(NEW YORK) — Trevor Reed, the 30-year-old former Marine who has been detained on what his family says are trumped up charges in Russia for over two years, has gone on hunger strike, his family confirmed Monday.
It marks a dramatic escalation in Reed’s battle to secure his freedom, with his family expressing growing frustration with the Biden administration for not doing enough, they said.
“While we are immensely proud of our son’s strength of character, we are also extremely worried about his health,” his parents Joey and Paula and sister Taylor said in a statement Monday.
Reed’s Russian girlfriend told ABC News that he started his hunger strike last Thursday, Nov. 4. His family confirmed the news through his Russian attorney, saying in a statement Monday that he is protesting “his arbitrary detention and Russian authorities’ numerous and flagrant violations of his basic human rights and his rights under Russian law.”
Reed has been in solitary confinement for nearly three months now, and he has not been able to contact his family in nearly four months. The former Marine presidential guard has been in Russian custody since August 2019, sentenced to nine years last July for assaulting two police officers. The U.S. embassy in Moscow has called the trial absurd, as the two officers struggled to recall the alleged incident in court hearings and contradicted themselves repeatedly.
In a labor camp in the remote Mordovia region for months now, Reed has been confined to a small cell that doesn’t include a toilet, and items that U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan brought for him when he visited in September have not been given to him by prison guards, according to his family.
“Our concern is magnified by Russian authorities’ decision to hold Trevor incommunicado which makes it impossible for us or the Embassy to monitor his health,” they said.
After President Joe Biden met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in June, there was hope for and speculation about a prisoner swap, especially because Biden said he raised his case and that of Paul Whelan, another U.S. citizen detained by Russia.
But there was no deal reached in the weeks and months that followed, and a family representative told ABC News that they are not aware of any talks ongoing right now to free Reed.
In their statement, the Reed family urged the Biden administration to exchange one of the two Russians whose names have been floated publicly by Russian state media and senior Russian officials as a possible exchange. Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death” because of his notorious work as a prolific arms dealer, is serving a 25-year sentence in U.S. federal prison, while Konstantin Yaroshenko is serving a 20-year sentence for attempting to smuggle cocaine and other illicit drugs to the U.S. as a pilot.
While Reed’s family members note they have been “patient,” it’s clear they are getting increasingly frustrated and anguished. They said Monday they hope Biden and his national security adviser Jake Sullivan “will find the time to see us” when they next visit Washington and “find the political will to bring our son home.”
But while they said they “look forward to our son receiving” the administration’s attention for his hunger strike, the State Department was succinct on the subject. Spokesperson Ned Price said Monday that the agency is aware of reports of Reed’s hunger strike, but declined to comment further, citing privacy concerns.
Ambassador Sullivan last visited Reed in prison camp on Sept. 22 and will try to visit him again this month, Price added, as well as Whelan.
(NEW YORK) — Vaccine mandates have been yet another controversial move in the deeply divisive COVID-19 pandemic, sparking lawsuits, protests and warnings of reductions in service.
But data and experts suggest that they are working.
In fact, some organizations saw their employee vaccination rates jump from less than half to over 90%.
James Colgrove, a professor of public health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health told ABC News that he’s not surprised with this outcome and predicted that similar workplace orders will follow the same story.
“In general, vaccine mandates work,” he said.
While vaccine opponents may appear vocal, medical experts say most are not dead set against the vaccination and need that push brought up by a mandate.
Although Colgrove and other medical experts say the country is in “uncharted territory” when it comes to vaccine mandates for adults, since such orders are rare outside of the health care industry, the signs are pointing to the directives greatly moving the needle in the country’s vaccinations efforts.
Jumps in vaccinations after mandates issued
Colgrove said the country has seen the effectiveness of vaccine mandates in our schools, which for decades have mandated inoculations against measles, mumps and other ailments. Mandates for hospital workers have also been shown to prevent outbreaks and mass worker shortages from illness, he noted.
COVID-19’s persistence in the U.S. and the resulting worker shortages from sick and hospitalized employees virus has forced many organizations in the country to consider mandates, according to Colgrove.
When the delta variant caused a jump in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths among the unvaccinated in the summer, more mandates and mandate-like programs were announced.
Some private companies started to issue vaccine mandates in the summer for their in-person based employees including Google, Tyson Foods, United Airlines and the Walt Disney Company, which is the parent company of ABC News. All of the companies allow exemptions for religious reasons and give deadlines for the fall.
The results from some of those mandates were strong, according to data shared by some companies.
When Tyson announced its mandate on Aug. 3, it said that less than half of its nearly 140,000 employees were vaccinated. When the deadline for the mandate came at the end of October, the food processing company said over 60,000 of its members got their shots and 96% of its staff was vaccinated.
“Has this made a difference in the health and safety of our team members? Absolutely. We’ve seen a significant decline in the number of active cases companywide,” Tyson Food president and CEO Donnie King said in a statement.
United Airlines said 48 hours after it announced its mandate, the number of unvaccinated staffers fell from 593 to 320. As of Oct. 27, 99.7% of the airline’s 67,000 employees had complied with the mandate, according to United.
“Our vaccine policy continues to prove requirements work,” the company said in a statement.
Dr. Sarah Goff, an associate professor of health promotion and policy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, told ABC News that organizations are aiming to get their workplaces back in person and have been more willing to issue the mandates.
She also cited the 1905 Supreme Court case Jacobson v. Massachusetts, which ruled that states have the right to issue a public health mandate, and the ruling Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel has strong factors behind the mandates.
“There is precedence for vaccines to be legally acceptable, but it’s up to the states and the companies,” Goff said.
In the public sector, a handful of states announced mandates for their state and local agencies in the summer and fall including Washington State.
Officials from Washington state’s health department told ABC News that the percentage of public employees who were vaccinated jumped from 49% on Sept. 6, a month after Gov. Jay Inslee announced the mandate, to 96% on Oct. 18, the mandate’s deadline.
New York City shows progress despite protests
New York City came under the spotlight for its vaccine mandate policies. At first, it allowed unvaccinated public employees who weren’t in health care or the Department of Education, but on Oct. 20 Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the rest of the city workforce needed to get one dose by Oct. 29 or be placed on unpaid leave. The city allowed for religious exemptions city employees who recently received an mRNA vaccine must show proof of their second dose within 45 days of their first shot.
At the time of the announcement, 84% of the city’s workforce had one shot, but several agencies, including the FDNY, NYPD and Sanitation Department recorded less than 75% of their staff, vaccinated, according to data from the mayor’s office.
Unions representing the FDNY and NYPD tried to take the matter to court but were denied injunctions before the deadline. Still, the Uniformed Firefighters Association led rallies against the mayor and the mandate contending that vaccinations should be the personal choice of their members.
By the time the mandate deadline came on Oct. 29, vaccination rates among the lagging agencies greatly increased. As of Nov. 7, 86% of NYPD members, 91% of city EMS personnel and 82% of firefighters have had one shot, according to data from the mayor’s office.
The FDNY said that some firehouses were understaffed the Monday after the deadline, which Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said was from a higher number of firefighters calling out sick. Nigro chastised any firefighters who used their sick days to protest the mandate.
In the end, only 34 police officers were placed on unpaid leave on Nov. 2 and all of the FDNY firehouses were operational on Nov. 5, according to the mayor’s office.
Not willing to take the risk
Goff said at the end of the day most people hesitant about getting the vaccine, even those who make a lot of noise about it, would not jeopardize their careers or families.
“You lose your job and it impacts people’s livelihood and while there may be some who say they’re willing to risk that, they don’t,” she said.
Goff and other medical experts added that the mandates also reach a wider group of people who aren’t completely dead set against the vaccination.
Colgrove said the increases in worker vaccinations after a mandate tracks with the data on vaccine hesitancy in the country.
While he said there is certainly a group that is completely against getting the vaccine, there are more unvaccinated people who are simply on the fence and haven’t had either a strong motivation or good enough messaging to go forward with it.
A survey released on Oct. 28 by the Kaiser Family Foundation said 8% of all adult respondents revealed they would ask for an exemption if presented with such a mandate, and 1% of adult respondents lost a job because of a mandate.
A KFF survey released a month earlier found that two-thirds of unvaccinated workers would not get a shot if their job demanded it.
“When you look at vaccine resistance, the people who are the most opposed often make a very large amount of noise that is at odds with the actual numbers who are against vaccination,” Colgrove said.
A strong nudge and a change in messaging
Dr. Kevin Schulman, a professor of medicine and economics at Stanford University School of Medicine and Graduate School of Business, told ABC News, said the mandates positive effect on changing the messaging of vaccines.
Schulman, who has written articles in medical publications on the need for better marketing of the COVID-19 vaccine, said companies have been using their vaccine mandate orders to emphasize their effectiveness more directly with their employees.
For example, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart told their employees that they had a responsibility to their employees to remain safe and prevent flight cancellations.
“It ends up being a story about how do we protect ourselves and how do we get up and flying again,” Schulman said. “It sticks with the apathetic population.”
Schulman said that company incentives, such as one-time salary bonuses, also helped sway the holdouts.
“Seeing other people around them get the vaccine, and tolerating it and going about their lives will help those groups,” Schulman said.
More company mandates likely
Last week, President Joe Biden announced a vaccine employment requirement through a new regulation from the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Companies that have 100 or more employees must require unvaccinated members to test weekly or face federal fines starting Jan. 4. Over 100 million employees are affected by this order.
Twenty-six states are suing the administration over the order and a judge in Louisiana issued an injunction on Saturday.
The health experts say the court battle over Biden’s plan won’t deter organizations from issuing their own mandates, including ones that go further than OSHA’s rules and place unvaccinated members on leave.
Colgrove said the need for a strong and healthy workplace and the increased examples of mandates working will compel those organizations to improve their vaccine rates one way or another.
“The more normalized it comes, the more people someone knows someone else who is vaccinated, the more people will comply,” Colgrove said. “With any vaccine the longer it’s been around the more people get with it.”
(GROVELAND, Fla.) — A Florida mom who spent 85 days hospitalized with COVID-19 complications was able to return home to finally meet her newborn baby.
“I got out of the car by myself and walked into my own house and I didn’t think I’d be able to do that,” Paola Gambini, 32, of Groveland, Florida, said of her homecoming. “And now I’m changing my daughter’s diapers and rocking her, and those are things I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do.”
Gambini, a hair stylist, tested positive for COVID-19 in late July, when she was 33 weeks pregnant.
She isolated at home with mild symptoms initially after testing positive, but then was transported to the hospital by ambulance when she began to have difficulty breathing.
“I remember the EMT saying, ‘You’re so lucky you called us. I don’t know that you would have made it,'” said Gambini, who was admitted to the hospital and less than 24 hours later had to undergo an emergency C-section. “I was freaking out wondering if I was going to die, if the baby was going to survive.”
Gambini gave birth to her daughter, Lilliana, on July 30. The baby was born healthy but was soon whisked away as doctors focused on continuing to treat Gambini.
“I remember touching her and she had so much hair. I’ll never forget that moment. All I cared about was making sure she was okay,” Gambini said. “They took her away and were like, ‘OK, now we’re going to take care of you.'”
Gambini, who had no pre-existing medical conditions but had not been vaccinated, was transferred shortly after giving birth to a nearby hospital, Orlando Health Orlando Regional Medical Center.
She was placed on a ventilator, where she remained for two weeks, and then on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, machine, which removes carbon dioxide from the blood and sends back blood with oxygen to the body, allowing the heart and lungs time to rest and heal.
Gambini remained on the ECMO machine for more than 40 days, while her parents, her fiancé, Michael Hazen, and his parents cared for Lilliana.
“My fiancé was able to visit me and there was not one day he missed,” Gambini said. “He was my rock.”
As Gambini’s health began to improve, her medical team worked with Hazen to coordinate a surprise.
On Gambini’s birthday, Sept. 3, she was reunited with her daughter for the first time since giving birth.
“I remember waking up and they sang happy birthday to me and asked if I was ready to see my baby,” Gambini said. “They had balloons and my whole room was decorated.”
Gambini was then able to see her daughter, recalling, “They let me hold her but I was so weak, I didn’t want to drop her. My arms were so weak.”
Gambini said the more she was weaned off medication, the more she saw how long her road to recovery would be, but she was determined to do it in order to go home to Lilliana.
“I remember worrying what quality of life I would have and the nurses told me, ‘You think this is forever? You just have to get up and move and you’ll be back to normal,'” she said. “From then on, every day I was like, ‘What’s the plan? I want to get home to my baby.'”
On Oct. 22, 85 days after she was admitted, Gambini was able to leave the hospital to go home, where she continues to recover.
“COVID really attacked my lungs, so half of my left lung is damaged. I get winded if I walk too fast,” said Gambini, who is still on oxygen. “And I lost 80 pounds so my body is rebuilding its strength.”
Gambini is now able to hold Lilliana, whom she describes as “such a happy baby.”
“We appreciate life on a level that no one else will experience unless you go through something like this,” she said. “We don’t take anything for granted.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump Organization secured a partial victory on Monday as a Washington, D.C., superior court judge dismissed a portion of a lawsuit brought by the D.C. attorney general over actions by former President Donald Trump’s 2017 Presidential Inaugural Committee.
The judge dismissed a claim by D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine that Trump’s inaugural committee “wasted” $1 million in rented ballrooms at Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel, writing that they have not met the standard of proof that would allow that part of the lawsuit to proceed.
“In short, there is no genuine dispute that the value paid for the space at the Trump Hotel reaches the extreme burden that Plaintiff need to carry a waste claim to its fruition,” Judge José López wrote.
But López did allow the case to proceed, in part, on the claim of “private inurement” — the question of whether the inaugural committee used their funds for private benefit and not for nonprofit purposes — which means the case could proceed to trial.
“It’s a big deal that our lawsuit is moving forward and going to trial. The Inaugural Committee misspent more than $1 million in nonprofit funds to unlawfully benefit private interests,” a spokesperson for the D.C. attorney general’s office said in a statement. “We cannot allow those in power to get away with using money to illegally enrich themselves and their families. AG Racine is working to get that money back and make sure it supports a legitimate public purpose.”
The ruling removed the Trump Organization as a named defendant in the case, yet still keeps the former president’s Washington hotel as a named defendant, as well as the inaugural committee itself.
The judge ordered a status hearing be held in February to determine how the remaining parties want to proceed.
The AG’s probe has been looking into the spending of the Trump inaugural committee, specifically at the Trump International Hotel in Washington.
The investigation began, in part, after claims were leveled by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a one-time adviser to former first lady Melania Trump, who worked on the inauguration events and later wrote a tell-all book, “Melania and Me,” about her relationship with the Trump family
“I’m working with three different prosecutors, and it’s taken over my life,” Winston Wolkoff told ABC News in an interview last year, referring to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York and local attorneys general in New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
No case has yet to be brought by prosecutors from New York’s Southern District or New Jersey.
The Trump Inaugural Committee, a private tax-exempt organization, raised nearly $107 million in donations and spent $104 million of that on the event, the most ever for an inauguration and twice as much as the amount spent on President Barack Obama’s first inauguration.
The money not spent — totaling about $3 million — was reportedly donated to charity.
(WASHINGTON) — The government’s top doctor released a step-by-step toolkit Tuesday morning to help people combat misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines in their own close circles.
“We need people in communities all across our country to have these conversations,” Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said in an interview with ABC News.
“This is not just the government that needs to be engaged in these conversations. If anything, it’s individuals who have people they trust in their lives who have great power when it comes to helping them move our vaccination rates in the right direction,” Murthy said.
The guide provides a road map for vaccinated people to talk to unvaccinated people who have bought into conspiracy theories or lies that spread on the internet about the COVID-19 vaccines.
Over the summer, the surgeon general issued an advisory that called misinformation an urgent public health threat.
The toolkit, which Murthy hopes will be used by health professionals, faith leaders, teachers or parents with children newly eligible for the shot, is the next step in addressing the ongoing problem. November polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that nearly eight in 10 adults have come across false statements about COVID-19 and have either believed them or been unsure if they were true.
“During the COVID 19 pandemic, misinformation has in fact cost people their lives. So we don’t have an option to give up,” Murthy said.
He called for more transparency in the tech industry since misinformation spreads rapidly on social media platforms.
“The companies have done some work to address health misinformation but they’ve not done nearly enough. And it’s not happening nearly quickly enough,” Murthy said.
The information released Tuesday encourages people to talk in person instead of online. One section is even entitled “If you’re not sure, don’t share!”
It includes discussion questions and illustrations explaining why people share misinformation or what a hypothetical conversation around misinformation could look like.
The recommended approach relies heavily on listening, providing empathy and avoiding shame.
“When talking with a friend or family members, emphasize the fact that you understand that there are often reasons why people find it difficult to trust certain sources of information,” it says.
Murthy acknowledged that it may be hard for vaccinated Americans to be empathetic or understanding when many feel angry that unvaccinated Americans have allowed the virus to spread.
“But nobody generally changes their mind when they feel shame and blame, if anything that hardens people in their position,” Murthy said.
He described a conversation he recently had with an unvaccinated man who had seen myths about the vaccines on Facebook. They talked for 30 minutes, he said. Murthy called it an “open, honest conversation” about what the man’s concerns were.
“And I tried to share with him what we knew and what we didn’t know. I tried to be honest about what the science actually tells us,” Murthy said.
“He sent me a note after that saying he made the decision after that conversation to get vaccinated, and ultimately he did get vaccinated,” Murthy said.
“So what we need to do is is to start by listening to people, by being empathetic, trying to understand where they’re coming from, why they may have the beliefs that they do, and then to try to share our own experience with them to try to help them to access credible sources, like their doctor or other people that they actually trust who are credible scientific sources,” he said.
(WARSAW, Poland) — An extraordinary standoff is taking place on the border between Poland and Belarus, after Belarusian authorities escorted hundreds of migrants up to it, in a dramatic escalation of what European countries have called a campaign by Belarus’ authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, to use migrants as “weapons.”
Videos published by Belarusian media and Poland’s defense ministry on Monday showed a long column of people, mostly from the Middle East, being marched by Belarusian guards in camouflage along a highway that leads up the Polish border region of Podlaskie.
The line, estimated to be made up of more than 1,000 people, was blocked by Polish border guards standing behind barbed wire fences. Videos posted later showed chaotic clashes, with some migrants trying to break down fences, while dozens of Polish police barred their path and Belarusian guards stood behind blocking their retreat. There were reports Polish border police used tear gas to push back the crowd, and in some videos, the sounds of gunshots could be heard.
As night fell, video from a helicopter released by Poland’s interior ministry showed dozens of tents set up near the border close to the village of Kuznica.
Poland’s government on Monday vowed not to let the migrants cross and accused Lukashenko of seeking a confrontation and calling it a “hybrid attack.”
“There are large groups of migrants in the area of our border, which are fully controlled by the Belarusian security services and army,” Poland’s government said in a statement Monday. “By creating an artificial migration route and cynically exploiting migrants, Lukashenka is trying to destabilize Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, and to force the European Union to lift the sanctions imposed on the Minsk regime.”
The standoff escalates a crisis that has been worsening for months. Lukashenko is accused of luring in thousands of migrants since late spring and pushing them over the border into Poland and Lithuania as retaliation for the European Union’s support for Belarus’ pro-democracy movement that came close to toppling him with mass protests last year.
Poland and Lithuania have taken tough steps to block people from crossing, but Belarus refuses to allow them to return; the result has been that hundreds of people, including families with young children, have become trapped in the forests along the border, stranded without food or shelter for weeks. Temperatures are close to freezing and at least eight people have already died since September.
When ABC News reporters visited the border last month, they encountered three Yemeni asylum seekers who had been trapped in the forest for two weeks, pushed back and forth between Polish and Belarusian border guards.
One of the men, Rami Olaqi, told ABC News that Belarusian guards had robbed and beaten them before shoving them back toward Poland.
“They don’t care,” he said. “It will be better for them if we die, you know?”
It’s just a way “for the Belarusian state to intimidate Europe. And using the refugees as a bullet in their war,” Olaqi said.
Polish border guards have been pushing people back across the border, even when they have sought asylum, people who have tried to cross and local activists have said. Most experts consider such pushbacks illegal under international law.
Poland’s government spokesman. Piotr Muller. on Monday said Poland estimates there are around 3,000-4,000 migrants currently near the border, and that there are up to 10,000 in Belarus right now hoping to cross into Poland.
Lithuania’s Interior ministry on Monday said it had asked the government to consider declaring a state of emergency at the border in view of the situation with Poland.
The flows of migrants began when Belarus eased visa restrictions for dozens of countries, including many in the Middle East. Once in the country, migrants told ABC News Belarusian border guards often lead them to crossing points and cut holes in border fences to let them through.
Lukashenko himself in public speeches has repeatedly threatened to let more migrants through. Belarus’ authorities Monday accused Poland of being to blame for the crisis and claimed Belarus was prioritizing the migrants’ safety.
“The Belarusian side is taking the necessary measures to ensure the smooth functioning of the channels of international communication, as well as the safety of people moving along the highway,” Belarus’ State Border Committee wrote in a statement on its Facebook page.
There were calls on Monday for the European Union to respond. Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, on Monday said the European Union should approve further sanctions against Lukashenko’s government.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also issued a statement saying it is concerned by the escalation at the border and it “stands ready to further assist our allies and maintain safety and security in the region.”
“The Lukashenka regime’s use of migrants as a hybrid tactic is unacceptable,” the alliance of which Poland and Lithunia are members said.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 755,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 68.3% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-US sees slight uptick in pediatric cases after weeks of declines
-US reopens borders to vaccinated travelers
-Global COVID-19 cases top 250 million in under 2 years
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Nov 08, 7:07 pm
Pfizer to request OK for boosters to all adults: Source
Pfizer is likely to seek authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for a coronavirus vaccine booster shot for people 18 and older as soon as this week, a government official with knowledge of the situation told ABC News.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the Pfizer booster shot for certain groups of patients six months after their second dose.
Those eligible patients include seniors, adults with certain medical conditions and adults who work in environments that put them at greater risk for exposure to COVID-19.
Despite a looming threat that thousands of Transportation Security Administration workers could be terminated over the federal government’s vaccine mandate, Thanksgiving flights won’t be affected, a person with knowledge of the agency’s plans told ABC News.
Federal workers have until Nov. 22 to get vaccinated or face termination. After the deadline, TSA employees who are not fully vaccinated will get called to have a discussion with supervisors and be counseled and educated on getting vaccinated, the source said.
If workers do not get vaccinated following the first meeting, they will receive a warning, according to the source. Following the warning, workers will be subject to termination, the source said.
Three weeks ago, the TSA said 40% of its workforce was unvaccinated. The agency hasn’t provided updated numbers.
ABC News’ Mina Kaji and Amanda Maile
Nov 08, 4:43 pm
Jill Biden visits children’s vaccination clinic
First lady Jill Biden and Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy visited a children’s vaccination clinic Monday at Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia, to promote pediatric vaccinations.
“The vaccine is the best way to protect your children against COVID-19,” Biden said. “It’s been thoroughly reviewed and rigorously tested, it’s safe, it’s free, and it’s available for every child in this country, 5 and up.”
Franklin Sherman Elementary was the first school to administer the polio vaccine in 1954.
Sixth-grader Everett Munson, who introduced Biden, said, “I’m excited to be vaccinated because now I’ll be able to visit my cousins and grandfather. … I’m looking forward to going places without worrying that I could get COVID and give it to my family, friends or teachers.”
Munson also pitched an idea inspired by the school’s history.
“Maybe we should even take an idea from the polio vaccine at Franklin Sherman: Everyone should get ice cream after their shots,” Munson said.
ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart
Nov 08, 4:17 pm
US sees slight uptick in pediatric cases after weeks of declines
The U.S. saw 107,000 pediatric cases last week, an uptick following eight consecutive weeks of declines, according to a weekly report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
But this is still much lower than the pandemic peak — 252,000 child cases within one week – which was recorded in early September.
Last week, children accounted for 24% of the cases. Children make up 22.2% of the U.S. population.
Approximately 45.8% of adolescents ages 12 to 17 have been fully vaccinated.
Severe illness due to COVID-19 remains “uncommon” among children, the two organizations wrote in the report. However, AAP and CHA continue to warn that there is an urgent need to collect more data on the long-term consequences of the pandemic on children, “including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects.”
(NEW YORK) — Several lawsuits have been filed so far against several parties connected to the deadly stage surge during Astroworld Festival at NRG Park in Houston, Texas, which left at least eight concertgoers dead and many more injured.
Astroworld is a music festival founded by rapper Travis Scott and held annually in Houston. This year was the third Astroworld event, which hosted popular rappers and singers including SZA, Bad Bunny, Chief Keef and Tame Impala.
According to Houston Police and witness accounts, a wave of tens of thousands of people surged toward the stage when Scott — and later, rapper Drake — appeared. Concert attendees say they were pushed into one another from all sides, and as the crowd pressed its way forward, some began to fall, pass out and get trampled by others in the audience.
“You’re not moving yourself — it’s more of the crowd moving you, so you don’t have control of your body at that point,” said concertgoer Fatima Muñoz, who shared her experience with ABC News’ daily news podcast “Start Here.” “So when people start falling and losing their balance, it kind of becomes like a domino effect.”
“Somebody next to me started falling, and he kind of took me down with him. And that’s when I had fell right on the floor, and that’s when everybody started tumbling down, and I tried so hard to get up,” Muñoz said. “There’s just too much people like on me, like, they legit dog-pile on me. I was on the floor. Nobody helped. I tried screaming for my life. I tried screaming for help. Nobody helped nobody.”
Muñoz said she bit someone’s leg to bring attention to her laying on the floor and then two attendees helped her up and out of the crowd.
“If those two guys didn’t help me, I mean, I really could have been one of those people for sure,” she said.
The lawsuits, along with some witness accounts, allege that Scott continued to perform despite the presence of emergency vehicles in the audience.
Houston police say the investigation is active and in its early stages.
Lawsuits stack up against concert producers, venue
Live Nation Entertainment and ScoreMore Holdings, two concert production and entertainment companies that organized and produced the event, are being sued, as well as performers Scott and Drake. NRG Park’s venue management and operation agency, the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation, is also included as a defendant in the lawsuits.
The family of 21-year-old Axel Acosta, one of the people who died in the crowd surge, say they plan on joining a lawsuit as part of 35 total plaintiffs in a case to be filed against the aforementioned organizers by Houston attorney Tony Buzbee.
Buzbee also cited a 2015 disorderly conduct charge against Scott at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, which he pleaded guilty to when he urged attendees to ignore security, ABC7 Chicago reported at the time.
“Certainly neither Travis Scott nor his handlers, entourage managers, agents, hangers on promoters, organizers or sponsors cared enough about Axel to make even minimal effort to keep him and the others at the concert safe,” Buzbee said in a press conference with the family Monday.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is also representing a 21-year-old attendee who helped lift people up from the floor amid the chaos in another lawsuit that accuses the event’s organizers and Scott of negligence in providing medical equipment, crowd control, safety precautions, adequate hiring and training of staff.
“We are hearing horrific accounts of the terror and helplessness people experienced — the horror of a crushing crowd and the awful trauma of watching people die while trying unsuccessfully to save them,” Crump said in a statement to ABC News. “We will be pursuing justice for all our clients who were harmed in this tragic and preventable event.”
Texas attorney Thomas J. Henry also filed a lawsuit against Scott and Drake, as well as Live Nation and NRG Stadium, on behalf of one of the surviving victims following Friday night’s tragedy.
Henry said he believes a message needs to be sent to “performers, venues and event organizers that a lackadaisical approach to event preparation and attendees safety is no longer acceptable.”
“Live musical performances are meant to inspire catharsis, not tragedy,” Henry said in a statement sent to ABC News. “Many of these concertgoers were looking forward to this event for months, and they deserved a safe environment in which to have fun and enjoy the evening. Instead, their night was one of fear, injury and death.”
Kherkher Garcia, LLP has also filed a lawsuit against event organizers and Scott on behalf of an attendee who the firm said “suffered serious bodily injuries when the uncontrolled crowd at the concert knocked him to the ground and trampled him.”
“He and those who promoted and supported this concert must take responsibility for their heinous actions,” Kherkher Garcia, LLP said in a statement to ABC News. “We intend to hold them fully accountable by showing that this behavior will not be tolerated in our great city.”
Scott and organizers react
Following the concert, Scott released a statement on the tragedy on Twitter, saying, “I’m absolutely devastated by what took place last night. My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld festival.”
Scott announced he will cover the funeral costs and further aid to individuals affected by the tragedy and will refund all of the Astroworld concertgoers and ticket holders. He has also said he is cooperating with investigators.
Drake has yet to comment on the lawsuits or what happened at Astroworld that night.
In a statement to ABC News, Live Nation said it was working with law enforcement to get answers.
“We continue to support and assist local authorities in their ongoing investigation so that both the fans who attended and their families can get the answers they want and deserve, and we will address all legal matters at the appropriate time,” Live Nation said.
On Instagram, Scott’s girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, who attended the concert, defended Scott.
“I want to make it clear we weren’t aware of any fatalities until the news came out after the show and in no world would have continued filming or performing,” Jenner wrote in her post.
Legal analysts, including civil litigation attorney Danielle Cohen Higgins and ABC News’ Dan Abrams, say there are many questions that need to be answered about what exactly happened at the festival.
Higgins said event organizers are going to have to answer for the safety precautions, crowd control procedures and other policies that play a big role in event planning.
“If Live Nation created an environment where they reasonably should have anticipated that a surge was possible — that’s a problem for Live Nation. They are the experts in creating this environment,” Higgins said in an interview with ABC News.
NRG Park representatives declined ABC News’ request for comment.
Higgins and Abrams also pointed out that in 2019, three people were also hospitalized at Astroworld after being trampled when thousands of people rushed to get into the event.
Following that 2019 incident, Houston police tweeted: “We are successfully working together to support Houston’s biggest music festival @astroworldfest at @nrgpark and collaborating closely with the festival to ensure the public safety of everyone attending the event. We look forward to a memorable night.”
Abrams, when asked on Good Morning America about what stands out to him the most about this tragedy, said any of Scott’s actions and comments at the concert could affect these cases.
“There’s going to be social media videos of every moment of that show,” Abrams said. “Every single second will have been documented, so we’ll know exactly what he said and when he said it.”
(NEW YORK) — Uber and Lyft are boasting record profits as both companies say they are aggressively recruiting drivers to fill a void created by the pandemic.
Since the pandemic, rideshare costs have exploded across the country. Uber and Lyft — the two largest rideshare companies in the United States that are responsible for 90% of the market — say many drivers left the platform early in the pandemic due to concerns about the risk of contracting COVID-19. Others shifted to food delivery, which some considered a safer alternative because there’s less human contact.
Those driver shortages have led to surging costs per ride and increased wait times, the companies said.
But despite those challenges, both Uber and Lyft recently recorded their best financial performances as the companies report a new increase in drivers — and riders.
Lyft CEO Logan Green said the company’s revenue increased 73% compared with the same time period in 2020, while Uber’s revenue increased 67%.
While many office workers continue to work from home, others who are returning to the office and previously used public transit have shifted to ridesharing to limit contact with others.
Lyft reported an increase of 2 million more riders during the third quarter, and Uber CFO Nelson Chai said as of October, Uber has recovered about 85% of its pre-pandemic business.
On airport rides, Uber has recovered 67% of its business, Chai said. Air travel, which was decimated by the pandemic, has started to return, as the third quarter of 2021 saw the most daily passengers since 2019. The demand for rides also has increased among those venturing out for dining and entertainment.
Along with that rising demand, Lyft reported a 45% increase in drivers compared with the same period last year, while Uber said it has increased its drivers by 65% since January. Both Uber and Lyft have created driver incentive programs to attract and retain drivers.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Thursday that the company is bouncing back faster than other transportation providers in spite of increased costs for consumers using rideshare services.
“We have come back from the pandemic faster than almost any other mode of transportation despite higher pricing,” Khosrowshahi said during a quarterly earnings call. “Now, we don’t necessarily want that to be a permanent fixture, but I do think with the increased cost of labor, and frankly inflation and the increased cost of everything, I do think that prices are going to be up on a year on year basis, and as a marketplace we get a take of that.”
While the companies both previously had said they expected ride costs to drop by the end of the year, the price increases are holding steady. Rakuten Intelligence, a company that collects and analyzes e-commerce data, said in a study of credit card receipts that costs were up 40% compared with pre-pandemic costs.
Both Uber and Lyft posted record third quarter profits, which started July 1 and ended Sept. 30. On Nov. 2, Lyft posted an adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) profit of $67.3 million. In the previous quarter, April 1 through June 30, Lyft posted an adjusted EBITDA of $23.8 million, its first profit. Uber recorded its first adjusted EBITDA profit of $8 million, up from a second-quarter loss of $507 million.
Both Uber and Lyft project increased profits in the fourth quarter.
Customers are still adjusting to the price increases and wait times. In San Francisco, Mary Ann Jones, who runs a nonprofit social services agency less than a half mile from Uber’s headquarters, told ABC News her rideshare expenses have increased dramatically.
“I’m paying significantly more to get where I need to go,” said Jones, who is walking when possible rather than hailing rides. “The surges are ridiculous.”
Jones said she’s had to pay as much as $40 to travel two miles.
Despite returning business and driver increases, drivers say the funds are not trickling down to them.
The rideshare companies, however, say driver earnings are approaching peak levels.
“Driver earnings remain near all time highs due to increased utilization,” Khosrowshahi said during the Nov. 4 earnings call.
(PARIS) — Twenty-six looted royal treasures will return to their country of origin this week after nearly 130 years of French ownership, as debate continues over repatriating artifacts.
The pieces were looted following the war fought by France against the Kingdom of Dahomey, a former African kingdom situated in the south of present-day Benin, during the height of French colonialism in Africa.
On Nov. 17, 1892, French troops took over a palace in the city of Abomey, causing King Béhanzin to flee, leaving behind a set of royal objects the French took.
The works — including carved wooden doors, royal thrones and statues — had been on display in French museums since 1900. They will be returned to Benin in the course of the week.
French President Emmanuel Macron formalized the return of the looted treasures during a ceremony at the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Museum in Paris, where the pieces have been held since 2003, in late October, citing the need to “give African youth back access to their heritage.”
Macron is expected to meet Benin’s President Patrice Talon on Nov. 9 to sign the transfer treaty, allowing the works to be transported to Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin, and be shown to the public there.
The exhibition of looted treasures has been a cause for debate for many hundreds of years. Centuries ago, Greek statesman Polybius exhorted the victors of the future “not to make the calamities of others the adornment of their homeland.”
Today, the debate over the restitution of artifacts looted during colonization is in full swing. Just last month, a University of Cambridge college returned one of the artifacts looted by British soldiers known as a Benin Bronze to Nigeria.
Benin authorities had repeatedly demanded the return of the national treasures from France without success. In 2016, the French government refused Benin’s requests, arguing that France was also attached to the circulation and protection of heritage and was not legally obligated to return the pieces.
But in November 2018, Macron announced the decision to return 26 pieces of the treasure of Abomey. The process to get to this point since then has included a cycle of conferences and an exhibit in Paris.
The works, including a prestigious royal chair of Yoruba kings adorned by two floors of sculpted and painted figures, were on display at the Quai Branly Museum for the final time last month before making their journey home.
According to the museum, this farewell exhibition was “highly successful,” with over 15,000 visitors in one week. Following their return to Benin, the precious objects will be integrated into the Museum of the Epic of the Amazons and the Kings of Danhomè that is being built in in Abomey.
Benin’s Foreign Minister Aurelien Agbenonci rejoiced that “France and Benin are showing the world an example of museum and heritage cooperation through this restitution.”
But critics of restitution argue that decisions like this are a “Pandora’s box” that could lead to the emptying of European museums.
According to some experts, the scale of colonial spoliations in Africa is considerable.
“Statistically, I think we can say by adding up the inventories of African national museums, which hover around 3,000 or 5,000 when they are large collections, that 90 to 95% of African heritage is outside the continent in major museums,” Alain Godonou, director of the museums program at the National Heritage and Tourism Development Agency of Benin, said at a 2007 UNESCO Forum on Memory and Universality.
In order to proceed with the transfer of the Benin artworks, a new law was passed by France’s Parliament in December 2020 to make it legal to return cultural artifacts seen as properties of the French state.
Bénédicte Savoy, whose research helped lead to this restitution, highlighted the international resonance of the decision, comparing it to “the fall of the Berlin wall” as he hopes for similar reflections in other European museums.
“This restitution is a major event in the history of the 21st century,” Savoy told ABC News. “Its importance cannot be underestimated.”
Yet, others are downplaying France’s move, suspecting more delaying tactics on other artifacts.
Congolese activist Mwazulu Diyabanza told ABC News, “We are awaiting a declaration of principles whereby France and its Western counterparts will recognize the crimes committed and return without any form of trial everything they have stolen and forcibly taken.”
He added, “It is not up to the thief, the prevaricator, and the dealer to decide when and how much of the works to be returned.”
