain and canines scouring the area for evidence, the sheriff’s office said.
