(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.2 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 778,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.3% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 30, 10:53 am
FDA says it’s working quickly as possible to evaluate omicron
The FDA in a new statement said it’s working as quickly as possible to evaluate the potential impact of omicron on the currently available diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.
“Historically, the work to obtain the genetic information and patient samples for variants and then perform the testing needed to evaluate their impact takes time,’ the FDA said. “However, we expect the vast majority of this work to be completed in the coming weeks.”
The FDA stressed that vaccines, boosters and masks are the best ways to stay protected.
-ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss
Nov 30, 9:53 am
Passengers arriving in US from South Africa sent home with testing kits
The CDC said passengers who arrived in the U.S. from Johannesburg, South Africa, on Sunday — before travel restrictions took effect — were offered free at-home PCR testing kits.
Passengers were told to wait three to five days before collecting a sample that they could then mail back for testing. It’s not clear how many have done so or if any were positive.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Nov 30, 8:52 am
Global case count of omicron variant tops 200
More than 200 confirmed cases of the omicron variant, first identified in Southern Africa, have been reported in over a dozen countries around the world, according to an open-source tracker run by Newsnodes and BNO News.
The tracker shows South Africa has the highest tally by far, with 114 confirmed cases, followed by 19 in Botswana; 14 in The Netherlands; 13 in Portugal; 11 in the United Kingdom; five in Australia; five in Germany; five in Canada; five in Hong Kong; four in Italy; two in Israel; two in Denmark; one in the French island territory of Reunion; one in Austria; one in Sweden; one in Belgium; one in Czech Republic; and one in Spain.
So far, no cases have been confirmed in the United States.
Nov 30, 8:46 am
‘The virus is not tired of us,’ NIH director warns
Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, is urging Americans to be vigilant in the wake of a new variant of the novel coronavirus that is sweeping the globe.
The World Health Organization has designated omicron as a “variant of concern.” But so much remains unknown about omicron, including whether it causes severe disease and if it is more contagious than delta, which is currently the dominant variant in the United States.
“We’re collecting that information as rapidly as we can, and much credit to our colleagues in South Africa who have been totally transparent about this. We only learned about this one week ago from one of their sequencers,” Collins told ABC News’ Robin Roberts in an interview Tuesday on Good Morning America.
“So we are quickly trying to figure out in South Africa, is this in fact more contagious than other variants? It does look like it’s spreading quite quickly there,” he added. “But we don’t know how that would play out in a country like ours, where delta is already so dominant. Would omicron be able to compete with delta? We don’t know the answer to that.”
Another big question, Collins said, is whether the current COVID-19 vaccines and boosters will provide protection against omicron as they have against previous variants. The answers will “take a couple of weeks” to uncover, he said.
In the meantime, Collins encouraged all Americans to get vaccinated and boosted if eligible, and to wear face masks.
“I wear my mask if I’m indoors with other people — I don’t always know if they’re all vaccinated or not. That’s just good practice,” he said. “I know we’re all tired of this, but the virus is not tired of us and it’s continuing to exploit those opportunities where we’re careless.”
Nov 30, 7:22 am
Omicron variant was in the Netherlands earlier than thought
Dutch health authorities announced Tuesday that they have detected omicron in two previously tested samples, dating back as much as 11 days, indicating that the new variant was already circulating in western Europe before it was first identified in southern Africa.
The Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said it discovered omicron in samples dated Nov. 19 and Nov. 23, preceding the cases found among people traveling from South Africa to the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol on Nov. 26.
“It is not yet clear whether these people had also visited southern Africa,” the institute said in a statement Tuesday.
Out of 624 passengers returning from South Africa who were tested for COVID-19 at the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol on Nov. 26, 61 tested positive, including 14 with the omicron variant.
“Laboratory tests identified several different strains of the omicron variant,” the institute said. “This means that the people were very probably infected independently from each other, from different sources and in different locations.”
The omicron variant was first reported to World Health Organization from South Africa on Nov. 24.
(NEW YORK) — Japanese car giant Nissan Motor Co. said it plans to invest $17.6 billion to accelerate its electrification plans, as the industry as a whole pivots away from gas-powered autos.
Nissan said it will invest 2 trillion Japanese yen over the next five years (just under $17.6 billion) and will launch 23 new electrified models, including 15 new electric vehicles.
The company said it is aiming to have a 50% electrification lineup by 2030 as part of its “Nissan Ambition 2030” initiative, which will put electrification at the center of its long-term strategy.
“The role of companies to address societal needs is increasingly heightened,” Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said in a statement. “With Nissan Ambition 2030, we will drive the new age of electrification, advance technologies to reduce carbon footprint and pursue new business opportunities.”
“We want to transform Nissan to become a sustainable company that is truly needed by customers and society,” Uchida added.
Nissan wants to launch an electric vehicle with its proprietary all-solid-state batteries by fiscal year 2028 and prepare a pilot plant for EVs in Yokohama, Japan, as early as fiscal year 2024. The company promises that its all-solid-state batteries will significantly reduce charging time and make electric vehicles more efficient and accessible.
Nissan was among the original pioneers of mainstream electric vehicles with its battery-powered Leaf, which first launched in 2010. A growing number of major carmakers, from Ford to General Motors, have similarly announced recent plans to invest heavily in electrification.
“We are proud of our long track record of innovation, and of our role in delivering the EV revolution. With our new ambition, we continue to take the lead in accelerating the natural shift to EVs by creating customer pull through an attractive proposition by driving excitement, enabling adoption and creating a cleaner world,” Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta said in a statement Monday.
Earlier this year, President Joe Biden announced a set of actions aimed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks and signed an executive order that set a goal of having half of all new vehicles sold by 2030 be zero emissions vehicles.
(WASHINGTON) — Iran returned to negotiations over its nuclear program on Monday — meeting for the first time in over five months, with the country’s new hard-line government now in control.
Its chief negotiator emerged from closed doors bullish, as Tehran demands its concerns about continued U.S. sanctions be addressed first after former President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal.
But the U.S. and the deal’s European signatories are warning that after months of stalling, Iran is facing its last opportunity to revive the 2015 deal that placed constraints on its nuclear program in exchange for international sanctions relief.
A top European Union diplomat who is coordinating the indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran expressed some guarded optimism afterward — and much urgency.
“There is clearly a will on all the delegations to listen to the Iranian positions brought by the new team, and there is clearly a will of the Iranian delegation to engage in serious work to bring JCPOA back to life,” said Enrique Mora, the senior EU diplomat, using an acronym for the nuclear deal’s formal name — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
“I feel positive that we can be doing important things for the next weeks to come,” Mora added after delegations from Iran, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany met in Vienna, Austria.
Whether or not the U.S. and its European allies are willing to wait weeks is an open question — especially since Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s new president who is a conservative cleric close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has delayed the resumption of talks since he won election in June.
“These talks are the last opportunity for the Iranians to come to the table and agree the JCPOA,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Monday. “We will look at all options if that doesn’t happen.”
Patience is all but out in Israel, whose defense minister warned Monday that Iran is “dashing towards a nuclear weapon.”
Israeli officials shared intelligence with the U.S. and other allies showing that Iran is nearing a nuclear weapon, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said.
Since Trump’s exit, Iran has increasingly taken steps in violation of the deal, including by enriching more uranium, enriching uranium to higher levels, using more advanced centrifuges and more of them, and enriching uranium metal. The United Nation’s nuclear watchdog — the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA — reported this month that Iran has enriched 39 pounds of uranium to 60%, which is a short technical step from weapons-grade 90%.
Under the nuclear deal, Iran’s enrichment was capped at 3.67% for 15 years.
The State Department declined to comment on reports that Iran may be moving toward 90% enrichment levels, but deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter told reporters that “obviously would be a provocative act, and I’ll just underscore that we’ve made clear that Iran’s continued nuclear escalations are unconstructive and they’re also inconsistent with what’s stated in the goal of returning to a mutual compliance with the JCPOA.”
But ahead of talks resuming, Iran has used sharper language rejecting the idea of “mutual compliance” — increasingly arguing that the U.S. must act first because it was Trump that first exited the deal back in 2018.
“The principle of ‘mutual compliance’ cannot form a proper base for negotiations since it was the U.S. government which unilaterally left the deal,” Iran’s chief negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, wrote in an editorial Sunday, calling for a “clear and transparent mechanism to ensure that sanctions will be removed” and U.S. “compensation for the violation of the deal, which includes the removal of all post-JCPOA sanctions.”
The Biden administration has said it will not lift sanctions first, and the idea of compensating Iran for U.S. sanctions is politically toxic in Washington.
It’s unclear if those demands are just Iran posturing before sitting down, or if those are red lines. Out of Monday’s meetings, Bagheri claimed a “considerable achievement” by saying the remaining parties to the deal agreed to address U.S. sanctions first. But that doesn’t mean they agreed those sanctions need to be lifted before Iran’s own non-compliance is addressed. The working-level discussions will address U.S. sanctions on Tuesday and Iran’s nuclear program Wednesday, according to Mora.
The State Department has not yet provided a readout from special envoy for Iran Rob Malley’s meetings in Vienna, where the previous six rounds of talks were held as well.
Beyond Mora’s optimism, Russia’s envoy Mikhail Ulyanov said the talks “started quite successfully” and reached agreement on “further immediate steps,” without specifying what they were.
Any optimism has run face first into dire warnings from Israel, whose Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has vocally opposed the restoration of the nuclear deal.
“Iran deserves no rewards, no bargain deals, and no sanctions relief in return for their brutality. I call upon our allies around the world: Do not give in to Iran’s nuclear blackmail,” Bennett said Monday.
Malley told NPR last week the U.S. and Israel don’t agree on the deal, but do agree on the need to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon: “We’re not going to wait and see them get so close,” he said, but the U.S. hopes “that this could be resolved diplomatically, and it should be.”
Amid warnings that Iran could stall by prolonging these talks, Malley added the U.S. will not “sit idly by” if the country moves toward a nuclear bomb.
But the U.S. and European allies have pulled their punches at the IAEA, declining again last week to censure Iran for not just its violations of the deal but its growing obstruction of the IAEA’s work.
Iran has barred inspectors from accessing certain sites, harassed inspectors with invasive security searches and failed to explain still the detected presence of uranium at three undeclared locations, IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi told the U.N. body last Wednesday.
Grossi visited Tehran last week — his first trip under the Raisi government — but he did not reach a deal to address these issues, he told reporters Wednesday. A previous ad-hoc arrangement with Iran to keep international eyes at its declared nuclear sites is coming apart, he warned. Iran agreed to keep IAEA cameras and other monitoring equipment in place and turn the tapes over to the agency when a deal was reached. That equipment needs servicing to “guarantee continuity of knowledge,” Grossi said, but Iran has blocked IAEA inspectors so far.
“Such a long period of time without us getting access, knowing whether there are operational activities ongoing, is something in itself that would prevent me from continuing to say I have an idea of what’s going on,” he said at a press conference. “We must reach an agreement. We must do it.”
(LONDON) — A British inn and pub officially bid “fond farewell” to 61 guests Monday after a blizzard stranded them for days inside.
Located 270 miles north of London, Tan Hill Inn in Yorkshire, England, had arranged an event for an Oasis tribute band on Friday. Later that night, however, the region was hit hard by a late autumn storm which blocked local roads with heavy snow.
“The last time we had our costumers locked in was four or five years ago, but that was just for one night. This time it was a very different experience with four days,” Nicola Townsend, the pub manager, told ABC News.
The staff and guests came up with spontaneous ideas “to kill the boredom,” Townsend said. They organized a movie event, a quiz night and karaoke.
“Customers started to develop bonds from the second day on by hanging out, making friends and exchanging numbers. And they were so cooperative in running the affairs. Like they felt home indeed,” she said, adding, “Our staff are exhausted, but very happy that our guests had fun. Some of them said they had so much fun that they did not want to go back home when the roads were cleared.”
Now the group has agreed to a reunion next year.
The storm, named “Arwen,” also left thousands in Scotland without power for several nights.
(NEW YORK) — Vaccine makers say they are in the midst of testing their shots’ effectiveness against the newly discovered omicron coronavirus variant, and they remain optimistic that a new variant-specific vaccine could be produced and rolled out quickly if needed.
When asked about the new omicron variant that was first detected in southern Africa, Paul Burton, Moderna’s chief medical officer, told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” on Monday that vaccine manufacturers around the world, including Moderna, “are testing samples from people who have received our vaccines against the strains.”
Burton said that while the company thinks “vaccine effectiveness may come down, based on the mutation seen in this in this virus,” he added that with booster shots of the existing version of the vaccine, “We should be able to get antibody levels up, so that’s a very important initial line of defense.”
Burton said that researchers will know just how effective the vaccines are against this variant “in the next couple of weeks.” If manufacturers need to make an omicron variant-specific vaccine, it should take approximately “two to three months” to test and manufacture it, he said.
Fellow coronavirus vaccine maker Pfizer similarly expressed confidence that it could produce a new vaccine quickly if needed. Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday that he is very optimistic the company will be able to speedily switch production to a new vaccine, if the research merits, without losing any volume.
Johnson & Johnson also said in a statement Monday that it is evaluating its current COVID-19 vaccine against the omicron variant.
“In addition, the company is pursuing an omicron-specific variant vaccine and will progress it as needed,” it said.
Scientists suspect the omicron variant could partially chip away protection from current vaccines due to its mutations, but they are still waiting on testing to learn if, and to what extent, that could be the case.
Vaccine experts have told ABC News that the current COVID-19 vaccines, which rely on genetic technology, could easily be updated to better combat emerging variants. This has not been necessary so far, as the original vaccines have been effective against the dominant variants that have spread in the past, but companies are preparing to tweak vaccines to respond to the omicron variant just in case.
The good news is that these novel vaccines employing genetic technology mean updates can be made to the vaccines easily — unlike vaccines based on older technology, which used a piece of the virus or a killed virus to mimic infection.
The new vaccines, which use the genetic technology, introduces an instruction manual of sorts into your body. This introduction manual tells your cells to start churning out a protein normally found on the outside of the virus, and your body activates an immune response when your body senses that viral protein.
In remarks on Monday, President Joe Biden assured Americans that the omicron variant “is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic.”
“We have the best vaccine in the world. The best medicines, the best scientists, and we’re learning more every single day,” the president said. “And we’ll fight this variant with scientific and knowledgeable actions and speed. Not chaos and confusion.”
(WASHINGTON) — First lady Jill Biden unveiled the White House holiday decorations on Monday and announced her theme for the 2021 season as “Gifts from the Heart,” intended to honor those who have preserved through hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The things we hold sacred unite us and transcend distance, time, and even the constraints of a pandemic: faith, family, and friendship; a love of the arts, learning, and nature; gratitude, service, and community; unity and peace. These are the gifts that tie together the heart strings of our lives. These are the Gifts from the Heart,” the Bidens wrote in a letter explaining the theme for a commemorative White House Holiday Guide.
“As we celebrate our first holiday season in the White House, we are inspired by the Americans we have met across the country, time and again reminding us that our differences are precious and our similarities infinite,” the first lady and president said. “We wish you a happy, healthy, and joyous holiday season. As we look to a new year full of possibility, may gifts from the heart light our path forward.”
It took approximately 25 wreaths, 41 Christmas trees, 300 candles, 6,000 feet of ribbon, 10,000 ornaments and nearly 80,000-holiday lights to spruce up the White House for the holiday season. More than 100 volunteers worked on the decorations, according to the office of the first lady. While volunteers in the past have come from around the country, they were limited to surrounding areas this year due to the COVID-19 concerns.
Officials said the theme is represented in every room “with sort of an element of another theme, a sub-theme, if you will.”
Inside the Blue Room, which represents the “Gift of Peace and Unity,” stands the official White House Christmas tree. The room’s iconic chandelier was temporarily removed to display the 18.5-foot Fraser fir from Jefferson, North Carolina, which the first lady welcomed last week.
“Cascading down the tree, peace doves carry a shimmering banner embossed with the names of each state and territory of the United States, reminding us all of the importance of unity and national harmony,” the White House said.
Photos of the Trumps, Obamas, both Bushes, Reagans and Carters also hang on the tree, in addition to pictures of the Bidens, their kids, grandkids and dogs, Champ and Major.
Inside the State Dining Room, Christmas stockings hang above the fireplace mantel for each of the Biden grandchildren, marked with their names.
The Gingerbread White House, which the White House said was “inspired by our gratitude and admiration for our Nation’s frontline workers who kept our country running through the global pandemic, often at great risk to themselves and their families,” honors nurses, doctors, postal and grocery store workers, to name a few, and is complete with a gingerbread school teacher, illustrative of the first lady who is a longtime community college professor, smiling and standing next to a gingerbread schoolhouse.
Also on display is the Bidens’ Christmas card, signed “Joe” and “Jill,” which includes a remembrance for those who lost their lives this year to COVID-19.
A drawing of a candle on the back of the card includes the words, “In remembrance of all Americans who lost their lives to COVID-19 and in recognition of essential and frontline workers, first responders, and our service members and their families.”
As she did when she welcomed the White House Christmas tree last week, the first lady was joined again Monday afternoon by the National Guard family — the Harrells — to honor those spending the holiday season apart.
To that end, a Gold Star Tree honoring service members who have died in the line of duty, as well as their families who carry on their legacies, is on display at the East landing.
The first lady hosted a second-grade class from an elementary school in Maryland to help her unveil the decorations on Monday.
The kids sported masks and wrist bands to indicate they have been COVID-19 tested, and the first lady read her 2012 children’s book, “Don’t Forget, God Bless our Troops.” PBS Kids held a holiday puppet show to mark the festive occasion, and the children appeared starstruck at a performance by the Kraft Brothers.
She also thanked volunteers who decorated the home for the holidays in brief remarks.
“When the pandemic keeps us apart — like I know how tough this year has been really struggling to get by — or we feel like the weight of our lives is just too heavy to carry, these constants remind us that they feel us and lift our eyes to the future,” she said of the theme.
“For all of our differences, we are united by what really matters like points on a star we come together at the heart. That is what I wanted to reflect in our White House this year,” Biden added, blowing a kiss to the volunteers.
Earlier, inside the East Wing, the president’s own U.S. Marine Corps band played an assortment of holiday tunes amid an assortment of large, red packages.
The planning for holiday decorations started in late May, and the first lady was “very involved” in the process, according to her communications director Elizabeth Alexander.
Social secretary Carlos Elizondo said the White House didn’t have too many problems with the supply chain, “but there were some items that were backed up,” like some of the topiaries, he said.
With public tours on pause due to the pandemic, the White House said to stay tuned for interactive ways to view the decorations on social media and other platforms.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.2 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 776,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.1% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 29, 4:15 pm
CDC strengthens booster recommendations
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday strengthened its recommendation on booster doses for adults.
The previous recommendation was that all adults 50 and older should get a booster, and those 18 to 49 may want to get boosters. Now, the CDC says all adults should get a booster shot six months after their Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or two months after the Johnson & Johnson shot.
CDC director Rochelle Walensky said, “I strongly encourage the 47 million adults who are not yet vaccinated to get vaccinated as soon as possible and to vaccinate the children and teens in their families as well because strong immunity will likely prevent serious illness.”
A 51-year-old man in Spain who traveled from South Africa on Nov. 28 has become Spain’s first confirmed case of the omicron variant, according to the health ministry.
The man has mild symptoms and is under quarantine.
Sweden has identified its first omicron case, also a person who recently visited southern Africa, the Swedish Public Health Authority said.
A vaccinated 60-year-old woman has become the first confirmed omicron case in the Czech Republic, officials said. She visited Namibia in southwest Africa via South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. Eight people who traveled with the infected woman were contact traced and are now quarantined, officials said.
These countries also have confirmed omicron cases: Canada (2); the United Kingdom (11); Italy (1); Belgium (1); the Netherlands (13); Germany (3); Denmark (2); Portugal (13); Israel (1); Australia (5); Hong Kong (3); Botswana (19); and South Africa (exact number not clear).
Nov 29, 1:40 pm
Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin leading nation in case rate
Experts say the steady surge of infections is expected to only intensify in the weeks to come, after millions of Americans traveled and gathered over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Nationally, hospitalization numbers have ticked up to about 53,000, according to federal data. After nearly 10 weeks of steady declines, this marks the third consecutive week that the U.S. has seen an increase in hospitalizations.
Older populations are bearing the brunt of this latest surge, with Americans 65 and older accounting for more than 41% of current hospitalizations.
Minnesota and Michigan currently hold the nation’s highest case rate, followed by Wisconsin, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Arizona, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, according to federal data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 29, 12:56 pm
Dr. Ashton: Omicron ‘absolutely’ in US
ABC News’ chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton said Monday that she “absolutely” believes omicron is already circulating in the U.S.
“When you hear the virus has been detected in so many countries, it should come as no surprise it’s here,” she said. “Viruses mutate for a living. As long as there are unvaccinated people in the world — in South Africa, 6% vaccination rate — this should not be a surprise.”
Ashton said it will be critical for the U.S. to ramp up its genetic sequencing to effectively monitor the spread of new variants, including omicron.
Ashton, however, stressed that the U.S. in a much better place than one year ago.
“We’re better at testing, we’re better at surveillance, we’re better at treating and we’re better at preventing,” Ashton said.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 29, 12:18 pm
Biden says omicron is ’cause for concern, not a cause for panic’
President Joe Biden stressed Monday that the omicron variant is a “cause for concern, not a cause for panic.”
“We’ll fight this variant with scientific and knowledgeable actions and speed — not chaos and confusion,” Biden said. “We have more tools today to fight the variant than we ever had before, from vaccines to boosters to vaccines for children.”
If updated vaccines are needed to fight omicron, “we will accelerate their development and deployment with every available tool,” Biden said.
“I want to reiterate Dr. [Anthony] Fauci believes that the current vaccines provide at least some protection” against omicron, “and the booster strengthens that protection significantly,” Biden said.
“We do not yet believe that additional measures will be needed,” Biden said, but his administration is working with Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to develop plans in case.
Biden again emphasized that the best protection is getting vaccinated and urged any adults who were fully vaccinated before June 1 to go get a booster immediately. He also asked Americans to wear masks indoors.
Nov 29, 12:00 pm
New York City reinstates mask advisory ‘at all times’ indoors
New York City officials reinstated a mask advisory on Monday, “strongly recommending” all residents, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks inside public settings.
Public settings include grocery stores, building lobbies and offices, said Dr. Dave Chokshi, commissioner of the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
“Masks are still required for everyone in public transit, health care settings, schools and congregate settings,” he added.
The omicron variant will likely be detected in New York City in the coming days, Chokshi said.
Health officials are “very, very carefully” monitoring the variant, said Mayor Bill de Blasio.
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky, Brian Hartman, Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 29, 11:33 am
Biden delays enforcement of federal worker vaccine mandate until after holidays
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget is telling federal agencies they can hold off on suspending or firing federal workers for not complying with the vaccine mandate until after the holidays, according to a memo obtained by ABC News.
This change, which has not yet been publicly announced, comes as President Joe Biden is putting pressure on private employers to embrace their own vaccine mandates.
Ninety-two percent of federal workers have already had at least one vaccine dose, according to the Office of Management and Budget. The federal workforce’s compliance rate stands at 96.5%, meaning employees have had at least one vaccine dose or have a pending or approved exception or extension request.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Nov 29, 10:17 am
Omicron completely evading vaccines is ‘extremely unlikely’: Dr. Ashish Jha
Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University School of Public Health, told TODAY he assumes omicron is already in the U.S. and predicts it’ll be identified in the next few days.
But Jha said he believes it’s “extremely unlikely” that omicron would completely evade vaccines.
“I think that our vaccines will hold up — the question is … is it a little bit less effective? A lot less effective? We will have that data — both laboratory data and clinical data — in the next week or two at the most,” he said.
“I wouldn’t make any major changes to plans” for the holidays yet, he continued. “I would just wait and make sure you’re vaccinated and everybody around you is vaccinated.”
“If you’re fully vaccinated — and especially if you’re boosted — you’re going to have more protection against this variant,” Jha said.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Nov 29, 9:42 am
Portugal finds 13 cases of omicron variant among Lisbon soccer club
Portuguese health authorities on Monday confirmed 13 cases of the omicron variant among professional soccer players.
The Ricardo Jorge National Health Institute said the players who tested positive are all members of the Lisbon-based Belenenses SAD soccer club and that one of them had recently traveled to southern Africa, where the omicron variant was first identified last week.
The institute is investigating whether this is one of the first reported instances of local transmission of the new coronavirus variant outside of southern Africa, where most of the cases have been recorded so far.
All 13 players have been placed in quarantine and those who have been in contact with them were ordered to isolate, regardless of their vaccination status or their exposure to possible contagion. The players and their close contacts will be regularly tested for COVID-19, the institute said.
-ABC News’ Aicha El Hammar Castano
Nov 29, 9:05 am
Moderna’s chief medical officer talks omicron variant
Moderna’s chief medical officer, Dr. Paul Burton, said the omicron variant probably emerged around mid-October in southern Africa.
“How transmissible is it? We think it’s probably quite transmissible. But how severe is the disease it causes? We don’t know the answer to that question yet,” Burton told ABC News’ Amy Robach in an interview Monday on Good Morning America.
“While we think that vaccine effectiveness may come down based on the mutations seen in this virus … we should be able to get antibodies up” with the booster shot, Burton said.
“We’ll know from tests in the next couple of weeks how effective the vaccines are against this variant,” he added.
Nov 29, 8:15 am
Omicron variant will ‘spread widely,’ Fauci warns
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious diseases expert, is urging Americans who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and are eligible to get a booster shot to do so now, in anticipation of the omicron variant spreading “widely.”
So far, there are no known confirmed cases of the new variant in the United States, according to Fauci, who is the chief medical adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden.
“But obviously, we’re on high alert,” Fauci told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview Monday on Good Morning America.
“It’s inevitable that, sooner or later, it’s going to spread widely because it has at least the molecular characteristics of being highly transmissible,” he added, “even though there are a lot of things about it that we do not know but will be able to ascertain in the next week or two.”
Fauci, who is also the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said omicron clearly has a “transmissibility advantage,” based on what scientists have seen in southern Africa, where the variant was first identified last week.
“But the extent of that, again, still needs to be worked out,” he noted. “We’ll know soon.”
Fauci said the severity of illness that the omicron variant can inflict remains unclear, despite early reports that some patients had mild symptoms.
Although there is still so much unknown about the new variant, Fauci said it’s clear that vaccinated individuals, particularly those who have received booster doses, fare better against COVID-19 than their unvaccinated counterparts.
“So we don’t know exactly what’s going on with this new variant,” he said, “but I would assume — and I think it’s a reasonable assumption — that when you get vaccinated and boosted and your [antibody] level goes way up, you’re going to have some degree of protection, at least against severe disease.”
Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna booster shots have been authorized for all adults in the United States. Anyone over the age of 18 can get a booster dose at least six months after they received their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, or at least two months after they got their single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“I would strongly suggest you get boosted now and not wait for the next iteration of [the vaccine], which we may not even need,” Fauci said. “The pharmaceutical companies are preparing to make a specific booster for [omicron], but we may not need that.”
Nov 29, 4:44 am
WHO says overall global risk of omicron variant is ‘very high’
The World Health Organization has assessed the overall global risk related to a newly discovered variant of the novel coronavirus as “very high.”
In a technical brief published Sunday, the WHO explained that omicron, or B.1.1.529, “is a highly divergent variant with a high number of mutations,” some of which it said “are concerning and may be associated with immune escape potential and higher transmissibility.”
“Given mutations that may confer immune escape potential and possibly transmissibility advantage, the likelihood of potential further spread of Omicron at the global level is high,” the WHO concluded in a risk assessment. “Depending on these characteristics, there could be future surges of COVID-19, which could have severe consequences, depending on a number of factors including where surges may take place.”
The variant was first identified in southern Africa last week and has quickly spread to several countries across the globe, sparking new travel restrictions and shaking financial markets. On Friday, the WHO officially named the variant omicron and designated it as a “variant of concern.” Both the WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that variants of concern have shown to spread more easily than others and cause more severe disease.
While omicron has not yet been detected in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, told ABC News on Sunday that the variant will “inevitably” arrive.
“The question is,” he added, “will we be prepared for it?”
(NEW YORK) — Officials in New York City have reinstated the city’s mask advisory while indoors as the omicron variant continues to spread around the globe.
City health officials are “strongly recommending” that all residents wear masks inside public settings such as grocery stores, building lobbies and offices, regardless of vaccination status.
“This includes those who are vaccinated and those who have had COVID-19,” Dr. Dave Chokshi, commissioner of the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, told reporters at a news conference Monday. “Higher quality masks can offer additional protection, and masks are still required for everyone in public transit, health care settings, schools and congregate settings.”
While the new variant has not been detected yet in New York City, there will likely be a positive case confirmed within days “based on what we know about its global spread,” Chokshi said.
The World Health Organization warned in a report Sunday that omicron poses a high likelihood of further transmission with a “very high” global risk.
New Yorkers who traveled or gathered in groups over the Thanksgiving holiday are also encouraged to get tested, officials said.
About 88% of adults and 81% of kids ages 12 to 17 in New York City have received at least one dose of the vaccine, ABC New York station WABC reported. The average daily number of infections is 905, and that number is increasing, according to city health data.
Health officials are “very, very carefully” monitoring the variant, Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters Monday. Nearly 5,400 people in the state are testing positive daily, on average, marking the highest number of new positive daily cases since February, according to the station.
President Joe Biden addressed the nation Monday, saying that while omicron is a “cause for concern,” there is no need to panic. Omicron will come to the U.S. “sooner or later,” Biden said.
Biden urged Americans to get vaccinated, including those who are now eligible for the booster, and to continue to wear masks indoors.
“We’ll fight this variant with scientific and knowledgeable actions and speed — not chaos and confusion,” Biden said. “We have more tools today to fight the variant than we ever had before, from vaccines to boosters to vaccines for children.”
Once omicron gets to the U.S., it will likely “spread widely,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious diseases expert, told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview Monday on “Good Morning America.”
“It’s inevitable that, sooner or later, it’s going to spread widely because it has at least the molecular characteristics of being highly transmissible,” Fauci said.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky, Brian Hartman and Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn, said she had an “unproductive” call with Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., on Monday over her anti-Muslim remarks and claimed the Colorado Republican refused to publicly apologize for suggesting she was a terrorist.
Instead, Omar claimed in a new statement that Boebert “doubled down on her hurtful and dangerous comments,” which led Omar to “end the unproductive call.”
In a video posted to Twitter last week, Boebert referred to Omar as a member of the “Jihad Squad” and claimed that a Capitol Police officer thought she was a terrorist in an encounter in an elevator on Capitol Hill.
She was condemned by Democrats and some Republicans for the remarks and apologized on Twitter Friday “to anyone in the Muslim community I offended,” adding that she had reached out to Omar’s office to speak with her directly.
Apparently, that call did not go well.
Omar hung up on Boebert after the Colorado Republican refused to make a public apology to her, according to a statement from Omar and Boebert’s account of the call.
“I believe in engaging with those we disagree with respectfully, but not when that disagreement is rooted in outright bigotry and hate,” Omar said, adding that Boebert “doubled down” on her comments.
In an Instagram video recapping their conversation, Boebert said she refused to make a public apology directly to Omar and instead demanded the Minnesota Democrat apologize for her “Anti-American” rhetoric.
“Rejecting an apology and hanging up on someone is part of cancel culture 101, and a pillar of the Democrat Party. Make no mistake, I will continue to put America first, never sympathizing with terrorists,” Boebert said in her video. “Unfortunately, Ilhan can’t say the same thing, and our country is worse off for it.”
Omar and Democratic leaders, issuing a rare joint statement last week, have called on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans to hold Republicans accountable for the anti-Muslim rhetoric, but the California Republican has said nothing publicly about the exchange.
In her statement on Monday, Omar demanded McCarthy “actually hold his party accountable” for “repeated instances of anti-Muslim hate and harassment.” Her office also said she is routinely subjected to harassment and death threats.
Omar added in a tweet on Friday that “normalizing this bigotry not only endangers my life but the lives of all Muslims.”
ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Dr. Barbara Sampson, the first woman to lead the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in its 100-year history, announced her departure Monday for a job in the private sector.
Sampson has been with the agency 23 years, nine as chief, and steered it through the grueling onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were so overwhelmed with the number of fatalities here in the city that we needed every OCME employee to be part of our COVID response,” Sampson recalled in an interview with ABC News.
Prior to the pandemic, Sampson oversaw the autopsies of Eric Garner, Joan Rivers and Jeffrey Epstein, each of which generated a degree of public controversy
“Keep with the truth and what is based in science and in medicine you can’t go too far astray,” she said of her guiding philosophy.
Sampson has championed new technology for DNA analysis and for opioids detection so autopsies can more quickly inform public health officials and law enforcement about what drugs are on the street.
She has maintained the office’s commitment, started under her predecessor Dr. Charles Hirsch, to keep examining human remains recovered from the 9/11 attacks. There were new identifications on the 20 year anniversary.
Sampson told ABC News she didn’t think much at the time of her appointment about being the first woman chief medical examiner in the city, but reflected on it now she is leaving her post for a position in the Mount Sinai Health System.
“I was clearly a role model for so many women who are interested in careers in medicine in science and in government. I found that now looking back extremely rewarding,” Sampson said.
