(NEW YORK) — Over 1 million customers are without power in the Midwest Thursday morning after severe storms slammed the region.
The storms included several reported tornadoes.
Power was knocked out in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. Michigan has the most outages with 810,202, according to PowerOutage.us.
That same storm system will bring more severe weather on Thursday from Kansas to Illinois and into the Northeast. The biggest threat will be damaging winds, but isolated tornadoes are possible.
Meanwhile, 126 million people in the country are enduring the extreme heat, which spans 30 states from California to Maine. Humidity will make it feel like 105 to 110 degrees from Kansas City to New York City on Thursday.
Tropical Depression Fred is also still on the radar. Fred is expected to pass Cuba Thursday and Friday with some gusty winds and heavy rain.
Fred is forecast to strengthen back to a tropical storm on Friday night as it moves through the straits of Florida.
Fred will move over the Florida Keys by Saturday with heavy rain and gusty winds.
Fred will then turn north and head for Florida’s panhandle by Sunday night into Monday morning. Heavy rain is expected across Florida from Tallahassee to Miami this weekend. Flash flooding is possible in South Florida.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 618,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.3 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 58.8% 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 Thursday. All times Eastern:
Aug 12, 7:59 am
Fauci talks booster shots
The Food and Drug Administration is poised to authorize a third COVID shot for the immunocompromised on Thursday, sources told ABC News.
About 3% of the population would qualify, Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News’ “Good Morning America.”
He said the boosters would be “for example, people who have transplantation and are on immunosuppressive drugs for that; people on therapy for cancer — cancer chemotherapy; people with advanced HIV disease; and people who are receiving immune suppressive therapy for a variety of diseases.”
When asked if the boosters would be available to everyone, Fauci said, “You have to follow people, which we’re doing in real-time, mainly a non-immune compromised, either an elderly person or a younger person … to determine if their level of protection goes below a critical level.”
He added, “If and when it does, and it’s likely that it will because no vaccine is gonna last forever, we’re gonna be ready and have a plan to give those individuals the additional dose they might need.”
Aug 12, 1:55 am
University of Mississippi Medical Center opening field hospital in garage
The University of Mississippi Medical Center, overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients due to the delta variant, is opening a field hospital in one of the center’s garages.
The unit will have 50 beds and will likely be available to take in patients by Friday, Gov. Tate Reeves wrote on Twitter Wednesday.
The news comes as Mississippi recorded 3,163 positive COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Aug 11, 11:33 pm
4 Georgia school districts pause in-person learning
Four school districts in Georgia recently paused in-person learning as positive cases of the coronavirus among staff and students swelled in the first days of school this month.
The districts — Macon, Taliaferro, Glascock and Talbot — account together for less than 1% of Georgia’s 1.7 million students, but the need to shut down in-person learning so early in the school year worries district officials.
“The difference now in this outbreak that we see than the outbreak that happened last school year is that this seems to be more centered on kids rather than adults, so that scares me to death,” Jack Catrett, the superintendent of schools in Talbot County, told Columbus ABC affiliate WTVM.
Talbot County, which had 11 students test positive on Friday, shut its doors to students for one week, with kids returning Monday. The other three districts have planned for two-week pauses to in-person learning.
(WASHINGTON) — Among the dozens of election reform laws changing rules regarding how voters cast ballots, several have also diminished secretaries of states’ authority over elections or shifted aspects of election administration to highly partisan bodies, such as state legislators themselves or unevenly bipartisan election boards.
“Inserting partisan actors into election administration … is really a worrying trend when you understand it in the context of what happened in 2020,” said Jessica Marsden, counsel for Protect Democracy, a nonprofit founded by former executive branch officials in the White House Counsel’s Office and Department of Justice.
Partnering with States United Democracy Center and Law Forward, Protect Democracy distributed a memo raising the alarm over the “particularly dangerous trend” of state legislatures attempting to “politicize, criminalize, and interfere in election administration.”
Analyzing the Voting Rights Lab’s state-level bill tracker and bill descriptions, ABC News identified at least nine states, including battlegrounds Arizona and Georgia, that have enacted 11 laws so far this year that change election laws by bolstering partisan entities’ power over the process or shifting election-related responsibilities from secretaries of state.
Each law was enacted by a Republican governor or by Republican-controlled legislatures voting to override Democratic governors’ vetoes.
These new laws include one that requires local election boards in Arkansas to refer election law violation complaints to the State Board of Election Commissioners — made up of five Republicans and just one Democrat — instead of their respective county clerks and local prosecutors; another that generally bars the executive and judicial branches in Kansas from modifying election law; and one giving Ohio state legislative leaders the power to intervene in cases challenging state statutes and cases challenging redistricting maps.
‘Backlash’ to officials’ 2020 actions
Some of these changes appear to be in direct retaliation to actions officials took last year around the election.
Arizona Democratic secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, can no longer represent the state in lawsuits defending its election code. That power now lies exclusively with the Republican attorney general — but only through Jan. 2, 2023, when Hobbs’ term ends.
In Kentucky, where the Republican secretary of state and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear were heralded for their bipartisan collaboration to give electors absentee and early voting options they’d never had before, state law now explicitly opposes such coordination during a state of emergency. Beshear vetoed this bill, which curtails his office’s emergency powers, but the Republican-majority legislature voted to override him.
And in Montana, then-Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, used his emergency powers to authorize counties to conduct all-mail elections for the June primary and November election. Every county opted to do this in June, and about 80% of the state’s counties, including the eight most populous, did in November. But in April, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed into law a bill barring the governor from changing election procedures unless the legislature signs off on it.
“This is unprecedented in ways that I couldn’t have even dreamed up myself,” Audrey Kline, the national policy director for the National Vote At Home Institute, told ABC News. “It does feel like there’s a backlash, and there’s really a misunderstanding about how elections really work.”
Concern over so-called ‘takeover’ provision of Georgia election bill
Georgia’s sweeping election law rewrite, enacted at the end of March, spurred protests, boycott calls and corporate outrage over changes to the voting process.
Gov. Brian Kemp and other Republicans have defended the law as “making it easy to vote and hard to cheat,” but Democrats, including Kemp’s 2018 opponent, Stacey Abrams, described it as “Jim Crow 2.0.”
Both Marsden and Kline pointed to its provisions shifting control over elections as among the most concerning enacted so far.
The law removed Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who withstood direct pressure from then-President Donald Trump to “find” enough votes to overturn the election, as chairman and a voting member of the State Election Board, which investigates potential fraud and irregularities.
But the provision the two experts highlighted is one allowing state legislators to request a “performance review” of local election boards. If the State Election Board, which currently has three Republicans and one Democrat, determines a review yields enough evidence of wrongdoing or negligence under the law, the state will appoint a superintendent who takes on the local, multi-person board’s responsibilities, including hiring and firing power, and certifying elections.
Enough Republican lawmakers have already called for a performance review in Democratic-leaning Fulton County, the most populous in Georgia and the target of several 2020 election conspiracies. It’s a long way from any potential “takeover,” which is how Democrats describe the process, but up to four counties could have a superintendent at once.
How a “takeover” could impact a future election’s outcome is unclear, but the concept itself injects “confusion and uncertainty” into the election process, Marsden argued.
Extreme bills die, but unease for future elections doesn’t
Some of the most extreme pieces of legislation introduced never passed, Marsden noted. In Arizona, a bill that would have given the state legislature power to undo the certification of presidential electors by a simple majority vote up until the inauguration died in committee.
The bill failing isn’t a “safeguard,” she warned, because this is exactly what some Republicans wanted to happen last year to appoint electors supporting Trump in key battleground states he lost, but baselessly claimed he would’ve won if not for nonexistent mass voter fraud.
Trump, who may seek a comeback in 2024, still says it should have happened. He again attacked Kemp in a statement Wednesday for not calling one to appoint new electors, which Kemp said at the time would have been illegal.
But the former president’s vendetta against officials who did not bend to his demands around the election is not as damaging to the election process as the widespread lack of trust Republicans now have in U.S. elections.
Achieving full nonpartisan elections, conceded Kline, is not really possible. But what must exist are “bipartisan counterbalances” — like having a Republican-Democratic duo determine voter intent together when a ballot marking is unclear — and operating under the same set of basic facts.
A checkmark, for example, clearly indicates a voter’s intent, she said, even though voters are supposed to fill in the entire oval on a ballot.
What happens when Americans no longer believe in the same set of facts around elections?
“I think we’re all wrestling with these questions,” Kline said. “Leaving it up to a bipartisan team is probably as close as we can get to a perfect sort of check-and-balance system. But when we can’t agree on basic facts, it becomes more difficult.”
(WASHINGTON) — Pentagon Protection Force Agency Officer George Gonzalez was a beloved son, brother and friend. He was a Yankees fan and a “one of the good guys,” according to an obituary shared by the agency.
Gonzalez was allegedly killed by a 27-year-old suspect who ambushed him while he was patrolling the Pentagon bus station last week, first stabbing him and then shooting him with his own weapon, according to law enforcement sources.
Gonzalez’s ambush and the fatal shooting of Chicago Police Officer Ella French, is part of the 47 police officer killings so far in 2021, according to the FBI’s Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted Program (LEOKA).
That’s more than in all of 2020, when there were 46, according to the data. And there have been nearly as many officers killed this year as the entirety of 2019 (48) and 2017 (48).
Out of the killings reported this year, 36 have involved a firearm, according to the data.
April was the deadliest month for law enforcement, with eight killings reported.
The FBI said in its report that the southern region was deadliest for law enforcement with 24 killings and 17 accidental deaths through the end of July. This contrasts with the Northeast, which had no officers killed.
Laura Cooper, the executive director of the Major City Chiefs Association (MCCA) which represents police chiefs from across the country, said the number of law enforcement deaths is “alarming.”
“We continue to witness horrific acts of violence being committed against those who we need to protect our communities,” Cooper explained. “These senseless acts have a chilling effect across the law enforcement community, and we wait for the day where line of duty deaths reach an all-time low.”
The FBI reports that accidental killings of police have also increased 20% though the end of July.
And law enforcement officers have also continued to die from COVID-19.
Apart from the accidental deaths, 54 died from complications due to the virus.
(NEW YORK) — As the number of COVID-19 infections surges across the United States, with unvaccinated children among the most vulnerable, parents across the country are left wondering what decisions to make to keep their families safe.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that the COVID-19 surge, spurred on by the delta variant, is happening as millions of children are heading back to school, forcing kids to brace, along with parents and teachers, for yet another unpredictable, unprecedented school year.
“The way to think about this is, this is a rapidly evolving and dynamically changing situation,” Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News’ chief medical correspondent and a board-certified OBGYN, said. “It requires flexibility and patience and resilience and an open-mindedness to use new data, new information, new knowledge to affect a better health outcome, not only for us as individuals or our children, but for those people around us.”
Ashton, a mother of two college-aged children, said she looks at the latest COVID-19 data not only as a medical doctor, but also as a mother looking out for her children.
“I wear multiple hats,” she said. “I’m speaking to my own children about their behavior, and even though they are both fully vaccinated, what steps can they take to lower their risk as low as possible?”
Here are Ashton’s answers to five of the most pressing questions from parents amid the COVID-19 surge.
1. Why does it seem children are more vulnerable to COVID-19 now, amid the delta variant?
Viruses such as COVID-19 stay alive in their hosts, in this case humans, by mutating, which is what has created the delta variant, according to Ashton.
“The delta variant is one of several variants, you could also think about it as a mutation, compared to the novel strain of the coronavirus,” she said. “And right now, this delta variant definitely appears to be significantly more transmissible … and there is a suggestion that it may be causing more severe illness.”
Currently, only children ages 12 and older are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. Among children younger than 12 and children of any age who are not vaccinated, the data shows an “almost exponential increase” in the number of pediatric cases of COVID-19, according to Ashton.
“The majority [of the cases], 80-90%, are thought to be the delta variant,” she said. “It is unclear at this point if the pediatric age group is more susceptible to the delta variant or if this is just the delta variant doing its thing and attacking the most vulnerable population, which is, in this case unvaccinated children.”
2. Why is there a renewed call for people, particularly children, to wear face masks?
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed its mask guidance and recommended that schools embrace universal masks, backtracking on an earlier recommendation that vaccinated students and staff could go without masks indoors.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), an organization of nearly 70,000 pediatricians, has also called for schools to enforce universal masking mandates.
The reason, according to Ashton, has to do with how much more transmissible the delta variant is than other strains of COVID-19.
“[The CDC] has done outbreak investigations using delta variant data and they have found that the viral load, or the amount of virus that is shed by someone who is vaccinated compared to someone who is unvaccinated, if they’re infected with the delta variant, is largely the same,” Ashton said. “There is very little risk of recommending children of this age group wearing a face covering, and we have seen the impact positive impact of benefits in reducing transmission and infection rates.”
She continued, “It’s always better, especially in the setting of a dramatic increase in case numbers, that we do more and not less, and that’s why you’re seeing these recommendations from the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics.”
The need for face mask wearing extends beyond school to family interactions, like when an unvaccinated child interacts with vaccinated grandparents, for example, according to Ashton.
Medical experts also recommend that unvaccinated people, including children, wear face masks in indoor settings and follow other guidelines, like social distancing and hand washing. They also recommend that families who may have children of different ages who are vaccinated and unvaccinated all wear face masks when in indoor settings like grocery stores and schools.
3. How do I know what activities are safe for my children?
Ashton said parents can consider six factors when deciding what activities are safe for their children: Time, space, people, place, vaccination status and mask wearing.
1. Time: “Will your child be in a given environment for a prolonged period of time. Right now, that number, according to the CDC, is set at 15 minutes cumulative time in 24 hours. We know that the more time exposure, the higher the risk.”
2. Space: “How much space will there be between your child and the people that your child will be around? We know three to six feet right now is kind of the number whereby the risk goes up if you’re in that area. It goes down if you’re greater than six feet away, so that’s important.”
3. People: “How much space there is around people in that environment? When you take into account those parameters, that can help you stratify risk.”
4. Place: “Is there ventilation where [your] children are going to be? Is it an indoor setting, which we know has a higher risk in general? Or is it an outdoor setting, where there is a better wind or ventilation? That is very important.”
5. Vaccination status: “Certainly an option for some parents, depending on the age of their children, is to only put their children in environments where they know that the majority or all of the people in that environment are fully vaccinated. That might not be possible if you’re talking about children under the age of 12.”
6. Mask wearing: “That is a variable that is under our control. So even if everyone is not masked, if your child is masked, that can add some degree of added protection.”
4. Why do we seem to have taken several steps backwards in the pandemic?
“We are still learning about this virus,” said Ashton, responding to parents who may be frustrated by the pace of progress more than one year into the pandemic. “We’re still learning about different populations and their risk to the virus and to different variants every single day.”
“As we learn more, we have to maintain the ability to pivot and adapt our behavior, because if you look at this pandemic, and certainly what’s going on right now, there are really just two variables at play,” she said. “There’s the way the virus is behaving, and there’s the way human beings are behaving. It’s challenging enough if one of those variables is changing, but if both are changing at the same time, it can really be a moving target of sorts.”
5. Is the COVID-19 vaccine worth getting now amid the delta variant?
Absolutely, according to Ashton.
“It is critically important to understand that the goal of these vaccines is to save lives and reduce the risk of hospitalizations,” said Ashton. “And even amongst the delta variant, the vaccines are still largely doing their job.”
“That does not mean 100% of the time. That does not mean there will not be breakthrough cases of people that you know, that I know who become infected with COVID-19,” she said. “What it does mean is that the chance of dying of COVID, requiring ICU admission or hospitalization is dramatically reduced.”
Ashton said people who are getting vaccinated are taking the “most critical step” toward protecting not just themselves but also children who cannot yet be vaccinated.
“We have now nine months of personal experience in this country with hundreds of millions of people having been vaccinated with an excellent safety profile,” she said. “Right now [the vaccine] is the best tool we have so not to use it would be a tremendous missed opportunity.”
(NEW YORK) — The contagious delta variant has complicated the country’s COVID-19 recovery, and health care experts are again suggesting Americans cover their faces.
They’re now advising all people, both unvaccinated and vaccinated, to wear marks in indoor and crowded settings. While the virus may have mutated, medical experts told ABC News people can wear the same masks they’ve used previously.
“The delta variant has raised the stakes,” Maureen Miller, an adjunct associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, told ABC News. “The most important thing about the masks is that you wear them properly.”
Miller, a former epidemiologist for the New York City Health Department, said the N95 is the most secure mask to block out the virus and the variants, but due to higher prices and strained supplies, most people should consider other options, such as the cloth masks and surgical masks found in most stores.
The key thing is making sure the mask completely covers one’s mouth and nose.
“If it’s not covering your nose, or if it’s on your chin, it’s not going to protect you,” Miller added.
Dr. Nicole Iovine, chief hospital epidemiologist with UF Health in Gainesville, Florida, also told ABC News that regular face coverings sold in stores should protect people from the delta variant. Iovine also said double-masking is a good strategy, especially if you’re unvaccinated.
“We should think about it as layers of protection,” she said. “If you’re unvaccinated, the only layer you can have is wearing a mask and staying isolated. If you’re vaccinated, you have strong protection, but with a mask on you’re very, very protected.”
Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said the most important rule about masking during the delta surge is being aware of one’s surroundings. Extra care must be taken in situations in which it’s easier for air droplets to spread.
“If you’re in a crowded, poorly ventilated room, it’s a bigger risk than being out in the woods,” he said.
Miller recommended that vaccinated Americans should be masked up in any location where they’re indoors and may be in contact with someone 12 years old or younger, because they’re not yet vaccine eligible.
“The delta variant threw us a nasty curveball and set us back a step,” Miller said. “All of the things that worked before — social distancing, mask-wearing — are all the things that will get us through this next round.”
Anyone seeking help to schedule a free vaccine appointment can log onto vaccines.gov.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — As the federal investigation into Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz continues into the summer, sources tell ABC News that Gaetz’s one-time wingman has been steadily providing information and handing over potential evidence that could implicate the Florida congressman and others in the sprawling probe.
Former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, as part of his ongoing cooperation with prosecutors, has provided investigators with years of Venmo and Cash App transactions and thousands of photos and videos, as well as access to personal social media accounts, sources said.
Private messages exclusively reviewed by ABC News potentially shed new light on the process by which Greenberg allegedly met women online who were paid for sex, and introduced them to the Florida congressman and other associates.
Greenberg pleaded guilty in May to multiple federal crimes, including sex trafficking of a minor and introducing her to other “adult men” who also had sex with her when she was underage. Greenberg agreed to provide “substantial assistance” to prosecutors as part of their ongoing investigation.
Gaetz, who currently sits at the center of the ongoing federal sex trafficking investigation into allegations that he had sex with a minor who he also met through Greenberg, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime.
ABC News has reviewed Google Voice text messages from September 2018 that appear to show Greenberg texting with a woman he met online. In the texts, Greenberg appears to discuss payment options and asks the woman, who was of legal age, if she would take drugs; he then sets up a get-together with himself, Gaetz, the woman, and one of her friends.
“I have a friend flying in and we are trying to make plans for tonight. What are your plans for later,” Greenberg wrote to the woman, whose identity ABC News is withholding for privacy purposes. “And how much of an allowance will you be requiring :)” Greenberg added.
The woman responded by telling Greenberg she has “a friend who introduced me to the website that I could bring” and said she “usually” requires “$400 per meet.”
Greenberg then sent the woman a photo of Gaetz taking a selfie with students at Pea Ridge Elementary from a 2017 visit, and wrote, “My friend,” indicating that Gaetz would be the friend joining him.
“Oooh my friend thinks he’s really cute!” the woman responded.
Greenberg then replied that Gaetz was “down here only for the day,” adding “we work hard and play hard,” before asking, “Have you ever tried molly,” referring to the drug MDMA, or Ecstasy.
As Greenberg was discussing payment for the get-together, the woman asked if Gaetz used the same website Greenberg had used to meet her. Greenberg replied, in part, “He knows the deal :),” referring to the Florida congressman. The former tax collector then said he would book a “suite Downtown” for the gathering.
Asked about the allegations reported in this article, Harlan Hill, a spokesperson for Gaetz, told ABC News, “After months of media coverage, not one woman has come forward to accuse Rep. Gaetz of wrongdoing. Not even President Biden can say that. That others might invite people unbeknownst to a U.S. Congressman to functions he may or may not attend is the everyday life of a political figure. Your story references people the congressman doesn’t know, things he hasn’t done and messages he neither sent nor received.”
“Rep. Gaetz addressed the debunked allegations against him — and their origin in an extortion plot — during his Firebrand podcast episode last week,” Hill added. “People should download and watch.”
Gaetz himself has also forcefully pushed back against reports of the investigation. After the self-described “sugar daddy” website Seeking.com released a statement claiming to have “no knowledge of Mr. Gaetz ever having an account on the website,” Gaetz said on Twitter that “we are seeing the collapse of the Fake News media’s lies.”
However, The New York Times reported in April that investigators believe it was Greenberg who initially met women through online sugar daddy websites — which connect people who go on dates in exchange for gifts and allowances — and then “introduced the women to Mr. Gaetz, who also had sex with them.”
Additional Facebook messages reviewed by ABC News paint a similar picture, showing Greenberg appearing to organize a gathering in July 2018 that included Gaetz and women the former tax collector had allegedly been paying for sex, at the home of Jason Pirozzolo, a Florida hand doctor who founded a medical marijuana advocacy group and, according to reports, allegedly accompanied Gaetz on a 2018 trip to the Bahamas that investigators are scrutinizing.
The Facebook messages also appear to show Greenberg offering to introduce a Florida media entrepreneur at the meet-up at Pirozzolo’s home, which Greenberg described as “our safe place.”
“You should come meet the group,” Greenberg wrote to the entrepreneur, according to the messages. He then mentioned the names of two girls repeatedly featured on the former tax collector’s Venmo transactions, which ABC News has reviewed.
“I think it would be a wise investment of time. You might already know Jason Pirrazolo … but I’d like for you to meet Congressman Matt Gaetz,” Greenberg wrote. “Gaetz is a wild man, but great dude.”
Greenberg said in the message that the party would have “6-7 chicks” and “just 3-4 guys.” He then provided directions to Pirrazolo’s house, adding, “It’s our safe place, all things considered.”
A few days after the date of the July gathering, the entrepreneur posted a photo on Instagram that appeared to come from a separate get-together and includes the two young women Greenberg had mentioned in his private messages. ABC News is withholding the names of the two women for privacy purposes.
It’s not immediately certain if the gatherings Greenberg was working to arrange in July and September of 2018, over the private messages reviewed by ABC News, ultimately took place around those specific dates. Greenberg had arranged similar gatherings at hotels in the Central Florida area and at friends’ houses, including Pirozzolo’s, with the congressman in attendance, multiple sources who attended the gatherings in the past told ABC News.
Contacted by ABC News, Greenberg’s attorney, Fritz Scheller, said, “The only comment I can make is Joel Greenberg has executed a plea agreement with the government and will continue to honor his obligations pursuant to that agreement.”
Pirozzolo’s attorney, David Haas, declined to comment when reached by ABC News, citing the ongoing investigation.
Last month, a judge granted a request by Greenberg to delay his sentencing for three months, citing the breadth of his continued cooperation with federal prosecutors.
“Mr. Greenberg has been cooperating with the Government and has participated in a series of proffers,” Scheller wrote in a filing requesting the delay. “Said cooperation, which could impact his ultimate sentence, cannot be completed prior to the time of his sentencing.”
Prosecutors did not oppose the delay and a judge approved it a day later.
While Gaetz has appeared to distance himself from Greenberg since news broke regarding the investigation, he previously described Greenberg to acquaintances as his “wingman” and also publicly floated the former tax collector as a potential congressional candidate.
“Joel Greenberg has gone into the Seminole County Tax Collector’s Office, he’s taken it by storm,” Gaetz said in a radio interview on WFLA in June 2017, in which he pushed Greenberg to run for Florida’s 7th congressional district.
“He’s been a disrupter,” Gaetz said of Greenberg. “And if you look at what people want in the country right now, they want that disrupter. And they want someone who is not going to adhere to the dogma that has strangled progress in Washington, D.C., for a generation.”
(NEW YORK) — Eight months after Iran banned imports of any vaccines developed in the United States or the United Kingdom, the country is in the grips of its deadliest coronavirus surge yet, prompting criticism of the government for prioritizing politics over public health.
Over the past week, a daily average of 493 people died from COVID-19, according to official statistics, a deadlier toll than the country experienced even during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, during which the country was badly hit. To date, the country has recorded over 4.2 million cases of coronavirus, with 95,647 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
After a surge in April this year, the country experienced a sharp decline in cases, but since July the numbers have been headed in the wrong direction. According to Our World in Data, only 11.2% of Iranians have received at least one dose of COVID vaccine, and only 3.3% have been fully vaccinated, mostly with China’s Sinopharm and AstraZeneca, which have been sent as part of humanitarian aids from Japan and other countries, as well as the domestically developed COVIran Barekat, which has not been recognized by international health bodies.
In January, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banned the purchase of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines made in the U.S. and U.K. Khamenei claimed that Americans wanted to “test the vaccines on other nations,” without providing any evidence or reasons to back up his claim.
However, in a televised speech on Wednesday, with the country now experiencing a fifth wave coronavirus infections, Khamenei indicated a potential change in heart with the onset of the more transmissible delta variant.
“Corona vaccines must be accessible for all people from any possible way, be it domestic production or through importing,” he said. “As the disease or the enemy takes on a new form, so should our defense.”
Disappointed by the response of their own officials, many Iranians have criticized the government on social media. Users have posted tweets, photos and videos to document the situation in hospitals across the country, using the hashtag #SOSIran. Users ask the international community to pay attention to the situation in Iran and address the Islamic Republic officials to stop the ban on importing vaccines.
“It was an ideological approach to a health issue from the beginning,” Sarvenaz, an Iranian psychiatrist whose full name cannot be published for security reasons, told ABC News. “It was a gesture to show that the Islamic Republic won’t import medical products from a country it has been calling the Great Satan and its biggest enemy. But it has cost thousands of lives.”
In the past, regime officials have attributed the shortage of medicines and supplies in the country to international sanctions, but now the ire of Iranians has turned to the government, with the ban on importing effective vaccines taking that excuse away.
With the delta variant of the coronavirus ravaging the country, graveyards, as well as hospitals, are struggling to deal with the surge.
In the holy city of Mashhad, the officials at city cemeteries have asked for taxi drivers to allow their cars to be used as hearses as the city has run out of enough hearses to carry dead bodies, the Islamic Republic’s News Agency reported on Wednesday.
On the ground, medical professionals have warned that hospitals are struggling to deal with the surge, even as vaccination rates remain low.
Dr. Morteza Gharibi, head of the emergency unit of Iran’s University of Medical Sciences in Markazi Province, told ABC News that that the hospital is running out of basic medication, and expects the death toll to climb even higher.
“Even if the vaccination gets accelerated — which I do not think [will] happen — it takes at least three weeks for the first shot to produce antibodies. It is already too late for that in this spike,” he explained.
“I foresee an estimation of around 1,200 daily COVID death cases in about three weeks in the country,” he added.
(WASHINGTON) — The Food and Drug Administration is planning to authorize a third shot for the immune-compromised on Thursday, two sources familiar with the plans confirmed to ABC News.
If the FDA green-lights the additional shots — first reported by NBC News — it’s up to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the Centers for Disease Control’s expert advisory panel, to make its own recommendation on who should get the shot and what factors they might want to consider. Those recommendations are typically adopted by the CDC as nationwide public health guidance. The ACIP is scheduled to meet on Friday, though it is not currently scheduled to vote.
Many immunocompromised Americans have not had high immune responses to the vaccines, leaving them vulnerable to the virus even after getting a shot. Response has been low particularly in transplant recipients, cancer patients or people on medications that suppress their immune response.
About 2.7% of U.S. adults are considered immunocompromised.
Asked to comment on the plans, the FDA said its “closely monitoring data as it becomes available from studies administering an additional dose of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines to immunocompromised individuals.”
“The agency, along with the CDC, is evaluating potential options on this issue, and will share information in the near future,” the FDA said in a statement.
At a July meeting, members of ACIP were largely supportive of giving immunocompromised people a third dose to boost their immunity and they called on the FDA to move on the issue.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
This is a developing news story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent shockwaves across New York when he resigned on Tuesday.
But the 63-year-old Democratic stalwart still faces potential legal challenges, investigations and a potential impeachment as he scrambles to formulate a path forward.
Does Cuomo still have a chance to run for a fourth term as governor and save his reputation? His murky future may get a bit clearer over the next few weeks.
He conceded to a landslide of calls for him to resign from state politicians and President Joe Biden in wake of the State Attorney General Letitia James’ office’s withering report that substantiated the claims of 11 women against him and found he created a work environment “rife with fear and intimidation.”
He issued an apology to his accusers, but he also denied all allegations of sexual harassment, concluding on Tuesday: “I think, given the circumstances, the best way I can help now is if I step aside.”
Basil Smikle, a political strategist and lecturer at Columbia’s School of International Public Affairs, told ABC News that Cuomo “wanted to go out on his own terms” after he “nearly ran out of friends and allies inside and outside government and after it seemed clear if he didn’t resign he’d be pushed out via impeachment.”
Impeachment: Justice or vengeance?
His resignation takes effect on Aug. 24 and Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will take over, becoming the first female governor of New York.
Now the New York Assembly’s Judiciary Committee has to decide whether to move forward with an impeachment investigation.
“While we have the legal ability to still continue, what we have to analyze is what is best for the people of New York,” Assemblywoman and Judiciary Committee Democrat Catalina Cruz told ABC New York station WABC. “Do we want to take the extra step? Is it going to feel like wasted energy and more of a political revenge? Or is it going to really feel like justice? That’s a determination we’ll make on the committee together.”
Cruz said she’s concerned about focusing on local issues — vaccines and food pantries among them — but at the same time, “I also recognize as a survivor, that we got to give people justice. So, in full honestly, I’m a little torn.”
The Assembly’s Judiciary Committee is slated to meet Monday to discuss evidence gathered by the outside law firm that handled the probe.
An impeachment trial could result in the Assembly handing down a sentence that will bar him from holding state office again, but he still could run for federal office.
The office for Assemblyman Charles Lavine, the judiciary committee chairman, said on Monday that if the governor did resign, the Assembly would still consider moving forward simply to bar Cuomo from holding state office again, Spectrum Local News reported.
ABC News Legal Analyst Dan Abrams said on Good Morning America Wednesday it’s unlikely the Assembly would want to pursue an impeachment.
“The purpose of it would be to prevent him from holding public office again. They could go through the public impeachment process, have the trial, in an effort to make sure he can’t run for office again,” Abrams said. “I can’t imagine they’re going to have the political will to move forward with that entire process even though the governor has already resigned.”
Some Assembly members like Mary Beth Walsh and Yuh-Line Niou have voiced support for proceeding with it.
“Impeachment means Governor Cuomo will not be able to run for office again by claiming to be the victim and gaslighting the true victims. Impeachment means securing justice for all those who came forward and all those who have yet to come forward,” Niou said in a statement.
Smikle, the political strategist, said he believes Cuomo will be impeached.
“I think the Assembly and the Senate are very focused on accountability,” he added. “In the in many ways, I think the governor wants to be able to resign and have all of these other investigations stopped.”
What charges could Cuomo face?
Cuomo is under investigation by the Albany County sheriff’s department, which is probing the allegations of accuser Brittany Commisso, 32, who filed a complaint against him there last week.
She was identified as “Executive Assistant #1” in the attorney general’s report. She alleged the governor groped her backside on New Year’s Eve in 2019 and reached under her blouse and groped her breast at the Executive Mansion in November 2020. He and attorney Rita Glavin have vehemently denied those claims.
“He is 63 years old. He has spent 40 years in public life, and for him to all of a sudden be accused of a sexual assault of an executive assistant that he really doesn’t know, doesn’t pass muster,” Glavin said in a press conference Friday. On Tuesday, she claimed James’ report failed to corroborate all of Commisso’s claims.
Experts have said Cuomo could face a misdemeanor criminal charge in that case.
An attorney for Lindsey Boylan, Cuomo’s former aide who was the first to publicly accuse him, said she’d file a lawsuit for alleged retaliatory actions by Cuomo’s office after she came forward, which were outlined in the report. Cuomo and his attorneys also have denied these allegations.
At a press conference Tuesday, Glavin denied the sexual harassment and retaliation claims and alleged Boylan had a personal vendetta against Cuomo. She said the attorney general’s report “got key facts wrong” and failed to include a witnesses whose testimony “did not support the narrative.”
At least five district attorneys — Manhattan, Albany, Nassau, Westchester and Oswego counties — also are investigating allegations of sexual harassment mentioned in the report.
Additionally, Cuomo remains under investigation regarding whether he misused government resources by having staffers help produce his memoir, and the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI are looking into his handling of data linked to nursing home deaths during the pandemic.
His future
As for Cuomo’s political future, it may be too soon to tell.
Karen Agnifilo, a former prosecutor with the Manhattan district attorney’s office who worked under Cy Vance, told ABC News, “Like all people, he’s not all good or all bad.”
“There are a lot of things that he has done that deserve to be a part of his legacy. Marriage equality, I would say, is one of the most momentous things that he was able to accomplish,” she said. “I think for him to have a political future he’s going to have to admit what he did. He’s still denying it.”
Smikle said Cuomo’s political prospects are dim.
“Politically, I don’t think he has a future by the voters of the state. Certainly, the political leadership of the state that refused to stand with him in these final days want to be able to turn the page on his chapter as governor,” he said. Cuomo could pursue an alternate career as a lawyer, but “if there are criminal charges pending, there’s a potential for him to lose his law license.”
Cuomo’s also seemingly lost support from many in his inner circle.
His top aide, Melissa DeRosa, announced her resignation Sunday. She was also accused in the report of allegedly participating in retaliatory actions against Boylan.
Sean Hacker, an attorney for DeRosa, said in a statement to ABC News: “With respect to legal questions relating to how a complaint should be handled, or whether personnel records could be provided to the public, Ms. DeRosa consulted with and relied upon advice of experienced counsel.”
Jay Jacobs, the head of New York’s Democratic Party and formerly a close Cuomo ally, said last week: “I agree with the attorney general. I believe the women. I believe the allegations. I cannot speak to the governor’s motivations. What I can say is that the governor has lost his ability to govern, both practically and morally.”
Cuomo, who is single and divorced, also will have to find a new home. He previously lived with ex-girlfriend Sandra Lee, a TV Chef, in Mount Kisco, New York, but she sold the home in 2020 following their 2019 split.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
