(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday warned of an increased risk of Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological disorder, following the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after 100 preliminary cases of the syndrome were reported among the 12.5M doses administered.
The agency noted that 95 of the cases were serious and required hospitalization. There was one death.
While the FDA said it’s updating vaccination materials for health care providers and patients to note an “association” between the vaccine and a risk of GBS, the agency said the data are “insufficient to establish a causal relationship.” And, the agency added, it still recommends the vaccine to prevent the serious health risks posed by COVID-19.
“Importantly, the FDA has evaluated the available information for the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine and continues to find the known and potential benefits clearly outweigh the known and potential risks,” the FDA stated.
Johnson and Johnson said it has discussed the reports with federal regulators at the Food and Drug Administration.
“The chance of having this occur is very low, and the rate of reported cases exceeds the background rate by a small degree,” the company said in a statement released Monday.
Similar issues have not been reported tied to the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
Guillain-Barré syndrome is a rare disorder that occurs when a person’s immune system damages nerve cells and causes muscle weakness or paralysis.
Most people recover fully although some will report long-term nerve damage.
According to the CDC, the majority of people who develop GBS report the symptoms after having a respiratory illness, including the flu or getting sick with diarrhea. One common cause is a bacteria tied to eating uncooked poultry.
It’s also linked to vaccination, though rare, and is why the CDC monitors reports of GBS each flu season.
The CDC estimates there is one to two additional GBS cases per million doses of flu vaccine administered.
On the most recent cases tied to the J&J vaccine, the CDC said older men were mostly impacted.
“These cases have largely been reported about two weeks after vaccination and mostly in males, many aged 50 years and older,” the CDC said in a statement.
According to the FDA, patients should seek medical attention if they experience a weakness or tingling sensations, especially in the legs or arms, and that might worsen or spread to other parts of the body. Other symptoms might include difficulty walking or making facial movements; double vision or inability to move eyes; or difficulty with bladder control or bowel function.
ABC News’ Eric Strauss contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — As part of his effort to get out in front of a politically sensitive issue, President Joe Biden on Monday convened a meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland, law enforcement leaders and elected officials to discuss rising crime rates across the country.
Glancing at Garland at the top of the meeting, Biden opened his remarks by acknowledging that he’s been trying to solve this problem for many years.
“We’ve been at this a long time, a long time. Seems like most of my career I’ve been dealing with this issue. While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, we know there are some things that work. And the first of those that work is stemming the flow of firearms used to commit violent crimes,” Biden said.
“It includes cracking down on holding rogue gun dealers accountable for violating the federal law. It includes the Justice Department creating five new strike forces to crack down on illegal gun trafficking,” Biden said, without directly acknowledging more meaningful gun control is impossible without getting Senate Republicans to go along.
While Biden said he’d be asking the experts he assembled what else they believe should be done on the federal level to address rising crime rates, he did not directly address Congress or put any pressure on lawmakers to act on a national level.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki previewed the meeting at an earlier press briefing and said the group will discuss Biden’s “comprehensive plan to reduce gun violence and violent crime.”
Biden’s plan, unveiled last month, targets law-breaking gun dealers, provides federal resources to police departments for gun-crime enforcement and allows communities to repurpose millions of dollars of federal coronavirus relief funding for programs proven to prevent gun violence.
“During the meeting, the president will discuss his crime reduction strategy — strategy which gives cities and states historic funding through the American Rescue Plan, and a range of tools they can use to improve public safety in their communities including support for community violence intervention programs, summer employment opportunities and other proven methods to reduce crime,” Psaki said.
“I’ll underscore his commitment to ensuring their state and law and local law enforcement have the resources and support they need to hire more police officers and invest in effective and accountable community policing,” Psaki said.
Notably, Biden has not taken the same stance as some progressives who’ve called to “defund the police,” a position that gained traction last year during what many deemed to be a racial reckoning in the country.
Still, Republicans have attacked Biden for being “soft on crime.”
Psaki said Biden is stressing partnerships with local leaders on the effort. Attendees at the White House included Washington Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who just won New York’s City Democratic mayoral primary. Unlike other progressive candidates, Adams did not run on a “defund the police” agenda but instead cited “public safety” as his top priority for the city and Democrats in general.
“This president is making it clear,” Adams said following the meeting, “he’s going to redefine the ecosystem of public safety, and that includes identifying the role of police, schools, families, resources, employment.”
“Why did it take so long before we heard the gunshots that families were listening and hearing every night? Other communities are waking up the alarm clock, communities of Black, brown and poor people are waking up to gunshots and this president says this is not the America we’re going to live in,” he continued.
Police chiefs, including David Brown, superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, along with a community-based violence intervention expert, also attended the White House meeting.
Psaki said the group would talk about what the federal government is doing to stem the flow of guns used in crimes, “including the administration’s zero-tolerance policy for dealers who willfully sell guns illegally, the Department of Justice’s gun trafficking strike forces, as well as previous steps the White House has announced like cracking down on ghost guns, which are increasingly used in violent crimes.”
Biden’s session comes as the country faces a rise in violent crime, particularly in those involving firearms.
According to a study released earlier this year by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice, homicides spiked by 30% in 2020 compared to the year before.
And in the first three months of 2021, the number of homicides increased by 24% compared to the same period in 2020 and by 49% compared to the start of 2019, the researchers said.
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson and Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The top U.S. military general leading the withdrawal in Afghanistan stepped down during a ceremony in Kabul Monday, a sign that America’s longest war is nearing its end.
Gen. Austin Scott Miller has commanded U.S. Forces−Afghanistan and the NATO-led Resolute Support mission since the summer of 2018. At Monday’s ceremony, Miller handed his responsibilities off to Gen. Frank McKenzie, who leads U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) from its headquarters in Tampa, Florida.
“I need to let you know that command of this coalition has been the highlight of my military career,” Miller told a small audience at Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul.
“The countries that have served here, many have lost service members, civilians; our Afghan partners have lost service members, they’ve lost civilians,” Miller said. “And as we’ve spoken about it previously, on this very ground with this group over time, our job is now just not to forget.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin thanked Miller for his leadership in Afghanistan in a Monday afternoon tweet.
“I want to thank Gen. Miller for three years of exceptional leadership in Afghanistan. That we have been able to secure our interests in Afghanistan, as well as those of our allies and Afghan partners, stands as testament to his operational acumen and strategic vision,” he wrote on Twitter. “It’s also worth noting that we have conducted our retrograde safely and orderly, and the transfer in command from Gen. Miller to Gen. McKenzie does not signify the end of our drawdown process, only the next milestone. We remain on track to meet @POTUS’ end of August goal.”
A Pentagon spokesperson said Miller left Afghanistan following the ceremony and was traveling back to the United States.
As the U.S. military finishes its withdrawal from the country, an emboldened Taliban has ramped up attacks and gained ground.
“I’m one of the U.S. military officers who’s had the opportunity to speak with the Taliban,” Miller told the audience in Kabul. “I said, it’s important that the military sides set the conditions for a peaceful and political settlement in Afghanistan, we can all see the violence that’s taking place across the country, but we know that with that violence, that what is very difficult to achieve is a political settlement. So again, what I tell the Taliban is they’re responsible too.”
McKenzie, who traveled to Kabul to attend the handover ceremony, said that while Miller’s departure is a milestone in the U.S. withdrawal, it also signifies “our renewed commitment to our Afghan partners.”
“The most important thing that continues is our support to the people of Afghanistan and to its armed forces,” McKenzie told the audience, which included Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, chief of Afghanistan’s National Council for Reconciliation, and other Afghan officials.
“We are confident in you. We are confident you have what it takes to protect your country,” McKenzie said. “Our support will be different than what it was in the past, but we know how much you love your country, and we know the sacrifices that you have made in the past and that you’re going to be willing to make in the future to do that. You can count on our support in the dangerous and difficult days ahead. We will be with you.”
McKenzie will maintain the ability to launch counter-terrorism operations from bases and ships outside of Afghanistan as needed, but a major post-war concern is maintaining the U.S. diplomatic mission
To that end, a detachment of about 650 U.S. troops will remain in the country indefinitely to protect the U.S. embassy as well as the airport in Kabul, which is critical to keep the mission running.
The embassy announced Sunday that it had resumed in-person interviews for immigrant visas, including those Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for Afghan translators, guides and other contractors who worked for the U.S. military and diplomatic missions.
Interviews are a key part of the visa application process, but they had been halted for a month because of a significant COVID-19 outbreak throughout Afghanistan, including the U.S. embassy there.
There are approximately 18,000 Afghans seeking SIVs: 9,000 who haven’t finished their application and 9,000 who are waiting for the U.S. government to move their case forward, according to a State Department spokesperson.
This resumption does not yet extend to everyone. For now, the embassy is only rescheduling applicants who had their interviews postponed and appointment capacity remains limited, the embassy said Sunday.
In the meantime, the U.S. will relocate a group of SIV applicants and their families out of the country to safe locations to await their cases being processed, President Joe Biden confirmed last week. While he said those relocations will begin before the end of this month, it’s still unclear how many applicants that will involve, where they will go and when.
Despite pressure from lawmakers and activists, the Biden administration has emphasized SIVs as the way to help Afghans whose lives are at risk, instead of evacuations. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has assigned 50 more staffers in Washington to help process paperwork and work through the enormous backlog.
But even with all that, critics said time is running out for the Afghans who risked theirs and their families’ safety by working for the U.S., as American forces draw down and the Taliban gain control of more districts.
(NEW YORK) — With the pandemic causing uncertainty, isolation and disruptions in routine, research has continued to show increases in far-reaching physical and mental health problems — and now, dentists are noting that teeth grinding and jaw clenching, known as bruxism, also seem to be on the rise.
“Since the pandemic, patients have been coming to me with new complaints of jaw pain, tooth pain, broken or chipped teeth or just because their partners are telling them they’re grinding — in numbers that I’ve never seen before,” Dr. Saul Pressner, a family dentist in New York City, said.
Clenching and grinding is a common problem, but Pressner said he has even treated adults whose teeth clenching issues are brand new.
“I’m really seeing both — people who were pre-disposed to clenching and grinding, who already had appliances made for them, and some who had no evidence to show they were ever clenching or grinding before,” Pressner said.
While the causes of bruxism are largely unknown, some experts believe this behavior is related to sleep patterns and processes within the central nervous system. There are a few risk factors that are associated with increased rates of bruxism, including anxiety, highly stressful life circumstances and heavy alcohol use — all things that have increased across the population this year.
“Patients admit to being more tense since the start of the pandemic,” said Dr. Yanell Innabi-Danial of River Town Dental in Dobbs Ferry, New York. “They exhibit tenderness radiating to head and neck muscles, causing headaches.”
The stress isn’t only affecting people while they sleep. It can persist into daytime grinding and clenching as well.
Patients are also clenching their jaws “while working, driving, and doing other activities during the day,” Innabi-Danial said, who noted that clenching and grinding can cause wear on the chewing surfaces of the teeth, which can lead to cavities and gum disease.
And bruxism isn’t just affecting adults. Children can experience it, too.
Dr. Kevin Simon, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Harvard, said he has seen an increase in patients with anxiety or other mental health-related disorders who make note of physical complaints such as headaches and jaw pain.
“Physical complaints are associated in no small part to the tension and stress they are carrying around in the form of clenching and grinding. More headaches, more tension in the jaw and neck,” Simon said. “Treating the underpinning mental health condition becomes essential to treating those symptoms.”
Ultimately, dentists and mental health professionals agree that tackling this issue will involve addressing stress and anxiety along with preventive dental care to ensure that complications don’t arise in the future.
“Night guards do not stop patients from clenching and grinding, but it does protect the teeth and joint while doing so,” Innabi-Danial said.
Mouth guards, however, can be cost-prohibitive, with few insurances covering the expense, and dentists also caution that over-the-counter guards may not adequately protect a patient’s teeth. Innabi-Danial said that if night guards, behavioral intervention, jaw and tongue exercises and a diet consisting of softer foods do not help, then patients can consider having Botox injected in their jaw muscle.
“Mouth guards are just one piece of it,” Pressner added. “I always recommend meditation, yoga, trying to separate their workspace from relaxation space, exercise, all those things for my patients as soon as I notice signs of teeth grinding. This can have so many benefits to their dental and jaw health down the line.”
FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. – With lockdowns closing businesses and athletic seasons getting canceled, Americans took to the outdoors in 2020. People walked, ran, and picked up sports like golf and tennis. Many also took trips to many of the nation’s public lands.
The New River Gorge in West Virginia was named the country’s 63rd National Park as part of the December COVID-19 relief bill, and although always well-known regionally, it has quickly turned into a popular outdoor destination.
“We have seen an uptick this year since the designation,” park superintendent Lizzie Watts tells ABC News. “We hope that uptick is tied to two things: that COVID gave a lot of people the opportunity to learn how safe being outdoors are, and [also] encouraged families to take hikes and go outside where we can actually do things.”
One of the oldest rivers in the entire world, fifty three miles of the New River flows through the park, surrounded by over 70,000 acres worth of scaling rock and lush green trees. The park is a haven for mountain bikers, hikers, rock climbers, and white water rafters. Visitors can also harness in and walk across a beam along the New River Gorge Bridge—one of West Virginia’s most-recognized landmarks.
With a stream of visitors coming in, Watts recommends people plan ahead of their trips:
“Know what the popular trails are, and then also have an alternative… Try to do it Monday through Friday if you can, early morning, later in the evening when there will be less people because part of your experience is you want that grandeur of enjoying it to yourself or with your party.”
Local businesses are expressing their excitement about the park’s new designation.
“This is a huge light that can be shone on how awesome it is to live here,” says Adam Stevens, the owner of the Arrowhead Bike Farm and Campground in Fayetteville.
Stevens tells ABC News his business saw a spike during COVID-19 pandemic, and anticipates another as a result of the National Park designation:
“Not only are we this amazing, iconic geological preservation… we’re also wildly popular activity point for outdoor people. So, that was what we had before all this happened. Then, through COVID we saw a spike. Now we have this National Park thing which brings a different type of visitor.”
At the Fayetteville equipment shop Water Stone Outdoors, co-owner Maura Kistler says they too noticed an increase in visitation:
“Foot traffic has been off the hook. We sit and look across the shop at each other all the time and I’m like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ And that is a great problem to have.”
She tells ABC News that businesses have been waiting for this moment and feel ready, but there is some concern about how the park’s infrastructure will hold up:
“The New River Gorge is National Park-standard ready… we just need a few more parking lots and need to get better about distributing visitors across our park. We need to use all the different trails and all the different overlooks. It’s been really easy to just send people to the standard spots and that’s doing visitors a disservice. We just need to get smarter about that and that’s what we’re working on now.”
There is another concern for one group in the region: public land access. It was a hotly debated topic as the state considered whether the area should be designated a National Park.
“A lot of us hunters… we feel the land was taken from us. That’s my stance on it, and I believe of a lot of other local people,” says Larry Case, writer for the blog Guns & Cornbread. He spent decades as a conservation officer and hunter in the New River Gorge.
Hunting is steeped in tradition in West Virginia, and was even one of the many outdoor activities that saw a pandemic boost.
Hunting did not stop in the New River Gorge, however. Changing the designation from a National River to a National Park and Preserve permitted hunting in most areas. Approximately ten percent of the land is a National Park, where hunting is no longer allowed. The other 90 percent is a preserve, where hunting is allowed.
Advocates say hunters lost just a small portion of land. Case tells ABC News, however, losing any land is impactful for hunters:
“Hunters need to be concerned about public land access… and we didn’t need to change the area to a National Park for the protection of the area… We’re not against tourism, not against National Parks. I just personally don’t see why they had to take this area away from hunters.”
There is a genuine understanding between competing groups. Maura Kistler told ABC what hunters experience with the National Park designation does amount to a loss:
“I know Larry Case. He’s a good man. The hunters have been expressing their concerns and dissatisfaction. They lost some hunting… these are hunting grounds that have been used for generations and that is never an easy thing to accept.”
Park superintendent Lizzie Watts acknowledged the role hunters play in conservation efforts and in curbing a growing deer population in the region.
“A lot of hunters are some of the best conservationists in the world… and we have a huge population of deer in particular… I truly think the best decisions are compromises… both of the parties feel very passionate about what they believe. I think we truly all respected his [Larry Case’s] side of the equation… the compromise that the senators came up with was a Park and Preserve where we get to do both.”
She says there was an effort to compromise and, ultimately, to try to do what is best for the park:
“I think the American public and the national visitors are the true winners because we have a place at this stage, and more people will know how unique this wonderful ecosystem is.”
Listen to the report on the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve here.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Monday released a statement in solidarity with the thousands of Cubans who protested over the weekend about shortages and rising prices for food and medicine amid the coronavirus pandemic in what’s being called an unprecedented rejection of the island nation’s government.
Cuba’s communist leadership has already denounced the protests as a “systemic provocation” by Cuban dissidents and the U.S. government, encouraged its supporters to counter protests, and sent its armed forces into the streets, risking clashes with demonstrators.
“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime,” Biden said in a statement Monday.
“The Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights. Those rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected. The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves,” he said.
Sunday’s protests, in several cities across the island, are some of the biggest anti-government demonstrations in Cuba’s recent history, and Biden had been called on to show support for the protests.
While he helped the Obama administration’s efforts to ease tensions with Cuba and reopen trade and travel, Biden has kept most of former President Donald Trump’s sanctions and restrictions in place on America’s close neighbor and longtime adversary.
The administration says it is still reviewing its Cuba policy, earning the ire of progressives in the Democratic Party, but with these nearly unprecedented demonstrations, it may have to move more quickly than it hoped.
So far, the administration has voiced support for the Cuban people’s right to peacefully assemble and condemned any violence. Prior to Biden’s statement, acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Julie Chung and Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan weighed in with that sentiment.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged public grievances over blackouts and food and medicine shortages during a televised address Monday, but he blamed the island nation’s problems on the long-standing U.S. embargo and accused American “imperialists” of stoking tensions on social media.
“Yesterday, Cuba lived the most heroic day. Thousands of patriotic people defend the Revolution,” he said on state television, referring to pro-government demonstrations in Havana later on Sunday.
“We do not want to hurt our beloved people,” added Díaz-Canel, who assumed the presidency in 2019 and became the first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party this April, officially taking over for Raúl Castro.
Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla had even sharper words Monday, firing back at Sullivan and Chung’s statements of support for protests by saying the White House has “no political or moral authority to speak about Cuba.”
“His government has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to promote subversion in our country & implements a genocidal blockade, which is the main cause of economic scarcities,” he tweeted, referring directly to Sullivan’s statement.
Cuba is going through its worst economic crisis in decades, with its economy contracting by double-digits last year. But along with the economic crisis, the country is dealing with another deadly surge of COVID-19.
(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — The death toll of the devastating partial collapse of a 12-story residential building in Surfside, Florida last month rose to 94, officials announced Monday.
The recovery effort entered its 19th day on Monday and officials said 84 victims are now identified, 222 people are accounted for, and 22 are potentially unaccounted for.
Mayor Miami-Dade Daniella Cava also spoke about the weather’s impact on the recovery mission during a news conference Monday. She said that the weather service was embedded in the recovery efforts and that weather issues are expected for the next few days.
The mayor also said that police and medical examiner teams were working around the clock to identify victims and that 207 families have been served at a family assistance center.
The disaster occurred on June 24 around 1:15 a.m. local time at the Champlain Towers South condominium in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach. Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex’s 136 units were destroyed, according to officials. The rest of the building was demolished, due to concerns over structural integrity and an incoming tropical storm.
The death toll has soared since the remainder of the condo building was destroyed and no longer posed a threat to the recovery search area.
While there is still much recovery work to be done, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters family members and first responders took part in a memorial walk on Saturday night and paid tribute to everyone who has supported the efforts.
Levine Cava thanked the search and rescue teams who came from Israel and provided two commanders with keys to the city before they departed back home.
“We took a moment to celebrate and thank the men and women from all the search and rescue teams … who have been working 24 hours a day for the last two and a half weeks,” she said.
The cause of the partial collapse to a building that has withstood decades of hurricanes remains unknown and is under investigation. Built in the 1980s, the Champlain Towers South was up for its 40-year recertification and had been undergoing roof work — with more renovations planned — when it partially collapsed, according to officials.
Surveys and inspections of the surrounding buildings are still ongoing.
(MIAMI) — Jose “Pepe” Diaz, chairman of the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners, has tested positive for COVID-19, his office announced in a statement Sunday night.
Diaz’s chief of staff, Isidoro Lopez, also tested positive for the virus.
“Both started experiencing flu-like symptoms earlier today and will be isolating,” the statement read. “Staff and others who have been in close contact with them will be getting tested between today and tomorrow.”
The two men have been vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the statement.
Although the chances of contracting the novel coronavirus after being fully vaccinated are very rare, so-called breakthrough cases are still possible. Health officials and experts alike have warned that new, more contagious variants of the virus may be more effective at evading vaccines.
Diaz, 60, has been among the officials on the site of a condominium collapse in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach. Since the deadly disaster occurred before dawn on June 24, Diaz has been seen regularly attending press briefings and closed-door meetings. The news of his infection raises concern about a potential outbreak among those who have been on the site.
For weeks, hundreds of first responders from various search and rescue teams across Florida, the United States and even other countries have been combing through the vast wreckage in Surfside, pulling out bodies and belongings from the pancaked layers of rubble. During a press briefing on July 2, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky revealed that at least six workers have tested positive for COVID-19. The workers were members of the same task force but were no longer on the site. Investigators were conducting contact tracing and testing of all other workers, according to Cominsky.
It was unclear whether the infected workers were vaccinated or if anyone had been placed in quarantine.
The search for bodies is ongoing, as 22 people remain listed as missing. At least 94 people have been confirmed dead, according to officials.
Florida, home to some 21.5 million people, has reported more than 2.4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 38,000 deaths from the disease. More than 43% of the Sunshine State’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
On Friday, the Florida Department of Health reported an increase in COVID-19 cases and a higher positive test rate over the past week. The number of newly confirmed cases rose by about 8,000 compared with the week prior, for a total of 23,747 new cases. Meanwhile, the rate of positive COVID-19 tests statewide was 7.8%, compared with 5.2% the week before.
(NEW YORK) — If you were trying to make a purchase on Amazon overnight, you may have run into some issues.
Several users went on Twitter to complain that they couldn’t get past the homepage after logging into their accounts or that they weren’t able to complete their purchases.
The website Downdetector, which tracks outages, says there were more than 38,000 reports of users having trouble with Amazon’s site after 11 p.m. ET Sunday.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Monday released a statement in solidarity with the thousands of Cubans who protested over the weekend about shortages and rising prices for food and medicine amid the coronavirus pandemic in what’s being called an unprecedented rejection of the nation’s government.
“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime,” Biden said in a statement.
“The Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights. Those rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected. The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves,” he said.
Sunday’s protest was one of the biggest anti-government demonstrations in Cuba in recent history and Biden has been called on to show support for the protests.
One of the first responses from the U.S. government came overnight from Julie Chung, the acting assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, who tweeted out support for the Cuban people’s right for peaceful assembly but condemned any violence — a sentiment echoed by national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla threw cold water on the U.S. statements on Monday, saying the White House has “no political or moral authority to speak about Cuba.”
“His government has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to promote subversion in our country & implements a genocidal blockade, which is the main cause of economic scarcities,” he tweeted, referring directly to Sullivan’s statement.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, in a televised address earlier Monday, acknowledged public grievances relating to blackouts, food and medicine shortages, but defended the regime’s leadership and, instead, blamed many of the island’s problems on the U.S. embargo.
Díaz-Canel also accused the “imperialists” — a term commonly used to refer to the U.S. — of interfering by stoking tensions on social media, allegedly urging the public to go out onto the streets.
Along with experiencing an economic crisis, the country is dealing with another deadly surge of COVID-19.
