(NEW YORK) — Amid a record-breaking surge, the U.S. is now averaging more COVID-19 cases per day than at any other point in the pandemic, according to new data updated on Wednesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Federal data shows the nation is now reporting an average of more than 277,000 new cases a day, shattering the previous record of 250,000 cases per day from last January.
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“These numbers are absolutely staggering, especially considering we are two years into the pandemic,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
The record average comes after the U.S. reported two consecutive days of more than 430,000 new cases, following soaring demand for tests and a backlog of holiday reporting data.
Over the last month, the U.S. daily case average has tripled, and the nation has reported more than 1.9 million new cases in the last week alone — an average of about three Americans testing positive for COVID-19 every second.
“The combination of the most transmissible variant to date alongside holiday travel and gatherings is a recipe for record-breaking case counts,” Brownstein said, referring to the omicron variant. “These numbers are likely to be a significant undercount given, the shortages in testing and the absence of home test results in official counts.”
Although the significantly high case total is due, in large part, to the country’s latest surge, a number of factors, including data backlogs from the holiday weekend, and a surge in testing demand, may artificially increase the totals.
In addition, more than 30 states are not reporting consistently over the holiday stretch, which can also significantly skew data.
However, on Tuesday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told NPR in an interview that given the shortage in COVID-19 tests right now, ultimately, the official number of positive cases is likely undercounted.
The nation’s latest surge is widespread, with every state in the country currently experiencing high community transmission. In June, no states were reporting high community transmission.
Hospitalizations are also on the rise, according to federal data, albeit about two-thirds the levels experienced last winter.
Across the country, more than 84,000 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 — up by 40,000 patients in the last seven weeks. On average, more than 9,400 Americans are being admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 every day, up by nearly 20% in the last week.
With increased demand in testing and a renewed strain on the hospital system, the federal government has deployed surge teams to help to support the national COVID-19 response, from vaccinations, to testing, to clinical care.
More than 13,000 National Guard members have been activated in 48 states to support the nation’s COVID-19 response, including vaccinations, testing and clinical care.
On Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News’ Whit Johnson that it is difficult to know exactly when the country’s latest surge will peak, given the fact that so many Americans remain unvaccinated.
“It’s going to get worse before it gets better — that’s for sure. We don’t expect things are going to turn around in a few days to a week. It likely will take much longer than that, but that’s unpredictable,” Fauci said.
At this time, 89 million Americans remain completely unvaccinated, and less than a third of fully vaccinated people have been boosted.
(NEW YORK) — A jury has reached a verdict in the criminal trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of serial sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who is facing charges related to the alleged abuse and trafficking of underage girls.
Maxwell faces a six-count indictment for allegedly conspiring with and aiding Epstein in his sexual abuse of underage girls between 1994 and 2004. She has been held without bail since her arrest in July 2020 and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
If convicted, Maxwell could spend decades in prison.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 821,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 61.9% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-3 Americans testing positive every second
-Fauci recommends against big New Year’s parties
-WHO concerned omicron, delta leading to ‘tsunami’ of cases
-US daily case average nearly triples in 1 month
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Dec 29, 4:01 pm
3 Americans testing positive every second
The U.S. reported more than 1.9 million new cases this week, which equals about three Americans testing positive for COVID-19 every second.
The U.S. is now averaging 277,000 new cases each day, shattering the previous record average from Jan. 11, 2021, which was 250,000 cases each day, according to federal data.
Although this significantly high number is in large part due to the latest surge, it’s also attributable to the soaring demand for tests and backlogs of data following Christmas weekend.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 29, 3:01 pm
30% of New York City’s EMS out on COVID sick leave
In New York City, 30% of emergency medical workers and 17% of firefighters are out on leave tied to COVID-19 — and the fire department is reminding New Yorkers to only call 911 in a true emergency.
“If you are not severely ill, allow first responders to assist those most in need,” the FDNY said in a video message.
Meanwhile, the New York Police Department has canceled regular days off for Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 due to COVID-19 and staffing needs for New Year’s Eve.
ABC News’ Mark Crudele, Aaron Katersky
Dec 29, 2:24 pm
4 Smithsonian locations closed
Four Smithsonian locations in Washington, D.C., have closed due to an increase in COVID-19 cases over the last few days.
The four museums — the National Museum of African Art, the National Postal Museum, the Anacostia Community Museum and the National Museum of Asian Art — are expected to reopen Jan. 3.
The Smithsonian said the cases and quarantine periods impacted “essential and operational staff,” so these closures “will allow the Smithsonian to reallocate staff and keep all other museums open for the remainder of the week.”
The Smithsonian closed in March 2020 due to COVID-19 and loccations started to reopen in May 2021.
ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson
Dec 29, 2:00 pm
DC public school students, staff must test before returning to classrooms
All public school students and staff in Washington, D.C., must test when they return to the classroom after winter break.
Free rapid tests will be provided by the city to the over 90,000 students in the largest data collection D.C. has done since the pandemic began, Mayor Muriel Bowser said.
The tests will be distributed on Jan. 3 and Jan. 4. Families are asked to upload results to the city by Jan. 4 at 4 p.m.
“Any student that does not have their results loaded by Jan. 4, will not be allowed to attend school on Jan. 5,” school chancellor Lewis Ferebee told reporters.
Bowser told reporters, “We expect that we’re going to be in this winter surge for a few more weeks, so throughout January we’re going to have to maintain vigilance.”
(NEW YORK) — Following a year of both extreme heat and drought, Lake Tahoe has seen a record-breaking amount of snow this December, according to the U.C. Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab.
The Tahoe area has seen 210 inches of snow since the beginning of the month, the lab, based in Soda Springs, California, reported Wednesday. That makes this month the third snowiest on record and the snowiest December ever, per tracking from the lab that started in 1970.
If weather modeling holds up, it’s possible December could also overtake the current No. 2 record holder, February 2019, which saw a whopping 221 inches of snow, Dr. Andrew Schwartz, who works at the lab, told ABC News.
According to data from the lab, typically about 110 inches of snow will have fallen by Jan. 1 in a given water year, which begins on Oct. 1. But, so far, 2021 has already seen 264 inches of snowfall, putting the region at 258% of its average for this point in the year and breaking the 51-year-old October through December snowfall record of 260 inches set in 1970.
California recorded its second driest water year on record in 2021, according to a report from the state’s Department of Water Resources. But there’s hope that the abnormal amount of snow the Sierra has seen could help break the state’s ongoing drought.
“The snowfall that we’ve received has given us an amazing start to the water year and developed a solid foundation for upcoming snow,” Schwartz said, “but we still need average or above average snowfall in the upcoming months for it to impact the drought.”
Schwartz added that the lab has recorded receiving 70% of its average annual snowfall already, “which is great because the remaining four months with snow only need to make up that remaining 30%.”
He cautioned, however, that if those months end up being dry, then California could end up short of its average snowfall and there won’t be any improvement in the drought at all.
The Sierra snowpack typically holds about a third of California’s water reservoirs, but several are still running lower than normal, even with the increased precipitation.
Data from the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has shown mild improvement in California’s drought, with 79% of the state in an extreme or exceptional drought as of Dec. 21, down from 88% three months ago.
“So, we’re off to an incredibly promising and exciting start,” Schwartz said, “but we need some cautious optimism going forward.”
ABC News’ Hope Osemwenkhae and Daniel Manzo contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Jury deliberations in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial resumed Wednesday morning. Maxwell was walked partway into the courtroom around 9:25 a.m., wearing a burgundy turtleneck and clutching a green folio.
While the trial is in its 18th day, the jury has deliberated for about 37 hours. And it appears that the jury is no rush to render a verdict before the New Year’s holiday.
The jury, which told Judge Alison Nathan at the end of the day Tuesday, that it was “in a good place,” sent a note to the judge Wednesday morning.
“May we please have the following transcripts,” the note said before listing several names: Shawn, Cimberly Espinoza, Amanda Young and Jason Richards.
When Nathan stepped off the bench after addressing the first note, Maxwell and defense attorney Bobbi Sternheim had a close conversation while standing. Maxwell’s sleeves were rolled up and her hands were clasped behind her back. A short time later she was huddled with her other attorneys, seated at the defense table.
“May we please have the Larry Visoski testimony?” the jury also asked in a note.
Visoski, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s private pilots, was the very first witness for the prosecution. He recalled accuser “Jane” on Epstein’s plane, along with her “piercing powder blue eyes.”
The jury has now asked for transcripts of testimony from a third of the witnesses.
Shawn was the boyfriend of an alleged Maxwell victim, identified only as Carolyn.
Espinoza was the first witness called by the defense. She was Maxwell’s assistant in 1996 in Epstein’s New York office. This is the first time the defense has asked for testimony from a defense witness.
Amanda Young and Jason Richards are both FBI agents on the Epstein-Maxwell case. The defense called the two agents to testify about inconsistent statements by the accusers.
In the same note, jurors also asked about their own schedules.
“May we have clarification regarding our schedule going forward. Are we required to continue our deliberations everyday including 12/31 and 1/1? We ask in order to plan our schedules accordingly,” the note said.
Jurors asked for testimony from an additional witness but neither the judge nor the lawyers could read the name. Upon clarification, the jury asked for the transcript of Elizabeth Loftus, the defense expert witness who testified about the frailty of memory.
Regarding the schedule, the judge said she would tell jurors that deliberations would continue as needed every day going forward, including Dec. 31, Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, until there’s a verdict.
The judge said jurors could inform the court of a “substantial hardship because of unmovable commitments” but otherwise the judge said deliberations would continue uninterrupted by the holiday.
“By this I don’t mean to pressure you. You should take all the time that you need,” Judge Alison Nathan said in her reply.
Nathan cited the “high likelihood that a necessary member of the trial participants or one or more members of the jury would need to quarantine for ten days should they test positive.” She said that would result in “a substantial delay.”
(ATLANTA) — Georgia is planning to deploy the National Guard to hospitals and testing sites as the state set a single-day record for COVID-19 cases.
Over the next few days, the Georgia Department of Community Health said it will provide troop assignments depending on the centers that are in need of the most assistance.
Additionally, Gov. Brian Kemp will speak with nine hospital systems in the state Wednesday to determine where the most help is needed.
A spokesperson for Kemp’s office told WSB-TV there is not yet a breakdown of where troops will be sent.
It comes as Georgia recorded 13,670 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases Tuesday, the most reported in a single day and shattering the previous record of 10,165 set on Jan. 8.
Rising cases have led to an increased demand for testing. Drive-up centers have seen cars lined up for blocks with people waiting several hours to be screened.
Dr. Lynn Paxton, head of the Fulton County Board of Health, which includes Atlanta, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the National Guard will help reduce the long waits for testing.
“Basically, the cavalry is coming in,” she said.
The governor’s office told WSB-TV it is encouraging to see data suggesting fully vaccinated people with a booster shot are well-protected and — if they do suffer a breakthrough infection — tend to develop only mild symptoms.
Kemp, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, continues to ask residents to get their shots, but is not planning to institute any vaccine or mask mandates.
“He will continue to urge Georgians to talk with their doctors about the benefits of getting the vaccine or receiving their booster shot,” a spokesperson for Kemp said in a statement.
“Ultimately, he feels that we must trust our citizens to do what’s right for themselves and their families. He will not be implementing any measures that shutter businesses or divide the vaccinated from the unvaccinated or the masked from the unmasked.”
Kemp’s office did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment.
This is not the first time that Georgia has asked for the National Guard’s help.
In August, during the state’s delta-fueled surge, Kemp deployed more than 2,500 National Guard troops to Georgia hospitals overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.
The recent rising number of cases also led to Atlanta canceling the annual Peach Drop — Georgia’s New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration. Additionally, Emory University announced that spring semester classes will be remote until at least Jan. 31.
(LONDON) — France this week became the latest European country to tighten its coronavirus restrictions, with nations across the continent posting record numbers of COVID-19 infections in an omicron-fueled surge.
On Dec. 21, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge, warned that the omicron variant — believed by scientists to be far more transmissible than delta — was set to become the dominant variant on the continent following confirmation that it already had in Denmark, Portugal and the U.K.
Since then, the rate of infection has increased, with France, Italy, the U.K. and Spain posting historic record numbers of COVID infections in recent days. Infections, according to Kluge, are 40% higher than during the same period last year.
In France, where nearly 90% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated, from Jan. 3 there will be an obligation to work from home for three days a week and mask mandates in outdoor city centers. Several countries announced prior to Christmas that they would be introducing restrictions for after the holiday weekend.
In Germany, that means that nightclubs will have to close, large-scale events such as soccer games cannot occur with a live audience and the sale of fireworks is also banned and large-scale events for New Years’ Eve are prohibited.
The Netherlands, meanwhile, is already in an effective lockdown to combat COVID-19 infections, with schools, non-essential stores, bars and restaurants closed until Jan. 14. In the U.K., Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have reintroduced social distancing restrictions not seen since before the summer, while England has introduced health passports for mass gatherings and reintroduced mask mandates for public transport and outdoor settings.
However, England has been a notable outlier in that Boris Johnson’s government, encouraged by data that indicates the risk of hospitalization is lower from omicron than the delta variant, has not announced any new restrictions for the New Years’ period — despite the U.K. posting record numbers and more than 100,000 daily infections on several days last week.
Despite relatively high vaccination rates — around 68% of the European Union’s population has been fully vaccinated — there are concerns that not enough has been done to institute a booster drive across the continent which officials say is needed to drive up resistance against omicron.
For interstate European travel, the European Commission announced that their EU Digital COVID Certificate will only be valid for 9 months, meaning that boosters will be required for certificates to be renewed.
In several countries, life is set to become far more difficult for the unvaccinated. This month, Germany has placed major restrictions on access to public life for unvaccinated people — with only those who have been vaccinated or recently recovered allowed entry into non-essential stores, leisure facilities, bars and restaurants.
France meanwhile is set to change its COVID “health pass” into a “vaccine pass” from next month — now it is only valid with vaccination, rather than vaccination or proof of a negative test.
Several European officials have indicated that mandatory vaccinations are likely to become a fact of life in the future. Austria from February will institute a monthly fine on people who do not take up the offer of a vaccine. EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen has suggested vaccine mandates could be welcome, with concern that the estimated 150 million Europeans still unvaccinated are the group driving increases in hospitalizations.
(STATESVILLE, N.C.) — A North Carolina mom is celebrating after losing over 200 pounds, half of her original weight.
Tiesha Robinson, of Statesville, North Carolina, said she lost the weight even after struggling with it for her entire life.
“I can’t think back of when I haven’t had to lose weight or when I wasn’t trying to lose weight,” Robinson, 35, told Good Morning America. “Obesity runs in my family and then also I made a lot of wrong food choices.”
The push to lose weight came on strong for Robinson after she experienced two family tragedies, the death of her beloved aunt in 2016 and then the death of her son’s father in 2018.
“I didn’t want my son to have to go through that pain again if I could prevent it,” she said. “So that was kind of my motivation to save myself so that I could be here for my son.”
Speaking of her aunt’s death in 2016, Robinson said: “My aunt was kind of like everyone’s hero, like the backbone, so to watch her struggle to live was a turning point. It really made me realize that even though I’m strong and I try to be here for everyone, I have to show up for myself because if I’m not here, then I can’t help anyone.”
In 2017, one year after her aunt’s death, Robinson said she hit her highest weight of 416 pounds.
In 2019, after her son’s father died, Robinson began tracking her food using WW, formerly known as Weight Watchers.
“I didn’t know that I would be as successful as I am, but I knew I had to try,” she said of WW. “I knew I couldn’t give up because if I gave up on me, it would be like I’m giving up on my son, and that wasn’t an option, so I just had to throw away all the excuses and all the distractions.”
Robinson said WW’s method of tracking food showed her how to balance what she was eating and “now just indulge in everything that I wanted in one day.”
“I was able to balance healthy choices and just learn a new healthy lifestyle,” she said. “It saved my life by just learning how to eat healthy, be healthy, stay active.”
In the past two years, Robinson said she has lost 208 pounds and changed her life. Her weight loss transformation is featured in People magazine’s 2021 “Half Their Size” issue, available on newsstands now.
She said she is now more “mindful” and in control of her diet, and has taken up hobbies like Zumba, walking and writing poetry that she turns to instead of food.
Robinson said she and her son, now 15, joined a gym together just before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but she has since learned to love working out at home, which she said helps her eliminate any excuses.
“I learned to exercise at home and that way I don’t have no excuse,” she said, noting she takes Zumba classes on YouTube or plays a dance game on an Xbox. “If it’s too late, I’m in my house so I can exercise. If it’s early and I have energy, I have the opportunity to exercise.”
Through her weight-loss journey, Robinson said she has learned to “set goals, not limits,” which is the advice she gives to others.
“I will say just refuse to give up on yourself,” she said. “Refuse to give up, learn to adapt and if you mess up, don’t make that an excuse to give up.”
Robinson said she has also learned the importance of celebrating her own accomplishments on her weight-loss journey, instead of waiting for other people’s approval.
Her most important advice, she said, is to just start out on the journey, saying, “In order to finish, you have to start, so just get started and keep going.”
(NEW YORK) — Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah has declined to pursue criminal charges against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for allegations made by two women that he kissed them on the cheek.
While her investigators found “credible evidence” that the alleged conduct had occurred, Rocah said the actions did not meet the requirement to be prosecuted as a criminal act.
“Our investigation found credible evidence to conclude that the alleged conduct in both instances did occur,” Rocah wrote in a statement. “However, in both instances, my Office has determined that, although the allegations and witnesses were credible, and conduct concerning, we cannot pursue criminal charges due to the statutory requirements of the criminal laws of New York.”
Rocah’s investigation, which began after the release of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ report on Cuomo, examined the accusations made by a state trooper on Cuomo’s security detail and by a woman who alleged Cuomo gave her an unwanted kiss during an event at White Plains High School.
The trooper alleged that she was on duty at the governor’s home in Mount Kisco when he asked if he could kiss her. She said that she said “sure” because she was afraid of the ramifications of saying no. He allegedly kissed her on the cheek and “then said something to the effect of, ‘oh, I’m not supposed to do that’ or ‘unless that’s against the rules,'” according to the attorney general’s report.
The second woman alleged in the report that Cuomo grabbed her arm and pulled her toward him to kiss her on the cheek.
Rocah is the second prosecutor in recent weeks, after Nassau County District Attorney Joyce Smith, to decline to prosecute Cuomo based on his actions not meeting the statutory requirements for a criminal act. Smith made similar comments as Rocah, saying she found the allegations “credible, deeply troubling, but not criminal under New York law.”
Editor’s Note: This story originally said charges were not pressed because they were outside the statute of limitations. It has been updated to say that charges were not pressed against Cuomo because they did not meet the statutory requirements of the law, not because they were outside the statute of limitations.
(NEW YORK) — Over the past year, routine space tourism emerged from science fiction to reality, digital art you can’t even touch auctioned for millions at Christie’s, and malicious attacks emanating from cyberspace crippled real-world critical infrastructure in the U.S.
The technology industry unceasingly shaped the way Americans lived in 2021, embedding its brands and tools into intimate parts of daily life as the ongoing pandemic further normalized virtual work, school and socializing.
The promises of tech’s ability to make our lives easier and more efficient continued to drive U.S. economic growth in the shadow of the relentless health crisis, but also exposed new pitfalls as more Americans lived their lives in a digital world where misinformation on everything from elections to vaccines thrives. This manifested off-the-screen in ominous ways during 2021, including an unprecedented post-election riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and an “anti-vax” movement that has prolonged the suffering wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The gatekeepers of Big Tech saw their net worth surge over the past year, but also endured a year of major shakeups: from Jeff Bezos stepping down as Amazon CEO, to a scandal-plagued Facebook rebranding as Meta, to Jack Dorsey resigning from Twitter. The mounting power of tech giants also came under renewed scrutiny — albeit accompanied by little action — from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Despite the wild 12 months where Americans watched, seemingly in real time, as technology transformed society in good and bad ways, experts are holding onto hope that the lessons we’ve learned in 2021 can inform us going forward.
“I’m trying desperately to be optimistic,” Karen Kornbluh, the director of the Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative at the German Marshall Fund, and a former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development during the Obama administration, told ABC News of the tech industry’s past year. “This has been a learning year. We didn’t need another learning year — but I do think a lot of people learned a lot about how this all works and how entrenched it is and how dangerous it is.”
Still, Kornbluh argues that the tech sector is “so innovative and creative and allows people to do so many things we never could have imagined before.”
“We can’t lose our sense of wonder about it all, and because there are these new opportunities, I do think the industry is going to try to put a lot of these problems behind it before we move into this new era,” she said.
Here is a look at the year in tech, lessons the industry has learned and what to expect looking forward into 2022.
Jeff Bezos becomes an astronaut and routine space tourism blasts off
While it used to take the backing of entire nations to launch humans into space, that has all changed in the past year as the new billionaire-backed corporate space race officially blasted off to new heights.
A record-high 13 human spaceflights were launched in 2021, more than triple the number launched in 2020. Eight of them were launched with the backing of private industry and one more carried a Japanese millionaire tourist as a passenger.
Key players in the emerging space tourism sector — including Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic — all flexed their muscles over the past year in a series of launches that sought to prove humanity’s new capability of routine spaceflight.
The industry took heat from some as simply a new playground for the ultra-wealthy, as pandemic-battered Americans watched billionaires including Bezos and Branson blast off on back-to-back joyrides to the edge of space this past summer and initial seats sold for up to $28 million. While economic inequality and environmental concerns compounded animosity towards this new arena, experts have argued that private sector involvement in the new space race has saved money for NASA and driven new innovations that can improve everyday life back on Earth.
For Star Trek actor William Shatner, who became the oldest person to go to space this past October at the age of 90 on a Blue Origin flight, the new technology that allows humans to take a quick trip to the edge of space instilled a deep sense of awe.
“What you have given me is the most profound experience. I am so filled with emotion,” the actor, who spent his career pretending to cruise the cosmos, told Bezos immediately upon landing. “I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. I don’t want to lose it. I am overwhelmed.”
“Everybody in the world needs to do this,” Shatner added.
NFT craze goes mainstream, upending the art world and headlining Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade
Over the course of 2021, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) went from an obscure buzzword among blockchain insiders to an inescapable craze that even headlined the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.
NFTs, or one-of-a-kind digital artifacts that use blockchain technology (the same digital ledger system that supports cryptocurrency) to prove ownership and individuality, exploded in popularity over the past year in a craze that has left some scratching their heads.
In February, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sold the first-ever tweet (a 2006 social media post that reads “just setting up my twttr”) as an NFT for some $2.9 million. In April, a collage made by digital artist Mike Winklemann (also known as Beeple) fetched a whopping $69 million when it was auctioned by Christie’s.
The sum at which Beeple’s art sold especially raised eyebrows for some. The artist has been known to upload his digital artwork for free on Instagram and his website, leading many to question what is driving the value of him now selling it in the form of an NFT. More perplexing for some, viral memes and gifs that were once sources of free and seemingly useless entertainment online are also fetching huge sums of cash when sold as NFTs. The so-called “nyan cat” meme, a digital image of a pixelated feline flying on a rainbow, racked in nearly $600,000 when it was sold as an NFT in February.
It’s estimated that total NFT sales are expected to generate a staggering $17.7 billion in 2021 alone, according to research compiled by crypto industry outlet Cointelegraph.
Despite some skeptics calling the craze a bubble, many experts don’t see demand for NFTs dwindling anytime soon — especially as the world increasingly shifts online and with the mainstream launch of the metaverse.
“They’re here to stay,” Christian Catalini, the founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Cryptoeconomics Lab, told ABC News of NFTs. “Because they do represent a fundamentally novel way to design all sorts of interactions.”
“I think we’re still in a very embryonic phase and I would assume as the space matures, that’s when actually these things will become more useful,” Catalini added.
“Often with technology, we tend to overestimate how quickly it can change our lives in the short term, or we also tend to underestimate how much it will change them in the long term,” Catalini said. “With all of these technologies, there’s a lot of potential in the long run, and there’s a lot of things that need to be figured out in the immediate term — and I think that’s all happening live, right now.”
The rise of ransomware
The widespread adoption of new technology also led to new threats emerging from the cyber world. A spate of high-profile cyberattacks, many involving ransomware, revealed new potential dangers for businesses and even critical infrastructure as attackers seemingly grew more brazen with their targets in 2021.
A cybersecurity attack in May on Colonial Pipeline, operators of one of the largest fuel conduits in the U.S., led to a multi-day shutdown of the pipeline that provides nearly half of all fuel used on the East Coast — by hospitals, schools, and much more. The company ended up paying the hackers some $4.4 million in cryptocurrency, some of which the Department of Justice eventually seized back. Just weeks later, the world’s largest meat processor, JBS, revealed it was also hit by a cyberattack involving ransomware.
Experts say use of this malicious technology surged over the past year due to a confluence of factors, including the rise of harder-to-trace cryptocurrency and a work-from-home boom that has resulted in novel IT vulnerabilities for many firms.
“Ransomware attacks are becoming more prevalent, and especially with more enterprises in a semi-remote environment,” tech industry analyst Dan Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, told ABC News, “and the ransomware attacks, we expect they could be up another 50%, going into 2022.”
“That’s really going to catalyze more spending for cybersecurity,” he added. “We think cybersecurity spend is going to skyrocket over the next year given the amount of threats facing enterprises, as well as governments, around the world.”
Tech fuels a ‘green tidal wave’ in autos
Also over the course of 2021, it became undeniable that the auto industry as a whole was reaching an inflection point and shifting away from the gasoline-burning combustion engines that have been used for generations and toward electrification.
Nearly every major car producer — from General Motors to Ford to Toyota — announced massive new investments into electrification of vehicles over the past year, and the Biden administration unveiled the goal of half of all new car sales in the U.S. to be electric vehicles by 2030.
“It’s really a green tidal wave that’s taken hold in terms of more consumers wanting to purchase electric vehicles,” Ives told ABC News. “Today, only 3% of automobiles in the world of EVs. We think that that goes to 6% by 2022 and 10% by 2025, and this green tidal wave we view as a $5 trillion market over the next decade.”
“You’re also seeing a blurring of lines between technology and autos” Ives said. “I think that’s going to be a big theme as companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon focus more and more on electric vehicles.”
In the shadow of scandal and scrutiny, Big Tech pivots toward the metaverse
In the wake of multiple scandals plaguing his beleaguered tech giant, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced this year that he was changing the company’s name from “Facebook” to “Meta” to reflect a shifting focus on the metaverse.
The three-dimensional digital world created by augmented and virtual reality products and services, will be “the successor to the mobile internet,” Zuckerberg said during his keynote at Facebook’s Connect conference in late October. The chief executive’s vision for the metaverse will be a place where people meet, socialize, work and shop — all via a digital avatar of themselves and VR hardware.
2021 marked the year the metaverse took “center stage of growth, as more investors realize this is not just about the gaming sector,” Ives told ABC News.
“It’s going to take time for the metaverse to ultimately form, to unleash the potential that many see for it today,” he added, but said ultimately, “the metaverse is going to be a trillion-dollar market over the next decade.”
It’s not just Facebook-turned-Meta that has its eyes on the new digital horizon either, Ives added, saying, “We believe Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook combined could spend $10 billion on the metaverse over the next two years.”
Public trust in tech giants to build a new digital world safely has dwindled over the past year, as whistleblower Frances Haugen accused Facebook of “choosing to prioritize its profits over people” in her opening statement while testifying before lawmakers in October. Haugen alleged blatant disregard from company executives for potential harms their services can cause to democracy and the well-being of young people.
Kornbluh, who has spent the past year working with policymakers and beyond on potential reforms for an industry that has been largely left unregulated, also testified alongside Haugen in front of a House panel at a separate hearing earlier this month.
“It’s been a year when sort of the collective ‘we,’ like the policymakers in general, came to a better understanding of the problem and solution set,” she told ABC News of the renewed focus out of Washington on Big Tech. Still, with partisan politics and a midterm election year, she said she’s skeptical we will end up seeing any actual law changes in the near-term.
“I think Congress has made a lot of progress in thinking about it, but I think it’s hard to imagine that they’ll come to some agreement in an election year,” she said of any new legislation.
Ives echoed her sentiments, saying that despite the new focus, investors don’t see law changes coming on the immediate horizon.
“It feels like there’s been a tipping point from a regulatory perspective, both in Brussels as well as the Beltway, focused on the antitrust, monopolistic nature of these businesses,” Ives told ABC News. “The lack of consensus within the Beltway continues to be the dividing issue to get law changes.”
Despite the apparent impasse, Kornbluh says with Facebook and tech giants “moving onto the metaverse, do they want to keep having all these same discussions about social media?”
“I think the platforms may want to move on, and realize it’s not going to fix itself,” she said, suggesting companies themselves have signaled they are more open to reforms related to internet regulation.
Despite the volatile past year, Kornbluh said she remains optimistic about the future of tech, and especially the metaverse.
“It’s going to open up all kinds of creativity and innovation and hopefully, because there are these new opportunities for new industry and new businesses, that that will clear up a lot of this underbrush that we learned about before we get there,” she said. “Hopefully this was like a run, and we’ll figure out what to do differently before we move on.”
