(NEW YORK) — Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in Brooklyn on Friday to resolve a sanctions violation case that has kept her detained in Canada since late 2018.
Meng appeared by video in Brooklyn federal court where Assistant U.S. Attorney David Kessler said the deferred prosecution agreement expires in December 2022, four years after her arrest by Canadian authorities at the request of the United States.
“If Ms. Meng complies with all of her obligations under the DPA, the government agrees to dismiss all the charges against her,” Kessler said. “If Ms. Meng does not comply with her allegations she can be prosecuted.”
Meng has been confined to her multimillion-dollar home in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she said in 2019 she’d taken up oil painting in order to pass the time.
In exchange for her entry into the deferred prosecution agreement, Kessler said the U.S. would tell the Canadians that Meng can be released and return to China.
“Have you reviewed the entire statement of facts with your United States legal counsel?” asked Judge Ann Donnelly.
“Yes,” Meng replied through an interpreter.
“Is every statement in the statement of facts true and accurate?” Donnelly said.
“Yes,” Meng said.
Huawei allegedly broke U.S. sanctions in 2017 by selling embargoed American equipment to Iran, according to prosecutors.
“In entering into the deferred prosecution agreement, Meng has taken responsibility for her principal role in perpetrating a scheme to defraud a global financial institution,” acting U.S. Attorney Nicole Boeckmann said in a statement. “Her admissions in the statement of facts confirm that, while acting as the Chief Financial Officer for Huawei, Meng made multiple material misrepresentations to a senior executive of a financial institution regarding Huawei’s business operations in Iran in an effort to preserve Huawei’s banking relationship with the financial institution.”
Meng pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud, but stipulated to certain facts outlined by prosecutors who have accused her and the technology company founded by her father of stealing trade secrets and evading economic sanctions on Iran.
Resolution of the case may give Beijing cover domestically to re-engage with the United States. The case was widely seen as an opening salvo by the Trump administration in its approach to China.
Meng was arrested the same day former President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met face to face on the sidelines of 2018’s G-20 in Argentina. Since then, the case has been on a list of demands the Chinese have presented to the U.S. at their recent bilateral meetings as a “show of sincerity” about a rapprochement.
“The company has been provided very little information regarding the charges and is not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng,” Huawei said in a statement at the time of Meng’s arrest. “Huawei complies with all applicable laws and regulations where it operates, including applicable export control and sanction laws and regulations of the U.N., U.S. and E.U.”
(DEL RIO, Texas) — After more than a week of growing controversy, immigration authorities in Del Rio, Texas, on Friday finished clearing out an encampment of mostly Haitian migrants that at one point expanded to about 15,000 people.
“As of this morning, there are no longer any migrants in the camp, underneath the Del Rio International Bridge,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a White House briefing Friday afternoon.
Five flights departed Del Rio for Haiti on Thursday carrying 548 Haitians, officials said.
So far, more than a dozen flights have taken about 2,000 people back to Haiti, according to the Department of Homeland Security. About 3,900 have been moved from the camp for processing or expulsion.
The U.S. government has not accounted for all the migrants in the camp, but officials on Thursday said “several thousand” had returned to Mexico. Other government officials who spoke directly to ABC News but were not authorized to officially provide the information said “thousands” more have been placed in “removal proceedings” and released in the U.S.
Those proceedings can take time, officials said, in part because migrants in removal proceedings are legally allowed to make a claim of asylum. Asylum cases can take anywhere from six months and several years with the massive case backlog at immigration courts across the country.
The administration is also employing a controversial process of rapid removal or “expulsion” known as Title 42 — a reference to a section of U.S. public health code that the government says requires them to immediately expel unauthorized migrants at the border.
Immigrant advocates have raised concerns about Title 42 cutting off access to legal means of obtaining asylum.
(NEW YORK) — Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview on “The View” on Friday was delayed after two co-hosts tested positive for COVID-19.
Harris, who was supposed to appear in-studio with the co-hosts of the show, instead appeared remotely from another room after Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin were said to have tested positive.
Speaking with the two remaining co-hosts, Joy Behar and Sara Haines, the vice president said the treatment of Haitian migrants on the southwest U.S. border was “horrible and deeply troubling.”
“Human beings shouldn’t be treated that way,” Harris said. “And as we all know, it also evoked images of some of the worst moments of our history, where that kind of behavior has been used against the indigenous people of our country, has been used against African Americans during times of slavery.”
The show began with the four co-hosts sitting at the host’s table for the start of the show; Navarro and Hostin were quickly ushered off the set before Harris’ intended appearance. The other co-hosts said Navarro and Hostin had been vaccinated against the virus.
“This is going to be a major news story in a minute now,” Behar said when she first announced the news. “Sunny and Ana apparently just tested positive for COVID.”
Harris’ deputy press secretary, Sabrina Singh, said in a statement that the vice president “did not have contact with the hosts before the show” and that Harris’s Friday schedule would “continue as planned.”
But the interview was delayed for much of the show as producers and the U.S. Secret Service took precautions to make sure the vice president would remain safe.
When Harris did appear for her interview, she noted the effectiveness of the vaccines since the anchors did not appear to have any noticeable, or severe, symptoms.
“Sunny and Ana are strong women and I know they’re fine,” Harris said. “But it really does speak to the fact that they’re vaccinated and vaccines really make all the difference…”
Harris also answered questions about COVID-19, Afghanistan and abortion access — with sharp words about Haitians at the border.
When asked about asylum applications from migrants, she said she and Biden believe the administration has to do more to support Haiti itself.
“Haiti is our neighbor,” Harris said. “The United States has to help and we have to do more and our administration feels strongly about that.”
On Friday morning, President Joe Biden told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott that, as president, he took responsibility for the photos and videos coming from the border of mounted police units confronting Haitian migrants.
“It’s an embarrassment, beyond an embarrassment. It’s dangerous. It’s wrong,” Biden said. “It sends the wrong message around the world, sends the wrong message at home.”
On Thursday, the U.S. Border Patrol announced it would put a pause on agents on horseback.
The president earlier this year tasked Harris with serving as his point person on stemming the flow of migration from Central America to the United States.
Earlier in the week, the vice president had condemned the ways Border Patrol agents were shown to be treating migrants.
(NORTH PORT, Fla.) — A massive search is continuing in southern Florida for Brian Laundrie, the boyfriend of Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old woman who went missing on a cross-country trip and who authorities confirmed Tuesday as the body discovered on Sunday in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.
The search for the 23-year-old Laundrie is centered around North Port, Florida, where investigators said Laundrie returned to his home on Sept. 1 without Petito but driving her 2012 Ford Transit.
Laundrie has been named by police as a “person of interest” in Petito’s disappearance. Laundrie has refused to speak to the police and has not been seen since Tuesday, Sept. 14, according to law enforcement officials.
The search for Laundrie is the latest twist in the case that has grabbed national attention as he and Petito had been traveling across the country since June, documenting the trip on social media.
Petito’s parents, who live in Long Island, New York, reported her missing on Sept. 11 after not hearing from her for two weeks.
Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:
Sep 24, 2:26 pm
Nothing found so far in Friday search
North Port officials said nothing has been found so far in Friday’s search of Carlton Reserve. Details for a Saturday search are yet to be announced.
Police shared video from the search showing swamp buggies riding through dirt roads and around vast swamps.
North Port Police Commander Joe Fussell said Friday that the warrant issued Thursday for Laundrie’s arrest “doesn’t change anything for us.”
“We’re working as hard to find him now as we did on day one,” Fussell said. “We’re not wasting our time out here. We are doing our due diligence to find Brian in an area that intelligence has led us that he could possibly be in.”
Sep 24, 9:42 am
Search for Brian Laundrie continues at Carlton Reserve
The search for Laundrie at the Carlton Reserve near North Port, Florida, is back on after a search Thursday yielded no leads.
Various agencies have been scanning the area throughout the week for signs of Laundrie. Authorities said he was last seen on Sept. 14.
Sep 23, 6:59 pm
Florida police halt search for Laundrie for the day, back Friday
Police in North Port, Florida, have halted their ground search for Brian Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve after another fruitless day.
“Nothing found. We will be back at it Friday,” North Port Police said on Twitter.
Authorities have been combing the massive preserve for any sign of Laundrie since Saturday.
Sep 23, 6:07 pm
Arrest warrant issued for Laundrie in Wyoming
An arrest warrant has been issued for Brian Laundrie in Wyoming following a federal grand jury indictment, authorities announced Thursday.
The U.S. District Court of Wyoming issued the warrant Wednesday “related to Mr. Laundrie’s activities following the death of Gabrielle Petito,” FBI Denver said.
The indictment alleges Laundrie “knowingly and with intent to defraud” used an unauthorized debit card and “obtained things of value aggregating to $1,000 or more” between Aug. 30 and Sept. 1.
The investigation into Petito’s death is ongoing, authorities said. The FBI in particular is seeking information from anyone who was at the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area between Aug. 27 and Aug. 30 and may have been in contact with the couple or saw their car.
“We urge individuals with knowledge of Mr. Laundrie’s role in this matter or his current whereabouts to contact the FBI,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Schneider said in a statement Thursday.
(NEW YORK) — A new study analyzing more than 12 million home appraisals between 2015 and 2020 found racial and ethnic disparities across the United States.
The research shows that Black and Latino homeowners are nearly twice as likely as white homeowners to have their homes undervalued.
Some experts, like Andre Perry, a senior fellow with the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, say this is a sign that racism in the real estate industry is a major factor in keeping Black and Latino families from accumulating wealth.
“When most people talk about structural racism and racism in general, they generally think of Klansmen in robes carrying torches … but where we still see pervasive discrimination that takes money out of people’s pockets are in these everyday behaviors or practices that strip wealth,” Perry told ABC News.
The report by mortgage giant Freddie Mac shows that 15.4% of appraisals in Latino neighborhoods and 12.5% in Black neighborhoods are valued less than the property’s contract price. That number drops to 7.4% in majority-white neighborhoods.
As Black or Latino populations grow, the total of undervalued appraisals also rose, the study said.
Researchers accounted for many of the potential factors that could lead to a low home appraisal — the home’s structure, the neighborhood’s features. Still, Black and Latino areas were disproportionately given lower appraisals.
Nationwide, 85% of appraisers at the end of 2018 were white, according to the Appraisal Institute.
“An appraisal falling below the contracted sale price may allow a buyer to renegotiate with a seller, but it could also mean families might miss out on the full wealth-building benefits of homeownership or may be unable to get the financing needed to achieve the American Dream in the first place,” said Michael Bradley, senior vice president of modeling, econometrics, data science and analytics in Freddie Mac’s Single-Family division.
Generational wealth represents the assets passed from one generation to the next. This can include things like stocks, investments, businesses and real estate.
Homeownership, Perry said, is one of the primary means of building wealth. Families lose money when their homes are valued lower, which can have a cumulative effect on their family for generations to come.
“If you have less equity in your home, you have less means to uplift yourself,” Perry said. “The equity in people’s homes determines so much. It’s the money people use to send their kids to college, to start a business. Most people start the businesses using the equity in the home, to move to a better neighborhood. It’s used when someone dies or gets married. It’s significant.”
The net worth of an average white family is nearly 10 times greater than an average Black family and eight times greater than an average Latino family. In 2016, those totals were $171,000, $17,150, and $20,600 respectively, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
A Brooking Institute report also found that homes in predominately Black neighborhoods nationwide are valued $48,000 less than predominately white neighborhoods, which results in a cumulative loss of approximately $156 billion in equity.
These gaps in net worth highlight some of the ways housing discrimination and other forms of systemic racism impede the ability of Latino and Black to accumulate assets and invest in the future of their families.
Solving these gaps, Perry said, can help bridge the racial and ethnic disparities in other aspects of society.
“We don’t want to lay the complete blame on the loss of home values on appraisers,” said Perry. “They are certainly an important trigger but the same attitudes that appraisers have, so do [some] lenders, real estate agents and other people in various markets. So, this is a great first step in identifying the causes for the loss of value in homes and it is a key to understanding how we can restore value to people who’ve been robbed by racism over time.”
Freddie Mac’s Bradley says these problems are “pervasive” and hopes the survey is the latest step toward addressing equity in housing.
“Our research marks the beginning of a comprehensive effort to better understand the key drivers contributing to the appraisal gap,” Bradley said in a statement. “Our goal is to develop solutions to this persistent problem, including appraisal best practices, uniform standards for automated valuation models, enhanced consumer disclosures, improved value processes, and revised fair lending exam procedures and risk assessments.”
(BEIJING) — Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies dipped in value on Friday after China declared all transactions involving these digital currencies “illegal.”
China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, issued a statement on Friday saying that use of these virtual currencies is disrupting economic order and linked to money laundering, fraud and other illicit activities. While Chinese financial institutions already were banned from doing business with cryptocurrencies, the new statement made clear that cryptocurrencies do not have the same status as legal tender and cannot be used as currency in the marketplace.
Bitcoin dropped some 8% on the news, but recouped some initial losses and was down by some 5% late Friday morning. Ethereum initially shed more than 10%, but was down by some 7% as of 11:30 am ET, according to Coin Desk data.
The notoriously volatile digital currencies are down about 30% from all-time highs in the spring, but Bitcoin still is up some 40% since the start of the year and Ethereum has gained a whopping 290% in 2021.
Friday’s notice from Beijing also made clear that it’s illegal for overseas virtual currency exchanges to provide services to Chinese residents through the internet.
The announcement comes as China experiments on a small scale with its own digital currency issued by its central bank, the first to be created by a major economy. The digital yuan is expected to be rolled out at larger scale imminently, and while it has many similarities to current cryptos the major difference is that it can be more easily traced and controlled by the government.
U.S. financial markets held steady on the news, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 both opening relatively flat on Friday. Analysts and investors around the globe have been keeping a close eye on news out of China, however, amid silence on the Evergrande saga. Debt issues plaguing Evergrande, one of China’s largest real estate developers, sent global markets tumbling earlier in the week as many predicted a default with possible spillover effects to the larger economy.
(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 682,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The average number of daily deaths in the U.S. has risen about 20% in the last week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The U.S. is continuing to sink on the list of global vaccination rates, currently ranking No. 45, according to data compiled by The Financial Times. Just 64.3% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Sep 24, 3:51 pm
Millions of federal contractors must be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8
The White House said Friday millions of federal contractors must get fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Dec. 8.
The announcement came in a document issued Friday by the White House’s budget office, the Office of Management and Budget, following up on an executive order President Joe Biden signed Sept. 9 that mandated vaccinations for federal contractors, Reuters reported.
The formal guidance also says that after Dec. 8 “all covered contractor employees must be fully vaccinated by the first day of the period of performance on a newly awarded covered contract.”
An OMB spokesperson told ABC News that “millions” of people would be covered but didn’t share more exact numbers.
Earlier this month, the White House said that federal government employees and contractors will now be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will create a rule for private businesses with 100 or more employees to require their employees to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson, Molly Nagle, Sarah Kolinovsky, and Justin Gomez
Sep 24, 3:34 pm
Nurses laud CDC decision to include front-line workers as eligible booster shot group
National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union of registered nurses, is lauding CDC director Rochelle Walensky’s inclusion of front-line and health care workers in her recommendations for who may now get a third Pfizer booster dose — a decision which overruled the agency’s independent panel conclusion.
The CDC’s advisory group had rejected the idea of third Pfizer doses for “high risk” workers like nurses and teachers, saying that without further data it wasn’t comfortable with automatically adding younger, healthier people simply by occupation.
The nurses’ union urged Walensky to bypass what her advisory panel had said — which is what she ultimately did.
“Nurses across the country are beyond relieved today to wake up to the news that CDC Director Rochelle Walensky prioritized the health and safety of health care and other essential workers most at risk of contracting Covid-19,” NNU president Deborah Burger told ABC in a statement Friday.
“It takes courage to do the right thing, especially when it involves going against the CDC’s own advisory panel,” Burger added. “We applaud this bold decision-making that prioritizes the health and safety of workers on the front lines of this ongoing crisis, and we know that her decision will absolutely save lives.”
Walensky however, insisted that she did not overrule the CDC’s advisory panel’s decision on booster shots for at-risk, front-line workers. She defended the decision as a “scientific close call” saying that she would advocate for the boosters if she was in the room.
“I want to be very clear that I did not overrule … the advisory committee,” she said. “I listened to the votes. I listened to the comments on the vote and this was a scientific close call … It was my call to make. If I had been in the room, I would have voted ‘yes.'”
She also said that boosters were not a solution for ending the pandemic.
“I want to be clear we will not boost our way out of this pandemic. Infections among the unvaccinated continue to fuel this pandemic rise, resulting in a rising number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths where people are in vaccinated,” Walensky said.
-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik and Matthew Vann
Sep 24, 2:28 pm
CVS says it will make Pfizer booster available today
On the heels of pharmacy retail chain Walgreens’ announcement that it is now ready to give third booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine to newly eligible groups, CVS announced it too will be ready “later today.”
“We are reviewing the CDC guidance and will be ready to provide the booster dose at CVS Pharmacy and select MinuteClinic locations that offer the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine later today. We strongly encourage customers to schedule an appointment in advance at to ensure they are able to access the correct vaccine at a convenient time and location,” the drugstore chain said in a statement Friday.
-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik
Sep 24, 1:08 pm
COVID-19 outbreaks increase in school districts without masking policies: CDC study
School districts without a universal masking policy in place at the start of the school year saw a significant increase in COVID-19 outbreaks, according to three new studies released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Additionally, school districts in those counties saw more than double the number of pediatric COVID-19 cases during this same period, the studies, released Friday, also found.
The studies further emphasize that school mask requirements, along with other prevention strategies, are critical to reducing the spread of COVID-19 in schools.
Other key findings from the studies include:
– Schools in Arizona that opened without a school mask requirement had a 3.5 higher likelihood of having a COVID-19 outbreak than schools that opened with a school mask requirement.
-During the early part of the 2021-2022 academic school year, almost 2,000 schools have been closed and more than 900,000 students in more than 40 states have been impacted.
– Pediatric cases during the start of the 2021-2022 school year were about half in U.S. counties with school mask requirements than in counties without school mask requirements.
To prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in schools, the CDC recommends a multi-layered strategy including vaccination, universal indoor masking, testing and physical distancing.
-ABC News’ Eric Strauss
Sep 24, 12:18 pm
Walgreens announces its doors are open for new Pfizer booster group
Walgreens announced Friday morning that its participating stores are ready to start giving third booster doses of Pfizer’s vaccine to newly eligible groups.
The CDC green-lit Pfizer booster shots on Thursday.
As of Friday morning, those newly eligible groups can walk into any Walgreens location offering the Pfizer shot, the company said.
Also, as of Friday, people can begin scheduling appointments online or over the phone.
-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik
Sep 24, 12:11 pm
Pfizer booster shot available ‘literally right now’ in NYC: Mayor
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said a third Pfizer booster shot is available to eligible New Yorkers, “literally right now.”
“As of now, as of this exact moment, New Yorkers in a number of categories are eligible for the 3rd booster shot, Pfizer only, for the COVID vaccine,” the mayor told radio station WNYC Friday.
Eligible New Yorkers include anyone who got their second shot six months ago and are 65 or older; in a long-term care facility or nursing home; are between 18 and 64 years old with an underlying medical condition; or are between 18 and 64 years old and a front-line or health care worker doing direct work with the public, the mayor said.
On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention an independent advisory panel’s recommendation for seniors and other medically vulnerable Americans to get a booster shot of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine six months after their second dose.
“Literally now you can go online, vax4nyc, either make an appointment right now for the coming days or you can get a list of all the city-run sites and you can walk in today if you are in those categories,” de Blasio said.
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Sep 24, 6:23 am
CDC endorses Pfizer boosters for older and high-risk Americans
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has endorsed an independent advisory panel’s recommendation for seniors and other medically vulnerable Americans to get a booster shot of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, six months after their second dose.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, also partially overruled her agency’s advisory panel in a notable departure by adding a recommendation for a third dose for people who are considered high risk due to where they work, such as nurses and teachers — a group which the panel rejected in its recommendation. Some panelists said that without further data, they weren’t comfortable with automatically including younger people because of their jobs.
In a statement announcing her decision late Thursday, Walensky pointed to the benefit versus risk analysis she had weighed, and data rapidly evolving.
“In a pandemic, even with uncertainty, we must take actions that we anticipate will do the greatest good,” Walensky said. “While today’s action was an initial step related to booster shots, it will not distract from our most important focus of primary vaccination in the United States and around the world.”
With Walensky’s final sign-off, booster shots will now quickly become available for millions more Americans at pharmacies, doctors’ offices and other sites that offer the Pfizer vaccine as soon as Friday.
Sep 23, 8:40 pm
Leaving nurses out of booster recommendation ‘unconscionable,’ union charges
The nation’s largest union of registered nurses pushed back against the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel’s vote on COVID-19 booster shots, calling not including front-line workers like nurses in its recommendations “unconscionable.”
National Nurses United is urging CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to bypass what the advisory panel, ACIP, recommended and add nurses and other health care workers to the list of eligible booster recipients.
“Nurses and other health care workers were among the first to be vaccinated because of their high risk of exposure to the virus,” Deborah Burger, the union’s president, said in a statement. “Why leave them out of booster shots?”
“It is unconscionable that ACIP would not vote to keep us safer from death, severe Covid, and long Covid,” Burger continued. “We must do everything possible to ensure that the health of our nurses and other health care workers will not be put even more at risk.”
ACIP voted Thursday to recommend a third Pfizer dose for people aged 65 and older, as well as those as young as 18 if they have an underlying medical condition.
In its authorization Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration did agree to make the shots available to front-line workers. But ACIP said there was not yet enough data to support providing booster shots automatically to young people because of their jobs.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Friday harshly criticized the action of some Border Patrol agents, mounted on horseback, who confronted Haitian migrants crossing the border into Texas, calling their actions “horrible.”
“It’s outrageous, I promise you, those people will pay,” Biden said.
Biden’s blunt statements came as the situation and the agents’ conduct are still under investigation and the agents have been placed on administrative leave. The use of horses has been suspended in the meantime.
Biden was responding to a question from ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott, who asked, “You said on the campaign trail that you were going to restore the moral standing of the U.S., that you are going to immediately end Trump’s assault on the dignity of immigrant communities. Given what we saw at the border this week, have you failed in that promise? And this is happening under your watch–do you take responsibility for the chaos that’s unfolding?”
“Of course, I take responsibility,” Biden said, but he then quickly shifted to the controversial images of the agents on horseback. “I’m president but it was horrible to see what you saw to see people treat it like they did — horses family nearly running over people being strapped. It’s outrageous, I promise you, those people will pay. They will be — there is investigation underway now, and there will be consequences. There will be consequences. It’s an embarrassment, beyond an embarrassment. It’s dangerous. It’s wrong, it sends the wrong message around the world, sends the wrong message at home. It’s simply not who we are,” he said.
Democrats, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus, have demanded an end to the Haitians being expelled and the ACLU and other migrant advocates have had the administration is illegally removing them through the use of Title 42, claiming they are justified in doing so for public health reasons because of the pandemic.
The U.S. special envoy for Haiti, Daniel Foote, has resigned in protest over the administration policy, calling the treatment of the Haitian migrants “inhumane.”
(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 682,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The average number of daily deaths in the U.S. has risen about 20% in the last week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The U.S. is continuing to sink on the list of global vaccination rates, currently ranking No. 45, according to data compiled by The Financial Times. Just 64.3% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Sep 24, 6:23 am
CDC endorses Pfizer boosters for older and high-risk Americans
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has endorsed an independent advisory panel’s recommendation for seniors and other medically vulnerable Americans to get a booster shot of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, six months after their second dose.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, also partially overruled her agency’s advisory panel in a notable departure by adding a recommendation for a third dose for people who are considered high risk due to where they work, such as nurses and teachers — a group which the panel rejected in its recommendation. Some panelists said that without further data, they weren’t comfortable with automatically including younger people because of their jobs.
In a statement announcing her decision late Thursday, Walensky pointed to the benefit versus risk analysis she had weighed, and data rapidly evolving.
“In a pandemic, even with uncertainty, we must take actions that we anticipate will do the greatest good,” Walensky said. “While today’s action was an initial step related to booster shots, it will not distract from our most important focus of primary vaccination in the United States and around the world.”
With Walensky’s final sign-off, booster shots will now quickly become available for millions more Americans at pharmacies, doctors’ offices and other sites that offer the Pfizer vaccine as soon as Friday.
Sep 23, 8:40 pm
Leaving nurses out of booster recommendation ‘unconscionable,’ union charges
The nation’s largest union of registered nurses pushed back against the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel’s vote on COVID-19 booster shots, calling not including front-line workers like nurses in its recommendations “unconscionable.”
National Nurses United is urging CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to bypass what the advisory panel, ACIP, recommended and add nurses and other health care workers to the list of eligible booster recipients.
“Nurses and other health care workers were among the first to be vaccinated because of their high risk of exposure to the virus,” Deborah Burger, the union’s president, said in a statement. “Why leave them out of booster shots?”
“It is unconscionable that ACIP would not vote to keep us safer from death, severe Covid, and long Covid,” Burger continued. “We must do everything possible to ensure that the health of our nurses and other health care workers will not be put even more at risk.”
ACIP voted Thursday to recommend a third Pfizer dose for people aged 65 and older, as well as those as young as 18 if they have an underlying medical condition.
In its authorization Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration did agree to make the shots available to front-line workers. But ACIP said there was not yet enough data to support providing booster shots automatically to young people because of their jobs.
(NEW YORK) — One week after getting her first COVID-19 vaccine shot, Bernadette Ann Bowen said she started her period one day early.
Then, Bowen, a 31-year-old Ph.D. student at Bowling Green State University, said she experienced some of the worst menstrual cramps of her life.
“I started getting a headache and then started feeling cramps coming on,” Bowen told Good Morning America. “My nausea and abdominal pain became so severe at the peak of my cramps that I could barely stomach a few sips of water, as I laid there feeling like I was going to pass out from it all.”
After Bowen saw people on TikTok discussing similar changes in their menstrual cycles after being vaccinated, she said she was “stricken with fear” over what could happen when she received her second dose of the vaccine.
“A lot of people I saw said their experience was after the second shot, so I was literally stricken with fear for a whole month wondering what would happen,” she said. “I was so afraid that it would continue.”
Bowen though, like most women who have reported menstrual changes after the vaccine, experienced only the one-time change to her period.
Nonetheless, she described it as “unacceptable” that people who menstruate did not know ahead of time that the vaccine may cause changes to the timing or severity of their menstrual cycles, even if temporary.
“Not getting a single warning is unacceptable,” she said. “It would be one thing if we were given a single consideration, but just knowing the design of medicine is so biased that this wouldn’t have been reported as a warning, it’s telling.”
Now, nearly one year after the COVID-19 vaccines began to be distributed in the U.S., the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has committed $1.6 million in funding to “explore potential links between COVID-19 vaccination and menstrual changes,” according a news release.
The funding, announced last month, comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer booster shots Wednesday for high-risk Americans and adults over age 65. FDA’s acting commissioner, Dr. Janet Woodcock, said the list of high-risk Americans should include health care workers, teachers and grocery story workers, all industries with largely female workforces.
The research funding also comes months after people began to share on social media their experiences of short-term period side effects after being vaccinated.
Tens of thousands of people documented their side effects in an online database created by researchers Katharine Lee, of Washington University in St. Louis, and Kathryn Clancy, of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who each said they experienced unexpected menstrual cycles after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, and began to collect data.
The newly announced NIH funding, for which Lee and Clancy applied but were not selected, will go to researchers at five institutions: Boston University, Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University, Michigan State University and Oregon Health and Science University.
The researchers will study everything from menstrual cycle changes reported on period tracking apps like Clue to menstrual changes in people with endometriosis and people trying to get pregnant, people who have not been vaccinated and teenagers. They will be examining how the vaccines may have affected flow, cycle length and pain, as well as exploring why COVID-19 vaccines may cause changes, according to Candace Tingen, Ph.D., program director of the Gynecologic Health and Disease Branch at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
“Exactly like you’d see on a medication, that it may cause drowsiness, we want to say to women, ‘If you get a booster, if you get a vaccine, you might have a slightly heavier period for a cycle or two,'” Tingen said. “That’s what we want when we go in to get vaccinated, so we know how to prepare.”
Data on menstrual side effects was not widely collected during clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines, which were conducted by the companies behind the vaccines, Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, according to Tingen.
She said the NIH was motivated to fund research both from reports of menstrual side effects as well as the misinformation that followed around menstrual changes and fertility.
“There was a lot of misinformation out there, and NIH sees its mandate as countering misinformation with accurate information,” Tingen said. “[Research] is something that we could do to step in and provide some real information about whether or not this is this is accurate.”
Experts in the medical community agree menstrual changes potentially linked to COVID-19 vaccines are likely to be temporary, and current evidence suggests that the vaccine has no impact on current or future fertility.
A possible explanation for temporary changes to period timing, flow and pain may have to do with how the body responds to physical and emotional stresses. Prior studies indicate that COVID-19 itself can be a stressor, leading to irregular menstrual cycles for some people.
Menstrual changes are also controlled by the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland in the brain, along with the ovaries, which use hormones as signals. These hormone signals can be disrupted when the body goes through changes that occur with an infection, and even a vaccine.
The research funded by NIH to help solidify these theories will include as many as 500,000 participants, some of whom are already involved in clinical studies, according to Tingen. She said because of the studies’ reach, transgender and nonbinary people will be included.
Dr. Laura Payne, director of the Clinical and Translational Pain Research Lab at McLean Hospital and an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is one of the five researchers receiving NIH funding.
She is studying teens ages 14 to 19 to explore why the COVID-19 vaccines may cause changes in periods.
Specifically, Payne is looking at whether the vaccines cause inflammatory markers to be released, which then affect estrogen, which then affects menstrual cycles.
“Right now, the data on this particular mechanism is pretty limited to animal studies so we don’t really know how inflammation affects estrogen,” Payne said. “I think if we can show that inflammation has an effect on the menstrual cycle, that can help us just better understand the different things that affect the menstrual cycle.”
“In the bigger scheme of things, we’re just putting the menstrual cycle and menstrual health to the forefront as an important part of medical research, and it just hasn’t been,” she said. “It’s certainly an additional variable, but it’s really important and it’s important for women even if it’s not causing any kind of dangerous condition, it’s an important measure of health for women.”
Payne called it a “miss” that changes to menstrual cycles were not looked at during the vaccine trials, but said she is hopeful that the work being done now will help prioritize menstrual research in the future.
“In the vaccine trials, what I’m guessing is that they were just looking for indicators of pretty severe health complications that would land somebody in the hospital and they didn’t feel like changes in the menstrual cycle were part of that,” she said. “There’s certainly an argument to be made for that, but I think with the anecdotal reports and with the research that myself and the other [principal investigators] will be doing, hopefully this will inform future trials to say maybe this isn’t a life-or-death situation, but it’s important to women and it’s important to include.”
In addition to speaking out like so many people did when it came to menstrual changes with the vaccines, Payne said people can also volunteer for clinical research in order to move research on menstruation forward.
“Volunteering for clinical research is one of the best things that you can do to support the type of research that you want to see,” she said. “One of the biggest obstacles that we face in clinical research is finding ways to access participants, particularly participants from diverse backgrounds, and that’s something that we really are focusing on and NIH is really committed so we get an understanding from diverse samples of people.”
