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How to look out for neighbors during an extreme heat wave

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(GIDEON, Mo.) — In the small town of Gideon, Missouri, — with a population of about 1,000 people — almost everyone knows one another, according to local police chief Rinda Dillard.

When the Gideon Police Department were called for a wellness check on a residence on July 9, they made a tragic discovery when no one answered the door and police had to force their way into the home.

Inside, an older couple and three of their dogs were found dead. The cause of death was heat exposure, according to officials.

“Nobody checked on them. More than anything, just make sure you check on your neighbors,” Dillard told ABC News. “It was a horrible, tragic situation. Definitely could have been avoided. They didn’t have any kind of air conditioner. They’ve had one fan inside their home.”

As the heat breaks records worldwide — reaching dangerously high, unprecedented temperatures — officials are warning people to look out for one another.

Reach out to neighbors

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises people check on their neighbors regularly, particularly older, sick, or disabled people, as well as people who live alone or who are impoverished.

“Closely monitor people who depend on you for their care and ask these questions: Are they drinking enough water? Do they have access to air conditioning? Do they need help keeping cool?” the CDC guidance reads.

For homeless populations in your neighborhood, call your local public officials or homeless advocacy groups if you see someone in need of help. Non-emergency hotlines, such as 311 services, can also offer aid.

Homeless people are about 200 times more likely to die from heat-associated causes than sheltered people, climate scientist David Hondula told The Weather Channel based on new research.

“Homeless people can be at great risk during extreme heat events, especially if they are elderly or disabled, struggle with alcohol or drug addiction, or suffer from medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and more,” the CDC reads.

When you check on your neighbors, it’s important to note what to look for when visiting.

Know signs of heat stress, exhaustion

“Ask yourself these questions: Are they drinking enough water? Do they have access to air conditioning? Do they know how to keep cool? Do they show any signs of heat stress?” the CDC guidance reads.

Make sure to get neighbors the help they need if they do not have access to protective measures. Also, take note of any signs of heat stroke or heat exhaustion.

For signs of these conditions, check out ABC News’ guide to staying safe in extreme heat.

If someone needs help, it’s important to know where to go to, to get them what they need.

Familiarize yourself with available local resources and how to get them

“If there’s something out of whack, call the police department … so we can check the resources and see what they have available,” said Dillard.

She, alongside recommendations from the CDC, advises people to check with local agencies and non-governmental organizations that may be able to offer support.

Many local agencies and groups can provide air conditioners, offer subsidies for at-home cooling appliances, or can direct and transport people to cooling centers.

Local governments often develop plans that identify how to respond to extreme heat, especially as trends show that this problem is being exacerbated by climate change.

“If you are interested in heat-response planning efforts in your community, your town or city hall is a great place to start,” the CDC advises. “Ask how you can get involved!”

Abortions can resume in West Virginia after judge blocks pre-Roe ban

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(CHARLESTON, W.Va.) — Abortions in West Virginia can — at least temporarily — resume after a judge struck down a pre-Roe ban Monday.

Following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade last month, the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia said in a statement on Facebook it would not be performing the procedure “until further notice” due to fear of prosecution under an 1882 law on the books.

The law made performing abortions, including administering drugs for medication abortions, a felony punishable by three to 10 years in prison.

However, Kanawha County Circuit Judge Tera Salango issued a preliminary injunction against the ban, meaning the state’s only clinic can perform the procedure again.

The Women’s Health Center told ABC News it is already booking abortion patients for appointments next week.

“The impacts of abortion being pushed out of reach for the last month have been devastating,” Katie Quiñonez, executive director of the clinic, said in a statement. “[The] decision is a sigh of relief and means we can once again serve the people who reach out to us for abortion services.”

“Make no mistake: Essential health care shouldn’t depend on the whims of a court or politicians, it should be based on compassion and what’s best for one’s life and future,” Quiñonez said.

In the lawsuit, attorneys for the clinic argued the statute should be considered void because it has not been enforced in several years and because newer laws have been passed that supersede the old law, such as a 2015 law allowing abortions up until 20 weeks gestation.

“What this decision did is, at least temporarily, provide some clarity around conflicting laws we had,” Loree Stark, legal director of the ACLU of West Virginia, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the clinic along with other firms, told ABC News. “It’s clear, at least for the moment, that … people seeking abortion care now have some access to it.”

She added, “This gives people some hope. To bring this before a judge and for the judge to really examine all the information in front of her and to choose to enjoin the law should hopefully give people hope.”

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey called the decision a “dark day” and vowed his office will appeal the ruling to the state’s Supreme Court of Appeals.

“As a strong pro-life advocate, I am committed to protecting unborn babies to the fullest extent possible under the law, and I will not rest until this injunction is lifted,” he said in a statement sent to ABC News. “The current law on the books calls for the protection of life.”

Sesame Place to undergo bias training after calls of racism

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(PHILADELPHIA) — Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that runs Sesame Street, said it will “conduct bias training and a thorough review of the ways in which they engage families and guests” at Sesame Place after a video of a potential racial bias incident went viral online.

“As a global nonprofit educational organization with a mission to help children grow smarter, stronger and kinder, Sesame Workshop has always stood for respect, inclusion and belonging and is committed to providing the highest quality engaging experiences for all children and families,” the organization said in a statement.

In a video posted on Twitter, two young Black girls at Sesame Place Philadelphia waved excitedly and held out their arms as a performer dressed in a Rosita costume approached.

Rosita high-fives parkgoers as she walks down the line, before appearing to shake her head at and wave off the two girls as she walks away from them.

“#BabyPaige & her cute lil friends went to @SesamePlace this weekend to celebrate Paige’s 4th birthday & this is how #SesamePlace treated these beautiful Black children,” the tweet, posted by the apparent aunt of the girl celebrating her birthday, read.

“While we hate to speculate and consider ‘race’ as the motivating factor, which would explain the performer’s actions, such actions both before and after the young girls reached out only leads us to one conclusion,” said attorney B’Ivory LaMarr, who is representing the family.

He continued, “Although Sesame Place purports to stand for inclusivity and equality, this was not demonstrated this past Saturday. We are currently investigating this incident and will exercise every legal remedy possible to further protect this family.”

Outrage ensued online, as more footage of similar incidents with park characters were posted online in response to the viral video. Calls to boycott Sesame Place are growing on social media.

Sesame Place Philadelphia released a statement on the incident, saying, “We know that it’s not OK. We are taking actions to do better. We are committed to making this right.”

The park said it will conduct training for employees to deliver an “inclusive, equitable and entertaining” experience for parkgoers.

Sesame Place is a licensed park partner of Sesame Workshop.

ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin and Kendall Ross contributed to this report.

Biden signs executive order on Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday that codifies a 2020 law dealing with Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad.

Drawing on the 2020 Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, the new executive order will reinforce the U.S. government’s efforts to support families of Americans wrongfully detained or held hostage overseas, according to the White House.

The order will authorize the federal government to impose financial sanctions on those who are involved — directly or indirectly — in wrongful detaining Americans abroad, the White House said. Moreover, government agencies will be directed to improve engagement with those Americans’ families, including sharing intelligence information about their loved ones and the government’s efforts to free them. The order will also charge experts across agencies with developing “options and strategies to deter future hostage-takings,” the White House said.

A senior Biden administration official told reporters that new sanctions will not be announced on Tuesday.

In addition to the executive order, Biden will introduce a new “risk indicator” — “the ‘D’ indicator” — to the U.S. Department of State’s travel advisories for particular countries to alert Americans of the risk of wrongful detention by a foreign government, according to the White House.

Starting Tuesday, the first countries to receive this additional risk indicator will be China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela, another senior administration official told reporters. The “D” indicator joins the existing “K” indicator that covers the risk of kidnapping and hostage-taking by non-state actors, as well as a range of other existing risk indicators.

China’s “D” risk designation may spark ire in Beijing, where Chinese officials have largely tried to avoid the subject of wrongful detentions and where Western sanctions are a constant trigger.

Experts estimate that roughly 200 Americans are arbitrarily jailed in China, and that even more are subject to unlawful “exit bans,” barring them from leaving the country. Some advocates have pushed for the Biden administration to take a more vocal approach to secure their freedom, rather than the standard behind-the-scenes diplomacy. But the State Department has recently tried a similar strategy — updating their official advisory to American and instructing them to reconsider travel plans to China due to “arbitrary enforcement of local laws.”

Syria, with which the United States does not currently have formal diplomatic relations, will be notably excluded from the “D” risk designation on Tuesday. U.S. officials believe that while the Syrian government may not be currently holding American journalist Austin Tice in its custody, it could have valuable information on his whereabouts and perhaps those of other missing Americans. Tice, 40, was abducted in Syria nearly 10 years ago.

The White House recently held a telephone call for the relatives of detained Americans to share information with them about these new announcements. Some of them are in Washington, D.C., this week for the unveiling of a public mural depicting their loved ones, according to Jonathan Franks, a spokesperson for many of the families.

The mural in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood will depict the faces of 18 American hostages and wrongful detainees, according to Franks, who represents a group called the Bring Our Families Home Campaign. Among those featured will be American basketball star Brittney Griner, 31, and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, 52, both of whom remain detained in Russia, as well as U.S. permanent resident Paul Rusesabagina, 68, who inspired the acclaimed 2004 film “Hotel Rwanda” and was sentenced last September to 25 years in Rwandan prison over terrorism charges.

Franks accused U.S. officials of ignoring these relatives’ requests to meet with Biden, and said the phone call the White House held with the relatives was a “one-way conversation with families.” He said the Biden administration was rolling out these new steps in order to “pre-manage the press attention from many hostage families being in D.C. this week to unveil their mural,” saying the White House was “taking executive action to direct itself to follow existing law.”

A spokesperson for the White House told ABC News that it had invited the families to learn about the new announcements before they were announced publicly.

“As part of our regular communication with families of those who are held hostage or wrongfully detained, we invited them to hear about new policy efforts we are launching to help bring their loved ones home,” the spokesperson said. “We wanted to share information with the families first before we announce them publicly, which the families deserve.”

The spokesperson added that the Biden administration would “continue to be in regular touch with these families through the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, and the president’s national security team as we do everything we can to support them during these difficult times.”

Whelan’s brother, David Whelan, told ABC News the executive order was “a good next step and shows a long-term commitment by the Biden administration, both in the amount of time it must have taken to craft the framework … and the focus on continued deterrence.”

He said the White House holding the call with families in advance of the public announcement “was exactly what families had been asking for: communication in advance of new announcements that would impact our families.”

According to the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, there are actually 64 publicly known cases of Americans being held hostage or wrongfully detained around the world.

ABC News’ Cindy Smith contributed to this report.

Millions could die without ‘urgent’ funding as ‘catastrophic famine’ looms in East Africa, IRC says

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — The International Rescue Committee for the first time on Tuesday issued a “Crisis Alert” update to its annual “Emergency Watchlist” report, warning that millions of people across East Africa could die from “catastrophic famine” without “urgent” international funding and action.

The global humanitarian aid organization releases its “Emergency Watchlist” at the end of each year, identifying the countries it believes are most at risk of the worst humanitarian crises over the course of the coming year. But since early 2022, Russia has been waging a war against Ukraine that has disproportionally affected food security in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, which were reliant on Russia and Ukraine for about 90% of their wheat imports and are now in the midst of their longest, most severe drought in decades.

The IRC said its first-ever “Crisis Alert” update was issued in light of this fallout from the war in Ukraine, which — combined with the increasingly detrimental impact of climate change, conflict and COVID-19 — has driven those three East African nations into a “predictable crisis dangerously neglected by the international community.”

“There is nothing natural about famines in the 21st century. While a complex set of factors are driving extreme hunger, the slide into famine and mass death is man-made, driven by international inaction,” IRC CEO David Miliband said in a statement Tuesday. “This crisis was predictable and preventable. It has been unfolding over two years of repeated warnings and worsening hunger. What we are witnessing is an unnatural disaster of catastrophic proportions.”

The war in Ukraine would not have had such a significant impact on East Africa if drought had not already devastated agriculture, IRC said.

After a record four consecutive failed rainy seasons, the number of people going hungry across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia is set to surpass 20 million by September — nearly a doubling compared to late 2021. Over three million of them are already experiencing the most extreme levels of hunger, increasing their risk of death, according to the IRC.

The IRC’s “Crisis Alert” update noted “specific concern” for Somalia, which it said is the worst affected and is entering a famine that is expected to be even more severe than the 2011 one that killed an estimated 260,000 people. In one IRC’s nutrition clinic in Mogadishu, from April to May, the organization has seen a 265% increase in admissions for children under the age of 5 suffering from severe malnutrition. IRC teams on the ground report that people are already dying from starvation.

“There is no time to wait for data collection to confirm what the IRC is already seeing on the ground: a country hurtling towards a catastrophic famine,” the organization said in the update. “A famine declaration will tell us when it is too late — that people are already dying en masse, not how many lives we can still save. Waiting to respond based on retrospective data will condemn hundreds of thousands to an unnecessary death. Instead the international community needs to look forward, applying a no-regrets approach.”

The warning came a day after the U.S. Agency for International Development announced nearly $1.3 billion in additional humanitarian and developmental assistance to the Horn of Africa region. The IRC said the humanitarian-response plan for the region would be funded at only 40%, even accounting for the new funding.

“Severe underfunding of humanitarian responses is depriving millions of the assistance they need to survive,” said Miliband, the IRC’s CEO. “The new U.S. funding announced this week must be a first step, not a last one.”

Dangerous heat tightens its hold on Americans

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Dangerous heat has tightened its hold on the U.S. with 100 million Americans across 24 states on heat alert Tuesday from Texas to Massachusetts.

While many of these areas will find refuge in overnight drops in temperature, the Southern Plains will not drop below 80 degrees overnight, putting the region in an excessive heat warning.

Experts say such consistent, intense temperatures are dangerous to an individual’s health.

Oklahoma City is expected to reach 111 degrees on Tuesday, with nearby cities staying above 100 degrees throughout the day.

Texas residents are projected to face continuing, stifling temperatures on Tuesday, with Dallas having the potential to break its July heat record of 110 degrees.

The heat continues to spread on Tuesday, tightening its hold on the Northeast.

Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City and Boston are forecast to have a prolonged heat wave with temperatures in the 90-degree range throughout the week. On Tuesday, the four cities have highs of 90, 93, 91 and 92 degrees, respectively.

Those temperatures are expected to go even higher, as Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia face a high of 97 degrees on Thursday.

The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for Philadelphia, New York City and Boston as of Tuesday morning.

For many, Wednesday is expected to feel worse than Tuesday’s heat, as temperatures are expected to rise and humidity is expected to worsen, according to the NWS.

On Wednesday, Syracuse and Albany, New York, are expected to reach 99 degrees and Hartford, Connecticut, is set to reach 100 degrees.

With the heat, severe storms have hit the Northeast.

Flash flooding was reported from Virginia to Connecticut on Monday, with 4 to 6 inches of rain dumped along the Interstate 95 corridor.

Some areas of New York City had several inches of rain during a single hour on Monday, leaving highways, streets and subway stations flooded.

According to the MTA, some New York subway stations faced delays and canceled services due to water damage.

At the Dyckman Street station in the Bronx, the third rail — which provides electrical power to subway trains — was impacted as the roadbed was flooded by up to 14 inches of water on Monday, the MTA reported.

Some train services were canceled for several hours as crews worked to drain the water and clear debris from the tracks.

Storm reports also came in from Montana to the Mid-Atlantic, as residents faced damaging winds over 70 mph and baseball-sized hail.

On Tuesday, the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest will continue to see severe and damaging winds alongside large-scale hail.

Severe storms are expected to return to the Northeast on Thursday, with heavy rains and damaging winds posing the largest threat to the region stretching from Connecticut to Maine.

As dangerous heat tightens its hold across the country this week, it is important to watch out for signs of heat illnesses. To learn more about heat safety, click here.

Twitter trial against Elon Musk set for October

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A Delaware court on Tuesday determined that the trial in a lawsuit brought by Twitter against Elon Musk should take place in October, granting an expedited timeline for the case.

Twitter sued Musk — the chief executive of Tesla and the richest person in the world, according to Forbes’ Billionaires List — in an attempt to force him to complete his purchase of the company, after he declared in early July he was walking away from the deal.

The scheduling decision made Tuesday — to hold the trial over five days in October — appeared to align more closely with a timeline requested by Twitter, which had sought a four-day trial in September. Musk asked the court to set a trial date no earlier than mid-February 2023.

“The reality is that delay risks irreparable harm” to Twitter, said Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick.

Attorneys for Musk and Twitter alleged on Tuesday that their opponents held ulterior motives for the timelines they sought.

William Savitt, an attorney from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, who is representing Twitter, accused Musk of delaying the court proceeding in the hope of increasing his negotiating leverage or scuttling the deal with Twitter altogether.

“The company is faced with substantial increasing risk specifically by the overhanging of the merger agreement — and it’s by design,” Savitt said.

“Mr. Musk has been and remains contractually obligated to use his best efforts to close this deal,” Savitt added. “What he’s doing is the exact opposite of best efforts. It’s attempted sabotage.”

Andrew Rossman, an attorney for Musk and a managing partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, rebuked the claim. Instead, he argued that Twitter has sought to accelerate the case to prevent Musk and his representatives from assessing the company’s estimate in an SEC filing that less than 5% of accounts on the platform are bot or fake accounts.

“There’s no reason to try to do this in two months, except for one. The one reason is what Twitter wants to do is continue to shroud in secrecy the issue regarding their less than 5% spam and false account representation,” he said.

“As long as is necessary to get this deal railroaded through and force Mr. Musk to close,” he added.

“Twitter’s bid for extreme expedition rests on the false premise that the Termination Date in the merger agreement is October 24, glossing over that this date is automatically stayed if either party files litigation. By filing its complaint, Plaintiff has rendered its supposed need for a September trial moot,” Alex Spiro, an attorney for Musk, wrote in a court filing on Friday.

The Delaware Chancery Court will determine whether Musk remains obligated to purchase Twitter.

Musk has claimed Twitter failed to disclose the number of fake accounts on the platform. Twitter has said 5% of active users are bots but Musk has said he believes the figure is higher.

“Post-signing, Defendants promptly sought to understand Twitter’s process for identifying false or spam accounts. In a May 6 meeting with Twitter executives, Musk was flabbergasted to learn just how meager Twitter’s process was,” Musk’s filing said.

The legal battle marks the latest chapter in a monthslong saga that began in January when Musk started investing in Twitter.

Musk reached an acquisition deal with Twitter in April, but in the weeks since, he has raised concerns over spam accounts on the platform, claiming Twitter has not provided him with an accurate estimate of their number. Twitter has rebuked that claim, saying it has provided Musk with information in accordance with conditions set out in the acquisition deal.

Last Tuesday, Twitter sued Musk to force him to complete the deal.

“Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests,” Twitter said in the lawsuit. “Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.”

Secret Service will say no new Jan. 6 texts found after records were deleted; investigation requested

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Secret Service is preparing to notify the House Jan. 6 committee that it has found no new text messages related to the Capitol riot, a source says — the same day the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) sent a letter requesting the agency investigate the deletion of some its records from Jan. 6, 2021, which drew the scrutiny of an internal watchdog.

The Secret Service’s plans were confirmed to ABC News on Tuesday by a source familiar with the matter.

A Secret Service spokesman last week acknowledged that text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, were deleted after being sought by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General.

A letter sent Wednesday by the inspector general to the heads of the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees said the messages were deleted “as part of a device-replacement program” despite the inspector general requesting such communications.

The director of communications for the Secret Service, Anthony Guglielmi, subsequently dismissed any “insinuation” the agents had intentionally deleted the texts.

The Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed the Secret Service on Friday — its first such order to an executive agency.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the Jan. 6 committee, said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the panel expected more information about the Secret Service texts by Tuesday.

“We need all of the texts from the fifth and sixth of January. I was shocked to hear that they didn’t back up their data before they reset their iPhones. That’s crazy, and I don’t know why that would be,” Lofgren, D-Calif., said then. “But we need to get this information to get the full picture.”

In its letter on Tuesday, the NARA wrote that “if it is determined that any text messages have been improperly deleted” — “regardless of their relevance” to Jan. 6 investigations — “then the Secret Service must send NARA a report within 30 calendar days of the date of this letter with a report documenting the deletion.”

“This report must include a complete description of the records affected, a statement of the exact circumstances surrounding the deletion of messages, a statement of the safeguards established to prevent further loss of documentation, and details of all agency actions taken to salvage, retrieve, or reconstruct the records,” NARA wrote.

The Secret Service — which has faced fresh controversy over its conduct amid the insurrection and then-President Donald Trump’s behavior that day — has repeatedly said it is readily cooperating with both the inspector general and the Jan. 6 committee.

“Over the last 18 months, we have voluntarily provided dozens of hours of formal testimony from special agents and over 790,000 unredacted emails, radio transmissions, operational and planning records,” spokesman Guglielmi said Friday. “We plan to continue that cooperation by responding swiftly to the Committee’s subpoena.”

Will the BA.5 COVID strain force new mask mandates?

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The new COVID-19 variant, called BA.5, has been rapidly spreading across the country and is now estimated to make up more than 60% of new cases, according to the CDC. It is highly transmissible, compared to previous variants, and seemingly more resistant to prior vaccinations and immunities.

These factors are making people think differently about wearing masks, which experts say are still an effective way to curb the spread of the virus. Los Angeles County, for example, will likely reinstate an indoor mask mandate at the end of the month due to rising COVID-19 cases.

ABC News’ “Start Here” podcast spoke on Monday with John Brownstein, Chief Innovation Officer at Boston’s Children’s Hospital, professor at Harvard Medical School and ABC News Medical contributor, about best practices for protecting people against this latest variant.

START HERE: John, the mask debate has been with us as long as COVID. Los Angeles County is talking about reinstating mask rules. How effective are masks against this super contagious subvariant BA.5?

BROWNSTEIN: You know, Michelle, there is nothing as contentious as the mask debate of anything that we’ve dealt with with the pandemic. And it’s very surprising as a scientist, because a layer between you and others that protects you from transmission, it seems like very basic science.

But also at the community level, when you take on masks at the community level, you will see transmission go down. And that is why communities like L.A. are deciding to take on masking, because they’re looking at their particular context, seeing a surge and ultimately applying correct interventions to help reduce risk and ultimately not allowing for further transmission. That would ultimately create a surge in our hospitals and a capacity concern.

And so masking makes sense, but in a highly targeted way. That’s why we have to be very specific in the timing of masking. You’re pre-surge in the community. You’re seeing cases go up. That’s when you want to bring in masks to help reduce transmission, help reduce the risk to our health systems.

But these are not broad scale mask mandates across the country for undefined amounts of time. These are very targeted and this is why it’s done at the local public health level. They can look at the data and make these decisions and have people engage in a very important intervention to reduce the risk to the community.

START HERE: In terms of vaccination…we are in a much better place than last year. More Americans are vaccinated, boosted. There are treatments to help with symptoms. But how is this latest subvariant throwing a wrench into all the tools we have at our disposal?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, first, it’s really important to note that the tools that we have still work. If you’re fully up to date with your vaccines, especially if you’re on that booster and that second booster, if eligible, it dramatically reduces your risk of severe illness and death. So that’s point No. 1. Testing still works. Masking still works. So all the tools still work.

The issue is that this new variant is highly transmissible. It’s immune evasive in the sense that if you are exposed to this variant, your previous immunity from vaccination and potentially other variants, likely non-human variants, doesn’t necessarily protect you in the same way as previous infections. And so we’re going to see increased amounts of breakthrough infections.

Many of those will not turn, of course, into severe illness, but they’re turning into infections that ultimately lead to more transmission. And then we’ll see the impact in our most vulnerable communities, those that are elderly, immunocompromised, and we’ll see history repeating itself. And that’s the real concern we have with this new immune evasive variant.

START HERE: And how does testing factor in — should Americans be testing regularly at home?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, testing is such an important first line of defense. It’s been the cornerstone of our response. We’ve seen testing dramatically reduce. People are not going to get PCRs and even home testing is declining.

And that’s a problem because if people don’t have awareness of their infection, they are not necessarily isolating and potentially creating risk into the community. And that leads, of course, to these surges that we’re seeing. And so I advocate, you know, the testing. It’s simple. You know, there’s so much availability. There’s free home tests that the Biden administration is offering. Please use those because that really will have such an impact on the course of this BA.5 surge.

START HERE: Health experts say they are focusing on a booster for adults this fall — a new one targeting the latest subvariants? But should the government be expanding access to the second booster we have now for all adults?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, it’s a very complicated answer because the data isn’t absolutely clear about this for young, healthy adults, for older Americans. Those compromised. The risk is significant and getting that second booster is clear. I think we’re still waiting for compelling data at the same time. There should be broad availability. You know, there is plenty of supply out there. So if someone feels, based on their own risk tolerance, that they want that second booster, there’s really no downside.

So it makes sense to expand that availability. But we have to be very careful here because the messaging on boosters has been complicated. We don’t want to create vaccine fatigue, and we especially want to make sure that we have compelling reasons to get people boosters in the fall when we have this new variant specific bivalent vaccine. So I think making sure that we can make it available to as many people [who] will want it without sort of undermining a potential fall vaccination strategy.

START HERE: All right. That is John Brownstein with Boston Children’s Hospital. Thank you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks, Michelle.

Twitter’s lawsuit against Elon Musk set for first hearing

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A Delaware court on Tuesday is set to hold the first hearing in a lawsuit brought by Twitter against Elon Musk that would force him to complete his $44 billion acquisition of the company.

Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick has set a 90-minute hearing to debate whether to set a trial date for September.

Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and the richest person in the world, according to Forbes‘ Billionaires List, asked a Delaware court on Friday to reject Twitter’s attempt to put the merger case on trial in September, arguing it’s an “unjustifiable” time frame.

Twitter sued Musk in an attempt to force him to complete his purchase of the company, after he declared in early July he was walking away from the deal.

Twitter sought a four-day trial in September, saying the deal must be closed by an October deadline.

“Twitter’s bid for extreme expedition rests on the false premise that the Termination Date in the merger agreement is October 24, glossing over that this date is automatically stayed if either party files litigation. By filing its complaint, Plaintiff has rendered its supposed need for a September trial moot,” Alex Spiro, Musk’s attorney, wrote in Friday’s court filing.

The Delaware Chancery Court will determine whether Musk remains obligated to purchase Twitter.

Musk has claimed Twitter failed to disclose the number of fake accounts on the platform. Twitter has said 5% of active users are bots but Musk has said he believes the figure is higher.

The legal battle marks the latest chapter in a monthslong saga that began in January when Musk started investing in Twitter.

Musk asked the court to set a trial date no earlier than mid-February 2023.

Last Tuesday, Twitter sued Musk to force him to complete the deal.

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