(NEW YORK) — At least 227 people were killed and more than 1,500 injured in the devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake that rocked Haiti Saturday morning, the country’s civil protection agency confirmed to ABC News.
The earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey, struck about 5 miles north of Petit Trou de Nippes, Haiti, a little over 90 miles from the capital, Port-au-Prince.
There are also concerns that the earthquake could exacerbate the island’s COVID-19 infection rate should displaced people be forced into closer confines.
The Haitian government “believes high casualties are probable given the earthquake’s magnitude,” Bocchit Edmond, the country’s ambassador to the U.S., said in a statement Saturday afternoon.
“Emergency responses are underway, and damages are being assessed,” Edmond added, saying destruction is “widespread.”
The embassy is helping to coordinate response efforts between the U.S. and Haitian governments.
The earthquake was virtually the same size and at the same shallow depth as the 2010 quake, and along the exact same fault line — the Enriquillo Plantain Garden — but farther west and in a less-populated region.
The earthquake struck just days before Tropical Storm Grace is forecast to reach Haiti late Monday night or early Tuesday.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry is mobilizing government resources to help victims in affected areas and declared a one-month state of emergency for the whole country. In a press conference, he said he wouldn’t ask for international help until officials assess the extent of the damages.
Initial reports from those in Port-au-Prince said the city seemed to be “fine” and that the airport remained operational.
“It will be very bad, but maybe not quite as bad as 2010 just because Port-au-Prince is farther away from this one and therefore got less shaking this time,” said Dr. Lucy Jones, an earthquake expert.
She said that about 650,000 people have been exposed to level VII shaking, which the USGS defines as “very strong” and which is powerful enough to topple poorly built structures.
But many of the buildings that potentially would have been at risk from this quake were destroyed by the earthquake 11 years ago or by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, meaning fewer reports of extensive damage now aren’t entirely surprising, Jones added.
Groups like Community Organized Relief Effort are trying to help vaccinate locals to prevent COVID-19 spread.
The U.S. Agency for International Development said the organization’s disaster experts already on the ground in Haiti are assessing damage and humanitarian needs.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed by the National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and the Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the earthquake Saturday morning. The president authorized an immediate U.S. response, and named USAID Administrator Samantha Power as the senior U.S. official to coordinate this effort.
“In what is already a challenging time for the people of Haiti, I am saddened by the devastating earthquake that occurred in Saint-Louis du Sud, Haiti this morning,” Biden said in a statement. “We send our deepest condolences to all those who lost a loved one or saw their homes and businesses destroyed.”
“Through USAID, we are supporting efforts to assess the damage and assist efforts to recover those who were injured and those who must now rebuild,” he continued. “The United States remains a close and enduring friend to the people of Haiti, and we will be there in the aftermath of this tragedy.”
ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway, Justin Doom, Justin Gomez and Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — At least 29 people were killed in the devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake that rocked Haiti Saturday morning, which could exacerbate the island’s COVID-19 infection rate should displaced people be forced into closer confines.
The earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey, struck about 5 miles north of Petit Trou de Nippes, Haiti, a little over 90 miles from the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Jerry Chandler, Haiti’s director of civil protection, said the death toll stood at 29 and that teams will be sent to the area for search and rescue missions, The Associated Press reported.
The earthquake was virtually the same size and at the same shallow depth as the 2010 quake, and along the exact same fault line — the Enriquillo Plantain Garden — but farther west and in a less populated region.
The earthquake struck just days before Tropical Storm Grace is forecast to reach Haiti late Monday night or early Tuesday.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry is mobilizing government resources to help victims in affected areas and declared a one-month state of emergency for the whole country. In a press conference, he said he wouldn’t ask for international help until officials assess the extent of the damages.
Initial reports from those in Port-au-Prince said the city seemed to be “fine” and that the airport remained operational.
“It will be very bad, but maybe not quite as bad as 2010 just because Port-au-Prince is farther away from this one and therefore got less shaking this time,” said Dr. Lucy Jones, an earthquake expert.
She said that about 650,000 people have been exposed to level VII shaking, which the USGS defines as “very strong” and which is powerful enough to topple poorly built structures.
But many of the buildings that potentially would have been at risk from this quake were destroyed by the earthquake 11 years ago or by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, meaning fewer reports of extensive damage now aren’t entirely surprising, Jones added.
Groups like Community Organized Relief Effort are trying to help vaccinate locals to prevent COVID-19 spread.
The U.S. Agency for International Development said the organization’s disaster experts already on the ground in Haiti are assessing damage and humanitarian needs.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed by the National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and the Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the earthquake this morning . The president authorized an immediate U.S. response, and named USAID Administrator Samantha Power as the senior U.S. official to coordinate this effort.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway, Justin Doom, Justin Gomez and Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.
(BETHEL, Penn.) — A search is underway for a 3-year-old Pennsylvania boy who went missing from a camping area along the Allegheny River in Bethel Township Friday afternoon.
Pennsylvania Police in Kittanning are searching for Dwight Dinsmore, who is described as 3-foot-5 blonde with blue eyes, last seen wearing a gray T-shirt with a black collar and a motorcycle depicted on the front, police said in a news release.
Police said the search started around 3:15 p.m. Friday, in a news release.
The search was conducted by several local police departments, K9 units, state police and family members, but was called off Friday evening due to inclement weather, officials said.
It will resume Saturday morning.
Police are asking anyone who sees the child to contact them at 724-543-2011 immediately.
(WASHINGTON) — Taliban forces advanced closer to Kabul Saturday, as President Ashraf Ghani rejected suggestions he might resign in his first appearance since the rapid offensive.
The Taliban captured all of Logar province, just south of the Afghanistan capital, the Associated Press reported Saturday, where they have detained Logar officials and reached the Char Asyab district, just seven miles south of Kabul. They now control 19 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, according to the AP.
In a televised national address Saturday, Ghani said his focus is to “prevent further instability, violence and displacement of our people.”
“Therefore, I have started extensive consultations inside the government, with the elders and political leaders, representatives of people from all walks of life and our international partners,” he said. “Swift consultations in this regard are going on and the results will soon be shared with you, my dear compatriots.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department said Friday it would begin reducing its staff levels at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and the Pentagon was sending in troops “as we speak” to help facilitate those departures.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby wouldn’t say the Taliban’s advances took the Biden administration by surprise but said officials are “certainly concerned” by the speed at which the Taliban is moving.
“We’re obviously watching this just like you’re watching this and seeing it happen in real-time, and it’s deeply concerning. In fact, the deteriorating conditions are a factor — a big factor — in why the president has approved this mission to help support our — the reduction of personnel there in Kabul,” he said in a briefing from the Pentagon Friday afternoon.
Kirby said the “leading elements” of one of the two Marine battalions headed to the capital city of Kabul had arrived and that “the bulk” of the 3,000 troops would be there by the end of the weekend.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul has instructed all U.S. personnel to destroy items like documents and electronic devices to “reduce the amount of sensitive material on the property,” according to an internal notice obtained by ABC News.
“Please also include items with embassy or agency logos, Americans flags, or items which could be misused in propaganda efforts,” the notice said.
A State Department spokesperson is not denying this is the case, but in a statement described it as “standard operating procedure designed to minimize our footprint.”
There wasn’t any specific event that led President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to execute the plan to send troops, Kirby said Thursday afternoon as the crisis escalated, but rather the overall worsening trend in Afghanistan.
“There wasn’t one precipitating event in the last couple of days that led the president and the secretary to make this decision. It’s a confluence of events, and as I’ve been saying for now for several weeks, we have been watching very closely with concern the security situation on the ground — and far better to be prudent about it and be responsible and watching the trends to make the best decisions you can for safety and security of our people than to wait until it’s too late,” Kirby said.
The events in Afghanistan over the last 48 hours, with the Taliban pressuring major Afghan cities, were significant factors in the decision to go forward with the reduction in embassy staffing and the new military mission, a U.S. official told ABC News.
A military analysis said Kabul could be isolated in 30 to 60 days and captured in 90 days, a U.S. official told ABC News. That timeline seemed even more accelerated Thursday as the Taliban claimed Herat, Afghanistan’s third-largest city. As of Friday, the Taliban had taken control of Kandahar, the country’s second-largest city, located 300 miles south of Kabul and considered the birthplace of the Taliban. The Taliban had also seized Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul has urged Americans to evacuate Afghanistan immediately, amid fears that the capital could fall into Taliban hands in a matter of weeks.
“Clearly from their actions, it appears as if they are trying to get Kabul isolated,” Kirby said of the Taliban at the Pentagon Friday afternoon.
As the Taliban gained ground Friday, Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense, a senior fellow for the Middle East Institute, Afghanistan war veteran and ABC News national security analyst, called on the U.S. to reverse its decision to withdraw troops in order to “prevent the country’s fall to the Taliban and the establishment of a safe haven for terrorist organizations.”
“In the absence of that, the international community must immediately establish a secure, fortified area within the Kabul region where Afghans, especially females, fleeing the Taliban can have their own safe haven,” he said.
“This should also come with a clear warning to the Taliban that if they enter the Kabul region, they will be met by military force from the United States,” he added. “This is the only thing they will understand and likely the only thing that will stop them from an assault on Kabul that will cause a major humanitarian crisis.”
Biden held a meeting with his team Wednesday night and tasked them to come up with recommendations, according to a senior administration official. Then, at a meeting Thursday morning with Austin and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, the recommendations were presented to Biden and he gave the order to move forward.
The official also said the president separately spoke with Secretary of State Antony Blinken Thursday morning to discuss a diplomatic strategy and that Biden continued to be engaged on this issue and was staying in close contact with his team on the situation.
State Department Spokesman Ned Price said the embassy in Kabul will remain open as it reduces its civilian footprint due to the “evolving security situation.” He added that the embassy expects to draw down to a core diplomatic presence in Afghanistan.
“What this is not — this is not abandonment. This is not an evacuation. This is not the wholesale withdrawal,” Price said Thursday. “What this is, is a reduction in the size of our civilian footprint. This is a drawdown of civilian Americans who will, in many cases, be able to perform their important functions elsewhere, whether that’s in the United States or elsewhere in the region.”
The United Kingdom is also sending military personnel — about 600 paratroopers — to Kabul on a short-term basis to provide support to British nationals leaving the country, according to a joint press release from the Ministry of Defence and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The number of staffers working at the British Embassy in Kabul has been reduced to a core team focused on providing consular and visa services for those needing to rapidly leave the country.
U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Friday he believed the country was “heading towards a civil war” as the Taliban gain momentum.
At the Pentagon, Kirby announced Thursday the Defense Department was sending 3,000 troops from three infantry battalions — two Marine and one Army — to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport to help out with the removal of American personnel from the U.S. Embassy. These numbers are on top of the 650 who were already in Kabul protecting the airport and the embassy.
An additional 1,000 personnel were being sent to assist with the processing of Afghans who worked as interpreters, guides and other contractors and applied for Special Immigrant Visas (SIV).
“I want to stress that these forces are being deployed to support the orderly and safe reduction of civilian personnel at the request of the State Department and to help facilitate an accelerated process of working through SIV applicants,” Kirby said.
A brigade of 3,000 to 3,500 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne will also be sent to Kuwait to preposition in case they are needed.
Kirby called it a “very temporary mission for a very temporary purpose,” and said the DOD expects to keep no more than 1,000 troops in Kabul to protect the airport and embassy after the Aug. 31 deadline — a number that has notably crept up from the 650 troops originally set to remain.
Price said officials will continue to relocate qualified Afghans who assisted the American mission, such as interpreters and others who worked for the U.S. government, and flights will ramp up in the coming days.
Blinken and Austin spoke to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani earlier Thursday to brief him on the U.S. plans, but the two U.S. officials did not tell Ghani to resign, according to a State Department spokesperson, who added, “Rumors indicating we have done so are completely false. Decisions about who leads the country are for Afghans to make.”
The Taliban have demanded that Ghani resign, in exchange for a reduction in violence and to lay the groundwork for a transitional government. But Ghani has said he is the democratically elected leader of the country and will remain so until negotiations between the Taliban and Afghan government reach a conclusion — an increasingly distant reality.
Shabia Mantoo, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, warned Friday at a press conference in Geneva that a worsening humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Afghanistan.
“The human toll of spiraling hostilities is immense. The United Nations Assistance Mission has warned that without a significant de-escalation in violence, Afghanistan is on course to witness the highest ever number of documented civilian casualties in a single year since the UN’s records began,” she said.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for a cease-fire in remarks on Friday.
“The message from the international community to those on the warpath must be clear: seizing power through military force is a losing proposition,” he said. “That can only lead to prolonged civil war or to the complete isolation of Afghanistan.”
“I call on the Taliban to immediately halt the offensive and to negotiate in good faith in the interest of Afghanistan and its people,” Guterres continued.
According to the U.N., some 400,000 civilians have been forced to flee from their homes since the start of the year, joining 2.9 million Afghans already internally displaced across the country at the end of last year, she said.
ABC News’ Cindy Smith, Justin Gomez, Guy Davies and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti Saturday morning, the United States Geological Survey reported, which could exacerbate the island’s COVID-19 infection rate should displaced people be forced into closer confines.
The earthquake, according to the USGS, struck about 5 miles north of Petit Trou de Nippes, Haiti, a little over 90 miles from the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The earthquake was virtually the same size and at the same shallow depth as the 2010 quake, and along the exact same fault line — the Enriquillo Plantain Garden — but farther west and in a less populated region.
Initial reports from those in Port-au-Prince said the city seemed to be “fine” and that the airport remained operational.
“It will be very bad, but maybe not quite as bad as 2010 just because Port-au-Prince is farther away from this one and therefore got less shaking this time,” said Dr. Lucy Jones, an earthquake expert.
She said that about 650,000 people have been exposed to level VII shaking, which the USGS defines as “very strong” and which is powerful enough to topple poorly built structures.
But many of the buildings that potentially would have been at risk from this quake were destroyed by the earthquake 11 years ago or by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, meaning fewer reports of extensive damage now aren’t entirely surprising, Jones added.
Groups like Community Organized Relief Effort are trying to help vaccinate locals to prevent COVID-19 spread.
The U.S. Agency for International Development said the organization’s disaster experts already on the ground in Haiti are assessing damage and humanitarian needs.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway, Justin Doom and Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Tropical depression Fred continues to produce heavy rain across central Cuba as of Saturday morning.
Fred is located about 90 miles south of Key West, Florida, and moving northwest at 13 mph.
Sustained winds are traveling at 35 mph with higher gusts.
Tropical storm conditions are expected in portions of the warning area across the Florida Keys later Saturday.
A tornado or two may even be possible across central and South Florida.
Fred is expected to strengthen to a tropical storm as it passes near or west of the lower Florida Keys on Saturday afternoon.
It will move across the eastern Gulf of Mexico overnight and into Sunday, and move inland over the northern Gulf Coast on Monday.
Through Monday, 3 to 5 inches of rain are anticipated across the Keys and South Florida.
Across the Florida Big Bend and Panhandle, 3 to 7 inches with isolated maximum totals of 10 inches are expected. Flooding may occur. From Monday onward, heavy rain and flood impacts could extend into inland portions of the Southeast and into the southern and central Appalachians and Piedmont, as Fred interacts with a front in the area.
(BENA, Minn.) — A 3-year-old girl was fatally shot by a 5-year-old boy in a home in Bena, Minnesota, early Friday, officials said.
The Cass County Sheriff’s Office received a report of an accidental shooting around 3:50 a.m.
When deputies responded they learned the little girl “had been shot by accidental gunfire” by the boy, Sheriff Tom Burch said in a news release.
She was transported to the Deer River hospital by family members and intercepted by the Deer River Ambulance and lifesaving efforts were attempted on the child.
The girl was pronounced dead at the Deer River Hospital.
An autopsy is pending with the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office and an investigation is underway.
The relationship between the boy and girl is not clear. It’s also not know how the child got a hold of the firearm.
It’s not clear whether possible criminal charges will be filed in the fatal incident.
So far this year 968 children have been killed by guns, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
In 2019, 3,371 American children and teens were killed with guns, the Children’s Defense Fund, a nonprofit child advocacy and research group reported.
(FORT WORTH, Texas) — A Texas mom is urging parents to send their kids to school wearing masks after she says her 11-year-old son was diagnosed with multisystem inflammatory syndrome a month after testing positive for COVID-19.
Angie Abbott said she and her son Cason went to see a doctor on Nov. 8, 2020 because he wasn’t feeling well; he’d been dealing with symptoms like a sore throat. Carson then tested positive for COVID-19, but they were sent home because his condition didn’t require hospitalization. Abbot said she monitored him from home, where he just “wanted to lay around and watch movies.”
Having just lost her fiancé, who she says died from a stroke, Abbot said she became “worried” that his “lethargy” was from depression and called a local pediatrician, who advised her to take him to a hospital.
“He always wanted to sleep and he didn’t feel good,” Abbott, 53, told “Good Morning America.”
In December 2020, Abbott said she twice brought her son to a local hospital in Abilene, but the doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. When Cason’s symptoms worsened, she said she took him to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth.
“Immediately, they knew he had MIS-C,” she said. “His inflammation markers were extremely high with the swelling. He was swollen on the outside of his face, his hands and his feet. He had a rash pretty much all over him. His eyes were really bloodshot and red, and there were dark circles under his eyes.”
“I was scared to death,” Abbott continued. “I didn’t even know what MIS-C was.”
MIS-C is a condition where different body parts, such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes and gastrointestinal organs can become inflamed. While it’s unclear what causes MIS-C, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that many children who have MIS-C had COVID-19. The CDC has recorded 4,404 cases of MIS-C since May 2020.
“MIS-C has a median age of 9 years old,” said Dr. Priscilla Hanudel, an emergency medicine physician in Los Angeles and member of the ABC News Medical Unit. “Masking is crucial to preventing children from developing this severe illness, particularly because ages 11 and under aren’t yet vaccine-eligible.”
The morning after he was admitted, Abbott said Cason wouldn’t wake up and nurses couldn’t get a blood pressure reading on him. They rushed him to the intensive care unit, where he was in “critical condition,” she said.
“The doctor told me that if I would’ve waited until the next morning to drive him to the hospital, he probably wouldn’t have made it,” Abbott said.
Although Cason was released from the ICU and sent home a month later in January, he still has to return to Cook Children’s Medical Center for regular tests and lab work, Abbott said.
“His inflammation markers and several of his labs are way off,” she said. “He now has no immunity because of the MIS-C treatment.”
Treatments for MIS-C work to reduce inflammation in the body and include antibiotics, steroid therapy and intravenous immunoglobulin, which is a blood product made of antibodies, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Cason is now immunocompromised, Abbott said, and dealing with symptoms of MIS-C like fatigue and inflammation. She’s worried he might get reinfected when he returns to school at Wylie West Junior High, where he’ll be a sixth-grader starting Aug. 18.
“We just got released last week from his infectious disease doctor to go back to school wearing a mask,” Abbott said. “So here’s my thing that I’m worried about as a mom: what about these other kids that he’s going to be around? Most of them won’t be wearing masks and will not be vaccinated because they’re under 12.”
After Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning government entities, including school districts, from requiring people to use masks, Cason’s school is one of many that will not be mandating mask use during the upcoming school year.
Abbott said that because of her son’s weakened immune system, Cason won’t be eligible for the vaccine when he turns 12 on Sept. 3. The CDC recommends people with MIS-C delay vaccinations for 90 days from the date of diagnosis.
“It’s the only thing that’s been on my mind,” Abbott said. “It’s not just a daily thing. It’s every moment of every day I’m worried about him. … I feel like we’re going into a war zone without any protection of our own.”
Cason’s school also won’t be offering any form of remote learning, Abbott said. As a working single mother, with no childcare options, she’s unable to pull Cason out of school and homeschool him.
“My child is still sick … it’s very scary to me if my child was to get COVID again,” Abbott said. “I don’t even want to think about what that might look like for us.”
Wylie West Junior High did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ‘GMA’ for comment about Cason’s remote learning.
Abbott is now urging parents to take the virus more seriously and to consider how valuable masks and the vaccine are in containing the spread.
“Be thankful that your world has not turned upside-down like mine has,” Abbott said. “COVID and MIS-C are very real in my home, and [it’s] very devastating the effects that it’s had on my home, so please don’t sit there and say it’s no big deal.”
She added, “If somebody was able to walk in my shoes and go through what I went through with my child, I think there’d be no doubt in their minds that they wanted the vaccine — that they never wanted to be that sick or give that to someone else.”
As for Cason, Abbott calls him a “trooper.”
“He’s a sweetheart,” she said. “He worries more about me getting sad for any time that we get a bad diagnosis or something to be concerned about. He’s never worried about himself ever. He’s never complained about this one time — he feels such a need to be protective of me.”
(WASHINGTON) — A group of House moderates is threatening to blow up Democrats’ plans of passing a $3.5 trillion budget resolution when the chamber is set to return the week of Aug. 23 unless the chamber also votes on the $1.1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
House Democrats intended to vote on the $3.5 trillion budget blueprint in late August after the Senate approved the measure this week. The budget blueprint allows both the House and the Senate to craft a reconciliation bill, filled with progressive priorities, that can be passed with a simple majority and without Republican support.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the House will not vote on the $1.1 trillion infrastructure bill until the larger $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill has also cleared the Senate, a condition which is wholeheartedly approved by progressives in her party.
“We have been clear for three months that we are not going to vote for the bipartisan package unless there is a reconciliation package that has passed that includes sufficient funding for our five priorities,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters earlier this month.
In the letter sent to Pelosi on Friday, moderate lawmakers insisted on a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill and have said their districts can’t afford “months of unnecessary delays.”
Democrats have just a three-seat majority in the House. Any handful of members can be potential roadblocks if they are determined enough to challenge Pelosi and the White House.
“The country is clamoring for infrastructure investment and commonsense, bipartisan solutions,” the letter states. “With the livelihoods of hardworking American families at stake, we simply can’t afford months of unnecessary delays and risk squandering this once-in-a-century, bipartisan infrastructure package. It’s time to get shovels in the ground and people to work.”
The letter was spearheaded by Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., a co-chairman of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, and endorsed by eight other moderate Democrats: Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jim Costa of California, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, Filemon Vela of Texas, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Ed Case of Hawaii and Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia.
A senior Democratic aide downplayed the threat Friday and said the moderates represent a small fraction of the larger caucus that approves of Pelosi’s original plan.
“This is 9. There are dozens upon dozens who will vote against the [bipartisan infrastructure bill] unless it’s after the Senate passes reconciliation,” the aide told ABC News.
The aide added that there are “not sufficient votes” to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill this month and noted Pelosi’s comments to her caucus during a private call earlier this week, when she said her plan reflected a “consensus” of House Democrats.
“The president has said he’s all for the bipartisan approach … bravo! That’s progress, but it ain’t the whole vision,” she said. “The votes in the House and Senate depend on us having both bills.”
(NEW YORK) — As the delta variant continues to ravage communities across the country, Hispanic populations in many states have been left behind in the race to get the country vaccinated, according to Salud America, a national Latino-focused research organization.
Health experts say misinformation, fear and a lack of access to vaccination sites have contributed to the lower rates of vaccination — despite the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the Latino community.
According to Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization focusing on national health issues, Black and Hispanic people are less likely than their white counterparts to have received a vaccine, leaving the unvaccinated members of the group at an elevated risk of contracting the virus.
“It’s pretty much life or death if they are choosing not to vaccinate themselves because of myths,” said Arturo Vargas Bustamante, a professor of Health Policy and Management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
Health experts are pleading with people to learn more about the science, unlearn the myths and overcome the fears concerning the vaccine.
Activists, like Frankie Miranda, of the non-profit Latino advocacy group the Hispanic Federation, are also calling on local officials to provide culturally competent information to help stop the spread of coronavirus among Latinos, who may have a mistrust of the U.S. government.
Latinos and the virus
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 70% of adults in the U.S. have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
State-by-state percentages of Latino vaccination rates show the disparities in vaccination — as of Aug. 2, only about 26.9% of Latinos in Alabama have received at least one dose, according to Salud America, which analyzes state and CDC data. In Tennessee, 31.3% of Latinos have had at least one dose. In Texas, it’s 32% of Latinos.
However, more than 90% of Latinos in Vermont and more than 60% of Latinos in Virginia have received at least one dose, Salud America reports.
And in the last two weeks, people of color are being vaccinated more than white people, according to the CDC — which could be attributed to the recent rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths among unvaccinated populations.
Latinos make up 28.5% of overall confirmed cases in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic, the CDC reports.
Bustamante recommended that trusted Latino leaders and figures partner with local governments and health agencies to get the word out about vaccines, their efficiency and the importance of community health to stop the spread.
Miranda blamed the lack of Spanish-language resources and outreach to communities and said that the lack of access and awareness can cause confusion for many.
“It is okay to feel anxious, to feel nervous about it,” said Miranda. “By asking questions or going to a community-based organization in their communities, to ask these questions, many of these worries will go away and they will understand that this is the best way to protect themselves and their families.”
Vaccination misconceptions, myths and fears
“Chisme mata,” said Fernandez, which means “gossip kills” in Spanish. He and other health experts warned against believing posts, articles and memes from non-reputable sources.
One common fear about the vaccine that some people have heard is that there may be unknown long-term effects. But experts, like American Public Health Association President Jose Ramon Fernandez, said that there’s no need to fear long-term effects because they have rarely, if ever, occurred with past vaccines.
The Food and Drug Administration puts each vaccine candidate through a rigorous safety and efficacy process before granting approval. And safety monitoring continues after approval as well.
All three current COVID-19 vaccines granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) by the FDA have undergone three phases of testing, including large trials that lasted several months. The CDC says currently authorized vaccines are safe and effective and Pfizer expects to apply for full approval next month.
“We have over [200] years of experience with vaccines, and there’s no record at all of having long-term effects of a vaccine,” said Fernandez.
Skepticism on the speed of vaccine production, and how quickly it was made available, is also easily explained, according to the CDC.
Other diseases caused by coronaviruses in the past are closely related to the COVID-19 virus. Because researchers had been developing vaccines for those diseases when the novel coronavirus was discovered, the basis for this vaccine was already in the works, according to the CDC.
Combined with billions of dollars funding expedited research and millions of volunteers working on this effort — the vaccine was made faster than normal.
“I know that it’s difficult to feel confident about science, especially right now during the pandemic where the advice given by scientists changes so regularly,” said Bustamante.
“You need to understand that science evolves,” he said. “Knowledge is not one static product. We, as scientists, contribute to science and see how trends evolve over time, and that many times makes us change our guidelines.”
Among the many false narratives about vaccines is they can cause problems with fertility.
“It has been completely debunked,” Fernandez said. “It’s an absolute lie. There’s no evidence anywhere around the world where this has been proven to be true.”
Given substantial data supporting the safety of vaccines, the CDC now strongly recommends that people who are pregnant and considering becoming pregnant to get vaccinated.
Another fear about the vaccine is that there are other cures to COVID-19, or that a healthy lifestyle is sufficient in protecting people from the illness. That is false, said Dr. Ramon Tallaj from SOMOS Community Care, a network of health providers in New York City.
He said that doctors, scientists, and public health experts believe that the vaccine, alongside other COVID-19 safety precautions like masking and social distancing, is the best protection against the virus and drastically protects the infected from severe illness.
“Somebody told me that they prefer the natural immunity … but natural immunity means that 600,000 people die in the United States,” said Tallaj about the growing COVID-19 death toll in the United States. “The only reason why humans live so long now … is because of vaccines and antibiotics.”
Some people are also in fear of getting symptoms after receiving the vaccine and may have to take off work or be disciplined by their bosses, Fernandez and Tallaj said.
But side effects like headache and fevers are temporary, and they don’t happen to everyone. Meanwhile, many employers will give workers a paid day off to rest after getting the shots, so public health officials recommend asking employers what options exist to take time off.
“It’s in their interest to make sure that you’re healthy,” said Fernandez. “Do it for your mother. Do it for your children. Do it for your friends. Do it for your co-workers. Do it for your community.”
And for undocumented immigrants or uninsured Latinos, there is no need to fear — people getting the vaccine will not be asked about their legal status and insurance isn’t needed. The vaccine is completely free and no one will be billed for it.
“As a Latino man, I’m deeply concerned about the health of our community, and I want to do anything I can to make sure that we have access to accurate information to help people make a decision that they will be happy they made down the line,” Fernandez said.
To find more information, and to find Spanish-language guidance on the vaccine, experts recommend heading to the CDC website for more information, or to the CDC’s vaccine finder to look for vaccination sites nearby.
