(NEW YORK) — More than 82 million Americans from California to New Hampshire are on alert for extreme heat Friday as the nation’s deadly, unwavering heat wave pushes on.
In the Northeast, heat advisories have been issued from Delaware to New Hampshire — and the heat is expected to intensify this weekend.
Record-high temperatures are forecast for Sunday from Philadelphia to New York City to Boston.
New York City’s Triathlon and Duathlon is shortening the run and bike portions of Sunday’s race due to the dangerous heat.
Philadelphia has enacted a heat health emergency.
In Boston, a heat emergency has been extended through Sunday. The city said cooling centers will be open and more than 50 splash pads are available.
The heat wave is also persisting in the South and the West.
Hard-hit Texas reached record highs in Austin (105 degrees) and San Antonio (102 degrees) on Thursday.
Dallas County reported its first heat-related death of the year on Thursday. The county’s Department of Health and Human Services said the victim was a 66-year-old Dallas woman with underlying health conditions.
Record highs are possible on Friday in Memphis, Tennessee, where the record stands at 103 degrees, and Phoenix, where the record is 116 degrees.
(ROCHESTER, N.Y.) — A police officer was shot and killed in the line of duty on Thursday night in Rochester, New York, officials said.
Officer Anthony Mazurkiewicz, a 29-year veteran of the Rochester Police Department, was with his partner, Officer Sino Seng, an eight-year veteran, when they “were attacked in a cowardly ambush” on Bauman Street, according to Rochester Police Chief David Smith.
At least one male approached the officers and opened fire on them as they were conducting a detail at around 9:15 p.m. local time, according to Lt. Greg Bello of the Rochester Police Department.
Mazurkiewicz was shot at least once in the upper body, while Seng was shot at least once in the lower body, according to Smith, who said the pair “fell victim to the very violence in our community that we are trying to combat.”
Mazurkiewicz was rushed to Strong Hospital, where he was listed in threatening condition late Thursday. During a press conference the next morning, the police chief announced that, “despite heroic efforts,” Mazurkiewicz had died. The officer was a husband and father.
Seng was taken to Rochester General Hospital, where he was treated and released. He is “now recuperating from his injuries at home with his wife and children,” according to Smith.
During the attack, a female bystander was also struck by gunfire. She was treated for non-life threatening injuries, Smith added.
The police chief said a number of law enforcement agencies — local, state and federal — have responded to assist and are “being utilized to bring whomever is responsible for this heinous act to justice.”
“This is an ongoing investigation and updates will be provided as they become available,” Smith, who was visibly emotional, said at the press conference on Friday morning. “As we speak, the brave men and women of the Rochester Police Department are continuing to protect our community, despite this horrific and shocking loss to our family.”
Rochester Mayor Malik Evans, who also spoke at the press conference, called it a “sad day for our community.”
“I am angry and upset because all too often we are seeing over and over again blatant disregard for life,” Evans said, “be it an old woman on her porch or a 10-year-old girl, braiding her mother’s hair, and now an officer in the line of duty, working to keep our city safe.”
The deadly shooting happened just hours after the mayor declared a local state of emergency due to “a surge” in gun violence.
“The city and our partners in government will dedicate all possible resources to bring an immediate end to this violence and prevent it from expanding further,” Evans said at a press conference earlier Thursday. “We know these shootings are directly tied to a deadly cycle of disputes and retaliations and we will do all we can to disrupt these disputes before they reach critical mass.”
On Friday, the mayor urged anyone with information on the triple shooting to come forward.
“Now is your time to speak up,” he said. “It was Tony Mazurkiewicz, but it can be any of us in this room tomorrow. This is a clarion call for this community to speak up.”
(NEW YORK) — An American man was recently arrested and charged with the murder of his wife while they were on their honeymoon at a luxury resort in Fiji, ABC News has learned.
The Fiji Police Force confirmed that on the afternoon of July 9, a woman identified as 36-year-old U.S. citizen Christe Chen was found motionless on the floor of her room by staff at Turtle Island, a 500-acre private island resort located in Fiji’s Yasawa archipelago. The resort’s management alerted authorities, who responded and pronounced Chen dead at the scene. She had been beaten to death, police told ABC News.
Chen’s husband, identified as 38-year-old U.S. citizen Bradley Robert Dawson, was located and arrested two days later in Nadi, a town located on the west coast of Fiji’s main island, Viti Levu, according to police.
Dawson appeared in Lautoka Magistrates’ Court on July 13 and was charged with one count of murder. Due to the seriousness of the incident, Dawson’s case was referred to the Lautoka High Court, where he is scheduled to appear on July 27. He remains in custody at the Fiji Corrections Service’s facility in Lautoka, Fiji’s second-largest city, about 16 miles north of Nadi.
Dawson’s attorney, Iqbal Khan, told ABC News he intends to file a bail application on behalf of his client on July 25 but that he believes it will be difficult to secure bail, because Dawson is a foreigner with no local family or connections that can provide assurances.
Fiji Police Force prosecutor Arvind Kumar told ABC News that authorities are still preparing the disclosure of all the details and findings related to the case, which will be sent to the Lautoka High Court before Dawson’s scheduled appearance there next week.
Turtle Island, which hosts a maximum of 14 couples at a time in private villas, confirmed that “an incident took place between a married couple at the resort on July 9th, resulting in a tragic outcome and charges being laid.”
“We cooperated with the authorities during the investigation and the police left the island over a week ago,” the resort told ABC News in a statement. “It is our understanding that charges have been filed in the case. Our highest priority is the safety and concern for our guests and team, both who we value as family, and we are extremely saddened by the event. We continue to send our condolences to Ms. Chen’s family, friends, and colleagues. Given the need to respect the privacy of our guests and the ongoing legal investigation, please direct all further inquiries to the authorities.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State confirmed “the death of a U.S. citizen in Fiji.”
“Out of respect for the privacy of the family, we have no further comment at this time,” the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement.
ABC News contributor Brad Garett, a former FBI special agent, explained that when Americans travel abroad and are alleged to have committed a crime in a foreign country, “the local authorities will use their process.”
“Mr. Dawson is going to be in Fiji for a long time before this case is resolved, one way or the other,” Garett said.
(NEW YORK) — It’s been a pressure cooker of a summer for economies in both the U.S. and Europe, and experts say the extreme heat is making it increasingly difficult for workers to do their jobs — especially those who work outdoors.
A historic and deadly heat wave has been scorching western Europe, killing more than 1,000 people in Spain and Portugal and displacing thousands in France, Greece and Italy. In Britain and Germany, the excessive heat is unprecedented. At the same time, much of the U.S. is baking under oppressive heat, as temperatures in Texas and Oklahoma topped 113 degrees.
A video this week of a UPS delivery driver collapsing in the triple-digit heat of Scottsdale, Arizona, went viral. A UPS spokesperson confirmed the incident in a statement to Phoenix ABC affiliate KNXV-TV, saying in part: “We appreciate the concern for our employee and can report that he is fine… Our employee used his training to be aware of his situation and contact his manager for assistance, who immediately provided assistance.”
Worker productivity losses due to heat cost the U.S. an estimated $100 billion a year, according to a report by the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center. As days of extreme heat become more frequent, the report claims that figure is projected to double to $200 billion by 2030, or about 0.5% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average temperatures of several major U.S. cities have increased over the last 120 years, with Los Angeles County getting 3.4 degrees hotter and New York County experiencing a rise of 3.2 degrees in the average temperature. In Dallas County, Texas, the average temperature rose 1.2 degrees in the past 60 years, according to NOAA, and experts say the Southeast and Midwest are projected to face the highest economic toll from extreme heat.
Texas loses an average of $30 billion a year due to its climate and the large number of people working outdoors, according to the think-tank’s report. That number is projected to jump to $110 billion a year by 2050, amounting to 2.5% of Texas’ total economic output.
That same report found that industries most affected by extreme heat are construction and agriculture, where workers are most exposed to the elements. By 2050, construction is projected to lose 3.5% of its total annual economic activity to heat, or $1.2 billion per year, while agriculture is estimated to lose 3.7%, or nearly $131 million a year.
President Joe Biden this week announced new executive steps to combat climate change but fell short of declaring a climate emergency. The move comes after a major legislative package with more than $300 billion in clean-energy tax breaks stalled on Capitol Hill.
“Since Congress is not acting as it should… This is an emergency and I will look at it that way,” Biden said.
The initiatives include $2.3 billion in funding for a program that helps communities prepare for disasters by expanding flood control and retrofitting buildings, as well as funding to help low-income families cover heating and cooling costs.
Americans’ electric bills are expected to increase by 20% to an average of $540 for this summer, compared to the same period last year, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. It comes at a time when consumers are already battling the highest inflation in 40 years with soaring prices for food, gas and other essentials.
But not all of that increase in energy bills is due to a rise in usage. The rise is partly fueled by a jump in the price of natural gas, which is used to generate electricity. Natural gas prices have surged this year following a production slump during the pandemic, as well as shortages due to the war in Ukraine.
Europe’s heat wave is adding pressure to the continent’s energy crunch. Electricity prices are already on the rise as Russia chokes off Europe’s natural gas supply. One of Germany’s largest power producers, Uniper, is asking for a government bailout after higher energy prices and rising demand for power amid soaring temperatures depleted the company’s cash.
The mercury reached a record 104 F in the U.K. this week, a country not accustomed to such extreme temperatures. The average temperature in the U.K. in July is 75 F so far, and most homes and businesses don’t have air conditioners. The Met Office, the country’s national weather service, warned that the heat will have “widespread impacts on people and infrastructure.” Luton Airport, north of London, suspended flights Monday after record heat caused a surface defect on the runway, while the country’s main rail network urged people to travel only if “absolutely necessary.”
Analysts say the sweltering heat comes at the height of tourism season for Europe and threatens foot traffic at retailers as shoppers choose to stay indoors.
Record high temperatures and wildfires in France, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy, which is suffering through one of its worst droughts on record, are destroying crops, pushing already high food prices even higher. More than half of the 27 countries in the European Union now face the threat of drought, made worse by extreme heat, according to a report from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.
According to a study last year by European economists and climate experts published in the journal Nature Communications, heat waves on average had lowered overall annual economic growth across Europe by as much as 0.5% in the past decade.
Italian Authorities in the northern region of Lombardy said 70% of crops are gone in the Po River delta and warn that water supplies for agriculture could run out by the end of July. The Italian farmers’ association, Coldiretti, said that each fire costs Italians about $25,000 an acre to rebuild, and the group estimates that wheat production in Italy will decline by 15% because of an increase in production costs and the drought.
“We’re working carefully, alongside different associations,” Lombardy President Attilio Fontana told a press conference in Milan on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, the only thing we can hope for is that it starts to rain again.”
(NEW YORK) — As recession forecasts have grown dire in recent months, they’ve faced one complication: Strong economic data.
The U.S. showed robust job growth last month, defying expectations of a slowdown and keeping the unemployment rate at a near-historic low of 3.6%. Meanwhile, retail spending, a key indicator of economic health that reflects consumer appetite, rose 1% in June, outpacing gloomier predictions — even if some of that increase can be attributed to rising prices due to inflation.
The positive signs have fueled caution about the rush to pessimism.
“While sentiment has shifted, little of the data I see tells me the U.S. is on the cusp of a recession,” Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser said during the company’s earnings call on Friday.
The trend raises the question of whether the U.S. could avoid a recession altogether.
In a sense, the answer is an unequivocal no, economists told ABC News. Ultimately, a recession is inevitable, since it makes up a natural part of an economic cycle marked by alternating periods of growth and contraction.
But the continued strength of the economy meaningfully challenges expectations that a recession will come to pass anytime soon, as robust hiring and healthy household and business balance sheets provide a buffer for a potential slowdown, they added. One economist, Jeremy Swartz of Credit Suisse, said it’s more likely that the economy will avoid a recession right now than undergo one.
Inflation
A stark imbalance between supply and demand poses a daunting challenge over the mid- and long-term, some less-optimistic economists said. In light of that imbalance, economic strength becomes a liability, since a supply bottleneck can’t keep up with hiring and spending, resulting in crippling inflation.
Safely navigating that predicament over the coming years — without triggering a recession — will require an unlikely but possible series of events, Aneta Markowska, chief economist at New York City-based financial services company Jefferies, told ABC News..
“There’s a consensus view right now that a recession is imminent — that, I think, is premature,” Markowska said. “We have an economy that’s already overheated, like a plane that has overshot the runway, which makes it incredibly difficult to land it softly. There’s certainly a scenario for how we could achieve that. But I think that scenario involves a lot of things going very, very well.”
Supply and demand
At the crux of current economic risk stands a glaring asymmetry between traditional supply and demand, according to Markowska and Lindsey Piegza, the chief economist at Stifel, a St. Louis-based investment bank.
A surge in demand followed a pandemic-induced flood of economic stimulus that combined with a widespread shift toward goods instead of services, as hundreds of millions across the globe facing lockdowns replaced restaurant expenditures with couches and exercise bikes. Meanwhile, that stimulus brought about a speedy economic recovery from the March 2020 downturn, triggering a hiring blitz.
But the surge in demand for goods and labor far outpaced supply, as COVID-related bottlenecks slowed delivery times and infection fears kept workers on the sidelines. In turn, prices and wages skyrocketed, ultimately prompting sky-high inflation that has not only endured for many months but gotten worse, Markowska and Piegza said.
The consumer price index, or CPI, stood at 9.1% last month, a significant increase from 8.6% in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is the largest 12-month increase since December 1981.
To avert a recession, the U.S. will need to slow demand while increasing supply, in turn bringing the two into balance, Markowska and Piegza said. But both sides of that task pose thorny problems, they added.
Interest rates
To weaken demand, the Federal Reserve has embarked on a series of hikes to its benchmark interest rate, which raises borrowing costs for consumers and businesses alike. That should slow the economy and slash demand.
Since U.S. households have stockpiled savings and the economy has accumulated millions more job openings than job seekers, in theory, the rate hikes could weaken the high demand without harming economic output, Markowska, the chief economist at Jefferies, said.
“The idea is that we can destroy that excess demand without actually destroying activity,” she said.
In reality, the task is much more difficult, Markowska said. The persistently strong economic conditions will prompt the Fed to take more aggressive action, which increases the risk of an abrupt economic slowdown that brings about a recession, she explained. For instance, in order to slow down a hot economy enough that healthy companies will abandon hiring and ease labor demand, Fed actions will likely trigger significant layoffs at other companies in a more precarious financial position, which could bring about a decline in demand that goes too far and pushes the economy toward a recession, she added.
Policymakers
Swartz, the economist at Credit Suisse, contested the view that strong economic performance raises the risk of recession. Instead, positive indicators like robust hiring show that the economy is healthier than many people think, he said.
“It’s not fully a situation where good news is bad news and bad news is good news,” he said. “All things being equal, we still like to see stronger growth.”
While demand weakens, supply will need to grow, economists said. That will require a set of outcomes that extends well beyond the control of U.S. economic policymakers, Piegza, the chief economist at Stifel, said. In order to relieve COVID-induced supply bottlenecks, countries like China will need to relax ongoing lockdowns. Moreover, a fix for global oil and agricultural shortages depends on an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, Piegza said.
“It’s out of the Fed’s control and the federal government’s,” she said. “You would need the dominos to line up with a certain level of precision.”
“That scenario has a very low probability but it’s not a zero probability,” she added.
While possible, the rosy outcome is far less likely than a downturn, Piegza said.
“Essentially, there’s a good chance, or a heightened probability, of a recession by the end of the year,” she said.
Markowska offered a slightly more optimistic forecast for the chances of a recession.
“In the next six months, I’d put it at 10%; in the next 12 months, I’d put it at 30% or 40%; in the next 24 months, I’d put it at 70%,” she said.
But she isn’t ruling out the possibility that the U.S. will avoid a recession altogether.
“We basically have to get really lucky,” she said.
Swartz, the economist at Credit Suisse who thinks the U.S. is more likely to avoid a recession than experience one, said the overall negative mood about the economy risks hurting consumer and business sentiment while helping induce a recession.
One place where that gloomy outlook can be found is on Wall Street, which saw a historic plunge in the stock market over the first half of the year. The S&P 500 — a popular index to which many 401(k) accounts are pegged — plummeted 20.6%, marking its worst first-half performance of any year since 1970.
“The general mood is obviously extremely poor,” he said. “There’s a question of whether that can become self-fulfilling.”
“That’s something we’re concerned about and contributes to heightened recession risk,” he added. “But there’s nothing automatic about it.”
(NEW YORK) — Even near some of the busiest cities in the United States, nearly 54 million people have a tough time accessing fresh and healthy food, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
One company based in a Denver suburb said they have a solution.
Farmbox Foods in Sedalia, Colorado, turns upcycled shipping containers into vertical hydroponic farms. The company claims the containers can create as much as two football fields worth of traditional agriculture. They grow more than 400-lbs of mushrooms a week.
Rusty Walker, the CEO of Farmbox Foods, called his container boxes “modern farming spaceships.”
“This is a 40 foot high cubed, insulated container that has been repurposed and then engineered to [with] three grow walls,” Walker told ABC News’ Ginger Zee. “[We can grow] right around two and a half acres to three acres of farmland in this container.”
The United States Department of Agriculture defines “food deserts” as areas where people have limited access to a variety of healthy and affordable food. There are approximately 6,500 food deserts in the United States based on 2002 and 2006 census data on locations of supermarkets, supercents and large grocery stores.
Often areas with a higher percentage of poverty and minority population are more likely to be food deserts, the USDA found in a 2012 study.
Walker said his moveable, temperature-controlled, farmland can be shipped and used anywhere.
“So we can be sitting or standing in this container here today and have a truck show up tomorrow and we can put it on a flatbed truck and ship it to Chicago in 48 hours later. Plug it in and it’s growing,” said Walker.
In the United States, more than 40% of the country’s freshwater is used to irrigate crops. Agriculture alone makes up at least 11% of the greenhouse gas emission in the United States, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Walker said that his system of farming only uses the freshwater equivalent of about two loads of laundry a day.
“I think the biggest thing that we have going for us is we use 3 to 5 gallons of water a day. That’s it,” said Walker. “We find that our plants are growing 3 to 4 times faster than they would in an ordinary environment. So we like to say we’re farming without harming.”
Michael Boardman is a natural grocer in Lakewood, Colorado. His grocery store uses a Farmbox Foods container and he said it gives them control over their produce supply chain.
“We’ll be harvesting, taking it directly into our store [and it’s ready] for our customers,” said Boardman, who added that the produce is fresher than traditional grocery supply chains. “[The produce is] much more nutrient dense because it hasn’t been sitting on a shelf in a warehouse. It hasn’t been shipped across the country.”
Local grocers are not the only ones who have bought into Farmbox Foods. One of the company’s biggest clients is Centura Health, a local hospital system in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Patrick Gaughan, the senior vice president and chief values integration officer at Centura Health, said they’re growing fresh produce for their patients, associates and community members who come to the hospital.
“As we grow and develop in the foods [we grow], then we’re also giving this food to the communities through local food banks, farmer’s markets, so that people can get access and the food will be available for them,” said Gaughan.
Vertical farming, like Farmbox Foods, is often criticized due to the limited amount of foods that can be produced. But Farmbox Foods told ABC News that they are expanding quickly and have been testing carrots, potatoes and radishes.
Gaughan said the ready access to fresh food will only make a stronger and healthier community — all year round.
“We can tie food insecurity and poor nutrition to things like diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, even mental health,” he said. “We can introduce people to a whole different way of getting their food, tasting their food, using their food in a culturally respective way, but also in a way that’s affordable and available year round.”
(NEW YORK) — Are you looking for ways to take control of your budget or save for the future?
According to a viral hashtag with more than 376 million views on TikTok, you can accomplish both and all you need is some old-fashioned cash and a set of envelopes.
TikTokers swear by the concept of cash stuffing. It’s a technology-free way to budget and plan out your finances that’s similar to the “developing” method.
How to cash stuff
You can start by dividing up your set of envelopes into categories and labeling them. For example, date night, bills, utilities, etc.
From there, you then divide up your hard-earned cash into the respective category or envelope it will be allotted to.
“I swiped my card way too much,” TikTok cash stuffer Stephanie Garcia told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
Since she began stuffing, Garcia said she managed to keep her debt low and also saved over $10,000 for the future.
(NEW YORK) — Amid growing concerns over highly contagious omicron subvariants that are spreading around the country, Americans are set to have one more COVID-19 vaccine from which to choose.
Earlier this week, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) signed off on use of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine for those 18 years and older, making it the fourth COVID-19 vaccine now available to the American public.
“We now have four safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines available to protect Americans against serious illness, hospitalizations, and death,” President Joe Biden said in a statement on Tuesday. “…more people need to roll up their sleeves, particularly as we confront BA.5,” he added, referring to the highly contagious subvariant.
With a resurgence of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations — including news Biden tested positive for the virus — there has been a renewed push to get people vaccinated against COVID-19, particularly those who have yet to receive their first shot, leaving many people vulnerable to severe disease and even death.
“If you have been waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine built on a different technology than those previously available, now is the time to join the millions of Americans who have been vaccinated,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement on Tuesday, following the agency’s recommendation of Novavax’s vaccine. “With COVID-19 cases on the rise again across parts of the country, vaccination is critical to help protect against the complications of severe COVID-19 disease.”
Nationally, there are still more than 26.3 million American adults who remain completely unvaccinated.
With the currently available vaccines, the unvaccinated ages 5 years and older are 2.8 times more likely to test positive, and six times more likely to die, compared to the fully vaccinated, according to federal data.
Millions still unvaccinated
A number of health experts have expressed their hope that some of the individuals, who are still hesitant, may be more inclined to get the Novavax vaccine because it is based on a more traditional protein-based technology, one already used for the flu vaccine and other shots, while Pfizer and Moderna vaccine platforms tapped a new genetic technology — with messenger RNA — to produce their vaccines.
Since December of 2020, more than 205 million Americans have now received a mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, according to federal data, which health experts stress have also proven to be safe and effective and protecting Americans against severe forms of COVID-19.
“I think it’s an important advance. It’s actually giving proteins as vaccines as ‘tried and true’ in the sense that hepatitis and a variety of vaccines use that similar technology,” Novavax President and CEO Stanley Erck told ABC News last week, following the Food and Drug Administration’s authorization of the vaccine.
Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston said that although initial indicators suggest there may be low demand for the shots, even a sole person getting the Novavax vaccine could protect someone from severe outcomes of COVID-19.
“Every single person vaccinated is a potential life saved. In my mind there is no downside, only upside,” Doron said.
Data presented to CDC advisers this week showed that the vaccine was 90% effective against overall mild, moderate, and severe disease, and 100% effective against severe disease alone. However, the data was collected at the time when the Alpha variant was dominant, thus prior to the emergence of the omicron variant, which has been shown to chip away at vaccine efficacy. But the company announced on Tuesday that it had signed agreements with its partner, SK bioscience, for the creation of the company’s vaccine that would be designed to target the omicron variant.
Some prior concerns were raised by the CDC and FDA advisers, as preliminary data, reported by the company during presentations, indicated that some cases of myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation that can occur following vaccination, had been discovered after some trial participants received the Novavax series.
The rare cases of myocarditis have also been found to occur in people, most commonly in young men, who receive the other authorized COVID-19 vaccines, such as the Moderna and Pfizer. However, the occurrences have not been deemed serious enough to stop use of the vaccines in adults.
Ultimately, both groups of advisers unanimously voted to recommend the Novavax vaccine for use.
Some skepticism
Although many lauded the positive data presented by Novavax, some other experts said they are still skeptical that that the introduction of the new vaccine will truly make a difference in the overall fight against COVID-19.
“Despite impressive clinical trial results and a more traditional technology, it’s hard to imagine that Novavax will make much of a dent in vaccination coverage,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D. an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
“While there is some hope that those who have waited this long may change their minds, widespread infection among the unvaccinated and hope for a more well-matched vaccine may continue to prolong those holding out,” he added.
There has not been a significant bump in the number of people receiving a first COVID-19 dose since November 2021. Since then, the average number has steadily fallen to around 50,000 first shots, administered among all age groups, each day.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that the Biden administration had secured 3.2 million doses of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine, which will be made available for free to U.S. states and jurisdictions.
The two-dose vaccine, which is given three weeks apart, is expected to be made available in the coming weeks, according to the CDC, although the agency noted in a planning document that a “limited number of doses of Novavax COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed and not all providers are expected to carry Novavax COVID-19 vaccine.”
Ordering is tentatively expected to open the week of July 25, though it is still unclear when the first deliveries will arrive, and Novavax said on Tuesday that it expects to ship doses to the U.S. Government-designated distribution center in the coming days.
“This vaccine is likely to fill in the gap left as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is sunsetted,” Brownstein explained
In May, the FDA announced that it now limiting authorized use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after conducting an updated investigation into reports of rare blood clots. Use is limited to people ages 18 and older for whom other authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccines are not “accessible or clinically appropriate,” and to adults who choose to receive the vaccine or else they would not get vaccinated, the FDA wrote at the time.
— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) July 21, 2022
Last year, for George’s eighth birthday, Kate took a photo of her son in Norfolk, England, where their family has a home.
George stole the spotlight last month when he celebrated his great grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, for her Platinum Jubilee, which marked her 70th year on the throne.
Along with his sister Princess Charlotte, George, who is third in line for the throne, was spotted out and about on a visit to Cardiff Castle, where the two children and their parents met performers and crew taking part in a Platinum Jubilee concert later that evening.
Earlier this month, George was also spotted at Wimbledon with his parents. The family attended the men’s singles final between Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Australia’s Nick Kyrgios.
(WASHINGTON) — The first case of polio reported in the U.S. in nearly a decade was detected in New York state, health officials said Thursday.
The case is in a resident of Rockland County, the state health department said.
State health officials said sequencing determined that the newly detected case is an instance of vaccine-derived polio. The oral polio vaccine contains a weakened version of the polio virus that can be excreted in stool and transmitted.
That vaccine has not been administered in the U.S. since 2000, suggesting that the virus may have originated somewhere outside the U.S., health officials said.
The Rockland County polio patient is a young adult whose symptoms began a month ago, according to public health officials in Rockland County. The person is no longer contagious but has suffered some paralysis. It is unknown whether that will be permanent.
The infected person contracted polio through exposure to someone who was inoculated with the oral vaccine. The patient did not travel outside of the country, so the exposure was here, said health officials, who are now investigating whether there are any close contacts of the patient who are at risk. There are no other suspected cases at this time.
Health officials urged those who are unvaccinated, and parents of unvaccinated children, to seek polio vaccination now.
“The polio vaccine is safe and effective, protecting against this potentially debilitating disease, and it has been part of the backbone of required, routine childhood immunizations recommended by health officials and public health agencies nationwide,” State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said in a statement.
Rockland County will host vaccine clinics on Friday and Monday, the health department said.
The last known case in the U.S. was recorded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2013, which was also an instance of vaccine-derived polio. The last “wild” case of polio was detected in the U.S. in 1979.
The U.S. uses the inactivated polio vaccine, which cannot cause infection.
Being vaccinated against polio protects people against both vaccine-derived and “wild” polio.
Polio is a very contagious, potentially fatal, virus that can be spread even when an infected person has no symptoms.
Symptoms, which include fatigue, fever, headache, stiffness, muscle pain and vomiting, can take up to 30 days to appear. In rare cases, polio can cause paralysis or death.
“Many of you may be too young to remember polio, but when I was growing up, this disease struck fear in families, including my own,” Rockland County Executive Ed Day said in a statement. “The fact that it is still around decades after the vaccine was created shows you just how relentless it is. Do the right thing for your child and the greater good of your community and have your child vaccinated now.”
