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Russian troops begin leaving Kazakhstan after government restores control

January 13, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(ALMATY, Kazakhstan) — Russian-led troops sent to help Kazakhstan’s government quell violent protests have begun leaving the country, according to Russia’s defense minister.

Roughly 2,300 troops were dispatched to Kazakhstan last week by a Moscow-dominated alliance of former Soviet countries, after Kazakhstan’s president appealed for assistance amid the protests that saw his government lose control in the country’s biggest city, Almaty.

Kazakhstan’s government has since re-established its grip after its security forces forcibly ended the unrest, using live fire to clear the streets in Almaty, where over a hundred were killed. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev this week announced the foreign troops from the alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), had completed their mission and could leave now that the situation in the country was stable.

Russia’s defense ministry on Thursday said the first Russian paratrooper units had taken off from Almaty. Four Il-76 transports would fly the troops and their equipment to their base in the Russian city Ivanovo, the ministry said.

Sergey Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, said the withdrawal was ongoing and would be completed by Jan. 19. In a televised meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Shoigu said the several hundred troops from other CSTO countries — Tajikistan, Belarus and Armenia — would all leave on Russian aircraft on Friday. A contingent sent from neighboring Kyrgyzstan would leave by land, Shoigu said.

Putin in the meeting said the troops had completed their mission and thanked Russia’s military command.

“On the whole we need to return home — we’ve completed our task,” Putin said.

Video published by Kazakh news media on Thursday showed CSTO troops taking part in a farewell ceremony in Kazakhstan, marching on a parade ground at a military institute in Almaty. Photos also showed Russian paratrooper boarding transport planes at the city’s airport.

Russia sent the largest contingent from the CSTO alliance, which was established as Moscow’s answer to NATO following the fall of the Soviet Union. The deployment was the first time Russia has acted through the alliance to assist a friendly regime against street protests in one of its former Soviet neighbors.

Peaceful protests began in Kazakhstan over fuel prices but they escalated into a violent uprising against Tokayev’s regime in the middle of last week. Armed mobs stormed government buildings and there was widespread looting in Almaty. Tokayev and Putin have claimed foreign-backed forces inside the country sought to exploit the unrest to stage an “attempted coup” against Tokayev.

Russia deployed soldiers as well as armored vehicles from the 45th Guards Special Purpose brigade, the 98th Guards Airborne Division and the 31st Separate Guards Order.

The Russian-led troops were not used in combat operations or against protesters, according to Kazakhstan’s authorities. Instead the foreign soldiers were used to guard key facilities, freeing up Kazakh security forces to restore order elsewhere, the government said. Russia’s defense ministry released video of Russian troops patrolling a power station.

Western countries, worried about Russian intervention in Kazakhstan, expressed concerns about whether Moscow might seek a more permanent presence in the country and whether its independence could be eroded. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken last week told reporters: “One lesson in recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it’s sometimes very difficult to get them to leave.”

The situation in Kazakhstan has calmed and Tokayev’s government appears to be back in control. In Almaty, normal life is returning, although there remains a heavy security presence in the city, according to an ABC reporter there.

Kazakhstan’s authorities said they arrested nearly 10,000 people during the protests. The interior ministry on Thursday said 524 people were currently in pre-trial detention and that 412 of them had been charged with offenses relating to the unrest. At least 164 people died, including 18 police officers, and over two thousand were injured, according to the government.

Debunking the idea viruses always evolve to become less virulent

January 13, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As evidence mounts that the omicron variant is less deadly than prior COVID-19 strains, one oft-cited explanation is that viruses always evolve to become less virulent over time.

The problem, experts say, is that this theory has been soundly debunked.

The idea that infections tend to become less lethal over time was first proposed by notable bacteriologist Dr. Theobald Smith in the late 1800s. His theory about pathogen evolution was later dubbed the “law of declining virulence.”

Simple and elegant, Smith’s theory was that to ensure their own survival, pathogens evolve to stop killing their human hosts. Instead, they create only a mild infection, allowing people to walk around, spreading the virus further afield. Good for the virus, and, arguably, good for us.

But over the past 100 years, virologists have learned that virus evolution is more chaotic. Virus evolution is a game of chance, and less about grand design.

In some cases, viruses evolve to become more virulent.

Continued virus survival, spread and virulence are all about the evolutionary pressures of multiple factors, including the number of people available to infect, how long humans live after infection, the immune system response and time between infection and symptom onset.

Unfortunately, that means it’s nearly impossible to predict the future of the pandemic, because viruses don’t always evolve in a predictable pattern.

There have been thousands of identified COVID variants, each with unique mutations. But most new variants emerge and then quickly die out, unable to compete with the reigning dominant variant.

Some variants, however, have clear “advantages to continued survival, such as those that evade the immune system and spread easily,” said Dr. Abir Hussein, associate medical director for infection presentation and control at University of Washington Medical Center.

Experts warn that it is important to assess the severity of omicron in the context of existing immunity through vaccines and prior infections.

“It is difficult to determine with new variants like delta and omicron if variants are evolving to be more or less virulent. This is because these variants emerged at a time when we had a good deal of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in certain countries,” said Andrew Pekosz, a professor of microbiology at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

People who are vaccinated or recently infected will have milder symptoms if they experience a breakthrough infection or a reinfection, studies show.

“This is not because the variant is less virulent, but because your immune system was primed from prior vaccination and infection,” said Pekosz.

Experts say omicron should not be taken lightly or thought of as a less lethal form of COVID. Even if less deadly, the omicron variant is also significantly more transmissible, leading to more deaths overall.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predict that 22,000 more people could die of COVID-19 over the next two weeks.

People who are unvaccinated remain significantly more at-risk, with officials estimating they are 17 times more likely to be hospitalized and 20 times more likely to die of COVID-19 compared to people who are vaccinated.

“The available COVID vaccines provide immunity for a range of variants and continue to be the first line of defense,” said Dr. John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.

As for the future of the pandemic, experts say new variants may emerge in the future, but they won’t be easy to predict.

Jess Dawson, M.D., a masters of public health candidate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.

COVID-19 live updates: Biden sending medical teams to hospitals in overwhelmed states

January 13, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 843,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 62.6% 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:

Jan 13, 5:02 am
Biden sending medical teams to hospitals overwhelmed by COVID-19

President Joe Biden will deploy military medical teams to hospitals in six states where COVID-19 infections are surging.

Teams of doctors, nurses and clinical personnel will be sent as early as next week to New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Michigan and New Mexico, Biden is expected to announce on Thursday alongside Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell.

Biden in December directed the defense secretary to ready 1,000 military medical personnel to deploy to hospitals across the country as needed in January and February. The teams now being readied will be the first to start arriving at hospitals.

They’ll be sent to Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, Henry Ford Hospital near Detroit, University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque and University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey.

Biden, Austin and Criswell on Thursday will also “be briefed on the administration’s efforts to send resources and personnel to hard-hit communities across the country that are experiencing a surge in hospitalizations due to the Omicron variant,” according to a White House official.

-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson

Jan 12, 7:24 pm
Testing labs now struggling with their own staffing shortages due to virus

The labs shouldering much of the nation’s PCR COVID-19 testing are getting slammed with demand again during omicron’s surge, and now they’re grappling with a new challenge: their workforces are getting hit by the virus they’ve been tasked with tracking.

The American Clinical Laboratory Association, the national trade association representing some of the leading clinical labs responsible for COVID diagnostics, is warning that their members’ workforce is strained as more workers call out sick.

“Labs are now facing a wave of new issues brought on by a fast-spreading variant that has not spared the laboratory care work force,” an ACLA spokesperson told ABC News.

COVID-19 infections have increased laboratory staff sick leave — a “significant factor in determining overall capacity” at an industry-wide level, the spokesperson said.

“We have been pressured to get our capacity where we believe it can be because of the labor problems we see,” Quest Diagnostics CEO Steve Rusckowski said Wednesday at the JPM Healthcare Conference. “Some of this is just getting the labor to do our work, but secondly, is because of callouts because of the virus have been considerable over the last two weeks.”

-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik

Jan 12, 7:00 pm
Chicago teachers accept deal to reopen classes

Chicago teachers voted Wednesday to accept the deal made by the union and city to re start in-person classes.

The deal ended the five-day standoff after the union voted to switch to remote learning due to the omicron surge.

Union leaders made a tentative agreement on Monday and urged teachers to back the deal despite frustration that the district wouldn’t grant demands for widespread coronavirus testing or commit to districtwide remote learning during a COVID-19 surge.

The final agreement will expand COVID-19 testing and create standards to switch schools to remote learning.

The deal also resulted in the purchase of KN95 masks for students and teachers and bigger incentives to attract substitute teachers. The city also agreed to give teachers unpaid leave related to the pandemic.

Jan 12, 6:07 pm
96% of Army members fully vaccinated

The U.S. Army released an update on the vaccine status of its members.

As of Jan. 11, 96% of members are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and 97% have at least one dose, according to the Army.

All armed service members are mandated to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Around 18,000 members remain unvaccinated, the data showed.

The Army has chosen not to discharge unvaccinated soldiers but instead “flag” them so they’re not promoted and are not allowed to re-enlist.

“To date, Army commanders have relieved a total of six active-duty leaders, including two battalion commanders, and issued 2,994 general officer written reprimands to soldiers for refusing the vaccination order,” the Army said in a news release.

-ABC News’ Luis Martinez

French voting app Elyze matches users with presidential candidates that share their values

January 13, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(PARIS) — What would you do if your ideal presidential candidate was only a few swipes away?

That’s the promise of the French app Elyze, which was created by students Grégoire Gazcarra, 22, and François Mari, 19, who will participate in their first presidential election in less than three months.

Elyze is for voting, not dating, but like the popular dating app Tinder, it asks users to swipe right or left — right to agree, left to disagree — with more than 500 anonymous propositions. It then ranks each user’s matches by affinity to each of the dozen candidates. In addition, the app offers a short explanation tab for each topic, and a third option if the user wants to pass rather than agree or disagree.

With the first round of the French presidential elections around the corner, Elyze’s founders want to convince young French people to vote on April 10.

“I see around me that my friends have a more distanced, even more critical relationship with the political class, and that many people do not go to vote because they have the impression that politics no longer has an impact on their daily lives, that it is no longer able to improve our lives, and that their voices, their votes, will not change anything or even are not legitimate,” Gazcarra told ABC News.

Elyze was invented to convince citizens, particularly young ones, “whatever their political sensitivity, their personal background, that their voice is worth hearing,” Gazcarra added.

The app has been downloaded more than 500,000 times since its launch on Jan. 2.

Abstention, especially among young voters, regardless of the type of election, has been a major issue in France for many years now, with notably 82% of young people ages 18 to 35 having abstained from voting during the regional elections last year.

“Our generation is disconnected from social issues and presidential elections … and multiple initiatives tried to resolve these problems, but they did not use our generation’s codes, like the swipe … So we try to use new codes,” Mari, who first got interested in politics during the first lockdown, told ABC News.

Gazcarra, who founded the non-partisan movement “Les Engagés” in 2017 to “give young people a taste for politics,” and co-created the NGO A Voté for “the defense of civil rights and democratic progress,” is convinced that, even though many French politicians are on social media, education is to blame for young people’s lack of interest and involvement in politics today.

“Our belief is that our generation is no less engaged than the previous ones, but it engages differently. … And we are convinced that to reconcile our generation with politics, we must reclaim its codes,” Gazcarra said. “We must talk to young people where they are, especially in digital spaces. … there is still a challenge for politicians to truly understand how young people interact on these platforms and what they expect from them. That said, our drive with Elyze was … to explain that the real issue is that of pedagogy.”

Since the start of his mandate, French President Emmanuel Macron has demonstrated his mastery of social media, and in recent months has increased his efforts toward connecting with young people. Back in May, in an unprecedented communication exercise, the president shot a video with famous YouTubers McFly and Carlito at the Élysée palace, following a challenge to reach 10 million views on their video about barrier measures against COVID-19.

Last summer, in a counter-offensive after the anti-health pass mobilization, he defended, phone in hand, the COVID-19 vaccination from Fort Brégançon, in a virtual Q&A with young people on TikTok and Instagram, while wearing a T-shirt.

With the rising number of COVID-19 cases amid the omicron surge in France, the presidential candidates have had to adjust their campaigns to follow the recent health guidelines. In the opposition, The Republicans (LR) cancelled a 5,000-person gathering to induct their candidate, Valérie Pécresse, on Dec. 11.

While Elyze’s creators hope to soon reach 1 million users, a recent Ifop poll revealed that more than half (59%) of 18- to 30-year-olds plan to not vote in the presidential election.

Biden heading to Capitol Hill to rally Democrats on voting rights

January 13, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is expected to head to Capitol Hill on Thursday in an attempt to persuade Democratic lawmakers to back a major change to the Senate’s rules that would allow a pair of voting rights bills to move forward.

The trip amounts to him putting his money where his mouth is, after delivering an impassioned speech Tuesday in which he said there was “no option” except for senators to do away with the filibuster — a rule that requires 60 votes, rather than a simple majority of 50, to advance most legislation — if the bills could not be advanced another way.

“I’ve been having these quiet conversations with members of Congress for the last two months,” he said Tuesday. “I’m tired of being quiet!”

The White House has said that in the wake of his speech in Atlanta — where Biden was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris — Biden and Harris “will be working the phones over the next several days pushing members of the Senate to support voting rights legislation and changes to Senate rules.”

On Thursday, the White House said, Biden will meet with Senate Democrats “to discuss the urgent need to pass legislation to protect the constitutional right to vote” and “again underline that doing so requires changing the rules of the Senate to make the institution work again.”

But Biden faces an uphill battle transforming rhetoric into action. A pair of Democratic senators — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — have remained intransigent in their opposition to taking such a step.

With prospects of passage so uncertain even after his fiery speech, the president is risking his political capital, particularly as he struggles to get another domestic priority — his “Build Back Better” social legislation — through the Senate.

Biden has made clear this week who he thinks would be to blame if he’s unsuccessful: Republicans, who he said Tuesday were choosing the side of standing in the way of advancing civil rights if they block the bills.

And all 50 Republican senators oppose the bills, which Democrats say are needed to create national standards for making voting more accessible and to put a check on new state laws that make it more difficult for members of minority groups and others to cast their ballots.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared visibly angry Wednesday as he blasted Biden’s speech, calling it “profoundly, profoundly unpresidential.” He deemed the remarks a “rant” that “was incoherent, incorrect and beneath his office.”

When asked by ABC News about McConnell’s rebuke, Biden said: “I like Mitch McConnell. He’s a friend.”

Despite Biden’s support for a carveout to the filibuster, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Wednesday that Democrats planned to use existing rules to prevent Republicans from using the filibuster to block debate from starting.

House Democrats are expected to replace an existing piece of legislation — one that would not require a vote for debate to begin — with both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, allowing them to bypass Republicans’ attempts to block the legislation from debate.

“The Senate will finally debate voting rights legislation, and then every Senator will be faced with a choice of whether or not to pass the legislation to protect our democracy,” Schumer wrote in a memo to the Democratic Caucus Wednesday.

Still, Republicans will have another opportunity to block the bill from passing by filibustering before debate ends. Without changing the rules around the filibuster, the legislation will still require 60 votes to pass.

Biden, a veteran of the Senate and a self-described “institutionalist,” has undergone an evolution in his view of the filibuster during the first year as president.

In an interview in March, Biden told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that he supports bringing back the “talking filibuster,” a version of the rule that would require a senator to “stand up and command the floor” and “keep talking” in order to hold up legislation.

Biden went further during a CNN town hall in October, noting that he would be open to “fundamentally altering” the filibuster on issues of particular consequence like voting rights.

But Biden’s most definitive comments came in December while speaking with ABC News’ David Muir, saying he would support a carveout to the filibuster in order to pass the voting rights legislation if that was the “only thing” standing in the way.

“If the only thing standing between getting voting rights legislation passed and not getting passed is the filibuster, I support making the exception of voting rights for the filibuster,” Biden told Muir.

ABC News’ Trish Turner and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.

High school sports feel impact of omicron surge, from paused games to mask mandates

January 13, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — High school athletics are feeling the impact of the omicron surge, from paused games to restricted fans, amid a winter season that coaches and administrators already anticipated would pose challenges for indoor, close-contact sports.

Amid record COVID-19 cases in the U.S., schools are revisiting coronavirus protocols and guidelines to safely keep students playing in person. Teams have had to limit out-of-state travel due to transmission risks, or postpone in-league games due to cases. The Los Angeles school district, the second largest in the country, returned from winter break in person this week with a pause on all sports competitions due to surging cases.

Despite omicron, school officials are optimistic districts won’t experience the same level of disruption as last school year — when some programs saw abbreviated seasons, if any at all — thanks to measures like vaccination and social distancing.

“It has not risen to the level that high school sports across the nation are being disrupted to the point where they can’t go on,” Karissa Niehoff, executive director of the National Federation of State High School Associations, the national leadership organization for high school sports and performing arts activities, told ABC News. “There’s never been an expressed need for shutdown because people know how to deal with it now.”

Readjusting schedules and protocols

Before the Los Angeles Unified School District returned to the classroom Tuesday following winter break, more than 65,000 public school staff and students had tested positive for COVID-19, for a positivity rate over 14%, according to district data. The school district temporarily paused all athletic competitions this week as it monitors cases, with student athletes allowed to practice outdoors while wearing a mask.

The district is also using this week to upgrade its health and safety protocols to be in compliance with stricter protocols from the county health department. Teams with four or more linked cases over a 14-day period are now required to suspend activities for a week.

“We will reevaluate our data and determine next steps before the end of the week,” the district said in a letter sent to families. “Our goal is to resume athletic competitions as soon as possible.”

As of Wednesday, the district did not have an update on its plans, a Los Angeles Unified spokesperson told ABC News.

Other entities have revised protocols amid the surge. In Washington state, all athletes and team personnel in high-risk sports are required to have regular COVID-19 testing regardless of vaccination status “in response to recent sports-related outbreaks,” health officials said. Testing frequency was also increased to three times weekly. Previously, schools were testing unvaccinated students twice a week.

The revised rules came after the state health department traced 200 COVID-19 cases to multiple wrestling tournaments in early December.

In Portland, Oregon, the school district made several changes to its COVID-19 protocols through at least early February to help stem the spread of the virus, including requirements that student-athletes wear masks at all times. For competitions, spectators ages 5 and up also now must show proof of being fully vaccinated or a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours.

Some schools have recently restricted the number of fans who can be in attendance. In Oahu, spectators are not allowed until further notice “based on the rising number of COVID-19 cases,” the Hawaiian island’s school sports association said.

In Fairfax County, Virginia, school officials are limiting crowds to just family members through Jan. 21 due to the uptick in cases in the community.

“The health department had anticipated the surge, and we’ve taken appropriate measures to try to limit as much of an impact as far as the spread of the virus,” Bill Curran, director of athletic programs for Fairfax County Public Schools, told ABC News.

Successes and challenges

Mitigation strategies have helped keep sports in play with only minor disruptions this year, Niehoff said. The measures have included protocols “big and small,” from widespread vaccination efforts to having multiple, sanitized basketballs at the ready during games, digital ticketing and concessions and frequent communication when potential postponements arise.

“If you’ve got a healthy school and then a school that can’t play, the healthy school goes and finds another healthy school and we get the game on,” she said. “We’ve been creative and supportive and a little safer, because we have a better idea of what we’re dealing with.”

Schools have gotten accustomed to being flexible during the pandemic, though it’s not without its challenges.

In New York City, sports programs this school year have had to react to evolving protocols around vaccination requirements, spectators and travel while seasons were about to start or underway.

For Shawn Mark, head coach of the South Shore boys’ basketball team in Brooklyn, limits on traveling to competitions outside the city have “hurt us.”

“To be the best you got to play against the best,” Mark told ABC News. “Sometimes it’s not always in New York City, you got to go out of town.”

All athletes in the New York City public school system — the largest in the nation — are required to be vaccinated in order to play.

The city’s public school enrollment has also dropped by about 17,000 students this year, according to preliminary data — posing another challenge as athletes have left the public school system or the city altogether, Mark said.

“They want to play, they don’t want any risk of what happened before, where a shutdown happens and then, you know, the season’s over,” he said.

Despite a couple postponements, Mark is optimistic that this season will continue.

Niehoff doesn’t expect schools to see the same level of disruption as last school year, as long as states and districts continue to exercise caution and vaccination numbers trend up.

“We are hearing a success story, obviously concerns as they arise, but they tend to be remediated pretty quickly,” Niehoff said.

Curran is “cautiously optimistic” as cases appear to be quieting down. After playing abbreviated schedules last school year, the school district has returned to its regular sports seasons.

“We are able to offer our program in a pretty meaningful way,” Curran said, noting that the impact on students’ overall health and well-being has been “phenomenal.” “We’ve seen some cancellations of games here and there throughout, but for the most part we’ve been able to keep things moving.”

Gay men still face hurdles to donate blood amid national shortage

January 13, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The U.S. is facing a national blood crisis, the “worst blood shortage in over a decade,” the American Red Cross warns. Despite this urgent need for donations, people who have sex with gay or bisexual men are still facing restrictions on their ability to give blood.

The Food and Drug Administration bars people who have had sex with gay or bisexual men from donating blood for three months following the most recent sexual contact because of fears of HIV in the blood supply.

The agency changed the deferral period from 12 months to three months in November 2020 as blood donations fell and hospitals faced critical shortages during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some advocates, including the HRC, say the FDA is moving too slowly on removing the restriction, saying that it’s an outright ban on the ability of people, particularly gay and bisexual men, to donate blood.

“Just like other individuals throughout the country, many people have sex on a regular basis, including with partners and spouses,” said Sarah McBride, the press secretary of the LGBTQ advocacy organization the Human Rights Campaign.

“It really amounts to being an effective ban, based on a person’s identity rather than an actual factor on the science,” she added.

In 2015, the guidance changed from a lifetime ban to a 12-month deferral, and the FDA determines the guidance used by all U.S. blood collection organizations.

Restrictions on blood donations from gay and bisexual men, who are considered to be at high risk for HIV or AIDS transmission, date back to the 1980s.

Gay and bisexual men undergo individual risk assessments instead of time-based bans in countries around the world, recently including Greece and France, according to international reports. Italy, Israel, and several other countries have similar requirements.

In 2020, ABC News broke the story that several major blood donation organizations — including the American Red Cross, Vitalant, and OneBlood — announced that they are working together to study and provide data to the FDA to determine if eligibility based on an individual’s risk can replace the current time-based deferral system while maintaining the safety of the blood supply.

Vitalant told ABC News in a new statement that researchers are halfway toward its goal of enrolling 2,000 participants across eight cities: Washington D.C., San Francisco, Orlando, New Orleans/Baton Rouge, Miami, Memphis, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. They encourage gay and bisexual men who are 18 to 39 years old to participate in the research.

The FDA, in a statement to ABC News, said that this study could generate data that will help the agency determine if a donor’s individual risk assessment and questionnaire would be just as effective in reducing the risk of HIV in the blood supply as the time-based deferrals the FDA already has in place.

The FDA also said it does not have a specific timeline for when these studies will be completed but that it is “committed to gathering the scientific data that can support alternative donor deferral policies that maintain a high level of blood safety.”

The America Red Cross said that there is no clear data that would suggest that changing this blood donation policy would significantly increase the number of blood donations, but the organization says it does not intend to discriminate against the LGBTQ community.

“We believe blood donation eligibility should not be determined by methods that are based upon sexual orientation and we’re committed to achieving this goal,” the American Red Cross said in a statement to ABC News.

However, according to the organization, doctors are now being forced to decide which patients receive blood transfusions and who is forced to wait due to the shortage. The organization says that “a lack of blood and platelet donations are critically needed to help prevent further delays in vital medical treatments.”

“Donors who are excluded solely on their membership in a group … doesn’t encourage safe sexual behaviors in the integrity of the population,” McBride, from HRC, said. “We want people to be engaged in safe sex practices. And we want to ensure that our blood supply is safe and sufficient.”

ABC News’ Tony Morrison contributed to this report.

Rep. Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend spotted entering Florida courthouse where grand jury is meeting

January 13, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(ORLANDO, Fla.) — A former girlfriend of Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is potentially a key witness in the ongoing federal sex trafficking investigation into the congressman, was spotted on Wednesday with her lawyer entering an Orlando federal courthouse where a grand jury has been meeting, according to a source.

The ex-girlfriend, who ABC News is not naming, could play a crucial role for investigators who are continuing to probe Gaetz’s alleged sexual conduct with a separate young woman who was 17 years old at the time.

Gaetz’s former girlfriend allegedly has knowledge not only regarding the congressman but also the one-time minor at the center of the sex trafficking investigation, sources said.

The ex-girlfriend, who previously worked on Capitol Hill, was also one of the women who was allegedly on a 2018 trip to the Bahamas with Gaetz and others, including the 17-year-old, which prosecutors are also investigating, according to legal sources familiar with the case.

A grand jury investigating the Florida congressman has been meeting at the Orlando courthouse on Wednesdays, according to multiple sources.

The news was first reported by NBC.

A spokesperson for Gaetz did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Florida congressman has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime.

Tim Jansen, the attorney representing Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend, declined comment about the probe.

Maryland school district requests National Guard to fill in for sick bus drivers

January 12, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md.) — One of the largest school districts in Maryland is asking for help at the highest level to address its bus driver shortage brought on by the omicron surge.

Montgomery County Public Schools asked county officials to urge the state to deploy the National Guard and have them drive the district’s school buses.

On Wednesday, staffing shortages resulted in 40 to 80 routes being canceled, according to Montgomery County Public Schools spokesman Chris Cram.

The school system serves more than 162,000 students and includes 1,400 buses.

Cram told ABC News the state hasn’t responded to the school district’s request as of Wednesday evening.

Montgomery County’s request is among some of the extraordinary moves that school districts have made to fill staffing shortages caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

On Wednesday, the Kansas Board of Education voted on a measure to change the requirements for hiring substitute teachers.

Anyone over 18 who has a high school diploma and passes a background check can apply to be a substitute teacher. The new regulation will remain in effect until June, officials said.

School districts in Palo Alto, California, and Hays County, Texas, have also reached out to parents to help fill the shortages caused by sick substitute teachers and other staff.

Study finds COVID-19 may increase risk of diabetes in kids: 3 things for parents to know

January 12, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Kids who have recovered from COVID-19 may have an increased risk of developing diabetes, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study, which looked at databases with information for over 2.5 million patients under 18, found that children diagnosed with COVID-19 were about 2.5 times more likely to receive a new diabetes diagnosis a month or more after infection.

The health care data, taken from the first full year of the coronavirus pandemic, showed that other, non-COVID-related infections were not found to be associated with increased risk of diabetes diagnosis, leading researchers to look for reasons for this possible link between COVID and diabetes diagnoses.

A possible link between COVID-19 and an increased risk of diabetes has also been found in adults. In June, two studies were released that showed the virus’s ability to infect pancreatic beta cells, decrease insulin secretion and effectively yield Type 1 diabetes.

In Type 1 diabetes, the body completely stops making insulin, requiring daily insulin injections, via shots or an insulin pump, to stay alive.

In Type 2 diabetes, the body continues to make insulin but develops insulin resistance, meaning the cells do not respond to insulin correctly.

The CDC’s new study on children ages 18 and under, released Friday, included cases of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in its analysis.

The new concern for kids comes as the United States continues to see its most significant COVID-19 infection surge yet, which is heavily impacting children.

Last week alone, 580,000 children tested positive for COVID-19, nearly three times more than two weeks prior, according to a weekly report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

Here are three things for parents to know about kids, COVID-19 and diabetes.

1. Not all kids with COVID will get diabetes.

Sanjoy Dutta, Ph.D., vice president of research for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on Type 1 diabetes research and advocacy, said parents should be aware that the new research shows an association between COVID-19 and diabetes, but does not identify how the virus could or whether it actually does increase the risk of diabetes in kids.

“I would not necessarily go about raising the alarm bell right now that it is increasing Type 1 diabetes,” said Dutta. “There is no mechanism yet to suggest that it is doing it or how it is doing it.”

The study did not include information about who may have had preexisting conditions that could lead to diabetes and did not include laboratory data confirming the new diagnoses.

The study also did not include people without commercial health insurance, which excludes over one-third of children in the U.S.

2. Getting vaccinated remains important.

The study’s findings highlight the importance of getting vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the CDC.

Currently, all children ages 5 and older are eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine. Children ages 12 and older, and certain immunocompromised children ages 5 to 11, are also now eligible to receive a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

Pediatricians say the safety of the vaccine is far more proven than the uncertainty of potential complications from COVID-19 for kids.

“We have never had a vaccine that we’ve ever given, going back 100 years, that long-term suddenly something showed up that didn’t show up within the first two to three or four months,” Dr. Stanley Spinner, chief medical officer and vice president of Texas Children’s Pediatrics and Texas Children’s Urgent Care, told ABC News earlier this month. “So we are very comfortable about the safety long-term of these vaccines.”

“What we don’t know is what the long-term effects of COVID can be to kids, even when they get over it now,” he continued. “Parents need to know that if your child gets COVID and seems to be OK with it, great, but what’s going to happen maybe six months or a year or five years down the road, because we definitely don’t know.”

3. There are warning signs of diabetes to look for.

The CDC is urging parents, pediatricians and caregivers to be aware of the warning signs of diabetes.

Symptoms of diabetes include thirst, hunger, frequent urination, unexplained weight loss, blurry vision and fatigue, according to the CDC.

Dutta added that parents should watch for unusual behavior patterns in their kids.

“Any unusual pattern of change in behavior in a short window of time is what I would look out for as a sign of needing to consult a doctor,” he said. “It’s not intentional, but it’s very easy to overlook some of the signs of a disease.”

Concerned parents should contact their child’s medical provider, or in the case of an emergency, seek immediate help. A delay in diagnosis can lead to diabetic ketoacidosis, a serious complication of diabetes that can be life-threatening, according to Dutta.

A diabetes diagnosis can typically be made through a blood test.

ABC News’ Sony Salzman and Robert Rowe, a resident in the ABC News Medical Unit, contributed to this report.

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