(NEW YORK) — A month into his tenure, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Friday sought to clarify some of his prosecutorial policies that fueled criticism he is soft on crime.
Bragg’s letter to his staff, obtained by ABC News, came the same week the NYPD finished burying two police officers shot in the line of duty.
The widow of officer Jason Rivera, Dominique Luzuriaga, received a standing ovation during her husband’s funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral when she called out Bragg and his approach to law enforcement.
“The system continues to fail us” she said. “We’re not safe anymore. I know you were tired of these laws, especially the ones from the new DA. I hope he’s watching you speak through me right now.”
Bragg’s “Day One” memorandum said the district attorney’s office would not prosecute fare beating, resisting arrest and other nonviolent crimes in an attempt to decriminalize poverty and mental illness and balance fairness and safety.
It also said prosecutors should treat armed robbery in commercial settings as misdemeanor petit larceny if there is no genuine risk of physical harm and disallowed bail conditions for pre-trial cases except for “very serious cases.” The policies, he wrote, “will make us safer.”
The memo prompted a scathing review from the city’s new police commissioner, Keechant Sewell, who feared Bragg’s policies “will invite violence against police officers and will have deleterious effects on our relationship with the communities we protect,” she said the day after the memo was issued.
Bragg conceded the “Day One” memo that outlined his approach “has been a source of confusion, rather than clarity,” according the letter to his staff sent Friday.
“Violence against police officers will not be tolerated. We will prosecute any person who harms or attempts to harm a police officer,” Bragg’s letter said.
Bragg backtracked on how the office will prosecute commercial robbery.
“A commercial robbery with a gun will be charged as a felony, whether or not the gun is operable, loaded, or a realistic imitation. A commercial robbery at knifepoint, or by other weapon that creates a risk of physical harm, will be charged as a felony,” the letter said. “In retail thefts that do not involve a risk of physical harm, the Office will continue to assess the charges based on all of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances presented.”
Bragg also sought to reassure assistant district attorneys they retained discretion in the way they handle cases after his initial memo required them to “obtain the approval” of a supervisor to deviate from his policies.
“You were hired for your keen judgment, and I want you to use that judgment – and experience – in every case,” Bragg said.
(ATLANTA) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a new dashboard Friday that tracks COVID-19 in wastewater samples across the country.
The data comes from the federal agency’s National Wastewater Surveillance System, which connects more than 400 sites across 28 states and the District of Columbia.
More than 34,000 samples have been collected representing 53 million Americans, Dr. Ann Kirby, program lead for the CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System, said during a media briefing.
Over the last 15 days, the dashboard shows that 98% of treatment facilities have detected the virus in all of their samples.
However, 70% of all facilities say the amount of virus found in samples has decreased compared to two weeks ago — a sign that COVID-19 cases are on the decline.
Between 40% and 80% of COVID-19 patients shed genetic material from the virus, or viral RNA, in their feces.
When stool is flushed down the toilet, it flows through a drainage system into a treatment facility, where it becomes part of wastewater.
The same tests that are used to determine if someone is positive — what are known as PCR tests — can also detect the virus in wastewater samples.
During the media briefing, Kirby said wastewater surveillance provides public health officials with “a better understanding of COVID-19 trends in communities.”
Because people shed the virus when they are in the early stages of infection, increases in levels of viral RNA in wastewater are often seen before the number of cases rise.
This makes wastewater an early warning system of sorts and helps predict where COVID-19 outbreaks are going to occur.
“These can inform important public health decisions such as where to allocate mobile testing and vaccination sites,” Kirby said. “Public health agencies have also used wastewater data to forecast changes in hospital utilization, providing additional time to mobilize resources in preparation for increasing cases.”
Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said wastewater samples helped predict the omicron wave before it even hit.
“Well ahead of when we knew this omicron wave was creating this massive increase in cases, we saw the signal in the wastewater, and the sort of scale of amount of virus that was detected in wastewater was far greater than any other point in the pandemic,” said Brownstein, who is a member on the board of advisors of wastewater analytics company Biobot.
This is not the first time that wastewater surveillance has been used to track public health concerns.
Several countries overseas have used the tool to monitor polio outbreaks. In many European cities, public health officials have used wastewater surveillance to track opioid use.
Brownstein said wastewater has even been used to track the flu and can continue to be useful when COVID becomes a more seasonal, endemic disease.
“It can be absolutely used to look at early signals of any viral disease,” he said. “I think wastewater can be part of the public health fabric for just general surveillance. While COVID may become more sort of an endemic, seasonal virus, having a window into when we may see surges — especially with new variants — will be super critical.”
However, wastewater surveillance has some limitations. About one-fifth of U.S. households are not connected to a public sewer and use septic systems instead, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
This means wastewater testing would not be able to detect viral spread in 20% of American homes.
Additionally, Kirby said the testing cannot determine if a community is free from infection, so it’s best if it’s used in conjunction with other tools such as case-based surveillance.
But, if Americans do start to see rates of viral RNA in wastewater increase, they can implement the same measures they would use if cases were rising, just earlier.
“You want to take all the same actions: masking, distancing, getting vaccinated if you’re not, testing if you’re feeling sick,” Kirby said. “But with wastewater, you can start doing those a few days earlier and those extra days can really make a difference in the ultimate trajectory of that surge in your community.”
(JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.) — To address the lack of diversity in law enforcement, Lincoln University, in Jefferson City, Missouri, has opened the first police academy at a historically Black college or university (HBCU).
Today, 71.5% of U.S. police officers are white and police departments are struggling to recruit new officers and retain veterans, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Retirements nationwide are up 45% in policing, resignations have risen 18% and recruitment is down 5%, according to the Police Executive Research Forum.
For law enforcement to better reflect America’s diversity, Lincoln University started the new policing program in January of 2021, graduating its first group of recruits six months later.
“Law enforcement agencies across the nation have been pulling their hair out trying to figure out a way to recruit more minorities. And this has never been tried,” Gary Hill, the co-founder and principal instructor of the program, told ABC News. “I would love to see where we can go from here.”
The majority of Lincoln’s first class are college students. The nine recruits spent 32 hours a week in firearm training and physical conditioning courses. The recruits consist of two Black women, four Black men and three white men.
Hill hopes the success of this academy could change the fate of policing and inspire other HBCUs to follow suit.
College sophomore Ti Aja Fairlee, 21, is the youngest in the class and told “Nightline” she never saw Black women represented among the ranks in law enforcement as a child.
Black women are among the most underrepresented groups in police, making up just 2.7% of the force nationally, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
“I am kind of proud of myself actually that I can be the face and the voice for girls like me,” Fairlee said. “Yes, you can do this. Don’t let the race thing stop you from anything. The race thing already pushed us back enough. We’ve just got to push forward and do what we want to do, like, don’t let nobody stop us.”
Fairlee, however, said there’s a lot of pressure in being one of a few.
“That’s where a lot of my doubts came from because I’m like, ‘Can I be a good police officer? I don’t know nobody to look up to,'” she said. “I’ve got to be my own role model, really.”
Tyrese Davis, 22, said the message was clear in Baltimore where he grew up: Don’t become a cop if you’re Black or a person of color.
He’s the first in his family to go to college and pays for tuition and the police academy by working the night shift at a local book factory.
Investing in recruits like Fairlee and Davis is central to Hill’s mission.
“What you all have to do is be the change that you want to see,” Hill said. “You have to be.”
Hill, a 26-year veteran in of law enforcement, also heads up Lincoln University’s police department, where he oversees 22 officers while still taking time to patrol the campus himself.
But close to the chief’s heart is the belief that higher education in police leadership makes for competent and diverse leaders. Hill holds a master’s in administration of criminal justice agencies and is currently working toward a doctorate in criminal justice with an emphasis on homeland security.
“I’m able to see things from different perspectives because of my education,” he said, “and so a lot of us chiefs and sheriffs, and other administrators, see the value in that.”
Hill said he’s inspired by African American Civil War soldiers who pooled their money to help create HBCUs in the 1800s.
“I look back and I say, ‘you know, if they could do it back in 1866, we can do it now,'” Hill said. “Lincoln University is probably one of the most diverse schools in the country. Our population is half Black and half white. And what better place to have an academy or to start one but here?”
Eight members of the inaugural class now work in law enforcement. Lincoln University’s program has also broadened its reach, opening a second training site in St. Louis, Missouri, with 25 recruits currently enrolled.
“I will measure success in three years to see how many of those recruits are still in law enforcement, and the things that they’ve experienced, and how they feel about law enforcement after those three years,” said Hill.
Watch the full story on “Nightline” TONIGHT at 12:35 a.m. ET on ABC.
(WASHINGTON) — After the White House braced for a disappointing January jobs report officials predicted would be skewed by the omicron variant, President Joe Biden took a triumphant tone at the White House Friday to tout the unexpected economic win.
“I want to speak to you this morning about an extraordinary resilience and grit of the American people and American capitalism. Our country is taking everything that COVID’s thrown at us. We’ve come back stronger,” Biden said. “I’m pleased to report this morning, many of you already know, that America’s job machine is going stronger than ever.”
The January jobs report released Friday shows a strong American economy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 467,000 jobs were added in January — much higher than economists’ expectations that 150,000 jobs would be added. The unemployment rate was little changed at 4%.
In a rare, positive revision, the report also showed that 709,000 more jobs were added in the previous two months than previously reported as data collection has been impacted in the pandemic.
“America is back to work,” Biden said, highlighting the numbers.
As the administration continues to battle rising inflation and growing doubt in Biden’s handling of the economy, White House officials had offered prebuttals ahead of Friday’s report, saying those who were out on unpaid sick leave the week data was gathered will count erroneously as unemployed.
“We just wanted to kind of prepare, you know, people to understand how the data is taken, what they’re looking at, and what it is an assessment of. And as a result, the month’s jobs report may show job losses in large part because workers were out sick from Omicron at the point when it was peaking during the period when — the week where the data was taken,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.
With the positive report, the Federal Reserve will likely stick to its plan of pulling back stimulus measures and raising rates — potentially even moving faster than previously planned.
Biden noted how Friday’s report caps off his first year as president, and over that period, the U.S. economy created 6.6 million jobs — a figure unmatched by recent presidents.
“If you can’t remember another year when so many people went to work in this country, there’s a reason. It never happened,” Biden said. “Take a look at the chart. You can look at the last, all the way back to President Reagan.”
He also took the chance to tout how the bipartisan infrastructure law passed last year is already taking effect and to push for congressional action on other items stalled on his domestic agenda including signature items in his Build Back Better agenda, like subsidized childcare and lowering prescription drug prices.
“Look, the bottom line is this: The United States is once again in a position to not only compete with the rest of the world — but out-compete the rest of the world once again,” Biden said. “Let’s keep building a better America.”
But even with the strong jobs growth, the latest report still showed significant pandemic impacts.
The number of people unable to work at some point in the previous month because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic doubled in January to 6 million. Teleworking increased, to more than one in seven employed people. And among the unemployed, 1.8 million were prevented from looking for work because of the pandemic, up from 1.1 million in December.
It comes as Biden faces significant skepticism from the American public, with his job approval rating lagging across a range of major issues, including new lows for his handling of the economic recovery, an ABC/Ipsos poll from December found.
More than two-thirds of Americans (69%) disapprove of how Biden is handling inflation (only 28% approve) while more than half (57%) disapprove of his handling of the economic recovery. Partisan splits for inflation show expected negativity in Republican views (94% disapproving), but the survey also revealed weaknesses from Biden’s own party with only a slim majority of Democrats (54%) approving. Biden’s orbit is also hemorrhaging independent voters, with 71% disapproving of his handling of inflation.
“I know it hasn’t been easy. I know that January was a very hard month for many Americans,” Biden said Friday. “I know that after almost two years, the physical and emotional weight of the pandemic has been incredibly difficult to bear for so many people.”
But now, Biden added, “We’re seeing the difference our efforts have made.”
ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki and Gary Langer contributed to this report.
(HOUSTON) — An 11-year-old boy was shot on Thursday in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Harris County, Texas, while walking to get something from his mother’s car, according to police.
Deputies and EMS found the boy with at least one gunshot wound to the chest and aid being administered by his family. He was transported to the hospital in critical condition and was pronounced dead there, according to Harris County police.
Harris County deputies responded to an apartment complex just before 7 p.m. after receiving reports of a shooting. Multiple shots were fired, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office Homicide and Crime Scene Units are conducting an investigation, police said.
Early stages of the investigation indicated that gunshots were heard shortly after the boy walked to the parking lot to retrieve something from his mother’s car, according to police.
Witnesses said they saw a teenage black male fleeing the scene on foot. He ran through the complex and jumped over a wooden fence to exit the complex, police said.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — The monster storm that dumped more than 1 foot of snow from Missouri to the Northeast is continuing its push east, bringing ice to the Northeast and freezing temperatures to Texas.
With 5,210 flights canceled Thursday nationwide, including over 1,400 in Dallas, the day marked the highest number of weather-related cancellations since March 14, 2017.
The latest
The heavy snow is stretching from western Pennsylvania to Maine Friday afternoon, bringing over 1 foot of snow to some areas.
Icy conditions are spreading across eastern Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey, New York’s Hudson Valley and parts of New England, including Boston.
The storm is dropping rain from Washington, D.C., to New York City.
The storm moves out of the Northeast Friday night. But temperatures will continue to plummet in the Northeast Friday night, so whatever rain or freezing rain falls will freeze on any untreated roads during the evening commute.
Those in the Northeast will wake up to freezing temperatures Saturday, with the wind chill forecast to plunge to 4 degrees in Boston, 6 degrees in New York City and 9 degrees in Washington, D.C.
Texas faces a freeze
The storm dumped 1.7 inches of snow in Dallas — more than the city usually sees in an entire year.
The storm even brought freezing rain down to Texas’ Gulf Coast. Police in Houston are urging drivers to stay off the roads due to ice, and Houston schools are closed Friday.
This storm comes one year after Texas’ power grid disaster, when back-to-back winter storms left more than 4 million people without heat and safe water. It took days for power to be restored, and more than 100 people died because of subsequent blackouts. Months later, Abbott signed a bill to reform the state’s power grid.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott assured residents Friday, “The power grid continues to perform well at peak demand during this winter storm. … The Texas electric grid is more reliable and more resilient than has ever been.”
But Texans are still feeling the freeze with the wind chill — what temperature it feels like — hitting about 8 degrees in Dallas, 7 degrees in Austin and 1 degree in Lubbock on Friday morning.
Saturday morning the wind chills will fall to the teens from Texas to Georgia.
Heading into Friday night, Abbott warned, “It is anticipated that the entire state will be in a freezing or below freezing temperature situation.”
(NEW YORK) — Disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti was convicted Friday of stealing from the client that helped him flirt with fame.
He was found guilty of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after he surreptitiously diverted $300,000 that rightfully belonged to Stormy Daniels, the pornographic performer who hired Avenatti to represent her in litigation against former President Trump.
Avenatti had pleaded not guilty and argued the evidence against him was insufficient but the jury sided with federal prosecutors who said Avenatti convinced Daniels her book publisher was late with payments owed to her for her memoir, “Full Disclosure,” when he already had the money in an account he controlled. He will be sentenced on May 24.
“The defendant was a lawyer who stole from his own client. She thought he was her advocate, but he betrayed her,” assistant U.S. attorney Robert Sobelman said. “He told lies to cover it all up, lies he told to try to get away with it.”
The jury deliberated over three days and twice, before rendering a verdict, indicated it was having trouble. A few hours after deliberations began, the jury sent a note saying, “We are unable to come to a consensus on Count One. What are our next steps?”
A subsequent note indicated a single juror “is refusing to look at evidence and is acting on a feeling.” In both instances the judge ordered the jury to keep trying.
Avenatti, who represented himself during the trial, argued he was entitled to a portion of Daniels’ book advance even though she paid him an agreed-upon retainer of $100.
“Ms. Daniels was about to embark on a fight against the president of the United States, the most powerful person on the planet. And the evidence shows that I agreed to take on that fight for Ms. Daniels. But I didn’t agree to do it for free,” Avenatti said.
At one point during trial Avenatti cross-examined his former client about her belief in the paranormal in an attempt to attack her credibility.
“She claims to have the ability to talk to the dead. She claims to have a doll who talks, plays the piano, and calls her mommy,” Avenatti said. “Does this sound like someone the government should be using as their star witness in a criminal case?”
The remark during closing statements drew a sustained objection and a response during the government’s rebuttal.
“I don’t know what you all believe, whether you think it’s kooky to believe in the paranormal, whether you believe it’s weird, whether you have beliefs in the paranormal. No idea. What matters here has nothing to do with that. It has nothing to do with that at all. She can believe whatever she wants and still be stolen from, from the defendant, and still deserves not to be,” assistant U.S. attorney Matthew Podolsky said.
Daniels became a household name after she received $130,000 in hush money from Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. She said the payment was meant to keep her quiet about an alleged affair she said she had with Trump, who has denied it.
Daniels’ attorney Clark Brewster released a statement following the jury’s verdict, saying, “Stormy is relieved this nightmare is over. The text communications between Stormy and Mr. Avenatti in real time was overwhelming proof of his deceit and embezzlement. The forgery of her name and his concealed directive to wire the money to him was irrefutable. Still, Mr. Avenatti possessed the uncanny ability to steadfastly deny the crimes and persuade others he was entitled to the embezzled funds. Stormy is pleased that the justice system worked.”
Avenatti’s conviction is his second in recent months. He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for extorting Nike and he faces a retrial in California on charges that he cheated clients other than Daniels.
(WASHINGTON) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 894,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 63.9% 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:
Feb 04, 5:01 pm
CDC director greenlights full approval for Moderna vaccine
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has given the greenlight on full approval for Moderna’s vaccine for all adults, which was the last step in the process for the vaccine to move from an emergency use authorization to a permanent approval.
Walensky’s ruling came after the CDC’s advisory committee voted unanimously Friday to give the Moderna vaccine full approval.
It has been nearly a year since Moderna received emergency use authorization.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos, Cheyenne Haslett
Feb 04, 4:55 pm
US surpasses 900,000 deaths
The U.S. has surpassed 900,000 confirmed COVID-19-related deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The death toll currently stands at 900,334.
The U.S. has had over 76 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Feb 04, 2:56 pm
9% of ICU beds free in Oklahoma, health care workers ‘1 patient away from an emotional breakdown’
In Oklahoma, where just 9% of ICU beds are available statewide, for health care workers “every day is just filled with nonstop suffering,” a nurse told ABC News.
“I just pray I don’t have to zip up another body bag, I don’t have to call someone and let them know that their loved one’s not coming home,” Kelly Hale, a nurse at Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City, told ABC News. “We’re all just one patient away from an emotional breakdown.”
“The majority of our patients are unvaccinated which adds just a whole other level of difficulty for us,” Hale said.
She continued, “No one really knows how many tears I shed. Not my family, not my friends. I really want them to know.”
“Just please be nice if you know someone in the health care field that’s going through this,” Hale said. “Just reach out see if they’re okay.”
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Feb 04, 2:09 pm
Deaths at highest point in nearly 1 year
The daily death average in the U.S. now stands at more than 2,400 — the highest daily death average in nearly one year and nearly double the average from one month ago.
But cases are continuing to fall with all but three states reporting declining or plateauing case rates. Washington state is seeing an increase in cases while Maine and Montana are reporting cases at a plateau, according to federal data.
Hospitalizations are also dropping nationwide. About 120,000 COVID-19-positive patients are currently in U.S. hospitals. Fifteen days ago, there were 160,000 patients, according to federal data.
However it’s still not clear how many of these patients were admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 and how many people coincidentally tested positive for the virus after they were admitted for other reasons.
Nearly 62 million eligible Americans remain completely unvaccinated.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Feb 04, 1:39 pm
Study: Odds of testing positive 83% lower if wearing N95/KN95 compared to no mask
A new study from the California Department of Public Health found that your odds of testing positive for COVID-19 are 83% lower if wearing an N95 or KN95 mask while indoors compared to no mask.
The odds of testing positive are 66% lower if wearing a surgical mask compared to no mask, and 56% lower if wearing a cloth mask compared to no mask, the study found.
This study, however, was conducted prior to the more contagious variants and did not inquire about additional infection control behaviors such as social distancing.
-ABC News’ Sony Salzman, Aiya Aboubakr, Nitya Rajeshuni
Feb 03, 12:37 pm
US death rate on the rise
The U.S. is now reporting an average of over 2,300 COVID-19-related fatalities each day — the highest daily death average in nearly one year, according to federal data.
In the last week alone, the nation’s daily death average has increased by more than 31%.
Overall, however, the nation’s average is still significantly lower than last winter, when the U.S. peaked at about 3,400 deaths per day.
Meanwhile, the U.S. case rate continues to drop rapidly, according to federal data (deaths are a lagging indicator compared to cases). The nation is now reporting an average of 415,000 new cases each day — nearly half the average from the nation’s omicron peak in mid-January.
But case rates still remain extremely high, with 99% of U.S. counties reporting high transmission.
Alaska currently leads the nation in new cases per capita, followed by Washington and North Dakota.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Feb 03, 11:05 am
Airlines ask White House to remove pre-departure testing for vaccinated international travelers
More than 25 trade groups representing the travel and aviation industry — including all major U.S. airlines — are asking the White House to remove pre-departure testing requirements for vaccinated international travelers coming to the U.S.
“Clearly COVID is widespread throughout the U.S. and attempts to control its importation via air travel under today’s circumstances are unlikely to change that fact,” the groups said. “No new threatening variants appear to be imminent, but if they were, pre-departure testing could be easily reinstituted.”
The letter also says the requirement is a leading factor for Americans choosing not to travel internationally out of fear they won’t be able to return to the U.S. on schedule.
-ABC News’ Sam Sweeney
Feb 03, 9:46 am
Medicare to start paying for at-home COVID-19 tests
Medicare will cover the cost of at-home COVID-19 testing kits starting this spring, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Thursday.
It will be the first time that Medicare has covered an over-the-counter test at no cost to beneficiaries. The new initiative will enable payment from Medicare directly to participating pharmacies and retailers to allow beneficiaries to pick up the at-home testing kits for free, according to CMS, a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that administers the Medicare health insurance program and works in partnership with state governments to administer the Medicaid assistance program.
CMS said it “anticipates that this option will be available to people with Medicare in the early spring.”
Last month, the U.S. government began requiring health insurers to pay for at-home COVID-19 tests. But that directive did not initially extend to Medicare, which provides health insurance coverage for Americans ages 65 and up, as well as some younger individuals with disabilities.
Feb 02, 4:49 pm
White House prepping to send out COVID-19 vaccines for kids under 5
Vaccines will be made available to the 18 million kids between the ages of 6 months and 5 years “in short order” if they’re authorized and recommended by FDA and CDC later this month, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said at Wednesday’s White House briefing.
“We’ve already secured ample doses and the necessary needles and supplies specially made for kids in this age group. Following FDA authorization, we would immediately begin packing and shipping doses to states and health care providers,” Zients said. “And in short order following CDC recommendations, parents will be able to get their kids under 5 vaccinated.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the White House, said parents should feel confident that the FDA would only approve the vaccine if it was effective and safe.
“We are anticipating that we will get a good efficacy signal for the use of vaccines in children under 5 years old,” he said, adding, “But let’s wait for the FDA determination and, ultimately, the CDC recommendation.”
Pfizer and BioNTech on Tuesday asked the FDA for emergency use authorization for their COVID-19 vaccine for children under 5. Pfizer and BioNTech said they’ve submitted data for two doses but expect the vaccine to be a three-dose series, and that the data for the third dose will be provided in the coming months.
The FDA’s advisory committee will meet on Feb. 15 to review the Pfizer vaccine for use in children under the age of 5. The advisory committee is an independent group whose vote is nonbinding, but the FDA takes it into consideration when making a final decision.
The vaccine would then need to be authorized by the FDA. The CDC advisory committee would then need to meet for recommendations, and it would also need to be approved by CDC director Rochelle Walensky.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Feb 02, 4:05 pm
More than 100,000 Americans have died from COVID since Thanksgiving
Since Thanksgiving, there have been more than 100,000 confirmed COVID-19-related deaths in the U.S., according to federal data.
The U.S. is reporting an average of nearly 2,300 new COVID-19-related deaths each day, the federal data show.
However, the nation’s death toll remains significantly lower than last winter when the U.S. peaked at about 3,400 deaths per day.
About 126,000 Americans with COVID-19 are currently in hospitals — down from 160,000 patients at the nation’s peak 13 days ago.
But 14 states are struggling with ICU capacities of 15% or less: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Feb 02, 3:10 pm
US Army will ‘immediately’ discharge unvaccinated soldiers
The U.S. Army “will immediately begin separating Soldiers from the service who refuse to be vaccinated,” the Army announced in a press release.
“Army readiness depends on Soldiers who are prepared to train, deploy, fight and win our nation’s wars,” Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said. “Unvaccinated Soldiers present risk to the force and jeopardize readiness. We will begin involuntary separation proceedings for Soldiers who refuse the vaccine order and are not pending a final decision on an exemption.”
The Army was the last of the military services to say it would remove service members who didn’t comply with the Secretary of Defense’s mandatory vaccination order. In the fall, the Army issued temporary guidance that soldiers who didn’t get vaccinated would be “flagged” so they would lose a command, not be promoted or would only remain until their contracts expired.
Under the earlier flagging policy, six commanders were removed from command, and 3,073 soldiers received reprimands. Wednesday’s announcement begins the discharge process for those 3,073 soldiers.
According to Army statistics, 96% of the Army’s approximately 475,000 soldiers are fully vaccinated, and 97% have received at least one dose.
(NEW YORK) — It has been nearly two years since Patricia Dowd, a 57-year-old San Jose resident, died of the coronavirus, in early February 2020. Although the virus would soon change the global landscape, upending our world, at the time, most Americans were still unaware of the mysterious disease spreading across Wuhan, China.
It would ultimately take more than two months for Dowd’s death to be determined as COVID-19-related – the first known American fatality, in what would soon become hundreds of thousands of more people succumbing from the infection.
Since Dowd’s death, more than 900,000 other Americans have perished from the virus, according to newly updated data on Friday from Johns Hopkins University.
“This new horrific milestone suggests our march to the unthinkable million mark is all but certain,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
Although the nation is not losing as many Americans as it did last winter, the U.S. is still reporting more than 2,300 new COVID-19-related deaths each day, marking the highest daily death average in nearly a year.
Many experts believe that the current COVID-19 death count could already be greatly undercounted, due to inconsistent reporting by states and localities, and the exclusion of excess deaths, a measure of how many lives have been lost beyond what would be expected if the pandemic had not occurred.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since Feb. 1, 2020, there have been more than 1 million excess deaths.
David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, explained that all these deaths may not be directly related to COVID-19, but some may be excess deaths from opioid overdoses, cardiovascular diseases or other illnesses, which which could have been indirectly related to the pandemic, because of reduced access to care.
“I think it’s fair to say that over 1 million Americans would still be alive today if not for the pandemic,” Dowdy said.
15.7% of the globe’s COVID-19 deaths
No nation has reported more people lost to the virus than the U.S. Although, on a per-capita basis, the U.S. ranks 19th for COVID-19 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, the nation has still reported approximately 15.7% of the world’s COVID-19-related deaths.
Americans in every state, city and town have felt the personal impact and ripple effect of the virus.
An analysis tracking the extensive reach of COVID-19 loss of kin with a bereavement multiplier, published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, estimated that 8.1 million family members may be grieving the loss of a loved one due to the virus.
The staggering number of deaths due to COVID-19 is now higher than the number of Americans who died of heart disease or cancer in 2020, and about the same as the population of Columbus, Ohio.
The number of Americans lost to COVID-19 also continues to dwarf the number of those lost due to influenza. Between Oct. 1, 2021, and Jan. 22, 2022, the CDC estimated that there have been around 1,200 to 3,500 flu deaths. Comparatively, in the same time frame, more than 150,000 Americans have reportedly died from COVID-19.
Racial and ethnic minorities in the country have also faced increased risk of testing positive, requiring hospitalization and dying from COVID-19. According to federal data, adjusted for age and population, the likelihood of death because of COVID-19 for Black, Asian, Latino and Native American people is one to two times higher than white people.
More than 400,000 Americans lost in the last year
In the early days of the pandemic, former President Donald Trump predicted that the U.S. COVID-19 death toll would be “substantially” lower than the initial forecasts suggested.
“The minimum number was 100,000 lives, and I think we’ll be substantially under that number. … So we’ll see what it ends up being, but it looks like we’re headed to a number substantially below 100,000,” Trump said in April 2020.
Less than a year after the former president made his proclamation, more than 500,000 Americans had died.
Although in the months that followed, the U.S. would record another 100,000 deaths, COVID-19 declined to record low levels, leaving many Americans feeling optimistic that a return to normalcy was around the corner.
“The bottom line is: the virus is on the run, and America’s coming back,” President Joe Biden said during a speech following the Fourth of July in 2021.
However, the delta variant, and subsequently the omicron variant, would prove otherwise, ultimately resulting in the loss of 300,000 more Americans since last summer.
Tens of millions of eligible Americans still unvaccinated
As the omicron surge continues to wane, many Americans are eager for a return to normalcy. Though the U.S. is still reporting an average of 415,000 new COVID-19 cases every day, the highest of any viral wave, the average has declined by nearly half from the wave’s peak in mid-January, when the country was reporting more than 800,000 cases each day.
However, many health officials urge caution, reigniting the nation’s recurring debate on when it is safe for cities and towns to lift COVID-19 restrictions and mitigation efforts.
“While so much of the country has decided that the pandemic is over, continued high transmission of the virus in most communities suggests the virus is not over with us. Despite all the innovations in vaccines, treatments and testing, we have still yet to get a handle on reducing severe outcomes from infection,” Brownstein said.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky offered a similar message on Wednesday, telling reporters during a COVID-19 briefing that although it is good news that new cases are falling, hospitalization levels are still quite high, leaving many health care facilities overwhelmed.
“We really do have to look at our hospitalization rates, and our death rates, to look to when it’s time to lift some of these mitigation efforts. We will continue to reevaluate, and we know people are anxious,” she said.
Nationwide, more than 120,000 COVID-19-positive Americans are still hospitalized. Though down from the peak of more than 160,000 patients hospitalized at one time in January, front-line workers say the pressure on the health care system is still immense.
“Every day is just filled with nonstop suffering. We feel like failures. I recently overheard a co-worker saying if this young girl doesn’t make it, I don’t think I can keep doing this job. And I think that’s just the atmosphere that we work in every single day. We’re all just one patient away from an emotional breakdown,” said Kelli Hale, a nurse at Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City.
According to health care workers, the majority of those who are becoming severely ill are the unvaccinated.
Nationwide, just under 62 million eligible Americans remain completely unvaccinated, and 84 million Americans — about half of those eligible — remain without a booster shot, according to federal data.
“It is tragic that, almost a year since vaccines have become widely available to the public, we continue to see thousands die each day of what is now a vaccine-preventable disease. I am devastated for the families of the people who died,” Helen Chu, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Washington in Seattle, told ABC News.
In November, unvaccinated adults had a four times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19, and a 15 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19, compared to vaccinated individuals, according to federal data pulled from 28 states and jurisdictions.
Additionally, unvaccinated adults had a 13 times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 and a 68 times greater risk of dying from it, as compared to fully vaccinated individuals with a booster.
Experts stress that the need for more Americans to get vaccinated remains urgent, particularly given the poignant reminder of thousands still dying every day.
“Of course we should consider off-ramps of public health interventions but we should continue to let the data drive decisions,” Brownstein said. “At over 2,300 deaths a day, we are still nowhere close to managing this virus.”
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — Former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday went further than he has before in publicly and directly criticizing former President Donald Trump, rebuking him as “wrong” in his criticism of Pence’s actions on Jan. 6.
His comments came after Trump earlier this week repeated the false claim that Pence had the power to hand the election to Trump in his role counting the electoral votes from the November election before Congress.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!” Trump said about Pence in a statement.
“There are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress that I possessed unilateral authority to reject Electoral College votes. And I heard this week that former President Trump said I had the right to ‘overturn the election,’ Pence said in a speech Friday to a local chapter of the Federalist Society in Florida.
“President Trump is wrong…I had no right to overturn the election,” he said. “The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone. And frankly there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American President.
“Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election And Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024,” Pence continued.
He earlier told the audience of conservative lawyers, “As Constitutional Conservatives, The American people must know that we will always keep our oath to the Constitution, even when it would be politically expedient to do otherwise; theymust know, as the Bible says, that we will “keep our oath even when it hurts.”
“Under Article II Section One, elections are conducted at the state level, not by the Congress. The only role Congress has with respect to the Electoral College is to open and count votes submitted and certified by the states. No more no less,” he said.
“Men and women, if we lose faith in the Constitution, we won’t just lose elections, we will lose our country,” Pence said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
