News

How Barry’s seeks to redefine group fitness in a post-pandemic era

by
Ridofranz/iStock

(NEW YORK) — Amid mask mandates and social distancing of a global pandemic, Barry’s, a boutique fitness club, says it’s disrupting the industry by giving consumers access to their product in ways that didn’t exist just one year ago.

But what it took to get there was a road wrought with challenge, uncertainty and innovation.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Barry’s, like so many fitness clubs, took a massive economic hit and had no digital offerings or infrastructure in place.

Priding themselves as “the best workout in the world,” Barry’s says it created opportunity in the height of COVID-19 lockdowns worldwide by remaining committed to keeping connections to their community alive and thriving. When it became clear global shutdowns would not be brief, the company immediately launched workouts live on Instagram, then formal at-home classes on video conferencing apps, like Zoom.

As 2020 wore on, the company eventually launched 19 outdoor studios that occupied spaces like parking garages, rooftops and empty, undeveloped land, converting those spaces into their infamous “Red Rooms” across the country.

Reopening their physical brick-and-mortar clubs would prove to have its own set of challenges when it became time.

Developing new operating and safety protocols and augmenting them to meet local government mandates has been an incredibly labor intensive process over the past 16 months, Barry’s told Good Morning America.

“We updated our HVAC system, introduced the use of EPA-registered cleaning supplies and at one point, social distancing in class and added five-minute breaks in between rounds to allow for extra cleaning and mask mandates.”

Now, as the world slowly begins to reopen, despite the lingering threat of COVID-19 and its emerging variants, Barry’s seems to have found footing in developing hybrid models of their business by blending versions of all their pandemic-era products into an omni-channel of offerings, including the newly unveiled “Barry’s X,” which includes live as well as on-demand classes.

According to Barry’s: “Barry’s X” is the first community-driven digital fitness product that seamlessly integrates key touch points of an in-person studio experience into a digital setting. Not only are you checked in by a moderator (who organizes the class and provides the same attention as the front desk), you’re also able to participate in a many-to-many experience which provides their fitness community with the opportunity to see and be seen.

“‘Barry’s X'” was created to provide people with the opportunity to experience the best workout in the world, taught by the best instructors, alongside an incredible global community – no matter where you are,” Barry’s CEO Joey Gonzalez told GMA exclusively.

The company says users will be able to turn their camera on during a live class, allowing the instructor to correct their form in real time, allowing them to see others in the class and be seen themselves. This will allow for an immersive digital experience that will allow instructors to help and correct form during a class, the brand touts, while also being able to check in with friends who are also taking the same class together.

“The camera-on feature allows you to be seen, as well as see old friends, new faces,” Gonzalez said. “And since it’s Barry’s, you can expect to see some famous ones as well.”

Another feature: Users will also be able to connect with their friends by sending friend requests and view their schedules and stats. Friends will also be able to invite each other to a class.

Gonzalez told GMA that they do expect a rise in hybridization as we continue to emerge from the pandemic.

“A number of boutique fitness studios across the country closed permanently during COVID, which means those respective workout communities have been displaced and will be looking for a new studio. As far as digital workouts, the landscape has never been more crowded,” Gonzalez said.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

‘Unequivocal’ that human influence has warmed the planet, UN climate panel finds

by
ksteffens/iStock

(NEW YORK) — A United Nations climate panel has confirmed — in its strongest language ever — that the impacts of human-caused climate change are severe and widespread, and that while there is still a chance to limit that warming, some impacts will continue to be felt for centuries.

“It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land,” the report reads. “Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.”

The UN panel said there is more evidence than ever before that human activity and greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet at a rate unprecedented in the last 2,000 years and that the impacts of that warming are already severe and widespread.

“Human-induced climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe,” according to the report.

“Evidence of observed changes in extremes such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and tropical cyclones, and their attribution to human influence, has strengthened” since the last UN climate science report in 2013.

The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was compiled by 234 authors from 66 different countries who analyzed more than 14,000 scientific reports about climate change. It will set the stage for global negotiations later this year on how to more drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the impact of warming temperatures as much as possible.

John Kerry, the special presidential envoy for climate, said the report underscores the “overwhelming urgency” and high stakes for those international talks.

“The world must come together before the ability to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is out of reach. As the IPCC makes plain, the impacts of the climate crisis, from extreme heat to wildfires to intense rainfall and flooding, will only continue to intensify unless we choose another course for ourselves and generations to come. What the world requires now is real action,” he said in a statement.

That review confirmed that warming temperatures are contributing to more extreme events in every inhabited part of the world and that if temperatures increase an average of 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, the world will see increasing heat waves, longer warm seasons, and shorter cold seasons. At 2 degrees of warming, the changes will start to reach levels that could threaten human health and agricultural systems in parts of the world.

Global average temperatures have increased between 0.8 degrees and 1.3 degrees Celsius since the industrial age, and climate researchers around the world have ruled out any natural explanation for the rapid rate of increasing temperatures. The report says “some recent hot extremes over the past decade would have been extremely unlikely to occur without human influence on the climate system.”

The report finds that global surface temperatures, meaning the temperatures of the oceans and on land, will continue to increase until at least 2050, regardless of actions taken to decrease emissions.

And unless greenhouse gas emissions are drastically reduced, the world will exceed 1.5 degrees of warming in the next 20 years. Limiting future warming to 2 degrees Celsius will require “immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,” according to the IPCC.

Ko Barrett, a vice chair for the UN climate panel and senior adviser for climate at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that even though the world’s current path is likely to meet or exceed the amount of warming targeted in the Paris Agreement there is still a chance to limit the amount of warming and limit the impacts of climate change.

“It’s true that unless there are immediate rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will be beyond reach. But there are pathways that take us to keep these levels in check. It just requires strong rapid and sustained reductions in CO2 (carbon dioxide), methane and other greenhouse gases,” she told ABC News.

Barrett said that even with the sobering findings of the report, she’s seen a stronger reaction from governments and young people throughout the world who want to prevent the worst-case scenarios.

“At the same time that it’s, you know, undeniable that these — some of these findings are dire. There also is, at least in my mind, a real sense of hope and a drive for action,” she said.

While drastic emissions reductions could stabilize rising temperatures and prevent more dire consequences from additional warming, the UN panel found that some impacts of climate change to the oceans and ice in the Arctic are locked in for years to come, while the amount of emissions will determine how rapidly those impacts accelerate.

The report found that oceans will continue to warm, become more acidic and contain less oxygen for the rest of the 21st Century — though those impacts can still be made less severe if we reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Glaciers and permafrost are also almost certain to continue melting for decades — or even centuries — and the report says the Arctic may “practically” be ice free in September near the middle of the century under certain greenhouse gas scenarios. September is when we usually see the minimum sea-ice coverage in the Arctic.

“If we were to stop emitting greenhouse gases today the planet would stop warming, but sea level would continue to rise. However, I think it’s important to manage that our emissions matter hugely for the long-term amount of sea level rise and how quickly it comes,” Bob Kopp, an author of the report and director of the Rutgers Institute of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, told reporters on Sunday.

The report found that global mean sea level has already risen by .656 feet between 1901 and 2018 and will continue to rise at least through 2100.

“In the longer term, sea level is committed to rise for centuries to millennia due to continuing deep ocean warming and ice sheet melt and will remain elevated for thousands of years,” the report says.

While the report lays out some dire impacts of climate change it’s also a call to action for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible to prevent some of these worst-case scenarios and limit these impacts as much as possible.

“Stabilizing the climate will require strong, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and reaching net-zero CO2 emissions. Limiting other greenhouse gases and air pollutants, especially methane, could have benefits both for health and the climate,” said IPCC Working Group I Co-Chair Panmao Zhai.

The IPCC is expected to release two more reports on adapting to the impacts of climate change and possible policy solutions to limit warming and meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement in early 2022.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

COVID-19 live updates: ‘This is not your grandfather’s COVID,’ pediatrician warns

by
ayo888/iStock

(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.

More than 616,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.2 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 58.7% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the news is developing Monday. All times Eastern:

Aug 09, 7:31 am
‘This is not your grandfather’s COVID,’ pediatrician warns

Children with COVID-19 used to make up 1% of patients hospitalized at Children’s Hospital New Orleans. Now they account for about 20%, Dr. Mark Kline, physician-in-chief at Children’s Hospital New Orleans, told “Good Morning America” Monday.

He said about half of the children hospitalized are under 2 years old. Most of the others are between 5 and 10 years old, so too young to be vaccinated.

“This is not your grandfather’s COVID,” Kline said. “This delta variant is an entirely new and unexpected challenge.”

Dr. Peter Hotez, dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor, warned on MSNBC that with “schools act[ing] as an accelerant, you should assume we’re going to see pediatric intensive care units all across the South completely overwhelmed and even a possibility of small tent cities of sick adolescents and kids.”

Hotez said parents need to know that “delta is something different” and “picking off young people like we’ve never seen.”

“If your adolescent kid is unvaccinated, you should assume there’s a high likelihood that that child is going to get COVID,” he said, adding, “And we haven’t even gotten to the ‘long COVID’ discussion around young people and what that means for their long-term cognitive health.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Lawn renovations could play major role in conserving water in West, experts say

by
MariuszBlach/iStock

(NEW YORK) — Lawmakers and water utilities in the West are urging residents to conserve water as reservoirs hit record lows amid climate change-driven megadrought.

Among the calls to action is a reminder for residents to make choices that lessen use of municipal water when it comes to maintaining landscaping in desert surroundings.

About 30% of water usage for the average American family is used for the outdoors, such as watering lawns and gardens, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

But in the West, where water is zapped almost instantaneously by either the blazing sun or thirsty vegetation, outdoor water usage increases to about 60% of total household use, according to the EPA.

While water is “pretty cheap” in the U.S. at the moment, that could change as the commodity becomes more precious, John Berggren, a water policy analyst with conservation organization Western Resource Advocates, told ABC News.

However, experts say they have noticed a societal shift in how people in the West approach everyday decisions to protect the precious water supply, including when it comes to how to design lawns.

Landscaping should match the environment

In the summer, a “big chunk” of the water supply in the West goes to irrigating non-native turf grass, which is what is generally used for lawns, Berggren said.

There are benefits to turf grass, Berggren pointed out. It’s aesthetically pleasing and cooling — which helps reduce the urban heat island effect — and it offers functionality for recreation, for kids and pets to run around in and as parks and ballfields. Grasses native to the West don’t offer the same recreational functionality.

The typical grass used for homes and ballfields is Kentucky bluegrass, which is not native to the West, which is why it requires so much water for upkeep, he said.

A solution is to remove the turf grass. While people often think ripping up turf grass means replacing it with cement, the best move is actually to replace it with live vegetation that is native to the area, such as shrubs and trees, Berggren said.

“We have so many beautiful native plants that are adapted to our climates out here in the West,” he said. “You’ll have lots of color. You can have lots of green.”

Once established, native plants require little water “beyond normal rainfall,” according to the EPA.

Along with the aesthetics, the plants will also provide collection for storm water runoff and water quality benefits, Berggren said.

Providing incentives to residents could prove effective, experts say

Development codes enacted in municipalities around the West between the 1960s and 1980s had little to no restrictions on how much turf grass property owners could install. But officials and scientists are starting to rethink the approach to turf grass as the decadeslong drought worsens and populations increase, Berggren said.

However, the cost to transform lawns can’t be overlooked. Adding native plants for a xeriscaping project, or designing the landscape to reduce irrigation, can cost up to $5,000, according to home and garden blog Happy DIY Home.

Water providers and conservation programs are incentivizing homeowners to get rid of their turf grass, with some offering between $1 and $3 per square foot to replace it with native plants, Berggren said.

“And so if you’re replacing a couple 1,000 square feet of turf, suddenly, that’s a pretty big incentive to do so, and you can pay for a lot of the project with that program,” he said.

Turf buyback programs have become so important that states are providing the funds to maintain them.

Last month, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced the expansion of a statewide turf buyback program as one of four efforts to conserve water amid the megadrought.

First-of-its-kind legislation passed in Nevada

Municipalities and states are also starting to realize that not all areas where there is turf grass are equal, Berggren said. Plots of land where the turf is purely ornamental, such as median strips on highways, are known as non-functional or non-essential turf, and states in the West are starting to do away with them.

For example, if a patch of grass in southern Nevada is green, that means it’s being irrigated with municipal drinking water, Bronson Mack, public information officer of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, said.

“The one thing to really keep in mind is whether or not those communities are irrigating that grass with water resources, or is that grass just getting naturally irrigated from precipitation,” Mack said. “Here in Southern Nevada, we’d only get 4 inches of rain a year. So, it is not enough water to sustain our outdoor landscaping.”

Lawmakers in Nevada recently passed a law banning non-essential turf in the Las Vegas region served by the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Assembly Bill 356 requires grass at non-residential properties to be ripped out within five years. After Dec. 26, 2026, those properties will no longer be able to irrigate non-functional turf with Colorado River water supplied by the water authority, Mack said.

“So their options are to find a new water source, which is pretty challenging to do,” Mack said.

The new legislation is the first of its kind in the country, he added.

More communities are also instilling caps on how much of any given property can contain turf grass, such as 20%, Berggren said.

The new laws are paralleled by a cultural shift to make people re-think how they use their yards. If they find they only use the backyard, the incentives motivate them to replace the grass in the front yard with native plants, Berggren said.

Prior to the early 2000s, homes in Nevada state had wall-to-wall grass, but 20 years later, landscapes in new developments have no grass and use water-efficient material instead, Mack said, adding that nearly 70,000 residential and commercial landscaping projects to remove more than 200 miles of grass have taken place in Southern Nevada alone since then.

“That’s why it’s good to see so many homeowners kind of being proactive in like ripping up their front lawn and putting in nice, beautiful, native vegetation, because then their neighbors see it, and then people driving down the street see it,” Berggren said.

Communities across the Southwest have embraced the trend to transform lawns to be water-efficient, Jay Lund, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Davis, and the head of the school’s Center for Watershed Sciences, told ABC News.

“A few years ago, I was walking around the neighborhood of a friend in Albuquerque, and you could see that the neighborhood was going through a transition,” he said. “You could see that the older lawn were lush and green.”

More ways to conserve water

Water-efficient irrigation techniques can reduce water usage by up to 15%, according to the EPA.

Something as simple as replacing sprinkler heads can upgrade irrigation systems to save a significant amount of water, Berggren said.

It is not necessary to water grass every day, according to the EPA, which recommends testing the lawn by stepping on a patch of grass instead. If the grass springs back, it does not need water, the agency says.

Better Homes & Gardens recommends that homeowners in the region let lawns brown during the summer, or give them about 1 inch of water per week.

Do not water lawns during the afternoon, as the water will evaporate before the drops even hit the ground. Water lawns early in the morning instead.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigns amid investigation

by
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Melissa DeRosa resigned Sunday as the top aide to embattled New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, less than a week after state investigators said he allegedly sexually harassed 11 women and she was part of the “retaliation” against one of his accusers.

As secretary to the governor, DeRosa was the most powerful unelected bureaucrat in state government and, until now, stood loyally by Cuomo even through recent controversies, including scandals like the sexual harassment allegations to nursing home death data, to the use of state resources to write his book.

Cuomo has denied these allegations and scandals.

In a statement, DeRosa did not mention Cuomo by name but said it had been “the greatest honor of my life to serve the people of New York for the past ten years.”

She added, “the past two years have been emotionally and mentally trying,” but did not explain whether that meant the pandemic or the controversies that have engulfed the governor and have state lawmakers beating the drums of impeachment.

“I am forever grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such talented and committed colleagues on behalf of our state,” DeRosa’s statement said.

DeRosa’s name appears throughout the attorney general’s report, particularly in the section that details accusations made by Lindsey Boylan.

Boylan, who formerly worked as an aide to the governor, spoke out in December in a series of tweets claiming Cuomo “sexually harassed me for years.”

“Ms. Boylan said Ms. DeRosa would scream at her and yell at her for illogical things,” the report said. It also described DeRosa’s role in releasing Boylan’s confidential personnel file to reports after Boylan went public with her accusations against Cuomo.

“Ms. DeRosa made the decision to disclose the confidential files on December 13, the day Ms. Boylan tweeted that the governor had sexually harassed her,” the report said.

Cuomo has denied the allegations raised by Boylan and all other accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Protests against mandated COVID-19 vaccines pop up across US

by
ayo888/iStock

(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.

More than 615,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.2 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 58.4% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC last week, citing new science on the transmissibility of the delta variant, changed its mask guidance to now recommend everyone in areas with substantial or high levels of transmission — vaccinated or not — wear a face covering in public, indoor settings.

Here’s how the news is developing Monday. All times Eastern:

Aug 08, 8:36 pm
Court rules cruise vaccine mandate does not violate Florida law

A federal judge ruled Sunday in favor of Norwegian Cruise Line and will allow the company to require proof of vaccination on cruises out of Florida despite a state law that bans cruise ships from enacting such an order.

Norwegian sued the state last month contending that the law prevented them “from safely and soundly resuming passenger cruise operations from Miami, Florida.”

Florida’s law threatens to fine companies $5,000 each time they ask a customer to provide proof that they’ve been vaccinated.

Florida has seen a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the last couple of weeks, with most cases affecting unvaccinated residents.

Judge Kathleen M. Williams wrote in her decision that Norwegian “has demonstrated that public health will be jeopardized if it is required to suspend its vaccination requirement,” and the Florida Department of Health, “identifies no public benefit from the continued enforcement of the Statute Case.”

Neither the cruise line nor the Florida Department of Health issued immediate statements about the ruling as of Sunday evening.

Aug 08, 7:04 pm
Memphis school delays first day of school due to COVID cases

A Memphis area elementary school sent a message to parents Sunday, just hours before the new school year was about to begin, informing them that the first day of classes would be postponed for a week due to COVID-19 cases among the staff.

The letter from Donelson Elementary School administrators didn’t specify how many staff members contracted the virus but indicated they “are simply at a point where opening tomorrow would risk further exposure to students and staff.”

The first day of classes is tentatively rescheduled for Aug. 16, the letter said.

Aug 08, 3:50 pm
Austin hospitals down to 6 ICU beds

Hospitals in Austin, Texas are down to just six available intensive care unit beds as more COVID-19 patients are admitted, officials warned.

City officials said there are 591 COVID-19 patients that are hospitalized. The seven-day average of new coronavirus ICU admissions in Austin’s hospitals has jumped from 23.4 on July 4 to 184 on Aug. 6, the city’s health department data showed.

Over the weekend, the Warn Central Texas system sent out an alert to residents via text message that urged people to wear a mask, get vaccinated and stay home if possible.

Aug 08, 2:44 pm
WHO warns of phony COVID lottery scam

The World Health Organization issued a warning Sunday about online scams involving a phony COVID-19 lottery.

The scammers claim to be a financial management firm in London under the name “Capital Finance, Inc. London,” WHO said.

The fraudsters allege through emails that the “COVID-19 Lottery Compensation Prize” is brought to you by WHO, in association with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), according to WHO.

The emails also state that they come from a group appointed by the WHO to process payment of these prizes, and then solicit personal details and in some cases, money from their victims, WHO warned.

“WHO is not offering or conducting a lottery prize to compensate individuals, whose names or contact details are purportedly selected at random, for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the UN agency said in a statement.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Dangerous fire conditions continue as dozens of wildfires devastate the West

by
Trevor Bexon/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Red flag warnings are persisting across parts of the West as dozens of large wildfires continue to scorch through homes and dry earth.

A cold front bringing gusty winds and the possibility of thunderstorms is expected to pass through parts of southern Montana and southern Wyoming Sunday afternoon. Wind gusts are expected to reach up to 50 mph in some regions, while humidity will remain low — at just 12% to 18%, according to forecasts.

The Dixie Fire, now the second-largest fire in California history after it has been burning near the Feather River Canyon since July 13, had singed through more than 463,000 acres by Sunday morning and was just 21% contained.

Firefighters had previously made progress on containing the Dixie Fire, but the fire re-exploded after jumping containment lines last week amid dangerous fire conditions. It has now destroyed 404 buildings as well as 185 other minor structures, damaged 27 structures and is continuing to threaten 13,871 structures.

Well over 100 home sand businesses in the downtown area of Greenville, California, about 150 miles northeast of Sacramento were decimated after dry, gusty conditions fueled the flames even further on Wednesday night.

Four people in the vicinity of the Dixie Fire are missing, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Saturday. Four firefighters were injured Saturday night while battling the Dixie Fire after a tree branch fell and hit them, according to officials.

The River Fire, near Colfax, California, is now 56% contained after its explosion last week prompted evacuations.

The McFarland Fire in Wildwood, California, just north of the Mendocino National Forest, has blazed through more than 30,000 acres and is 21% contained.

Six firefighters were injured on Friday while battling the McFarland Fire in Shasta Trinity National Forest. The heat was so intense that some suffered from first and second-degree burns, officials said.

Places around the world like the Western U.S. have become a “tinderbox ready to burn with any spark,” Kristina Dahl, senior climate scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists, told George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” Sunday.

“Around the world what we’re seeing is that very hot conditions tend to worsen any drought conditions that places might be experiencing,” Dahl said. “So you end up with severe drought, coupled out with the drying out of vegetation, and that vegetation then becomes fuel for fires to burn.”

Michael Mann, director of Penn State’s Earth System Science Center, told Stephanopoulos that “dangerous” climate change has already arrived.

“We can see the impacts of climate change playing out now in real time on our television screens and in our newspaper headlines,” Mann said. “…at this point it’s a question of how bad we’re willing to let it get.”

The effects of the fires are also being experienced up to 1,000 miles away as the smoke from the fires travels east with the jet stream. Air quality alerts have been issued for nine states.

On Saturday afternoon, Denver had the worst quality ranking in the world, according to IQ Air, a data tool that measures and ranks air quality in cities around the world. Denver remained in the second spot on Sunday afternoon.

Air quality was also dangerous in Utah near Salt Lake City, prompting the National Weather Service to warn residents to remain indoors as much as possible.

Closer to the fires, white ash from the Dixie Fire was falling in the Lake Tahoe Basin, SF Gate reported.

Residents in Sacramento reported seeing hazy skies as a result of the smoke as the weekend rolled in, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Air quality alerts have also been issued in Southern California. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District a health alert Saturday stating that the changing weather pattern would affect air quality in the area through Monday afternoon.

Experts advised residents in the Bay Area that they could expect smoky skies and bad air quality for decades to come.

“I think residents of the Western US are just going to have to get used to smoky skies and bad air quality as we go through the next few decades,” Craig Clements, director of San Jose State University’s Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center, told ABC San Francisco station KGO. “These fires are burning hotter, they’re burning more intensely and so, they are creating a lot of smoke and it could really impact communities. So, we have to get used to that unfortunately.”

ABC News’ Brittany Borer and Jenna Harrison contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Vaccine mandates would make a difference: NIH director

by
ABC’s This Week

(NEW YORK) — National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said Sunday he believes vaccine requirements could make a difference in slowing the rapid spread of COVID-19 and acknowledged how politics has polarized public opinion on pandemic mitigation strategies.

“Why is it that a mandate about a vaccine or wearing a mask suddenly becomes a statement of your political party? We never should have let that happen.” Collins told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.

“Come on, America — we’re incredibly polarized about politics, we don’t really need to be polarized about a virus that’s killing people,” Collins continued. “We ought to be doing everything we can to save lives.”

Saturday marked the fourth consecutive day of more than 100,000 new daily COVID-19 cases in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And Friday, the U.S. recorded its highest daily COVID-19 case count in six months, with more than 120,000 new cases reported.

And though more than 50% of Americans are fully vaccinated and that rate increased by 25% in the last week, according to the CDC, due to the rapidly spreading delta variant, some states and counties have reimplemented mitigation strategies, such as mask mandates.

Collins at first did not give a direct answer on whether he believed more vaccine mandates should be implemented, initially saying he celebrates when businesses decide to require vaccinations for employees.

“As a person who runs the National Institutes of Health with 45,000 employees and contractors, I am glad to see the president insisting that we go forward requiring vaccinations or if people are unwilling to do that, then regular testing, at least once or twice a week, which will be very inconvenient,” Collins said.

“I think we ought to use every public health tool we can when people are dying,” Collins added.

“That was about as close as a yes as you could get. You clearly believe that vaccine mandates could make a difference,” Stephanopoulos pressed.

“I do believe they should make a difference,” Collins responded. “I understand how that can sometimes set off all kinds of resistance. But isn’t that a shame?”

If more people had gotten vaccinated when vaccines became widely available, the current surge fueled by the delta variant could have been mitigated, Collins said earlier in the interview, responding to a USA TODAY front page headline: “We are failing one another.”

“I’m afraid we should not really have ever gotten in the place we are,” Collins said. “In that regard, yes, we are failing. … Now we’re paying the terrible price.”

As more children are currently hospitalized than at any other point in the pandemic, Stephanopoulos asked Collins whether the delta variant is more serious for children.

“We don’t have rigorous data to show for sure,” Collins responded. “But this is a virus that is not only more contagious, but potentially more lethal.”

With the school year set to begin across the nation, Collins said he would ask parents to think about masks as a “life-saving medical device” and ask their children to wear them.

“We know that kids under 12 are likely to get infected and if we don’t have masks in schools, this virus will spread more widely,” Collins told Stephanopoulos. “It will probably result in outbreaks in schools and kids will have to go back to remote learning which is the one thing we really want to prevent.”

“It’s a small price to pay for being able to keep kids where they need to be to learn,” Collins added.

While the current vaccines have high efficacy in stopping the spread of the highly contagious delta variant, Collins said he worries about “the day when a variant arises that is so different from the original Wuhan virus” that it evades the current vaccines and requires the quick development of a booster shot.

“The best way to prevent that from happening is to reduce the number of infections because that’s how mutants happen. It’s because people are infected with the virus and it copies itself slightly wrong and then you get something that’s even worse,” Collins said.

As the country awaits the Food and Drug Administration’s full approval of the COVID-19 vaccines, Collins said he has been in close contact with the agency and they hope to issue full authorization within the next month.

“But meanwhile, while people are waiting for that — and I understand that would help — please be clear about this, the vaccines have incredible evidence for their safety and effectiveness. They work against delta. They will save your life,” Collins said.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Florida’s largest school districts impose mask mandates, but some students can opt out

by
Octavio Jones/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — This weekend, some of Florida’s largest school districts have moved to require masks for students, the latest in a weeklong saga that began when Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order aimed at preventing districts from mandating face coverings for kids.

However, the mandates — issued by districts including Hillsborough (Tampa), Orange (Orlando), and Palm Beach — come with a catch: parents are allowed to opt their children out of them, without providing a reason.

Giving the choice to opt out complies with an emergency rule issued Saturday by the Florida Department of Health, which told districts they must give parents the option.

The state’s biggest school district, Miami-Dade, has not announced whether it will mandate face coverings for students. Its latest protocols, issued July 29, require them on school buses but not inside school buildings.

Broward Public Schools, the state’s second-largest district, has not updated its guidance from Wednesday, which said masks are required for students. The guidance did not mention the choice of opting out.

Some large school districts, like Polk, Pinellas, and Lee, are making masks optional for students, according to their most updated guidance.

Florida reported 23,903 COVID-19 cases in a single day on Friday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making it the state’s third straight day with over 20,000 new COVID cases.

As of Saturday, according to the Florida Hospital Association, there are 13,348 people hospitalized across the state — the highest figure the state has had during the pandemic. Nearly 30% of inpatients have COVID and 43.3% of adult intensive care unit patients have COVID.

Currently, one out of five new COVID infections are in Florida.

Below are the current mask policies for the 10 largest school districts in Florida, with links to the most recent guidance:

– Miami-Dade: optional
– Broward: required, with no opt-out option
– Hillsborough: required, with an opt-out option
– Orange: required for the first 30 days, with an opt-out option
– Palm Beach: required, with an opt-out option
– Duval: required, with an opt-out option
– Polk: optional
– Pinellas: optional
– Lee: optional
-Pasco: optional

ABC News’ Joshua Hoyos contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

4 people missing as Dixie Fire continues path of destruction in California

by
Trevor Bexon/Getty Images

(PLUMAS COUNTY, Calif.) — Four people are missing as the Dixie Fire rages on in California, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Saturday.

“We are seeking the public and the media’s assistance is helping us locate the individuals so we can report back to their loved ones,” they said, adding that their investigation unit has already located 21 other individuals who were previously unaccounted for.

The sheriff’s office had said earlier that eight people remained unaccounted for, but some have since been found.

“We request if you know where any of these people are to contact them and have them call the Sheriff’s Office at 530-283-6300 to let us know they are safe, so we can report back to the person(s) looking for them,” the police said.

The names of the five unaccounted for individuals are: Robert Nelson of Chester, Donna Shelton of Greenville, Dianne Doppert of Greenville and Shenandoah Lisenbee of Greenville, according to the statement. Authorities said Shelton was reported safe, but they have not made contact with her.

Cal Fire public information officer Rick Carhart said Saturday afternoon that four firefighters were injured in the west zone during the morning. They were taken to area hospitals. Three have been released, while one remains in the hospital in stable condition.

The Dixie Fire has been burning near Feather River Canyon for weeks and has now scorched through more than 446,723 acres since it sparked on July 13.

It is 21% contained and is now considered the third-largest fire in California history. More than 5,100 fire personnel are currently working on containing and putting it out, according to Cal Fire.

The downtown neighborhood of Greenville, about 150 miles northeast of Sacramento, has been hit the hardest by the out-of-control fire, with Plumas County Sheriff Todd Johns saying Thursday that “well over 100 homes” and many businesses and historic building have been destroyed by the flames.

At least 31,000 people have been evacuated.

The fire “burnt down our entire downtown. Our historical buildings, families homes, small businesses, and our children’s schools are completely lost,” Plumas County Supervisor Kevin Goss wrote on Facebook.

It is one of 90 large wildfires, many of them uncontained, that are currently burning in the West.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

+ More