(ATLANTA) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its COVID-19 vaccine guidance on Tuesday to recommend that some Americans over the age of 12 who have received a first mRNA vaccine dose, wait up to eight weeks before getting their second dose, instead of the previously recommended three to four.
Several studies suggest that an extended interval between initial dosing may help improve vaccine effectiveness and decrease the small, but potential risk of myocarditis, a rare form of heart inflammation that occurs after vaccination, the agency wrote.
Although an increased risk of myocarditis, particularly among young men, has been identified with both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, extensive data analysis over the course of the pandemic has shown that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are overwhelmingly safe, not only in clinical trials, but also in the real world. The risk of myocarditis is also higher if you get COVID-19 itself than with the vaccine.
“mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at the FDA-approved or FDA-authorized intervals, but a longer interval may be considered for some populations,” the agency wrote in its updated recommendations.
In particular, the CDC emphasized that young men, between the ages of 12–39 years, who may be at increased risk for myocarditis, should consider this extended time series.
“Extending the interval between the first and second mRNA vaccine dose to 8 weeks might reduce the risk [of myocarditis],” the agency wrote.
The original waiting period between the first and second dose is still recommended for immunocompromised Americans, adults over the age of 65, and those who may need more rapid protection, due to an increased risk of infection or severe disease.
Experts emphasize that at this time, there is no new safety risk associated with COVID-19 vaccines. This change in guidance is not directly relevant for the 215 million Americans who have already been fully vaccinated. Rather, it is a consideration for those who have yet to be fully vaccinated.
Experts say that Americans should talk to their doctor about potentially spacing out the dosing.
Booster doses continue to be recommended for most Americans, five months after completion of the primary mRNA series, or two months after a Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccination.
(NEW YORK) — Dozens of stolen antiquities, including “The Kouros,” a sculpture valued at $14 million, were repatriated to Greece in a ceremony at the New York District Attorney’s office in Manhattan on Wednesday.
“After many years of wandering, they now return to their homeland where they belong,” Greek Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni said at the ceremony.
Forty-seven of the antiquities were seized from the collection of billionaire investor and philanthropist Michael Steinhardt in December 2021 after a multi-year, multi-national investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. Another eight items were seized as part of another investigation.
Steinhardt had to give up 180 stolen antiquities, which court records said were looted and illegally smuggled out of 11 countries, trafficked by 12 criminal smuggling networks and lacked verifiable provenance prior to appearing on the international art market.
“On behalf of Homeland Security Investigations, this is a major area that we enjoy investigating and that we need to investigate, and it truly is a privilege to be a part of this grand repatriation ceremony today,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Ricky Patel of Homeland Security Investigations.
The 55 pieces are collectively valued at over $20 million. In addition to “The Kouros,” which dates back to 560 BCE, the returned items include a gold broach dating back to 600 BCE that is valued at $1.3 million and a spouted bowl dating back to 2700 to 2200 BCE, valued at $600,000. They come from central Greece, Crete, the Cyclades islands, Samos and Rhodes.
One piece, a larnax — or small coffin — from Crete dating back to 1400 to 1200 BCE had been in Steinhardt’s office, according to investigators, and when asked about it, he reportedly told an Antiquities Trafficking Unit investigator, “There’s no provenance for it. If I see a piece and I like it, then I buy it.”
Other items from Steinhardt’s collection are being returned to their respective homelands.
“Today is a day of great joy for Greece because all these artifacts, all these items, could be back in the place that borne them, in Greece,” Mendoni told ABC News.
Mendoni, who called illegal trafficking a “trauma” in addition to a crime, has been in her role since 2019 and has made the repatriation of Greek antiquities a priority. This includes working to try to get the United Kingdom to return the Parthenon Marbles, which are currently at the British Museum, to Athens.
“I would like to thank, from the bottom of my heart, all the staff of the District Attorney’s Office, and of course Matthew Bogdanos for his dedication to this work,” she said Wednesday, referring to Assistant District Attorney Bogdanos, who is chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit and has Greek roots himself.
After the papers were formally signed to signal the repatriation, Bogdanos called out, “Madam Minister, they’re all yours.”
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — After more than 30 months in detention centers, Kelvin Silva was deported last week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the Dominican Republic. His mother, children and siblings continue to live in the U.S.
Silva, 45, legally moved to the United States when he was 11. His father was residing in the U.S. as a naturalized citizen, and Silva became a lawful, permanent resident. He had a Social Security card and paid taxes — until an immigration judge revoked his status.
“My belief was that I was a citizen through my father,” Silva previously told ABC News.
But that was not the case. Silva, whose parents were not married, never became a U.S. citizen. At the time he immigrated, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1940 was still the law. It barred children like Silva, whose parents were never officially married, from gaining citizenship status through their fathers.
That law was repealed by Congress in 2000, but the new legislation was not applied retroactively to people over the age of 18, which Silva was at the time.
“There’s this group of people that we maintain are unfairly being punished under the old rule,” Peter Isbister, one of Silva’s lawyers and a senior lead attorney with the Southeast Freedom Initiation at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told ABC News.
After his father died when he was a teenager, Silva said he became involved in illegal activities. He was convicted in 2013 for possession with intent to distribute marijuana and cocaine and sentenced to 127 months in federal prison. He earned his GED behind bars and completed a drug abuse program.
But two days before he was tentatively supposed to be released from the custody, ICE began his removal proceedings. That was on July 16, 2019. Since then, Silva remained in ICE custody as he continued to fight to earn his citizenship retroactively. Up until last week.
Silva, whose deportation proceedings began under former President Donald Trump, thought the Biden administration would be his “miracle.”
Just a few months after President Joe Biden was inaugurated, ICE issued an administrative stay in his case at the direction of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Silva remained in the U.S.
But there were several times Silva thought he would be deported. He was “toyed with” multiple times, according to Isbister. On several occasions, he was put on a bus or a plane, expecting to be deported, only to be brought back to a detention center, his attorney said.
“He was shackled the whole time,” Isbister said of these moments.
But after more than 30 months in ICE custody, Silva’s hope vanished. He was deported on Feb. 15.
Silva, who has not been to the Dominican Republic since he was 11, has no immediate family members in the country, his family says.
ICE has previously told ABC News that Silva entered the U.S. legally but violated the terms of his admission with multiple drug convictions.
The agency said Silva is “an aggravated felon who falls within the current priorities for civil immigration enforcement arrest and removal set forth by the current administration.”
People who “pose a threat to public safety” are prioritized for deportation, an ICE spokesperson said.
According to Isbister, Silva, his family, and his attorneys are all disappointed in the Biden Administration, which had the discretion to keep him in custody as his case continued to be litigated.
A spokesperson for ICE did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on Wednesday.
“The divergence between the Biden administration’s rhetoric on racial justice and racial equity, and the positions that they took when they had a choice in this case – that’s what’s upsetting,” Isbister told ABC News.
“To have him removed in Black History Month, where with one hand the Biden administration is rightfully elevating the first black woman to the highest court in the land… and with the other hand, really not lifting a finger in the face of the Guyer rule and Kelvin’s removal,” Isbister said, referencing the 1940 law that deprived Silva of citizenship.
“When push comes to shove, the immigrant community comes out on the bottom,” Isbister said.
Despite his deportation, Silva’s attorney says he will continue to fight to be recognized as a U.S. citizen as his case is fought in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
(NEW YORK) — New York City will pilot a program to install platform barriers at three subway stations, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials announced Wednesday, a month after a woman died when a stranger pushed her in front of an oncoming train.
The doors, which will create a barrier between the platform and track to prevent people from falling onto the tracks, will be installed at the Times Square station along the 7 line, the Third Avenue station on the L and the Sutphin Boulevard-JFK station stop on the E, MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said on NY1’s “Mornings On 1” Wednesday.
“It’s going to take a while and we’re going to have to put the money together, which is a little complicated,” Lieber told NY1. “But our goal is to try out these technologies at different places in the system, including three stations, trying out platform doors.”
The pilot program is expected to cost more than $100 million, with the doors likely to be installed at the three locations in 2024, the MTA said. The project is scheduled to be discussed at Thursday’s MTA board meeting.
The announcement comes amid safety concerns in the nation’s largest public transit system. On Jan. 15, Michelle Go, 40, died after she was shoved in front of an oncoming train on the N/Q/R/W line inside the Times Square-42nd Street subway station in what police said was an unprovoked attack.
Following Go’s death, several city officials, including Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, called on the MTA to install the platform barriers, which are used in transit systems in cities including Paris, London and Hong Kong, as well as along the John F. Kennedy International Airport AirTrain.
Previously, the MTA had said installing platform barriers would be prohibitively expensive and complicated due to the age of the subway system. Last month, the agency released a 3,000-page report from 2020 that found that most of the city’s 472 stations can’t accommodate the protective barriers and that it would cost about $7 billion to install them at the 128 stations that could.
In recent weeks, though, Lieber said the MTA was revisiting the issue. On Wednesday, he said the MTA identified the three stations in the pilot as locations “where the engineering does work.”
Levine called the pilot program a “huge win for safety & efficiency.”
“Truly a milestone in the history of NYC’s subways. Congrats to all who fought for this,” he said on Twitter.
From January 2021 to July 2021, 37 people died after getting struck by a train, according to the MTA.
In 2021, 30 people were pushed onto the tracks, according to the New York Police Department’s public information office. So far this year, as of Jan. 23, five people have been pushed onto the tracks, the NYPD said. A further breakdown of injuries or fatalities was not available.
Among other safety measures, the MTA is looking at piloting new technologies, including thermal sensors and lasers, that would detect when someone has fallen onto the tracks, Lieber said.
The city also recently launched a subway safety plan in response to a spike in crime that involves sending more police, mental health clinicians and social service outreach workers into the subways.
(DENVER) — Colorado will become the first state to accept cryptocurrency as payment for state taxes and fees, Governor Jared Polis announced Wednesday.
Polis said the state, which was also the earliest to use blockchain technology for government infrastructure, will take the digital coin payments and deposit the equivalent value in dollars into the state’s treasury.
“In Colorado, we’ve been laying the groundwork to be a center of crypto and blockchain innovation for a number of years,” Polis said in a statement. “We see it as a critical part of Colorado’s overall innovation ecosystem.”
The announcement comes as legislators in other states, including Arizona and California, are proposing laws which, if ratified, would deem cryptocurrency an accepted form of payment statewide, not just for tax purposes.
Governor Polis has long been a vanguard in the intersecting world of cryptocurrency and politics. In 2014, he accepted Bitcoin for campaign donations during his run for the U.S. Congress following a Federal Exchange Commission ruling that went in his favor.
Although Colorado will be the first state to officially welcome cryptocurrency payments for taxes, Ohio implemented a similar program for a test run in 2018, which was ultimately deemed unsuccessful and abandoned in 2019.
Outside the U.S., El Salvador has been on a similar path for the better part of nine months. In June 2021, the country’s Legislative Assembly passed a law that made Bitcoin legal tender, allowing it to be used for everyday purchases.
Critics of accepting cryptocurrency highlight the volatility of digital currencies and inflation fears as reasons the initiative could cause economic destruction in El Salvador. In January, the International Monetary Fund called for the Central American nation to reverse its decision.
Cryptocurrency investment and interest have skyrocketed throughout the pandemic, with Bitcoin—the original digital currency—seeing gains of more than 300% between March and December 2020, only to crash down almost 45% from an all-time high in November 2021.
Polis has expressed an interest in having the state be able to process and accept cryptocurrency by the summer, although he has yet to provide a more specific timeline.
(ATLANTA) — Maternal mortality rates in the U.S. rose during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and racial disparities that existed before the pandemic were perpetuated, according to a new report published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report looked at data from the CDC’s National Centers for Health Statistics and compared 2020 rates to rates in 2018 and 2019.
Maternal deaths were defined as women who died either while pregnant or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy.
In 2020, 861 women in the U.S. died of maternal causes — a rate of 23.8 per 100,000 live births, the report found.
This is an increase of 14% from the 754 deaths that occurred in 2019 and up 30% from the 658 deaths that occurred in 2018. In 2019, the rate was 20.1 deaths per 100,000 and even lower in 2018 at 17.4 per 100,000.
The reasons for the increase during the first year of the pandemic were not stated in the report, although the author said the virus likely played a role.
Racial disparities continue
There were large disparities when it came to race and ethnicity. The report found that Black women died of maternal causes at nearly three times the rate of white women, up from around 2.5 times higher than in 2019.
The rate for Black women was 55.3 deaths per 100,000 in 2020 and the rate for white women was 19.1 deaths per 100,000. For black women, the rate increased nearly 26% from the year prior.
Black women also died at higher rates than Hispanic women, who had a rate of 18.2 deaths per 100,000 births in 2020 — a more than 40% increase from the previous year.
What’s more, increases from 2019 to 2020 among Black women and Hispanic women were statistically significant while the increase over the same time period for white women was not viewed as significant, the report said.
The report also looked at maternal mortality rates by age and found that the rates increased as women’s ages did.
The lowest rate was for women under age 25 at 13.8 deaths per 100,000 live births and the highest rate was for women aged 40 and over at 107.9 per 100,000 births, about 7.8 times higher. Older mothers also experienced an increase in mortality that was statistically significant, according to the CDC.
Several studies have found that women who become pregnant after age 35 are considered “high-risk” because they are at an increased risk for complications impacting either the baby or mom including premature birth, excessive bleeding during birth and eclampsia..
Dr. Donna Hoyert, a health scientist in the NCHS’s Division of Vital Statistics and author of the report, said this is likely one of the reasons for the higher mortality rates among older women.
“That and there are a smaller number of individuals who are at the end of reproductive ages, so the statistics become much more variable from year to year,” she told ABC News.
COVID-19 ‘likely’ contributed to rise
The report did not offer theories for why maternal mortality rates rose in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, previous studies have shown that pregnant women are at increased risk of severe complications and death from COVID compared to the general population.
It could also help explain the higher rates among Black women, with Black Americans more likely to suffer from severe effects of the virus than the white population.
“Yes, the pandemic likely contributed to the increase from 2019 to 2020 and beyond that,” Hoyert said. “As the pandemic plays out, we want to see how it affects overall mortality rates and our trend of comparable data over time.”
She continued, “There’s been other studies that have come out further documenting continuing morality from COVID-19 and excess mortality associated with that, so it will be something to look into.”
(CHICAGO) — The family of Irene Chavez – a woman who died in Chicago police custody last December after an apparent suicide – filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and several police officers.
“What we know is Irene Chavez died in the care and custody of the Chicago police. The officers knew Irene had mental health challenges,” Andrew Stroth, the family’s attorney, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Stroth referenced a video of Chavez released last week by the Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, where Chavez is seen arguing with arresting officers and telling them that she is a military veteran who suffers from PTSD.
Those details are also documented in a police incident report released by COPA.
“CPD officers ignored this information and failed to modify standard arrest procedures to accommodate Irene’s mental health needs,” the lawsuit, which was obtained by ABC News, alleges.
“Not only did CPD officers refuse to accommodate Irene’s disability during the arrest, but they intentionally escalated the situation by mocking Irene and her friend, and using foul, aggressive language,” the lawsuit says.
The Chicago Police Department told ABC News that it does not comment on pending litigation and has referred all questions about the case to COPA.
The City of Chicago’s Law Department did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment but told the ABC station in Chicago, WLS, on Tuesday that “The City has not yet been served with a complaint and will have no further comment as the matter is now in litigation.”
The documents and videos related to the death of Chavez were released as part of an investigation by the civilian oversight agency looking into Chavez’s death.
Body camera video released by COPA shows Chavez arguing while being arrested hours before her death.
According to police, the 33-year-old woman died after an “attempted suicide” on Dec. 18, 2021, at the 3rd District Police Station. The official cause and manner of death are pending autopsy results, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office told ABC News.
Police said Chavez was taken into custody after her involvement in a bar fight at the Jeffery Pub Tavern and was belligerent during processing.
Chavez could be heard by police shouting in the holding cell, the report by COPA said. After about five minutes of silence, an officer went to check on her well-being by looking through the window, the report said. That’s when Chavez was found with her shirt wrapped around her neck, tied to a bench and had a “faint pulse,” according to the report.
Video released by COPA shows officers performing CPR before Chavez was transported to the University of Chicago Hospital. According to COPA, Chavez was in “critical condition” at the time and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Iris Chavez, Irene’s sister, accused police of neglect and said officers should have recognized that her sister was struggling with mental health.
“[I’m] Looking at the video and saying to myself, why aren’t they doing this instead? Why didn’t they do this? Or why is he talking to her like that?” Iris Chavez said.
According to the lawsuit, Irene Chavez was a “queer Afro-Latina” woman from Chicago and was a “decorated military veteran” who served in combat zones.
“After her honorable discharge from the military, Irene developed serious post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”) and struggled with alcohol dependency,” the lawsuit says.
According to the lawsuit, Chavez was “in the midst of a mental health crisis” when she was arrested and had relapsed to drinking that day after being sober for a month.
“Both Irene and her friend repeatedly told CPD officers that Irene was a veteran, that she had PTSD, and that she needed hospitalization,” the lawsuit says.
Irene Chavez is one of two women to die in Chicago police custody within less than two months.
COPA is also investigating the death of London Marquez, 31, who died on Jan. 27. According to Marquez’s family, she was pregnant at the time of her death.
Chicago police declined to comment on that case and referred questions regarding both cases to COPA.
(NEW YORK) — Two prosecutors leading the criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump and his family real estate business have resigned, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said, casting doubt about the likelihood the former president would face any criminal charges.
Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz submitted their resignations to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who inherited the Trump investigation from his predecessor, Cyrus Vance.
“We are grateful for their service,” a spokesperson for Bragg told ABC News regarding Dunne and Pomerantz. “The investigation is ongoing.”
The resignations could be a sign that Bragg has doubts about whether to continue a case that has already seen charges filed against the Trump Organization and its long-serving chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg.
Both have pleaded not guilty.
The investigation has centered on how the former president and his company valued their holdings depending on whether they were seeking loans or trying to pay lower taxes.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is conducting a parallel civil investigation and has successfully gone to court to force Trump and two of his children to sit for depositions in the coming days.
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Wednesday marked the start of the trial for the sole Louisville, Kentucky, police officer charged in connection to the “no-knock” search warrant raid that killed Breonna Taylor.
Brett Hankison — who is expected to testify — is charged with three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment of Taylor’s neighbors.
Prosecutors say he fired shots that endangered three people who were inside a neighboring apartment: Cody Etherton, his pregnant partner Chelsey Napper and their 5-year-old son.
Hankison was fired from the Louisville Police Department after the March 2020 shooting and is the only officer charged in connection with the incident. No officers have been charged with shooting Taylor.
The deadly shooting took place shortly after midnight on March 13, 2020. Taylor, a 26-year-old Black medical worker, was asleep at home with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker.
Officers arrived and executed a “no-knock” search warrant as part of an investigation into a suspected drug operation, allegedly linked to Taylor’s ex-boyfriend.
Walker, who claims he thought the officers were intruders, fired one shot from his handgun, striking an officer in the leg. In response, police opened fire, and Taylor was shot multiple times. No drugs were found in Taylor’s apartment.
Etherton, the first witness, testified that the gunshots were “inches away from hitting me.”
“Literally, like, one or two more inches and I would have been shot,” he said. “I think about it all the time … I would never even got to meet my son,” he added, referring to his son Bryson.
On cross-examination, Mathews asked Etherton if the situation was chaotic.
“Yeah, the whole thing was chaotic,” Etherton said. “From the time that I got woke up to a loud boom, gunfire coming through my wall and nearly killing me, could have struck my girlfriend. It was chaos.”
Matthews also called attention to the lawsuit that Etherson filed against Hankison and the city of Louisville.
Second on the stand was Louisville Police Sgt. Kyle Meany, who was investigating drug trafficking and looking into Taylor’s ex-boyfriend. Meany was not involved in serving the search warrant.
Meany said a number of search warrants were obtained for different addresses, including Taylor’s. The affidavit attached to the search warrant for Taylor’s apartment was designated as a “no-knock warrant” request, he said, adding that the physical search warrant related to the affidavit was signed by the judge.
Meany said police conducted surveillance of the apartment prior to obtaining the warrant and had photos of Taylor’s ex-boyfriend at her apartment.
On March 12, 2020, police held a briefing for executing the search warrant, he said. Meany confirmed there was a white board with various addresses that were subjects of the search warrants, including Taylor’s address. Above the address, the words “knock and announce” were written, he said.
In opening statements Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Barbara Whaley said Hankison fired five bullets into Taylor’s apartment, three of which reached Etherton’s apartment.
Whaley said when officers breached Taylor’s apartment, the officer who fatally shot Taylor moved up to cover the officer with the battering ram, putting himself in the line of fire. Hankison was supposed to be in this role but was telling a person who was leaving a neighboring apartment to go back inside, Whaley said.
Whaley said Hankison had been engaging with that person when shots rang out. She said Hankison fired perpendicular to where the shot came from inside of Taylor’s apartment.
The prosecutor said Etherton jumped up when he heard the ram at Taylor’s apartment and walked toward his front door to see what was going on.
“A bullet whizzed close to his head that he heard, and then saw debris, drywall dust, where that bullet had come through,” Whaley said.
Whaley also said that Hankison gave a statement to investigators claiming he saw a shooter with an AR-15-style rifle in a combat position. No AR-15-style rifle was recovered from Taylor’s apartment, Whaley said.
Hankison’s defense attorney, Stew Matthews, said in his opening statement that he didn’t plan to dispute the evidence presented by the prosecution, but the “issue is what was the reasoning behind his [Hankison] firing the shots.”
Matthews focused on the chaos of the situation and said that Hankison will testify.
Matthews said the prosecution doesn’t know whether or not Hankison could see what was going on into the doorway and that it was “not accurate” to say that he couldn’t see into the hallway when the door was breached.
Matthews said that Hankison saw the muzzle flash from the gun that was fired at officers and that “his perception of it was that it was an AR-15 rifle.”
Matthews said that when Hankison fired his gun, he was “attempting to defend and save the lives of his brother officers.” He said that under the operating procedures of the police department, officers are obligated to defend other officers and citizens, and “that’s exactly what Brett Hankison was doing in this situation.”
“His actions were reasonable and justified given the chaotic situation he was in,” Matthews said.
Hankison has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
Two other officers involved were also fired from the police department: the officer who fired the shot that killed Taylor per a ballistics analysis and the officer who prepared the search warrant.
ABC News’ Kendall Ross and Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Ivanka Trump, the eldest daughter of former President Donald Trump, is in active conversations with the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 about meeting for a voluntary interview, ABC News has confirmed, marking the first time a member of the Trump family has engaged in voluntary negotiations outside of a subpoena.
“Ivanka Trump is in discussions with the committee to voluntarily appear for an interview,” a spokeswoman for Trump confirmed in a statement Wednesday.
Ivanka Trump was one of a small handful of aides with the president inside the West Wing as the Capitol was under attack the president after his speech on the morning of Jan. 6.
Ivanka’s possible cooperation comes as ABC News has previously reported the committee is in active negotiations with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani about also appearing for an interview with the committee.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
