(POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY, Okla.) — Joe Exotic, the larger-than-life Netflix star from the hit show “Tiger King: Murder Mayhem and Madness,” is speaking out from prison a month after being re-sentenced for a murder-for-hire plot against animal rights activist Carole Baskin and for violating the Lacy Act and Endangered Species Act.
Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was resentenced to 21 years in prison on charges of perpetrating the murder-for-hire scheme and for the killing and selling of tigers.
During his trial, it was alleged he had hired a hit man for $3,000 to travel from Oklahoma to Florida to murder Baskin. Separately, it was alleged he tried again to hire a hit man for $10,000 to murder Baskin in December 2017, but that person was actually an undercover FBI agent.
Exotic has adamantly maintained his innocence and vowed to appeal the conviction.
“How can you even expect somebody to go from Oklahoma to Florida to scope her out, however long that would take and back, on $3,000? That is absurd,” Joe Exotic told ABC News during a phone interview from Pottawatomie County Jail.
He added that he’s hoping to submit a motion for a new trial as early as this week.
Released on March 20, 2020, during the early days of the pandemic, millions tuned in to the seven-part docuseries that chronicled the life of Joe Exotic, the owner of the G.W. Zoo, where he imported and bred big cats.
In the nearly two years since the series was released, Netflix reports that the series has been streamed by 64 million viewers.
Exotic claims he’s not one of them.
“I have not seen nothing,” said Joe Exotic. “Look, I have received and answered back over 11,000 letters, but every letter told me — I get letters from 8-year-old kids to 95-year-old grandmothers — and every letter says it’s because I was unapologetic.”
“I stood up for what I believed in and because I’m not ashamed of who I am,” he added.
Baskin, the owner of Big Cat Rescue in Florida, had accused Exotic of animal abuse and ignited a long-standing dispute that bankrupted Exotic and his zoo.
Joe Exotic denied ever treating his animals badly.
“What are they calling treating animals badly? Keeping them in cages?” said Exotic. “If people saw my videos on the YouTube channel, I walk in a cage with 24 full-grown tigers and lions at a time. Do you think if I abuse them, they would allow that?”
The series also sparked interest in the cold case of the disappearance of Baskin’s ex-husband, Don Lewis.
Since Lewis’ disappearance in 1997, authorities have not identified any suspects and his body has never been found. During the series, Exotic claimed that Baskin fed Lewis to her tigers, a claim that Baskin has repeatedly denied.
While in custody, Exotic aimed to author a tell-all memoir that set the record straight, but said he was disappointed by the final product.
“Keep in mind, I didn’t promote that book because they edited my whole story… I’m disgusted by the way I’ve been exploited,” he said. “Get on the internet and Google ‘Joe Exotic’ and hit the shop button and look, everybody in the world is making money off of me, but me.”
Exotic is also dealing with early-stage prostate cancer while in prison. He had petitioned a judge last month to reduce his sentence based on the disease, but the term was only lessened from 22 years to 21.
“I’m losing weight real bad and the sores in my mouth are unbearable to live with all the time,” said Exotic. “But you know, in the three and a half years that I’ve been in custody, I’ve been taken to the hospital 43 times.”
Even while incarcerated, Exotic maintains a cult following. He said he wants his fans to keep up the support.
“They have seen the show. They’ve seen the characters. They’ve seen my lawyers provide some of the evidence. All I can say to them is keep believing in me,” said Exotic. “I’m not going to let you down. I love each and every one of you people.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon has ordered 3,000 more soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division to Poland as tensions continued to mount about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, a senior defense official said Friday.
The deployment of the additional troops to Poland came as the White House warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could begin during the Olympics and urged all American citizens in Ukraine to leave the country over the next 24 to 48 hours.
“At the direction of the President, Secretary Austin today ordered to Poland the remaining 3,000 soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Infantry Brigade Combat Team based at Fort Bragg, N.C.,” said a senior U.S. defense official. “These troops will depart Fort Bragg over the next couple of days. They are expected to be in place by early next week.”
The additional paratroopers will join the 1,700 soldiers from the same unit who began arriving in Poland earlier this week to help prepare the infrastructure needed if additional American forces were deployed to Poland.
Those soldiers were part of a deployment announced last week that included sending 300 soldiers from the 18th Airborne Corps headquarters unit to Germany and sending 1,000 soldiers from the 2nd Stryker Regiment based in Germany to Romania.
“They are being deployed to reassure our NATO allies, deter any potential aggression against NATO’s eastern flank, train with host-nation forces, and contribute to a wide range of contingencies,” said the senior defense official.
Those soldiers from the 82nd Airborne have been arriving at an airport in southeast Poland located 60 miles form the border with Ukraine. A U.S. official has told ABC News that these troops would be prepared to provide assistance to any American citizens fleeing Ukraine by land.
“These additional deployments are temporary in nature, meant to supplement for a brief time the more than 80,000 U.S. troops already in Europe on rotational and permanent orders,” said the senior defense official. The 3,000 troops now headed to Poland were not among the 8,500 troops based in the United States who had been put on “heightened alert” two weeks ago in case they needed to be deployed on short notice as part of the NATO Response Force.
Additional U.S. aircraft and accompanying personnel already in Europe have moved closer to NATO’s eastern flank as tensions have grown in recent days.
Eight American F-15 fighter jets along with about 130 troops with the 493 Fighter Squadron based in the United Kingdom arrived in Poland Thursday.
“The extra fighters will bolster readiness and Allied deterrence and defense as Russia continues military build-up in and around Ukraine,” a statement from U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa said.
Another squadron of Air Force F-16 fighters based in Germany arrived in Romania on Friday.
Additional naval power has also been sent to the European region, with four U.S.-based destroyers deployed to “participate in a range of maritime activities in support of the U.S. Sixth Fleet and our NATO allies,” according to the U.S. Navy.
While not confirming the deployment of the four ships is directly tied to tensions with Russia, a Navy official noted that they destroyers bring options to the region.
“One of the unique values of naval forces is their mobility and ability to deploy for a range of contingencies and operations,” the official said. “These deployments provide additional flexibility to the Sixth Fleet Commander.”
(PHOENIX) — Five Phoenix police officers were shot and injured, and a woman was shot and killed during an early morning barricade situation, the department said.
All of the police officers’ injuries were non-life-threatening, police said.
The incident began when officers were called to a home where a woman was reported shot, Phoenix police said.
When an officer approached to help, the suspect, an adult man, invited the officer inside, said Phoenix police spokesman Andy Williams.
As the officer approached the door, “the suspect ambushed him with a gun and shot him several times,” Williams said. “That officer was able to get back and get away to safety.”
“Other backup officers arrived on scene and they surrounded the home and began calling out the occupants,” Williams said.
Then another man — not the suspect — came out of the house holding a baby girl, police said. The man put the baby on the ground and walked to police where he was detained.
When officers went to bring the baby to safety, the suspect again opened fire from inside the house, shooting four more officers,
Four other officers were indirectly injured when they were struck by shrapnel, police said.
The suspect then barricaded himself in the home, police said.
Extremely active scene near 51st and W Elwood in Phoenix. We heard several gunshots and saw a chopper over head with its spotlight on when we arrived. @PhoenixPolice on scene and asking public to avoid area. Our photographer saw at least one officer shot @abc15pic.twitter.com/uV10rLNig5
Once the scene was secured, police said they found the suspect dead inside.
The woman who was the first reported to be shot was found in extremely critical condition inside the home, police said. Hours later, police said she died from her injuries. The woman appeared to be the suspect’s former girlfriend, police said.
The baby appeared to be OK, police added.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey tweeted, “Please continue to pray for the five @PhoenixPolice officers injured this morning. Our men and women in blue work day and night—no matter the circumstances—to protect our state from danger.”
He added, “My office is working closely with the Phoenix Police Department to get updates on the situation and the officers’ conditions.”
Other police departments are also speaking out.
Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown tweeted that his department “stands with our brothers and sisters of the Phoenix Police.”
ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr and Alyssa Pone contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. issued a stark new warning Friday that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could begin during the Olympics.
“We can’t pinpoint the day, at this point, and we can’t pinpoint the hour, but what we can say is that there is a credible prospect that a Russian military action would take place even before the end of the Olympics,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House. The Winter Olympics, which are ongoing in Beijing, are scheduled to end on Feb. 20.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Melbourne, Australia, earlier Friday, shared the same message: “As we said before, we’re in a window when an invasion could begin at any time. To be clear, that includes during the Olympics.”
Sullivan said the United States still could not say whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had actually made a decision to invade.
But he said the situation had grown so dire that Americans in Ukraine should leave “immediately” — or at least “in the next 24 to 48 hours.”
“We don’t know exactly what is going to happen,” Sullivan said. “But the risk is now high enough, and the threat is now immediate enough that this is what prudence demands.”
Sullivan told ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce that he expected President Joe Biden to “engage by telephone with President Putin.” The last time the leaders spoke was Dec. 30.
A White House official later said the two would speak Saturday morning.
Sullivan said Biden did not plan to put American troops’ lives at risk to rescue Americans who remained there.
“If you stay,” he said, echoing what said in an NBC News interview Thursday, “you are assuming risk with no guarantee that there will be any other opportunity to leave, and there is no prospect of a U.S. military evacuation in the event of a Russian invasion.”
Sullivan said the U.S. is reducing the size of its “embassy footprint” in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
BREAKING: White House updates on Ukraine:
– Further signs of Russian escalation
– “We are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time”
– Invasion could begin during Olympics, “despite a lot of speculation that it would only happen after”
– “We are ready either way.” pic.twitter.com/4ANN9fdc19
Sullivan went on to describe in vivid detail what could happen, including a “rapid assault on the city of Kyiv.”
“If a Russian attack on Ukraine proceeds, it is likely to begin with aerial bombing and missile attacks that could obviously kill civilians without regard to their nationality,” Sullivan said. “A subsequent ground invasion would involve the onslaught of a massive force with virtually no notice, communications to arrange a departure could be severed and commercial transit halted.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley spoke Friday with Chief of Russian General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov by telephone, a Joint Chiefs spokesperson said in a statement.
“The military leaders discussed several security-related issues of concern,” the statement said. “In accordance with past practice, both have agreed to keep the specific details of their conversation private.”
Earlier Friday, Biden held a call with transatlantic leaders to chart next moves as talks over Russia’s military build-up near Ukraine showed no sign of defusing the crisis.
Biden spoke about “coordination on both diplomacy and deterrence” with the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, the United Kingdom, NATO, the European Commission, and the European Council, according to the White House.
The president has remained largely silent on Ukraine over the past few days, instead holding public events focused on the U.S. economy.
The transatlantic call came as NATO warned Europe was facing a “dangerous moment.”
“This is a dangerous moment for European security,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday in Brussels.
European leaders have engaged in intense diplomacy with Russia and Ukraine over the past several weeks to avoid war in eastern Europe. But the talks have so far failed to yield much apparent progress.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron traveled to Moscow to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, before meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, the next day.
Russia and Ukraine held talks Thursday in Berlin, moderated by Germany and France, but after nine hours of discussion failed to even agree on issuing a joint statement.
Western officials had hoped that the latest round of the so-called “Normandy Format Talks” would push forward the diplomacy by Macron and other officials who have been shuttling between capitals over the past couple weeks.
The sides remained at an impasse, though, over Russia’s insistence that the Ukrainian government speak directly with Russian-backed separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine.
Biden said Monday that Americans currently in Ukraine should leave, and on Thursday, he repeated that message with more urgency.
“American citizens should leave now,” Biden Thursday said in an interview with NBC News. “It’s not like we’re dealing with a terrorist organization. We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. It’s a very different situation and things could go crazy quickly.”
Senior U.S. officials say they do not believe Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has made a decision whether to invade Ukraine, even as he has amassed over 100,000 troops on Russia’s border with Ukraine.
The U.S. and other Western nations have warned of severe economic consequences to Russia if it does invade. Russia denies it plans to do so.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Russia and Belarus kicked off 10 days of joint exercises in Belarus, north of Ukraine.
ABC News’ Patrick Reevell and Matt Seyler contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Food and Drug Administration on Friday postponed its review of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for kids under 5.
“We realized now, in data that came in very rapidly because of the large number of cases of Omicron, that at this time, it makes sense for us to wait until we have the data from the evaluation of a third dose before taking action,” Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s vaccine chief, told reporters.
Marks acknowledged the change was “late breaking” — the FDA’s committee of independent advisors was scheduled to review and vote on authorizing the vaccine next Tuesday — but said the job of the FDA was to “adjust” to new data amid an unpredictable virus.
Pfizer applied for an emergency use authorization for its vaccine for kids ages 6 months to 4 years nearly two weeks ago. Studies on a three-shot regimen continue, which Pfizer ultimately expects will be the most effective dosage for the youngest age group.
The shot for kids under 5 is about one-tenth the dose for adults.
Submitting the data on a rolling basis was intended to get young children started on their vaccinations sooner in the face of the omicron variant and any potential new variants that arise.
But Pfizer said omicron advanced the study “at a rapid pace” and it was now going to wait for the three-dose data that “may provide a higher level of protection in this age group.”
“This is also supported by recent observations of three dose booster data in several other age groups that seems to meaningfully augment neutralizing antibody levels and real world vaccine protection for omicron compared to the two-dose regimen,” Pfizer said in a press release, referring to the heightened protection booster shots have shown to give.
Marks said the FDA needed to see the full data on three doses before it could proceed and he couldn’t comment on the specifics.
“The data that we saw made us realize that we needed to see data from a third dose … to make the determination that we could proceed with doing an authorization,” Marks said.
Pfizer predicts it will be able to submit data on the third dose by early April. Marks, in the briefing, also said it would be about two months before there is more movement from the FDA.
“For the next two months, while the additional data are gathered, parents will have to rely on what they’ve come to do well, which is they’re using masking procedures, and they are making sure that they’re vaccinated and taking those types of precautions with their youngest children,” Marks said.
He went on, “We will do our part obviously, to move as fast as we can when we have the data, but for now we’ll have to ask parents to help to continue to do what they’ve been doing.”
He also sought to reassure parents and their children that this postponement was a sign that the scientific process was working.
Pfizer may have only recently informed the FDA of this new data because it takes time to review clinical studies run by an independent monitoring board.
The latest omicron surge hit children harder than previous variants largely because of their unvaccinated status.
(NEW YORK) — About 4,000 New York City municipal workers are facing termination Friday for not being vaccinated against COVID-19.
Less than 1% of the city’s workforce will lose their jobs if they don’t show proof of vaccination — potentially the country’s largest workforce reduction linked to COVID vaccines.
The 4,000 employees include 3,000 workers who are on unpaid leave and 1,000 new workers who were hired after Aug. 2, 2021, who were told they had to be vaccinated as a condition of employment.
“I want them to stay, I want them to be employees of the city, but they have to follow the rules that were made before my administration,” Mayor Eric Adams said during a press conference Thursday. “We have to be very clear. People have to be vaccinated if they are a New York City employee. Everyone understood that and we have to follow that.”
The mandate was first announced in October 2021 by then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for roughly 370,000 city employees — including police officers, firefighters, corrections officers and teachers — to either be vaccinated by the end of month or be placed on unpaid leave.
When the mandate was first announced, about 84% had received at least one dose, according to City Hall, which rose to 95% by January. Several exemptions have also been granted.
The unpaid workers must submit proof of their first dose by day’s end and then have 45 days to receive a second dose. The new workers, on the other hand, submitted proof of an initial dose when they were hired and now must show they’ve completed their vaccine series.
Adams said some workers who were facing termination have since submitted their proof of vaccination so it’s not clear how many employees will be fired.
During the press conference, Adams stressed that any workers who have not yet been vaccinated weren’t being fired, but are rather “quitting” on the city.
“We are not firing them. People are quitting,” he said. “The responsibility is clear. We said it, ‘If you were hired, if you get this job, you have to be vaccinated. If you are not following the rules, you are making that decision. You are making the decision that you are not going to follow the rules of getting vaccinated and that is a decision they are making.'”
Hundreds of workers protested the mandate earlier this week, marching across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Additionally, a religious rights group filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn Federal Court Thursday on behalf of unvaccinated city workers, claiming the mandate violates their religious and constitutional rights.
The plaintiffs, which include firefighters, a corrections officer, a sanitation worker, a social worker and a police officer, say the mandate is “openly discriminatory” against “people with personally held religious beliefs or unorthodox religious beliefs.”
ABC News’ Mark Crudele contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Ahead of his promised intent to name his nominee to the Supreme Court by the end of the month, and sticking to his pledge to name the court’s first Black woman, President Joe Biden has indicated to Senate Democrats he will start interviewing prospective candidates for the upcoming vacancy next week, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the meeting.
Emerging from a meeting with Biden on Thursday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said they are all “anxious to get started” with the process and confirmed that Biden would be “going to take up a meeting with the nominees soon.” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., added they’re “aware of the historic nature of this appointment,” and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said that whomever Biden names will give Republicans “no choice” but to support her nomination.
“I came away from this conversation looking forward more than ever, to bipartisan support because I think the president will nominate someone of such compelling personal story, of character and intellect that Republicans will have no choice in effect, but to support her in some number,” Blumenthal said.
Biden and Harris also told the Senate Democrats, according to a White House readout, that there are a “wealth of extraordinarily qualified potential nominees under consideration” and that “any of the candidates” under review would be “deserving of bipartisan support.”
In an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt taped Thursday, Biden said he’s done a “deep dive” on “about four people” who have already seen “thorough background checks” as he keeps an eye on replicating the qualities of Justice Stephen Breyer on the bench.
“I’m not looking to make an ideological choice here,” Biden said. “I’m looking for someone to replace Judge Breyer with the same kind of capacity Judge Breyer had, with an open mind, who understands the Constitution, interprets it in a way that is consistent with the mainstream interpretation of the Constitution.”
Court watchers expect those under closest consideration include Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, Judge Leondra Kruger of the California Supreme Court and Judge J. Michelle Childs of the U.S. District Court in South Carolina.
Biden told Holt the candidates are “incredibly well qualified and documented. They are the honor students that come from the best universities they have experience, some on the bench, some in the practice of law.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki also said earlier in the week that the president has reviewed “binders of cases” authored by the potential picks.
“He is receiving and engaging with a range of people as he considers this process. I would note also that as he’s looking at the process, he’s reviewing not just bios, but he’s also reviewing cases. And he is looking at binders of cases,” Psaki said. “He’s taking a very thorough approach to it.”
Once Biden names his nominee, she will go before the Senate Judiciary Committee for public hearings. If confirmed out of the committee, her nomination will see a full floor vote in the Senate.
While Harris, as vice president and president of the Senate, could potentially serve as a tie-breaking vote to Biden’s pick since 51 votes are needed to confirm Supreme Court nominees — there is not a single Black woman in the Senate to vote to confirm the first Black woman nominated to the high court.
A group of 14 Black female lawmakers in the House led by Rep. Cori Bush sent a letter to Biden Thursday morning outlining what they are looking for – and there’s a split within the Congressional Black Caucus as to whether it’s appropriate to publicly push for one Black woman over another.
“I just don’t think it’s our place to pit Black women against each other who are trying to get this spot,” Bush told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott.
Bush’s comments mark a clear break from the highest-ranking Black member of the Congress, Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., who has launched an aggressive campaign to persuade the president to nominate Childs of South Carolina. Childs already has at least one Republican vote if picked.
“If this happens, it will be because of the power of Jim Clyburn in the Democratic world. I think I can get some of my Republican colleagues to follow my lead, and wouldn’t it be something if the first African-American woman on the court was a South Carolinian,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told WYFF earlier this week.
Biden met last week with Durbin and the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, as the president nears his own self-imposed deadline for the historic Supreme Court pick.
At the formal announcement of Breyer’s retirement, Biden said he was seeking a candidate “with character” and a judicial philosophy that “suggests that there are unenumerated rights to the Constitution and all the amendments mean something, including the Ninth Amendment,” which states that “certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 915,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 64.3% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 11, 3:10 pm
Pfizer delays request for vaccine for kids under 5
Pfizer said it has postponed its application to the FDA to expand the use of its COVID-19 vaccine for kids under 5.
Pfizer instead will continue with its study on the three-dose vaccine and seek authorization when that data is available.
“We believe additional information regarding the ongoing evaluation of a third dose should be considered as part of our decision-making for potential authorization,” Pfizer said.
Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s vaccine chief, told reporters Friday, “We realized now, in data that came in very rapidly because of the large number of cases of omicron, that at this time, it makes sense for us to wait until we have the data from the evaluation of a third dose before taking action.”
Marks acknowledged that the change was “late breaking” — the FDA’s committee of independent advisers was scheduled to review and vote on authorizing the vaccine next week — but said the job of the FDA was to “adjust” to new data amid an unpredictable virus.
“The data that we saw made us realize that we needed to see data from a third dose as in the ongoing trial in order to make the term determination that we could proceed with doing an authorization,” Marks said.
Pfizer has predicted it will be able to submit data on the third dose in early April.
-ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss, Cheyenne Haslett
Feb 11, 3:07 pm
FDA authorizes new monoclonal treatment that works against omicron
The FDA has authorized a new monoclonal antibody treatment from Eli Lilly called bebtelovimab, which has shown to hold up against omicron and the BA.2 subvariant.
As with other monoclonal therapies, this is for COVID-19 patients early on in their infection who are at high risk for getting severely ill, to help keep them from getting sicker and help keep them out of the hospital.
The Biden administration said it has purchased 600,000 doses for roughly $720 million in anticipation of bebtelovimab getting an emergency use authorization from the FDA.
The plan is to get about 300,000 doses this month and another 300,000 in March. The contract also includes a future option for 500,000 more doses if necessary.
-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik
Feb 11, 1:55 pm
Pfizer delays request for vaccine for kids under 5
Pfizer said it has postponed its application to the FDA to expand the use of its COVID-19 vaccine for kids under 5.
Pfizer instead will continue with its study on the three-dose vaccine and seek authorization when that data is available.
“We believe additional information regarding the ongoing evaluation of a third dose should be considered as part of our decision-making for potential authorization,” Pfizer said.
FDA independent advisors will no longer meet on Tuesday.
-ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss
Feb 11, 12:09 pm
US cases at lowest point since Christmas
The daily case average in the U.S. has dropped to its lowest point since Christmas, with the nation now reporting an average of 215,000 new cases each day — a 71% drop in the last three weeks, according to federal data.
However, even with the declines, nearly 99% of U.S. counties are reporting high transmission. Also, many Americans are taking at-home tests and not submitting their results, so case totals may be higher than reported.
U.S. hospitalization rates are also declining.
On average, about 12,100 Americans are being admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 each day, down by about 25% in the last week, according to federal data.
The national average continues to plateau around 2,300 new COVID-19-related deaths per day.
Feb 11, 6:56 am
New York City’s unvaccinated workers face termination
About 3,000 municipal workers in New York City — less than 1% of the city’s workforce — face termination Friday after refusing to abide by a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The requirement, established under former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, applies to municipal employees hired after Aug. 2, 2021, who were told to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment and to unvaccinated police officers, correction officers, firefighters and others who opted to forego city health benefits and are currently on leave because they are not vaccinated.
The mandate achieved a vaccination rate among municipal workers of more than 95%. A number of exceptions were approved in recent months.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday that some workers initially facing termination had submitted their proof of vaccination, so the final number wasn’t yet clear. He reiterated that the stragglers aren’t being fired but are “quitting.”
“The responsibility is clear,” Adams told reporters Thursday. “We said it. If you were hired, you get this job, you have to be vaccinated. If you are not following the rules, you are making that decision. You are making the decision that you are not going to follow the rules of getting vaccinated. And that is a decision they are making.”
“I want them to stay, I want them to be employees of the city,” he added. “But they have to follow the rules.”
-ABC News’ Mark Crudele and Aaron Katersky
Feb 10, 3:24 pm
1st vaccine shipments for kids under 5 could be as soon as Feb. 21, pending FDA authorization
The first vaccine shipments for children under 5 could arrive at pediatricians’ doors as soon as Feb. 21, according to a planning guide sent to states from federal health officials and obtained by ABC News.
Doses can ship once the FDA signs off.
The FDA’s independent advisory committee will meet on Tuesday and after that the FDA can issue an emergency use authorization.
The CDC’s independent advisory panel is expected to meet within days of the FDA’s authorization. Once the CDC signs off on its panel’s recommendations, vaccinations for kids under 5 can start.
-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik
Feb 10, 2:18 pm
Walensky: Difficult to release guidance that works everywhere from NYC to rural Montana
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky acknowledged that it’s tough to make national guidelines to ease restrictions that will fit every different city and town.
“One of the challenging pieces has been how we make guidance that is general enough so that it can be applied to New York City and rural Montana and Indian country, which is our responsibility, and yet have it be specific enough so that people can get their questions answered,” Walensky said in a webinar in hosted by the COVID-19 Vaccine Education and Equity Project.
Looking to the future, Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s vaccine chief, said “Obviously the hope is — and I think it’s probably the 90% scenario — is that we’re going to now move into a period where … the virus becomes endemic. And we will be living alongside it probably in a period where we will start to get yearly boosters for it.”
But Dr. Sara Oliver, an epidemic intelligence service officer for the CDC, noted that, although there’s a drop in cases, the same hasn’t happened yet in hospitals.
“It’s difficult to envision a time point where we can say COVID is over if we’re still in a time period where our hospitals and ICUs are feeling the strain,” Oliver said.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Feb 10, 1:51 pm
Nevada lifting indoor mask mandate, including for schools
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak on Thursday announced an immediate end to the state’s indoor mask mandate — including for schools — citing a rapid decline in cases and a drop in hospitalizations.
“Teachers & schools will no longer be required to wear masks but school districts will need to work with their local health authorities to have plans in place to deal with outbreaks,” the governor tweeted.
He added, “Employers and organizations, including school districts, may set their own policies, and I encourage them to work with their employees and communities to ensure that policies are in place.”
Masks in Nevada will only be required on public transit per federal law, or in special facilities like hospitals or long-term care facilities.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. issued a stark new warning Friday that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could begin during the Olympics.
“I do want to be clear: it could begin during the Olympics despite a lot of speculation that would only happen after the Olympics,” scheduled to end Feb. 20, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House, but he quickly added that the U.S. could not say whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had made a decision to do so.
Sullivan also said the situation had grown so dire that Americans in Ukraine should leave “immediately” — within the next 24 to 48 hours.
“We don’t know exactly what is going to happen. But the risk is now high enough, and the threat is now immediate enough that this is what prudence demands,” he said.
“If you stay you are assuming risk with no guarantee that there will be any other opportunity to leave, and there is no prospect of a U.S. military evacuation in the event of a Russian invasion,” he added, echoing what President Joe Biden said in an NBC News interview Thursday.
Sullivan said the U.S. is reducing the size of its “embassy footprint” in Kyiv.
Pressed by reporters about the evidence the U.S. had, Sullivan there is a “credible prospect Russian military action will happen even before the end of the Olympics.”
He went on to describe in vivid detail what could happen, including a “rapid assault on the city of Kyiv.” He said Biden wouldn’t put U.S. service members’ lives at risk in a war zone to rescue people who don’t leave now.
“If a Russian attack on Ukraine precedes it is likely to begin with aerial bombing and missile attacks that could obviously kill civilians without regard to their nationality. A subsequent ground invasion would involve the onslaught of a massive force with virtually no notice, communications to arrange a departure could be severed and commercial transit halted,” Sullivan said.
“The president will not be putting the lives of our men and women in uniform at risk by sending them into a war zone to rescue people who could have left now but chose not to. So, we’re asking people to make the responsible choice,” he said.
Earlier Friday, Biden held a call with transatlantic leaders to chart next moves as talks over Russia’s military build-up near Ukraine showed no sign of defusing the crisis.
Biden spoke about “coordination on both diplomacy and deterrence” with the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, the United Kingdom, NATO, the European Commission, and the European Council, according to the White House.
The president has remained largely silent on Ukraine over the past few days, instead holding public events focused on the U.S. economy.
The transatlantic call came as NATO warned Europe was facing a “dangerous moment.”
“This is a dangerous moment for European security,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday in Brussels.
European leaders have engaged in intense diplomacy with Russia and Ukraine over the past several weeks to avoid war in eastern Europe. But the talks have so far failed to yield much apparent progress.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron traveled to Moscow to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, before meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, the next day.
Russia and Ukraine held talks Thursday in Berlin, moderated by Germany and France, but after nine hours of discussion failed to even agree on issuing a joint statement.
Western officials had hoped that the latest round of the so-called “Normandy Format Talks” would push forward the diplomacy by Macron and other officials who have been shuttling between capitals over the past couple weeks.
The sides remained at an impasse, though, over Russia’s insistence that the Ukrainian government speak directly with Russian-backed separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine.
Biden said Monday that Americans currently in Ukraine should leave, and on Thursday, he repeated that message with more urgency.
“American citizens should leave now,” Biden Thursday said in an interview with NBC News. “It’s not like we’re dealing with a terrorist organization. We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. It’s a very different situation and things could go crazy quickly.”
Senior U.S. officials say they do not believe Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has made a decision whether to invade Ukraine, even as he has amassed over 100,000 troops on Russia’s border with Ukraine.
The U.S. and other Western nations have warned of severe economic consequences to Russia if it does invade. Russia denies it plans to do so.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Russia and Belarus kicked off 10 days of joint exercises in Belarus, north of Ukraine.
“As we said before, we’re in a window when an invasion could begin at any time,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday in Melbourne, Australia. “To be clear, that includes during the Olympics.”
The Winter Olympics, which are ongoing in Beijing, are scheduled to end on Feb. 20.
ABC News’ Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 915,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 64.3% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 11, 1:55 pm
Pfizer delays request for vaccine for kids under 5
Pfizer said it has postponed its application to the FDA to expand the use of its COVID-19 vaccine for kids under 5.
Pfizer instead will continue with its study on the three-dose vaccine and seek authorization when that data is available.
“We believe additional information regarding the ongoing evaluation of a third dose should be considered as part of our decision-making for potential authorization,” Pfizer said.
FDA independent advisors will no longer meet on Tuesday.
-ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss
Feb 11, 12:09 pm
US cases at lowest point since Christmas
The daily case average in the U.S. has dropped to its lowest point since Christmas, with the nation now reporting an average of 215,000 new cases each day — a 71% drop in the last three weeks, according to federal data.
However, even with the declines, nearly 99% of U.S. counties are reporting high transmission. Also, many Americans are taking at-home tests and not submitting their results, so case totals may be higher than reported.
U.S. hospitalization rates are also declining.
On average, about 12,100 Americans are being admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 each day, down by about 25% in the last week, according to federal data.
The national average continues to plateau around 2,300 new COVID-19-related deaths per day.
Feb 11, 6:56 am
New York City’s unvaccinated workers face termination
About 3,000 municipal workers in New York City — less than 1% of the city’s workforce — face termination Friday after refusing to abide by a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The requirement, established under former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, applies to municipal employees hired after Aug. 2, 2021, who were told to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment and to unvaccinated police officers, correction officers, firefighters and others who opted to forego city health benefits and are currently on leave because they are not vaccinated.
The mandate achieved a vaccination rate among municipal workers of more than 95%. A number of exceptions were approved in recent months.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday that some workers initially facing termination had submitted their proof of vaccination, so the final number wasn’t yet clear. He reiterated that the stragglers aren’t being fired but are “quitting.”
“The responsibility is clear,” Adams told reporters Thursday. “We said it. If you were hired, you get this job, you have to be vaccinated. If you are not following the rules, you are making that decision. You are making the decision that you are not going to follow the rules of getting vaccinated. And that is a decision they are making.”
“I want them to stay, I want them to be employees of the city,” he added. “But they have to follow the rules.”
-ABC News’ Mark Crudele and Aaron Katersky
Feb 10, 3:24 pm
1st vaccine shipments for kids under 5 could be as soon as Feb. 21, pending FDA authorization
The first vaccine shipments for children under 5 could arrive at pediatricians’ doors as soon as Feb. 21, according to a planning guide sent to states from federal health officials and obtained by ABC News.
Doses can ship once the FDA signs off.
The FDA’s independent advisory committee will meet on Tuesday and after that the FDA can issue an emergency use authorization.
The CDC’s independent advisory panel is expected to meet within days of the FDA’s authorization. Once the CDC signs off on its panel’s recommendations, vaccinations for kids under 5 can start.
-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik
Feb 10, 2:18 pm
Walensky: Difficult to release guidance that works everywhere from NYC to rural Montana
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky acknowledged that it’s tough to make national guidelines to ease restrictions that will fit every different city and town.
“One of the challenging pieces has been how we make guidance that is general enough so that it can be applied to New York City and rural Montana and Indian country, which is our responsibility, and yet have it be specific enough so that people can get their questions answered,” Walensky said in a webinar in hosted by the COVID-19 Vaccine Education and Equity Project.
Looking to the future, Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s vaccine chief, said “Obviously the hope is — and I think it’s probably the 90% scenario — is that we’re going to now move into a period where … the virus becomes endemic. And we will be living alongside it probably in a period where we will start to get yearly boosters for it.”
But Dr. Sara Oliver, an epidemic intelligence service officer for the CDC, noted that, although there’s a drop in cases, the same hasn’t happened yet in hospitals.
“It’s difficult to envision a time point where we can say COVID is over if we’re still in a time period where our hospitals and ICUs are feeling the strain,” Oliver said.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Feb 10, 1:51 pm
Nevada lifting indoor mask mandate, including for schools
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak on Thursday announced an immediate end to the state’s indoor mask mandate — including for schools — citing a rapid decline in cases and a drop in hospitalizations.
“Teachers & schools will no longer be required to wear masks but school districts will need to work with their local health authorities to have plans in place to deal with outbreaks,” the governor tweeted.
He added, “Employers and organizations, including school districts, may set their own policies, and I encourage them to work with their employees and communities to ensure that policies are in place.”
Masks in Nevada will only be required on public transit per federal law, or in special facilities like hospitals or long-term care facilities.
