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US-supplied howitzers to Ukraine lack accuracy-aiding computers

May 20, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(KYIV, Ukraine) — Dozens of artillery systems supplied by the United States to Ukraine were not fitted with advanced computer systems, which improve the efficiency and accuracy of the weapons, ABC News has learned.

The M777 155mm howitzers are now being used by the Ukrainian military in its war with Russia.

The Pentagon did not deny that the artillery pieces were supplied without the computers but said it had received “positive feedback” from the Ukrainians about the “precise and highly effective” weapons.

That positive sentiment was echoed by a Ukrainian politician, who spoke to ABC News on condition of anonymity. However, the politician also expressed frustration that the artillery pieces had not been the fitted with the digital computer systems.

Artillery is currently playing a crucial role in the fighting raging in eastern Ukraine as Russia continues its offensive in that part of the country.

U.S. officials recently confirmed that all but one of the 90 howitzers promised to Ukraine had now been delivered, along with tactical vehicles used to tow them.

If fitted to a howitzer, the digital computer system enables the crew operating the weapon to quickly and accurately pinpoint a target.

Howitzers without a computer system can still be fired accurately, using traditional methods to calculate the angle needed to hit a target. Modern computer systems, however, rule-out the possibility of human error.

Why the artillery pieces supplied to Ukraine did not have the digital targeting technology installed is unclear. The Pentagon said it would not discuss individual components “for operational security reasons.”

The revelation about the lack of computer systems on the howitzers comes amid broader frustration in Ukrainian political circles that the U.S. has not yet supplied certain types of advanced weaponry.

To date, the U.S. and its allies have provided Ukraine with an impressive quantity and array of weapons including thousands of anti-tank missiles, thousands of anti-aircraft missiles, hundreds of armored vehicles and armored personnel carriers and hundreds of attack drones.

However, the Ukrainian government is currently lobbying the United States for multiple rocket launcher systems and western-made fighter jets, such as F16s.

Ukrainian politicians interviewed by ABC News said it was urgent that Ukraine received these types of weapons now, because they believe that Russia is vulnerable following a string of failures on the battlefield.

“Russia is very weak now. Their army is very demoralized,” said a Ukrainian politician.

“What we are saying is that we need all the multi-rocket-launcher systems now. This is the best time for us to get the Russians out of our country.”

“To do that, we need really good U.S. weapons,” the politician said.

ABC News’ Luis Martinez contributed to this report.

Two Secret Service employees being sent home from South Korea ahead of Biden’s arrival after alleged incident: Sources

May 20, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Two Secret Service employees — an agent and an armed physical security specialist — in South Korea to prepare for President Joe Biden’s impending arrival are being sent home after an alleged alcohol-fueled incident that ended with a report being filed with local police, according to two sources briefed on the situation.

The personnel were assigned to help prepare for the presidential visit when they went out for dinner and then stopped at several bars, the sources told ABC News. As the evening progressed, the two Secret Service staffers became apparently intoxicated and the agent wound up in a heated argument with a cab driver, according to the sources.

Police were called and a report detailing the “altercation” was filed, one source said.

“The Secret Service is aware of an off-duty incident involving two employees which may constitute potential policy violations,” agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement to ABC News. “The individuals will be immediately returned back to their post of duty and placed on administrative leave. There was no impact to the upcoming trip. We have very strict protocols and policies for all employees and we hold ourselves to the highest professional standards. Given this is an active administrative personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further.”

The agent who allegedly got into the argument with the cab driver is scheduled to be interviewed by local police before boarding a flight back to the U.S. The decision to send them home was made while the president was still en route to Asia.

The latest episode in the Far East carries echoes of the 2012 scandal in which Secret Service employees were investigated for drinking heavily and hiring prostitutes while preparing for a trip by then-President Barack Obama to Cartagena, Colombia.

Of the 13 agents first suspected of soliciting prostitutes in Cartagena, three were cleared of wrongdoing and returned to duty, six resigned or retired, and four had their security clearances revoked or were removed, according to a report by the Homeland Security Department inspector general issued in December 2013. According to the report, the agents in Colombia consumed as many as 13 alcoholic drinks “before engaging in questionable behavior.”

“The Secret Service conducts thousands of advances for protectees each year, including for the president overseas,” said retired senior Secret Service agent Don Mihalek, an ABC News contributor. “Through it all, the president has been kept safe and few incidents have arisen. Despite that, the Secret Service is made up of people, some who make mistakes. When they do though, the response has been thorough to ensure that the integrity of the mission is always maintained.”

Suspect in Dave Chappelle attack charged with attempted murder in separate incident

May 20, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — The suspect who allegedly rushed and tackled comedian Dave Chappelle on stage last month has been charged with attempted murder in a separate incident after the victim identified the man from media coverage surrounding the Chappelle case, prosecutors said.

Isaiah Lee, 23, faces one count of attempted murder, a felony, for allegedly stabbing his roommate in December, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced Thursday.

Prosecutors allege that Lee stabbed his roommate during a fight at a transitional housing apartment on Dec. 2. The victim reported the incident to police and recently identified Lee as the perpetrator following news of the Chappelle attack, according to the district attorney’s office.

“The publicity generated by the attack on Mr. Chappelle helped police solve this crime,” Gascón, whose office is prosecuting the case, said in a statement.

Lee pleaded not guilty to the charge on Thursday in Los Angeles criminal court, the district attorney’s office said. His next court appearance is scheduled for June 2.

Attorney information for Lee in the felony case wasn’t immediately available.

The case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Lee has pleaded not guilty to multiple misdemeanor charges stemming from the Chappelle incident, which occurred during the Netflix Is A Joke Fest at the Hollywood Bowl on May 3.

He was arrested and booked at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollywood station following the show and was initially held on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney decided not to move forward with felony charges because Lee was not brandishing the knife that looked like the gun, court records show.

The case was referred to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, which charged Lee with four misdemeanor counts — battery, possession of a weapon with intent to assault, unauthorized access to the stage area during a performance and commission of an act that delays the event or interferes with the performer.

During an arraignment hearing on May 6, a judge ordered that Lee not come within 100 yards of Chappelle or the Hollywood Bowl.

In the wake of the attack, Gascón said he’s creating a “roundtable” made up of venues, event security and law enforcement to improve safety and security at events.

ABC News’ Jennifer Watts contributed to this report.

U.S. firearm production, imports ramp up in recent decades: Report

May 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The production of firearms in the U.S. has ramped up exponentially in recent decades with domestic manufacturing more than doubling and imports more than quadrupling, according to a new study by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The increases between the years 2000 and 2020 were fueled by the mass proliferation of the pistol as the most widespread firearm type and a 24,080% percent increase in manufacturing of short-barreled rifles, according to the ATF report. The number of firearms made in the U.S. increased by 187% and the number imported increased by 350% over the same period.

The report comes as the nation is still reeling from a mass shooting that left 10 Black people dead in a Buffalo, New York, supermarket last weekend. The suspected gunman legally purchased the Bushmaster rifle used to carry out the shooting with some modifications currently illegal in the state of New York, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.

The nation’s patchwork of gun laws has been largely relaxed by Supreme Court decisions as well as state and federal legislation over the time period studied. Two Supreme Court cases that struck down local gun control ordinances in Chicago and Washington, D.C, paved the way for fewer restrictions on individual firearm purchases.

The report also looked at the more recent adoption of untraceable firearms called “ghost guns” — often assembled from parts bought online or made at a private residence.

“One of the most significant developments affecting lawful firearm commerce and law enforcement’s ability to reduce illegal access to guns in this period has been the proliferation of privately made firearms also known as “ghost guns,” the ATF Los Angeles Field Office said in a statement on the report.

The number of firearms recovered by law enforcement believed to be privately made increased 1,000% between 2016 and 2021, according to the report.

The U.S. ranks first in the world for the number of firearms in the hands of civilians, according to a 2018 report by the nonpartisan Small Arms Survey. Yemen, Montenegro, Serbia and Canada round out the top five when adjusted for population size, although all have less than half the number of firearms per capita than the U.S.

Wall Street suffers more losses as investors worry inflation catching up with consumers

May 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — It was another volatile day on Wall Street as investors worry that high inflation may finally be catching up with consumers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 236 points, one day after plunging more than 1,100 points, while the S&P 500 inched closer to bear market territory — market shorthand for a 20% fall from a recent high.

“It’s important to remember that the market is not the economy,” Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities told ABC News. “The market is a predictor of what the economy might look like six or 12 months down the road. So right now, I think the market is trying to tell us there’s a chance the economy could get worse than it is right now.”

This week’s stunning stock sell-off was triggered by weaker-than-expected profits from retail giants including Target (TGT), Walmart (WMT) and Kohl’s (KSS). Each company cut its profit outlook for the year and said higher costs for labor and transportation hurt its bottom line.

Consumers are still spending despite surging prices. Retail sales rose 0.9% in April, about in line with estimates, but they’re starting to adjust their spending habits.

On Walmart’s earnings call, CEO Doug McMillon said shoppers are beginning to switch from discretionary purchases to lower-margin items such as groceries and other household staples.

Record-high gas prices continue to take a bite out of household budgets. Gas prices are now above $4 per gallon in all 50 states, and analysts expect prices to go even higher. JPMorgan Chase predicted the busy summer driving season could push the national average past $6 per gallon by August.

Economists expect those higher gas prices to fan inflation, which is already at a 40-year high thanks to a perfect storm of factors: strong consumer demand, persistent supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, COVID-19-induced lockdowns in China and now the war in Ukraine.

The Federal Reserve is answering back by aggressively raising interest rates to curb consumer demand and bring down inflation. Investors fear those higher rates will slow growth so much that they will tip the economy into a recession.

Sixty-eight percent of CEOs surveyed by The Conference Board now expect the Fed’s war on inflation to trigger a recession sometime next year, according to a press release.

First monkeypox case in US this year reported in Massachusetts

May 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A Massachusetts resident has tested positive for monkeypox, health officials confirmed Wednesday, making it the first case of the rare virus detected in the United States this year.

According to a release from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the patient is an adult male who recently traveled to Canada. The department completed initial testing Tuesday and was confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The case poses no risk to the public, and the individual is hospitalized and in good condition,” MDPH stated in a press release. “DPH is working closely with the CDC, relevant local boards of health, and the patient’s health care providers to identify individuals who may have been in contact with the patient while he was infectious.”

The New York City Department of Health announced Thursday that it was investigating a possible case of monkeypox. The patient is being cared for at Bellevue Hospital and all appropriate isolation measures are being followed, according to the department. The patient’s tests will be sent to the CDC for confirmatory testing, the department said.

It comes after four more cases of monkeypox were identified in the U.K recently, bringing its nationwide total to nine since the beginning of May.

The resident was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on May 12 and “during the course of their admission they were identified as a possible monkeypox suspect,” Dr. Erica Shenoy, associate chief of the hospital’s infection control unit, told reporters during a briefing Wednesday.

Hearing about cases of monkeypox in the U.K. encouraged doctors to “think more broadly about the patient’s diagnosis,” Shenoy said.

Hospital officials said they are unaware of any cases in Canada at this time and do not know where the resident may have contracted the disease.

Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by the monkeypox virus. The first case among humans was recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970, and the illness has since spread to several other nations, mostly in central and western Africa.

It can transmit from animals to humans when an infected animal — such as a rodent or a primate — bites or scratches a person. The CDC said humans can also be infected when hunting wild animals or preparing bush meat for consumption.

The disease can also spread from person to person via large respiratory droplets in the air, but they cannot travel more than a few feet, so two people would need to have prolonged close contact.

The most common symptoms are fever, headache, fatigue and muscle aches.

Very few cases of monkeypox have been identified among Americans.

According to the CDC, the disease does not naturally occur in the U.S. Infections are usually identified among people who recently traveled to countries where monkeypox is more commonly found.

In 2003, 47 confirmed and probable cases were reported in six U.S. states, the first human cases reported outside of Africa.

All the infections occurred after coming into contact with pet prairie dogs, which in turn became infected “after being housed near imported small mammals from Ghana,” the CDC stated.

Since then, just two other cases have been detected in the U.S., both associated with travel.

In July 2021, a case was confirmed in a Texas resident who had recently returned from Nigeria and in November 2021, another case was found in a Maryland resident who had also traveled to Nigeria.

ABC News’ William Gretsky contributed to this report.

Family of former suspect in disappearance of Brittanee Drexel ‘devastated’ by investigation

May 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) — The family of the man who had previously been named a suspect in the 2009 disappearance of 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, said the investigation had ruined their lives for years.

Timothy Taylor was named by the FBI as a suspect in Drexel’s disappearance in 2016, ABC Charleston affiliate WCIV reported. An informant told FBI agents that he saw Taylor, who was 16 at the time of Drexel’s disappearance, and others sexually abusing Drexel at a home in McClellanville, South Carolina, about 60 miles south of Myrtle Beach.

Drexel had been on a spring break trip when she disappeared.

On Monday, authorities announced that Raymond Moody, 62, had been arrested for Drexel’s murder after her remains were found in a wooded area in Georgetown County, South Carolina, last week.

Timothy Taylor’s mother, the Rev. Joanne Taylor, for years insisted her son was innocent, saying the teen spent time in church, had a strict bedtime and could not have been involved in Drexel’s murder.

When federal agents named Timothy Taylor a suspect, he was in federal court on unrelated charges stemming from a 2011 robbery at a McDonald’s.

He was convicted on state and federal armed robbery charges and was sentenced in 2019 to three years of probation.

The FBI told WCIV Monday that Taylor was no longer a suspect in Drexel’s disappearance after a man who had been named a person of interest as early as 2012 was arrested. The portion that included the investigation into Taylor’s alleged involvement “has been concluded,” the FBI spokesperson said.

“We are confident that with Moody’s arrest we have the man responsible for Brittanee’s murder,” the FBI spokesperson told the station.

During a press conference on Thursday, Taylor’s family and friends expressed how devastating the investigation had been.

“Following investigations is one thing, but deliberately and intentionally making them strange fruit that is hung before the court system at the hand of a gavel, and unjust investigators is definitely unfair,” said the Rev. Lawrence Bratton. “This family has been devastated, ruined for the last 15 years, emotionally, psychologically, financially, and in every way that you can imagine down to the next generation.”

An FBI spokesperson did not immediately respond to an ABC News request for comment on the family’s statement.

Bratton said that even as the criminal justice system abandoned them, the community, as well as groups such as the National Action Network, the NAACP and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance stood firmly beside the Taylor family.

“How do you do that? How do you take a family, devastate them and walk away and say no harm, no foul,” Bratton said in response to the FBI’s announcement that Timothy Taylor had been cleared.

The Rev. Joanne Taylor said that while the family’s heart goes out to the loved ones of Drexel, her son was “suspected without any credible evidence of a crime he did not commit” and “maintained his innocence in the face of relentless pursuit by local and federal law enforcement, investigators and the media.”

“The years long fight against accusations, false accusations, and the media frenzy that shoot us has traumatized us, affecting every aspect of our lives,” she said. “It has publicly questioned without reason our family, our families character, and it has shaken us to the core.”

Timothy Taylor did not appear at the press conference with his family.

Drexel traveled to Myrtle Beach from her parents’ home in the Rochester, New York, area in April 2009, despite her mother denying her permission to go, Melissa Drexel told ABC News. She was last seen on April 25, 2009, on a hotel surveillance camera as she was leaving a friend’s room at the Blue Water Resort to walk back to the hotel where she was staying — about a mile-and-a-half walk down the busy Myrtle Beach strip, ABC Rochester station WHAM reported.

Her remains were found less than 3 miles from a motel where Moody had been living at the time of Drexel’s disappearance, Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver said.

Authorities said that Moody buried Drexel’s body, but did not answer questions on how Drexel’s remains were found.

Moody is being held without bond at the Georgetown County jail and is expected to be charged with rape, murder and kidnapping, said Jimmy Richardson, solicitor for Horry and Georgetown Counties, on Monday.

“In the last week, we’ve confirmed that Brittanee lost her life in a tragic way, at the hands of a horrible criminal who was walking our streets,” said FBI special agent in charge Susan Ferensic during a press conference on Monday.

In 2012, Moody had been identified as a person of interest in the disappearance but there was not enough evidence to name him as a suspect, officials said.

Even though Timothy Taylor’s name has been cleared, his “name and face will forever be linked to Brittanee Drexel,” his mother said.

“I call for law enforcement to halt the practice of disclosing unfounded leads and names of potential suspects without credible evidence,” she said. “Doing this has real life consequences and a lasting dispersion effect on so many, particularly us Black families.”

ABC News’ Ben Stein contributed to this report.

Jan. 6 committee seeks info from 6th House Republican over alleged Capitol tour

May 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has requested information from a sixth House Republican, Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, suggesting in a letter Thursday that he may be linked to a tour through parts of the Capitol on the day before the attack.

“We believe you have information regarding a tour you led through parts of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021,” Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., wrote in a letter to Loudermilk Thursday.

The letter comes in response to a Democratic House member’s request for Capitol security to investigate allegations that GOP lawmakers led reconnaissance tours around the Capitol complex ahead of the attack.

“In response to those allegations, Republicans on the Committee on House Administration — of which you are a Member — claimed to have reviewed security footage from the days preceding January 6th and determined that ‘[t]here were no tours, no large groups, no one with MAGA hats on.’ However, the Select Committee’s review of evidence directly contradicts that denial,” the letter to Loudermilk says.

The panel, which is looking to hold public hearings in June, suggested meeting with Loudermilk on the week of May 23.

In a statement, Loudermilk and Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., the ranking member of the House Administration Committee, accused the committee of promoting a “verifiably false narrative.”

Loudermilk said that on Jan. 5, he met with a constituent’s family in a House office building, but never entered the Capitol Building. No member of the family was on Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, or was investigated or charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, Loudermilk said in the statement.

The request for Loudermilk’s cooperation comes a week after committee issued subpoenas to five House Republicans — Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Ronny Jackson, R-Texas — after they refused to cooperate voluntarily with the panel.

Ford urges some of its SUVs to be parked outside over fire risks

May 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Ford is urging owners of 2021 Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators to park their vehicles outside and away from any structures due to a fire risk, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Thursday.

According to the recall documents, more than 39,000 Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators have a defect that causes risk of “underhood fire, including while the vehicle is parked and off.”

More than 32,700 of the affected vehicles are Expeditions and over 6,300 are Lincoln Navigators. The vehicles were built between December of 2020 and April of 2021, according to a statement from Ford.

“Until further notice, owners of these affected vehicles should not park them inside – they should only be parked outside and away from homes and other structures,” the NHTSA said in a Thursday press release. “Fires have occurred in vehicles that were parked and turned off.”

Ford said it has confirmed 16 fires related to the defect. Twelve of those happened when the vehicle was off and parked, one happened while the SUV was parked and on and three of the fires happened while the car was in motion, according to Ford’s statement. Fourteen of the fires happened in rental cars. The automaker said it is aware of one injury from the defect.

Ford does not know the cause of the fire risk and at this time has no way to fix the defect. However, Ford said it is treating the issue with a “high sense of urgency” and is working to inform customers who have vehicles that may be affected.

“We are working around-the-clock to determine the root cause of this issue and subsequent remedy so that customers can continue to enjoy using their vehicles” Jeffrey Marentic, the general manager of Ford Passenger Vehicles, said in a statement. “We recognize the importance of staying in touch with our customers until we resolve this matter.”

Drivers can check to see if their vehicle is part of the recall by entering the car’s Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) at NHTSA.gov/recalls.

Monkeypox cases detected in US, Europe, but experts caution against comparing it to COVID-19

May 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Countries in Europe and North America are continuing to report more cases of monkeypox, but experts say the disease so far does not pose a serious risk to the public.

At least 17 infections of the rare disease have been confirmed in non-endemic areas such as the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden and Italy, and dozens of possible cases are under investigation in those nations as well as in Canada and Spain.

Most cases occur when people encounter infected animals in countries where the virus is endemic — typically central and western Africa as occurred with the outbreak’s first case, reported in England on May 7 among a person who had recently traveled to Nigeria.

However, none of the remaining eight cases in the U.K had travel history and did not have contact with the patient who had visited Nigeria, according to the U.K. Health Security Agency, suggesting there is some level of community transmission.

Similarly, the first infection recorded in the U.S. was in an adult male from Massachusetts who had recently traveled to Canada, and now at least 17 cases are being investigated by Canadian authorities.

Health experts stress the risk to the public remains low and most people don’t need to be immediately fearful of contracting the illness.

“It is a virus in a very different class from COVID-19,” Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, told ABC News. “It predominantly lives in animal reservoirs so it sort of by accident gets to humans and it may cause sporadic illness or relatively small outbreaks.”

Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by the monkeypox virus, which was first identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1958 in monkeys being kept for research.

The first human case was detected in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“It’s important to note this is not a new virus,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor. “This has been around for a long while. It’s mostly endemic in parts of western Africa but you will occasionally see it in other parts of the world.”

People are typically infected by animals through a bite or a scratch or through preparation and consumption of contaminated bush meat.

The disease can also spread from person-to-person via large respiratory droplets in the air, but they cannot travel more than a few feet so two people would need to have prolonged close contact.

“It transmits through large droplets, which don’t travel very far, or through contact with lesions themselves or touching someone with bed linens or clothes or recent contact with lesions,” Doron said. “It’s not something you get without very close intimate contact, which is why it doesn’t tend to cause outbreaks.”

She added this transmission route is different from that of COVID-19, which is spread through small aerosols that can hang in the air for several minutes.

“Aerosols are not subject to gravity but large droplets, they get pulled to the ground,” Doron said. “Also, monkeypox isn’t an illness that is transmitted during the asymptomatic phase, which is what made COVID such a formidable foe.”

Monkeypox generally is a mild illness with the most common symptoms being fever, headache, fatigue and muscle aches.

Patients can develop a rash and lesions that often begin on the face before spreading to the rest of the body.

“It starts out as spots, then small blisters like you’ll see with chickenpox, then pus-filled blisters and then they scab over,” Doron explained. “It’s a long illness. It lasts a few weeks, but you can be contagious for several weeks and contagious until the blisters scab over.”

ABC News confirmed Thursday the CDC is monitoring six Americans who were on the same flight as the British patient who tested positive after traveling to Nigeria.

“They will be followed by health officials for 21 days following their last possible contact with the ill traveler,” the CDC said in a statement. “None of the six have any symptoms of monkeypox and the risk for them is very low.”

Health officials said it is likely that more cases will emerge either in the U.S. or in other countries, but that Americans should not be concerned.

“We will find more cases,” Brownstein said. “There is now heightened public awareness and clearly there will be more clinicians that will be able to recognize the symptoms.”

He continued, “But for now, there’s nothing to suggest this will have anywhere near the same global impact as COVID-19. The risk to the general public is low.”

ABC News’ Sony Salzman contributed to this report.

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